Managing Operations in the E-Commerce Era: Requirements and Challenges

Abstract

Of the many innovations that have impacted humanity during the last millennium, the Internet can be considered by far the most pervasive: It is transforming different facets of human activity, not the least of which are business transactions. One of the fundamental issues that a given firm’s management seeks to address, is how best to utilize input resources to provide customers with goods and services of higher value, thus generating profits and increasing market share. To facilitate activities embodied in this transformation process, a growing number of firms now use the Internet. This chapter analyzes the interrelationship between e-commerce and operations, and assesses the role operations should play to ensure the success of business-to-consumer and business-to-business e-commerce. It also proposes how to address key issues in order to harness the full capability of the Internet for commerce.