Socio-Economic Impacts and Influences of E-Commerce in a Digital Economy

Abstract

Innovations in information and communications technologies have created a digital revolution that is changing the way the world works, learns, communicates and transacts business. E-commerce continues to show strong growth and has been influencing the social and economic growth of nations. On one hand e-commerce technologies have helped nations to accelerate their economic growth and to provide more opportunities for businesses to grow, but it has also created many challenges and effects across numerous domains of society, and for policy makers. These issues involve economic productivity, intellectual property rights, privacy protection, and affordability of and access to information, among other concerns. This chapter describes the various socio-economic impacts and influences that have been created by e-commerce in a digital economy.