E-commerce - Cape Peninsula University of Technology

Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1 INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
Payne (2003) chooses to define electronic commerce as:
'[the] exchange of information, conduct of buying and selling, logistics,
or other organisational management activities across electronic
networks within an organisation, between businesses (B2B), between
businesses and consumers (B2C), or between the public and private
sectors (B2G), whether paid or unpaid" (Payne, 2003).
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Payne (2003) further explains that a narrower definition of electronic
commerce might be limited to electronic exchange of business transactions,
e.g., orders and invoices (with or without the use of a website). Taking the
above statement into consideration, businesses in developing countries may
be able to reap significant benefits from e-commerce. Furthermore, the legal,
regulatory or infrastructural constraints could make it difficult or impossible for
them to actually transact business electronically. For example, a business in
a developing country might be able to use Internet searches to figure out
market prices for one of its products so that it can compete better and win
new customers.
The above stated activities falls under the broader definition of electronic
commerce and could be termed "e-business". This includes transacting
business or exchanging business-related information between B2C ­
business and consumers (their customers). B2B - business to business can
be referred to as a situation where one business buys from another business.
B2G - businesses to government is where businesses conduct transactions
electronically with government regarding various business licensing or
reporting requirements or where businesses sell products or services to
governments (Rayport & Jaworski, 2001).