E- BUSINESS- CIA 1

Review of
THE EVOLUTION OF E-COMMERCE RESEARCH:
A STAKEHOLDER PERSPECTIVE
by
Cecil Eng Huang Chua
Information Technology and Operations
Management Department
Nanyang Business School
Nanyang Technological University

Detmar W. Straub
Dept. of Computer Information Systems
J. Mack Robinson College of Business
Georgia State University

Huoy Min Khoo

Department of Information Systems
and Technology Management
College of Business
University of Texas San Antonio

Savitha Kadiyala
Dept. of Computer Information Systems
J. Mack Robinson College of Business
Georgia State University

Published in
Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, VOL 6, NO.4, 2005
Web link- http://web.csulb.edu/journals/jecr/issues/20054/paper1.pdf

INTRODUCTION
This paper mainly focuses on e-Commerce researchers and stake holder theory according to
which researches mainly focus on some stakeholders (primarily customers and employees)
during research and other stakeholders are neglected. The authors believe that little work has
been done to specify roles of stakeholders such as suppliers, regulators, investors, media etc. As
it is not possible to satisfy all the stakeholders, organization needs to prioritize and this
maturation of organization forms the base of this paper. So the objectives of this research paper
are to prepare e-Commerce researchers and propose relevant research topics with respect to these
stakeholders.
STRUCTURE OF THE PAPER
The research paper proceeds as follows. Section 1 gives the introduction about why there is a
need of research on other stakeholders. Section 2 elaborates on related research on stakeholder
theory, which can be used to structure the e-Commerce literature. Section 3 demonstrates that
only two e-Commerce stakeholders have been investigated to date. Section 4 discusses
previously unidentified stakeholders and tries to prove that e-Commerce research on these
stakeholders is both worthwhile and relevant to Information Systems. Section 5 draws
conclusions from the prior discussions.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
The research methodology adopted by the authors was review of top seven out of nine eCommerce journals. Total 1674 articles were reviewed. Each of these articles was assigned a
code and two authors independently coded the data. Though stakeholders and paper topic are
related concepts, the two are not identical, and authors did not allocate papers to each code based
solely on topic criteria. Instead, they focused on the principal stakeholder addressed. Then interrater reliability statistics was used to find out the agreement between the two authors who rated
articles. Also a frame of questions was developed for three stakeholders to illustrate the
importance of these stakeholders in e-Commerce.
MAJOR FINDINGS
The findings are consistent with the prediction of stakeholder theory that e-Commerce would
focus on specific stakeholders at particular stages of their life cycle. The major findings are as
follows:
There was 91.5% agreement in both authors ratings on articles.
Inter- rater reliability was always above threshold and acceptable.
Most research on e-Commerce (approximately 7 articles out of 8) focus on customers and
internal organization stakeholders such as employees.
Indirect stakeholders, investors, and regulators are given scant attention in e-Commerce
research, especially as compared to customers and the internal organization.
The e-Commerce research community has been surprisingly slow in investigating
relationships between e-Commerce companies and their investors
Authors believe that IS and e-Commerce academics should focus on other stakeholders for three
reasons.

First, the e-Commerce phenomenon itself cannot be fully understood if important

constituents are ignored.
Second, as an inherently multi-disciplinary research field, IS and e-Commerce
researchers are ideally placed to understand how myriad stakeholders interact.
Finally, since research disciplines like marketing and management are exploring
problems traditionally regarded as within the intellectual domain of IS/e-Commerce
researchers, they must reinvent themselves by addressing emergent issues of practical
concern in order to survive.

CRITICISM
In this research paper, authors have reviewed only seven e-Commerce journals and on the basis
of their review they have generalized the results. But a review of seven e-Commerce journals
may not be reflective of the entire e-Commerce landscape. If they would have included other
reputable journals like Management Science or Decision Support Systems in their journal basket,
results could have been different
Also, it is almost impossible for an organization to satisfy all its stakeholders and prioritization
of stakeholders differs from one organization to another. So the findings of this research paper
regarding importance of other stakeholders cannot be generalized.
Some of the questions framed for stakeholders are not directly relevant to IS or e-Commerce but
more focused on marketing perspective. More questions related to IS/ E-commerce could give
more insight about the importance of respective stakeholders (investors, suppliers etc.)
Also, the authors have used only two evaluators for rating purpose. For more reliable results
more number of evaluators should rate the data so that results/ findings can be more generalized.
CONCLUSION
The critical review of this article proposes the necessity of addressing other stakeholder groups
by e-Commerce researchers. Also, the paper suggests that e-Commerce is under a disciplinary
threat and could be made redundant by other disciplines. If researchers do not address these
stakeholders, other disciplines will. Authors provide evidence relevant to the supplier stakeholder
to suggest that this is already happening. Also, as NEOs (Net Enhanced Organizations) mature,
they are likely to require solutions to other pressing needs. It is therefore important that IS and eCommerce research reposition itself. The paper argues that at least four stakeholder groups,
namely investors, suppliers, regulators, and indirect stakeholders, will increasingly demand the
attention of NEOs, and therefore should be attracting the interest of IS and e-Commerce
academics.
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Scott, S. M. and V. R. Lane "A Stakeholder Approach to Organizational Identity,"
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