Mohini Singh

E‐services and their role in B2C e‐commerce

E‐services are important in B2C e‐commerce for managing customer relations and enhancing sales. In the electronic world the customer and the merchant do not meet face‐to‐face, and the clients are more discerning with increased options and solutions available to them online. With the click of a mouse a customer can find another provider. As customers embrace e‐commerce their expectations about service, support, and how they make purchases are changing. Services to customers offered electronically to enhance their online shopping experience include search support, e‐response to customer queries, orders and transactions, e‐payment, e‐transaction record management, e‐assurance and trust, e‐help and other online support in the B2C e‐space. This paper discusses the role of e‐services in B2C e‐commerce and how they can be applied to enhance the online customer shopping experience. Findings of two research projects that shed some light on both business and customer perspectives of the role of e‐services in the B2...

Measuring the public value of e‐government: a case study from Sri Lanka

Purpose – This paper aims to present a case study on the public value of the e‐Sri Lanka program. Four major dimensions of public value creation through e‐government including the delivery of public services, the achievement of outcomes, the development of trust, and the effectiveness of public organizations are considered in evaluating the performance of the e‐Sri Lanka program. The progress of e‐Sri Lanka program is evaluated, and the potential areas for improvement in the development of e‐government in Sri Lanka are identified.Design/methodology/approach – Existing methodologies for evaluating the public value of e‐government have been critically analyzed. The need for extending existing methodologies for better assessing the performance of e‐government is discussed. Consequently, an extended conceptual framework is developed for evaluating the public value of e‐government. Various national survey data in Sri Lanka on e‐government development are used for conducting the empirical analysis on the perfor...

Understanding Benefits and Impediments of B2E E-Business Systems Adoption: Experiences of Two Large Australian Universities

ABSTRACT Organisations are now turning their attention to business-to-employee (B2E) e-business systems upon exploiting the potentials of business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) aspects of e-business. The business literature and IT vendors-owned publications both contain many stories highlighting the benefits that organisations are likely to receive as a result of embracing B2E e-business systems. However, little is reported in the scholarly academic literature about the adoption of such systems. More specifically, it is not clearly known how organisations experience benefits, what impediments they encounter, and how they resolve those impediments associated with B2E systems adoption. To address this gap in the literature, this paper presents the experiences of two large Australian universities in introducing two different types of B2E e-business systems, and reports on the findings about their views on benefits experienced and impediments encountered. The implications of the findings are then discussed.

A multitheoretical approach for solving trust problems in B2C e-commerce

Trust has been identified as a major barrier in online shopping, especially in the B2C e-commerce model. It has been studied for several years, but there is no indicator that a satisfactory solution for trust in online shopping has been achieved. A trust model is proposed in this paper in order to address this issue. It is uniquely based on five current issues (cybercrime, security, control, web interface, and a trusted third party) that impact trust, guided by four supportive theories: Semiotics, Trust in Signs, Simmelian Model of Trust and Trustworthiness. The research was accomplished with an online survey to collect data from online shoppers around the world. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was used to validate the trust model revealing that privacy and security of information are most important factors affecting trust in B2C e-commerce followed by web interface and control.

Diffusion of e-government services in Australia: Citizens' perspectives

The aim of this paper is to illustrate the diffusion of e-government in urban Australia. The theory of innovation diffusion is used to guide the research accomplished via a survey method. Research findings included in this paper highlight the use of E-Gov service at three levels of administration by urban citizens in Australia and the usefulness of bundled services offering a one stop shop for citizens. Findings discussed in this paper also highlight that factors such as cost and time saving, convenience and online tracking facility significantly impact the adoption of E-Gov services by citizens. It also suggests that the level and frequency of E-Gov service use and access is dependent on the regularity of its need by citizens. Access to technology, socio-economic status and level of education also influence E-Gov adoption by citizens.

Consolidating Enterprise Architecture Management Research

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a description of an enterprise from an integrated business and IT perspective. Enterprise architecture management (EAM) is a management practice of using EA aiming to achieve business/IT alignment. Popular EA literature states that EA always includes a documentation of current and future states of enterprises and describes EAM as an iterative step-wise process. However, plenty of evidence suggests that the real situation in EA practice and theory is much more diverse but a consolidated understanding of EAM is absent. In this paper we consolidate EAM research and present (1) a reasonable definition of EA taking into account all that we know about EA practice and (2) a consolidated view of EAM describing what we know about it beyond the most popular approaches. We also discuss the relationship between our consolidated view of EAM and the previous research, its implications and directions for future research.

Work Integrated Learning in Information Technology Education

Work integrated learning, generally referred to internship programs in university undergraduate degrees provides graduates with real-life learning before they face the real world as an Information Technology graduate. This paper presents and discusses the process of managing work integrated learning in the IT undergraduate program at RMIT University. It also highlights the benefits and challenges to students, coordinators and the industry.

Managing Returns in E-Business

ABSTRACT This paper is a discussion of managing returned goods in e-business. After a discussion of literature on reverse logistics management issues it discusses some preliminary findings of a research project undertaken with the Australian e-business organisations. Research findings discussed in this paper indicate that a good return management process supports customer relationship management and enables capturing value by reselling, and redistributing returned products. It also highlights that effectively managing returns in e-business allows recapturing value from products. It is concluded from this research that reverse logistics is an important business process in e-business.

Toward an Understanding of the Evolution of IFIP WG 8.6 Research

This article analyses research published in the previous 11 IFIP TC8 WG 8.6 conferences held between 1993 and 2008. Analysis of the published material includes examining variables such as most active authors, citation analysis, universities associated with the most publications, geographic diversity, and authors’ backgrounds. The keyword analysis suggests that IFIP WG 8.6 research has evolved from examining basic issues such as organizational impact of technology adoption and technology transfer to contemporary issues such as open innovation. We suggest this research has implications for researchers, conference organizers, and research institutions.

Innovation in communication: an actor network analysis of social websites,

This paper analyses the dimensions of social websites to establish communication innovation using the Actor Network Theory. Social websites are also referred to as social network sites and social media sites which reflect technology, users, content and linguistic issues as heterogeneous combination of entities for interaction and communication via this media.