Research Paper on:
A Dissertation Proposal; How Should Companies Compete to Maximize their Returns from the Internet?

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
a great deal of development over the last few years has been the use of the internet as a new distortion medium. At first there was suspicion regarding the  demand that would emerge, the next stage saw suspicion on the part of the consumers over the reliability of e-commerce for the supply of goods and in terms of the  security of their personal details. Today there is a high degree of business undertaken on the internet, companies such as Amazon, e-bay and last minute.com have all shown the potential  and with most companies now having an internet page, even if they do not trade in this way the internet is a medium that cannot be ignored. However, many of  the traditional models were developed prior to the development of e-commerce, as such these models need to be developed or adapted to cope with this very different medium. This research  will seek to identify the most effective ways of competing on the internet and the critical factors that any company will need to satisfy if they wish to succeed. This  can then be used to develop a model for e-commerce business. 2. Literature Review E-commerce is defined by the American Heritage Dictionary (2000), as "Commerce that is transacted electronically, as  over the Internet". This indicates that e-commerce is much wider than simply the internet, but that this is a prime example. This definition is very narrow, and the student should  wish to expand on this. The dictionary of computing has a fuller explanation; "The conducting of business communication and transactions over networks and through computers. As most restrictively defined, electronic  commerce is the buying and selling of goods and services, and the transfer of funds, through digital communications. However EC [electronic commerce] also includes all inter-company and intra-company functions" (Howe,