TABLE 1.1 MAJOR TRENDS IN E-COMMERCE, 2006

e-commerce the use of the Internet and the Web to transact business. More formally,digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals

e-business the digital enablement of transactions and processes within a firm, involving information systems under the control of the firm

THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN E-COMMERCE AND E-BUSINESS
There is a debate among consultants and academics about the meaning and limitations of both e-commerce and e-business. Some argue that e-commerce encompasses the entire world of electronically based organizational activities that support a firm’s market exchanges—including a firm’s entire information system’s infrastructure others argue, on the other hand, that e-business encompasses the entire world of internal and external electronically based activities, including e-commerce

E-commerce primarily involves transactions that cross firm boundaries. E-business primarily involves the application of digital technologies to business processes within the firm.

The term e-business to refer primarily to the digital enablement of transactions and processes within a firm, involving information systems under the control of the firm. For the most part, in our view, e-business does not include commercial transactions involving an exchange of value across organizational boundaries. For example, a company’s online inventory control mechanisms are a component of e-business, but such internal processes do not directly generate revenue for the firm from outside businesses or consumers, as e-commerce, by definition, does. It is true, however, that a firm’s e-business infrastructure provides support for online e-commerce exchanges; the same infrastructure and skill sets are involved in both e-business and e-commerce. Ecommerce and e-business systems blur together at the