Community service learning offers a unique and rewarding way for business students to reinforce communication capabilities while developing lifelong career and social skills. This article defines community service learning, dis cusses its importance to business as well as higher education, and describes three community service learning projects. Students in these projects taught elementary students, designed a computer system for a community nonprofit, and developed accounting systems for university divisions. In doing so, they enhanced their understanding of classroom theories and communication skills through service-learning.

Electronic marketplaces have promised many benefits to participants, and hence have aroused considerable interest in the business community. However, the failure of some marketplaces and the success of others have led business managers to question which marketplaces will be successful in the future, and even whether the entire idea is viable. This question is particularly pressing for those considering sponsoring or participating in a marketplace. This exploratory study seeks to address these issues by proposing a framework of the factors that help explain the sustainability of e‐marketplaces. The framework proposed is based upon the findings of interviews carried out with 14 managers based in 11 companies active in the field of e‐marketplaces, and findings from the current literature from this domain. The framework proposed identifies seven factors that can be categorised according to three levels of influence, i.e. the macroeconomic/regulatory level, the industry level, and the firm level. Further work to validate the proposed framework would provide practitioners with additional insight to apply to their e‐marketplace strategies.

While electronic communication is advancing rapidly in the organizational context, there remain a considerable number of participants who, for one reason or another, lack the skills and/or confidence to make the medium a pervasive and ubiquitous tool. This paper examines a network of factors that influence attitudes about computer utilization and user confidence in electronic mail (e-mail). A conceptual model of user confidence in e-mail was developed based on the results of a previous study, refined after a review of existing literature, and tested using LISREL. An experiment was conducted which simulated a communication transaction between subordinate and superior using two student groups (Computer Information Systems and other business disciplines) as surrogates. Data was collected from the participants through a survey and interviews. Results indicated that overall confidence in the medium was lacking and that there were gender differences in confidence in the nontechnical group. These differences appear to diminish through technical education and experience. Experience with computing was a significant determinant of attitude. Attitudes regarding computer use were also found to be positively linked to confidence in electronic communication.

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