DEVELOPING A COLLABORATIVE ORGANIZATIONAL MOBILE-COMMERCE MODEL

Saira A. Zeeshan*, Yen Cheung**, Helana Scheepers*** Clayton School of Information Technology, Monash University, Australia PO BOX 63B, VIC 3800, Australia *saira_aman@hotmail.com **Yen.Cheung@infotech.monash.edu.au ***helana.scheepers@infotech.monash.edu.au ABSTRACT Significance of Mobile Commerce (M-Commerce) has been reported in the past few years. Extensive use of web enabled wireless devices such as mobile phones, laptops and PDAs facilitate organizations to communicate with their customers, anywhere anytime. Therefore, organizations are adapting M-Commerce frameworks to facilitate customers with information, commerce and entertainment applications through their mobile devices. Due to the emerging M-Commerce technology and complex wireless protocols and applications organizations can gain huge benefits from collaborating with each other to overcome the complexities involved in the adoption of MCommerce platform. However effects of such collaboration of organizational resources within the context of M-Commerce applications are still an area of major concern and not much work has been reported in the literature. This paper proposes a model for the evaluation of the effects of organizational collaboration in the context of M-Commerce applications. We have identified and explored such effects from both the organization and the customers point of view. Keywords: Collaboration, M-Commerce, Collaborative Resources, Effects Evaluation 1. INTRODUCTION Internet based applications enabled globalizations and created opportunities to interact worldwide. A trend can be observed towards the adoption of electronic-commerce during the last decade (Sarkis and Sundarraj 2002). Currently, e-commerce applications have become an essential part of organizations activities. Latest trends and technologies are being used in e-commerce to increase organizational profitability and customer satisfaction. M-Commerce is relatively a new concept in e-commerce which can be described as follows (Tsalgatidou and Pitoura 2001): Running of e-commerce applications on mobile devices such as mobile phones, personal data assistants, and laptops. In contrast to e-commerce, M-Commerce ensures the internet accessibility at anytime, anywhere on mobile devices (Stafford and Gillenson 2003). Due to the complex nature of M-Commerce, besides the mobile devices other resources such as technological, human, financial and strategic resources are required to adopt MCommerce. However, organizations consider M-Commerce a priority despite its resource intensive nature. Generally, it is assumed that only large organizations with major resources can adopt M-Commerce. This article highlights the significance of M-Commerce for organizations to adopt M-Commerce solutions with collaborative resources of other organizations. This article addresses the following:
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Describe resource collaboration of various organizations which aims to adopt M-Commerce and Depict the effects of above-mentioned collaborated M-Commerce on participating organizations and on their customers.

The remainder of this article is organized as follows: Section 2 elaborates on the two concepts, i.e. collaboration between organizations and M-Commerce. Section 3 proposes a model to evaluate the effects of collaborative organizational resources within the context of M-Commerce. In addition, it discusses the needs and justifications for the model. Section 4, 5 and 6 discuss the modules of the proposed model. Finally, Section 7 outlines the conclusions. 2. COLLABORATION BETWEEN ORGANIZATIONS AND M-COMMERCE In this section, we describe the relevant literature review conducted to achieve the research goals. Literature review was carried out by focusing on two concepts; firstly, Collaboration between organizations and secondly, M-Commerce applications. According to Steensma (1996), organization share resources to acquire skills and technological competencies. The author suggests that a variety of collaborative methods including licensing agreements, joint ventures, minority investments, and equity acquisitions are used by firms to integrate their resources. In addition, a relationship was modeled between various types of inter-organizational collaboration, organizational learning capabilities and technological competency development. This model suggests that for a given method of collaboration, the greater the technical complexity of the technology, a higher level of learning is necessary to ensure optimizing technological competency development(Steensma 1996). Similarly, More and McGrath (2003) argues that collaboration is sharing of organizational resources, both tangible and intangible. Knowledge creation, performance improvement, technological advancements and enhancement of organizational competitive position are the benefits of such collaborations. Furthermore, the organizational effects of inter-organizational collaboration and the characteristics of collaboration that produce them are examined with the help of a qualitative study conducted by Hardy et al. (2003). Basically, three types of effects are identified and evaluated; a) strategic effects; b) knowledge creation effects; and c) political effects. In addition, they argued that not all collaborations will produce all three effects. Important differences in the characteristics of different collaborations can produce these effects. For instance, Involvement describes collaborations in which participating organizations have deep interactions, partnerships and bilateral information flows. Whereas, Embeddedness is concerned with collaborations where participating organizations have broad interactions, representation and multidirectional information flows. These two forms of collaboration are associated with three types of effects (mentioned above) in particular ways.

Most recently, Sammadar and Kadiyala (2006) explored a number of issues related to inter-organisational M-Commerice collaboration. These are a) conditions for resource sharing in which organizations are forced to collaborate for knowledge creation; and b) conditions required for such collaboration to continue. The collaboration for knowledge creation is modeled as a stackelberg leader-follower game(Scherer 1996). They concluded that it is important to maintain an optimal ratio between the leaders and followers marginal gains for the formation and continuation of the collaboration. Nowadays, organizations are collaborating with each other through carrying out transactions on the web, and this form of collaboration is known as Collaborative Commerce (Chen 2000). Literature review in the area of collaborative commerce suggests that it enables people, groups of individual and organizations to work together with one another in order to accomplish collaborative e-business task (Thuraisingham and Gupta 2002). On the other hand, with the advancement of wireless devices, e-business that is carried out over portable wireless devices is known as Mobile-Commerce (Senn 2000). Customers tend to use M-Commerce applications to access information, purchase goods or to download games, songs and music. Generally, B2C MCommerce applications are divided into following five main categories: (Senn 2000; Coursaris and Hassanein 2002; Wang et al. 2005) a) Information applications /Content Delivery; b)Transaction Based Applications; c) Entertainment Applications; and d) Location Based Applications; e) Telemetry Services. In the past few years much work has been done in order to identify and evaluate the issues involved in the designing, evaluation and adoption of M-Commerce applications from the customers point of view (Coursaris and Hassanein 2002; Wang, Song, Lei and Sheriff 2005). Researchers suggest that effective collaboration among the organizations (for example content providers, network operators and Mobile service providers) involved in M-Commerce value network may resolve these issues. However, insufficient work has been reported in order to investigate the effects of such inter-organizational collaboration of customers and organizations. Therefore, the proposed work focuses on the evaluation of effects of collaborative organizational resources for M-Commerce applications. The collaboration of organizational resources would enhance the management and effectiveness of fast growing MCommerce applications. In order to study such effects we propose a Collaborative Organizational M-Commerce (COM) model described below.
3. PROPOSED MODEL FOR THE EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTS OF

COM Before we proceed to elaborate on the proposed model, it is important to highlight the justification and needs for the model. The following factors and characteristics justify the need for the proposed COM model:

It gives us a representation of the collaboration of organizations with respect to M-Commerce applications as well as the identification and evaluation of the effects of such collaborations.

It shows that collaboration of inter-organizational resources is done to overcome the technological limitations faced by the organizations regarding adoption of M-Commerce platform for the advertising and selling of their products. It identifies the effects of collaboration to further increase the effectiveness of M-Commerce applications. It represents the collaboration of organizations with respect to M-Commerce that can lead to user confidence, customer satisfaction, and enhanced usability of M-Commerce applications. Moreover, COM also tries to overcome cost, security and privacy issues faced by the customers. Whereas, it also boosts the productivity and profitability of the organization. The proposed approach couples collaborative organizational resources with M-Commerce applications to facilitate involvement of project stakeholders from geographically dispersed locations.
Inter-Organizational Resource Collaboration (Module-1)
Resource of Organization-A
MICROSOFT CORPORATION

M-Commerce Applications (Module-2)

Financial Resources

Human Resources Managerial Resources

Information Application Content Delivery

Transaction Management
Information Systems Resources Research & Development Resources Technical

Resource Usage
COLLABORATION

Entertainment Applications

Resource of Organization-B
MICROSOFT CORPORATION

Location Based Applications

Human Resources Managerial Resources

Financial Resources

EFFECTS
Information Systems Resources Research & Development Resources Technical

Telemetry Services

Organizational View Productivity Profitability Customer Satisfaction

Customer View Costing Issues Security and Privacy Usability Issues

Figure 1: Collaborative Organizational M-Commerce (COM) Model Effects of COM (Module-3) The proposed model as depicted in Figure 1 can be categorized into three modules:

Inter-Organizational Resource Collaboration (Module-1 of COM Model) M-Commerce Applications (Module-2 of COM Model) Effects of COM (Module-3 of COM Model)

Detailed description of these modules is given in the subsequent sections.

4. INTER-ORGANIZATIONAL RESOURCE COLLABORATION

Generally, organizations collaborate by pooling their resources in order to enhance their strategic performances and knowledge creation (Hardy, Phillips and Lawrence 2003).The main categories of these resources are : Financial Resources Technological Resources Human Resources Managerial Resources Information System Resources Research and Development Resources

The proposed COM model does not cover B2B collaboration for the purpose of transactions. Instead the focus is on inter-organizational resource collaboration specifically for M-Commerce. The proposed model also considers effects that will advantage the organizations concerned.
5. M-COMMERCE APPLICATIONS

Business-to-Consumer M-Commerce applications are divided into following five main categories (Senn 2000; Coursaris and Hassanein 2002; Wang, Song, Lei and Sheriff 2005)

Information Applications: These applications are also known as content delivery applications. With the help of these applications user can retrieve information like weather, stock rates, flight schedules and news. Customers can access static or dynamic information from their wireless portable devices anywhere and anytime. E-mail and short messages are also examples of information applications (Senn 2000). Transaction Based Applications: These are also said to be commerce applications (Coursaris and Hassanein 2002). Wireless commerce applications allow customers to browse, select and buy products and pay with the help of mobile digital cash. Moreover, Mobile banking applications are also becoming popular among the wireless users. They enable customers convenient paying of bills, payments and viewing their updated account information by just clicking on a PDA or mobile device. Entertainment Applications: Games, ring tones, themes and applications that support cartoons and movies are some examples of Entertainment applications. These applications provide entertainment whenever and wherever the customer wants. Location-based Applications: Location based applications give a wide range of services to its customers (Wang, Song, Lei and Sheriff 2005). These applications can help in keeping track of the people. Advertisers keep track of the mobile users location and send information of the restaurant which is near
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to him. They can also give driving directions to the users based on their current location.

Telemetry Services: These applications allow wireless phone users to communicate with various devices (computers or any intelligent machines) from their homes or offices (Senn 2000).

These B2C M-Commerce applications are loosely coupled with each other and provide consumers with a wide range of facilities. 6. EFFECTS OF COM This section identifies and evaluates the effects of the organizational collaboration in the context of M-Commerce applications. Generally, the integration of organizational resources in the context of M-Commerce is for the efficient, usable, secure, reliable and cost effective launch of M-Commerce applications. For example, if an organization-A lacks in technological and financial resources in order to launch its business portal on web enable mobile device then there is a need for this organization to collaborate with another organization-B which has the technology required to instigate business portal for organization-A. In return the business portal will run the advertisement of the products of organization-B. This shows that the collaboration results in the solution of insolvable problems faced by the organizations. Moreover, such collaborations are also done to resolve consumer needs and concerns related to the mobile commerce applications identified by (Coursaris and Hassanein 2002). After the successful collaboration of both organizations (A and B), we can identify the effects of this organizational collaboration resources on M-Commerce applications. The collaboration as outlined above can have the following advantages for organizations. Table 1 outlines the effects (advantages) organizations can realize and table 2 outlines the effects that such collaboration can have for customers.

Effect Profitability

Table 1: COM Effects on Organizations Description Collaborative organizational M-Commerce can increase organizations profitability by increasing the number of customers through improved customer care and enhanced services. Moreover, profitability can also be viewed as enhanced relative position of the organization in the marketplace. As more resources are available in collaborative environment, productivity of the organizations can be increased. For example, if more human resources are pooled together, it results in increased output created (in terms of products). Moreover, increase in productivity also boosts profitability of organizations. As knowledge creation is one of the effects of collaboration(Hardy, Phillips and Lawrence 2003). Collaborative M-Commerce can also create new knowledge in organizations relating to complex M-Commerce technologies. In addition, through sharing of knowledge, organizations (like technology vendor) manufacture usable wireless devices with enhanced speed and characteristics that will support business demands. As organizations collaborate to address customer issues related to M-Commerce applications, this ensures better customer services and care, which ultimately results in better customer satisfaction. Table 2: COM Effects on Customers Description

Productivity

Knowledge Creation

Customer Satisfaction

Effects Improved Services

Collaborative organizational M-Commerce provides fast efficient services with increased usability and security to the customers. Customers can buy things or access information by just clicking on the wireless portable devices anywhere and anytime. Improved Customer Enhanced M-Commerce applications provide customers with Care location based information such as shopping center or restaurant near to the customer location. Moreover, customers can do secured mobile transactions. Improved Pricing Collaboration results in decrease of the overall cost for the implementation of the M-Commerce applications. For example, it will cost less for a business organization if it collaborates with mobile service provider for the launch of its business portal. This will result in offering content to the customers in lower rates. Improved Knowledge Better information services and lower access rates will yield to improved customer knowledge.
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7. CONCLUSION During the last decade a trend toward the adoption of e-commerce applications has been observed. Consequently, such applications will become an essential part of any organization. Moreover, e-commerce is used to increase organizational profitability and customer satisfaction. M-Commerce is relatively a new concept which is being used by many organizations. In contrast to e-commerce, M-Commerce ensures the internet accessibility anytime, anywhere on mobile devices. Due to the complex nature of MCommerce, more resources such as technological, human, financial and strategic resources are required to adopt M-Commerce. Therefore, the need for collaborating organizational resources for M-Commerce applications arises. Despite the more resource-demanding nature of M-Commerce, it will become a priority for most organizations. In this paper, we have proposed model to evaluate the effects of collaborative organizational resources within the context of M-Commerce applications. In addition, we have highlighted the significant effects that can be attained from organizational and customer perspectives. The effects of the describe model will be validated in future through case study research focusing on Australian SMEs.

REFERENCES:
1. Chen , S. (2000). Global Leadership in C-Commerce. Computer Software and Applications Conference, October 25-27, 2000. 2. Coursaris, C. and K. Hassanein 2002. Understanding M-Commerce. A Consumer-Centric Model: Quarterly Journal of Electronic Commerce, 3(3): 247-271. 3. Hardy, C., N. Phillips, et al. 2003. Resources, Knowledge and Influence: The Organizational Effects of Interorganizational Collaboration: Journal of Management Studies, 40(2): 321-347. 4. More, E. and G. M. McGrath 2003. Organizational Collaboration in an E-Commerce Context: Australia's ITOL Project: The E-Business Review. 5. Sammadar, S. and S. S. Kadiyala 2006. An Analysis of Interorganizational Resource Sharing Decisions in Collaborative Knowledge Creation: European Journal of Operational Research, 170(1): 192-210. 6. Sarkis, J. and R. P. Sundarraj 2002. Evolution of Brokering;Paradigms in E-Commerce Enabled Manufacturing: International Journal of Production Economics, 75: 21-31. 7. Scherer, F. M. 1996. Heinrich von Stackelberg's Marktform and Gleichewicht: Journal of Economic Studies, 23(5/6): 58-70. 8. Senn, J. A. 2000. The Emergence of M-Commerce: Computer, 33(12). 9. Stafford, T. F. and M. L. Gillenson 2003. Mobile Commerce: What It Is and What It Could Be: Communication of The ACM, 46(12). 10. Steensma, H. K. 1996. Acquiring Technological Competencies Through Inter-Organizational Collaboration: An Organizational Learning Perspective: Journal of Engineering and Technology Management, 12: 267-286. Thuraisingham, B. and A. Gupta 2002. Collaborative Commerce and Knowledge Management: Knowledge and Process Management, 9(1): 45-53. Tsalgatidou, A. and E. Pitoura 2001. Business Models and Transactions in Mobile Electronic Commerce: Requirements and Properties: Computer Networks, 37(1): 221-236. Wang, J. J., Z. Song, et al. (2005). Design and Evaluation of M-Commerce Applications. Asia-Pacific Conference on Communications, Perth, Western Australia.

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