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Community Based Approach to E-Commerce: An Alternative E-Commerce Model for Small Communities
Abstract
Portrayed as the panacea for businesses in the late nineties, Information Technology (IT) is fast maturing into realistic business tool integrating with business processes to make an impact on business performance. The Internet has lowered barriers and provided access to the world market while IT generally has made the core functions of business more efficient. However, has it transformed business practices? Early exponential growth in Internet use was driven by the simplistic view that Internet presence would automatically lead to business transactions and this has resulted in the Internet becoming a ‘cyber junkyard’. With millions of businesses on the worldwide web, the promised competitive advantage of Internet presence has either failed to materialise or been short-lived. While large businesses are able to use conventional media to promote their web presence, small and medium-sized enterprises (SME), because of resource constraints and limited promotional activities (Carson 1985), are unable to take advantage of the web. Studies reveal that the volume of business generated for SMEs through the Internet is small (Venkatesan and Fink 2001; Venkatesan, Fink et al. 2001). Consequently, questions such as ‘How do people know about my business?’ become relevant to SMEs.
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