Chapter 04

E-Environment

Learning Objectives
To Identify the different elements of an
organization macro-environment that impact on
e-business and e-marketing strategy
To assess the impact of legal, privacy and ethical
constraints or opportunities on a company
To assess the role of macro-economic factors
such as governmental e-business policies, such
economics, taxation and legal constraints.

Factors in the macro and

micro environment of an organization
Macro-environment

Micro-environment (e-marketplace)

Social

The organization

Legal, ethical and taxation

Its customers

Economic

Its suppliers

Political

Its competitors

Technological

Intermediaries

Competitive

The public at Large

Ethical issues and data protection

Ethical issues concerned with personal
information ownership have been usefully
summarized by Mason (1986) into four areas:
Privacy what information is held about the
individual?

Ethical issues and data protection

Accuracy is it correct?

Property who owns it and

how can ownership be
transferred?
Accessibility who is
allowed to access this
information, and under
which conditions?

Ethics Fletchers view

Fletcher (2001) provides an alternative
perspective, raising these issues concern for
both the individual and the marketer:
Transparency who is collecting what information
Security how is information protected once

collected by a company?
Liability who is responsible if data is abused?

Legal and Ethical Issues

Privacy
Intellectual Property
Difficult to protect since it is easy
and inexpensive to copy and
disseminate digitized information

Free Speech
Internet provides the largest
opportunity for free speech; but,
some postings are offensive to
people

Taxation
Illegal to impose new sales taxes on
Internet business at the present
time (U.S. and some other
countries)

Legal and Ethical Issues

Computer crimes
Usually refers to computer
fraud and computer abuse

Consumer Protection
Many legal issues are related
to electronic trade

Other legal issues

Validity of contracts, legality
of public key encryption
infrastructures, jurisdiction
over trades, encryption
policies

Ethical Issues
What is considered to be right and wrong?
What is unethical is not necessarily illegal.
Whether these actions are considered unethical
depends on the organization, country, and the
specific circumstances surrounding the
scenarios.

A Framework for Ethical Issues

1. Privacy regarding information about individuals
Collection
Storage
Dissemination

2. Property
Ownership and value of information and intellectual property

3. Accuracy of:
Authenticity
Fidelity - Validity of contracts
Information collected and processed

4. Accessibility
Right to access information
Payment of fees for the access

Protecting Privacy
Information Privacy
The claim of individuals, groups, or institutions to determine
for themselves when, and to what extent, information about
them is communicated to others

Two basic rules

The right of privacy is not absolute. Privacy must be
balanced against the needs of society
The public's right to know is superior to the individuals right
of privacy

How is Private Information Collected?

Finding you in the Internet Directory
Making your browser record information about
you
Recording what your browsers say about you
Reading your e-mail

The eight principles for data protection

Fairly and lawfully processed;

Processed for limited purposes;
Adequate, relevant and not excessive;
Accurate;
Not kept longer than necessary;
Processed in accordance with the data subject's
processed rights;
Secure;
Not transferred to countries without adequate
protection.

Legal Sparrows areas

Marketing your e-commerce business

Forming an electronic contract
Making and accepting payment
Authenticating contracts concluded over the
Internet E-mail risks
Protecting Intellectual Property
Advertising on the Internet Data protection.

Technological issues
Rate of change
Which new technologies should we adopt?

Monitoring for new techniques

Evaluation are we early adopter
Re-skilling and training
Are our systems secure?