A Special Issue on Statistical Challenges and Opportunities in Electronic Commerce Research

This special issue is a product of the First Interdisciplinary Symposium on Statistical Challenges and Opportunities in Electronic Commerce Research, which took place on May 22--23, 2005, at the Robert H. Smith School of Business, University of Maryland, College Park (\url{www.smith.umd.edu/dit/statschallenges/}). The symposium brought together, for the first time, researchers from statistics, information systems, and related fields, all of whom work or are interested in empirical research related to electronic commerce. The goal of the symposium was to cross the borders, discuss joint research opportunities, expose this field and its statistical challenges, and promote collaboration between the different fields.Comment: Published at http://dx.doi.org/10.1214/088342306000000178 in the Statistical Science (http://www.imstat.org/sts/) by the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (http://www.imstat.org

Panels on Electronic Commerce

Electronic commerce has made unprecedented business transformations. The confluence of new technologies and business models provides significant research opportunities in information systems, enterprise technology, and the economics of information systems. By its very nature electronic commerce research is interdisciplinary, demanding research perspectives that go beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries. What is more, electronic commerce often requires innovative views and business practices to capture its ever changing manifestation

Web-TRECS: teaching electronic commerce

Effective Electronic Commerce (e-Commerce) education for students in such disciplines as Management Information Systems, Accounting and Marketing is paramount. This is because organisations globally need people who are skilled in e-Commerce, from a technical and/or organisational perspective, so that the firms can take advantage of such technologies as the Web. The challenge for business and e-Commerce educators, therefore, is the development of teaching tools and environments which provide tertiary students and business people with practically-based opportunities for learning about the potential of e-Commerce. Business simulation approaches to e-Commerce education are a particularly effective way in which to provide students with these pedagogic opportunities. This paper provides an overview of a Web-based e-Commerce business simulation called Web-TRECS (Teaching Realistic Electronic Commerce Solutions). It then describes how the software components of Web-TRECS have been designed to form the e-Commerce teaching tool. The paper then discusses how Web-TRECS could be used to teach a range of e-Commerce concepts and skills, based on six years of research into the use of e-Commerce business simulations. The paper finally concludes by outlining our future research plans to extend Web-TRECS so that additional e-Commerce concepts and skills might be taught using this tool.<br /

A stakeholder approach to electronic commerce diffusion

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.The evolution of electronic commerce as a global technological innovation raised a number of issues related to its adoption. Specifically, although electronic commerce use by companies has been associated with significant opportunities for growth, it has not been adopted in full. Small and Medium Size Enterprises (SMEs) in particular seem to hesitate to invest in electronic commerce technologies for reasons related to lack of awareness and concerns about security, human resources and cost. This phenomenon points to a need for effective electronic commerce diffusion strategies by policy makers in various levels of decision-making. This research recognises the importance of electronic commerce and realises the difficulties involved in its effective adoption. For that reason it offers an in-depth study of the electronic commerce diffusion process by examining the roles, activities and relationships of the entities involved in this process. Theories that support the research effort are innovation diffusion and stakeholder theories, which are synthesised in order to develop a framework that illustrates how the gaps in the literature can be bridged and how it can be used as an instrument to guide empirical work in the field of electronic commerce diffusion. The empirical contexts of the research are two projects on electronic commerce diffusion, which are analysed using an interpretive and qualitative research approach. The study concludes with specific implications for stakeholders involved in the provision of information and advice about electronic commerce and related consequences for diffusion receivers. The findings of this research can be useful for all stakeholders in the field, as they can get a better understanding of their own position as well as that of other actors in the context. Additionally, researchers in similar areas can find this work useful as a way to approach the study of the diffusion.Funding was obtained from Brunel University and the Engineering and Physical Science Research Council (EPSRC

E- Commerce in India - Challenges and Opportunities E- Commerce

Electronic commerce, commonly written as e-commerce is buying and selling of products and services by businesses and consumers over the Internet. Electronic commerce draws on technologies such as mobile commerce, electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection systems. Consumers take advantage of lower prices offer by wholesalers retailing their products. This trend is set to strengthen as web sites address consumer security and privacy concerns. Due to the popularity of e-commerce there is a tremendous increase exchange of goods and services both regionally and globally. Now-a-days it has become the virtual main street of the world. This online business refers to the E-commerce which is recently moved in to developing countries like India. Today, e-commerce has grown into a huge industry. This paper is outcome of a review of various research studies carried out on E-commerce. The present study has been undertaken to analyze the present trends of e-commerce in India &amp; examine the challenges &amp; opportunities of e-commerce in India

Proceedings of RSEEM 2006 : 13th Research Symposium on Emerging Electronic Markets

Electronic markets have been a prominent topic of research for the past decade. Moreover, we have seen the rise but also the disappearance of many electronic marketplaces in practice. Today, electronic markets are a firm component of inter-organisational exchanges and can be observed in many branches. The Research Symposium on Emerging Electronic Markets is an annual conference bringing together researchers working on various topics concerning electronic markets in research and practice. The focus theme of the13th Research Symposium on Emerging Electronic Markets (RSEEM 2006) was ?Evolution in Electronic Markets?. Looking back at more than 10 years of research activities in electronic markets, the evolution can be well observed. While electronic commerce activities were based largely on catalogue-based shopping, there are now many examples that go beyond pure catalogues. For example, dynamic and flexible electronic transactions such as electronic negotiations and electronic auctions are enabled. Negotiations and auctions are the basis for inter-organisational trade exchanges about services as well as products. Mass customisation opens up new opportunities for electronic markets. Multichannel electronic commerce represents today?s various requirements posed on information and communication technology as well as on organisational structures. In recent years, service-oriented architectures of electronic markets have enabled ICT infrastructures for supporting flexible e-commerce and e-market solutions. RSEEM 2006 was held at the University of Hohenheim, Stuttgart, Germany in September 2006. The proceedings show a variety of approaches and include the selected 8 research papers. The contributions cover the focus theme through conceptual models and systems design, application scenarios as well as evaluation research approaches

Electronic Business in Saudi Organization

This paper is to shed light on the use of electronic business and mobile applications in Saudi organizations to perform their various activities. The paper examined the validity of a previous model that was found from the literature, to identify the most significant factors that affect the intention to adopt mobile electronic business within Saudi organizations. The research suggests and tests seven hypotheses on a population consists of employees in public and private sectors. Therefore, a regular random sampling procedure was used in which 256 respondents were identified.Structural equation modeling had been performed to analyze the collected data, giving more superior empirical results that led to reject five of the seven hypotheses. Results indicate that mobile electronic business features and opportunities as well as social influence both positively affect the intention to adopt mobile electronic business in Saudi organizations. Keywords: Information Systems, Organizations, Information Technology Adoption, Mobile Commerce, Mobile Phones, Mobile Electronic Commerce, Information Systems in Organizations, Information Technology, Mobile Commerce Adoption, Electronic Business, SEM

Impact of E-Business on Business Association

The said research paper involves a study of the impact of Electronic Commerce on Business. The research study has highlighted the Management Information Systems, Finance and Accounting, Marketing and Computer Sciences of E-Commerce on Business. E-commerce is a way of conducting business over the Internet. Though it is a relatively new concept, it has the potential to alter the traditional form of economic activities. Already it affects such large sectors as communications, finance and retail trade and holds promises in areas such as education, health and government. The largest effects may be associated not with many of the impacts that command the most attention but with less visible, but potentially more pervasive, effects on routine business activities. The integration of Electronic Commerce and Business will bring a renaissance in marketing function. As it present opportunities to get close to the customer to bring the customer inside the company, to explore new product ideas and pretest them against real customers

A Typology of Extranet, Intranet and Interorganizational Systems: Implications for Research

Extranets are an emerging interorganizational system (IOS) that is expected to surpass EDI in electronic commerce volume. Although extranets appear to have great potential for business use, they have received little attention in academic research. They offer free form text, graphics, sound and video, greater communication functionality, low technical requirements and relatively low adoption costs in comparison to other types of IOS. Except for security issues, such as encryption the technology is readily available for large and small organizations around the world. This paper focuses on Extranets, but provides an overall typology of web based and EDI systems. Prior electronic commerce literature is analyzed and compared to extranet technology. The unique characteristics of global extranets provide international research opportunities in the areas of system benefits, type of information exchanged, level of partnership system access, antecedents for adoption, and emerging forms of IOS partnerships

Rebuilding Consumer Trust in eCommerce Relationships

Several researchers have studied trust in the electronic commerce context. Much of this work is aimed at establishing initial trust, with some recent research on maintaining on-going trust between consumer and vendor. This paper examines a related aspect of trust in the e-Commerce environment, namely trust violations and their subsequent repair. It draws upon research in professional trust relationships and adapts it to the e-Commerce context. It proposes a conceptual model that relates trust violation characteristics, vendor reconciliation tactics, and individual consumer characteristics as relevant determinants of the consumer\u27s willingness to reconcile. Given the large range of possible trust violations in on-line purchases, and increasing competition among vendors, it becomes imperative for earnest vendors to provide sincere opportunities to repair the trusting relationship with devoted consumers