Internets, Intranets and Extranets: New Waves in Channel Surfing

Citation

du Preez, M. (2003), "Internets, Intranets and Extranets: New Waves in Channel Surfing", Online Information Review, Vol. 27 No. 5, pp. 372-373. https://doi.org/10.1108/14684520310503639

Internets, Intranets and Extranets, edited by Audhesh Paswan, is a collection of six academically researched articles that address the signalling cues in modern marketing channels and which Paswan compares to the web of the black widow spider. Paswan and co‐editor Lou Pelton hope that the volume will provide both descriptive and prescriptive insights into a web of new e.Mergent channel paths: Internets, intranets and extranets.

The leading article by Bello et al. develops a typology of e‐business technological innovations that have come to characterise cutting‐edge distribution management. It shows how e‐business tools relevant to marketing channels, are organised by the channel process flows that yield communication and transaction enhancements to distribution systems. In conclusion it discusses the implications of the e‐business revolution for managers and researchers.

Tamilia et al. explore the transaction cost underpinnings of cybermediaries in the article “Conventional channels of distribution and electronic intermediaries” by analysing electronic channel members using functional analysis and examining how such cybermediaries differ in the way they carry out the marketing functions or flows relative to conventional channel participants.

Griffith and Gray extend cue utilisation theory as an explanatory mechanism for the Web‐captive consumer in “The fallacy of the level playing field”. As such, this study provides for greater theoretical understanding of the recent collapse of many online retailers. They also discuss some future directions for researchers and practitioners.

“A three‐tier model representing the impact of Internet use and other environmental and relationship‐specific factors on a sales agent's fear of disintermediation due to the Internet medium”, by Gulati, Bristow and Douw, devotes some attention to the impact of the Internet medium on the independent sales agent as a channel intermediary. The authors developed and tested a conceptual framework, which posits relationship between nine component constructs to address this issue. Utilising information gathered from a national sample of independent sales agents, the study presents the results of confirmatory factor analysis and path analysis. It also suggests some avenues for future research.

Finally, Mols provides an integrative investigation of the channels exosystem and Internet‐based marketing channels when he discusses “The impact of organisational and environmental factors on the implementation of Internet‐based marketing channels”. He shows how this process includes the activities from the time before a firm first considers using the Internet as a marketing channel until it is fully implemented.

Internets, Intranets, and Extranetsis an essential information resource for distribution managers, logisticians and researchers interested in cutting‐edge principles and practices in electronic distribution channels. It also is a supplement for academics in the field of electronic commerce. It includes a very useful index, plenty of references and keywords that could assist the user in an online information search.