New Directions in Research on E-Commerce

It's a business truism nowadays that electronic commerce is a volatile, rapidly changing landscape. Despite recent discouraging trends, the fact remains that e-commerce is an integral force in business that must be reckoned with. Current research, however, has been limited to several narrow approaches, such as documenting economic performance, describing business models, and generating new applications and technologies. Charles Steinfield calls instead for an examination of how e-commerce influences fundamental relationships between consumers and firms, across firms, and between firms and the larger society in which they operate. New Directions in Research on E-Commerce offers an international group of scholars and practitioners representing eight countries at the cutting edge of electronic commerce. The essays are divided into four basic topics: understanding consumer responses to Internet stores; market structure and business-to-business e-commerce; e-commerce and industry structure case studies; and social and policy concerns in e-commerce. Collectively, they will help researchers, business leaders, and policy makers to arrive at informed, stable approaches to an essential facet of contemporary life.