The Revolution Will Not Be Televised: Introduction to the Special Issue on Marketing Science and the Internet

There is a revolution happening—a startling and amazing revolution that is altering everything from our traditional views of how advertising and communication media work to how people can and should communicate with each other.

That revolution is the Internet—the massive global network of interconnected packet-switched computer networks—and as the most important innovation since the development of the printing press, the Internet has the potential to radically transform not just the way individuals go about conducting their business with each other, but also the very essence of what it means to be a human being in society.

Since the introduction of the first graphicallyoriented Web browser, Mosaic, in 1993, the Internet has experienced phenomenal growth, both in terms of the number of computers and devices connected to it and the number of individuals and firms providing and accessing content on it (Hoffman et al. 2000). The first significant commercial activity appeared on the Web by 1994and in the ensuing five years, the commercialization of the Internet has exploded. There are now very few countries and territories left in the entire world that do not have at least one host computer connected to the Internet (Rutkowski 1999). At the same time, electronic commerce, as a research area, a business, and, indeed, an entire new industry, is still very much in its infancy. There is much confusion and complexity and not nearly enough solid information.