The focus of this paper is to examine the determinants explaining the timing of E-commerce adoption in Taiwan manufacturing industries through the use of a duration model. This paper also investigates whether there have any difference in determining the utilization of E-commerce among different industries. And construct the measurement of E-commerce spillover effect, vertical integration and diversification to see how the E-commerce affects the plant¡¦s boundaries and transaction efficiency by changing the transaction costs among plants.

Abstract The goals of this study are threefold: first of all, cross-country data for 1997 and 2000, extracted from¡§2002 World Development Indicator¡¨ the World Bank, are utilized to estimate transaction efficiency indicators (TEIs) for various countries. Second, this study further examines the influences of transaction efficiency on the various economic developments, including per capita real income, foreign capital inflow, and infant mortality rate. Finally, this study applies questionnaire survey approach to carry out comparison between Taiwan, China and Hong Kong in terms of transaction costs and the institutional performances. Utilizing ¡§factor analysis¡¨ to measure cross-country TEIs, this study argues that countries with better TEIs generally have higher per capita incomes and FDI net inflows, but lower infant mortality rates. And, we may suggest that Taiwan¡¦s transaction efficiency is superior to the average level of APEC memberships, East Asia and Pacific countries. China is inferior to APEC memberships East Asia, and Pacific countries in terms of degrees of transaction efficiency. The evidence from the study indicates that Hong Kong¡¦s the transaction efficiency is better and equal to developed countries¡¦ and G8 memberships¡¦ ones. In adddition, Taiwan is better than that of China but inferior to that of Hong Kong in terms of transaction efficiency. In comparison to the statistical outcomes, the empirical results of questionnaire survey also confirm that Taiwan is much better than China, but worse than Hong Kong in their stitutional performances.