Modeling CSFs of B2C E-commerce Systems Using the Enterprise Architecture Approach

Declaration The work in this thesis has not been submitted previously, in whole or in part, for any other academic award and is my original work, except where acknowledged. The work has been carried out since the beginning of my research program in August 2007.Acknowledgement I take this opportunity to acknowledge, appreciate and thank all those who have helped, supported and encouraged me throughout this research process. To my supervisor, Associate Professor Peter Bernus, many thanks for his kind and wise advice throughout this research. He provided extremely valuable assistance in all areas of the dissertation. Abdulaziz University, many thanks for offering me this opportunity (by providing a scholarship) to complete this degree and also for their generous financial support for me and my family. To my parents, special thanks for their devotion to me throughout my life journey, May God save them and give them good health. To my wife, Reem, and my daughter, Reena, many thanks for their unfailing love, support and their confidence in me during the time I have worked on this dissertation. Lastly, I wish to thank my brothers and sisters for their continual encouragement and support.Abstract This study is to investigate the Critical Success Factors (CSFs) of the Business to Customer (B2C) e-commerce system. These factors should be considered comprehensively and expanded to all parties concerned to create and provide the electronic service and ensure that the CSFs are satisfied. In order to give an organized and inclusive view of the CSFs, an enterprise architecture framework will be adopted to systemize this investigation. The adoption of the enterprise architecture framework gives several benefits to this project:  It gives a complete view of the B2C e-commerce organization in order to consider all involved activities in providing eService,  It shows all involved entities in providing eService and their relationships,  It expresses the CSFs as principles as part of the 'concept' of the involved entities; and therefore,  It organizes and structures what needs to be done in the enterprise and its entities in order to satisfy the CSFs. In the literature reviewed, there are fairly extensive studies that have proposed a range of significant factors that could be considered as factors for the successful operation of B2C e-commerce systems. However, not many studies have evaluated the factors for building successful B2C e-commerce systems. For this reason, an enterprise architecture framework was adopted, because …