Sales and Use Taxation in E-Commerce: Where We Are and What Needs to be Done

As sales through the Internet have increased, states have sought to force remote sellers to collect and remit sales/use taxes. In response to the U.S. Supreme Court's Constitutional obstacles, the Streamlined Sales Tax Project (SSTP) was organized in 2000. SSTP is a voluntary effort by a number of states to address the Constitutional problems and reduce the burden of sales tax administration for all sellers in all types of commerce. This article examines the current state of the law and the major problems surrounding the SSTP.     

The Battle Over E-commerce Sales Taxes Heats Up

The inability of states to collect sales taxes from online vendors is a salient issue during the current economic decline. Further, brick and mortar retailers, who must charge customers sales tax, have pushed for legislation requiring online vendors to also do so. States have enacted legislation requiring online vendors, such as Amazon.com LLC, to collect and pay these taxes. In this article the authors describe the issue and make recommendations for resolution.     

Scores vs. stars: A regression discontinuity study of online consumer reviews

With the rising popularity of consumer reviews, the design of the review system becomes increasingly crucial for e-commerce platforms and online retailers in their business decision-makings. Though the relationship between consumer reviews and sales has been extensively studied, only few studies have been conducted on the effects of different review designs. In this paper, we collect detailed review data from Meituan.com, a popular Chinese shopping website, to examine the effects of numerical presentation of consumer reviews (detailed to one decimal place) and graphical presentation of consumer reviews (in half-stars) on sales. By using a regression discontinuity design, we find that while consumer review scores may affect sales positively, the star presentation can create negative, rather than positive, jumps at cutoffs. Consumers restrict their attention to a star category; therefore, the “best” sellers in a lower star category are better off than the “worst” sellers in a higher star category. The incentive for review manipulation is strongly reduced, which in the long run will create trust and confidence for the review system as well as the sellers. For those sellers that are just below the cutoffs, simply crossing over the cutoffs would not lead to higher sales. Instead, they will have to substantially improve their service quality to attract consumers.     

Superstars and outsiders in online markets: An empirical analysis of electronic books

Recent rapid growth in electronic book sales has raised a critical question for publishers and bookstores: do e-books cannibalize or increase print sales? In this article, we compare the best-selling titles sold on www.Amazon.com in print or electronic Kindle formats during the period from November 2007 to July 2010. Using econometric methods, we find that the cannibalization of print sales by e-books is more likely to occur for superstar titles written by successful authors. However, we find that a new segment of successful electronic titles that are not best-selling in print format emerge; these books would probably have been unpopular without the new Kindle store and therefore this new distribution channel has expanded the market. We refer to these titles as digital outsiders. The latter are characterized not only by lower prices but also by older release dates. They also include titles that are only released in electronic format. We then argue that electronic books increase the market viability of old print releases. Finally we identify a category that we call print-preferred books that are top sellers in print but not as e-books for reasons of color, graphics, or the need to navigate non-linearly, a style to which the current generation of e-book readers are not well adapted.     

Using Business Intelligence Tools to Help Manage Costs and Effectiveness of Business-to-Business Inside-Sales Programs

Abstract

Record-high transportation costs and unprecedented travel difficulties are driving up the expenses and uncertainties associated with use of an outside sales team. As a result, sales managers operating in today's high-cost and high-risk environment need to invest in sophisticated data analytics to support inside sales teams that do not travel. This paper describes how predictive analytics, data mining, and other business intelligence tools help inside sales teams to effectively manage their costs and generate sales.     

Undecidable Problems for Probabilistic Automata of Fixed Dimension

Abstract. We prove that several problems associated with probabilistic finite automata are undecidable for automata whose number of input letters and number of states are fixed. As a corollary of one of our results we prove that the problem of determining if the set of all products of two 47 × 47 matrices with nonnegative rational entries is bounded is undecidable.     

Introducing a sales order processing system: the importance of human,organizational and ergonomic factors*

Abstract

This paper is a follow-up to an earlier study (Rowe 1985) and considers the addition of a computerized sales order processing system at Barrington's food factory. The earlier stock control system had not been without its problems, and the lessons learned from this experience enabled management to avoid repeating certain mistakes with regard to planning, office provision and training. However, once in operation, the new system also experienced a number of shortcomings, principally because management still overlooked important human, organizational and ergonomic factors. As the previous article pointed out, these factors are often less visible to management, and it resulted in problems with regard to day-to-day operations, office reorganization, work roles and inter-departmental communication. The concluding section advocates the abandonment of ‘technology-led system design’ in favour of a more evolutionary approach.     

Why You Should Not Play the Numbers Game with Anti-Spyware Vendors

Abstract

Security technology vendors relish throwing out numbers: We have “X” more pattern files or “Y” more algorithms than any other vendor. We have more ?fill in this blank with your most-often-heard sales pitch? to make you more secure.     

Occupational risk and prolonged standing work in apparel sales assistants

BackgroundThe prolonged standing posture during work affects the risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders of the lower limbs, especially in lack of alternative sitting. While different ergonomic tools are available to assess and manage the postural risk of the back and the upper limbs, there is a dearth of methods relative to the lower limbs.ObjectivesThe aim of this study is to assess the postural risk of sales assistants working in a prolonged standing posture, focusing on critical issues for the lower limbs.Methodsand criteria: 70 sales assistants employed among 9 apparel stores in northern Italy participated in the study. An observational approach was adopted, together with the application of standard ergonomic tools (Rula, Reba, Strain Index, Ocra) to assess the postural risk. Estimates of energy expenditure and movement's patterns were obtained through continuous monitoring with the Sense Wear Armband. Discomfort of the lower limbs was subjectively rated on the Borg's Cr-10 scale at the end of the work shift. The leg circumference was measured on each worker at intervals along the work shift.ResultsThe work of sales assistants in the apparel retail sector is characterized by the prolonged standing posture which accounts for more than 80% of the work shift duration; alternation with walking phases occurs according to assigned tasks and work organization.Activities of the upper limbs and occasional adopted awkward postures are observed, with the postural indexes varying between medium-high level of risk. The average distance walked during the work shift is 3,4 km. The musculoskeletal discomfort of the lower limbs reaches a medium-high intensity (CR 4–5) in 75% of the workers at the end of the work shift. Small but significant variations in the leg circumference were detected between beginning-end of the work shift (increase) and between beginning-end of the break interval (decrease).ConclusionOur data suggest that an indefinite level of risk of developing discomfort and musculoskeletal disorders of the lower limbs is real in sales assistants who work in a prolonged standing posture. The lack of specific assessment tool and of preventive measures could aggravate the exposure level.     

A personalized trustworthy seller recommendation in an open market

Although more and more customers are buying products on online stores, they have a difficulty in selecting a both trustworthy and suitable seller who sells a product they want to buy since there is a plenty number of sellers who sell the same product with different options. Therefore, the objective of this research is to propose a personalized trustworthy seller recommendation system for the customers of an open market in Korea. To that end, we first developed a module which classifies sellers into trustworthy one or not using a classification technique such as decision tree, and then developed another module which makes use of the content-based filtering method to find best-matching top k sellers among the selected trustworthy sellers. Experimental results show that our approach is worthwhile to take. This study makes a contribution at least in that to our knowledge it is the first attempt to recommend sellers, not products as done in most other studies, to customers.     

Reputation mechanism for e-commerce in virtual reality environments

The interest in 3D technology and virtual reality (VR) is growing both from academia and industry, promoting the quick development of virtual marketplaces (VMs) (i.e. e-commerce systems in VR environments). VMs have inherited trust problems, e.g. sellers may advertise a perfect deal but doesn’t deliver the promised service or product at the end. In view of this, we propose a five-sense feedback oriented reputation mechanism (supported by 3D technology and VR) particularly for VMs. The user study confirms that users prefer VMs with our reputation mechanism over those with traditional ones. In our reputation mechanism, five-sense feedback is objective and buyers can use it directly in their reputation evaluation of target sellers. However, for the scenarios where buyers only provide subjective ratings, we apply the approach of subjectivity alignment for reputation computation (SARC), where ratings provided by one buyer can then be aligned (converted) for another buyer according to the two buyers’ subjectivity. Evaluation results indicate that SARC can more accurately model sellers’ reputation than the state-of-the-art approaches.     

Exploring the factors affecting global manufacturing performance*

ABSTRACT

A decision tree is used to explore the effects of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) and financial factors on global manufacturing industry sales performance. Existing research provides an unclear picture of how ICTs affect sales performance. Earlier studies showed little evidence that ICTs improve performance, more recent studies do. Our investigation found that between 2006 and 2009, companies with high ICT scores performed well, but their performance declined substantially between 2010 and 2014. ICTs do not significantly influence manufacturing sales growth performance, but financial factors do. Supplier credit as a source of financing leads to negative sales growth, while low loan collateral improves sales performance. Taking advantage of bank financing improves sales, but using equity or stocks to fund investments negatively affects them. These findings are used to develop seven research hypotheses for future studies.     

Why You Should Not Play the Numbers Game with Anti-Spyware Vendors

Abstract

Security technology vendors relish throwing out numbers: We have “X” more pattern files or “Y” more algorithms than any other vendor. We have more >>fill in this blank with your most-often- heard sales pitch<< to make you more secure.     

The concept of decentralized and secure electronic marketplace

For commerce (electronic or traditional) to be effective, there must be a degree of trust between buyers and sellers. In traditional commerce, this kind of trust is based on such things as societal laws and customs, and on the intuition people tend to develop about each other during interpersonal interactions. The trustworthiness of these factors is based, to a large extent, on the geographical proximity between buyers and sellers. But this proximity is lost in e-commerce. In conventional electronic marketplaces the trust among participants is supported by a central server which imposes certain trading rules on all transactions. But such centralized marketplaces have serious drawbacks, among them: lack of scalability, and high cost. In this paper we propose the concept of Decentralized Electronic Marketplace (DEM) which allow buyers and sellers to engage in commercial transactions, subject to an explicitly stated set of trading rules, called the law of this marketplace—which they can trust to be observed by their trading partners. This trust is due to a decentralized, and thus scalable, mechanism that enforces the stated law of the DEM. We implement an electronic marketplace for airline tickets in order to illustrate the feasibility of the proposed concepts for decentralized and secure electronic marketplace.     

A Comparison of RealSecure and NetRanger

Abstract

A few months ago the author (with a small dedicated team) had the opportunity to review the RealSecure product from ISS and the NetRanger product from Cisco (The WheelGroup, at the time). They were considering these products for a rather large network, which covered a rather large region. These monitoring or intrusion detection systems (IDSs) are designed for both large and small environments. In the interest of time, they had each vendor install their products into their test environment and queried their representatives (sales engineers and sales representatives) on various features.     

Evaluating test suite characteristics,cost, and effectiveness of FSM-based testing methods

ContextTesting from finite state machines has been investigated due to its well-founded and sound theory as well as its practical application. There has been a recurrent interest in developing methods capable of generating test suites that detect all faults in a given fault domain. However, the proposal of new methods motivates the comparison with traditional methods.ObjectiveWe compare the methods that generate complete test suites from finite states machines. The test suites produced by the W, HSI, H, SPY, and P methods are analyzed in different configurations.MethodComplete and partial machines were randomly generated varying numbers of states, inputs, outputs, and transitions. These different configurations were used to compare test suite characteristics (number of resets, test case length) and the test suite length (i.e., the sum of the length of its test cases). The fault detection ratio was evaluated using mutation testing to produce faulty implementations with an extra state.ResultsOn average, the recent methods (H, SPY, and P) produced longer test cases but smaller test suites than the traditional methods (W, HSI). The recent methods generated test suites of similar length, though P produced slightly smaller test suites. The SPY and P methods had the highest fault detection ratios and HSI had the lowest. For all methods, there was a positive correlation between the number of resets and the test suite length and between the test case length and the fault detection ratio.ConclusionThe recent methods rely on fewer and longer test cases to reduce the overall test suite length, while the traditional methods produce more and shorter test cases. Longer test cases are correlated to fault detection ratio which favored SPY, though all methods have a ratio of over 92%.     

A formal approach for run-time verification of web applications using scope-extended LTL

ContextIn the past decade, the World Wide Web has been subject to rapid changes. Web sites have evolved from static information pages to dynamic and service-oriented applications that are used for a broad range of activities on a daily basis. For this reason, thorough analysis and verification of Web Applications help assure the deployment of high quality applications.ObjectivesIn this paper, an approach is presented to the formal verification and validation of existing web applications. The approach consists of using execution traces of a web application to automatically generate a communicating automata model. The obtained model is used to model checking the application against predefined properties, to perform regression testing, and for documentation.MethodsTraces used in the proposed approach are collected by monitoring a web application while it is explored by a user or a program. An automata-based model is derived from the collected traces by mapping the pages of the application under test into states and the links and forms used to browse the application into transitions between the states. Properties, meanwhile, express correctness and quality requirements on web applications and might concern all states of the model; in many cases, these properties concern only a proper subset of the states, in which case the model is refined to designate the subset of the global states of interest. A related problem of property specification in Linear Temporal Logic (LTL) over only a subset of states of a system is solved by means of specialized operators that facilitate specifying properties over propositional scopes in a concise and intuitive way. Each scope constitutes a subset of states that satisfy a propositional logic formula.ResultsAn implementation of the verification approach that uses the model checker Spin is presented where an integrated toolset is developed and empirical results are shown. Also, Linear Temporal Logic is extended with propositional scopes.Conclusiona formal approach is developed to build a finite automata model tuned to features of web applications that have to be validated, while delegating the task of property verification to an existing model checker. Also, the problem of property specification in LTL over a subset of the states of a given system is addressed, and a generic and practical solution is proposed which does not require any changes in the system model by defining specialized operators in LTL using scopes.     

Performance of online reputation mechanisms under the influence of different types of biases

Rating mechanisms are becoming an essential tool for online shoppers. There have been many reputation mechanisms proposed in the literature that try to mitigate the sometimes adverse effects of strategic behavior of the traders to alter their true reputation scores. At the same time, several studies have shown the presence of bias (often unintentional) in product ratings and their harmful effect on buyers and product sales. To date there has not been any work done that studies the performance of reputation mechanisms in the presence of various types of biases. This study is a first attempt to fill that gap. We present three reputation mechanism models that have been discussed in the literature, discuss three types of biases that have been studied in the past, and study the performance of the three reputation mechanisms in the presence of these biases by using a multi-agent system that simulates the interactions among buyers and sellers in an electronic marketplace. Using replicator dynamics we also show the effect of these models on the behavior of buyers and sellers as the buyers choose the type of reputation models they prefer to use and the sellers change their strategic behavior in response.     

A Bayesian network model for likelihood estimations of acquirement of critical software vulnerabilities and exploits

ContextSoftware vulnerabilities in general, and software vulnerabilities with publicly available exploits in particular, are important to manage for both developers and users. This is however a difficult matter to address as time is limited and vulnerabilities are frequent.ObjectiveThis paper presents a Bayesian network based model that can be used by enterprise decision makers to estimate the likelihood that a professional penetration tester is able to obtain knowledge of critical vulnerabilities and exploits for these vulnerabilities for software under different circumstances.MethodData on the activities in the model are gathered from previous empirical studies, vulnerability databases and a survey with 58 individuals who all have been credited for the discovery of critical software vulnerabilities.ResultsThe proposed model describes 13 states related by 17 activities, and a total of 33 different datasets.ConclusionEstimates by the model can be used to support decisions regarding what software to acquire, or what measures to invest in during software development projects.     

Trust ontologies for e‐service environments

In this article, we introduce trust ontologies. An ontology represents a set of concepts that are commonly shared and agreed to by all parties in a particular domain. Here, we introduce generic and specific trust ontologies. These ontologies include the following: an agent trust ontology and trustworthiness; agents include sellers, service providers, Web sites, brokers, shops, suppliers, buyers, or reviewers. A services trust ontology and trustworthiness assists in measuring the quality of service that agents provide in the service‐oriented environment such as sales, orders, track and trace, warehousing, logistics, education, governance, advertising, entertainment, trading, online databases, virtual community services, security, information services, opinions, and e‐reviews. A goods or products trust ontology and trustworthiness is useful for measuring the quality of products such as commercial products, information products, entertainment products, or second‐hand products. We present a trust ontology that is suitable for all types of agents that exist in the service‐oriented environment. As agent trust is measured through the quality of goods and services, we introduce two additional distinct concepts of service trust ontology and product trust ontology. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Int Syst 22: 519–545, 2007.