Customer and company voices in e‐commerce: a qualitative analysis

Consumer knowledge is a very important asset for an organisation. Two types of consumer knowledge have been identified, “knowledge about customers” including customer segments, individual customer preferences, potential customers, and “knowledge possessed by customers” including knowledge about product ranges, companies, and the marketplace. e‐Commerce offers an ideal medium for the creation and exchange of both types of knowledge. This paper presents the results of an initial phase in a research cycle that looks at e‐Commerce through the lens of knowledge management. It examines e‐Commerce provision made by organisations for customers across seven facets ranging from transactional to relational facilities. The results of a self‐evaluation of companies' e‐commerce propositions are contrasted with customer expectations to determine divergence and alignment. Implications are discussed and conclusions proposed.

[1]  David Weinberger,et al.  The cluetrain manifesto (book excerpts: the end of business as usual , 2000, UBIQ.

[2]  Clyde W. Holsapple,et al.  Electronic Commerce: From a Definitional Taxonomy Toward a Knowledge-Management View , 2000, J. Organ. Comput. Electron. Commer..

[3]  D. Hoffman,et al.  How to acquire customers on the Web. , 2000, Harvard business review.

[4]  E. Guba,et al.  Paradigmatic Controversies, Contradictions, and Emerging Confluences. , 2005 .

[5]  Stewart Clegg,et al.  Frameworks of power , 1989 .

[6]  Geoff Walsham,et al.  Interpretive case studies in IS research: nature and method , 1995 .

[7]  Mark S. Demarest.  Understanding knowledge management , 1997 .

[8]  N. Denzin,et al.  Handbook of Qualitative Research , 1994 .

[9]  Doc Searls,et al.  The Cluetrain Manifesto: The End of Business as Usual , 2000 .

[10]  Colin Robson,et al.  Real World Research: A Resource for Social Scientists and Practitioner-Researchers , 1993 .

[11]  How to think like a social scientist , 1996 .

[12]  James M. Sinkula.  Market‐based success, organizational routines, and unlearning , 2002 .

[13]  T. Jick.  Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in Action. , 1979 .

[14]  W. Foddy.  Constructing Questions for Interviews and Questionnaires: Theory and Practice in Social Research , 1993 .

[15]  H. Woodruffe.  Eschatology, promise, hope: the Utopian vision of consumer research , 1997 .

[16]  C. A. Moser,et al.  Survey Methods in Social Investigation , 1958 .

[17]  J. Rowley.  Reflections on customer knowledge management in e-business , 2002 .

[18]  Arthur Asa Berger,et al.  Media and Communication Research Methods: An Introduction to Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches , 2000 .

[19]  Rodney McAdam,et al.  A CRITICAL REVIEW OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT MODELS , 1999 .

[20]  Andrew Whinston,et al.  Electronic Commerce: A Manager's Guide , 1997 .

[21]  M. Easterby-Smith,et al.  Management Research: An Introduction , 1991 .