E-commerce Policy Research Articles

Acceptance and Leadership--Hegemonies of E-Commerce Policy Perspectives

This paper presents an analysis of the e-Commerce policies developed and implemented in the USA, Canada, Australia, Victoria, Finland, Norway, the UK, Ireland, the EU (by the OECD), Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand and Hong Kong (Special Administrative Region). The paper shows that e-Commerce policy adopted is generally trying to achieve two fundamental aims: 1. to minimize regulatory environments for e-Commerce; and 2. to ease logistical problems in doing e-Commerce - i.e. in paying electronically, in delivery of goods and in customs, tariffs and duties. These strategies are designed to create an environment where e-Commerce is adopted by business and government in these countries to achieve 'best practice', to become 'modern', to gain 'efficiencies', because 'it is the way to go', because 'we must have it, because everybody has it', and because they 'perceive the benefits of it'. In essence it is being used to gain hegemony in the economic competitiveness of the geopolitical environment created by the Internet. This paper argues that differentiating types of policy is related to ideology and hegemony in the various countries.

Towards Electronic Commerce in Africa: A Perspective from Three Country Studies

The challenges of globalisation and the information age are concentrating the minds of all African governments. Many of the issues that need to be addressed are similar but the situation in each country is different, both from an economic and a historical perspective, and the roads to the optimum realisation of the potential of ICT will be different.Studies in three African countries (Rwanda, Namibia and South Africa) have highlighted both the similarities and the differences. The similarities relate to the fact that all three countries have large and relatively impoverished groups of people, mainly located in rural areas, where the benefits to be derived from ICT have not been felt. However there are major differences in the sizes of the overall economies, in the level of expertise available, general infrastructure, and socio-economic and historical circumstances that manifest in different policy and development issues within each country. ,p>Recently, several assessment tools have been developed to assist countries and communities to determine where they are positioned in relation to the factors critical to the development of an information society and the consequent widespread use of e-Commerce. The intention is for policy-makers to make more informed policy decisions.The authors have applied one such tool to all three countries, in particular differentiating between rural and urban communities. Clear differences emerge and in particular it appears that more refined analyses of different demographic groupings within each country could help the e-commerce policy formation process.

E-Commerce Policy and the EC Procurement Rules: The Chasm Between Rhetoric and Reality

E-Commerce Policy and the EC Procurement Rules: The Chasm Between Rhetoric and Reality

Legal and Regulatory Update: E-commerce policy developments

The increasing importance of the developing virtual electronic market has been accompanied by a growing awareness of the difficulties in applying traditional legal concepts to this new environment. Proposals are being made on a national, international and European level to address various issues, particularly the legal and practical aspects of electronic commerce such as the security and legality of e-commerce transactions. The EU has made several proposals for directives and new legislation to cover issues such as electronic signatures, e-commerce and digital copyright.