The Economic and Social Impact of Electronic Commerce in Developing Countries

Author(s):  
Roberto Vinaja

The chapter addresses the potential benefits of Electronic Commerce to developing countries. Electronic commerce has many potential benefits for developing countries (DC). In this chapter, the author describes the potential benefits of Electronic Commerce for developing nations and he provides case examples that illustrate this trend. The widespread adoption of electronic commerce is especially important for developing countries.

Author(s):  
Sim Chia Hua ◽  
Modapothala Jashua Rajesh ◽  
Lau Bee Theng

With a major proportion of research on Electronic Commerce (EC) undertaken on large corporations, and focused primarily on developed countries, little is known about the determinants of EC in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) of developing nations. This chapter explores the extent of EC use by SMEs, and provides some empirical evidence of how internal factors of firm and owner are influencing EC adoption among smaller businesses in Malaysia. The methodology and results of this study may be applicable to other developing countries. Findings confirm the low level of participation in EC by SMEs. The age of enterprise, as well as the owner’s gender and education were found to be significant in determining the level of EC adoption. Though some of the results contradict those of previous studies, they may have a greater implication for government authorities in drawing up guidelines, approaches, and formulating more effective frameworks to promote EC use among SMEs in developing countries.


Author(s):  
Sim Chia Hua ◽  
Modapothala Jashua Rajesh ◽  
Lau Bee Theng

With a major proportion of research on Electronic Commerce (EC) undertaken on large corporations, and focused primarily on developed countries, little is known about the determinants of EC in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) of developing nations. This chapter explores the extent of EC use by SMEs, and provides some empirical evidence of how internal factors of firm and owner are influencing EC adoption among smaller businesses in Malaysia. The methodology and results of this study may be applicable to other developing countries. Findings confirm the low level of participation in EC by SMEs. The age of enterprise, as well as the owner’s gender and education were found to be significant in determining the level of EC adoption. Though some of the results contradict those of previous studies, they may have a greater implication for government authorities in drawing up guidelines, approaches, and formulating more effective frameworks to promote EC use among SMEs in developing countries.


2009 ◽  
Vol 1 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Sim Chia Hua ◽  
Modapothala Jashua Rajesh ◽  
Lau Bee Theng

With a major proportion of research on Electronic Commerce (EC) undertaken on large corporations, and focused primarily on developed countries, little is known about the determinants of EC in Small and Mediumsized Enterprises (SMEs) of developing nations. This chapter explores the extent of EC use by SMEs, and provides some empirical evidence of how internal factors of firm and owner are influencing EC adoption among smaller businesses in Malaysia. The methodology and results of this study may be applicable to other developing countries. Findings confirm the low level of participation in EC by SMEs. The age of enterprise, as well as the owner’s gender and education were found to be significant in determining the level of EC adoption. Though some of the results contradict those of previous studies, they may have a greater implication for government authorities in drawing up guidelines, approaches, and formulating more effective frameworks to promote EC use among SMEs in developing countries.


Subject Start-up ecosystems in developing countries. Significance Entrepreneurship is creating and growing small firms in developing nations and is gaining recognition as a powerful mechanism to contribute to economic growth, employment and innovation. It is also having a positive social impact, giving momentum to the growing ‘impact investment’ sector, where investors aim for measurable social or environmental benefits as well as a financial return. Impacts Developing sophisticated systems to monitor and evaluate the success of investments requires more private and public sector commitment. Governments will aim to speed up and clarify administrative services, hoping to make small business oversight agencies more efficient. Governments will trial new approaches to reverse the brain drain that widens the skills gap between developed and developing countries.


Author(s):  
Hakikur Rahman ◽  
Isabel Ramos

This paper looks into the concepts of electronic commerce (e-commerce) through the utilization of the Internet technologies. The study introduces the concept in finding a contextual diagram and talks further about the evolution of e-commerce. Thereafter, it develops a framework after deducting through various business models using an exploratory review. However, the main thrust of the paper is to illustrate factors of challenges in introducing and enhancing e-commerce activities, especially in the context of developing countries relating to human-computer interactions. The study emphasizes on issues like, acceptability, credibility, feasibility, ethics, privacy and trust as major challenges in expanding e-commerce in developing countries. Before concluding, the study proposes a few hints of e-commerce advancement in developing nations as future research.


Author(s):  
Priya Yadav ◽  
Pranjeet Das ◽  
Ravi Kumar Malhotra

E-commerce is process of doing business through computer networks. Advances in wireless network technology and the continuously increasing number of users of mobile latter on make an ideal platform for offering various high utilityservices in just a snap of a finger to the mobile users and give pace to the rapid development of E-Commerce in India.E-commerce is considered an excellent alternative for companies to reach new customersbut the fact that has hindered the growth of e-commerce is security. Security is the challenge facing e-commerce today and there is still a lot of advancement made in the field of securityfor increasing the use of e-commerce in developing countries the B2B e-commerce is implemented for improving access to global markets for firms in developing countries. With the special characteristics and constraints of mobile terminals and wireless networks and the context, situations and circumstances that people use their hand-held terminalswhich will ultimately fuel explosive ecommerce growth in India This paper highlights the various key challenges and opportunities which Indian e-commerce industry may face in the upcoming years. And also discuss challenges in electronic commerce transactions.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 339-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
John-ren Chen ◽  
Christian Smekal

Electronic commerce may be a great equalizer that helps to reduce, or even to eliminate, distance-related barriers to trade, but it can also exacerbate a so-called ‘digital dividend’ vis-à-vis countries with technological and infrastructural deficiencies, especially developing countries. In the following we concentrate on trade distortion caused by taxation of e-trade in intangible goods. We believe this will have a particular ramification for the developing world. General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) provisions may be relevant to many concerns with respect to the regulations of e-commerce, such as online privacy protection, illegal or illicit content, cyber crime and fraud, en-forcement of contracts, consumer protection, and taxation. In this paper, we will focus our debate mainly on the issues of taxation of e-trade with respect to the two basic principles of the WTO, that is. the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) and the National Treatment (NT) principles.


Author(s):  
Elena Stepanovna Ustinovich ◽  
Tatyana Petrovna Boldyreva

It is clear to everyone that investment in the agricultural sector in developing countries is one of the most effective ways to reduce poverty and hunger in the world. Agricultural investment can generate a wide range of development opportunities. However, these benefi ts cannot be expected to arise automatically. Some forms of large-scale investment pose significant risks to investor states. It should be noted, however, that, despite discussions about the potential benefits and risks of international investment, there is still no evidence of negative actual consequences for the countries receiving investments. This article examines the issues of investment activity in relation to developing countries using the example of US agribusiness entities.


Author(s):  
Phillip D. Stevenson ◽  
Christopher A. Mattson ◽  
Kenneth M. Bryden ◽  
Nordica A. MacCarty

More than ever before, engineers are creating products for developing countries. One of the purposes of these products is to improve the consumer’s quality of life. Currently, there is no established method of measuring the social impact of these types of products. As a result, engineers have used their own metrics to assess their product’s impact, if at all. Some of the common metrics used include products sold and revenue, which measure the financial success of a product without recognizing the social successes or failures it might have. In this paper we introduce a potential metric, the Product Impact Metric (PIM), which quantifies the impact a product has on impoverished individuals — especially those living in developing countries. It measures social impact broadly in five dimensions: health, education, standard of living, employment quality, and security. The PIM is inspired by the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) created by the United Nations Development Programme. The MPI measures how the depth of poverty within a nation changes year after year, and the PIM measures how an individual’s quality of life changes after being affected by an engineered product. The Product Impact Metric can be used to predict social impacts (using personas that represent real individuals) or measure social impacts (using specific data from products introduced into the market).


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