BENCHMARKING BEST PRACTICES IN ELECTRONIC COMMERCE : IMPLICATIONS FOR SINGAPORE

Abstract

The rise of the Internet and the growing interest in electronic commerce is paving the way for the creation of a borderless marketplace. Countries from America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific have taken steps to boost this new form of commerce. The objective of this thesis is to benchmark: the best practices of electronic commerce among the leading e-commerce front-runners and to draw lessons for Singapore's government and businesses. The study first reviews the literature addressing electronic commerce issues such as definition, measurement, implementation and impact. Using selected survey and hard data from the World Competitiveness Yearbook 1999, it has attempted to formulate a benchmark ranking of the best practices of electronic commerce environment of selected countries in America, Europe and the Asia-Pacific. This 1s followed by a comparison of government policies concerning e-commerce, as well as case studies of some selected e-commerce high flyers in the world with a view to drawing possible lessons for Singapore. The results indicate that electronic commerce is more than just establishing an electronic storefront to carry out transactions. The case studies and literature survey show that governments may have to modify existing laws and implement new regulations within their economy in order to create a conducive electronic commerce environment. It has also observed that in order for businesses to conduct electronic commerce effectively, a transfom1ation into an e-business may be a necessary requirement. This may involve some drastic restructuring and rethinking of corporate strategies.