Age Of E-commerce Research Articles

“Revenue Accounting” in the Age of E‐Commerce: A Framework for Conceptual, Analytical, and Exchange Rate Considerations

This paper explores “revenue accounting” in contrast to traditional “cost accounting”. Revenue accounting serves the information needs of managers and investors in planning and controlling a firm’s sales activities and their financial consequences, especially in the age of e‐commerce. Weaknesses of traditional accounting have become particularly evident recently, for example, the lack of 1) revenue mileposts, 2) revenue sustainability measurements, and 3) intangibles capitalization. The paper emphasizes the need to develop a conceptual framework of revenue accounting and, as a tentative measure, proposes five basic postulates and five operational postulates of revenue accounting. On the side of analytical frameworks, the paper explores some tentative remedies for the weaknesses. Several revenue mileposts are explored to gauge progress in earning revenues and a Markov process is applied to an example involving mileposts. Revenue momentum, measured by the exponential smoothing method, is examined as a way of getting feedback on revenue sustainability; and the use of the sustainability concept in the analysis of “fixed and variable revenues” is illustrated. A project‐oriented approach in a manner similar to capital budgeting and to Reserve Recognition Accounting is proposed by treating each customer as a project. Standardization of forecasts are also considered as an important way of bypassing the capitalization issue. Finally, while e‐commerce is inherently global, issues specific to global operations are highlighted, namely, exchange rate issues when venture capitalists and the start‐up company use different currencies producing different rates of return on the same project.

Repeating Heidegger’s Analysis of Everydayness

One of the ways in which philosophy differs from all other disciplines is through its explicit concern for beginnings. However, what distinguishes Heidegger from his predecessors-whether Plato or Aristotle, Descartes or Kant, Hegel or Husserl-is his search for the least presumptuous of all beginnings, the pre-philosophical backdrop from which the tendency to philosophize first originates. In Heidegger's case, philosophy must begin where we already are, that is, almost paradoxically, where a concern for its task recedes, namely, in existence. But is the concept of which Heidegger outlines in the first division of Being and Time set in granite, or instead is it open to revision as the historical circumstances of the inquirer changes?1 Before attempting to answer this question, we must recall that part of what is involved in the self's facticity is its embeddedness in a culture oriented toward change and development. In light of this observation, I will attempt to show that a revision of Heidegger's analysis of everydayness is not only possible, indeed it is necessary. For this revision fulfills an explicit hermeneutical mandate of retrieving the point of departure for ontological inquiry, that is, of repeating the earlier analysis in order to uncover its presuppositions within a wider historical context. As Heidegger states at the conclusion of Being and Time-quoting an earlier passage-philosophy is `universal phenomenological ontology, and takes it departure from the hermeneutic of Dasein, which, as an analytic of existence, has made fast the guiding-line for all philosophical inquiry as the point where it arises and returns.2 The fact that we are immersed in history means that the variables which govern our consideration of the equipmental whole of everydayness may be much different than those which first led Heidegger to undertake such a phenomenological analysis in the 1920s. The facticity that distinguishes us who live in the information age of computers and e-commerce is different from that which defined our predecessors who inhabited the industrialized realm of typewriters and corner markets. If everydayness is simply the routine by which we adapt to changes in techne, then awareness of the global character of this change defines modern technology as such. Thus the techne of technology and of everydayness are two sides of the same coin, insofar as the latter maps on a global scale the practical dealings that preoccupy us in the immediate proximity of our everyday environment. For Heidegger, then, the question of technology springs from the soil of everydayness; and, conversely, a change in our experience of technology-the historical unfolding of its possibilities-requires altering our concept of the everyday of equipment. Insofar as Heidegger equates the techne of technology with production, which in turn comes to light in its nascent form in the everyday work-world, a change in the face of contemporary technology implies another axis along which the significance of equipmental relations unfolds. Given this new axis of the work-world, the basic modus operandi of everydayness is no longer production but exchange. I will begin by showing how the issue of remains latent in Heidegger's critique of productionist metaphysics as providing the Gestalt for proliferating technology on a global scale.3 Then I will establish how exchange has an ontological meaning, which in turn can be interpreted in light of the dynamics of the disclosure of being itself. Finally, I will argue that reintroducing economic issues compensates for Heidegger's neglect of them, insofar as it interweaves the concern for our condition as embodied beings into the composition of everydayness. For this reintroduction yields the key to retrieving his earlier analysis of the everyday work-world-where embodiment becomes as much a dimension of world as it is of the there-albeit now recast in light of his insight into technology. …

Activating Consumer Response: A Model for Web Site Design Strategy

Electronic commerce across the Internet has exploded, providing a strategic blend of marketing and technology. Projections for the expansion of electronic commerce have been consistently understated. The Internet has emerged as a means to effectively enable business-to-consumer and business-to-business electronic commerce. Its ease of use has resulted in rapid expansion worldwide to the point where the market is shifting to e-commerce.Information satisfaction contributes to consumer satisfaction, which occurs when the product or service offered by a firm matches the expectations of the consumer. In the emerging age of e-commerce this is accomplished without personal intervention and as a result presents several issues and design choices in the creation of Web sites. An effective electronic commerce strategy is therefore needed to match the desired consumer response with the Web site design.This paper explores the relationship between Web site design and a consumer's intention to return to a Web site. The relationship is defined through a model that explores the influence of information satisfaction, particularly when the Web site design is congruent with the expectations of the consumer.

Corporate R&D in the Age of E-Commerce

OVERVIEW:Corporate R&D is undergoing a fundamental shift because of the current environment, which rewards speed and agility. To remain viable in this new environment, corporate R&D must adopt many of the characteristics of Silicon Valley. These are: speed, conformance to the law of increasing returns, first-mover/fast-mover advantage, Davidow's Law, and The Borg Law. These characteristics are incorporated in a new model of R&D being tested at DaimlerChrysler Research & Technology North America.

'Revenue Accounting' in the Age of E-Commerce: Exploring Its Conceptual and Analytical Frameworks

This paper explores in contrast to traditional cost Revenue accounting is to serve information needs of managers and investors in planning and controlling a firm's sales activities and their financial consequences, especially in the E-Commerce Age. Weaknesses of traditional accounting have become particularly evident recently, for example, the lack of 1) revenue mileposts, 2) revenue sustainability measurements, and 3) intangibles capitalization. Some tentative remedies are considered. Several revenue mileposts are explored to gauge progress in earning revenues and a Markov process is applied to an example involving mileposts. Revenue momentum, measured by the exponential smoothing method, is examined as a way of getting feedback on revenue sustainability; and the use of the sustainability concept in the analysis of fixed and variable revenues is illustrated. A project-oriented approach in a manner similar to capital budgeting and to Reserve Recognition Accounting is proposed by treating each customer as a project. Standardization of forecasts are also considered as an important way of bypassing the capitalization issue. The paper emphasizes at the end the need to develop a conceptual framework of revenue accounting and, as a tentative measure, proposes five basic postulates and five operational postulates of revenue accounting.