Geographic and Socially Embedded B2C and B2B E-Commerce

Abstract

The term electronic commerce (e-commerce) provides visions of anonymous online transactions with companies like Amazon or Buy.com, where personal contact need not exist and locations of purchasers and sellers are irrelevant. Much business to consumer (B2C) e-commerce occurs this way, and the approach was prevalent among firms in the 'dot.com' era, e.g., Verticalnet and biz2biz.com. Such visions reflect the dominant perception of the role of e-commerce in economic exchange prior to the widespread failure of dot.com firms in 2000 and 2001. That is, e-commerce enables firms to access new markets, replace outmoded or inefficient supply chains and distribution channels, and achieve substantial growth in customer reach (Wigand and Benjamin 1995; Cairncross 1997; Choi et al. 1997). These perceived opportunities stem from maintained assumptions held at that time. (2003b) describes the primitive beliefs that shaped corporate e-commerce practice and strategy:

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