Cross Border E-commerce and the GST/HST: Towards International Consensus or Divergence?

In February 2001, the OECD issued a draft report on ‘‘Consumption Tax Aspects of Electronic Commerce’’. The purpose of this report was to seek comments on Working Party No. 9’s conclusions and recommendations in respect of the approach to be taken on the application of consumption taxes to e-commerce in light of the Ottawa Taxation Framework Conditions. The 1998 Conditions called for the taxation principles that applied to traditional commerce to be the guide for the taxation of e-commerce, to ensure non-discriminatory tax treatment of electronic commerce transactions. In November 2001, the Canada Customs and Revenue Agency (‘‘CCRA’’) issued its own discussion paper in respect of the application of GST/HST to electronic commerce. By July 2002, the CCRA was able to issue its formal views on this issue, with the publication of its GST/HST Technical Information Bulletin. The purpose of this article is to review the position taken by the CCRA in the GST Bulletin insofar as it relates to the application of the GST/HST to cross-border electronic commerce transactions, and to assess how the position taken by Canada stacks up to the principles set out in the OECD Draft and the position being formulated by certain other major OECD members

SPECS: A New Approach to Strategic Planning for E-Commerce Systems

This mini track position paper proposes a new paradigm for strategic planning for e-commerce systems (SPECS) and outlines the many issues that such an approach has to encompass. These include concepts such as virtual and electronic markets and the lifecycle of emarkets; supply chain management, value chains and exploiting virtual value chains; relationships within the market such as intermediaries and cybermediaries and value-based electronic market structures. All of these are pulled together in the SPECS framework and the problems of planning for and managing such e-commerce strategies reviewed

Factors Influencing Consumer Purchasing Behavior in Electronic Commerce

This paper provides a framework for exploring factors influencing consumer purchasing behavior in electronic commerce. The approach adopted in this paper borrows directly from at least two converging sources: the research in international consumer behavior, and the research in marketing issues in electronic commerce. By recognizing the cultural differences in global markets, the firm will be better positioned to satisfy the unique needs of international consumers. The globalization of the international marketplace, which will be facilitated by the emergence of electronic commerce as a new channel of transacting business will result in a move in the firm’s strategy away from niche marketing and towards more head to head competition. In order to survive in this competitive environment it will be essential for firms to have an in-depth understanding of international consumer behavior so that they can effectively cater to the unique tastes of the consumers of each individual culture and thereby gain a competitive advantage in the international marketplace. The managerial implications of this research are answers to questions such as how best can the firm exploit this new form of transacting business to maximize its leverage in the global marketplace and increase its market share? How should the firm position its products in the global electronic marketplace

Cross-Cultural Influences on Global Electronic Commerce

This paper provides a framework for exploring cultural influences on consumer purchasing behavior in the special case of electronic commerce. The approach adopted in this paper borrows directly from at least two converging sources: the research in international consumer behavior, and the research in marketing issues in electronic commerce. By recognizing the cultural differences in global markets, the firm will be better positioned to satisfy the unique needs of international consumers. The globalization of the international marketplace, which will be facilitated by the emergence of electronic commerce as a new channel of transacting business will result in a move in the firm’s strategy away from niche marketing and towards more head to head competition. In order to survive in this competitive environment it will be essential for firms to have an in-depth understanding of international consumer behavior so that they can effectively cater to the unique tastes of the consumers of each individual culture and thereby gain a competitive advantage in the international marketplace. The managerial implications of this research are answers to questions such as how best can the firm exploit this new form of transacting business to maximize its leverage in the global marketplace and increase its market share? How should the firm position its products in the global electronic marketplace

Recommendation Networks and the Long Tail of Electronic Commerce

It has been conjectured that the peer-based recommendations associated with electronic commerce lead to a redistribution of demand from popular products or 'blockbusters' to less popular or 'niche' products, and that electronic markets will therefore be characterized by a 'long tail' of demand and revenue. In this paper, we develop a novel method to test this conjecture and we report on results contrasting the demand distributions of books in over 200 distinct categories on Amazon.com. Viewing each product as having a unique position in a hyperlinked network of recommendations between products that is analogous to shelf position in traditional commerce, we quantify the extent to which a product is in uenced by its recommendation network position by using a variant of Google's PageRank measure of centrality. We then associate the average level of network influence on each category with the inequality in the distribution of its demand and revenue, quantifying this inequality using the Gini coefficient derived from the category's Lorenz curve. We establish that categories whose products are influenced more by recommendations have significantly flatter demand distributions, even after controlling for variations in average category demand, the category's size and measures of price dispersion. Our empirical findings indicate that doubling the average influence of recommendations on a category is associated with an average increase in the relative demand for the least popular 20% of products by about 50%, and a average reduction in the relative demand for the most popular 20% by about 12%. We also show that this e¤ect is enhanced when there is assortative mixing in the recommendation network, and in categories whose products are more evenly influenced by recommendations. The direction of these results persist across time, across both demand and revenue distributions, and across both daily and weekly demand aggregations. Our work offers new ideas for assessing the influence of networks on demand and revenue patterns in electronic commerce, and provides new empirical evidence supporting the impact of visible recommendations on the long tail of electronic commerce

Strong Cryptography: The Global Tide of Change

Encryption technology allows people using electronic networks to ensure that the messages they send remain private--secure from hackers, industrial espionage, government wiretap abuses, and spies. Encryption technology will prove vital to the future of electronic commerce. For example, thefts of nuclear secrets from U.S. national laboratories would be much less likely if the labs' commercial software had built-in encryption features that could be used to limit unauthorized access--a type of security product discouraged by export controls. For years the U.S. government has struggled unsuccessfully to control the export of encryption technology from this country. Those ineffectual controls do, however, adversely affect the competitive position of the U.S. software industry and national security. Despite the controls, powerful encryption products are increasingly available around the world. Those products include Pretty Good Privacy, which offers 128-bit encryption, and many others. This paper provides a list of Web sites where such products may be found, thus establishing beyond doubt the futility of controls. Although some of the Web sites may from time to time disappear, others will spring up in their place

Marketing management of a successful e-business

Marketing management occupies an increasingly important position in the business world, as well as in the sphere of electronic commerce. Some participants, however, underestimate the importance of this marketing support, which may be one of the major causes of the failure and inability of some companies operating on the Internet to grow. The aim of this paper is to develop an effective marketing management process model, which can significantly contribute to the increased competitiveness of companies operating on the Internet. The validity of this model is then applied on a Czech e-shop, which has long been one of the leaders of the Czech Internet market. To achieve the objective of this paper the current situation will be analysed, and synthesis of the findings from research literature as well as modelling using the methods of abstraction and specification will be performed. This article is focused on Czech Internet market. Results of the survey (case study) will be used for further research in the field of e-business

Business process redesign for effective e-commerce processes in the service industry

Many companies have found out the hard way that successful e-commerce requires more than a flashy web presence. Existing business processes must be seamlessly integrated with the new, electronic form of interaction with suppliers and customers. Despite this insight, little research has focused on the transformation of doing business to achieve the presumed benefits of e-commerce. This paper gives directions on how processes may be reengineered with this aim, particularly within the service industry. The presented views are based on existing research into Business Process Reengineering best practices. Careful consideration in this paper is given to the description ofthe conceptual background, which is used to classify existing research and to position the contribution of this paper. The guidelines which are discussed are illustrated by process models, represented by UML Activity diagrams

Trust in Electronic Commerce: A New Model for Building Online Trust in B2C

The rapid growth in the electronic commerce over the internet has fuelled predictions and speculations about what makes a business to consumer (B2C) web site effective. Increasing use of the World Wide Web as a B2C commercial tool raises interest in understanding the key issues in building relationships with customers on the internet. Trust is believed to be the key to these relationships. In this paper, an overall model has presented for building online trust in this context. This model outlines some of the key factors that are related in this area and suggests a framework based on these factors. With respect to the position and importance of the trust in online commerce, this model helps businesses in order to capture, sustain and construct long-term relationships with their consumers.               Keywords: E-Trust, Reverse engineering, Business-consumer web sites, online shopping, Web desig