EBEREA · The eBusiness research by Euro-Asian exchange programme

The eBusiness research by Euro-Asian exchange programme

The main objective of eBEREA project supported by EU Marie Curie IRSES was to advance research and higher education in the field of electronic business (eBusiness) and develop sustainable collaboration between eBusiness researchers in EU and China. The research carried out by the programme focused on business modelling and design, on regulatory issues & trust enhancing mechanisms, with special attention to financial services for consumers and citizens. The eBEREA IRSES project was successful in reinforcing long-term research cooperation both between partner universities and between individual researchers (Bouwman et al, 2014[1]). The network of eBEREA researchers more than doubled in size, now consisting of 120 researchers. The collaboration intensified and expanded from initial 8 universities to cover 14 universities in Europe and China. More information on the social network analysis study can be found from the web site of eBEREA (www.eberea.org). Overall the network has gained permanent status in eBusiness collaboration and will continue its mission to advance research and higher education also in future. In Finland, Tekes, the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation, promotes eBEREA as one central university network to provide the foundation for open and scalable cooperation between Finland and China (Kaarlejärvi and Hämäläiänen, 20122). In China, the international collaboration in e-commerce was an important contributor to the decision of China Ministry of Education to modify specialty directory and promote e-commerce as first level discipline (Li, 20133). In eBEREA IRSES the research activities included case studies in Europe and in China, Living Labs based research, surveys and constructive research. Specific focus was on activities that would combine the complementary expertise and capabilities of the Chinese and European partners and enable joint research, testing and studies. In addition to publishing traditional scientific articles, we organised panel discussions on topical issues related to regulation of eBusiness, such as privacy. This way we hope that the impact of our work is far reaching and influence Chinese and EU policies related to eBusiness. In education related activities special attention was paid to knowledge sharing activities within doctoral students by arranging special eBEREA Doctoral Winter/Summer Schools, where senior eBEREA researchers lectured and advised early stage researchers. Large number of Doctoral theses include research data gathered during the IRSES visits. During the four-year project the researchers visited the other eBEREA Universities frequently, amounting to 202 research exchange months. Half of the visits were by experienced researchers. The project was implemented by eBEREA (The eBusiness Education and Research Network for Euro-Asian Collaboration), which promotes and facilitates eBusiness and eServices education and research. The project involved 4 countries and a network of 8 universities: · University of Jyväskylä (JYU), · Aalto University (AALTO), · Åbo akademi University (ÅAU), · University of Trento (UNITN), · Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), Xi’an JiaoTong University (XJTU), · Southwestern University of Finance and Economics (SWUFE), and · Renmin University of China (RUC). The eBEREA universities are among the top universities in research and in planning education on eBusiness in their countries. References [1] Bouwman, H., Heikkilä, M., Van de Wijngaert, L., Alberts, J. and Dourouka, M. (2014). Knowledge sharing, culture and media usage in an academic network: a network analysIs of the eBEREA Irses case, in PACIS 2014, forthcoming 2 Kaarlejärvi, J. and Hämäläinen, M. (2012). New opportunities for China-Finland R&D&I cooperation, Tekes Review 295/2012. 3 Li (2013). e-Commerce Development and e-C Education. A presentation by prof. Qi Li, Vice director of EC Guide committee of China Ministry of Education, in eBEREA Haikou meeting.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union