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Part I 88

1577

e-Commerce

89. e-Commerce

Clyde W. Holsapple, Sharath Sasidharan

Electronic commerce (e-Commerce) is fast becom-

ing a way of life in the 21st century. As more

and more consumers and organizations resort to

electronic means for conducting purchases and

facilitating business transactions, it has become

vital for academic researchers as well as practi-

tioners to understand its workings, and be able

to analyze problems and rectify weaknesses. This

is complicated by the fact that the e-Commerce

market is global and constantly evolving, with

new and innovative business models and prod-

ucts being introduced at a rapid pace. We present

an overview of the status of e-Commerce, with

particular emphasis on academic research. Specif-

ically, we review the historical background of

e-Commerce, discuss theoretical frameworks, and

examine e-Commerce models. We also discuss

emerging trends as well as pressing issues facing

the e-Commerce marketplace.

89.1 Background .........................................1578

89.2 Theory .................................................1580

89.2.1 Deﬁnitions of e-Commerce...........1580

89.2.2 Frameworks for e-Commerce........1581

89.2.3 e-Commerce Success Parameters...1583

89.3 e-Commerce Models and Applications ....1585

89.3.1 B2C e-Commerce .........................1585

89.3.2 B2B e-Commerce.........................1588

89.3.3 C2C e-Commerce .........................1590

89.4 Emerging Trends in e-Commerce ...........1591

89.4.1 Mobile Commerce........................1591

89.4.2 Telemedicine: e-Health ...............1592

89.4.3 Fee-Based Information Delivery....1592

89.5 Challenges and Emerging Issues

in e-Commerce.....................................1592

89.5.1 Trust and e-Commerce.................1592

89.5.2 Legal Issues in e-Commerce .........1593

89.5.3 Outlook......................................1593

References ..................................................1594

Electronic commerce (e-Commerce) is fast dominat-

ing every aspect of our day-to-day existence. Whether

purchasing retail products ranging from books to au-

tomobiles, or services ranging from information to

banking, consumers are increasingly turning to the In-

ternet and the World Wide Web (WWW). Businesses

are increasingly conducting transactions within their

value chains and across their supply chains through

electronic means. There is constant experimentation

with newer and more innovative business models, re-

sulting in an ever-evolving e-Commerce marketplace.

This chapter provides a comprehensive picture of the

e-Commerce landscape, with an emphasis on academic

research ﬁndings.

With this in mind, we ﬁrst discuss the evolution of

e-Commerce. This is followed by a discussion of the-

oretical aspects of e-Commerce research: deﬁnitions,

frameworks, and success parameters. We then discuss

three broad e-Commerce models: business-to-consumer

(B2C), business-to-business (B2B), and consumer-to-

consumer (C2C). Special emphasis is given to three

popular B2C activities: online shopping, online bank-

ing, and electronic learning. We then discuss three

emerging e-Commerce applications: mobile commerce,

telemedicine (or e-Health), and fee-based information

delivery. Finally, we conclude with a discussion on two

open issues facing e-Commerce: user trust and legal

considerations.

Part I 89

1578 Part I Home, Ofﬁce, and Enterprise Automation

89.1 Background

Prior to the 1960s, information systems (IS) were

primarily used for scientiﬁc research and military

purposes, and very rarely for commerce. The early busi-

ness applications of computers ranged from the Lyons

Electronic Ofﬁce (LEO) system, automating clerical ac-

counting tasks, to the Bank of America’s electronic

recording machine accounting (ERMA), involving the

automation of check handling. The 1960s and 1970s

saw business establishments becoming heavy users of

computers for accounting and production activities, but

largely conﬁned to applications within the organization.

It was with the development of the electronic data in-

terchange (EDI) in the 1970s that organizations started

communicating with one another electronically. The

high cost of development and maintenance of private

networks, lack of standardization, and the fact that not

all organizations had EDI systems hindered its early

growth. The development of the Accredited Standards

Committee (ASC) X12 standards in the 1980s provided

a boost to the popularity of EDI. Even today, EDI fa-

cilitates a majority of B2B e-Commerce transactions

Fig. 89.1 Google website

through value-added networks (VA N)andovertheIn-

ternet [89.1,2].

Paralleling the development of EDI was the growth

of the Internet, which later (along with the World

Wide Web) became the driving force behind B2C

e-Commerce. The Internet had its origins in the

late 1960s as the advanced research projects agency

net (ARPANET), designed exclusively for research,

education, and use by government organizations. Sub-

sequently, in 1983, the ARPANET was split into the

Milnet and the Internet, the former used for military

purposes and the latter for research and education.

Around this time, the communicationof computers over

the Internet was standardized using the transmission

control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP), and in the

following year the domain name system (DNS)was

introduced [89.3].

In 1989, Tim Berners-Lee of the European Lab-

oratory for Particle Physics (CERN) started devel-

oping the World Wide Web (WWW). Commer-

cial access to the Internet began with The World

Part I 89.1

e-Commerce 89.1 Background 1579

(http://www.world.std.com) becoming the ﬁrst provider

of dial-up Internet access. Development of the Mosaic

browser by Marc Andreessen, and its evolution into the

Netscape browser with secure sockets layer (SSL) tech-

nology provided easy and secure access to the WWW

for the general populace [89.3,4].

In 1993, close to 30 million people were using the

Internet in North America, with 43.2 million US house-

holds owning a computer. The subsequent years saw the

launches of what were to become two of the greatest

success stories in e-Commerce: Amazon and eBay, and

the sale of airline tickets by Southwest Airlines through

the WWW, marking the beginning of a new era in the

travel and tourism industry. This was quickly followed

by online travelsites sponsored bydifferentairlines, and

the emergence of online travel agents such as Expedia

and Travelocity [89.2].

At this point, the primary limiting factor to the

spread of e-Commerce was the speed, quality, and relia-

bility of Internet access; however thisissue was partially

resolved with the introduction of the digital subscriber

line (DSL). Worldwide, the number of Internet users

Year(s) Event

1951 Lyons Electronic Ofﬁce (LEO) system

1959 Electronic recording machine accounting (ERMA) system

1969 Advanced research projects agency net (ARPANET)

1970s Electronic data interchange (EDI)

1971 Internet-based email

1982 ASC X12 standards for EDIs

1983 ARPANET was split into the Milnet and the Internet

1983 Transmission control protocol/Internet protocol (TCP/IP)

1984 Domain name system (DNS)

1989 World Wide Web

1989 The World (http://www.world.std.com)

1993 Mosaic browser

1994 Netscape browser

1994 Manufacturing assembly pilot (MAP) project

1995 Amazon and eBay

1996 Trading process network (TPN) post

1990s Digital subscriber line (DSL)

1999 Google

2000 Bursting of the dot-com bubble

2004 B2B market size estimated at over US$1800 billion

2006 B2C market size estimated at over US$200 billion

Table 89.1 Important e-Commerce

milestones

had catapulted to 150 million, with more than half from

the USA. In 1999, two of what were to become iconic

names in cyberspace were launched: the search engine

Google and the social networking website MySpace.

The Google search engine provided a very efﬁcient and

effective searchtool tobrowsethe increasinglycluttered

WWW, thereby indirectly promoting B2C e-Commerce

activities (Fig.89.1) [89.3, 4]. MySpace facilitated so-

cial networking through user-created personal proﬁles,

blogs, groups, photos, and events.

The expansion of the Internet was also associated

with the burgeoning B2B e-Commerce marketplace.

New methods of conducting commercial transactions

between buyers and suppliers along the entire length

of the supply chain were developed. For example, in

1994, to improve material ﬂow within their supply

chains, the big three automakers, Chrysler, Ford, and

GM, and 12 of their suppliers participated in the man-

ufacturing assembly pilot (MAP) project. The MAP

participants were electronically connected, and infor-

mation took less than 2 weeks to reach the bottom of the

supply chain, instead of the earlier 4–6weeks. Another

Part I 89.1

1580 Part I Home, Ofﬁce, and Enterprise Automation

case is that of General Electric (GE), which introduced

its ﬁrst online procurement system in 1996, an ex-

tranet called the trading process network (TPN) post.

GE could now communicate with its internal customers

over the extranet and with its worldwide suppliers over

the Internet, facilitating same-day evaluation and award

of bids [89.2].

The rapid development of the Internet in the late

1990s led to millions of dollars being invested in

Internet-based online companies, leading to record-

breaking stock value appreciation – the so-called

Internet bubble. The year 2000 saw the bursting of the

bubble, investment dropped, stock indexes plunged, and

many online companies became defunct. The situation

has since stabilized, and in 2006, B2C e-Commerce

sales are estimated at over US$ 200 billion, an increase

of 20% versus 2005. This, however, is dwarfed by the

B2B market whose size amounted to US$1821 billion

in 2004 [89.5,6]. The important milestones in the evo-

lution of e-Commerce are presented in Table 89.1.

89.2 Theory

Aside from its dynamic and still-unfolding history, e-

Commerce has raised a host of questions related to its

deployment, impacts, and possibilities [89.7]. To build

a foundation for addressing these questions, researchers

have investigated e-Commerce from a variety of stand-

points, yielding a growing understanding of the nature

and issues of this phenomenon that has emerged as such

an important socioeconomic force. Here, we examine

theoretical aspects of the e-Commerce research foun-

dation from three perspectives: deﬁnitions, frameworks,

and success parameters.

89.2.1 Deﬁnitions of e-Commerce

What is e-Commerce? What are its boundaries? What

constitutes e-Commerce and what does not? As orga-

nizations devise new business models and innovative

Internet-based applications, deﬁning the boundaries of

e-Commerce with any degree of precision has proven

to be a challenge for researchers and practitioners

alike.

For example, e-Commerce has been deﬁned by re-

searchers as [89.8]:

... the sharingof businessinformation, maintaining

of business relationships, and conducting of busi-

ness transactions by means of telecommunications

networks,

and as [89.9]:

... the use of the internet to facilitate, execute, and

process business transactions.

Likewise, practitioners too have offered multiple

deﬁnitions [89.10]:

... the buying and selling of goods and services on

the internet, especially the WWW,

and as [89.11]:

... the process of managing online ﬁnancial trans-

actions by individuals and companies.

A review of these sample deﬁnitions makes it clear

that there are multiple views or perspectives as to what

constitutes e-Commerce. To provide an all-inclusive

characterization of e-Commerce, Holsapple and Singh

conducted an extensive study of the e-Commerce lit-

erature, and introduced a ﬁve-cluster taxonomy of

e-Commerce deﬁnitions [89.12]. A common theme un-

derlies deﬁnitions within each cluster. The ﬁve clusters

are: the trading view, the information exchange view,

the activity view, the effects view, and the value-chain

view:

•

The trading view is characterized by market-based

activities such as buying and selling facilitated by

electronic means. This is the most commonly held

view of e-Commerce. Holsapple and Singh provide

the following example as representative of the trad-

ing view [89.13]:

... e-Commerce is associated with the buying and

selling of information, products, and services via

computer networks today and in the future via any

one of the myriad of networks that make up the

information superhighway.

•

The information exchange view recognizes the ﬂow

of information that can precede, accompany, or fol-

low a transaction. A deﬁnition in this cluster may

or may not mention the buying or selling aspects of

Part I 89.2

e-Commerce 89.2 Theory 1581

a transaction. The following is an example [89.14,

p.136]:

Electronic commerce has been used to describe

a wide variety of business related transactions, but

is at its corethe dataused for conducting day-to-day

business operations with suppliers and customers.

•

The activity view recognizes nontrading aspects

of e-Commerce such as marketing and production

activities, decision support, research, maintaining

business relationships, and other ancillary activi-

ties [89.12,15]. For example [89.16, p.31]:

Electronic commerce is a generic term that en-

compasses numerous information technologies and

services to improve business practices ranging from

customer service to inter-corporation coordination.

Together, the informational and activity views are em-

phasized in what is known as collaborative commerce

(c-Commerce): the use of computer/communication

technologies to help participants exchange information

in the course of some collaborative activity, which may

well enable the collaborative generation of new knowl-

edge. c-Commerce has emerged as a major and growing

facet ofe-Commerce with a host of research issues inits

own right [89.17].

•

The effects view focuses on the goals or reasons for

using e-Commerce, such as reduced costs, smoother

information ﬂows, remote collaboration, better co-

ordination between buyers and suppliers, better

customer management, and improved service qual-

ity. The following is an example [89.13,p.1]:

Broadly deﬁned, electronic commerce is a mod-

ern business methodology that addresses the needs

of organizations, merchants, and consumers to cut

costs while improving the quality of goods and ser-

vices and increasing the speed of service delivery.

•

The value-chain view acknowledges the use of

e-Commerce in creating value in one or more of

the primary and/or secondary value chain activi-

ties of the organization. The value chain need not

be intra-organizational, but can extend to interor-

ganizational value chains of which the organization

forms a part [89.12,15]. The following is an exam-

ple [89.18,p.5]:

Electronic commerce denotes the seamless applica-

tion of information and communication technology

from its point of origin to its endpoint along

the entire value chain of business processes con-

ducted electronically and designed to enable the

accomplishment of a business goal. These processes

may be partial or complete and may encom-

pass business-to-business as well as business-to-

consumer and consumer-to-business transactions.

Given the interconnectedness of ﬁve views, Holsap-

ple and Singh advance an integrated deﬁnition of

e-Commerce [89.12, p.161]:

Electronic commerce is an approach to achieving

business goals in which technology for information

exchange enables or facilitates execution of activi-

ties in and across value chains as well as supporting

decision making that underlies those activities.

Although the integrated deﬁnition encompasses the

taxonomy’s ﬁve views of e-Commerce, it does not ad-

dress the concept of information exchange to account

for the whole gamut of knowledge management (KM)

issues. Thus, Holsapple and Singh further extend this

deﬁnition as follows [89.12, p.164]:

EC is an approach to achieving business goals in

which technology is used to manage knowledge for

purposes of enabling or facilitating the execution of

activities in and across value chains as well as the

making of decisions that underlie those activities.

This is the most comprehensive deﬁnition of e-Com-

merce existing in the literature. A researcher, practi-

tioner, or student can adopt any of the taxonomy’s

ﬁve views or the integrated comprehensive deﬁnition,

but is well advised to be cognizant of the alternative

views if the comprehensive deﬁnition is not adopted.

Having considered e-Commerce deﬁnitions, we now

summarize several frameworks proposed for appreciat-

ing e-Commerce elements and issues.

89.2.2 Frameworks for e-Commerce

The generic framework of electronic commerce, in-

troduced by Kalakota and Whinston, identiﬁes three

major types of components: applications, infrastructure

building blocks, and support pillars [89.13, 19]. To-

gether, these form a basis for organizing one’s thoughts

about e-Commerce and for ensuring that important el-

ements of e-Commerce are not overlooked. The ﬁrst

component, electronic commerce applications, includes

systems for supply chain management, procurement,

online marketing, remote banking, home shopping, and

Part I 89.2

1582 Part I Home, Ofﬁce, and Enterprise Automation

so forth. Underlying the applications, the second com-

ponent is comprised of four layers of infrastructure

building blocks. From lowest to highest, these lay-

ers are: the information superhighway infrastructure

(the means for connecting, including the Internet), the

network publishing infrastructure (the means for cre-

ation/storage of information and multimedia content,

including servers), messaging and information distribu-

tion infrastructure (the means for moving content across

connections and to/from storage, including email, EDI,

ﬁle transfer, etc.), and common business services in-

frastructure (means for ensuring safety, reliability, and

convenience of users, including mechanisms for au-

thentication, security, privacy, paying, locating, and so

forth). The generic framework identiﬁes two support

pillars for electronic commerce: public policy and legal

issues (including regulation, taxation, cost, and policing

concerns) and technical issues (including standards and

protocols).

Alternatively, e-Commerce can be viewed as being

comprised of three hierarchical metalevels: technol-

ogy infrastructure, services, and products and structures

(Fig.89.2) [89.8,20]. The bottom metalevel is the tech-

nology infrastructure and deals with wired and wireless

communication networks, public and private communi-

cation utilities such as the Internet and organizational

intranets/extranets, and multimedia management capa-

bilities that deliver the functionality of the WWW.

This metalevel corresponds to the lower layer of the

generic framework’s infrastructure building blocks. The

Top metalevel: Actual products and services

• Electronic auctions, brokerages, dealerships

• Online consumer services

• Buyer-supplier linkages

• Intranet/extranet-based B2B collaboration

• Interorganizational systems

Bottom metalevel: Technology infrastructure

• Wired and wireless communication networks

• Public and private communication utilities

• Multimedia management capabilities

Middle metalevel: Communication services

• EDI, e-Mail, electronic funds transfer

• Electronic catalogs/directories

• Financial services

• Digital authentication/copyright services

Fig. 89.2 Metalevel framework (after [89.8,20])

middle metalevel is that of services, comprised of ser-

vices facilitating secure communication and enablers

such as electronic catalogs and directories, intelligent

agents, electronic money and ﬁnancial services, smart

card systems, digital authentication services, and copy-

right services[89.20]. This metalevel corresponds to the

higher layers of the generic framework’s infrastructure

building blocks. The top metalevel consists of the actual

products and services as well as their delivery mecha-

nisms. These include, among others, online consumer

services for shopping, banking, and auctioning; buyer–

supplier linkages and Intranet/extranet-based B2B col-

laboration; and other interorganizational systems that

facilitate the entire spectrum of supply chain activities.

This metalevel corresponds to the generic framework’s

applications component.

Extending the hierarchical framework, Zwass pro-

poses a 5C activity framework that enables the

identiﬁcation of speciﬁc WWW-based e-Commerce

innovational opportunities [89.21]. The 5C activity

framework recognizes ﬁve WWW based e-Commerce

activity domains: commerce, collaboration, communi-

cation, connection, and computation. The commerce

domain includes the marketplace and supply chain link-

ages. For the former, innovational opportunities are

possible in searching for partners and subsequent ne-

gotiation of terms and conditions, new business models,

product customization, delivery of products or services,

and subsequent customer management services. For the

latter, opportunities include redesign and reconﬁgura-

tion of the supply chain, electronic reintermediation,

and adoption of best-of-breed processes.

In the collaboration activity domain, the WWW

can facilitate building and sustaining relationship net-

works such as long-term alliances between buyers

and suppliers, and with customers. Innovations in the

communication activity include the development of vir-

tual customer communities that can serve to enhance

knowledge of customer needs and requirements, ob-

tain feedback of existing products and services, and

form a source of new product ideas. In the connection

domain, the anytime–anywhere connectivity provided

by the WWW facilitates a wide variety of mobile

commerce innovations for monitoring and tracking of

personnel, objects, and systems. Movement of organi-

zational informationsystems tothe WWW can facilitate

intra- and interorganizational system integration. The

computation activity domain views the Internet and

the WWW as a single enormous computing resource,

connecting together innumerable computers, software,

data, and people – facilitating grid computing.

Part I 89.2

e-Commerce 89.2 Theory 1583

Table 89.2 Riggins’ electronic commerce value grid (after [89.22, p.301])

Five dimensions Valuecreation

of commerce Efﬁciency Effectiveness Strategic

Time Accelerate user tasks Eliminate information ﬂoat Establish 24×7 customer service

Distance Improve scale to look large Present single-gateway access Achieve global presence

Relationships Alter role of intermediaries Engage in intermediaries Create dependency to lock-in user

micromarketing to look small

Interaction Make use of extensive user User controls detail Users interact via online

feedback of information accessed community

Product Automate tasks using Provide online decision Bundle information, products,

software agents support tools and services

To help managers identify online opportunities and

types of applications that may yield value to users, Rig-

gins describes a framework in which ﬁrms compete in

a space deﬁned by ﬁve dimensions of commerce: time,

distance, relationships to customers, interaction modes,

and product/service offered [89.22]. These are juxta-

posed with three criteria for technology investment:

greater efﬁciency, increased effectiveness, and strategic

beneﬁts. The result is the electronic commerce value

grid, highlighting15 areas for aﬁrm to consider instriv-

ing to add value to its customers through web-based

electronic storefronts (Table 89.2).

Choi et al. provide an integrated microeconomic

framework for understanding electronic commerce

and maximizing its beneﬁts [89.23]. This frame-

work characterizes e-Commerce as involving a global

electronic marketplace of digital products subject to

various pricing strategies. These products include

online goods/services, software, digital content, ad-

vertisements, announcements, product/vendor informa-

tion, digitized processes, payment/tracking information,

smart products, communications, and so forth. Six ma-

jor themes are stressed in this framework: product

quality and the role of market intermediaries; digi-

tal copyright issues; product advertising; consumers’

product-information searching activities; product eval-

uation/choice and pricing approaches; and digital ﬁ-

nancial services including payment processes. Each of

these themes is subject to many design and implementa-

tion variations that demand attention from practitioners

and deserve continuing investigation by researchers.

In a related vein, Schlueter and Shaw present

a framework for analyzing structures and dynamics of

digital goods/services markets and industries [89.24].

This framework identiﬁes six value-adding stages for

ﬁrms involved in e-Commerce: content direction, con-

tent packaging, market making, transport, delivery ser-

vice, and interface and systems. Via alliances, mergers,

or acquisitions, ﬁrms collaborate to align their capabil-

ities and assets in ways that cover the six value-adding

stages. This collaborationcan involvediverse ﬁrms such

as those in the ﬁnancial service, information distribu-

tion, entertainment, creative content, communications,

advertising,and computingindustries. From another an-

gle, Lindemann and Schmidt offer a market-oriented

framework to model speciﬁc e-Commerce platforms

for coordinating exchange activities among participants

in digital markets [89.25]. Yet another e-Commerce

framework integrates four earlier e-Commerce frame-

works with the traditional marketing model (involving

concepts of product, price, promotion, and distribution)

as a foundation for devising e-Commerce marketing

strategies [89.26].

The e-Commerce literature also contains a consid-

erable number of fairly specialized frameworks. One

of these, for example, advocates a three-level architec-

ture for studying how intelligent agents can be applied

to support electronic trading activities in the sense of

making electronic markets more effective [89.27].

89.2.3 e-Commerce Success Parameters

What is meant by e-Commerce success? How can it

be measured? Researchers have used multiple yard-

sticks for measuring e-Commerce success depending

on the research context. For B2C transactions, widely

used success parameters involve website usage factors

such as acceptance, adoption, actual usage, intention

to use, and intention to return [89.28–31], as well as

purchase-related factors such as actual purchase, inten-

Part I 89.2

1584 Part I Home, Ofﬁce, and Enterprise Automation

Table 89.3 B2C e-Commerce success parameters

Factors inﬂuencing success Success measures

Website design factors:

•

Navigation, convenience, usability

•

Reliability, responsiveness

•

Accessibility, ﬂexibility, relevance

•

Security/privacy

•

Quality of support services

•

Virtual-reality technologies for high-experiential products

•

Social presence through rich descriptions and graphics

•

Value-added mechanisms

•

Recommendations from prior customers

Individualfactors:

•

Demographics

•

Prior experience, computer self-efﬁcacy

•

Technological background

•

Subjective norms

•

Innovativeness, adaptability, awareness

•

Ease of use, usefulness, enjoyment

•

User trust

Website usage factors:

•

Acceptance

•

Adoption

•

Actual usage

•

Intention to use

•

Intention to return

Purchase-related factors:

•

Actual purchase

•

Intention to purchase

•

Willingness to pay

Customer-related factors:

•

Satisfaction

•

Loyalty

•

Learning

tion to purchase, and willingness to pay [89.32–34].

Customer-related factors such as satisfaction [89.35],

loyalty [89.36], and learning [89.37] have also been em-

ployed. Finally, customer perceptions of the usefulness

of a website [89.38] and of the quality of a web-

site [89.39] have been used to measure e-Commerce

success. We summarize the e-Commerce success pa-

rameters in Table 89.3.

In order to bring clarity to e-Commerce research

and to provide a framework for measuring e-Commerce

success, DeLone and McLean suggest extending their

information systems success model [89.9,40,41]tothe

context of e-Commerce research. The latter contends

there are multiple dimensions of information systems

(IS) implementation success including system usage

(e.g., frequency, motivation, regularity, objectives of us-

age), system quality (e.g., reliability, response time,

ease of use, usefulness, error rate), user satisfaction

(e.g., overall satisfaction, decision-making satisfaction,

user complaints), information quality (e.g., accuracy,

precision, timeliness, completeness), service quality

(e.g., assurance, empathy, responsiveness), and net

beneﬁts (e.g., productivity, decision accuracy, proﬁt).

Adapting these success dimensions to the e-Commerce

domain, with suitable modiﬁcations, yields their frame-

work for measuring e-Commerce success.

System usage in an e-Commerce context translates

into the number of website visits, navigation within the

site, and transaction execution. As noted above, most

of these have already been widely used by researchers.

For the system quality dimension, factors such as re-

liability, accessibility, response time, ease of use, and

usefulness are extended directly to the context of a web-

site, and these have been used in studies reported in

the e-Commerce literature. The user satisfaction dimen-

sion can be applied to measure satisfaction at different

stages of customer interaction, ranging from informa-

tion gathering to post-purchase services. In the case of

the information quality dimension, an important fac-

tor is privacy and security, apart from personalization

of content, and the completeness and relevance of the

information. Service quality can be measured as the

overall customer experience, and this is an important

measure given the fact that switching costs are low

in an e-Commerce environment. Net beneﬁts in an e-

Commerce environment can be measured in terms of

savings in time and money, enhanced productivity, and

improved decision-making [89.9].

Part I 89.2