The Challenges of E-Commerce in Central and Eastern Europe: The Romanian Case

The new information society offers great potential in promoting sustainable development, democracy and transparency for developing countries. In this context it is very important, both for these countries governments and business communities, to develop successful electronic commerce and electronic business strategies.This paper discusses electronic commerce aspects, with specific attention focused on e-readiness - a country's ability to take advantage of the Internet as an engine of economic growth and human development. The paper proposes a theoretical investigation of the e-readiness rank in Romania, in the framework of an electronic commerce network provided by J.P. Singh and S.M. Gilchrist. There are presented some of the positive and negative implications that developing countries (and especially Romania) need to be aware of if appropriate strategies are to be put in place, and also several factors which will impede or support faster Internet penetration and e-commerce development in these countries (the regulatory framework, the situation of IT&C market, the (limited) use of credit cards and other ways of electronic payment, cyber space (in)security and the level of computer literacy, the penetration of mobile telephony as a basis for mobile Internet access). Also, there are presented some results of a survey published to the portal of Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Al. I. Cuza University of Iassy, Romania, during July 2004. The study identifies electronic consumers' motivations and preferences. Ultimately, the user's opinion about electronic commerce can be identified, and used to develop a set of recommendation for Romanian and other developing countries e-readiness growth.