The authors address some stereotypes that pervade e-commerce on the Internet. They note that the typical example that is used for e-commerce is amazon.com. They also note that this Web site is atypical of most e-commerce web sites, with one exception: it still hasn't made a profit.

Drawing upon a comprehensive survey of 914 German-speaking companies, the authors cite “The Electronic Commerce Enquete 97/98” conducted by the university of Freiburg's telematics department. They note from this survey that the greatest barriers to the business success of electronic commerce are the lack of security and organizational/legal issues.

A lack of computer security with existing electronic commerce seems to be a disincentive for migrating to this type of business model. However, the biggest concerns are possible legal risks associated with electronic commerce. The most obvious one is a change in the tax laws, resulting in some type of tax on online sales. The other problem is the lack of clear case law regarding e-commerce. If a vendor gets into a dispute with a customer, how will the dispute be resolved? With traditional commerce, existing laws are already in effect. But with e-commerce, the laws are not quite as clear.

The authors suggest that individual firms, industry and trade groups, and governments should address these issues in order to better define the legal environment associated with e-commerce. Moreover by doing so, these entities will reduce the amount of perceived risk individual companies face when embarking upon an e-commerce plan.