Knowledge Economy and Information Society

Lecture 6: E-Business: Electronic Commerce and Business Communications

(5^th March 2007) notes from Lawrence Green

Seminar question/exercise:

1. What are the key issues that surround any decision (at firm level) to launch into Business to Business (B2B) e-commerce environments?

2. What are the key issues that surround any decision (at firm level) to launch into Business to Consumer (B2C) e-commerce environments?

Think about company internal and external factors – key drivers, resources and finance, capabilities and skills, organisational issues, infrastructure, markets etc.

Resources:

• EC European Competitiveness Report 2000 (Supplement on B2B e-commerce)
• European e-business observatory at: http://www.ebusiness-watch.org/ (this is a particularly useful source for e-business related materials)
• UK Government (PIU) (1999) ‘E-Commerce at its Best’ (available on-line)
• CRIC publications available via: http://www.cric.ac.uk/cric/compprojects/e-commerce/Default.htm
• Consultancy reports from a wide variety of agencies - many available on-line (Goldman Sachs, Forrester Research, Gartner, IDC etc.)
• Web searches using the term ‘B2B e-commerce’ are likely to generate thousands of ‘hits’ relating to B2B strategy, solutions and benefits.
• Wikipedia – the site has some useful entries concerning both B2B and B2C e-commerce
• European Commission ‘Thematic Portal’ Information Society at: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/eeurope/2005/all_about/ebusiness/index_en.htm