1. Chapter 4
E-environment

2. Learning outcomes
Identify the different elements of an organization macro-environment that impact on an organizations e-business and e-marketing strategy
Assess the impact of legal, privacy and ethical constraints or opportunities on a company
Assess the role of macro-economic factors such as governmental e-business policies, economics, taxation and legal constraints.

3. Management issues
What are the constraints placed on developing and implementing an e-business strategy by the e-environment?
How can trust and privacy be assured for the customer while seeking to achieve marketing objectives of customer acquisition and retention?
Assessment of the business relevance of technological innovation.

4. Activity 4.1 Introduction to social, legal and ethical issues
List all the social, legal and ethical issues that the manager of a sell-side e-commerce web site needs to consider to avoid damaging relationships with users of his or her site or which may leave the company facing prosecution.
You can base your answer on issues which may concern you, your friends or family when you access a web site.

5. SLEPT Framework
Social-influence consumer perception of Internet use for e-commerce
Legal & Ethical-determine what can be promoted and sold online
Economic-affect spending patterns
Political-Determine the adoption and the future of Internet
Technological-offer new opportunities

6. SLEPT Framework
E-Commerce Manager has to monitor the changes of the Macro-environment (also called environment scan)
Among the 5 factor type, Legal factor is one of the most important.
P.195, Table 4.2 Lists the Key legal issues that have direct impact on e-commerce

7. Social Factors

8. Factors Governing E-commerce Adoption
Cost of Access
Value proposition
Ease of use
Security and trust
Fear of the unknown
Skills

9. Webographics Usage location Access device Connection speed ISP
Experience level
Usage type-work, social, entertainment, etc.
Usage level-hours or minutes / month

10. Figure 4.2 Variation in broadband subscribers per 100 inhabitants, by technology, December 2007 Source: OECD (

11. Influences of Online Channel
Finding products and services online is a popular web activity
Online research occurs at every phase of purchase, even for offline purchases

12. Figure 4.3 Percentage by category who bought offline after researching online Source: BrandNewWorld: AOL UK / Anne Molen (Cranfield School of Management) /Henley Centre, 2004

13. Motivation for Using Online Services
Community
Survey
Entertainment
Download
Product trial
Search
Information
Interaction
Make purchases
Exploration
Games
News

14. Trust in Different Information Sources
The role of social media and friends in influencing sales was highlighted by this research

15. Trust in Different Information Sources
Price comparison web sites (61%)
Web sites of well-known brands (59%)
Newspapers/magazines (58%)
Customer web site reviews (58%)
Expert web site reviews (57%)
Retailer web sites (57%)
Sales people in shops (50%)
Content provided by ISPs (38%).

16. Figure 4.4 Development of experience in Internet usage

17. Figure 4.5 Variation in purchase rates of online products and services in Europe Source: European Interactive Advertising Association ( Mediascope Eupore 2008

18. Localization Why localize a website? Is it important?
What to be considered for localization?

19. Localization
Singh and Pereira (2005) provide an evaluation framework for the level of localization:
Standardized web sites (not localized). A single site serves all customer segments (domestic and international) Many sites, especially small business sites fall into this category
Semi-localized web sites. A single site serves all customers; however, there will be contact information about foreign subsidiaries available for international customers. Many sites fall into this category
Localized web sites. Country-specific web sites with language translation for international customers, wherever relevant. 3M ( has adapted the web sites for many countries to local language versions.

20. Localization (Continued)
Highly localized web sites. Country-specific web sites with language translation; they also include other localization efforts in terms of time, date, postcode, currency formats, etc. Dell ( provides highly localized web sites
Culturally customized web sites.Web sites reflecting complete ‘immersion’ in the culture of target customer segments; as such, targeting a particular country may mean providing multiple web sites for that country depending on the dominant cultures present.

21. Legislation

22. Privacy and Trust in E-Commerce
What are ethical standards?
Why is it so important for e-commerce?
What’s privacy?
Why privacy a big deal for e-commerce?
Identity fraud in Canada-

23. Personal Data and E-Commerce
Online businesses and e-marketer typical need these data
Contact info
Profile info—segmentation
Access platform
Behavioural info on a single site
Behavioural Info on multiple sites
Anything else?

24. Table 4.6 Types of information collected online and related technologies

25. Table 4.6 Types of information collected online and related technologies (Continued)

26. Ethical issues and data protection
Ethical issues concerned with personal information ownership have been usefully summarized into four areas:
Privacy – what information is held about the individual?
Accuracy – is it correct?
Property – who owns it and how can ownership be transferred?
Accessibility – who is allowed to access this information, and under which conditions?

27. Ethics – Fletcher’s view
Fletcher (2001) provides an alternative perspective, raising these issues of concern for both the individual and the marketer:
Transparency – who is collecting what information?
Security – how is information protected once collected by a company?
Liability – who is responsible if data is abused?

28. The eight principles for data protection
Fairly and lawfully processed
processed for limited purposes
adequate, relevant and not excessive
accurate
not kept longer than necessary
processed in accordance with the data subject's rights
secure
not transferred to countries without adequate protection

29. Table 4.2 Significant laws which control digital marketing

30. Table 4.2 Significant laws which control digital marketing (Continued)

31. Ethical issues and data protection
In Canada, Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) establishes principles for collection, use, and disclosure of personal information.
Provinces have parallel legislation

32. Figure 4.7 Standard information collected about web site visitors from the DaveChaffey.com site Source: Feedjit

33. Figure 4.8 Information flows that need to be understood for compliance with data protection legislation

34. Other E-Commerce Legislation
Market e-commerce business
Domain name and brand/trademark protection
Using competitor name in meta-tag and pay-per-click advertising
Accessibility law

35. Other E-Commerce Legislation
Forming Electronic Contracts
Country of origin principle
Distance selling law
Making and accepting payment
Others—ref. pp

36. E-Commerce & Green Environment
Do you think e-commerce have positive effect on environment?
Read the Box 4.6 on page 228

37. Figure 4.10 HSBC virtual forest Source: www.hsbc.co.uk

38. Taxation
What do you know about the e-commerce taxes?

39. Taxation Tax Jurisdiction
In general, taxes are collected in the jurisdiction where consumption take place
This applies to EU and Canada
The US federal government doesn’t collect taxes for online purchases
States may have different legislations

40. Economic & Competitive Factors
The e-commerce potential would be determined by the economic health and competitive environment of the country.

41. How can governments improve the health of their e-economies ?

42. Political Factors

43. Political action enacted through government agencies to console the adoption of the internet can include:
Promoting the benefits of adopting the internet for consumers and business to improve a country’s economic prosperity;
Enacting legislation to protect privacy or control taxation, as described in previous sections;

44. Providing organization with guidelines and assistance for compliance with legislation
Setting up international bodies to coordinate the internet such as ICANN (the internet corporation for Assigned names and numbers, and other independent organizations controlling internet technology.

45. Internet governance:
Internet governance describes the control put in place to manage the growth of the internet and its usage. Governance is traditionally undertaken by government, but the global nature of the internet makes it less practical for a government to control cyberspace.

46. E-Government
E-government is distinct from internet governance.

47. E-Government (short for electronic government, also known as e-gov, digital government, online government, or connected government) is digital interactions between a government and citizens

48. The-Government delivery models can be briefly summed up as:
G2C (Government to Citizens)
G2B (Government to Businesses)
G2E (Government to Employees)
G2G (Government to Governments)
C2G (Citizens to Governments)

49. Technological issues Rate of change Monitoring for new techniques
Which new technologies should we adopt?
Monitoring for new techniques
Evaluation – are we early adopters?
Re-skilling and training

50. Figure 4.12 Diffusion–adoption curve

51. Identifying Emerging Technologies
Technology networking—monitoring, scouting, and sharing
Crowd-sourcing—facilitate access to ideas from customers, partners, inventors, etc. e.g., innocentive.com
Technology hunting—structured review of start-up companies for new tech capability
Technology mining—search the published documentations. E.g., googlealert

52. Summary What are the SLEPT factors? How could they affect e-commerce?
What’s a strategy to adopt in coping with the SLEPT factors?