Using the Internet for B2B activities: a review and future directions for research

Illustrates some of the challenges that electronic commerce practitioners and researchers face. A theoretical framework for Web users' behaviour is developed. Research themes or questions concerning relationships between cross-national differences, demographics, perceived threats and Web use; assessment of on-line information for different categories of product; influence of people's technology resistance on attitudes toward, and behaviours regarding, online shopping; and how these factors affect people's attempt to externalize costs (e.g, transaction costs) are outlined. The article analyses different decisional contexts for Web shopping, comparing commodity products to products that require engineering support; while the hype is generally on the first, customized and specialty products may be more attractive from a business perspective. Internet commerce of technical products, in the context of corporate purchasing, has been largely ignored. After reviewing the existing literature, the article concludes by presenting future research challenges and practical implications for organizations willing to take advantage of the opportunities the Web offers.