Title: Is cybermediation really the future or risk?

Authors: Charles Adetokunbo Shoniregun

Addresses: School of Computing and Technology, University of East London, Longbridge Road, Barking, Dagenham Essex, RM8 2AS, UK

Abstract: As organisations look to electronic commerce (e-commerce) as a substantial source of their profits, the current internet cybermediaries are being evaluated as role models for the future. As these advances extend beyond the sphere of organisations to include consumers, industrial dynamics provide unprecedented opportunities for producers and services to bypass the traditional market intermediaries and interact direct with the final consumers. This will lead to the gradual elimination of intermediaries from the value system. The research methodologies adopted are questionnaires and structured interviews. The survey questionnaires and interview were conducted to validate some of the work that has been done by previous researchers, but as e-commerce eliminates traditional mediaries, it has led to the emergence of new informediaries in their place. This paper investigates the outsourcing of an organisation non-core functions towards cybermediaries development and the enabled technologies.

Keywords: internet cybermediation; electronic commerce; e-commerce; disintermediation; intermediation; reintermediation; informediaries; outsourcing; intermediaries.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEB.2004.006130

International Journal of Electronic Business, 2004 Vol.2 No.6, pp.644 - 673

Published online: 06 Feb 2005 *

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