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

ABSTRACT

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.     

Combined Negotiations in E-Commerce: Concepts and Architecture

Combined Negotiations are a novel and general type of negotiation, in which the user is interested in many goods or services and consequently engages in many negotiations at the same time. The negotiations are independent of each other, whereas the goods or services are typically interdependent. Using currently available technology for electronic negotiations, the user conducts each negotiation separately, and has the burden of coordinating and reconciling them. The inherent complexity of combined negotiations in B2C as well as B2B e-commerce calls for software support.In our research, we aim to devise a Combined Negotiation Support System (CNSS) to help the user conduct all the negotiations at the same time. The CNSS enables the user to control and monitor the progress of the negotiations, makes sure that the specified dependencies are respected, and applies user-defined strategy rules. We have designed such a CNSS which we call CONSENSUS. The architecture of CONSENSUS relies on workflow technology, negotiating software agents, and rule engine technology. The originality of this architecture lies in the fact that the user of CONSENSUS models the combined negotiation at build time using a workflow that captures the sequencing of the individual negotiations and the dependencies between them. At runtime, software agents are assigned to individual negotiations, and they participate in the combined negotiation as actors in the workflow. The user can monitor the progress of the combined negotiation as a whole, and the progress of individual negotiations via dedicated graphical user interfaces. We rely on rule engine technology to enable the agents to use negotiation strategies.The paper introduces combined negotiations with a usage scenario. Then, combined negotiations are detailed, along with the approach taken to cope with their complexity. Afterwards, we describe the functionality a CNSS should provide, and present the architecture of CONSENSUS, together with a discussion of the underlying concepts and technologies. Furthermore, we report on our prototype implementation of CONSENSUS and illustrate it with an example. A discussion of related and future work concludes the paper.     

Audit Resource Planning Success in B2B E-Commerce: Development and Testing of a Measurement Scale

Abstract

The e-commerce audit engagement scenario makes audit resource planning (ARP) an activity full of technological complexities. These complexities generally involve both e-commerce technologies and enterprise information integration, putting real pressure on the audit organization's scarce human and financial resources. However, the success (or effectiveness) of such complex audit resource planning activity is not well understood or easily measured. This paper attempts to develop and diagnostically test measurement scales using classical measurement development framework and contemporary structural equation modeling methods.

This study is motivated by prior studies in the conventional (non e-commerce) audit resource planning, and audit-planning domain published in the accounting and management information systems discipline. The prior studies suggest that audit resource planning in a B2B (business-to-business) e-commerce engagement is a multi dimensional construct consisting of four latent dimensions. The four latent dimensions of ARP success are reflected through several manifest variables obtained from various relevant studies.

The results confirm that audit resource planning success is operationalizable as a measurement scale with the four dimensions. The results of the study are tools for benchmarking future efforts by audit organizations. Accounting scholars can also use this study as a base for operationalizing audit resource planning success as a key dependent variable in future research.     

Traditional and Online IPO Processes: Are there Differences in after-Market Trading and Market Making?

In this study we compare the after-market trading and market making activities of a sample of Nasdaq online initial public offerings (IPOs) to a matched sample of traditional IPOs. We find that online IPOs have significantly higher turnover in after-market trading, and more market makers, dealers, and electronic communications networks servicing their trading activities than traditional IPOs. We find no difference between the samples in after-market volumes, block trades, or the number of dealers actually engaged in trading. We believe this provides some support for the notion that distribution of IPOs to online customers facilitates liquidity in the after-market, at least for the smaller investor. We also believe that the evidence implies that control of the after-market trading is still in the hands of the institutional investor and that the advantages the Internet offers as a global communication network are at this point not being fully utilized.     

Online ads in familiar and unfamiliar sites: effects on perceived website quality and intention to reuse

Electronic commerce is an integral part of most businesses today. The perceived quality of the website and whether users intend to reuse the site are of primary concern to online businesses. There are various factors that influence customers' intentions to reuse a site. In this paper, we investigate two of these factors: whether the site is familiar to the user and whether there are online advertisements on the website. The results indicate that familiarity and online ads do have an impact on quality and reuse, although it is not entirely as expected.