Electronic Commerce Technologies Research Articles

E-commerce technology adoption: A Malaysian grocery SME retail sector study

Electronic commerce (EC) has substantial potential to foster the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developed and developing countries alike. However, EC adoption by SMEs in developing countries has faced many challenges that have not been adequately addressed due to the complex nature of EC adoption in such countries. The aim of this study is to systematically examine the influence of organizational, industry, and national readiness and environmental pressure on the adoption of diverse EC technologies by SMEs in developing countries. A quantitative survey was conducted with retail SMEs within the Malaysian grocery sector to validate the proposed multi-level model. Findings indicate significant influence of environmental pressure on the adoption of various EC technologies. Organizational and national readiness have different influences across diverse EC technologies, while the influence of industry readiness is shown to be insignificant. This study extends the current understanding of the influence of micro-, meso- and macro-level factors and has important implications for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers.

Online Room-Booking System Based on Database

With the rapid development of network technology, the Internet and electronic commerce technology is unceasingly used, the application scope of computer application in the hospitality industry booming, online room-booking system also increasingly mature. In this paper, based on the analysis of the present situation of online room-booking system, conducts specific design and system implementation of online room-booking system.

Electronic Commerce Technology Adoption at the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre

This paper focuses on the level of adoption of E-Commerce Technology at the Scientific and Industrial Research and Development Centre (SIRDC), a Zimbabwean organization established by an act of parliament, with a mandate to develop, adopt and adapt new technologies for the benefit of Zimbabwean companies and organizations. The study was done in 2004 and the findings reviewed in 2012 with similar results. The objective of the study was to establish whether E-commerce technology adoption would result in the organization being more efficient and effective in delivering its mandate and then establish the level of adoption of the technology at the centre using abstraction and a questionnaire survey. Abstraction results showed that organizations which had fully embraced the technology were more efficient and effective while the survey revealed that the centre had partially adopted the technology. It was recommended that the centre should fully embrace the technology and market it to other organizations as per its mandate.

Applying the Electronic Commerce Technology Acceptance (ECTA) Framework to Overcome Challenges Facing Governmental Institutions' E-mailing Systems Technology Adoption in Jordan

Insight into the reasons why people adopt or reject technology is one of the most challenging issues in information technology research. This paper draws on the Electronic Commerce Technology Acceptance (ECTA) framework [1], which is in turn based on Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) [2–3], and examines Jordan government's employees' attitudes towards adopting and use Electronic Mailing systems within their job. A quantitative survey is used to establish and illustrates employee's behavioural intention and decision to e-mailing systems. The main influencing issues that are discussed in this paper affect these employees imply perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, employees' attitudes towards new technologies, and behavioural intention to use. These various issues suggested in the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) [3–4]. Whereas the extended Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) has been made to include the external social factors proposed in this paper such as trust, cultural beliefs, and sociology of technology. Eventually, the significant insight emanated from the findings identifies ways of assisting and spurring employees to make use of technology effectively.

Measuring Electronic Commerce Technology–Enabled Business Value: An Empirical Investigation

This research investigates whether firms using e-commerce technologies are successful in generating business value and, if so, which e-commerce drivers determine this success and how firms should use these drivers. There is no systematic empirical evidence in the IT productivity and business value literature regarding the payoffs a business receives from its e-business initiatives. The current research contributes to the literature in the e-commerce area by identifying a set of e-business value constructs, incorporating these constructs in a model in a manner not done before, and empirically validating the model using an Analysis of MOment Structures (AMOS)/ Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) analysis. The present research also contributes to the e-business value literature by providing insights into causal relationships among Rogers' innovation and diffusion theory (IDT) factors. This is the first time a research study has empirically established comprehensive causal relationships among these factors. The SEM analysis of the model indicates that the proposed model is able to explain e-commerce success utilizing the constructs identified and grounded using IT business value literature and Rogers' IDT. We conclude by summarizing its contributions to the IT literature, in general, and the e-business literature, in particular, and by providing insights for practice and suggestions for future research.

HMM Based Enhanced Security System for ATM Payments

Due to a rapid advancement in the electronic commerce technology, the use of ATM cards has dramatically increased. As ATM card becomes the most popular mode of payment for both online as well as regular purchase, cases of fraud associated with it are also rising. In this paper, we model the sequence of operations in ATM card transaction processing using a Hidden Markov Model as well as Bluetooth based mobile security model (HMM) and show how it can be used for the detection of frauds. To determine the parameters of a HMM it is first necessary to make a rough guess at what they might be. Once this is done, more accurate (in the maximum likelihood sense) parameters can be found by applying the so-called Baum-Welch re-estimation formulae..

Editorial for the special issue: Digital Economy and E-commerce Technology

The aim of this special issue is to provide insights into the use of Operational Research (OR) applications in the context of the digital economy and electronic commerce (e-commerce) technologies. The term ‘‘digital economy’’ (or Internet economy) refers to all the economic and social activities that are enabled by the Internet and the other Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs). The digital economy is not a totally new economy, but rather the whole of new ways to accomplish the usual economic and social activities through the use of ICTs. In the past, there were numerous applications of OR in the microand macro-economy; nowadays OR also seems to offer a great potential to the further development of the digital economy. There are many issues in the context of the digital economy which need to be studied to a greater extent. Some of them are indicatively mentioned in the following lines: (1) the modeling of the pricing on the Internet, (2) the assessment of the economic changes arising from the use of open-source software, (3) the assessment of the economic implications of software piracy, (4) the measurement of digital inequalities in the usage of ICTs, and (5) the measurement of productivity and efficiency in the Internet economy. A reasonable question that rises is whether the

Inter-organizational systems (IOS) adoption in the Arabian Gulf region: the case of the Bahraini grocery industry

Many organizations particularly in developed countries have engaged in inter-organizational systems (IOS) to manage their business operations across the supply chain. Such systems, which are mainly based on business-to-business electronic commerce technologies, are seen to play a significant role in enabling organizations around the world to extend their supply chain and to engage in global trading efficiently and effectively regardless of their geographical locations. However, the adoption rate of IOS in developing countries is still generally very low. This creates significant challenges to achieving advanced supply chain management for organizations in the developed countries that have trading relationships with organizations in developing countries. Although an enormous number of studies have been conducted to investigate the IOS adoption phenomenon in the last three decades, currently, there is still a limited understanding of the contextual issues related to the IOS adoption in developing countries, specifically within the Arabian Gulf region. Therefore, in this study, guided by the process model of Kurnia and Johnston [(2000). The need for a processual view of inter-organizational systems adoption. Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 9, 295–319], we conducted a multiple case study with seven companies within the grocery industry of Bahrain to investigate IOS adoption. This study offers important implications for both academics and practitioners.

An Exploratory Analysis of the Relationship Between Organizational and Institutional Factors Shaping the Assimilation of Vertical Standards

Vertical standards describe products and services, define data formats and structures, and formalize and encode business processes for specific industries. Vertical standards enable end-to-end computing, provide greater visibility of the organization’s supply chain, and enable transactional efficiencies by automating routine tasks, reducing errors, and formally defining all parameters used to describe a product, service, or transaction. Research on standards diffusion has explored either firm-level and institutional variables, without integration of the two areas. This study develops scales for 11 constructs based on concepts culled from diffusion of innovations theory, organizational learning theories of technology adoption, institutional theory and network effects theory. The scales are validated with data collected from the membership of OASIS, a leading international standards-developing organization for electronic commerce technologies. Using data cluster analysis, relationship patterns between the 11 constructs are investigated. Results show that low fit between vertical standards and existing organizational business processes and data formats, low levels of anticipated benefits, and inadequate momentum with critical business partners contribute to slower vertical standards assimilation. However, organizational involvement with influential standards-development organizations, and the right set of technologies, skills, and structures to readily benefit from vertical standards spur their assimilation.

Guest editorial: special selection on commerce and enterprise computing

The 11th IEEE Conference on Commerce and Enterprise Computing (CEC’09) was held in Vienna, Austria from July 20th to 23rd 2009. This conference is the result of a merger of the two annual flagship conferences of the IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on E-Commerce: the IEEE Conference on E-Commerce Technology (CEC) and the IEEE Conference on Enterprise Computing, E-Commerce, and E-Services (EEE). Given its new title, the conference provides a platform for researchers and practitioners interested in theory and practice of technologies to be used in E-Commerce and Enterprise Computing. CEC covers diverse research areas including Commerce and Business Systems Architecture, Electronic Commerce Technologies, Business Process Management, Business Intelligence, Business Services, Semantic Web and Ontological Engineering, Security and Trust, Mobile Business Applications, Social Networks, E-Government, and Human Computer Interaction. Researchers presented and discussed key technical and economic problems, challenges, trends and requirements in the E-Commerce and Enterprise Computing fields. This special issue of the SOCA journal can be regarded as an extended forum for the CEC conference. CEC’09 had 115 submissions of which 22 regular papers were accepted. The best paper nominees were invited to submit an extended version of their conference papers. All submissions have gone through an additional review cycle by reviewers of the SOCA journal. Out of these submissions, five papers were selected and are presented in this special issue. The first article, titled “The Design and Implementation of Service Process Reconfiguration with End-to-End QoS

Web Technologies for Commerce and Services Online

Through the last decade, Internet technologies such as electronic commerce have experienced exponential growth, and emerging issues surrounding this phenomenon have necessitated the amassment of research on the cognitive impact of electronic commerce technologies around the world. Web Technologies for Commerce and Services Online delivers a global perspective on the influence of electronic commerce on organizational behavior, development, and management in organizations, discussing issues such as information security; strategic management of electronic commerce; organizational learning; business process management; mediated enterprises; and electronic marketplaces. With the new insights it delivers on this rapidly evolving technological and commercial domain, this incisive reference will prove an essential addition to library collections worldwide.

Digital product transaction mechanism for electronic auction environment

The rapid development in electronic commerce and information technology drives the traditional physical product trading evolved to digital product trading. With the effect of the multi-agents system in the Internet environment and the promotions of Government, digital product industry grows fast. The authors proposed a digital product transaction mechanism for electronic auction in the multi-agents system environment. The research introduced a convenient platform to protect the privacies of both buyers and sellers, and track digital product further in an electronic auction environment. In addition, by using simple cryptography techniques supplemented with encryption, the authors ensure the security of information transactions, thereby providing a mechanism of safe and fair digital product electronic auction.

A Shopping Model in Agent-mediated Electronic Commerce

As the development of Internet, electronic commerce technology in which agent takes the role of medium is becoming more and more popular recently. It accentuates how to make use of agent technology to enhance the automation and efficiency of shopping in the Internet and businessman’s selling process. However, today’s first generation shopping agent systems are limited to comparing product usually on price instead of their full range of attribute and don’t reflect the customer’s actual purchase preference. For these limitations, we propose a new shopping model for electronic commerce based on the agent technology and elaborate how to analyze and design the agent system. Based on the agent technology, the combination of a multi-attribute evaluation model and preference evaluation model is presented. Finally, an experimental prototype system for car shopping on IBM’s Aglets is developed for demonstrating the proposed shopping model above.

Mobile and Electronic Commerce Systems and Technologies

The emergence of wireless and mobile networks has made possible the introduction of electronic commerce to a new application and research subject: mobile commerce. Understanding or constructing a mobile or an electronic commerce system is an arduous task because the system involves a wide variety of disciplines and technologies and the technologies are constantly changing. To facilitate understanding and constructing such a system, this article divides the system into six components: (i) applications, (ii) client computers or devices, (iii) mobile middleware, (iv) wireless networks, (v) wired networks, and (vi) host computers. Elements in these components specifically related to the subject are described in detail and lists of current technologies for component construction are discussed. Another important and complicated issue related to the subject is the mobile or electronic commerce application programming. It includes two types of programming: client-side and server-side programming, which will be introduced too.

Credit Card Fraud Detection Using Hidden Markov Model

Due to a rapid advancement in the electronic commerce technology, the use of credit cards has dramatically increased. As credit card becomes the most popular mode of payment for both online as well as regular purchase, cases of fraud associated with it are also rising. In this paper, we model the sequence of operations in credit card transaction processing using a hidden Markov model (HMM) and show how it can be used for the detection of frauds. An HMM is initially trained with the normal behavior of a cardholder. If an incoming credit card transaction is not accepted by the trained HMM with sufficiently high probability, it is considered to be fraudulent. At the same time, we try to ensure that genuine transactions are not rejected. We present detailed experimental results to show the effectiveness of our approach and compare it with other techniques available in the literature.

An empirical investigation of a usage model of e-commerce technologies in small businesses in New Zealand: theory extension and implications

This research developed a usage model of Electronic Commerce (EC) technologies. The model hypothesised ten factors as influencing EC usage in Small to Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in New Zealand (NZ). The research findings indicated that relative advantage, cost, compatibility, size, information intensity of product, competition, pressure from suppliers/buyers and CEO's involvement play an important role on EC usage. However, support from technology vendors and CEO's innovativeness did not appear to influence the extent of EC usage in NZ SMEs. The research addresses implications arising from the different factors in relation to theory and to practice.

RAS

Online auctioning is unparalleled as rhe fastest growing exchange medium to emerge from electronic commerce technology. Buyers and sellers located around the world now auction various items from the latest DVD to rare collectibles. eBay and uBid are among the most successful and popular of the commercial online auctioneers. They use an auctioning process based on a type of auction referred to as an English auction. In an English auction. bidders outbid each other for an item. The winner is the bidder with the highest bid.

Can China Promote Electronic Commerce through Law Reform? Some Preliminary Case Study Evidence

This article analyzes legislation recently enacted in China to promote the use of electronic commerce among Chinese businesses. It reviews the terms of regulations to promote the use of accounting software by Chinese firms, the electronic commerce enabling provisions of the 1999 Contract Law and the 2004 Electronic Signature Law in light of their relationship to China's economic development goals and their impact on Chinese businesses. It contrasts the success of the accounting software regulations with the limited impact of the Contract Law provisions and the dim prospects for the Electronic Signature Law. While law reform generally may be of limited use as a policy instrument to promote the use of electronic commerce technologies by Chinese businesses as long as the transition to a market economy remains incomplete, these case studies suggest that law reform based on an accurate understanding of the conditions Chinese businesses face has a better chance of success than legislation based on foreign models which in turn were based on conditions in developed market economies which differ significantly from those in China's transition economy.

Islamic Law, Globalization and Emerging Electronic Commerce Technologies

Network effects created by the use of electronic commerce technologies may put pressure on the community of the Muslim faithful to assimilate into global markets that do not comply with the requirements of Islamic law. At the same time, however, they hold the promise of greater access to global markets constituted in a manner that comports with Islamic law. There are significant structural differences in commercial transactions conducted in conformity with Islamic law and those conducted according to Western secular norms. As a result, the automation of Islamic commercial transactions will require the development and implementation of significantly different technical standards. Many Muslim countries now have low penetration rates for electronic commerce technologies, and the development of technical standards to support automated transaction processing in a manner that conforms to Islamic law does not appear to be a policy priority in those countries. If such standards are developed, then strategy and relative bargaining power will determine whether secular Western organizations wishing to trade with Islamic organizations are required to implement both Western and Islamic technologies in order to gain access to markets in Islamic nations, or organizations in Islamic nations are required to implement both in order to gain access to global markets.

Four Models of Internet-Enabled Distribution Structures

The pervasive and ubiquitous nature of electronic commerce and Internet technology has redefined the cost formula in distribution and led to organizational restructuring. This article identifies four models of distribution structures – functional decomposition, cloning, forward integration, and strategic industry alliance – that are enabled by electronic commerce. the advantages and challenges of each model are also examined.