This is not surprising if we recall that in 1997, internet penetration in Australia was a mere 18%, in the US20%, and in China 0.1%. A futuristic framework was developed for this research, but one based on theoretical frameworks that were already developed for traditional ways of exporting.
Today, nine years later, internet penetration has increased significantly, recording in Australia and the US a rate of 68%, and in China 8%. The magnitude of this increase in internet usage creates an environment which enables businesses to utilise e-commerce capabilities. It might be expected that, given this environment, it would be easy to get more empirical evidence of the influence of e-commerce in export businesses, but a literature review points to few studies that provide a contribution in this area.
Karavdic and Gregory (2005) presented a first attempt at e-commerce integration into existing export marketing theories. This paper is a direct outcome of the work in this thesis, as is the main theoretical framework presented in this book.
The study published by Luo, Hongxin Zhao and Du (2005) examined the underlying factors for the fast speed of e-commerce companies’ (ECC) internationalisation by jointly examining the influences of both micro and macro factors. Their results suggest that the speed of ECC internationalisation is not isolated from firm capabilities, such as innovation, marketing, and management of the foreign experience. Similar to the findings presented in this book, the results from their research confirm that a foreign country’s e-business infrastructure and regulatory environment are important variables attracting ECC entrance into a country.
Sheth and Sharma’s (2005) conceptual paper discuss e-marketing in an international context and develops a framework that will allow researchers and managers to understand the impact of country-level effects on e-marketing strategies. Their paper proposes that the evolution of e-marketing strategies is based on the countries’ infrastructure and marketing development. Although, not empirically tested, their research found that international e-marketing strategies are fundamentally changing and will continue to change marketing thought and practice in international markets. This book presents evidence of these changes which are reflected in e-commerce utilisation.