Information systems and their application play a major role in today's business. In addition to the introduction of new technologies which help to streamline processes within companies, electronic commerce has become the most recent trend. Electronic commerce has been described as “commercial transactions occurring over open networks, such as the Internet” (OECD, 1997). These new information technologies provide new opportunities and mechanisms to cooperate or to compete, taking advantage of computer power, the communication possibilities of the network, and the fact that millions of people and businesses are simultaneously online.

Though only a few years old, electronic commerce (e-commerce) has the potential to radically alter business-to-business, business-to-consumer as well as consumer-to-consumer transactions. For instance, electronic communication between businesses and suppliers via Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) has recently been enhanced by web-based front-ends for the placement of customer orders. Inter-organizational systems, efficient consumer response, and supply chain management are only a few of the challenges that future businesses will have to meet.

The current success of electronic commerce and the creation of billions in market capitalization and revenue is based on fundamental work done in the past in various disciplines.