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148 Lubbe and Pather<br />
should spend some time building a brand name (it does not come overnight) and<br />
ensure that they also stock and advertise the items that will sell over the Inter<strong>net</strong>.<br />
Parameters: the parameters should be set for the e-commerce so that any<br />
variance to the original plan is noted immediately and that corrections are made on<br />
time. This would help to manage the vertical tension of centralization versus decentralization<br />
and of separation versus integration of the e-commerce organization.<br />
Security: Successful e-commerce sites ensure that their site is secure in terms<br />
of <strong>free</strong>dom from hackers and secondly that transactions cannot be copied. Many<br />
customers do not trust the Inter<strong>net</strong> and a secure environment would ensure that<br />
everybody feels happy.<br />
The purpose of developing the theory was to explain how e-commerce<br />
managers go about the business to assess its success factors. If a satisfactory<br />
explanation can be developed, it could provide a basis for evaluation of ecommerce<br />
management. This will allow an understanding as to the likely success of<br />
an e-commerce organization, and whether or not management complies with the<br />
factors expressed in the theory.<br />
It can be deduced that the first four factors are important drivers (50%) that<br />
can ensure successful e-commerce start-ups. These four factors should be included<br />
when developing and running an e-commerce organization. The other factors are<br />
also important in ensuring a successful e-commerce. However, in the case of ecommerce,<br />
it is suggested that these could be of higher importance.<br />
Surveying the South African E-Commerce Practitioners<br />
The framework developed (See Figure 2) was used as a basis to formulate a<br />
questionnaire. There were 50 organizations that were identified from a list of<br />
contacts supplied by the e-Business Centre of the Cape Technikon. The Web<br />
directory of TELKOM S.A. was also used extensively. A total of 120 questionnaires<br />
were e-mailed and posted out. This was distributed to 50 e-commerce<br />
organizations. Of these 27 were returned giving a 54% rate of return. The size of<br />
each of the participating organizations differed (from a giant financial organization<br />
to some smaller firms). A range of responses was obtained. Some organizations<br />
showed a high level of enthusiasm in the survey whereas indicated an indifference<br />
to the importance of the research. For example one big website run by a big<br />
shopping complex indicated that they could not complete the questionnaire and that<br />
they could not force their participants to complete the questionnaire.<br />
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