Diffusion Of E-commerce Research Articles

Globalization and E-Commerce I: Factors Affecting E-Commerce Diffusion in China

• China is a large economy with a large absolute gross domestic product (GDP). However, its huge population brings its GDP and wealth level per capita way below developed countries and in-line with many developing countries. • Between 1990 and 2001, China’s economy experienced rapid growth (7-8% on average) as did its telecommunications, information technology (IT) and Internet infrastructures (50% 200% on average). Its large population brings the penetration rates of these infrastructures way below developed countries and a little higher than many developing countries. • China’s infrastructure is characterized by “disparities” among geographic areas, demographics, and firm size. Large cities and economically advanced coastal provinces enjoy much better infrastructure and many more Internet users than remote and economically poorer provinces. Large enterprises have bigger IT budgets and better-trained staffs than smalland medium-sized enterprises. A younger population with higher education is more likely to adopt Internet and e-commerce. • The infrastructure disparity leads to e-commerce diffusion disparity. Current e-commerce activities are concentrated in large cities, coastal provinces, large enterprises, and among well-educated young people. The legal environment for e-commerce is better in large cities and coastal provinces because they publish local laws regarding e-commerce and IT infrastructure. • Barriers to e-commerce diffusion include poor technical infrastructure, lack of security, lack of a system to monitor and guarantee buyer and seller credibility, and an inefficient delivery system. The lack of a credibility monitoring system extends to both vendors and individual consumers. • Taxation and privacy, which are vital to e-commerce diffusion in many other countries, do not appear to be serious concerns yet. However, content censorship is among the top concerns. 1 China is used in this paper as a shorthand reference to the People’s Republic of China Communications of the Association for Information Systems (Volume10, 2003) 4-32 5 Globalization and E-commerce I: Factors Affecting E-Commerce Diffusion in China by Z. Tan and W. Oyang • The most significant driving forces are government promotion and private entrepreneurial desire to make profits. Government initiatives include general promotion of the IT industry, an industrial and regulatory policy to foster competition among service providers, encouragement of E-government, and sponsorship of projects to mobilize public awareness, such as the “Enterprise Online Project” and “Home Online Project”. • The poor infrastructure for e-commerce in China pulled e-commerce back to a base building stage after an initial explosive stage. Significant diffusion can only occur after a solid infrastructure is built up, including the technical and legal infrastructure. • Two examples, an E-store for residents in a local living complex and the E-system for college admissions, demonstrate e-commerce models unique in China.

Global and National Factors Affecting E-Commerce Diffusion in Singapore

This article provides a broad overview of the likely global/regional contextual factors and unique national characteristics that influence e-commerce diffusion in Singapore. Our analysis suggests that Singapore is likely to be a very fast adopter of e-commerce applications that have relatively proven business models in other advanced countries. In particular, advanced manufacturing clusters in Singapore with strong global supply chain links to advanced countries (especially electronics), logistics and transportation services, and other global market-oriented, business-to-business (B2B) industries are likely to be the most aggressive in adopting e-commerce applications. In contrast, we predict that Singapore will be less likely to innovate new e-commerce technologies or pioneer revolutionary e-commerce applications with radical global impacts, due to the small local market and the inadequate development of an information and communications technologies (ICT) entrepreneurial community with extensive network links to Silicon Valley and other entrepreneurial hot spots. Singapore is also unlikely to be a leader in large-scale business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce applications and mass consumer contents publishing. Our review of government policy initiatives to promote e-commerce suggests that although they are by and large in the right direction, they are unlikely to have significant impact until proven e-commerce models have emerged and competitive pressure start to be felt by companies. A possible exception is "e-government" applications. In contrast, we identify a number of areas where government policy initiatives have been a bit slow, notably in liberalizing the telecommunications services sector and in promoting technology entrepreneurship. Our review of the available empirical evidence on recent e-commerce diffusion trend and pattern in Singapore appears to be consistent with this analysis.

The Diffusion of E-commerce among SMEs: Theoretical Implications and Empirical Evidence

As a specific institution of distributive trades, e-commerce displays similarities with retail stores and mail order companies. As well as providing theoretical support for the assumption that e-commerce is a way to sell certain goods and services at prices potentially lower than those of traditional distributive channels, this paper analyses its inter-firm diffusion among a sample of firms (mostly SMEs) in Italy. The paper has three main purposes. Firstly, it challenges the view of e-commerce as a "technological revolution", by pointing out its nature as a cost-minimizing marketing channel. In particular, it shows how, under certain conditions, e-commerce is a source of transaction cost advantages analogous to those yielded by mail order business. Secondly, the paper identifies from a theoretical viewpoint the circumstances under which e-commerce sales might achieve a significant level of penetration among those SMEs that would otherwise incur high costs in organizing a proprietary distributive channel. Thirdly, it employs a unique data set of Italian manufacturing, service, and hospitality firms (nearly 90% of them with fewer than 100 employees) to estimate a diffusion model based on the logistic curve. According to the estimates, by the fourth quarter of 2003 nearly 50% of the population of firms in the geographical area surveyed will have introduced e-commerce among their marketing channels.

Introduction to the Special Volume on Globalization and E-Commerce

The ten papers in this special volume of CAIS focus on environmental and policy influences on the diffusion of e-commerce in selected countries in the Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe. They are part of a multi-year, multi-country study entitled, “Impacts of Electronic Commerce in the Global Networked Economy: A Multi-Country Study”. [www.crito.uci.edu/GIT/Project3d.asp]

Globalization and E-Commerce VI: Environment and Policy in Denmark

• The diffusion of e-commerce in Denmark is mainly a result of a partnership between government and industry initiatives, rather than being purely market- or government-led. While environmental factors are important enablers of e-commerce diffusion, government policy aims to be a key driving force. • Although the size of government is substantial and the list of policy instruments is extensive, there is a serious question about whether the governments’ efforts to stimulate use within the society (business, consumers, and government itself) are sufficient to stimulate diffusion of e-commerce adequately. Our analysis questions the effectiveness of the government-led approach because of its timing, its lack of coordinated actions, and the mixed motives of government actions, in particular at the European Community level.

Environment and Policy Factors Shaping Global E-Commerce Diffusion: A Cross-Country Comparison

This article examines the key global, environmental and policy factors that act as determinants of e-commerce diffusion. It is based on systematic comparison of case studies from 10 countries--Brazil, China, Denmark, France, Germany, Mexico, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan, and the United States. It finds that B2B e-commerce seems to be driven by global forces, whereas B2C seems to be more of a local phenomenon. A preliminary explanation for this difference is that B2B is driven by global competition and MNCs that "push" e-commerce to their global suppliers, customers, and subsidiaries. This in turn creates pressures on local companies to adopt e-commerce to stay competitive. In contrast, B2C is "pulled" by consumer markets, which are mainly local and therefore divergent. While all consumers desire convenience and low prices, consumer preferences and values, national culture, and distribution systems differ markedly across countries and define differences in local consumer markets. These findings support the transformation perspective about globalization and its impacts. In terms of policy, the case studies suggest that enabling policies such as trade and telecommunications liberalization are likely to have the biggest impact on e-commerce, by making ICT and Internet access more affordable to firms and consumers, and increasing pressure on firms to adopt e-commerce to compete. Specific e-commerce legislation appears not to have as big an impact, although inadequate protection for both buyers and sellers in some countries suggests that mechanisms need to be developed to ensure greater confidence in doing business online.

Globalization and E-Commerce IV: Environment and Policy in Mexico

This article examines Mexico as one of the countries in Latin America where e-commerce expanded the most, second only to Brazil, and where a digital economy is emerging as a result of a complex set of forces. Key environmental factors that exert an important influence on e-commerce diffusion include the performance and the sectoral and business structure of the economy, the size of the population, and the distribution of national income. It is hypothesized that two critical factors that determine the pace, quality and orientation of e-commerce are: 1. the work of private organizations devoted to promoting e-commerce practices, and 2. the political will the Mexican government demonstrated in recent years to improve the country’s telecommunications infrastructure. These two factors reinforce one another in the sense that promoting organizations operate by means of specialized working groups whose membership includes representatives from both the private sector and the federal government. Jointly, these organizations created a favorable environment and the required physical conditions for the development of both business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce transactions.

Diffusion of e-commerce: an analysis of the adoption of four e-commerce activities

The Internet has the ability to function as a business medium. Over one-third of US residents use the Internet, and nearly 40% use it as a medium of business (electronic-commerce). As this percentage continues to grow, so does the need to understand why and how users choose to adopt. This information will afford researchers and e-commerce providers a better understanding of how to facilitate future adoption. Through the diffusion of innovations model, this study revisits traditional and current concepts of adoption by investigating the adoption of four e-commerce activities currently available to Internet users: (1) online shopping, (2) online banking, (3) online investing, and (4) electronic payment for an Internet service (i.e., access to exclusive sites). Results indicate that six attributes common to the diffusion model (i.e., perceived convenience and financial benefits, risk, previous use of the telephone for a similar purpose, self-efficacy, and Internet use) all play a significant role in the adoption processes. Results also indicate that when users decide to adopt one of these activities they tend to adopt another. Finally, a discussion explores how to extend the model identified in this study by assessing possible negative outcomes of diffusion.

Diffusion of Electronic Commerce in Developing Countries: The Case of Costa Rica

Costa Rica is one of the developing countries that are making inroads into electronic commerce (e-commerce). It has achieved initial results while dealing with technological, economic, and cultural specificities that have similarities with and differences from the model of e-commerce diffusion in developed countries. A multi- phase investigation into e-commerce in this Central American country has been conducted. The main finding is that there are some favorable conditions to diffusing e- commerce in Costa Rica but the obstacles are not insignificant.

STRUCTURAL FOUNDATIONS FOR E-COMMERCE ADOPTION: A COMPARATIVE ORGANIZATION OF RETAIL TRADE BETWEEN JAPAN AND THE UNITED STATES

Why do two societies, both technologically advanced, exhibit a divergent path in adopting electronic commerce (e-commerce)? This paper compares the historical development of retail trade in Japan and the United States, with a specific focus on the partnership between brick-and-mortar and nonstore retailing. The way in which a society adopts technologies is in part historically determined, and business-to-consumer (B-to-C) transactions in particular are strongly influenced by the characteristics and structure of retail trade. While the strategies adopted by U.S. retailers is to develop e-commerce to sell products that are available at brick-and-mortar stores via online, the strategy adopted by Japanese convenience stores show that Japanese retailers are selling products available online at brick-and-mortar stores. Although the speed of e-commerce diffusion is typically attributed to the cost of access, a historical analysis of the retail sector reveals variations in institutional foundations for retail business practices, and such differences can shape the development trajectory of the commercial activities of the real and virtual worlds. [Key words: e-commerce, retail trade, Japan, United States.]

Alternative paths for the growth of e-commerce

Electronic commerce promises to be the drive behind a new wave of economic growth. Yet, the actual achievement of the prospected benefits and their allocation will depend on the features of the business models driving the diffusion of the new sales channel. The paper rejects the existence of a deterministic relation between e-commerce technological features and the structure of future electronic markets. Accordingly, alternative growth paths are explored and different scenarios are sketched depending upon the prevailing nature of the economic relations among the involved actors. For each scenario, the paper discusses the implications in terms of e-commerce diffusion speed and benefits allocation. The analysis of possible growth paths reveal that public intervention plays a non-negligible role in shaping the business model(s) that will eventually emerge, hence the impact of e-commerce on social welfare.