E-Commerce Chapter 1 Study Questions
E-Commerce Study Questions
Chapter 1
1. What is e-commerce? How does it differ from e-business? Where does it intersect with e-business?
E-commerce, in the popular sense, can be defined as: the use of the Internet and the Web to conduct business transactions. A more technical definition would be: e-commerce involves digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals. E-commerce differs from e-business in that no commercial transaction, an exchange of value across organizational or individual boundaries, takes place in e-business. E-business is the digital enablement of transactions and processes within a firm and therefore does not include any exchange in value. E-commerce and e-business intersect at the business firm boundary at the point where internal business systems link up with suppliers. For instance, e-business turns into e-commerce when an exchange of value occurs across firm boundaries.
2. What is information asymmetry?
Information asymmetry refers to any disparity in relevant market information among the parties involved in a transaction. It generally applies to information about price, cost, and hidden fees.
3. What are some of the unique features of e-commerce technology?
The unique features of e-commerce technology include:
• Ubiquity: It is available just about everywhere and at all times.
• Global Reach: the potential market size is roughly equal to the size of the online population of the world.
• Universal standards: The technical standards of the Internet, and therefore of conducting e-commerce, are shared by all of the nations in the world.
• Richness: Information that is complex and content rich can be delivered without sacrificing reach.
• Interactivity: E-commerce technologies allow two-way communication between the merchant and the consumer.
• Information density: The total amount and quality of information available to all market participants is vastly increased and is
Chapter 1
1. What is e-commerce? How does it differ from e-business? Where does it intersect with e-business?
E-commerce, in the popular sense, can be defined as: the use of the Internet and the Web to conduct business transactions. A more technical definition would be: e-commerce involves digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals. E-commerce differs from e-business in that no commercial transaction, an exchange of value across organizational or individual boundaries, takes place in e-business. E-business is the digital enablement of transactions and processes within a firm and therefore does not include any exchange in value. E-commerce and e-business intersect at the business firm boundary at the point where internal business systems link up with suppliers. For instance, e-business turns into e-commerce when an exchange of value occurs across firm boundaries.
2. What is information asymmetry?
Information asymmetry refers to any disparity in relevant market information among the parties involved in a transaction. It generally applies to information about price, cost, and hidden fees.
3. What are some of the unique features of e-commerce technology?
The unique features of e-commerce technology include:
• Ubiquity: It is available just about everywhere and at all times.
• Global Reach: the potential market size is roughly equal to the size of the online population of the world.
• Universal standards: The technical standards of the Internet, and therefore of conducting e-commerce, are shared by all of the nations in the world.
• Richness: Information that is complex and content rich can be delivered without sacrificing reach.
• Interactivity: E-commerce technologies allow two-way communication between the merchant and the consumer.
• Information density: The total amount and quality of information available to all market participants is vastly increased and is