Background

Many studies are informed by facts that the reader cannot be expected to know. Your readers are your peers, and therefore understand your theories and your methodologies, but they will often not be familiar with the organization, country or region that your data is drawn from. Your reader may know what a disruptive innovation is, for example, but have little or no understanding of Uber’s attempt to enter the Danish transportation market. So part of your paper needs to tell your reader about these “local” conditions. Think of the background section as an attempt to inform the reader about facts you take for granted.

Your point of departure should be the first paragraph of your introduction. Here you have presented a world of shared concern, a world that both you and your readers inhabit. It may be a world in which the Internet constitutes a standing challenge to established industries. Or you can start closer to your own research. It may be a