تاثیر تجارت الکترونیک بر روی شرکت های کوچک در استرالیا

In Australia, although electronic commerce (e-commerce) has generated a plethora of media articles there has been comparatively little research into its effects on organisations. E-commerce comprises several different technologies (especially those associated with the internet); this paper investigates the frequency of use by and usefulness of these technologies in small Australian businesses. The technologies are differently associated with intermediate variables such as the attraction of new customers and the ability to participate in overseas markets. The statistical evidence that e-commerce is positively correlated with some intermediate variables is overwhelming. We consider the statistical relationships between intermediate variables and final variables (revenues, costs and competitive advantage). There are significant correlations between some sets of intermediate and some final variables; most of these correlations had plausible explanations. There are clear implications for small businesses, for example, the internet allows them to maintain a low-cost foreign presence but it allows foreign firms to compete (at marginal cost) in Australia.

1.1. Definitions Electronic commerce (EC) is defined by Electronic Commerce (1995) (http://www-cec.buseco.monash.edu.au/links/ec_def.htm) as “the process of electronically conducting all forms of business between entities in order to achieve the organisation’s objectives.” EC includes technologies such as electronic data interchange (EDI), electronic funds transfer (EFT), electronic mail (e-mail), internet activities (such as web pages, frequently asked questions (FAQ) pages, online catalogues, on-line ordering, order tracking, tendering, on line interaction exemplified by booking and banking services and any other form of electronic data transmission. The Australian Bureau of Statistics defines a small business as a construction and service businesses having less than 20 employees or a manufacturing business having less than 100 employees. The internet or world-wide-web (WWW) is a network of networks of computers whereby messages and data can be interchanged. It has several well-known characteristics that have made its use increase exponentially. 1.2. Background Much of EC takes place on the WWW. The characteristics of the Internet that make it so potent are user-friendliness and near universal availability. The necessary hardware (a PC and a phone line) and software are cheap to install and easy to use (in particular search engines make it easy to find wanted information). Software facilitating construction of web pages is cheap and user friendly. The information, services and software available on the web are increasing. Available information includes news headlines, stock prices, train timetables, sports scores and weather forecasts. Services include booking travel, paying bills, banking and ordering goods. New software is creating new web applications such as cheap (web-based) phone calls, web TV and the ability to store, download and play music. EC attracted much Australian media attention in 1999. Between 1 December 1999 and 10 January 2000, there were 103 articles in the Australian Financial Review (Australia’s daily financial newspaper) that mentioned e-commerce in their title or first paragraph. Two summary articles are by Carney (2000) and Van Wyngen (1999). Some of these articles described the stock market mania for shares in (usually profitless) companies intending to engage in EC. In Australia several new floats intend to use EC to enter markets for booking services, retailing (e.g. wine), the gay community, on-line gambling and pornography. E-commerce is well established in the Australian financial sector. Share brokers abandoned the traditional trading floor two days after screen based trading was introduced and a growing proportion (perhaps 40%) of their clients place orders on-line; an increasing proportion of customers bank and pay bills on-line. There is considerable discussion of the effect of EC on ‘bricks and mortar’ based businesses and some Australian retailers have augmented basic services with internet services (‘clicks and mortar’). Supermarkets have implemented internet based order and delivery services. Many businesses now encourage orders (for goods, shares, theatre seats and newspaper advertisements) through web pages as well as over the phone. There is some evidence that Australian consumers used the net to do significant Christmas 1999 shopping (Braue, 1999 and Crowe, 2000). The threat of web-based competition from overseas suppliers such as Amazon.com is a powerful driver for Australian firms. Although reliable figures are elusive, it is estimated that, in 1998, $1.6 trillion worth of electronic transactions were conducted in Australia; of which $55 billion was from the business-to-consumer segment. Eleven percent of all businesses had a web presence and 35% of these claimed that the internet was significant to their business (Marzbani, 1998). 1.3. The impact of e-commerce businesses E-commerce has myriad direct and indirect, internal and external effects on individuals and organisations. The effect of a new technology such as e-commerce on an individual organisation can be assessed by considering its effect on products, services and the ‘7-S’ (structure, systems strategy, style, staffing, skills, and superordinate goals) (Waterman et al., 1980). 1.3.1. Abolition of distance and time The web can eliminate time and distance obstacles to business. A web page can take orders or answer questions originating at any time or place, search engines make it likely that a potential customer searching for a product or service will find an organisation’s well-indexed page. The costs of internet transactions are independent of distance. The advantages may be smaller for firms selling goods rather than services: delivery costs and times, exacerbated by having to deal with customs offices, may present insuperable difficulties, however, there is substantial trade in small tangible items with high intrinsic value such as books, CDs and software. Prior to the internet, a major obstacle to Australia’s small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) entering international markets was their lack of resources (Anonymous, 1997), isolation and the impracticability of maintaining an overseas or even interstate presence. Stories of unreliable agents and representatives are legion. A web page can provide a national and international presence (Clayton, 1998, Karakaya and Karakaya, 1998 and McCollum, 1998).

This study was based on statistical responses from small Australian enterprises that used various aspects of e-commerce. E-commerce has received much publicity perhaps because it is commonly assumed that it will dramatically change, even undermine, the way conventional, bricks and mortar business is done and because the associated stock market mania for stocks purportedly engaged in e-commerce has created many ‘paper millionaires’. It is true that e-commerce will change business procedures: e-commerce can abolish geographic and time barriers to business; can accelerate business processes; facilitate changes in supply chain arrangements (accentuating competition and/or creating co-operation); improve communication with customers, suppliers and employees; create new promotional mechanisms and help create customer histories. There is overwhelming statistical evidence that SMEs using e-commerce obtain intermediate benefits from it. There are strong statistical relationships between some intermediate benefits and final benefits (costs, revenues and competitive advantage in the short- and long-run). Most of these relationships have plausible causal explanations. The lesson for Australian SMEs is clear; those using e-commerce techniques find them advantageous and there are obvious reasons for this. Many aspects of e-commerce merit future research. In this study we have not differentiated between B2B and retail e-commerce. E-commerce will affect most firms’ products and services, supply chains, geographic scope, customer relationships and internal structures. The most mundane and difficult aspect of e-commerce is fulfilment: the delivery of physical goods that have been ordered. Governments’ possibly ineffectual efforts to regulate and tax the e-economy (for which national boundaries are irrelevant) merit study. The electronic market and fulfilment tend to have economies of scale, governments may have to intervene to prevent monopolies arising. The effect on consumers is of great interest; presumably they will benefit from systems that are more efficient and sensitive to their buying habits and intensified competition. They may be sensitive to the conflict between efficiency (everyone’s medical history is stored and available in an emergency) and privacy.