J. Theor. Appl. Electron. Commer. Res., Volume 3, Issue 2 (August 2008) – 10 articles

This paper establishes a new mobile electronic toll collection (m-ETC) by integrating mobile communication with radio frequency (RF) communication on microprocessor control with an e-commerce business model. A simple ETC system architecture and protocol for e-transactions from vehicles to toll stations is proposed to complete toll interaction on wireless environment. A software flow through Internet is developed to link from toll station roadside units (RSU) to car units. A car unit (CU) for vehicle, a pair of roadside units (RSU), and an e- Center are established. A data flow and an interaction protocol are created. The proposed m-ETC system can be applied to different toll/charge systems with appropriate hardware and software. Some simulation test results verify basic system performance on ETC applications. A new business model for the proposed m-ETC is organized and discussed with feasibility analysis in e-commerce demonstration. Full article

Online auctions are one of the most effective ways of negotiation of salable goods over the internet. Software agents are increasingly being used to represent humans in online auctions. These agents can systematically monitor a wide variety of auctions and can make rapid decisions about what bids to place in what auctions. To be successful in open multi-agent environments, agents must be capable of adapting different strategies and tactics to their prevailing circumstances. This paper presents a software test-bed for studying autonomous bidding strategies in simulated auctions for procuring goods. It shows that agents’ bidding strategy explore the attitudes and behaviors that help agents to manage dynamic assessment of prices of goods given the different criteria and scenario conditions. Our agent also uses fuzzy techniques for the decision making: to make decisions about the outcome of auctions, and to alter the agent’s bidding strategy in response to the different criteria and market conditions. Full article

Tourism service providers are more and more under pressure to offer products of greater complexity and diversity to meet the ever-changing demands of travelers; the individualistic consumption patterns and lifestyles makes it increasingly difficult for tourist service providers to anticipate consumer behavior and configure their services accordingly, i.e. the tourist industry must focus more on a “hybrid consumer” whose travel choice will be more complex. Although current online travel systems aim to support the customer in finding a suitable hotel or even a whole trip, most of the work is still up to the customer, who has to consider several sources of information before deciding which hotel to book. Furthermore, since the quality of a hotel room w.r.t the requirements of the end-user are multi-dimensional and cannot be easily expressed on discrete scales, the main critical issue in such cases is a price/benefit ratio which is defined by what is known, as the “best” booking. To tackle these problems an advanced search technology that considers the ratio and ranks results accordingly to the user requirements is needed. In this paper we propose a framework which uses Semantic Web technologies for an improved exploration and rating of hotels for business customers in order to reduce the search time and costs, which, in turn, results in a huge benefit for the end-users. The framework provides methods for modeling domain specific expert knowledge and integration of diverse heterogeneous data sources. Semantic technologies enable business customer to formalize their requirements and to combine those requirements with aggregated hotel information like location or features, thus achieving a selection of the hotels ranked according to the customer's requirements. Full article

In this study, we examine the fundamental components of RFID technology in a comprehensive supply chain strategy that directly support the effectiveness and efficiency of supply chain management. We examine the appropriate business processes affected by the RFID technology, the required planning and examination for successful implementation, and many potential impacts on effectiveness and efficiency of supply chain management. We emphasize on business values and strategic advantages of RFID technology as well as the challenges and recommendations in adoption of the technology particularly when a company extends its supply chain to upstream suppliers and downstream customers, as their external integration needs to gain in capacity planning and in efficiency. Using four major supply chain processes, we highlight economic opportunities and challenges when planning and implementing RFID technology within an existing supply chain framework. We will focus on the capabilities of RFID in providing security, privacy, and integrity of supply chain processes while facilitating sharing information with upstream suppliers and downstream customers, developing alliances, establishing strategic alliances, and gaining competitive advantages. Full article

RFID tags are increasingly being used in supply chain applications due to their potential in engendering supply chain visibility and reducing tracking errors through instantaneous location of objects as well as the tagged object's immediate ambient conditions. During its life-time, an RFID tag is highly likely to physically pass through different organizations that have disparate information systems with varying information needs. We consider management of data in these applications with respect to volume, data and query characteristics, privacy and security, among others, and propose means to reduce false positive and false negative reads. The beneficial properties of RFID tags can be realized only when they are readable with a high degree of accuracy. The read rate accuracy in turn depends on several factors including the medium and distance between tag and reader, presence of objects that are impenetrable by RF signal, orientation of tag with respect to the reader, among others. We propose three algorithms that address read rate accuracy, and illustrate their relative performance using an example scenario. Full article

The first part of the paper discusses Wal-Mart’s adoption of RFID through the theoretical lens of the Resources, Processes, and Values (RPV) innovation theory. This part makes a theoretical argument that Wal- Mart adopted RFID as a sustaining innovation – an incremental improvement in supply chain identification technology. The second part reviews a representative sample of IS literature in order to investigate whether IS researchers have been influenced by Wal-Mart’s perspective on RFID. The literature review suggests that many IS researchers have also adopted Wal-Mart’s perspective on RFID. The third part argues that RFID technology has a potential to become a disruptive technology with a profound impact on business and society. Given this possibility, both researchers and practitioners are provided with two frameworks (“object oriented approach” and “visionary approach”) which can help them to adopt a more forward-looking perspective in relation to RFID. The object oriented approach starts from the basic capabilities offered by RFID technology and attempts to determine how these capabilities can be used to create a new RFID application. The visionary approach starts by assuming that RFID technology has reached its peak in terms of breadth of adoption and then tries to determine opportunities offered in this situation. Full article

There is considerable excitement about the notion of 'Web 2.0', particularly among Internet businesspeople. In contrast, there is an almost complete lack of formal literature on the topic. It is important that movements with such energy and potential be subjected to critical attention, and that industry and social commentators have the opportunity to draw on the eCommerce research literature in formulating their views. This paper assesses the available information about Web 2.0, with a view to stimulating further work that applies existing theories, proposes new ones, observes and measures phenomena, and tests the theories. The primary interpretation of the concept derives from marketers, but the complementary technical and communitarian perspectives are also considered. A common theme derived from the analysis is that of 'syndication' of content, advertising, storage, effort and identity. Full article

This paper tries to explain the temporal evolution of electronic commerce in a developed country. For this purpose, we evaluate the contribution of the size of the potential market represented by the community of Internet users to the development of electronic commerce, as well as of other determinant factors. The validation carried out, for the whole Spanish market and over a period of seven years, reveals the existence of a critical threshold of online consumers that, once surpassed, supposes a change in the growth trend of electronic commerce. Likewise, we verify that broadband technology diffusion, the definition of a legal framework of consumer protection, and the design of a value proposition perceived as “secure”, also influence the development of electronic commerce. We also confirm the contribution of firms’ differentiation strategies to the development of electronic commerce, to the detriment of those based on price leadership. Finally, it seems that possession of a computer is no longer an indicator of access barriers. Full article

The main purpose of the paper is to explore and discuss the influence of product type on customer interaction in electronic commerce. We have conducted two qualitative case studies in distance selling companies to inductively explore how the product characteristics of garments and music-CDs influence customer interaction. We apply a product classification scheme built on product theory to characterize and classify these products. By classifying product types according to this scheme we focus certain aspects; e.g., in which situation the customer uses the product and, thus, experiences potential satisfaction. By applying product theory to the electronic commerce context we are expanding this theory into a new area. Knowledge about product characteristics’ influence on customer interaction in various phases of electronic commerce enriches and specifies the existing product theory. In order to put this theory contribution into practice, a set of focal questions with the aim to increase product understanding in an electronic commerce setting is formulated. The questions highlight product related issues that are important to consider when deciding communication media in electronic commerce. Full article