ABSTRACT
The combination of the Internet and mobile wireless telephone have greatly expanded the world's geographical boundaries and hastened the pace of human communication. Today, the Internet has become steadily woven into all aspects of business and leisure. From downtown department stores to the all-pervasive shopping mall, the Internet has set in motion an altogether new business model that maximizes the potential for instantaneous communication to a worldwide customer base. The field of electronic commerce (EC) has come of age, evidenced by the success of such new media companies as Amazon.com, eBay (electronic commerce), Google, Yahoo (Internet search), iTunes, Pandora (music distribution), YouTube, Netflix, Hulu (video distribution) and Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn (social media). Electronic commerce has funda — mentally changed how retail trade is conducted in terms of information gathering, marketing, production and distribution.
