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Over the past two decades, businesses in virtually every sector of the world economy have bene®ted from the technologies of electronic commerce. However, widespread interest in electronic commerce is relatively recent. Thus any de®nition of what is or is not included under the rubric of e-commerce is bound to be controversial and is
still evolving. Nonetheless, we have posited the following de®nition as an organizing framework for our material in this text: ``Electronic commerceÐor e-commerceÐis the automation of commercial transactions using computer and communications technologies.''

By commercial, we refer to activities that seek to create arm's-length transactions between ®rms and individuals and involve the exchange of money, goods, or obligations. Therefore our de®nition of e-commerce purposely excludes interorganizational systems such as e-mail, telephone, fax, or Internet telephone, as well as internal computing accomplished by accounting, sales, inventory, treasury, personnel, or executive information systems.

Commercial transactions can transpire from business to business. Examples appear in electronic data interchange, auction markets, and distribution logistics systems. They can also occur from business to consumers. Examples appear in World Wide Web retailing and electronic stock brokerages. Electronic commerce tries to take
advantage of economies in single-point keying to reduce errors and cycle time, a high degree of customizability of product or services to meet consumer desires, and customer interaction with databases at very low marginal cost.

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