Date of Award

1996

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Corporate Communications

Department

Business

First Advisor

Carolyn Scott

Second Advisor

Carole Knight

Third Advisor

Ben Kuehnle

Abstract

Electronic Commerce is a relatively new phenomenon in today's market place. Commerce or the buying and selling of goods and services can take many forms. In the early years of computerization. commercial activities revolved around the exchange of financial data between businesses and banks (Electronic Funds Transfer). Then businesses began exploring the transfer of data in an electronic format between individual businesses in the form of Electronic Data Interchange (EDI). Over time much broader types of business transactions began occurring. Data exchange included inventory items, marketing. sales materials, product design. Items which were sent via mail took on an electronic format speeding the exchange of data from one business to another. As data began moving electronically a network or series of communication lines developed. The development of internal network lines expanded the use of forms of electronic communication to include E-mail, EDl, EFT, file transfers of text, graphics and sound. Internal business and external network applications grew. Most internal networks allowed for the increasing productivity of internal workers in sharing ideas and completing projects. The use of the computer attached to an internal network made workers more productive. Likewise the external network which was used primarily for research by the military and universities called the Internet

also grew in popularity. The shift of business transactions moving from a an internal application to and external application on the Internet lead the way for the development of Electronic Commerce. Electronic Commerce is currently one of the newest, hottest technological achievements of our time. Businesses are rapidly developing applications in which to buy, sell or trade services using the Internet. Th.is paper explores some of the challenges faced by electronic commerce and the communication of information. Reviewing past and current technical writer's works in the field of computer technology, an overview demonstrates how computers are changing the way humans are adapting this new technology. Electronic commerce changes many processes currently used in business transactions and produces a new form of commercial activity. As future developments progress in this type of technology people will see many adaptations of electronic commerce in daily life.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License

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