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TopE-Commerce: An Overview
E-commerce has been defined as “sharing of business information, maintaining business relationships, and conducting business transactions by means of telecommunications networks” (Zwass, 1996). To conceptualise e-commerce from Zwass’ definition and for this research, it can be argued that depending on the type of technology involved and the extent of integration into the business processes in the value chain, e-commerce may constitute part of the business processes or the entire processes. It may also embrace several forms of transactions (including information exchange) between businesses (B2B), between customers (C2C), between businesses and customers (B2C) and between government and businesses (G2B) (Fearson & Philip, 1998).
As the nature of market operations and resource strengths differ, it is likely that firms would take different paths in adopting and integrating e-commerce in their business operations. Molla and Licker (2005a), in their Perceived Readiness Model (PERM Model), present a hierarchical model of the functional application of the Internet by firms to create business value. The hierarchical phases of e-commerce adoption are: no e-commerce, connected e-commerce, static e-commerce, interactive e-commerce, transactive e-commerce, and integrated e-commerce (Molla & Licker, 2005a, p. 881). The model has been subsequently used in other studies (Dada, 2006; De’elak, 2006; Lai, Dahui, Wang & Hutchinson, 2006; Tan, Tyler & Manica, 2007). The adoption phases enable the firms with the following e-commerce capabilities: