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Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2006. / Title from title screen (site viewed May 22, 2007). PDF text: 105 p. : ill. (some col.) ; 1.04 Mb UMI publication number: AAT 3237055. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in microfilm and microfiche formats.

Thesis (MTech (Business Information Systems))--Cape Peninsula University of Technology, 2005 / Where customers have freedom of choice, their level of satisfaction will determine if they are loyal, long-term and profitable customers. If customers are not satisfied they will take their business elsewhere. The increase in the level of satisfaction in key element areas would increase overall customer satisfaction and increase customers' future behaviours such as purchasing on the Internet and recommending the e-retail websites to others. This thesis also explains in the previous chapters that early adopters of eretailing exhibited more of the elements of service transactions than goods transactions and that these elements best explain the e-retailer-consumer relationship. Creating the trust between a customer and its service provider {e-retailer} is one of the key factors in ensuring customer loyalty and retention. Other challenges that were discussed include controlling customer data, integrating on-offline orders, delivering goods cost effectively and handling of returns. Strategies e-retail businesses implement and use in improving product and service quality, gain market share and maintain greater customer loyalty were discussed in this research. If the e-retail businesses can continue to improve consumers' satisfaction they will be rewarded with continued improvement in overall customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and retention and increase profitability. While the Internet certainly poses new challenges for e-retailers, and offers them invaluable new tools, a spate of new research suggests that there is no reason for traditional retailers to consider themselves doomed. The big question is: how does Internet technology assist e-retail businesses to create loyal e-customers?

Supply chains encompass all of the diverse activities that are associated with the flow and transformation of goods, right from the beginning stage of the raw materials, all the way through to the consumer. Supply chains are broken into three distinct parts, namely upstream activities involving the material and service inputs from suppliers, internal activities involving the manufacture and packaging of the goods, and downstream activities, which involve the distribution and sale of the goods. Since the inception of the automotive industry, buyers and suppliers have been linked in rigid, inflexible relationships. With the advent of the Internet, however, supply chains are becoming less rigid and more efficient. E-enabling an automotive supply chain involves two distinct spheres of interest, namely, the sphere of automotive supply chains and that of e-business. Both spheres are evolving fast and becoming increasingly complex. Due to the increasing complexity, there is a lack of understanding with regard to incorporating e-business principles effectively into automotive supply chains. In order to address this lack of understanding, the dissertation proposes a conceptual framework that can be used to assist in the process of e-enabling an automotive supply chain. Before the dissertation ventures to propose this conceptual framework, a number of challenges that may be encountered when attempting to enable an automotive supply chain are highlighted. The proposed framework, therefore, specifically aims to position activities conceptually in such a way that it can be argued that the identified challenges are considered at the appropriate time in the e-enabling process. The framework therefore, focuses on the entire process, starting at the planning phase and going right through to the implementation phase. As such, the framework consists of various phases, with each phase containing a myriad of activities. The different phases of the framework include developing a strategic business plan, designing an information technology architecture, identifying system and resource requirements, creating a project plan and finally implementing the project. These phases aim to address the entire e-enabling process. The contribution that this dissertation makes is in the form of a conceptual framework which may be followed during the e-enabling process. The framework aims to provide direction and to ensure that the many activities that are involved in the e-enabling process are considered. The dissertation also highlights the many challenges that may be encountered when enabling a supply chain. Lastly a prototype application has been developed using a new Internet technology. The prototype has been developed in order to ascertain the new technologies suitability to the e-enabled supply chain environment.

M. Comm. / It is becoming extremely difficult to ignore the Internet. Globally people are using the Internet to initiate a variety of transactions. These transactions range from the buying and selling of physical goods to the buying and selling of services. Internet traffic is increasing daily and this suggests that electronic commerce revenues will grow at an alarming rate. Electronic commerce has exploded world-wide, and South Africa is no exception. Internet based business-to-business transactions are growing and are expected to become a major market factor. The continuous development and growth of the Internet is attracting business to bring their goods and services to a global marketplace. Public and private international communication systems open up opportunities for new forms of commercial activities. Electronic commerce has developed rapidly because companies have seen the way in which computerisation, and in particular the Internet, can accelerate business procedures. The Internet is allowing traditional businesses to expand the geographic boundaries in which their products are marketed and is also generating new businesses and ways of doing business. This results in new electronic products and delivery mediums. In a rapidly growing marketplace, national borders are becoming meaningless to the distribution or sale of a company's product or service. These changes in business provide a challenge to tax legislators and advisors. It is no longer easy in many instances to determine whether a company is providing products, the use of intangibles, or services. The development of these new products and services poses a host of issues when applying current taxation laws designed to deal with traditional businesses manufacturing physical goods.

LL.M.

This short dissertation concerns the Internet and the role that this medium is playing in the purchasing of goods and services. More specifically, it focuses on the importance of trust in business-to-consumer E-Commerce in South Africa. It identifies the factors that produce a sense of trustworthiness, investigates their interactions and relative importance to the consumer. Understanding the roles of these different factors would allow online retailers to ease consumers' concerns and could hasten the maturation of online purchasing. A total of 1 573 online questionnaires, measuring different issues surrounding trust were completed by customers of the South African icanonline Internet portal (see the Internet website http://www.icanonline.co.za). Findings indicated that gaining the consumer's trust is very important for the online merchant to reduce the level of perceived risk. Since consumers cannot see the outcomes of their shopping process ahead of time, they will judge an online shopping website based on cues that they encounter as they shop. Brand, navigation, fulfillment, security, privacy protection and the logos of trusted third parties constitute some of the essential formal characteristics of websites that communicate trustworthiness to visitors. Due to the nature of the icanonline portal and the fact that most customers displayed a high level of Internet experience and education, the results could not be generalised, this provides an opportunity for future comparative research. / Prof. S. Kruger

Globally, the automotive industry has progressed through various stages of manufacturing paradigms over many decades. The automotive industry is one of South Africa's most important sectors, with many of the major automotive multinationals using South Africa to source components and assemble vehicles for both the local and international markets. Lean production has been recognised as the most effective manufacturing strategy that generates high quality products at low costs, while still producing different varieties of products. The effectiveness of the lean production lies in the relationships that exist between the original equipment manufacturer and its suppliers. Klopping and McKinney (2004) state that the evolution of the Internet as a business tool enhanced by the development of the World Wide Web has led to the emergence of the fast growing e-commerce applications. This quantitative research study aims at investigating the e-business relationships that exist between a selected Eastern Cape Original Equipment Manufacturer and its first tier suppliers. The primary objective of the study was to obtain and document direct feedback from the South African Automotive Manufacturing Industry about their perceptions, opinions, plans and activities in respect to Business to Business Electronic Commerce - called "e-Business" for the remainder of this study. The study shows that most automotive suppliers are comparatively heavy users of e-business. Many of these suppliers are also using e-mail and have a website, but comparatively few engage in more complex e-business operations. The greater majority of respondents reported that e-business has facilitated efficiency of their operations. However, e-business is not being utilised effectively between the OEM and its suppliers even with the introduction of Covisint which is a common e-business interface that was created through collaboration between major OEMs and their suppliers to ease e-business in the automotive industry.