Electronic commerce is increasingly central to business strategy, but successfully planning and implementing E-commerce requires a broad, multidisciplinary understanding of technology, culture, law, and business processes. This book offers a concise overview of all the important issues surrounding E-commerce -- including its impact on society and culture. It covers the core technologies surrounding E-commerce, including network protocols, security mechanisms, and electronic storage and retrieval of multimedia and text. It also reviews key business issues, including advertising, marketing, procurement, purchasing, billing, payment, and supply chain management. Next, it covers core legal issues, including information privacy, access and control. The book contains a comprehensive discussion of both current research in E-commerce and future challenges, presenting the subject in the broadest socioeconomic and cultural contexts.
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
Preface
Electronic commerce (EC, or e-commerce, as we will interchangeably refer to it) refers to business activities involving consumers, manufacturers, service providers, and intermediaries using computer networks such as the Internet 6, 168. The goals of e-commerce are to reduce product and service cost and improve customer response time and quality. Hence implementing initiatives in electronic commerce has emerged as a significant business strategy in the Information Age. Technological developments made possible by the convergence of the telecommunications and computing industries have opened the door to a world of new and exciting applications that are changing the way business is conducted. A large number of businesses of all sizes have either begun to implement e-commerce strategies and initiatives, or have plans to do so in the immediate future.
Electronic commerce is a multidisciplinary field that includes technical areas such as networking and telecommunication, security, and storage and retrieval of multimedia; business areas such as marketing, procurement and purchasing, billing and payment, and supply chain management; and legal aspects such as information privacy, intellectual property, taxation, contractual and legal settlements.
The book contains a comprehensive but concise discussion of current research and future challenges, and of the interactions among the technical, business, and legal aspects of electronic commerce. Goals and Intended Audience
This book is primarily designed for a technical audience such as IT professionals, researchers, and students; however, readers with varying backgrounds stand to benefit from reading this book as well. Business professionals and managers involved in electronic commerce initiatives should be able to gain insight into the technical, legal, and policy issues discussed in the book. Technical issues are explored in some detail and the regulatory and legal challenges of electronic commerce are discussed as well. This book can provide a structure for educators interested in introducing these subjects into advanced courses; researchers and policymakers will be informed of the nature of this new and fast-developing field; and the casual reader will be aware of the most exciting developments of the Information Age. To this end, we make a few assumptions of the level of understanding of our readers. A basic familiarity with the Internet and WWW (world wide web) is assumed.
By keeping this book brief we hope to make it more accessible to a variety of readers.
Chapter 1 begins by describing some of the underlying aspects and principles of electronic commerce. We discuss the most recent statistics concerning Internet demographics and growth of the e-commerce market and discuss the increase in the number of electronic transactions and business uses of electronic commerce applications, establishing a good basis to demonstrate the magnitude of the EC industry and the explosion it has incurred in the past few years. Next, the necessary requirements and fundamental services in e-commerce are briefly introduced, such as discovery and searching services, format conversion and data interchange, authentication and security requirements, as well as electronic payment services.
In Chapter 2, we discuss the major components of e-commerce: Electronic Data Interchange (EDI), digital currency, and electronic catalogs (e-catalogs). The discussion of each of these components is followed by a relevant case study. The first component we analyze is the one that has been in existence for the longest period of time-EDI. We explain how EDI applications work and discuss recent developments in the area. The next component we discuss is digital currency. Digital currency includes stored value cards, electronic cash, and micropayments. We then describe the different models for electronic catalogs and their current use, along with an analysis of the added value of e-catalogs over their physical counterparts. Finally, we describe intranet and extranet and discuss their advantages and disadvantages.
Chapter 3 includes a discussion of the business case, the various types of initiatives businesses are undertaking, and electronic commerce business models. We then look at seven business processes to characterize the changing business models electronic commerce is affecting: retailing, supply-chain and manufacturing, finance and accounting, advertising and marketing, customer service, human resources, and research and development. Finally we discuss EC use within government.
Electronic commerce systems require a technical architecture that is scalable, enables resource sharing, is based on asymmetrical protocols, provides transparency of data locations and decision support, supports multimedia information, allows mix-and-match of various software and hardware platforms, encapsulates services, supports communications through message-based exchanges, and guarantees security and integrity of data. Chapter 4 includes discussions on the following technical topics: telecommunication infrastructure; decision support systems for EC; interoperability, storage and retrieval of multimedia information; workflow management, and markup languages.
Understanding issues and challenges surrounding security is essential to the creation of a global electronic marketplace. Chapter 5 addresses this as a fundamental requirement for e-commerce. We first describe requirements for a secure system, including authenticity, authorization, confidentiality, integrity, and nonrepudiation of origin. We explain security management, user perceptions and trust, as well as various security technologies. Finally, in this chapter, we discuss the interdisciplinary topics involved in security, including the cryptography debate as well as legal validity of digital signatures.
Adequate legal frameworks for electronic commerce are essential for this market to continue its growth. In Chapter 6, we respond to the multifaceted nature of EC by discussing some of the interdisciplinary issues that affect e-commerce. Here we address the legal and regulatory topics involved in electronic commerce, including intellectual property rights issues, legal issues for electronic payment systems, the legality of on-line contracts and legal settlements as well as the establishment of a regulatory framework for electronic commerce.
In the final chapter of the book, we briefly discuss some of the challenges facing electronic commerce. Accompanying the book is a CD-ROM that includes free evaluation copies of popular IBM software: Net.Commerce and VisualAge for Java.
From the Back Cover
The up-to-date, end-to-end guide to E-commerce!
E-commerce is increasingly crucial to business success, but implementing it successfully requires a broad understanding of technology, law, policy, and business processes. Electronic Commerce: Technical, Business, and Legal Issues contains a comprehensive but concise discussion of current research and future challenges, and of the interactions among the technical, business, and legal aspects of electronic commerce.
Review the key enabling technologies of E-commerce including TCP/IP, data warehousing, interoperability, workflow, and markup languages; and present E-commerce business models, from retailing to supply-chain management.
CD-ROM INCLUDED
CD-ROM with free evaluation copies of popular IBM software: Net.Commerce and VisualAge for Java.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
How Computer Science Professors publish Student papers,
By A Customer
This review is from: Electronic Commerce: Technical, Business, and Legal Issues (Hardcover)
It was amazing to read this book and find numerous mentions of "In this paper" and so on. The book covers some interesting titles but gives very little technical or business applications. The editing is of course horrible. After some research on the authors, it was intersting to find some of their students research papers resembling the text from the chapters...Shame on them.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Save your receipt,
By A Customer
This review is from: Electronic Commerce: Technical, Business, and Legal Issues (Hardcover)
I am half way through the book and I've decided to return it. Once you boil down the wordy sentences, there is not much real content left. No surprise that three of the four authors are academics and the fourth is a consultant. I also couldn't swallow the numerous typos and editing mistakes. A typo or two is no big deal, but this was ridiculous. Whoever did the editing at Prentice Hall should be demoted.
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book,
By A Customer
This review is from: Electronic Commerce: Technical, Business, and Legal Issues (Hardcover)
Well-written, concise, comprehensive. I like the integrated mullti-disciplinary approach
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