E-Business Technologies in E-Market Literature

E-business processes are implemented through existing, as well as novel technologies. This book chapter focuses on the field of electronic markets (e-markets), and studies the technologies and solutions that are applied and proposed in this field. In particular, the chapter reviews e-market literature in order to identify which are the technological trends that have appeared in the e-markets field during the last decade. A conceptual model that allows for the classification of e-market research literature according to a number of technical topics is first introduced. Then, e-market literature is reviewed, and the technologies that seem to be attracting more research attention are identified. Representative contributions are discussed, and directions for future research are indicated. The overall aim of this chapter is to provide a blueprint of the literature related to e-business technologies for e-markets. INtrODUctION According to the 2005 report of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, 2005), e-commerce continues to grow in all sectors. In the United States (the largest e-commerce market), e-commerce is still most prominent in manufacturing and wholesale trade, but on the other hand, growth rates are highest in retail trade (B2C) and services. In the United States, the largest global e-commerce market, ecommerce sales have continuously grown during the last years. With a growth rate (24.7%) significantly higher than for total retail trade (4.3%), the share of e-commerce in total retail trade is also growing. The latest available figures indicate that its share has more than doubled (UNCTAD, 2005). Eurostat data (http://epp.eurostat.cec. eu.int/) show that for the European Union (EU), e-commerce sales over the Internet increased from 0.9% in 2002 to 2.2% in 2004. Compilations by the OECD suggest that online sales represent a small but growing share of total sales in most EU member countries, and that there is solid growth