An Annotated Bibliography of Research into E-commerce in New Zealand
[ Last Updated 15 February 2006 ]
November 2001
Prepared by Dr Janet Hughes
AC Nielsen (NZ) (July 2001): Electronic Commerce in New Zealand: A survey by AC Nielsen (NZ) on behalf of the Inland Revenue and the Ministry of Economic Development.
Reports on a survey of 800 New Zealand businesses that take orders via their websites (including by email). Though respondents expect substantial growth in Internet trade in the short term, at present it represents a small proportion of total sales, and less than $10,000 p.a. in 50% of instances. E-traders typically report more use of internet services, including keeping in contact with suppliers, liasing with business advisors and on-line banking, than they offer to their own customers. The implication is that sales are not a reliable indicator of the total impact of e-business, and that total business activity needs to be measured.
Amos Aked Swift (June 2001): Review of Telecommunications Infrastructure to Provide Access to Data Services in Small Communities and Towns; Report to the Ministry of Economic Development Stocktakes the existing infrastructure serving rural and small urban towns. Covers 250 such towns identified from census data; notes that some comparable rural communities are excluded by this methodology. Data is broken down by specific technologies, service providers, demand forecasts and estimated capital outlay. Concludes that 50% of towns require only minor expenditure to deliver broadband access to their populations; the rest would need work on the backbone network infrastructure entailing moderate to high capital costs. All would require some modification within the local loop.
Boles de Boer, David; Evans, Lewis; and Howell, Bronwyn (September 2000): The State of E-New Zealand. NZ Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation Research Paper. www.iscr.org.nz/navigation/research.html
Examines publicly available data on infrastructure development and utilisation to assess NZ’s international position. Uses OECD indicators – internet hosts/ 1,000 inhabitants; domain name registrations; and secure servers per 1m inhabitants – but also critiques the limitations of this methodology. Covering eftpos and ATM banking as well as net applications, concludes that penetration and uptake of e-commerce is possibly higher than Australia’s, and high by international standards; but that it is led by private rather than public applications, small rather than medium to large business, and consumption rather than production.
Bowden, Stephen; Clark, Delwyn; Corner, Patricia; Gibb, Jenny; Kearins, Kate; Pavolich, Kathryn (2001): Adoption and Implementation of E-Business in New Zealand; Preliminary Results. University of Waikato Management School Research Report. It is also available at www.mngt.waikato.ac.nz/ict
Survey based on large sample with a high response rate – 1197 responses. Excludes businesses with fewer than 10 employees to avoid preponderance of micro-businesses. Summarises other large studies’ results, and outlines findings on key issues – adoption of, motivation for and implementation of e-business – as a preliminary to more intensive analysis of the data. Effective graphics concludes that both structural and educational obstacles impede uptake in New Zealand.
Cap Gemini Ernst & Young (July 2001): Realising eCommerce Transformation; Powerful eCommerce Insights. www.cgey.com
"An executive summary of the eCommerce Transformation Survey: perspectives of CEOs and senior executives of the top 1,000 firms in Australia and New Zealand". Respondents (just 166) were queried about strategic goals, e-solutions to business problems and their success rate. Identifies unsurprising correlation between uptake and the extent to which a firm’s products or services can be digitised; also widespread lack of strategic planning related to an inability to evaluate results. The graphics are not helpful.
Clark, Delwyn N. (August 2001): Net Readiness in New Zealand Industries: Empirical Results, 2001.
Collates findings from a very extensive May 2000 survey of organisations from 8 industry sectors – business services, education, exporting, manufacturing, primary production, retailing, tourism and transportation. Detailed sector-by-sector breakdown of the scale and kinds of web usage reported, and of net readiness factors in the organisations’ leadership, governance, competence and technology profiles. No analysis other than a table comparing net-readiness scores for the sampled industry sectors; intensive analysis of the data is to follow.
Clark, Delwyn, Stephen Bowden, Patricia Corner, Jenny Gibb, Kate Kearins and Kathryn Pavlovich (April 2001): Adoption and Implementation of E-Business in New Zealand: Empirical Results, 2001.University of Waikato Management School Research Report Series, ISSN 1175-5571. Also at http://www.mngt.waikato.ac.NZ/ict/e-busadoptionApril01a.asp
Summarised results from an extensive survey of more than 1200 New Zealand businesses with 10 or more employees. It revealed a very high level of basic web usage, such as email, and about half the companies had websites; but relatively few were capable of secure transactions (20%), and fewer still were actually used for online trading. Perceived obstacles to uptake included doubts about financial viability and e-readiness on the part of other players, and infrastructure constraints. Findings are reported in detail; adoption and implementation are analysed by frequency of activities, website features, users’ motives, impacts on the companies and perceived inhibiting factors and needs. Concludes that educational and infrastructural issues need to be addressed at national level. The substantial body of data is to be analysed further to support policy development.
Deakins, Eric, Alison Cavers, Stuart Dillon (January 2001): A Comparison of e-Government in New Zealand and the United States. Research Report Series, Department of Management Systems, University of Waikato.
Discussion paper based on a review of the current New Zealand e-government scene, for comparison with its US counterpart, the subject of earlier study. It finds a similar degree of fragmentation. The New Zealand Online portal provides links to vast amounts of information, but with very little interactive functionality compared with similar US sites. Local government sites are found to be similarly limited, but otherwise of generally high quality. Includes extensive bibliography and addendum listing ideal features of government websites.
Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (2000): Deloitte e-Business Survey: Insights and Issues Facing New Zealand Business. www.deloitte.co.nz/default.cfm?pageid=991
Follow-up to 1999 survey; reveals a worrying lack of movement and some retrograde trends in the development of e-business strategies, online sales, electronic transactions, e-investment and general uptake relative to competitors. A slippage is also noted in the perceived importance of e-business, especially short-term, it is acknowledged that this may reflect realistic assessment of the prospects in particular business or sectors. On this point especially, there is discrepancy between the executive summary and the conclusions in the body of the report. Sample is sizeable (445 responses) but entirely self-selected; heavy preponderance of online responses indicates a bias towards web-literate and enabled businesses. Comparisons with 1999 data are lucidly graphed, clearly identifying specific trends.
e-Business [2001?]: Wellington, IDG Communications.
A how-to compilation of introductory articles. Concluding article, "State of Play" by Randal Jackson, briefly surveys trends and priorities in the NZ market; mostly descriptive, but includes table of mergers and acquisitions pitched at facilitating e-commerce.
Enright, Christina (2000): Strategic Behaviour of Internet Service Providers in New Zealand and the Performance of this Market. www.iscr.org.nz/navigation/research.html
Very detailed history of the Internet access market in New Zealand from 1996 to 1999. Includes analysis of the influence of Internet service providers on the market as a whole. Aggressive pricing strategies by some providers, and competition between them, are seen to have accelerated penetration of e-technology in the population by powering access barriers.
Howell, Bronwyn (2000): The Rural-Urban "Digital Divide" in New Zealand; Fact or Fable? NZ Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation Research Paper. www.iscr.org.nz/navigation/research.html
Substantial analysis of data derived from Yellow Pages listings. Concludes the divide is mythical, except in a very small part of the rural sector facing real obstacles to net-readiness; indeed distance from the main centres of conventional commerce appears to constitute an incentive to uptake of electronic options. Data is not comprehensive but the sample is very large; the assumption is that a Yellow Pages listing indicates not just uptake, but some proven use of e-commerce strategies in most instances; it would seem reasonably free of bias, except towards successful rather than unsuccessful adopters.
Ministry of Economic Development (November 2001): E-commerce; Building the Strategy for New Zealand Progress Report, One Year On.
Report on the first year of implementation of the Government’s e-commerce strategy. Looks at existing applications, infrastructure constraints and policy implications. Tabulates progress on the specific commitments in the Strategy; also business estimates of the size of the e-commerce market.
Ministry of Economic Development (2000): Electronic Commerce in New Zealand; a Survey of Business Use of the Internet. Wellington: Information Technology Policy Group, Competition and Enterprise Branch.
Telephone survey of over 500 respondents; places small to medium businesses in NZ ahead of Australian counterparts in e-usage, but concludes that much of the engagement with e-technology is low-level, with little integration of applications into business systems. Analysis is detailed. Survey results are supplemented with publicly available statistics, broken down by business size and sector. Identifies the main obstacles to uptake as security concerns, lacked of skilled staff, and uncertainty about cost/benefit factors.
NCIE (National Office for the Information Economy, Australia) (2000): The Current State of Play June 2001].
No NZ data at all but affords usefully specific analysis of Australian e-commerce according to international indicators, given the tendency in the literature to trans-Tasman comparisons.
New Zealand Institute for the Study of Competition and Regulation Inc. (August 2000): Scoping Study: E-Commerce Performance Measurement Research for New Zealand. Prepared for the Ministry of Economic Development.
Study reviews the international literature on e-commerce (broadly defined) performance measurement, to identify priorities for research, investment and policy development in New Zealand. Concludes that its usefulness is constrained by a narrow focus on quantifying technology and transactions, with insufficient analysis of social and economic outcomes. Recognises that such analysis, while desirable, remains difficult because it involves intangibles, and because the relationships between many factors and their outcomes are inadequately understood. Meanwhile application of dubious technology-related measures is resulting in misleading rankings of New Zealand by overseas agencies. Recommends that systematic national reporting of appropriate indicators, along NOIE lines, be established.
Nolan Norton Institute (2000): Electronic Commerce: the Future is Here! www.kpmg.co.nz/eb/showPub.cfm?id=84
Reports on survey of Australian and New Zealand companies on their usage and plans for further e-commerce uptake. Graphs current technology use and integration with business processes. Highlights security issues and uncertainty as barriers to further adoption. The sample is larger than those of most other surveys; self-selection seems to favour businesses with an existing commitment to e-business.
PriceWaterhouseCoopers (2000): e-Local Government uptake in New Zealand. www.pwcglobal.co.nz/e-government
Graphically summarised (PowerPoint pie-graphs) survey of 86 local bodies on use of e-technology. Covers use made, services offered, business strategy, integration, outsourcing, concerns, graphs of raw percentages, with no analysis, and a few verbatim comments from respondents. Concludes that there is much experimentation but little e-business maturity or strategic direction in e-Local Government; widespread concern centres on security and customer access and resistance.
Te Puni Kokiri Ministry of Maori Development (July 2000): Maori Access to Information Technology. www.tpk.govt.nz/publications/subject/default.htm#it
Takes Internet access as a key indicator of Mäori usage of digital technology. Analyses data derived from ACNielsen Netwatch 2000 surveys – response rate of 48%, in quarterly surveys of 3,000 people over 12,000 different areas in New Zealand. Puts the findings in the context of findings over all ethnic groups, noting correlations between net access and income and education, and regional variations. Mäori respondents reported significantly lower levels of familiarity with the Internet, net usage and computer ownership. Includes statistics on Mäori tertiary computing education and net usage by Mäori businesses. Notes that infrastructure and bandwidth availability issues impact especially upon rural Mäori. Statistics are analysed in detail and graphed lucidly.
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