Contact me: Catherine Cherry
Please view my ECommerce Annotated Bibliography
Topic Brief: e-Commerce, in particular the c2c model, is one of the fastest growing and most popular forms of business online. eBay is a perfect example of consumer-to-consumer e-commerce in action. But is this little virtual community going to be overrun by corporate giants?
Subjects: Definition of e-commerce, c2c model. eBay. virtual communities. corporate giants.
NOTE: This is a relatively new topic and not much research is available, so this topic explores and "speculates" on things to come for ebay and c2c e-commerce.
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Introduction to e-Business (2002) Third Edition, North Ryde: McGraw-Hill Australia. ISBN 7777772570
This textbook is a QUT custom publication prepared by the School of International Business: Faculty of Business at QUT, for the subject BSB119. It is a complete resource on everything to do with e-commerce. It includes information about the Internet and the World Wide Web e-business environment, the basic technology of the internet and e-commerce, the types of business models (such as c2c), and information on digital payments, encryption and authentication. The book also includes a chapter on public policy regulation.
This book contains all the information needed for a firm understanding of what e-business is; its advantages and disadvantages; social and industrial implications; and the limitations of transacting over the internet. Introduction to e-business provided a comprehensive look at the environments e-business operates in and the policies which govern it.
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Anonymous (2000) E-Commerce: Define and sell. [Online] The Economist, February 26, Volume 354, Issue 8159, pg. S6, 4pgs. London. Available: http://gateway.proquest.com.gateway.library.qut.edu.au/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqd&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=article&rft_dat=xri:pqd:did=000000050584580&svc_dat=xri:pqil:fmt=text&req_dat=xri:pqil:pq_clntid=14394 [Accessed 11 August 2004]
ISSN/ISBN: 00130613 ProQuest document ID: 50584580 Text Word Count 2282
Written by an author who wishes to remain anonymous, this article from The Economist is essentially a basic look at the advantages and disadvantages of e-commerce, in the areas of business-to-consumer, consumer-to-business and consumer-to-consumer commerce. While the author seems to favour traditional business (i.e. bricks and mortar), this article provides a look into what is good to sell online and what is it, given the “high touch�, “low touch� theory of consumer behaviour.
This is a decent article for understanding the c2c and e-commerce environment, but not as useful for building an argument for or deeply researching the topic.
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Evans, M., Ralston, L., Van ‘t Hul, S., Wedande, G. (2001) Consumer interaction in the virtual era: Some qualitative insights. [Online] Qualitative Market Research. Bradford, Volume 4, Issue 3. pg. 150, 10 pgs. Available: http://gateway.proquest.com.gateway.library.qut.edu.au/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqd&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=article&rft_dat=xri:pqd:did=000000268209621&svc_dat=xri:pqil:fmt=text&req_dat=xri:pqil:pq_clntid=14394 [Accessed 12 August 2004]
ISSN/ISBN: 13522752 ProQuest document ID: 268209621 Text Word Count 6556
This article was written as a result of market research conducted into the consumer behaviour of participants in consumer-to-consumer interactions. The article focuses on exploring consumer experience and attitudes toward online interaction within virtual communities. This paper reports on the qualitative phase of an ESF/DMA funded research project.
This article covers aspects of their research including internet communities, the objectives and methodology of the research (slightly less important than the overall findings, but highlights the quality and reliability of the results), focus group findings, attitudes to general internet use, virtual community participation, commercial developments of c2c e-commerce, as well as some interesting information regarding participants reactions to the “Real vs. Virtual communities� debate. Also discussed in the article are the effects of the use of virtual communities, commercial aspects of these communities, and issues and attitudes surrounding security and anonymity. The final third of the article covers what is most important to any exploration into e-commerce, the social and technological aspects and implications. The conclusion to the article is clear and concise, and sums up the general findings of the research.
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Scally, R. (2000) eBay: The auction network making a bid for on-line dominance. [Online] DSN Retailing Today. May 8, Volume 39, Issue 9, pg. 64, 3 pgs. Available: http://gateway.proquest.com.gateway.library.qut.edu.au/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqd&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=article&rft_dat=xri:pqd:did=000000053676137&svc_dat=xri:pqil:fmt=html&req_dat=xri:pqil:pq_clntid=14394. [Accessed 11 August 2004]
ISSN/ISBN: 00123587 ProQuest document ID: 53676137 Text Word Count 1408
Robert Scally has written an excellent article which chronicles eBay’s birth and current success. The article discusses the history of eBay, the consumer-2-consumer business model eBay uses and states useful statistics about the percentage of c2c business being conducted on the Internet that eBay commands. Figures also include eBay’s revenues, employment, market share and company growth and extension plans.
This article provides excellent background information on eBay and highlights the perfect example of a c2c business model in operation on the Internet.
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Wilson, T. (2001) Will corporations muscle in on eBay as we know it? [Online] InternetWeek. Manhasset: August 27, Issue 875. pg. 20. Available: http://gateway.proquest.com.gateway.library.qut.edu.au/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqd&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:journal&genre=article&rft_dat=xri:pqd:did=000000078863749&svc_dat=xri:pqil:fmt=text&req_dat=xri:pqil:pq_clntid=14394 [Accessed 13 August 2004]
ISSN/ISBN: 10969969 ProQuest document ID: 78863749 Text Word Count 671
This article is a very insightful and amusing feature that opens up the debate about whether corporations such as J.C. Penney’s, Bloomingdales, IBM, etc should be allowed to muscle in on eBay and its easily recognisable consumer-to-consumer business model. It follows on from a story in The Washington Post that told of these big corporations using eBay to sell surplus goods and test new products. This article speculates on the future of eBay and its small-time sellers if corporations are able to sell their goods online in high volumes. A very interesting article, that provokes thought, but not a complete resource on the topic.
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Please see mine and Melanie Mackrodt's Wiki entry on ECommerce
