CREC Identifies Critical Issues in E-Commerce
The Center for Research in Electronic Commerce (CREC)at the University of Texas at Austin today issued a report, "Research Priorities in Electronic Commerce," that examines the economic and business implications of Internet-driven firms and markets, and identifies areas of critical research need with long-term impacts. The report is submitted to the National Science Foundation and available on CREC's website at http://crec.bus.utexas.edu.
The report summarizes results of the NSF-sponsored workshop held at the IC2 Institute of the University of Texas. The workshop was organized by Soon-Yong Choi, Dale O. Stahl and Andrew B. Whinston, co-authors of "The Economics of Electronic Commerce" (Macmillan Technical Publishing, 1997)that focuses on economic analysis of the emerging electronic marketplace.
The report examines market implications of a range of computing and networking technologies and applications, including network infrastructure and software provided by Intel (NASDAQ: INTC), IBM (NYSE: IBM), Cisco Systems (NASDAQ: CSCO), Netscape (NASDAQ: NSCP) and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT). Their products operate as an infrastructure for the digital economy where an efficient and effective network resource is as important as maintaining an efficient interstate highway system.
Research issues are identified in this report that provide rationales for a nation-wide research initiative in electronic commerce. In addition to network infrastructure issues, the report focuses on the interplay between information technologies and economic activities. Search services and portals such as Excite (NASDAQ: XCIT), Yahoo (NASDAQ: YHOO), Lycos (NASDAQ: LCOS), At Home (NASDAQ: ATHM), America Online (NYSE: AOL) and InfoSeek (NASDAQ: SEEK) must deal with not only technological choices but also economic incentives emerging in the electronic environment. To provide conceptual guidelines for digital entrepreneurs is one of the objectives of electronic commerce research.
Relevant e-business sectors include online retailing such as Barnesandnoble.com (NYSE: BKS), Amazon.com (NASDAQ: AMZN), Federal Express (NYSE: FDX) and SABRE Group (NYSE: TSG); online auctions and other market innovators such as Ebay (NASDAQ: EBAY), Ubid (NASDAQ: UBID) and Onsale.com (NASDAQ: ONSL); information merchandising such as MarketWatch.com (NASDAQ: MKTW); and virtual communities that combine advertising with services, such as GeoCities (NASDAQ: GCTY), and Xoom.com (NASDAQ: XMCM).
Contact: Professor Andrew B. Whinston, 512-471-8876 ([email protected]) or Soon-Yong Choi ([email protected]) and via World Wide Web: http://crec.bus.utexas.edu
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