E-commerce Platform Acceptance: Suppliers, Retailers, and Consumers

190 Pages·2014·2.24 MB·English

by  Ewelina Lacka

Ewelina Lacka · Hing Kai Chan
Nick Yip Editors
E-commerce
Platform
Acceptance
Suppliers, Retailers, and Consumers
E-commerce Platform Acceptance
Ewelina Lacka Hing Kai Chan
•
Nick Yip
Editors
E-commerce Platform
Acceptance
Suppliers, Retailers, and Consumers
123
Editors
Ewelina Lacka
HingKai Chan
Nick Yip
Norwich Business School
Universityof EastAnglia
Norwich
UK
ISBN 978-3-319-06120-7 ISBN 978-3-319-06121-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-06121-4
Springer ChamHeidelberg New YorkDordrecht London
LibraryofCongressControlNumber:2014940709
(cid:2)SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2014
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Preface
Originally designed for data exchange, the Internet is now an essential point of
interest for all businesses. It is a flexible, interactive and an efficient platform for
commerceandthisallowsgeneratingandfacilitatingallbusinessactivitiesranging
from information search to transactions. Through increased commercial interac-
tions, the Internet has developed and grown into an e-commerce platform which
promises countless opportunities and is now considered to be the world’s fastest
expanding marketplace.
This rapid expansion is directly related to the widely held perception of
e-commerce as the source of new business opportunities. Additionally, with
increasing critical attention being paid to the digital economy, e-commerce helps
with improving effectiveness and efficiency across all business activities. How-
ever,beforebusinessescanfullybenefitfrome-commerce,theyhavetorecognise
the different threats deriving from e-commerce acceptance as it can have an
impact, positive or negative, on all parties’ stakeholders throughout the supply
chain. The main commercial consideration should be whether businesses will
achievethedesiredcompetitiveadvantagewhileturningtothevirtualmarketplace
or whether their acceptance of the e-commerce platform will achieve the desired
competitiveadvantageorprovetobejustariskyinvestmentdecisionthatcanhave
major impacts thatnegatively impact on their current position inthemarket.This
book offers answers to these questions by encompassing a collection of studies
focusing on opportunities and threats deriving from e-commerce acceptance for
the different stakeholders of all parties within the supply chain.
The book is divided into three main sections: Suppliers, Retailers and Con-
sumers. In the first section, Suppliers, the application of e-commerce for Supply
Chain Management in the food industry is discussed, where potential benefits of
e-commerce,i.e.supportfordevelopmentofnewmarkets,aremappedagainstrisk
deriving from application of e-business tools in this particular sector. Next,
potential benefits and barriers of e-commerce acceptance for Supply Chain
Management in a developing economy are evaluated and recommendations are
made on how to overcome identified challenges in order to fully benefit from
e-commerce technology. The section ends with a discussion of security concerns
in cloud-enabled e-commerce in the Supply Chain Management.
Thenextsection,Retailers,offersareviewthatexaminestheroleofelectronic
reverseauctionsinabusiness-to-businessmodelandpresentssomepropositionsto
v
vi Preface
maximiseits use as aneffective e-purchasing tool. Further, thissection presentsa
wide variety of pointers as to how e-commerce applications can be used to
enhancetheperformanceofbusinesses.Theguidancegivenhereislatercompared
andcontrastedwithchallengesderivingfrome-commerceactivitiesandespecially
those related to brand management in a virtual environment.
The book concludes with the Consumer Section where culture-specific
advantages of e-commerce are compared and contrasted with disadvantages
derivingfrome-commerceactivities,i.e.lackofface-to-facecontactand/orlackof
possibility to physically touch and examine the product. The section ends by
providing guidance for website development while keeping in mind multiple
human factors.
We believe that a book structured in this way offers a balanced view on
foreseeable and existing opportunities weighed against threats deriving from
e-commerce acceptance within the various parties of the supply chain. We hope
that through this ‘holistic’ lens on e-commerce, the platform can be effectively
assessed as an attractive and realistic option, or as a compulsory development.
We thank all authors, reviewers and publishers for their efforts to make this
project feasible.
Contents
Part I Suppliers
1 Electronic Supply Chain Management Tools in International
Business: Evidence from Austrian Food Clusters. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Ilias P. Vlachos, Dimitra Skoumpopoulou and Sandra Gutnik
2 Challenges to the Adoption of E-commerce Technology
for Supply Chain Management in a Developing Economy:
A Focus on Nigerian SMEs. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Gareth R. T. White, Ademola Afolayan and Eoin Plant
3 Rationalising the Security Concern of Cloud Enabled E-commerce
in the Supply Chain Context. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Olatunde Amoo Durowoju
Part II Retailers
4 Electronic Reverse Auctions: Emerging from the Shadows?. . . . . . 61
Rana Tassabehji
5 The Internet as a Small Business E-commerce Ecosystem . . . . . . . 79
Michael Buxton and Nigel Walton
6 A Retailer Perspective of E-commerce Brand Management. . . . . . 101
Richard Nathan Rutter
Part III Consumers
7 Online Shopping and Human Factors. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Tomayess Issa
vii
viii Contents
8 Culture Dependent Benefits of E-commerce:
A Consumer Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
Ewelina Lacka
9 HCI and Usability Principles and Guidelines in the Website
Development Process: An International Perspective. . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Tomayess Issa and Pedro Isaias
Part I
Suppliers
Chapter 1
Electronic Supply Chain Management
Tools in International Business: Evidence
from Austrian Food Clusters
Ilias P. Vlachos, Dimitra Skoumpopoulou and Sandra Gutnik
Abstract The aim of this research is to examine the electronic supply chain
management tools in international business. The study investigates Austrian food
clusters and discusses how business strategy can use e-business to support the
development of new markets. The research comprised three case studies demon-
strating examples of Austrian small and medium sized companies (SMEs) in the
food and beverage industry already deploying e-business solutions in order to
foster sales. In this context, risks and benefits of e-business tools as well as the
potential advantages of a food cluster membership have been extracted.
Thefindingsofthisresearchshowagreementwiththeliteraturereviewintermsof
the limited use of advanced e-business tools to sell food produce, risks and
obstacles perceived by the companies in the area of food safety, legal require-
ments, available know-how and costs of implementation. However, the findings
also demonstrate potential benefits of e-business tools SMEs could leverage in
ordertofosterthecreationofvirtualalliancesandtoincreaseexportsalestonew
and/ornicheforeignmarkets.Weproviderecommendationswhichcanbeofuseto
SMEs in the food and beverage industry, the food clusters or other dedicated co-
operations in Austria, the government and industry associations to direct their
efforts towards a more advanced e-business strategy in this industry.
I.P.Vlachos(cid:2)D.Skoumpopoulou(&)
NewcastleBusinessSchool,NorthumbriaUniversity,NewcastleuponTyne,UK
e-mail:[email protected]
I.P.Vlachos
e-mail:[email protected]
S.Gutnik
BusinessUnitControlleratMayr-MelnhofPackagingInternational,Wien,Austria
e-mail:[email protected]
E.Lackaetal.(eds.),E-commercePlatformAcceptance, 3
DOI:10.1007/978-3-319-06121-4_1,(cid:2)SpringerInternationalPublishingSwitzerland2014