摘要：近几十年来， 电子商务的发展在世界各地起着越来越重要的作用； 然而在发展中国家其发展速度却慢于其他国家。笔者不仅探讨了电子商务的发展历史， 还分析了在中国电子商务发展不同阶段的局限性并找到相应的解决方案。本文遵循电子商务的发展历史， 从电子商务在中国的发展业务及电子商务容易被忽视的方面， 最重要的是造成的限制及其在中国应该如何解决几方面来阐述， 从中得出电子商务在中国的成功更应该取决于管理和信息技术， 而不是经济。
关键词：中国 技术 经济 管理
Abstract：In recent decades， e-commerce plays an increasing important role in all over the world； however， the step of development in developing countries is slower than other countries. The purpose of the project is not only to investigate the historical development of e-commerce， but also to analyse the different limitations of the e-commerce in China and find out the appropriate solutions to deal with them. This project would maintain the historical development of e-commerce， the effects of e-commerce development on business in China， aspects of e-commerce are being neglected， most important in causing the limitation， How should the limitations in China be dealt with. My result is that the success of e-commerce in China is more likely to depend on the administration and information technology rather than the economy.
Key Words： China， Technology， Economy， Administration
1. Introduction
In the internet era， e-commerce performs crucial roles in social and economic development， and may be defined as a special platform providing opportunities to exchange products， services and information online， leading to the innovation of trade， which is extremely different with the traditional type （Connerty 2001）.
The development of advanced transaction online has popularized all over the world. This large global market promotes the improvements of different small business ranging from general merchandise to household applications. These e-customers are immersed into realistic network world filled with products and services. However， many customers and suppliers are concerned about the slaw speed of improvement of e-commerce in their countries， such as China.
Some authors （Avila and Boncanoska 1998， United Nations Conference on Trade and Development 2002） argued that e-commerce has been developed and applied in most of countries， especially the developing countries. It could affect the suppliers’ motivation， the living of customers and the job opportunities in society. A growing number of authors prefer to research into the future of Chinese e-commerce （Ernst and He 2000）， not only in terms of its benefits on local people， but also in terms of its factors impeded the development of e-commerce in China. In Zhu’s （2000） and Zhang’s （2003） article， they found that this development could be determined by several factors， such as economy， administration as well as the standard level of information technology. However， the most important limitation in e-commerce， which is so valuable especially when finding the appropriate solutions， is likely to be neglect by them. Hence， the overall aim of research is to compare these three different limitations and find out the main ones. The research is divided into three parts. Firstly， it will identify the global e-commerce development， secondly， the problem faced by Chinese e-commerce and importance of different limitations to e-commerce development in China. Finally， according to the comparison for which two are most essential factors， the most important limitations are presented and discussed.
2. E-commerce
2.1. Development of Global E-commerce
E-commerce is a kind of new platform describing the processes of buying and selling and the transaction of products， services and information via network circumstance， such as Internet （Turban 1999）. It means that customers could find and get the goods provided by suppliers online. According to Boncanoska （Avila and Boncanoska 1998）， owing to the development of Internet technology， the new concept of commerce has been developed and popularized all over the world over the decades， due to the fact that an increasingly number of people have accessed to the Internet. The amount of users of e-commerce is being increased dramatically by 200% from 2000 to 2006 （ibid）. A rising number of countries had joined into the innovation of commerce world by the year of 2005， as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1： 2005 World Rank Region E-commerce （Avila and Boncanoska 1998）
From the figure， it indicates that until 2005， the Western Europe and North America has been the main markets of this new model commerce， and other areas occupy the market quotient averagely， which means that the degrees of developments of e-commerce in different areas are being developed at the same time. The volume of global business online increased from 210 billion in 2008 to 610 billion in 2012 （Turban 1999）.
2.2. Effects of E-commerce in Developing countries
During the 1990s， the process of e-commerce has been improved in the majority of developing countries. The development of infrastructure in these countries promotes the changes of local economy environment， leading to alter the traditional types of commerce （Efendioglu， Yip and Murray 1998）. The e-commerce has played an essential role in these changes of society. There are a significant number of benefits from e-commerce （Turban 1999）， as depict in Table 1.
Table 1： the benefits of e-commerce in developing countries on organizations， customers and society （Turban 1999）
It is shown that the e-commerce could bring positive influences on organizations， customers and local society. It may enable enterprises to significantly expand their marketplace to not only national but also international market， as well as help customers get the products with les costs anytime. While the most important one is that the development of local e-commerce reduces the proportion of unemployment via supporting these small businesses. 3. E-commerce in China
3.1. The Current Situation
Chinese e-commerce is different from the smooth and real-time transaction in other countries with advanced Internet. The special e-transaction pattern， called One-stop on-line shop with real-time transaction， is rarely existed in Chinese e-commerce market （Li 2006）. It means that Chinese e-customers should book the products or services online and get them off-line. In China， the growing number of Internet users has provided an opportunity for e-commerce development. According to Buhalis （2006）， the e-commerce websites increased from 1500 in 1997 to 590 thousand in 2003. Nowadays， two e-commercial websites are being registered every day in China. Some of them have achieved success. For example， “Taobao”， as one of the largest e-commerce transaction platform in Asia， has exceeded eBay and Amazon because of its successful strategies （Yang and Liu 2009， Martinsons 2002）.
3.2. The Future of E-commerce
The number of e-customers in China is predicted to exceed 40 million by the end of 2012（Ernst and He 2000）. Some researchers believe that the e-commerce will be in the dominant position of Chinese trade in the next decades. However， the flourishing e-commerce market in China does not mean there cannot be problems. Ernst （2000） doubted that the e-commerce in China， as one of the largest nations with the richer resources， means and the motivation， is lagging far behind other countries in terms of the size and scope of the e-commerce marketing. At present， many customers， especially those over the age of 45， prefer the traditional trade on the face-to-face basis， due to a number of limitations effected on the development of e-commerce in China. Efendioglu （Efendioglu 2004） found that culture issues， such as‘socializing effect of commerce’ and ‘attitudes toward debt’ are likely to be determined to be the impediments to Chinese e-commerce.
3.3. Limitations
Zhu （Zhu 2000）showed that the success of e-commerce in China relies on nine different factors， and he had also listed them in his report， such as lack of infrastructure， lack of trust， lack of information technology standard. The development will be significantly affected by three main aspects： the economy， administration and information technology （Zhang 2003）， which will be describe in the following sections.
3.3.1. The Economic Aspect
The economy is one of the main aspects in limitations of e-commerce in China， Zhang）， owing to the fact that economy level is the foundation of success of every introduction. Meanwhile， Zhang （2003） found that Chinese economy development level is comparatively very weak. When comparing with the GPD per capita of those developed countries or regions （as shown in Table 2）， Chinese whole development remains far laggard. Table 2： GDP Per Capita US dollar （Zhang 2003）
The table indicates the GDP per capita in China is far lower than those in other countries， although it had increased from 520 dollars in 1995 to 789 dollars in 1999. According to Zhu （Zhu 2000）， the lack of high economy level may weaken the motivation of businessmen’s investment motivation， which also supports the living environment of Chinese e-commerce.
3.3.2. The Administration Aspect
Nowadays， there is a lack of laws and regulatory framework related to the security of e-commerce in China （Zhu 2000）. To compare with the rules in other countries， where the various financial industries are highly compounded， the rule of e-commerce in China is quite different， because those financial service companies could only provide service of banking， insurance or securities， which significantly constricts their future on ment of commerce. Zhang （Zhang 2003） thought that the leak of laws in China risks the potential risk of transaction online （e.g. hackers， crackers and financial crimes）， which resulted in the lack of trust of e-customers， as the reliability of e-commerce. This series of problems about the security or safety pose the greater challenges to the development of e-commerce in China.
3.3.3. The Technological Aspect
Due to a rising number of Internet users， the network environment and information technology level are related with the customers and suppliers. More enterprises began to issue information of products based on the Internet. Zhu（2000） thought that the lack of the information technology standard could not directly impede the development of e-commerce in China， but the majority of e-commerce providers have to work on the platform with this standard. The lower level of information is likely to present many mistakes in the application， which are easily attacked by hackers or organizations who want to get unearned benefits from these errors. On the other hand， those e-commerce sites designed only in Chinese could impede the data exchange or multinational transactions （Zhang 2003， Zhu 2000）. Hence， the better way to promote the growth of e-commerce in China is to set up a universal standard of information technology and to solve the language issue.
4. Methodology
Mass of data and useful information related to e-commerce development has been presented in different ways， academic journals， books and websites. This range of literature source will be used in this report. The careful analysis of its history and development could contribute to finding out the potential development trend in other countries， especially in China. In the process of analyzing current situation of e-commerce in China， we may find several limitations and factors of local e-commerce. 5. Results
According to Zhang （2003）， three different factors of e-commerce （administration， economy and information technology） will bring some negative influences on the development of Chinese e-commerce on distinct aspects， such as safety， reliability， motivation， living environment， security and stability， which are shown in the Figure
Figure 1： relationships between the three main factors of e-commerce （Zhang， 2003）
From the picture， it is shown that economy development may just change the living environment of e-commerce in China and the businessmen’s investment motivation. The improvement of administration will effect on the safety of e-transaction and reliability of the public， especially the customers. However，the stable improvement and information security of local e-commerce rely on the standard level of information technology directly and significantly. On the other hand， Zhu （2000） found that all of the effects are likely to play different roles in the development of local e-commerce. For example， the most important factor is the e-transaction safety or information security which is paid more attention by both of the customers and suppliers， because it is not only related to their financial benefits， but also easy to reduce the reliability of e-commerce， trust of the customers and investment motivation of supplier significantly. The stability of e-commerce application is more essential than the living environment. Hence， the result of this research is that the administration and information technology are more likely to impede the future of Chinese e-commerce than economy. Due to the low standard level of information technology， the e-commerce system may be unstable and easy to be attacked by hackers， leading to the loss of valuable data of e-transaction， even the financial loss， which is likely to be similarly resulted from the deficiency of supervision and the leaks of the laws. Meanwhile， owing to the fact that the frequency of e-business deal and its financial amount is being increased， the trade security and personal information protection are concerned by these members in the transaction online. While the living environment resulted from economy is one of the conditions for local e-commerce， it is even more important how to increase the customers’ trust and businessmen’s motivation resulted from the e-commerce security.
6. Discussion
The project aims at finding out the most essential limitations for Chinese e-commerce via the analysis of its development trend. It has been argued that e-commerce in China with rich resources is still lagging far behind other countries in terms of its market （Ernst and He， 2000）. On the other hand， it is also argued that infrastructure and socio-economy influence the e-commerce development in China （Efendioglu， 2004）. However， my result is that the success of Chinese e-commerce may mainly rely on the administration and information technology （IT） standard， because the e-commerce security is related to the businessmen’s investment motivation and the trust of the customers， which constitute the living environment of e-commerce. Apparently， leaks of e-commerce regular and the unstable e-commerce systems are more likely to be attacked by hackers or those who expect to get the unearned benefits， leading the reduction of e-commerce security of information and trade resulted in damage of the trusts of e-customers and suppliers. Although it is found that both of administration and IT may be the decisive limitation of Chinese e-commerce in the research， there could not be impossible limitations. Because， the economy， administration and IT are mainly studied in this project， other factors and the interactions between different factors are more likely to be neglected.
A clear understanding of the main limitations of Chinese e-commerce will be helpful， especially when improving its efficiency. To minimise these limitations， the effects of each limitation and their relationships should be synthetically considered before solutions proposed. Meanwhile， governments need to identify and control changes of e-commerce market as well as legislate against financial crimes and security problems.
7. Conclusion
The administration and information technology standard are found to be the most essential limitations affected on the development of e-commerce in China. However， Many other limitations and their relationships may be neglected by the research. They have been studied and their possible solutions are proposed.
To resolve these problems， it is suggested that the complex interactions between limitations need to be taken into account and their importance needs to be also put in order. They may enable all confused arguments about limitations to be eliminated. Governments and scientists should also propose some solutions to develop Chinese e-commerce， such as issuing the related laws to keep the security of information and trade and developing the small e-commerce systems with low costs and easy vindicating processes. After these remedies， it is firmly believed that Chinese e-commerce might be improved dramatically， although there could be still several problems.
This result should be put into practical use and evaluated. In the future research， the appropriate solution to improve the level of information technology standard and local administration should also be focused.
Acknowledgment：Thank you Hilary Thompson tutor for this article guidance and help.
Zhang Mengting at present in the UK Heriot-Watt University reading.
References：
[1]Avila，A.&V.Boncanoska.1998.Promoting e-Commerce in Developing Countries.28.Internet Governance and Policy Discussion Papers
[2]Connerty，A.[2001]The internet era：the development of electronic commerce in China - and a need for global dispute resolution processes Amicus Curiae，2001，5
[3]Efendioglu，A.M.[2004]Chinese culture and e-commerce：an exploratory study.Interacting with Computers，16，7
[4]Efendioglu，A.M.，V.F.Yip&W.L.Murray.1998.E-COMMERCE IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES：ISSUES AND INFLUENCES 8.University of San Francisco
[5]Ernst，D.&J.He.2000.The Future of E-Commerce in China the East-West Center
[6]Li，L.[2006]E-Commerce in China：The case of travel.International Journal of Information Management， 26，13
[7]Martinsons，M.G.[2002]Electronic commerce in China：emerging success stories.Information& Management，39，9
[8]Turban，E.1999.Electronic commerce：a managerial perspective.Upper Saddle River，N.J.；Harlow Boston，Mass；London： Prentice Hall；Pearson Prentice Hall
[9]United Nations Conference on Trade and Development.2002.E-COMMERCE AND DEVELOPMENT REPORT 2002，275.New York and Geneva
[10]Yang，L.& X.Liu [2009].Analysis on the Successful Strategies of Taobao’s E-Commerce
[11]Zhang，X.2003.Influencing Factors of Securities E-Commerce in China
