Abstract: E-business technologies, whereby business
transactions are conducted remotely using the Internet, present
unique opportunities and challenges for business. E-business
technologies are applicable to a wide range of organizations and
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are no exception. There
is an established body of literature about e-business, looking at
definitions, concepts, benefits and challenges. In general, however,
the research focus has been on larger organizations, not SMEs. In an
attempt to redress the balance of research, this paper looks at ebusiness
technologies specifically from a small business perspective.
It seeks to identify the possible barriers that SMEs might face when
considering adoption of the e-business concept and practice as part of
their business process change initiatives and implementation. To
facilitate analysis of these barriers a conceptual framework has been
developed which outlines the key conceptual and practical challenges
of e-business implementation in SMEs. This is developed following a
literature survey comprised of three categories: characteristics of
SMEs, issues of IS/IT use in SMEs and general e-business adoption
and implementation issues. The framework is then empirically
assessed against 7 SMEs who have yet to implement e-business or
whose e-business efforts have been unsatisfactory. Conclusions from
the case studies can be used to verify the framework, and set
parameters for further larger scale empirical investigation.
Abstract: This paper analyzed the perception of e-commerce
application services by construction material traders in Malaysia.
Five attributes were tested: usability, reputation, trust, privacy and
familiarity. Study methodology consists of survey questionnaire and
statistical analysis that includes reliability analysis, factor analysis,
ANOVA and regression analysis. The respondents were construction
material traders, including hardware stores in Klang Valley, Kuala
Lumpur.
Findings support that usability and familiarity with e-commerce
services in Malaysia have insignificant influence on the acceptance of
e-commerce application. However, reputation, trust and privacy
attributes have significant influence on the choice of e-commerce
acceptance by construction material traders. E-commerce
applications studied included customer database, e-selling, emarketing,
e-payment, e-buying and online advertising. Assumptions
are made that traders have basic knowledge and exposure to ICT
services. i.e. internet service and computers. Study concludes that
reputation, privacy and trust are the three website attributes that
influence the acceptance of e-commerce by construction material
traders.
Abstract: In our modern world, more physical transactions are being substituted by electronic transactions (i.e. banking, shopping, and payments), many businesses and companies are performing most of their operations through the internet. Instead of having a physical commerce, internet visitors are now adapting to electronic commerce (e-Commerce). The ability of web users to reach products worldwide can be greatly benefited by creating friendly and personalized online business portals. Internet visitors will return to a particular website when they can find the information they need or want easily. Dealing with this human conceptualization brings the incorporation of Artificial/Computational Intelligence techniques in the creation of customized portals. From these techniques, Fuzzy-Set technologies can make many useful contributions to the development of such a human-centered endeavor as e-Commerce. The main objective of this paper is the implementation of a Paradigm for the Intelligent Design and Operation of Human-Computer interfaces. In particular, the paradigm is quite appropriate for the intelligent design and operation of software modules that display information (such Web Pages, graphic user interfaces GUIs, Multimedia modules) on a computer screen. The human conceptualization of the user personal information is analyzed throughout a Cascaded Fuzzy Inference (decision-making) System to generate the User Ascribe Qualities, which identify the user and that can be used to customize portals with proper Web links.