Document Type
Article
Date
2004
Embargo Period
4-17-2012
Keywords
e-commerce, China, technology infrastructure, manufacturing, wholesale, retail, banking, insurance
Disciplines
E-Commerce
Recommended Citation
Tan, Z. & OUYANG, W. (2004). "Diffusion and Impacts of the Internet and E-commerce In China ", Electronic Markets -- the International Journal of Electronic Commerce & Business Media. 14(1).
Source
local input
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.
Additional Information
E-commerce diffusion has apparently taken different paths in different nations. This is partially because of the significant implications of national technology and the political and economic environments for e-commerce adoption. In this paper, both the diffusion and the impacts of ecommerce in China are examined based on the results of a large-scale survey conducted in 10 countries, including China. The survey focused on three sectors – manufacturing, wholesale/retail, and banking/insurance. The paper also compares the Chinese case with the global trend drawn from the 10-country survey. Findings lead to the conclusion that Chinese firms have started to build up e-commerce technology infrastructure and to create a web presence. However, they fall behind in conducting actual e-commerce transactions mostly because of barriers in business, legal, and cultural perspectives that fail to accommodate the technology progress. In addition, the three surveyed sectors, manufacturing, wholesale/retail, and banking/insurance, appear to follow quite different paths in adopting e-commerce. There are also differences between large firms and SMEs regarding e-commerce diffusion strategies and impacts.