Electronic Commerce:
An example of Distributed Collaborative Work

This section of the course will discuss electronic commerce as an example of Distributed Collaborative Working. It will briefly examine the nature of e-commerce and the forms it might take before looking at Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce as an example of Distributed Collaborative Work.

In particular we will look at the effect that the development of inter-organizational networks might have on inter-organizational coordination.

Reading

Directed reading

• Living Apart Together In Electronic Commerce: The Use Of Information And Communication Technology To Create Network Organizations.
  The main question addressed in this paper is: How do telecommunication networks and services contribute to the development and maintenance of inter-organizational coordination? This question is interpreted in two ways. First, what kind of benefits can be expected from the use of telecommunication networks and services for the development and maintenance of inter-organizational coordination? Secondly, how telecommunication networks can be developed in order to facilitate the development and maintenance of inter-organizational coordination?

Books

• Attal, J (1997) 'Technology empowers small businesses'. Electronic Commerce in Practice, ICC, London.
• Kalakota, R. and Whinston, A. (1996), Frontiers of Electronic Commerce, Addison-Wesley, Wokingham, England.

Articles

• Husein, T., Moreton R. and A. Sloane (1996), Electronic Commerce: A consideration of implementation for SMEs, Journal of Management Studies, Vol.5 No.1, pp 77-83.
• Zwass, V. (1996), Electronic Commerce: Structures and Issues, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Vol. 1, No. 1, pp. 3-23.
• Pickerill, J. B. (1993), Electronic Commerce: Technology in support of global business strategies, EDI Forum, Vol. 6 No. 3 pp. 64-68

Links

• The Strategic Challenges of Electronic Commerce
  First Published in 1996, this paper by Derek Miers provides a quick overview of electronic commerce. It investigates payment systems, process support and customer information and the way in which they are all affected by the extraordinary growth of Electronic Commerce.

• Electronic Commerce Definitions
  This document provides definitions of key ideas used when discussing electronic commerce. It derives from a long series of publications commencing in the mid-late 1980s, and is subject to continual revision. In any rapidly evolving field, terms are used in ways that can vary subtly or even substantially. The definitions here are those that the author (Roger Clarke) currently finds to be most effective in analyzing and communicating about electronic commerce.

• Building Consumer Trust in Online Environments: The Case for Information Privacy
  Moving Web consumers along to the "purchase click" is proving to be difficult and current consumer online shopping revenues are meager. At its core, the reason online consumers have yet to shop online in large numbers, or even provide information to Web providers in exchange for access to information offered onsite, is because of the fundamental lack of faith that currently exists between most businesses and consumers on the Web today. In essence, consumers simply do not trust most Web providers enough to engage in relationship exchanges with them.

• Towards a Model of Trust for E-Commerce System Design
  For users to adopt Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-commerce, it is imperative that the benefits of using this new commercial medium significantly outweigh potential risks and inconveniences. Indeed, difficulty of use and lack of trust with respect to online payment, privacy and consumer service have been found to constitute a real psychological barrier to e-commerce. Although it is not up to interaction designers and usability engineers to solve issues linked to legislation or cryptography, it is argued that they can nevertheless play an important role in ensuring that trustworthiness be communicated in user interface design.

• The Impact Of Interorganisational Networks On Buyer-Seller Relationships
  Interorganisational data networks can have many effects on buyer-seller relationships. The purpose of this paper is to examine the prevailing theoretical expectations for the effect of networks on interorganisational relationships and develop propositions that are relevant for the new infrastructure environment characterized by public and ubiquitous data networks like the Internet. Our conclusions are based upon a critical review of previous literature on interorganisational networks, and a reexamination of empirical studies that specifically look at the uses of public and ubiquitous networks.

• On the Road of Electronic Commerce
  This paper addresses the issue of understanding the components of the business value an organization can derive from using electronic commerce. It proposes a framework consisting of ten components of the business value of electronic commerce, showing how they can improve, transform or redefine current products, processes or business models. It illustrates these by examples of successful early adopters from the retail, banking and travel industries.

• Economics of Content Provision on the Internet
  This paper outlines the economic impacts upon organizations of offering content on the Web. It discusses four ways for companies to profit from providing an Internet presence and sets them within the broad contexts of the 'Economic Value of Information and Communication Technology', 'Value Creation via Electronic Commerce', and the 'Macroeconomic Business Impacts of Internet-based Commerce'.