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Special issue series for information systems research in China: guest editorial

The past decades have witnessed enormous changes in China on economic, social, and cultural aspects, which have brought far-reaching impacts on global business and technology development. Since the early 1990s, IT has been transforming Chinese business and society, but the country still faces formidable challenges in developing and using the technology to further modernize itself. IT applications in China were introduced relatively late in technology evolution compared to those in the developed countries, forcing business managers to contend with a lack of experience, know-how, and infrastructure. On the other hand, this late start has also meant that Chinese companies could be able to choose from more advanced technologies, learn from the experience of others, and be less bothered by the problems associated with legacy systems.
 Along with the development of IT/IS application and management, information systems research in China has also been accelerating and fusing with global academic streams. Notably, research efforts on both managerial and technical perspectives are flourishing in recent years. In 2005, the China Association for Information Systems (CNAIS) was established as a chapter of AIS serving China, aimed at promoting the exchange of ideas, experiences, and knowledge among scholars and professionals engaged in the development, management, and use of information systems and technology. With the support of CNAIS, this series of special issue papers presents some recent progress in IS research from Chinese scholars.
 The papers included in this special issue series, which spans volume 40(1) and 40(2), presents extended versions of work selected, via a standard review process, from the 2007 CNAIS Congress (CNAIS2007) held in November 8-10, 2007, in Kunming, China. CNAIS2007 accepted over 170 refereed papers and featured plenary talks by distinguished scholars such as Michael Myers from the University of Auckland and Dennis Galletta from the University of Pittsburgh. Among the papers selected for this special issue series, four them focus on the management aspect of information systems while three concentrate on technical research, giving rise to two natural groups, respectively.
 As the guest editors of this special issue series, we would like to thank all the authors for the contributions and all referees for their kind cooperation and help. We heartily thank Professor Patrick Y.K. Chau, Global Co-Editor of The DATA BASE for Advances in Information Systems, for providing us with the opportunity to edit and publish this issue, as well as for his valuable guidance in the editorial process.