Redress procedures expected by consumers during a business-to-consumer e-commerce dispute

Shibli

2020

JICES

Purpose Within a larger mandate of reviewing the key global trends concerning consumer protection in the electronic commerce (e-commerce) literature, this study aims to study the legal framework concerning e-commerce and consumer protection in the Sultanate of Oman and to analyse the current regulations concerning e-commerce and consumer protection. Design/methodology/approach This study followed the normative legal research approach and resorted to the desk research process to facilitate content analysis of literature containing consumer protection legislation and regulatory provisions in Oman in particular and the rest of the world in general. Findings The study reveals that consumer protection initiatives in Oman are well entrenched for offline transactions, but are relatively new and limited for e-commerce. In spite of the promulgation of consumer protection laws, electronic transaction law and cybercrime law, consumer protection measures for e-commerce in Oman do not address a large number of the global concerns necessary to build consumer confidence and trust in the online environment. Research limitations/implications There is a dearth of information concerning Oman on this topic in the extant literature. The research also witnessed the lack of empirical data on the issue of consumer protection and e-commerce in Oman that offer a detailed database of consumer complaints and associated outcomes. Practical implications The mechanism of consumer protection in electronic transactions is not robust in many countries. Because of the lack of comprehensive and robust legislation, consumers remain vulnerable in the online contractual purchase process. Moving beyond the fragmented legislation, many countries are currently mulling an all-comprehensive e-commerce law, implications of this paper will help the policymakers in identifying the focus areas. Social implications Consumer protection is a burning global issue in this era of consumerism. It is important to build consumer trust, transparency and integrity of transactions to reduce the risk and uncertainties of purchase. Originality/value Consumer protection studies conducted in the context of Oman, hitherto, deal more with data protection and dispute resolution mechanisms, and less with legal provisions, regulations and consumer confidence. The study shares newer insights based on a systematic review of legal and business databases. It is the first study of its kind in the context of Oman and the Middle East in general.

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Consumer protection and electronic commerce in the Sultanate of Oman

Shibli

2020

JICES

“…[8,25,35] Easy returns (Q-4) Benefit B2C e-commerce must have a flexible policy for the exchange or return of any product or item to avoid disputes between its consumer and the owner of the business. [26,36] Security/Privacy (S)…”

Section: Benefitmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A B2C e-commerce website provides or helps its customers in solving delivery disputes which sometimes arise due to the return of funds or products. [36,38] It is observed that MCDM methods are comprehensively utilized in analyzing the critical factors for evaluating the successful implementation of e-commerce websites. The MCDM methods have been considered as very effective and efficient in solving multi-faceted decision problems.…”

Section: Benefitmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing Factors for Designing a Successful B2C E-Commerce Website Using Fuzzy AHP and TOPSIS-Grey Methodology

Sun

2020

Symmetry

The recent hype in online purchasing has skyrocketed the importance of the electronic commerce (e-commerce) industry. One of the core segments of this industry is business-to-consumer (B2C) where businesses use their websites to sell products and services directly to consumers. Thus, it must be taken care of that B2C websites are designed in a way which can build a trustworthy and long-term relationship between businesses and consumers. Thus, this study assesses and prioritizes factors for designing a successful B2C e-commerce website. The study employs multi-criteria decision making (MCDM), and to minimize any ambiguity and greyness in the decision-making, it integrates fuzzy and grey respectively with the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) and Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) to form FAHP and TOPSIS-Grey. Initially, the study conducts a thorough literature survey to screen important factors reported in past studies. Five main factors and nineteen sub-factors were selected for further prioritization. Later, FAHP prioritized factors based on their importance. Finally, based on the FAHP results, TOPSIS-Grey ranked five alternatives (e-commerce websites). FAHP revealed “service quality” as the most successful website designing factor, while TOPSIS-Grey reported “Website-3” as the most successful website, having incorporated the factors required to design a successful website.

“…As internet operations allow for some systematic reduction of TC, many multinationals simplify their business model and gain efficiency. Some researchers point not only the shift from physical process to an electronic one but also sustainability costs thereof (Ong & Teh, 2016). Many examples of multinationals cases linked with the implementation of internet-based operations could be named here.…”

Section: Research Statement and Theoretical Frameworkmentioning

confidence: 99%

Cash-Flow Model for Efficiency Evaluation in Multinational Trade Enterprises Applying E-Commerce

Burinskas

Burinskienė

2019

In this study, the authors have investigated e-commerce in the activity of multinational trade enterprises (MNTEs) and highlighted the main differences between online and offline trade. Many studies are focusing on the application of e-commerce technologies but not on providing efficiency evaluation tool helping to identify how e-commerce technologies change trade business and propose its application in MNTEs. This research aims to provide the cash-flow model for an economic evaluation of investment and operations of e-commerce and traditional trade and the practical application of the model in MNTEs. To achieve this objective, the authors have proposed a cash-flow model useful for efficiency evaluation and its practical application. According to the case study analysis, trade enterprises which apply e-commerce technologies have approximately 3.7 times fewer employees and 3.1 times fewer investments in long-term tangible assets than other trade enterprises. However, MNTEs performing online business have 5.1 times fewer employees than MNTEs operating in offline. Of course, these numbers depend significantly on business size and the economies of scale. The study consists of three parts. In the first one, the paper discloses trade business changes determined by the investments into e-commerce. These results are presented on multinational and national business and disclose how actively multinational enterprises (the Mother Companies and their branches) and national ones invest in e-commerce. In the second part, the new cash-flow model is used for efficiency evaluation when trade firms practice e-commerce technologies. In the third part of this paper, the practical application of the model was delivered. Herein several trade MNTEs with and without e-commerce technologies are compared.