Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Business Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

E-Commerce

2013

Articles

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Business

Cultural Contradictions Of The Anytime, Anywhere Economy: Reframing Communication Technology, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Detlev Zwick Feb 2013

Cultural Contradictions Of The Anytime, Anywhere Economy: Reframing Communication Technology, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Detlev Zwick

Nikhilesh Dholakia

Technology-aided ubiquity and instantaneity have emerged as major goals of most information technology providers and of certain classes of users such as “road warriors”. New mobile technologies promise genie-in-a-bottle type near-magical qualities with anytime, anywhere access to information and services. While the complex science, systems, and economics of such technologies receive considerable attention from industry executives and researchers, the social and cultural aspects of these technologies attract less attention. This paper explores the oft-contradictory promises and pitfalls of anytime, anywhere technologies from a cultural standpoint. It makes suggestions for reinterpreting these technologies for greater human good.


Privacy And Consumer Agency In The Information Age: Between Prying Profilers And Preening Webcams, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Detlev Zwick Feb 2013

Privacy And Consumer Agency In The Information Age: Between Prying Profilers And Preening Webcams, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Detlev Zwick

Nikhilesh Dholakia

This article is about the ability of the consumer to control his or her destiny in the new electronic marketspace. Two seemingly opposite phenomena – the need for privacy and the desire for exhibitionism and voyeurism – are vying for attention on the media landscape. We believe the simultaneous occurrence of privacy concerns and ultraexhibitionism is not coincidental. Indeed, exhibitionism and voyeurism seem to offer new tools for consumer resistance against the electronic surveillance systems in networked markets and are inextricably linked to consumers’ desire for control over their intimate personal information.


Mobility And Markets: Emerging Outlines Of M-Commerce, Ruby Roy Dholakia, Nikhilesh Dholakia Feb 2013

Mobility And Markets: Emerging Outlines Of M-Commerce, Ruby Roy Dholakia, Nikhilesh Dholakia

Nikhilesh Dholakia

Mobile commerce—or m-commerce—is characterized by the emerging class of location-based commercial services delivered by a variety of handheld terminals such as mobile phones and palmtop devices. At the Conference on Telecommunications and Information Markets (COTIM)-2001, an international conference held in Karlsruhe, Germany, academic researchers and business practitioners shared their experiences and frameworks about m-commerce. Selected papers based on COTIM-2001 presentations are included in this Special Issue. This paper introduces the preconditions that led to the emergence of m-commerce, the main dimensions of m-commerce that distinguish it from e-commerce, and the key arguments from the contributions on m-commerce in this Special …


Borderless Bits: Electronic Globalization And Its Social Consequences, Nikhilesh Dholakia Feb 2013

Borderless Bits: Electronic Globalization And Its Social Consequences, Nikhilesh Dholakia

Nikhilesh Dholakia

Globalization of services with the aid of electronic technologies - popularly called outsourcing or offshoring - has been accelerating. In this paper, the factors that drive electronic globalization - as distinct from factors that drive the general process of globalization - are discussed briefly. A simple model of a 2-firm USA-India dyad engaged in outsourcing relationships is presented to outline the economic basis for electronic globalization. By introducing wider political and cultural forces, progressively more complex views of the electronic globalization phenomenon are presented. Finally, the interplays of the economic, political, and cultural forces are explored to arrive at a …


Online Qualitative Research In The Age Of E-Commerce: Data Sources And Approaches, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Dong Zhang Feb 2013

Online Qualitative Research In The Age Of E-Commerce: Data Sources And Approaches, Nikhilesh Dholakia, Dong Zhang

Nikhilesh Dholakia

With the boom in E-commerce, practitioners and researchers are increasingly generating marketing and strategic insights by employing the Internet as an effective new tool for conducting well-established forms of qualitative research (TISCHLER 2004). The potential of Internet as a rich data source and an attractive arena for qualitative research in e-commerce settings—in other words cyberspace as a "field," in the ethnographic sense—has not received adequate attention. This paper explores qualitative research prospects in e-commerce arenas. URN: urn:nbn:de:0114-fqs0402299


The Epistemic Consumption Object And Postsocial Consumption: Expanding Consumer‐Object Theory In Consumer Research, Detlev Zwick, Nikhilesh Dholakia Feb 2013

The Epistemic Consumption Object And Postsocial Consumption: Expanding Consumer‐Object Theory In Consumer Research, Detlev Zwick, Nikhilesh Dholakia

Nikhilesh Dholakia

We introduce the concept of the epistemic consumption object. Such consumption objects are characterized by two interrelated features. First, epistemic consumption objects reveal themselves progressively through interaction, observation, use, examination, and evaluation. Such layered revelation is accompanied by an increasing rather than a decline of the object’s complexity. Second, such objects demonstrate a propensity to change their “face‐in‐action” vis‐à‐vis consumers through the continuous addition or subtraction of properties. The epistemic consumption object is materially elusive and this lack of ontological stability turns the object into a continuous knowledge project for consumers. Via this ongoing cycle of revelation and discovery, consumers …


E-Commerce Patterns In South Asia: A Look Beyond Economics, Nir Kshetri, Nikhilesh Dholakia Feb 2013

E-Commerce Patterns In South Asia: A Look Beyond Economics, Nir Kshetri, Nikhilesh Dholakia

Nikhilesh Dholakia

Conflicting and complex forces are shaping the diffusion patterns of the Internet and e-commerce in South Asia. Drawing upon the literature on institutional theory, we explore the drivers and inhibitors of the Internet in South Asian countries. We examine the influence of the three pillars of institutions (Scott, 1995) on the digital world of South Asia. The paper discusses how regulatory, normative, and cognitive institution–such as laws, relationships, culture, and habit–have shaped the diffusion patterns of the Internet and e-commerce in South Asia.