CLOUD COMMERCE - A DESIGN SCIENCE ENDEAVOR TOWARDS NEXT GENERATION ELECTRONIC COMMERCE

Abstract

The wide spread adoption of cloud computing has motivated researchers to examine various technological, business, applications and other general issues underpinning it. Despite this concerted effort, there remains a paucity of research exploring new application frontiers, in particular consumers¿ cloud-based services for electronic commerce.

This thesis proposes a novel electronic commerce platform known as Cloud Commerce that is conceptualized and developed around the various concepts of Cloud Computing such as Platform-as-a-Service and Software-as-a-Service. Cloud Commerce is a true location transparent ¿website-less¿ platform that allows the selling and buying of products across multiple websites, channels and media.

A design science research strategy is used to conceptualize, design and develop a prototype for Cloud Commerce. A comprehensive set of design science artifacts have been meticulously produced. Two research models based on established behavioral theories that can be used to evaluate the adoption and use of Cloud Commerce have also been developed.