Web Technologies for Commerce and Services Online

Citation

(2010), "Web Technologies for Commerce and Services Online", Strategic Direction, Vol. 26 No. 7. https://doi.org/10.1108/sd.2010.05626gae.002

Web Technologies for Commerce and Services Online

Article Type: Suggested reading From: Strategic Direction, Volume 26, Issue 7

Mehdi Khosrow-Pour (Ed.), IGI Global/Information Science Reference, Hershey, PA, 2008, 392 pp., ISBN: 9781599048222, US$180.00 (hardback)

This collection contains papers on the state of e-commerce, e-business and e-government in business organisations around the world. The publication provides a comprehensive coverage of social, cultural, organisational, human and cognitive impacts of electronic commerce technologies and advances in organisations.

The influence of business-to-business e-commerce for small and medium-sized enterprises is an important opportunity for them to foster relationships with customers, and this is explored in Chapter 1, which provides evidence on the effect of web tools on SMEs and their customers. Other papers look at the impact of technological innovation factors – web pages, e-mail, and e-commerce adoption; compares differences between female/male small business owner/managers to assess adoption barriers to e-commerce; and explores reasons for the limited adoption of inter-organizational information systems and diffusion among Danish SMEs.

In another topical area (e-commerce and banking) papers cover: the use of online product catalogues for classification purposes; the impact of product complexity on transaction governance structures for exchange of goods; and results of a survey on online e-payment by business enterprises based on attributes, e.g. compatibility and complexity. Consumer concerns about privacy, trust and loyalty to web sites are a recurring problem, and policies of the largest 100 companies from Forbes International are compared. Another paper examines the strength of privacy policy statements and the way they are viewed by consumers, while a related study explores the effectiveness of third party assurance for building consumer trust. Results indicate that both techniques are failing in their roles. A final study investigates the relationship between information features and consumers’ loyalty to a web site, based on their overall evaluation and psychological perception.

Online shopping is a popular pastime, and some papers look at customer behaviour in this area. Chapter 8 explores the transaction profitability of frequent and sporadic buyers in the e-commerce arena, while Chapter 10 focuses on multi-channel retailing and the synergies this offers to retailers.

Wireless networks and mobile technology have encouraged a wider adoption of e-commerce, but what is their real impact? One study investigates wireless local area networks and their impact on users and their work, i.e. end users and managers. The other, on m-commerce, deals with “killer applications” and critical success factors.

Papers on business relationships complete the topics covered: Chapter 11 illustrates how relationships are digitised and what managers and academics need to know about using tools such as conceptual analysis and logical reasoning. Also looked at is the impact of e-commerce on revenue capacity, i.e. US state sales and use tax systems.

This collection succeeds in bringing together investigative papers on electronic commerce, but these may be of limited use for the following reasons: sample sizes are too small; response rates are too low; there is geographic bias; some research topics are too theoretical in nature; or the model selected is too simplistic. However, the layout throughout is consistent, and bibliographic references are extensive.

Reviewed by Mae Keary.

This review was originally published in Online Information Review, Vol. 33 No. 1, 2009.