A multi-agent architecture for electronic payment

The Internet has brought about innumerable changes to the way enterprises do business. An essential problem to be solved before the widespread commercial use of the Internet is to provide a trustworthy solution for electronic payment. We propose a multi-agent mediated electronic payment architecture in this paper. It is aimed at providing an agent-based approach to accommodate multiple e-payment schemes. Through a layered design of the payment structure and a well-defined uniform payment interface, the architecture shows good scalability. When a new e-payment scheme or implementation is available, it can be plugged into the framework easily. In addition, we construct a framework allowing multiple agents to work cooperatively to realize automation of electronic payment. A prototype has been built to illustrate the functionality of this design. Finally we discuss the security issues

Analisis Persepsi Nasabah Atas Keamanan dan Kepercayaan dalam Sistem E-payments

This research made a study on the security and trust in the relation to the Electronc Payments System (EPS) . The research propose a model which discuses factors which determine the perceived security and the perceived trust. This research also discus the effects of perceived security dan trust in the use of EPS, In this research there has been an emprirical test of the proposed model with respondens of 316 people in the Jakarta Meropolitan area. Data was analized using a structural equation modelling. The research finding shows that security statements is a factor which is significant to increase the perceived security in the USAge of EPS. The perceived trust has a positif influence significanly in the use of EPS. The research did not find any statistical proving that there is a statistical relationship between the quality of transaction procedure with the preceived security and perceived trsutin the use of EPS. This research also proves that there is a statistical relationship between the technical protection and the perceived security (H1) , the security statements with the perceived trust (H6). This research did not find any statistical relationship between the transaction procedure the perceive trust (H4) and the technical protection with the perceived trust (H2), This research explained the relationship between the perceived trust and the use of EPS. The finding of the research shows the role of the perceived security in the building of the user security and the positif influence of the the perceived trust to the use of EPS. The effects of the security statements for the user perception of security and trust also has been validated. The perceived security is an essential consept in the attempt ti understand the use of EPS. Keywords:E-payments, Security, Trust, Consumers' Perception, use of EP

Operators' value creation models in electronic invoicing - User company perspective

Electronic Invoicing (E-invoicing) has been going through fast development during recent years. It is believed to bring great savings for companies. There has been a lot of research and studies on E-invoicing. This study is going to study on how E-invoicing operators could create value but from users' perspective. The study is going to build its own value creation framework based on Amit and Zott's value creation model in E-business, which defines four value creation dimensions, i.e., efficiency, complementarity, lock-in and novelty. First, extensive literature reviews on value creation theories, including value chain, transaction cost economy, resource-based view of firms and network economy, were conducted. Besides, enterprise application integration and expert opinion were also taken into consideration. As a result, the new value creation framework came out with four modified value drivers, namely efficiency, complementary services, integration and network effects. The changes were made because it is more suitable in the context of E-invoicing. Furthermore, for each of the value drivers, a set of measurement items were identified to evaluate how an E-invoicing operator performed in providing the service. In the empirical part, two case studies are completed. Interviews were prepared and done with E-invoicing managers inside the company. It turns out that all the four value creation sources, efficiency, complementary services, integration and network effects, are observed in the company. As users of E-invoicing, the companies thought E-invoicing improves efficiency by reducing the invoice cycle time, saving costs, and eliminating human touch in the process. Supplier activation is seen as an important area where operators could improve their services. Integration of systems especially automatic accounting is regarded as the future development of E-invoicing but not yet under development in practice. Standardization is needed to enable E-invoice usage between different operators and networks. This study is important in providing a new perspective on E-invoicing research and development. It not only contributes to the E-invoicing literature but also could act as guidance for E-invoicing operators on how to improve their services. It has limitations such as on the resources of information and future research areas are identified. For example, quantified research methods could be used to measure how important each value drive is

Building metrics for assessing the business value of electronic order-to-payment cycle

The purpose of this paper is to build metrics for assessing the business impacts of information technology (IT) in the order-to-payment process. The extant literature provides a plethora of benefits and measures related to process automation within the financial administration. These come, however, generally in the form of one-dimensional lists and concern separate administrative functions. By going through these repetitive lists, organizations struggle with determining potential payoffs. The majority of existing studies suggests that, at first hand, automation increases productivity through decreased processing time and cost. A variety of impacts apart from cost savings has been reported yet their importance is variably stressed. What is missing in the current literature is a structured, holistic analysis on the potential productivity gains that could be derived from a full-scale digitalization of the order-to-payment cycle – a tool that would help organizations to navigate through the jungle of impacts and measures. This paper takes a structured approach where all potential gains are pulled together in order to create a basis for proper analysis and evaluation. The idea is to construct a model that would not only pinpoint potential benefits of process automation but also explain how the resulting economic value is created. In this paper, the order-to-payment cycle is first divided into three distinct sub-processes (e-ordering, e-invoicing, and e-payment) in order to identify specific operational level IT impacts. Based on a literature review and expert interviews, a three-stage metrics model is formulated including business value measurements for each sub-process and the entire order-to-payment cycle. Finally, process-oriented approach is used to investigate how the underlying impacts contribute to company-level economic value added. In addition, the importance of electronic system integration is highlighted by pointing out IT impacts on inter-process linkages. Thereby, the final product is a vertically and horizontally integrated evaluation tool. The proposed measurement model is then tested in a business context – an in-depth case study at a Finnish design company. The case results show that the model works well as an analysis tool. The results also indicate that the impacts of automating the order-to-payment cycle in the case company relate closely to cost avoidance. Consequently, the company makes IT investment decisions based on estimated cost savings potential. However, once the electronic systems are at place, strong emphasis is given to asset utilization as well – better use of IT could enhance the utilization of existing human resources and capital. The revenue-creating impacts of process automation are acknowledged yet particularly difficult to observe and measure and thus treated with some reservations

Aplicação móvel para a prestação de serviços peer-to-peer no âmbito da share economy

As share economies começaram a ter uma maior dimensão e impacto no final da primeira década do século XXI, aproveitando o despertar das novas tecnologias e da Internet, que nos mantêm cada vez mais interligados, para recriar um modelo de negócio já existente.Esse modelo de negócio permitia que qualquer pessoa prestasse serviços ou vendesse/alugasse bens, que estavam subutilizados e, com isso, criar rendimento. O que mudou neste modelo de negócio foi a sua escala passando de uma escala muito reduzida para uma escala global podendo agora ser potenciado de modo a que mais pessoas possam beneficiar destes serviços. Com o aumento da escala das share economies criou-se um novo tipo de mercado, o mercado peer-to-peer. Este mercado funciona, na maioria dos casos, online e permite que pessoas possam encontrar serviços prestados por outras pessoas. Esses mercados têm como ponto principal a confiança, sendo fundamental que existam mecanismos de criação dessa confiança.O objetivo desta dissertação será analisar este modelo de negócio em especial a prestação de serviços peer-to-peer, de modo a criar uma aplicação de prova de conceito, para ser utilizada por estafetas de entrega de refeições. Será necessário explorar todos os problemas relacionados com o modelo de negócio em questão, sendo o grande desafio desta área de negócio a criação de confiança por parte dos utilizadores. Assim sendo, será fundamental investigar e conceber formas de aumentar a confiança dos utilizadores nos prestadores de serviços e no próprio sistema.Outra área importante nas aplicações share economy, que também requer muita confiança por parte dos utilizadores, é a forma de pagamento do serviço. Para facilitar estas transações, muitas vezes os pagamentos não são em dinheiro mas sim através da própria aplicação. Será então necessário garantir que todo o fluxo de pagamento decorre de forma correta e segura.É também importante prever conflitos entre os vários utilizadores e dotar o sistema de regras que os permitam avaliar e facilmente solucionar. Nessas regras poder-se-ão utilizar vários sensores dos smartphones, como, por exemplo, o GPS.Share economies began to have a greater scale and impact at the end of the first decade of the 21st century in order to taking advantage of the rising of the new technologies and the Internet, which keeps us increasingly interconnected to recreate already existing a business model.This business model allows any person provide services or sell/rent goods that are not used and create income. The change in this business model is the scale. Now, it work on global scale and more people can benefit from these new services. This increased scale of share economies has created a new type of market, the peer-to-peer market. This market works, in most cases, online and allows people to find services provided by others. These markets have as main point being fundamental trust that there are mechanisms for the establishment of such trust.The goal of this dissertation will be reviewing this business model and in particular the provision of peer-to-peer services, so as to create a proof-of-concept application, to be used for courier delivery of meals. It will need to explore all the problems related to the business model in question, being the great challenge of this business area and creating trust on the part of users. Therefore, it is essential to investigate and devise ways to increase the trust of users in service providers and in the system itself.Another important area in applications of share economy, is the form of payment of the service. To facilitate these transactions, often payments are not in cash but by the application itself. It will be necessary to ensure that all the payment stream is correctly and safely.It is also important to predict conflicts between multiple users and provide the system of rules that assess and easily solve. These rules may be using various sensors of smartphones, such as the GPS

The influence factors of e-logistics towards customer satisfaction in China

Since from last decade, the e-logistic industry of China facing different issues due to high volume worldwide. To address these issues, this study is quantity and use regression to test the hypotheses.11 introduced a framework to mitigate various issues of e-logistic in China. Therefore, the prime objective of the current study is to examine factors influencing e-logistics in China. To achieve this objective, the current study examines the effect of distribution rate (DR), transit time ( TT ), E-payment ( EP ), E-traceability ( ET), Information and Communication Technology ( ICT ) on E-logistics Customer Satisfaction ( ELCS ). This study, each items will be tested by survey. Moreover, there are 501 useful responds from e-logistics customers who live in Shaanxi province. Five hypotheses were formulated. Generally, the results were found to support the hypotheses. DR, TT, EP, ET, ICT have positive relationship with ELCS. Additionally, ICT was seen to partially mediate between EPET and ELCS. The findings of this study imply that the managers of e-logistics performance in China need to pay more attention on DR, TT, EP, ET and ICT, as they can be used to improve e-logistics activities. Especially, ICT, which is a key influence factor and can partially mediate between EPIET and ELCS, this could attract more investment and improved

«Наукові записки Національного університету «Острозька академія». Cерія «Економіка»». Науковий журнал (щоквартальник)

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An Investigation of Factors Affecting the Adoption of E-payment System in Libya

Electronic payment systems (EPS) have received considerable attention from researchers and business owners worldwide, because of their potential to support economic development and growth. Despite the significant contribution of the growth in EPS to the ability to complete transactions via the Internet, Libya lags significantly behind developed countries in its adoption of EPS. This research focuses on factors affecting EPS adoption and use in Libya, explaining how they positively or negatively affect Libyan customers and organisations‟ willingness to adopt EPS. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews with different stakeholders, including consumers, organisational staff (e.g. Telecommunications Companies, Banks, the Ministry of Telecommunication and Informatics, etc.), and strategic decision-makers (e.g. the Under-Secretary of the Ministry of Communications, Director of Islamic Banking at Bank of Republic). The research implements Grounded Theory methods (GT), in particular the Straussian approach, to analyse, explore, and investigate the socio-organisational, technical, political, and economic factors affecting the adoption of EPS in Libya, and importantly the relationship between these factors. It discusses the impact of the factors identified, from both organisational and consumer perspectives, highlighting the factors and issues that need to be overcome to support successful adoption of EPS. The findings confirm that, for consumers and organisations alike, economic factors (e.g. perceived benefits, cooperation with existing entities, mutuality of stakeholders, Internet costs, standard of living, marketing businesses, awareness, withdrawal control, XX feasibility studies on EPS implementation, Islamic banking services and competition) are the core factors influencing the system‟s adoption. Furthermore, the findings revealed three new and significant factors of relevance to Libya, including standard of living, post coding and the unstable political situation in the country. These represent a unique contribution to the body of knowledge, illustrating the attitude of the Libyan people toward Internet usage, and current obstacles to EPS adoption. The use of substantive GT, in particular the Straussian approach, for data collection and data analysis in the field of EPS adoption, and the assessment of organisational and consumer attitudes, is unique to this research to the best of the researcher‟s knowledge. Thus, the research embodies a substantial contribution to the body of knowledge. The interpretive analysis of data using a Straussian approach has permitted the researcher to attain a deep understanding of the socio-organisational, economic, political, and technical factors affecting adoption of an E-payment system in Libya, as implemented by different stakeholders: Consumers, and Organisational. The benefits that the adoption of EPS in Libya will bring, include facilitation of online transactions, the availability of more secure websites, easier payment and access to the global markets. Furthermore, detailed recommendations are also being offered to assist decision-makers in the development and introduction of EPS in Libya, i.e. including the Communications and Informatics Ministry, which is hoped will advise internet service providers and companies to discount the cost of using the internet for limited bandwidths, in order to insure everyone access to the internet, and EPS

A Multi-Agent Architecture for Electronic Payment

The Internet has brought about innumerable changes to the way enterprises do business. An essential problem to be solved before the widespread commercial use of the Internet is to provide a trustworthy solution for electronic payment. We propose a multi-agent mediated electronic payment architecture in this paper. It is aimed at providing an agent-based approach to accommodate multiple e-payment schemes. Through a layered design of the payment structure and a well-defined uniform payment interface, the architecture shows good scalability. When a new e-payment scheme or implementation is available, it can be plugged into the framework easily. In addition, we construct a framework allowing multiple agents to work cooperatively to realize automation of electronic payment. A prototype has been built to illustrate the functionality of this design. Finally we discuss the security issues