Classifying structures for providing products and services in the electronic marketplace

A Conceptual Investigation of the E-commerce Industry Electronic commerce, or activities that directly support commerce by means of electronic (networked) connections , is redefining the very foundations of competitiveness in terms of information content and information delivery mechanisms. Flows of information over international networks have created an electronic marketspace [8] of firms that are learning to exploit business opportunities. Those that embrace e-commerce are predicted to succeed and those that do not are expected to fail [6, 10]. Little, however, is understood about the structure of the e-commerce industry. To compete effectively, firms need a useful classification scheme for the e-commerce market, its products and services. The e-commerce industry is comprised of a variety of products and ser-satellite networks, and Web-based tele-phony); and other transmission network services (the Internet and virtual private VANs). Other critical components