An Exploratory Research On Business Use Of Internet And Web Application By International Business Enterprises In China

The value of World Wide Web (the Web, one of the main functions of Internet) comesfrom two main features of Internet: one is the open standard, and the other is two-wayinteraction. Base on the prospective business opportunities of the market, business use andapplication of the Web has drawn wide attention from the commercial enterprises.Academics have also shown great interest on the research of use and application of Web.The reason is that the World Wide Web has become a virtual market space (electronicmarket place), as the players, the product and the process on the market have becomevirtualized at least in part. As the Internet grows rapidly due to cheaper hardware, moreinnovative software and easier access, users (consumers) are offered more choices betweenthe two parallel markets: traditional physical market place and electronic virtual marketspace. This makes the enterprises consider how to renovate business operations to fit thetwo-market structure and eventually competition of the Web application will have a sayingon the winner. From the virtual market space perspective, enterprises require a number of questions tobe answered by the academic. What impact does the Web application will have on thestrategy and operation of the enterprises? Why and how do enterprises make use of Webapplication? These are also the main queries from the academic perspective. The dissertation focuses on use of Web application by exploring the theories behind themotives of enterprises using Internet (including World Wide Web). An empirical researchhas been done to look into how and to what extent the international business enterprises inChina use Internet and Web application. Although this is an exploratory research on thistopic, it will definitely help those enterprises in China in terms of formulating Webstrategies and operations in order to obtain the benefits and value of new ways of doingbusiness, especially on virtual market space. However, Internet use and Web application isa cross-disciplinary topic with knowledge from multi-scientific field. The research of the 8dissertation keeps on the angles of applied economics. The dissertation is comprised of four parts. The first part (see chapter one, chapter two)is the introduction of our research, including the background, research questions andplanning of the research. The second part (see chapter three and chapter four) explores thetheories behind the business use of Internet and Web application while we summarized thegeneral methodologies we adopted during the whole research process. The third part (seechapter four and chapter five) focuses on the design, methods of questionnaire-basedresearch. In this chapter research findings and detailed analysis have been discussed. Thefourth part (see chapter six) is the final conclusion of the research. There is no generalized uniform theory behind the business use of Internet and Webapplication; however, the questions can be addressed from various traditional economictheories, as Internet is regarded as a new IT innovation as well as an expansion of thetraditional market. In this dissertation, four theories have been looked into for explainingthe reasons behind the business use Internet and Web application. They are transaction costtheory, agent theory, network effect theory and competitive advantage theory. Based on our 307-sample questionnaire survey, our findings are as follows: (1) Internethas become the infrastructure of international business enterprises in China; (2) Significantdifferences on use of Internet and Web application have been tested out among theinternational business enterprises with different features in China. (3) Various benefits havebeen obtained by relevent international business enterprises from using Internet and Webapplication while these benefits are proved closely related to the core competitiveness ofeach enterprise. (4) Internet and the Web is the...