Chapter Three

1
Chapter Three

• E-Commerce and the Information Environment in an
  Emerging Economy Russia at the Turn of the
  Century

2
Russia
Click here to see what the CIA thinks it knows
about Russia
3
Issues

• Russia at the Turn of the Century
• Transition Economies
• Whats Really Going On?
• The Role of Trust in Business
• Communication as a Surrogate for Trust

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Russias E-Commerce in 2000

• Reasons for Russias slow progress in e-commerce
• Lack of capital investment in IT
• Lack of domestic computer manufacturers
• Unstable financial practices
• Lack of security
• Poor information environment due to poor data
  quality

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Information Environment in Emerging, Transition
Economies

• Investments required, desired for strategic goals
  (which?)
• Poor information environment/infrastructure for
  e-commerce
• Inadequate telecoms and market infrastructure
• Widespread skepticism about economies
• Poor public data management, fragmented markets
• Improvements in business culture
• Organizational shifts and technology shifts
• E-commerce will exaggerate digital divide

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Information Environment

• Poor data quality
• The lack of means to acquire the timely,
  accurate, and complete data needed to create
  useful information
• Causes of poor data quality
• 1.Lack of established business culture
• 2.Inadequate public data collection
• 3.Continued impact of the previous Soviet
  system upon information resource
• Russias environment is characterized by
  deep-rooted information poverty
• (Chepaitis, 1994)

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Data Quality

• Components of data quality that determine
  competitive advantage for e-commerce in the 2000
  (Harvard Business Review)
• Intrinsic Data Quality data have quality in
  their own right, such as accuracy and freedom
  from defects
• Contextual Data Quality relevance and value of
  the data for a specific task
• Representation Data Quality format and
  interpretability of the data
• Accessibility Data Quality accessibility and
  security of the data

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Factors limiting e-commerce in Russia Part A.

• Intrusive government planning and regulation
• Barriers to entry, dictated pricing
• Clandestine entrepreneurship, black markets
• Odd accounting practices
• Unanticipated shortages that disguise demand and
  inhibit consumption
• Political fear, widespread information hiding
• Unconvertible currencies, rudimentary regulation,
  poor financial services

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Factors limiting e-commerce in Russia Part B.

• Lack of information-based trust
• Proprietary attitudes towards data, IT, IS
  training
• IT- or technology-fostered elites
• Rigid and hierarchical management styles
• Reluctance to share information
• Reliance on oral (not written) traditions in
  retailing and record keeping
• Emphasis on price and availability to the
  exclusion of quality.

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Information and Trust

• Information is a surrogate for trust
• Information between people can be covert or
  overt the latter requires communication
• Consider Prisoners Dilemma

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Beginning of the Transformation

• Transition from a command to a demand economy
• Availability and increasing affordability of
  personal computers
• Spread of information technology, especially
  telecommunications
• Increasing demand for IT
• Utilization of commercial information

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Comparisons

• Finland
• Malaysia
• USA
• Singapore
• Note Figure 2, pg. 21. Does this still apply and
  how shall we alter it? Include discussions of
  other countries we have had.

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How to Change???
Organizational and Departmental Success
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IT-led Development