A Corpus-Based Analysis of Business Contract English Registers

In trades between different countries, business English is the basic step and business contract is the guarantee. In this special transaction context, the wording of business contract English is fair and rigorous; the structure of it is clear; and the style of it is solemn. Based on the register theory in systemic functional linguistics, this paper analyzes the lexical, syntactic and textual rhetorical features of contract English. Some of the data are from business English Corpus established by University of International Business and Economics. It aims to promote the writing of business contract English.

Trust in Commercial and Personal Transactions in the Digital Age

This chapter concentrates on how trust has been conceptualized and studied, providing a refined understanding of many trust-related issues that affect commerce but arguably also other online transactions in the digital age, such as in the public services. A discussion of the role of experience, gender, and culture in relation to the generation of online trust beliefs is presented. It is noted that trust development is dependent on time. Trust is ‘necessary for the success of economic transactions’ and is viewed as the relationship facilitator between trading partners. The focus of online trust issues has developed, and the role of recommendation agents and avatars in trust building is described in the same way that the antecedents of trust received attention a number of years ago. It is hoped that this chapter has clarified some of the key issues that require consideration when researching trust in an online transaction context.

Moving Up the Mobile Commerce Value Chain

In the spring of 2002, a team within Digifone, in the Republic of Ireland, deliberated on how they would generate revenues from a Third Generation (3G) mobile license. Their plan was to facilitate third-party mobile commerce services, and receive a percentage of the resulting revenue. A key challenge would be differentiating the value of content based on transaction context. Mediation technology, based on open standards, was seen as the solution. The case describes Digifones evaluation of an XML vocabulary as the basis for a mediation and billing solution. The Digifone experience suggests that the key to exploiting 3G technology is inter-industry agreement on measurement standards to effectively manage the value of the associated services a bar code for measuring value and distributing revenue amongst value web participants.

Policy-Driven Signing Frameworks in Open Electronic Transactions

Electronically signed transactions typically associate the applied electronic signature with the signed data and implicitly with the terms and conditions related to the scope of the performed transaction. Some aspects of the association between an electronic signature and the transaction can be conveyed by means of a signature policy. Signature policies are a set of rules for the creation and validation of an electronic signature, under which an electronic signature can be determined to be valid. This chapter suggest however, that additional transaction constraints might be conveyed by means of a signature policy. Standardization work has highlighted signature policies as a significant element to leverage trust in electronic commerce transactions that make use of electronic signatures. Summing up technological, organizational and legal concerns, this chapter addresses issues related to the content, form and function of signature policies within a transaction context.

Moving Up the Mobile Commerce Value Chain

In the spring of 2002, a team within Digifone, in the Republic of Ireland, deliberated on how they would generate revenues from a Third Generation (3G) mobile license. Their plan was to facilitate third-party mobile commerce services, and receive a percentage of the resulting revenue. A key challenge would be differentiating the value of content based on transaction context. Mediation technology, based on open standards, was seen as the solution. The case describes Digifone’s evaluation of an XML vocabulary as the basis for a mediation and billing solution. The Digifone experience suggests that the key to exploiting 3G technology is inter-industry agreement on measurement standards to effectively manage the value of the associated services — a “bar code” for measuring value and distributing revenue amongst value Web participants.