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232 Part 1 Introduction

North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Syria, Tajikistan, Tunisia, Turkmenistan,
Uzbekistan and Vietnam. Even the US government tried to control access to certain Internet
sites with the Communications Decency Act in 1996, but this was unsuccessful. Refer to
Activity 4.4 to discuss these issues.

Activity 4.4 Government and company monitoring of electronic communications

Purpose
To examine the degree to which governments and organizations should monitor elec-
tronic communications.

Activity
Write down the arguments for and against each of these statements, debate individu-
ally or as a group to come to a consensus:
1 ‘This house believes that organizations have no right to monitor employees’ use of
e-mail or the web.’ Use Moreover (www.moreover.com) to research recent cases where
employees have been dismissed for accessing or sending e-mails or web content that
is deemed unsuitable. Is this just used as an excuse for dismissing staff?
2 ‘This house believes that governments have no right to monitor all Internet-based
communications passing through ISPs.’ Use Moreover (www.moreover.com) to
research action taken by the government of your country to monitor and control
Internet communications.
What action do you think managers in a company should take with regard to moni-
toring employee access? Should laws be set at a national level or should action be
taken by individual companies?
Answers to activities can be found at www.pearsoned.co.uk/chaffey

Economic and competitive factors

The economic health and competitive environment in different countries will determine the

e-commerce potential of each. Managers developing e-commerce strategies in multinational
companies will initially target the countries that are most developed in the use of the tech-
E-economy nology. A comprehensive framework for assessing an ‘e-economy’ has been developed by
The dynamic system of Booz Allen Hamilton (2002). The report authors define the e-economy as
interactions between a
nation’s citizens, the the dynamic system of interactions between a nation’s citizens, the businesses and
businesses and
government that government that capitalize upon online technology to achieve a social or economic good.
capitalize upon online
technology to achieve a The framework is based upon four layers of environment, readiness, uptake and use, and
social or economic good. impact, and three major stakeholder groups: citizens, businesses and government, as shown
in Figure 4.11.
A review of how different governments have tried to improve the health of their e-economies
is presented in the sections later in this chapter on political factors and e-government.
Knowledge of different economic conditions is also part of budgeting for revenue from
different countries. In China there is regulation of foreign ownership of Internet portals and
ISPs which could hamper development. User access to certain content is also restricted.
The trend towards globalization can arguably insulate a company to some extent from fluc-
tuations in regional markets, but is, of course, no protection from a global recession. Managers
can also study e-commerce in these leading countries to help predict future e-commerce
trends in their own country.