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

Illustrates some of the challenges that electronic commerce practitioners a nd researchers face. A theoretical framework for Web users' behaviour is de veloped. Research themes or questions concerning relationships between cros s-national differences, demographics, perceived threats and Web use; assess ment of on-line information for different categories of product; influence of people's technology resistance on attitudes toward, and behaviours regar ding, online shopping; and how these factors affect people's attempt to ext ernalize costs (e.g, transaction costs) are outlined. The article analyses different decisional contexts for Web shopping, comparing commodity product s to products that require engineering support; while the hype is generally on the first, customized and specialty products may be more attractive fro m a business perspective. Internet commerce of technical products, in the c ontext of corporate purchasing, has been largely ignored. After reviewing t he existing literature, the article concludes by presenting future research challenges and practical implications for organizations willing to take ad vantage of the opportunities the Web offers.