Strategies for Accelerating the Worldwide Adoption of E-Commerce

In recent years, many organizations have recognized the potential of e-commerce to improve profitability by increasing productivity and market penetration while reduc-ing costs. But the vision of an electronically interconnected world requires the global adoption of e-commerce, not just in industrialized nations, but also in developing ones, where most of world’s population lives. To successfully encourage the embrace of the Internet and e-commerce, one must carefully study the unique socioeconomic and cultural aspects of such nations. This article discusses ways to stimulate the worldwide adoption of e-commerce, based on our case study of Greece, a nation that has been slow to embrace Internet technologies. According to a study by industry consultant Forrester Research, Inc., the e-com-merce industry will expand to $1.3 trillion by the year 2003. This anticipated expo-nential growth has led many U.S. companies—ranging from electric utilities to credit card firms to computer equipment manufacturers—to enter this marketplace, either as sellers of goods and services, or as equipment and infrastructure providers. Small U.S. businesses have also begun employing the Internet as a business tool. Accordin