Nowadays, the business world is driven by two economic trends: globalization and the adoption of information technologies. Those changes are entirely linked. "Technology is both driven by and a driver of globalization, as both forces continually reinforce one another" (Bradley et al., 1993). Globalization gives opportunities to firms to extend their operations but challenges them to be more efficient. Confronted with competitive forces, global companies use new technologies to extend their business internationally. The implementation of such technologies within the companies' strategies such as the use of the Internet reduces time and space, making it cheaper and easier for them to market products and services internationally. To introduce the notion of ecommerce; it "consists of the buying, selling, marketing, and servicing of products or services over computer networks. The information technology industry might see it as an electronic business application aimed at commercial transactions".
[...] Moreover, companies using Ecommerce for global purposes have to be aware of cultural differences within each country in order to adapt its business strategy to the customers' habits. References Anthony Mitchell, E-Commerce Times, 10/25/05, Customer Relations Managers Face Job Transformations, http://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/46924.html, Date accessed 9/02/06 Bin, Wiu, Shu-Jen Chen, & Shao Qin Sun, “Cultural differences in commerce: A comparison between the U.S. and China.” Journal of Global Information Management, April-June 2000, Vol.11, Iss http://home.utm.utoronto.ca/~seok-tae/main.htm, Date accessed 9/02/06 Kenneth L. Kraemer, Jennifer Gibbs and Jason Dedrick, Center for Research on Information Technology and Organizations, University of California, Irvine, December Impacts of Globalization on Commerce Adoption and Firm Performance: A Cross-Country Investigation, www.crito.uci.edu/publications/pdf/gec/JIBS.pdf Kenneth L. [...]
[...] So it is interesting to study how the various countries of the global economy differ in the way they adopt and implement Ecommerce. To begin with the US, Ecommerce is a common thing. It is part of the commerce in general and permits companies to extend their operations. The vague of the Internet in that country is a quite phenomenon. Indeed, as we said previously, US companies have been the leaders. European countries share the common characteristic that the process of adopting the Internet has been relatively slow. [...]
[...] That is to say that the use of Ecommerce via the Internet was not of primary importance for French companies but they had to adopt it in order to remain important entities in the global economy. They had no choice. Regarding Germany, even if its companies take a long time to adopt the Internet, the country became an innovator in that area. This is due to the fact that German companies are well established internationally. Crossing the world map, we arrive in China. [...]
[...] For example of American consumers who shop online use credit cards.[6] This is not the same in China. People are not used to pay with credit cards and do not like it. Consequently, foreign companies selling products via the Internet have to adapt their strategies for this country. Indeed, Chinese consumers are used to pay in cash when they receive the product they ordered online. “Most of the shopping sites established their branch offices in the big cities of China.” (Bin, Chen & Sun, 2003)[7]. [...]
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