《电子商务专业英语》专题讲解参考答案.doc

参考答案
Chapter 1 The Basics of E-Commerce
I. Fill in the blanks in each of the following
transaction.
2.E-commerce is ubiquitous, meaning that is it available just about everywhere, at all times.
creates a marketspace where consumers can auction or sell goods directly to other consumers.
rmation richness refers to the complexity and content of a message.
5.The phenomenon that market middlemen disappear is called disintermediation
refers primarily to the digital enablement of transactions and processes within a firm, involving information systems under the control of the firm.
refers to the use of the Internet and the Web to transact business.
8.Most successful e-commerce firms will adopt mixed "clicks and bricks” strategies, combining traditional sales channels such as physical stores and printed catalogs with online efforts.
9.The stock market crash of dot-com companies led to a sobering reassessment of the prospects for e-commerce and the methods of achieving business success.
II. Answer the following questions
1.What is e-commerce? How does it differ from e-business?
E-commerce involves: digitally enabled commercial transactions between and among organizations and individuals. Digitally enabled transactions include all those transactions mediated by digital technology, meaning, for the most part, transactions that occur over the Internet and the Web. Commercial transactions involve the exchange of value (e.g. money) across organizational or individual boundaries in return for products or services.
E-business refers primarily to the: digital enablement of transactions and processes within a firm, involving information systems under the control of the firm. For the most part, e-business does not involve commercial transactions across organizational boundaries where value is exchanged.
2.What are some of the unique features of e-commerce technology?
There are seven features of e-commerce technology that are unique to this medium.
E-commerce technology:
• is ubiquitous, meaning that is it available just about everywhere, at all times, making it possible to shop from your desktop, at home, at work, or even from your car.
•has global reach, permitting commercial transactions to cross cultural and national boundaries
far more conveniently and cost effectively than is true in traditional commerce.
•operates according to universal standards shared by all nations around the world. In contrast, most traditional commerce technologies differ from one nation to the next.
•provides information richness, which refers to the complexity and content of a message. It enables an online merchant to deliver to an audience of millions marketing messages with
text, video, and audio, in a way not possible with traditional commerce technologies such as
radio, television, or magazines.
•is interactive, meaning it allows for two-way communication between merchant and consumer and enables the merchant to engage a consumer in ways similar to a face-to- face
experience, but on a much more massive, global scale.
•increases information density (the total amount and quality of information available to all market participants). The Internet reduces information collection, storage, processing, and
communication costs while increasing the currency, accuracy, and timeliness of information.
•permits personalization and customization: merchants can target their marketing messages to specific individuals by adjusting the message to a person's name, interests, and past purchases.
Because of the increase in information density, a great deal of information about the
consumer's past purchases and behavior can be stored and used by online merchants. The
result is a level of personalization and customization unthinkable with existing commerce
technologies.
3.How many major types of e-commerce are discussed by the author and what are these?
There are five major types of e-commerce:
•B2C involves businesses selling to consumers and is the type of e-commerce that most consumers are likely to encounter. In 2001, consumers will spend about $65 billion in B2C
transactions.
•B2B e-commerce involves businesses selling to other businesses and is the largest form of e-commerce, with an estimated $700 billion in transactions occurring in 2001.
•C2C is a means for consumers to sell to each other. In C2C e-commerce, the consumer prepares the product for market, places the product for auction or sale, and relies on the
market maker to provide catalog, search engine, and transaction clearing capabilities so that
products can be easily displayed, discovered, and paid for.
•P2P technology enables Internet users to share files and computer resources directly without having to go through a central Web server. Music and file sharing services, such as Gnutella,
are a prime example of this type of e-commerce, because consumers can transfer files directly
to other consumers without a central server involved.
•M-commerce involves the use of wireless digital devices to enable transactions on the Web.
4.How do you understand the visions and forces behind the E-commerce I era?
The E-commerce I era was a period of explosive growth in e-commerce, beginning in 1995 with
the first widespread use of the Web to advertise products and ending in 2000 with the collapse in stock market valuations for ventures. Among the visions for e-commerce expressed during the period were the following:
•For computer scientists, e-commerce was part of their vision of a universal communications and computing environment that everyone on earth could access with cheap, inexpensive
computers.
•For economists, e-commerce raised the realistic prospect of a perfect Bertrand market— a market where price, cost, and quality information is equally distributed 一and friction- free
commerce.
•For entrepreneurs and their financial backers, e-commerce represented an extraordinary opportunity to earn far above normal returns on investment.
Overall, the E-commerce I period was driven largely by visions of profiting from new technology, with the emphasis on quickly achieving very high market visibility.
The source of financing was venture capital funds. The ideology of the period emphasized the ungoverned "Wild West” character of the Web, and the feeling that governments and courts could not possibly limit or regulate the Internet, that traditional corporations were too slow and bureaucratic, too stuck in the old ways of doing business to "get it," that is, to be competitive in e-commerce.
5.How do you understand the successes and failures of E-commerce I.
E-commerce during the E-commerce I era has been :
• a technological success, with the digital infrastructure created during the period solid enough to sustain significant growth in e-commerce during the next decade.
• a mixed business success, with significant revenue growth and customer usage, but low profit margins.
E-commerce during the E-commerce I era has not:
•fulfilled economists' visions of the perfect Betrand market and friction-free commerce
•fulfilled the visions of entrepreneurs and venture capitalists for first mover advantages, low customer acquisition and retention costs, and low costs of doing business.
6.Identify several factors that will define the E-commerce II era.
Factors that will define e-commerce over the next five years include the following:
•E-commerce technology will continue to propagate through all commercial activity, with overall revenues from e-commerce, the number of products and services sold over the Web,
and the amount of Web traffic all rising.
•E-commerce prices will rise to cover the real costs of doing business on the Web.
•E-commerce margins and profits will rise to levels more typical of all retailers.
•Traditional well-endowed and experienced Fortune 500 companies will play a growing and more dominant role.
•The number of successful pure online companies will continue to decline and most successful e-commerce firms will adopt a mixed u clicks and bricks，, strategy.
•Regulation of e-commerce and the Web by government will grow both in the United States and worldwide.
7.Describe the major themes underlying the study of e-commerce.
E-commerce involves three broad interrelated themes:
•Technology'. To understand e-commerce, you need a basic understanding of the information technologies upon which it is built, including the Internet and the World Wide Web, and a
host of complimentary technologies—personal computers, local area networks, client/server
computing, packet-switched communications, protocols such as TCP/IP, Web servers, HTML, and relational databases, among others.
•Business'. While technology provides the infrastructure, it is the business applications ——the potential for extraordinary returns on investment一that create the interest and excitement
in e-commerce. New technologies present businesses and entrepreneurs with new ways of
organizing production and transacting business. Therefore, you also need to understand some
key business concepts such as electronic markets, information goods, business models, firm
and industry value chains, industry structure, and consumer behavior in electronic markets •Society: Understanding the pressures that global e-commerce places on contemporary society is critical to being successful in the e-commerce marketplace. The primary societal issues are
intellectual property, individual privacy, and public policy.
8.Identify the major academic disciplines contributing to e-commerce research.
There are two primary approaches to e-commerce: technical and behavioral. Each of these approaches is represented by several academic disciplines.
On the technical side:
•Computer scientists are interested in e-commerce as an application of Internet technology.
•Management scientists are primarily interested in building mathematical models of business processes and optimizing them to learn how businesses can exploit the Internet to improve
their business operations.
•Information systems professionals are interested in e-commerce because of its implications for firm and industry value chains, industry structure, and corporate strategy.
•Economists have focused on consumer behavior at Web sites, and on the features of digital electronic markets.
On the behavioral side:
•Sociologists have focused on studies of Internet usage, the role of social inequality in skewing Internet benefits, and the use of the Web as a personal and group communications tool.
•Finance and accounting scholars have focused on e-commerce firm valuation and accounting practices.
•Management scholars have focused on entrepreneurial behavior and the challenges faced by young firms who are required to develop organizational structures in short time spans.
•Marketing scholars have focused on consumer response to online marketing and advertising campaigns, and the ability of firms to brand, segment markets, target audiences, and position
products to achieve higher returns on investment.
Chapter 2 The Internet and World Wide Web: E-Commerce
Infrastructure
I. Answer the following questions
1.Discuss the origins of the Internet.
The Internet has evolved from a collection of mainframe computers located on a few U.S. college campuses to an interconnected network of thousands of networks and millions of computers worldwide.
2.Relate the key technology concepts behind the Internet.
The Internet's three key technology components are:
•Packet switching, which slices digital messages into packets, routes the packets along different communication paths as they become available, and then reassembles the packets once they arrive at
their destination.
•TCP/IP. TCP establishes the connections among sending and receiving Web computers and handles the assembly of packets at the point of transmission, as well as their reassembly at the receiving end. IP
provides the addressing scheme, enabling messages to arrive at the proper destination computer.
•Client/server technology, which makes it possible for large amounts of information to be stored on Web servers and shared with individual users on their client computers.
3.Please Describe the role of Internet protocols and utility programs.
Internet protocols and utility programs make the following Internet services possible:
•HTTP delivers requested Web pages, allowing users to view them.
•STMP and POP enable mail to be routed to a mail server and then picked up by the recipient's server, while IMAP enables mail to be sorted before being downloaded by the recipient.
•FTP is used to transfer files from servers to clients and vice versa.
•SSL ensures that information transmissions are encrypted.
•Telnet is a utility program that enables work to be done remotely.
•Finger is a utility program that allows you to find out who is logged onto a remote network.
•Ping is a utility program that allows users to verify a connection between client and server.
•Tracert lets you track the route a message takes from a client to a remote computer.
4.What are the main structural elements of Internet today?
The main structural elements of the Internet are:
•The backbone, which is composed primarily of high-bandwidth fiber optic cable operated by a variety of providers.
•NAPs and MAEs, which are hubs that use high-speed switching computers to connect the backbone with regional and local networks.
•Campus networks, which are local area networks operating within a single organization that connect directly to regional networks.
•Internet Service Providers,which deal with the “last mile" of service to homes and offices. ISPs offer a variety of types of service, ranging from dial-up service to broadband DSL, cable modem, T1 and T3
lines, and satellite link service.
5.What are the limitations of today's Internet?
To envision what the Internet of tomorrow—Internet II— will look like, we must first look at the limitations of today's Internet.
•Bandwidth limitations: Today's Internet is slow and incapable of effectively sharing and displaying large files, such as video and voice files.
•Quality of service limitations: Data packets don't all arrive in the correct order, at the same moment, causing latency; latency creates jerkiness in video files and voice messages.
•Network architecture limitations'. Servers can't keep up with demand. Future improvements to Internet infrastructure will improve the way servers process requests for information, thus improving overall
speed.
•Language development limitations: The nature of HTML restricts the quality of "rich" information that can be shared online. Future languages will enable improved display and viewing of video and graphics.
6.Please describe the potential capabilities of Internet IL
Internet II is a consortium working together to develop and test new technologies for potential use on the Internet. Internet II participants are working in a number of areas, including
•advanced network infrastructure;
•new networking capabilities;
•middleware; and
•advanced applications that incorporate audio and video to create new services.
In addition to the Internet II project, other groups are working to expand Internet bandwidth via improvements to fiber optic technologies and through photonics technologies such as Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing, optical and fiber switches, optical switching components, optical integrated circuits, and optical networks. Wireless Web and 3G technologies will provide users of cellular phones and PDAs with increased access to the Internet and its various services. The increased bandwidth and expanded connections of the Internet II era will result in a number of benefits, including
•IP multicasting, which will enable more efficient delivery of data;
•latency solutions such as diffserve (differentiated quality of service), which assigns levels of priority to packets based on the type of data being transmitted;
•guaranteed service levels;
•lower error rates; and
•declining costs.
7.How does World Wide Web work?
The Web was developed during 1989- 1991 by Dr. Tim Berners-Lee, who created a computer program that allowed formatted pages stored on the Internet to be linked using keywords (hyperlinks). In 1993, Marc Andreesen created the first graphical Web browser, which made it possible to view documents on the Web graphically and created the possibility of universal computing. The key concepts you need to understand how the Web works are
the following:
•Hypertext, which is a way of formatting pages with embedded links that connect documents to one another and that also link pages to other objects.
•HTTP (HyperText Transfer Protocol), which is the protocol used to transmit Web pages over the Internet.
•URLs (uniform resource locators), which are the addresses at which Web pages can be found.
•HTML, which is the programming language used to create most Web pages and which provides designers with a fixed set of tags that are used to format a Web page
•XML, which is a newer markup language that allows designers to describe data and information.
•Web server software, which is software that enables a computer to deliver Web pages written in HTML to client machines that request this service by sending an HTTP request. Web server software
also provides security services, FTP, search engine, and data capture services. The term Web server also is used to refer to the physical computer that runs the Web server software.
•Web clients, which are computing devices attached to the Internet that are capable of making HTTP requests and displaying HTML pages.
•Web browsers, which display Web pages and also have added features such as email and newsgroups.
8.Please Describe how Internet and Web features and services support e-commerce.
Together, the Internet and the Web make e-commerce possible by allowing computer users to access product and service information and to complete purchases online. Some of the specific features that support e-commerce include:
•Electronic mail (e-mail), which uses a series of protocols to enable messages containing text, images, sound, and video clips to be transferred from one Internet user to another. E-mail is used in e-
commerce as a marketing and customer support tool.
•Search engines, which identify Web pages that match a query submitted by a user. Search engines assist users in locating Web pages related to items they may want to buy.
•Intelligent agents or software robots, which are software programs that gather and/or filter information on a specific topic and then provide a list of results for the users.
•Instant messaging, which allows messages to be sent between two users almost instantly, allowing parties to engage in a two-way conversation. In e-commerce, companies are using instant messaging as
a customer support tool.
•Chat, which allows two or more users to communicate via computer in real time (simultaneously) and is being used in e-commerce as a community-building tool.
•Music, video, and other standard files (such as photos, etc.), which are used in e-commerce as digital content that may be sold and as marketing tools.
•Streaming media, which enables music, video, and other large files to be sent to users in chunks so that when received and played, the file comes through uninterrupted. Like standard digital files, streaming
media may be sold as digital content and used as a marketing tool.
•Cookies, which are small text files that allow a Web site to store information about a user, and are used by e-commerce as a marketing tool. Cookies allow Web sites to personalize the site to the user and also
permit customization and market segmentation.
The Internet II infrastructure will permit the rapid deployment of new services and greatly expand e- commerce opportunities. Emerging services include:
•Internet telephony, which uses VOIP to transmit audio communication over the Internet;
•digital libraries, which will allow distribution of software applications by ASPs to increase;
•distributed storage, which will allow ASPs to store data on multiple servers;
•distance learning through videoconferencing that will permit real-time two-way communication;
•digital video networks that will be able to deliver better-than-broadcast quality video over the Internet;
•high-quality video teleconferencing;
•tele-immersion (the merger of virtual reality and video conferencing); and
•m-commerce applications.
II. Fill in the blanks in each of the following
1.The basic building blocks of the Internet are: pecket-switching hardware, client/server computing,
and a communications protocol called TCP/IP.
2.Packet switching is a method of slicing digital messages into parcels called "packets," sending the
packets along different communication paths as they become available, and then reassembling the packets once they arrive at their destination.
3.IP addresses are 32-bit numbers that appear as a series of four separate numbers marked off by
periods.
4.IP addresses can be represented by a natural language convention called domain names.
5.An intranet is a TCP/IP network located within a single organization for purposes of
communications and information processing.
6.Extranets are formed when firms permit outsiders to access their internal TCP/IP networks.
7.The primary purpose of Web browsers is to display Web pages.
8.Cookies are a tool used by Web sites to store information about a user.
Chapter 3 EDI
I. Answer the following questions
1.EDI is described as the interchange of structured data according to agreed message standards between computer systems, by electronic means.
2.The benefits of EDI are as follows:
•EDI enables companies to send and receive large amounts of routine transaction information quickly around the globe.
•There are very few errors in the transferred data as a result of computer-to-computer data transfer.
•Information can flow among several trading partners consistently and freely.
•Companies can access partners5 databases to retrieve and store standard transactions.
•EDI fosters thru (and strategic) partnership relationships since it involves a commitment to a long-term investment and the refinement of the system over time.
•EDI creates a complete paperless TPS environment, saving money and increasing efficiency.
•Payment collection can be shortened by several weeks.
•Data may be entered offline, in a batch mode, without tying up ports to the mainframe.
•When an EDI document is received, the data may be used immediately.
•Sales information is delivered to manufactures, shippers, and warehouses almost in real time.
•EDI can save a considerable amount of money.
3.EDI may seem difficult to distinguish from electronic mail (e-mail) as both involve the transmission of electronic messages between computer systems. What differentiates EDI from e- mail is the internal structure and content of the data message. The content of an e-mail message is not intended to be processed in any way by the receiving system, whereas EDI messages are intended for and are therefore structured for automatic processing.
4.The major factors that have limited the use of traditional EDI are:
•Significant initial investment is needed, and ongoing operating costs are high.
•Business processes must be restructured to fit EDI requirements.
• A long start-up time is needed.
•Use of expensive, private VANs is necessary.
•There are multiple EDI standards, so one company may have to use several standards.
•An EDI cannot support dynamic trading in marketplaces.
•The system is complex.
• A converter is required to translate business transactions to EDI code.
•The system is inflexible; it is difficult to make quick changes, such as adding business partners.
5.There are several reasons for firms to create EDI ability over the Internet:
•The Internet is a publicly accessible network with few geographical constraints.
•The global nature of the Internet offers the potential to reach the widest possible number of trading partners of any viable alternative currently available.
•Using the Internet can cut communication costs by over 50 percent.
•Using the Internet to exchange EDI transactions is consistent with the growing interest of business in delivering an ever-increasing variety of products and services electronically,
particularly through the Web.
•Internet-based EDI can complement or replace many current EDI applications.
•Internet tools such as browsers and search engines are very user friendly, and most users today know how to use them.
•Internet-based EDI has several functionalities not provided by traditional EDI, which include collaboration, workflow, and search engines.
II. Write an Abstract of Section 3.3 in about 200 words.
Abstract-In traditional business environments, many inter-company processes (such as buying and billing) are performed using paper documents, such as purchase orders and invoices. Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) allows companies to exchange these documents in a structured and computer-processable format. This helps to automate and streamline business by eliminating or simplifying clerical tasks, speeding information transfer, reducing data errors, and eliminating business processes. Although EDI has been successfully employed in specific industries (such as retail) and in some large enterprises, it has not been widely adopted. The primary barriers to widespread acceptance of EDI are the costs of implementation and the costs of communication, which is frequently done using Value-Added Networks (VANs). These costs are generally too high for companies that do not conduct large numbers of EDI transactions.
In this paper, we introduce a Web-based Internet EDI model that provides valued-added functions traditionally provided by EDI over VANs. In this model, users conduct business transactions using Java-capable browsers instead of traditional EDI software, eliminating the costs of VANs and EDI-related applications. The proposed model is especially suitable for medium- and small-size firms that exchange business documents but can not afford to do EDI using VANs.
Chapter 4 Online Moneary Transactions
I. State whether the following are true or false. If the answer is false, explain why.
l.True. 2.True. 3.False. Only participating stores accept eCash. The customer, merchant and bank must all be able to use the eCash system. 4. False. eCharge is a micropayments system that automatically places charges on your home phone bill. 5.True.
1 .Micropayments 5. Instabuy
9. CashRegis 4. Merchant account 8. virtual
II. Define the following terms
a)Digital Cash is similar to regular cash, except that it is electronic. Consumers can store digital cash
securely within a bank account or digital wallet and use it to make purchases over the Web.
b)Peer-to-peer payment is often used within auction and bartering sites. It allows users to buy and sell
products and services on an e-commerce site.
c)Wells Fargo is a traditional bank that has established a strong presence on the Web. They are one of
the first major banks to do this.
d)An E-wallet gives an online consumer the ability to make purchases quickly and securely by
transferring personal and payment information directly onto the site without making the user fill out lengthy registration forms.
Micropayments are small sums of money that are used to make purchases on the Web. Micropayments benefit merchants by preventing fees associated with small credit card purchases.
f)Electronic Bill Presentment and Payment allows companies to present clients, bills over the Web.
Clients can review their bills and make payments securely from any computer.
g) A merchant account enables an online merchant to accept credit card payment on their Web site.
h)Smart cards are designed to facilitate purchases over the Web. Many include a digital wallet that
stores the smart card holder's personal information.
III. Fill in the blanks in each of the following
2.Smart cards
3.E-wallet
6. Peer-to-peer
7. ISP
10.Electronic Commerce Modeling Language (ECML)
Chapter 5 E-Business Models
I. a) True b) False. This is the concept of a true auction, c) False. A reserve price is the lowest price a seller will accept in an auction, d) True e) False. The name-your price model allows customers to get a lower price by clearing the price with a number of vendors. This does not involve an auction, f) False. Brick-and-mortar business are offline businesses. This term is often associated with companies who have both and online and offline presence, g) False. Web-based training is currently used by organizations around the world, h) True i) True j) True
II.a) Brick-and-mortar b) Demand sensitive pricing model c) shopping cart d) auction e) vertical, horizontal f) community g) reverse auctions h) B2B exchanges i) online trading j) comparison shopping。