Stewart Adam, Senior Lecturer, School of Marketing, RMIT University, Level 14, 239 Bourke Street, Melbourne, 3000. Email: stewart.adam@rmit.edu.au
Kenneth R Deans, Senior Lecturer, Department of Marketing, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand. Email: kdeans@commerce.otago.ac.nz
During 1999 and continuing into 2000 a multi-phase study of online business, the WebQUAL Audit, was undertaken in Australia and New Zealand. This research is in the process of extension into selected countries with local co-researchers to enable inter-country comparisons on business and government use of the World Wide Web. The study examines organisational use of the Internet across standard industrial classifications (ANZSIC) both in terms of strategic intent and satisfaction in meeting stated organisational objectives [HREF 1]. The study arises from earlier research and seeks to confirm or refute a number of propositions, four of which are detailed in this paper. The study acknowledges that online businesses fall along a spectrum between 'pure dot.com' at one extremity and 'pure bricks and mortar businesses' at the other, with increasing merging or networking alliances between the two. The first proposition is that the Internet (Net) occupies multiple roles, both internally and externally, in commerce and government and that business (the focus of this paper) has adopted the Net at varying rates according to industrial sector since 1994 depending on size of business. Secondly, it is hypothesised that there are identifiable stages through which online businesses progress over time. Thirdly, it is further hypothesised that the stage reached in progression is related to the expected rate of return from investment in online business. A fourth hypothesis is that 'interactivity' is judged a key success factor in Website performance by online businesses. The paper brings together results from two of the three phases of the WebQUAL audit (analysis of results from the probabilistic study in Australia and New Zealand; content analysis of respondent Websites; and personal interviews) in verifying or refuting the propositions detailed.
Business use of the Internet, or rather the World Wide Web (Web) as its graphical face, is still growing on a country by country basis—some faster than others, and differing in the degree and type of use by business. While the United States still leads in terms of the number of business Websites and household usage (35 percent), Japan has been less than enthusiastic about the Web based commerce until recently—in part due to Net access costs, partly due to a competing physical world express delivery system Takkuhaiban, and also because of a reluctance by Japanese consumers to use other than cash. Europe is poised to reap the commercial benefits from Web technology (Cornell 1999). Already Finland leads the world in cell (mobile) phone and Net use [HREF 2] with 45 percent of the country's businesses having Net access, compared to 34 percent in the U.K. and only 13 percent in Spain [HREF 3]. By comparison, only 22 percent of Australian households use the Net (ABS 1999) but only 5 percent of Australian households have shopped online compared with 17 percent in the United States (Beeby 2000; Argy and Bollen 1999). It also has to be said that while many Net users may search for information from global sources, they 'live their lives locally' and for many reasons will continue to shop on two legs for many product categories [HREF 4].
While it is interesting to note such statistics as Internet adoption rates and 'dot.bubble' media commentary on share values, it is also sobering to note that "only 2 percent of the world's population uses the Internet" (Gray 2000, p.13). Continuing in the same vein, it is also of note that "one in four Americans uses the Internet, one in six Australians, and only one in 200 South-East Asians" (Gray 2000, p.13). Of course, diffusion of the innovation is far from over. Also of consequence is that not all of business' efforts on the Web meet with success despite the attendant publicity and argument by selective example using pure online business models—particularly where these businesses are selling computer-related items or converging with traditional broadcast or narrowcast media. Missing from many such commentaries to date is statistically reliable data on business use of the Net and business expectations concerning outcomes from such use. The aims of the present study are to overcome this lack of knowledge over time.
Media commentators make frequent claims concerning the success of a number of 'first tier' 'pure dot.coms' (eBay.com; LookSmart.com; Yahoo! among others) at and after their initial public offering (IPO). A more balanced scrutiny shows that businesses range from those firms operating as 'pure bricks and mortar' businesses to newer business models where the business is a 'pure dot.com'—or more than likely an 'almost pure dot.com'—many of which will never make a profit and will disappear. The latter category is evident, since most online businesses are not of a pure digital form nor do they simply move software 'bits' over the Net in response to an online customer order (See Figure 1). Moreover there is evidence of integration.
There are a number of emerging issues concerning online business, wherever they lie on the spectrum presented in Figure 1, that require examination. The numerous small and emerging enterprises are "plagued by severe financial constraints" and nearly half of what were then early adopters of the Web "have not generated substantial numbers of orders, and may not be receiving any orders, but still maintain their Web presence" (O'Keefe, O'Connor and Hsiang-Jui 1998, p.639). This problem may not be restricted to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) given the finding by KPMG's study that "five of the top six business functions [in Australia and New Zealand] performed electronically via the Internet relate to communication, namely company information (50 percent), customer communication (49 percent), supplier communication (45 percent), marketing (42 percent), customer service (34 percent) and public relations/advertising (31 percent) ... very few are using the channel for transactional services such as order-taking, procurement, product delivery and payment" (1999, p.5). Andersen Consulting find similar results in their nine country review of e-commerce involving respondent company CEOs, policy-makers, IT users and specialists (1998). This study finds a 'wait and see attitude' held by business, and that Australia is "at the point of takeoff, ready to leverage our domestic markets' propensity to rapidly take up new value-adding ideas to create the critical mass necessary to make and take global markets" (1998, p.43).
The real issue though is that businesses need to carefully consider the online business model they are adopting, whether they are coming from the pure dot.com end of the spectrum or migrating an existing business to the Net. While the Web is finding its way onto media plans, there is a chasm between a firm considering new media in its integrated marketing communications strategy and one that is spending large sums on a transacting Website that is connected to its accounting and inventory systems and which is seriously used for customer relationship management (CRM).
This then is the setting in which the WebQUAL Audit was undertaken and in which the interpretation of results is offered.
The WebQUAL study was begun in the knowledge that the commercial environment is comprised of different types of businesses as already outlined.
The point has been made that the Internet (Net) occupies multiple roles, both internally and externally, in commerce and government [HREF 1]. It is self-evident that business (the focus of this paper) has adopted the Net at varying rates. Why this is so, is complex. It is suggested here that the length of time of Web usage by business since 1994 is positively correlated with the size of the business, with larger businesses being the first to use the Web.
It was Everett M. Rogers (1962), and the diffusionists that followed him, who made popular a stepwise model of adoption of innovation, and who put forward the notion of a categorisation of adopters based on how quickly they adopt innovation. From Rogers' earliest studies of the complete adoption of farm chemicals by interconnected farmers in 'networked' communities came the conceptual normal distribution of innovators, early adopters, early majority, late majority and laggards of any and all innovations. In keeping with this notion, a second hypothesis which drove the WebQUAL study is that there are three identifiable stages through which many online businesses progress over time. In this instance, the stages relate to the roles the Internet occupies in business—marketing communicator; marketing channel Net user; and customer relationship manager.
Thirdly, it is further hypothesised that the stage reached in the progression detailed under Proposition 2 is positively related to the expected rate of return from investment in online business (Internet, Intranet and Extranet).
A fourth hypothesis is that 'interactivity' is judged a key success factor in Website performance by online businesses. This view was put forward by O'Keefe et al (1998) in their study of early mover online retailers. However, for some their view of interactivity is too marketing channel oriented in that they define it as "delivery of products and samples via the Web, plus customer interaction" (p.641). Hoffman, Novak and Chatterjee [HREF 5] describe interactivity as ranging from engaging customers by using email buttons and having consumers fill out forms. WebQUAL examines these notions of interactivity as an important basis of getting people to return to Websites in the same way that theme parks and even restaurants and supermarkets seek to do this. WebQUAL seeks to add credence to the Pine II and Gilmore (1999) notion of experiences which is highly related to interactivity, particularly in computer games and physical world adventure games [HREF 1].
Pine II and Gilmore (1998) point out that it is possible to think of experiences in terms of two dimensions: one relating to customer participation (here taken to mean interactivity), the other describing connection or "the environmental relationship, that unites customers with the event or performance" (p.101). The customer participation spectrum has passive participation—watching television as described in WebQUAL—at one extreme, and active participation at the other extreme—playing cards in WebQUAL. The connection dimension has absorption at one extreme—attending a seminar in WebQUAL—and immersion at the other end of the spectrum—scuba diving in WebQUAL.
In keeping with Pine II and Gilmore's (1998; 1999) conceptualisation, WebQUAL sorts the Website experiences intended by management according to their position on the spectra representing the two dimensions. Entertainment tends to be passive, while educational events like attending a seminar involve active participation. Escapist experiences may involve learning or they may entertain the Website guest. Abseiling or acting in a live play involve active participation and immerse those involved in the experience. In terms of a Website, live chat involves active participation, whereas realtime multi-user games involve active participation and immerse the guest and affect the outcome. Thus a key feature of immersion is the fact that user involvement affects the outcome.
The point which Pine II and Gilmore (1998) make is that such experiences unfold over a period of time. The intent when immersing guests in a Website activity is to have them return to experience the unfolding event. This is certainly evident in Websites aimed at a youthful target market such as Channel [V], the ABC's Rage, and MTV. The richest experiences are claimed to lie at a "sweet spot" where the spectra meet according to Pine II and Gilmore (1998, p.102).
The WebQUAL Audit is a study of business, government and institutional use of the Net. The study uses online techniques (email and Web form) in reaching a probabilistic sample of profit and not-for-profit businesses as well as government. The study also employs content analysis and interviews in later stages.
The methodology employed in the WebQUAL audit was developed after scrutinising online survey methods (Brennan, Rae and Parackal 1998; Weible and Wallace 1998); [HREF 6]. WebQUAL is a longitudinal study involving three phases which are detailed further in this section.
The first phase involved an email and Web form survey of a probabilistic sample of the 81,563 Australian registered and 17,888 New Zealand registered domain names as at January 1999. Each Website was visited and an email address obtained, mostly of the type sales@company.com.au, info@company.com.au or info@company.co.nz. An email invitation for the manager responsible for Internet/Intranet/Extranet maintenance, was sent together with the password necessary to gain access to the Web form questionnaire [HREF 7]. Middleware was developed to pass responses to an Oracle database. Resulting data was then analysed using the statistical package SPSS. An overall response rate of 17 percent (500/2,976) was achieved taking into account follow-ups. A usable response of 399 (13.4 percent) of all domain names in the sampling frame was achieved when taking into account complete responses. Response speeds are a telling feature of online surveys, whereas completeness of response and technical matters remain issues (Deans and Adam 1999).
The second phase involved examining respondent Websites in detail. Three hundred and one (301) business Websites in Australia and New Zealand from the 321 usable respondent Websites were accessed by a single researcher and rated according to the descriptive model accessible from [HREF 8]. The 20 non-visited Websites could not be accessed at the time of the study. Respondent Websites used in this content analysis phase include com.au, au.com, oz.com.au, co.nz and the number is therefore higher than the number of Websites classified by ANZSIC divisions included in phase 1 (online survey), where some divisions such as Agriculture, Mining, Utilities, and Government sites are held out.
The third phase of WebQUAL in Australia and New Zealand involves personal interviews with randomly selected respondents. The findings from this phase are not dealt with in this paper.
In this section, we turn firstly to demographic information concerning WebQUAL. Over half of all business respondents from all business ANZSIC divisions (n=305), were company directors or managing director, with 5.3 percent carrying the title of Marketing Director. Fourteen percent of respondents classified themselves as marketing management, a further 14 percent of respondents were information management or financial officers and 20 percent fell into the category, 'other'.
Size of respondent businesses in Australia and New Zealand, as indicated by turnover and employee numbers, are illustrated in Figures 2 and 3 respectively. Table 1 compares the size of Australian business by employee size with respondent Australian businesses as per the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).
| Employment number category | ABS(a)
1996-97 (N=929.5) '000 |
ABS(a)
1996-97 % |
WebQUAL 1999
(b) (n=234) Frequency |
WebQUAL 1999
(b) % |
| 0 | 409.1(c) | 44.0(c) | 12 | 5.1 |
| 1-9 | 439.3 | 47.3 | 148 | 63.2 |
| 10-19 | 46.1 | 5.0 | 21 | 9.0 |
| 20-99 | 29.1 | 3.1 | 37 | 15.8 |
| 100+ | 5.9 | 0.01 | 16 | 6.9 |
The labour force comparison presented in Table 1 indicates that WebQUAL is somewhat skewed in favour of larger businesses with 10 or more employees, and under-represents non-employing businesses. There could also be confusion by WebQUAL respondents who saw non-employing companies (such as a trading trust) differently to ABS respondents. The under-representation of businesses employing less than 9 or no people is perhaps not surprising as there is much anecdotal evidence to suggest that SMEs are under-represented in the online business environment. WebQUAL appears not to have gained such SMEs in the proportion they naturally occur in Australia, perhaps because these businesses are usually found on Web hosting sites such as NineMSN and WebCentral— in some cases not providing their own email address, but rather that of a technical representative at their host.
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In Proposition 1 it was suggested that the duration of Web usage by business since 1994 is positively correlated with the size of the business, with larger businesses being the first to use the Web. Table 2 presents the frequency distribution of businesses according to qualification (b) in Table 1 which means that some ANZSIC divisions are excluded, but the results presented are for Australia and New Zealand. It is of note that Proposition 1 is not supported. That is, the uptake of Web technology over time has been across all businesses and is not just the domain of larger firms. It is to be remembered however, that in the case of Australia, WebQual is slightly skewed in favour of larger firms, and that non-employing businesses are under-represented. Further analysis by industry division at a later date may show that there are variations between industries in this regard.
| Duration of Website | Frequency |
Percent |
1 to 12 months |
86 |
27.0 |
13 to 24 months |
125 |
39.2 |
25 to 36 months |
58 |
18.2 |
more than three years |
50 |
15.7 |
Total |
319 |
100.0 |
A second proposition concerns the identifiable stages through which online businesses progress over time. In this instance, the suggested stages relate to the roles the Internet occupies in business—marketing communicator; marketing channel Net user; and customer relationship manager. To examine this aspect, each respondent Website was visited, analysed and rated against a descriptive model [HREF 8] . The ratings are tabulated on a 'competing locally' and a 'competing globally' basis.
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Out of a maximum possible score of 23 (local) and 27 (global) points for use of the Web in marketing communications (see [HREF 8]), the mean and frequency distributions shown in Figure 4 tend to suggest that the online businesses surveyed by WebQUAL are communicating with a local market in Australia and New Zealand and are not communicating with a global audience. This is perhaps a reflection of the difficulties encountered by early movers that jumped into global online marketing out of the United States. These early issues ranged from technical matters, HTML language limitations, and on to cultural differences (Veeramani and Talbert 1999).
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Use of the Web as a marketing channel for transactions locally and globally was also analysed and rated by visiting each Website that responded to the earlier email and Web form survey. A maximum possible score of 8 (local) and 13 (global) points could be achieved if the Web is used to transact. Score frequencies are graphically depicted in Figure 5 together with mean scores and standard deviations. Figure 5 tends to suggest that most respondent businesses are not transacting locally or globally over the Web at this point in time and where they are including transaction elements shown in [HREF 8] they appear to be designed for an overseas market. Thus, Figures 4 and 5 indicate that online businesses may wish to transact with a global market, but are not using the global medium to best effect from a communications perspective.
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Proposition 2 suggests that many online businesses would move through the earlier two Web usage stages to turn to customer relationship management as a last stage. The effect of holding the elements 'email and Web form communication' and 'About' out of this score is shown in Figure 6. The result is that the transition need not be sequential from using the Net as a communications medium through to transactions and on to relationship development, maintenance or enhancement. Indeed, the medium may be used to maintain a relationship with customers transacting through traditional channels. Moreover, some industries may be using the Net in CRM as a means of enhancing brand positioning. Although not part of the WebQUAL sampling frame, Moove.com.au is cited as an example of such activity.
In effect proposition 2 is not supported by the content analysis undertaken against a descriptive model of the stages businesses pass through in their use of the Web over time. This proposition is also not supported by analysis of WebQUAL audit phase 1 online survey (Question 2) results in that 84.0 percent of business respondents indicate that their reason for maintaining a Website is for publicity purposes or to convey product information, compared with 36.0 percent for the purpose of 'generating online transactions (orders)', and compared with 20.7 percent claiming to want to 'learn about customers' requirements'. Conveying product information is the most frequently given reason for maintaining a company Website. A very low 17.8 percent responded that they were trying to 'counter competitor initiatives' leading to the conclusion that at this point in time, Australian and New Zealand businesses do not see the Net as part of their competitive strategy. On the matter of 'support[ing] sales enquiries that are not made online', 41.5 percent claim this objective, thus making sense of the 40.7 percent claiming to want to 'facilitate relationship development and maintenance with customers'.
Given the support for marketing communications using the Internet (as opposed to Intranet and Extranet) and given that business sales and profits are expected to generate a return on investment (ROI) commensurate with the investment risk involved, it is not surprising that some business respondents to the phase 1 survey expect returns of over 100 percent on their investment. What is of note is that 21.6 percent of the 135 (42.3 percent) businesses expecting any return at all fall into this category. This is in contrast to the 5.3 percent of businesses expecting a 25 to 49 percent return and the 3.1 percent expecting between 50 and 99 percent return. Only 6.6 percent of businesses expect a return from their investment in Intranets and (6.9 percent) expect a return from investment in Extranets. Analysis fails to find any statistically significant relationship between stage reached in Net use and expected rate of return on investment in the Internet nor Intranets and Extranets. At this point in time, proposition 3 is refuted. That is, while businesses do pass through the stages of Net or Web use highlighted in the preceding section though not in the sequence first suggested, at this juncture there is no statistically significant relationship between stage reached and expected commercial returns. It is noted that WebQUAL is a longitudinal study and these findings support earlier commentary in the background review and analysis section of the paper.
The online business sector is not different to the physical business world in that repeat purchases from a loyal clientele are needed for the business to remain profitable. The Net industry uses the term 'stickiness' to describe this very real situation. Marketing management invoke the term customer lifetime value when they monitor the loyalty and profitability of individual customers who they know by name and location from a customer database. The results of the scale questions are shown in Figure 7.
So as not to indicate any negative sentiment associated with a particular end of the continuum, the scale questions were presented online as Question 13 in the online questionnaire [HREF 7].
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Paired scale responses 1 to 9 were recoded and their positions are indicated in Figure 8. It is evident that responses are spread across the four quadrants as opposed to being clustered around where the spectra meet in Pine II and Gilmore's (1998) terms. However, Figure 8 indicates that almost half of the respondents' Websites are not attempting to engage as many senses as they might and are thereby failing to maximise their attempts to engage their Website guests and increase the probability of their return over time. As retail outlets such as Niketown illustrate, successful retailing today is more theatre than simply merchandising branded goods and services. Websites will need to follow suit, depending on their communication, marketing channel and CRM objectives.
In response to the question "Why does your organisation maintain a Website on the Internet?" in phase 1 of WebQUAL, 30.9 percent of business websites responded that is was to "enable interaction with specific customers". The fact that 84.0 percent want to"publicise the organisation's name and intent" and 84.0 percent also wish to "communicate specific product and service information" indicates that businesses are still using this new medium for one-way communication as opposed to interaction. Moreover, only 24.0 percent of the 234 responding businesses to question 12.14 rated their Website as providing good or very good interaction, while 15.3 percent claim not to have considered interactivity. Only 14.2 percent of 236 responding to question 11.5 ranked "the level of dialogue with specific customers" in the top 3 criteria used to "evaluate budget expended on Website maintenance".
Despite much literature to the effect that interactivity or online experiences aid in ensuring that Website guests return, at this point in time Proposition 4 is refuted in that Australian and New Zealand business is yet to incorporate this feature into their Websites.
Relationships are important for they help retain customers, and maintain and increase profitability. By way of example, one study in the credit card industry found that "a 5 percent increase in retention grows the company's profit by 60 percent by the fifth year" (Reichheld in Gronroos, 1997, p.327). Online businesses, whether new business models and therefore pure dot.coms or traditional business migrating to the Net, will sooner rather than later need to take cognisance of such well-accepted truths from the physical world. Developing relationships means showing competence and commitment as well as seeking to resolve disputes which in turn impacts on trust, satisfaction, continuation of the relationship and a willingness to take the relationship further or extend the amount of business shared (Selnes 1998).
Online business has at its disposal a rich interactive medium and needs to use it accordingly. The Net is ideally suited to the business-to-business environment where it enables communication on a one-to-one basis, and where alliance and project co-ordination costs can be reduced, and where the Web can be used for communication, transacting and CRM. Self-interest is likely to ensure that business partners utilise the Net and Web far more than electronic data interchange (EDI) before it. The consumer market is less homogeneous. The business models and business types seeking to reach the consumer market are also more diverse than in the B2B market.
Most businesses in Australia and New Zealand are not fully utilising the capabilities of the new medium, whether it be for communication, transacting (e-commerce) or CRM. The reasons for this reticence are intimated by the KPMG and Andersen Consulting studies referred to. In the North American marketplace, the Web is far more accepted by both businesses and customers, with the result that business sees the Web as reaching a global marketplace. In Australia and New Zealand, there has been greater skepticism concerning the operating benefits, particularly since the news media tend to concentrate on shareholder value as opposed to operational value to business and the value to potential and existing customers of being better able to express their wants and demands and therefore having their expectations exceeded.
The WebQUAL Audit is a longitudinal study that aims to compare organisational use of the Net and Web across a number of countries. The full impact of the research will unfold over time, in much the same way that it has been suggested that experiences are used to maintain online customer loyalty. It is suggested that the alternative to positive experiential outcomes from Website visits is ambush marketing with sales revenue as the measure of success. This latter short-sighted approach entails the use of graphics and sound laden sites which fail to maximise the positive effects of a well planned and executed online strategy that is integrated with other aspects of competitive strategy. Further research into specific aspects of business use of the Web, such as the effectiveness of banner advertising should see greater consumer involvement and fewer privacy concerns, rather than use of various Web technologies simply because they are there to be used. Comparisons between geographic domains is also an intended outcome from extension of the present study. It has to be said however, that access to the full domain name listings appears to be unavailable in countries such as Singapore, and this may limit such statistically meaningful comparisons.
Evidence suggests advertisers have adapted well to the technology that allows adaptive banner advertising with active links to the advertiser, but that potential customers have not (Sutherland 1999). Sutherland (1999) points out that Website visitors (guests) are not clicking on banner ads. and that "in 1999 the average rate of 'click-through' for Web advertising plummeted to around 0.5 percent" (p.38)—a lower figure again than the 2 percent put forward by Hofacker and Murphy (1998) one year earlier. It should be noted however, that 'click-throughs' are only one revenue stream available to pure navigator (Evans and Wurster 1999) sites. Many sites have mixed revenue streams: traffic generation (perhaps for high search ranking using meta tags or movement along a Web chain), sponsorship (flat fee), advertising exposure (pay per page view or impression), prospect fees (pay per advertising click-through, guest book signing, or limited use product download), and sales commissions (percentage of sales) (Hanson 2000). More detailed analysis using online business resulting data is required, so as to verify operational outcomes for management and other stakeholders in online business. The alternative is more media hype.
The paper indicates that diffusion of the Net continues, particularly among businesses for use in online B2B activities such as co-ordinating alliances and outsourced activities. Uptake by businesses for B2C also continues with United States business and consumers leading the way. The first wave of the WebQUAL Audit was carried out in Australia and New Zealand in 1999 and confirms the findings of preceding studies that business is slow to use the new medium to its fullest potential other than in marketing communications, where business is still locked in a one-way mass-communication paradigm.
Proposition 1, which suggests that the duration of Web usage by business since 1994 is positively correlated with the size of the business, is not supported. The study finds that uptake of Web technology over time has been across all businesses and is not just the domain of larger firms.
Proposition 2 suggests that many online businesses would move through three usage stages to turn to customer relationship management as a last stage. Online businesses do appear to move through different stages, but not in the order first thought. This is because some firms use the Net to maintain a relationship with customers transacting through traditional channels. Moreover, some industries may be using the Net in CRM as a means of enhancing brand positioning, which is also a marketing communication task.
Proposition 3 suggests that the stage reached in the progression detailed under Proposition 2 is positively related to the expected rate of return from investment in online business (Internet, Intranet and Extranet). This proposition is refuted in that while businesses do pass through the stages suggested, there is no statistically significant relationship between stage reached and expected commercial returns at this stage in the longitudinal study. Individual businesses do however have quite high expectations as to return on investment in Web use.
Proposition 4 suggests that online business see 'interactivity' as a key success factor in Website performance and therefore affecting 'stickiness' (customer loyalty to a Website and its offerings) and customer lifetime value. Australian and New Zealand business still appear to regard the Web as a medium for one-way communication of product information and company image, and are yet to regard experiential aspects and two-way dialogue as important factors in maintaining customer loyalty and extending the scope of transactions and relationships.
In summary, Australian and New Zealand business is slow to embrace extension of their marketing channels to include online transactions or e-commerce. As a result, use of the Net for online customer relationship management is also diffusing slowly. Given that the majority of respondents are in senior management, and the disenchantment expressed with the current level of interactivity (only 24.0 percent seeing this as good or very good) there is a need to stimulate the discussion on effective business design among other aspects. Additionally, anecdotal evidence of a poor marketing logistics network response in the 1999 Christmas period which saw many unfulfilled orders by online business (such as dstore.com.au) only serves to cause greater reticence by those yet to add online distribution channels. The word 'potential' still remains one of the most often used words when describing online business in Australia and New Zealand, with many seeing a yawning chasm when the Web is mentioned.
Stewart Adam and Kenneth R. Deans © 2000. The authors assign to Southern Cross University and other educational and non-profit institutions a non-exclusive licence to use this document for personal use and in courses of instruction provided that the article is used in full and this copyright statement is reproduced. The authors also grant a non-exclusive licence to Southern Cross University to publish this document in full on the World Wide Web and on CD-ROM and in printed form with the conference papers and for the document to be published on mirrors on the World Wide Web.
[Proceedings ]