7 Chapter 2 Literature Review: Markets, Intermediation and E ...

subsequent change in the order will necessitate a further exchange of messages and
acknowledgements. EDI networks are also used to transmit invoices, payments,
shipping manifests and delivery schedules, hence accounting for the day-to-day
transmission of most business documents.
Internet-based EC offers a significant benefit over EDI for smaller companies because
it is much cheaper, being based on the public network and open protocols rather than
propriety ones, resulting in lower switching costs and lower set-up costs. In addition,
many people are familiar with Internet technology through their own home use and
find it less complicated compared with EDI. In terms of the business tasks that can be
carried out via the Internet, it adds order tracking, product availability and technical
details querying. In other words, it allows several additional business tasks to be
carried out as well as those listed above for EDI.
One of the most important functions of the Internet and World Wide Web for
businesses is the ability to disseminate information via the corporate home page.
Sullivan (1999) carried out a quantitative survey which suggested that marketing was
not an important function of the corporate home page. However, he argues that a
home page would perform the function of “guiding users towards Web searches more
focused on obtaining positive than negative information on the corporation” (Sullivan
1999, pg. 20), therefore acting as a kind of ‘gatekeeper’ or filter to encourage positive
attitudes towards the company. Sullivan argues that corporate home pages act as (1)
gatekeepers, (2) uncertainty-reducing sources, and (3) tools that define the corporate
image.
Another important aspect of Internet communications is the flexibility of the medium
in providing different formats for data exchange. Whilst the Internet can comply well
with EDI standards for exchanging business documents via Web forms, etc., it also
gives scope for other types of text communication such as electronic mail, hypertext,
spreadsheets and various other document formats. In fact, the World Wide Web is
much richer in content than EDI because it can integrate different types of digital
information and multimedia content. Information richness theory is difficult to apply
to e-commerce as a whole because it encompasses a range of different technologies.
Whilst multimedia undoubtedly adds another aspect to the corporate Web page, in
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