A Conceptual Framework for B2B Electronic Contracting

Business-to-business e-contracting has gained attention in recent years as a way to improve traditional paper contracting. However, a complete framework specifying the aspects of improvement of traditional paper contracting and the new opportunities introduced by e-contracting still does not exist. Past and current projects in econtracting have relied on common sense and ad hoc reasoning to motivate the introduction of e-contracting to business. This paper fills the existing gap, describing the business foundation for the employment of e-contracting. A complete and structured description of the improvements and the new business opportunities introduced by e-contracting are presented. This research work allows companies to clearly identify the benefits that can be achieved in their business context by the introduction of e-contracting. We use two business scenarios to illustrate the new contracting opportunities for business parties