Arduous Task of Determining the Differences, Advantages

¶ … arduous task of determining the differences, advantages and disadvantages of the various commercial capabilities of E-commerce especially regarding the recent innovations of I-commerce to M -- commerce to U-commerce and how those innovations change the manner in which E-commerce business is conducted.

A technology expert wrote in early 2002 that "wireless technology has altered the existing capabilities of incumbent E-businesses" (Wheeler, 2002) and that was before many of today's technology had ever even been created. The article shows just how true Wheeler's statement is; it presents the growth of E-commerce through a series of improvements starting with I-commerce (internet), moving to M-commerce (mobile) and the current improvements allowing for U-commerce (ubiquitous). The article not only seeks to provide a greater understanding of how the different commerce capabilities change the business model, it also seeks to "provide guidelines to help practitioners adapt from one type of innovation to the next" (p. 95).

The article explains in detail how today's business managers (especially referring to E-commerce) must be sensitive to the constant changes taking place in the field of information technology (IT). It explains how managers "must constantly reconfigure organizational resources and renew rather than protect their capabilities along with technological and business expertise to sustain competitive advantages in an increasingly shifting E-commerce environment" (p. 96). The article accomplishes its objective by first describing the evolution of E-commerce and the innovations that led to I-commerce, M-commerce and finally U-commerce capabilities.

The article then compared the differences between those commerce methods and finally discussed how those changes affect the managers and their business models concerning E-commerce.

The article also explains how E-commerce innovation can be described in "terms of its technological knowledge and business model" (p. 98). It categorizes the various changes to E-commerce capabilities into four separate types; 1) incremental, 2) transitional, 3) radical and 4)disruptive and then continues to explain how those are important to know when determining the impact on existing "technological knowledge and the business model" (p. 98).

The reason why the article is important is because it allows managers of E-commerce businesses to understand their current position and how liquid that position really is. The article provides these managers with the knowledge they will find necessary in order to adapt that position to meet the changing capabilities of e-commerce. The reason why they will wish to change is to maintain a healthy and vibrant business model as well as a healthy bottom line. The managers will also likely wish to keep their jobs and having this knowledge available to them will place them in a good position to demonstrate technological acumen while taking advantage of the changing world of IT to command higher profits and revenues for their shareholders.