Virtual Organizations and E-Commerce

In a virtual organization, goods and services are accessible without face-to-face contact with other people. In such organizations, computers and telecommunications substitute for physical location. Virtual organizations are particularly suited for E-commerce because the contact between the customer and the vendor is a home page on the Internet. This chapter discusses the forces, dilemmas, issues, and implications of ongoing virtual organizations and their relation to E-commerce. It describes the four main driving forces (global economics, policies and politics, the enlightened population, and technologies) and the issues and complexities that these forces impose. Distributed organizations based on telecommuting and temporary alliance of multiple organizations are described as specific instances of virtual organizations.