Effect of Proliferation and Resistance of Internet Economy: Understanding Impact of Information and Communication Technology in Developing Countries

9.1. Introduction

Virtual communal marketing in Internet economy refers to managing, organizing, and marketing in the virtual community that incorporates public involvement in the development of Internet economy in stakeholders interface. A virtual community could fulfill various kinds of needs, such as transaction, interest, fantasy, and relationship (Armstrong and Hagel, 1996; Hagel and Arthur, 1997). Virtual communal marketing enables public administrators to identify the expectations, characteristics, and behavioral intentions of different stakeholders, which they can utilize to develop the service quality dimensions of global web-based services. The Internet potentially offers individuals, institutions, small and large businesses, all communities, and all levels of governments with new opportunities for learning, interacting, transacting business, and developing their social and economic potential. Information and communication technology (ICT) and the advent and proliferation of the Internet has changed the structure and performance of the global market and consumers’ perceptions and purchasing behavior.

Internet-based economy has created enormous opportunities not only for business corporations which is generally termed as Electronic-business or customer oriented Electronic-commerce but also for governments in wider space particularly known as Electronic-government (EG). An EG or EC transaction is any transaction completed over a computer-mediated network that involves the transfer of ownership or rights to use goods or services. Transactions occur within selected transaction processes, and are completed when agreement is reached between buyers and sellers to transfer the ownership or rights to use the goods or services. However, the sphere of the scope of EG is much wider than EC. Alternatively, EC is only a fragmented part of EG. EG is about complete relationships with civic institutions and the foundation of our next-generation states and communities. Understanding what citizens and businesses want and how government, the private sector, and other institutions will be integrated is the vital function of EG. Benchmarking the online revolution in public and private sectors requires new discourses about policy issues, political realities and their impact on the satisfaction of different stakeholders (Sakowicz, 2007). The EG model should also comprehend the evolution of ICT, the reformation of public administration, and the integration of stakeholders. In this chapter of the book, we will explore and illustrate the overall impact of the Internet economy among developing countries. The chapter does not focus much on the developed countries, because the positive effect of ICT on developed countries is quite obvious. Moreover, developed countries already have utilized and also are capitalizing full features of ICT in the Internet economy by launching EG in public sector and also guiding EC in private sector. However, developing countries are at the preliminary stage in this context. And in terms of capability to capitalize and use ICT in government and private sectors, the status of developing countries is not explicit. There is a controversy whether ICT intense projects either in public level or in private level would spur digital divide and would it ultimately fail to get the desired result in developing countries. So, we feel it is a challenging issue to address and evaluate the impact of proliferation of the Internet economy on the developing countries for the sake of globalization.