I. Introduction This paper provides an understanding of the impact that electronic commerce over the Internet will have on market efficiency, socio-economic policy, risk, control, and audit theory. To accomplish this goal, this report will deal with the subject as it relates to: · Market Efficiency of consumer products sold over the Internet as well as the tools utilized by consumers and producers and their associated attributes. · Public policy by detailing the social, legal, and tax implications. · Audit Theory by detailing risks, controls, and the impact on the audit process. Before the above topics can be addressed and adequately explained, it is important to understand how the two main components in this study, electronic commerce and the Internet, can be used together to enhance business processes in the future. Electronic Commerce The first step in unde

s Other benefits that electronic commerce over the Internet has over traditional commerce as well as electronic data interchange (EDI) include the following: · Internet commerce does not rely on private-messaging networks and value-added networks (VANs). A VAN offers customers a variety of communications services, including EDI, electronic commerce, and secure transaction services such as audit trails. Both VANs and private messaging networks are characterized by relatively high costs and limited connectivity. For example, an EDI user of a VAN can expect to pay roughly $150 a hour compared to the $1 an hour the same transaction would cost over the Internet. Internet access is less expensive because the cost of access remains constant no matter how much traffic is sent out. On the other hand, a VAN charges for each character. · The Internet provides electronic commerce with a connectivity advantage over VANs as well. Connectivity on VANs reaches mainly only other paying enterpr!

ises and relies, for the most part, on store-and-forward methods. Store-and-forward methods are sufficient for such electronic commerce functions as passing purchase orders and invoices. However, VANs are not capable of providing the connectivity necessary for advertising and interactive business. In spite of all the hype that surrounds the Internet as a transaction medium, there are some who feel that it has yet to get started. Users pay for access from providers such as PSI, UUNet, IDT, and Netcom; subscribe to content providers such as America Online and CompuServe; and access online databases such as OCLI and Lexis/Nexis. But these same users don't actually buy goods and services in any significant standard. For example, consider home banking. Intuit estimates that somewhere between 200,000 and 400,000 people pay bills using home PCs. At first glance this seems impressive, however this is brought into perspective when it is considered that an estimated 75 million Americans!

for the purpose of doing business with one another." Electronic commerce encompasses a wide range of emerging technologies. These include groupware, document management, imaging, search and retrieval, agent-based computing, digital signatures as well as many other solutions. As stated earlier, we are entering the "Information Re

Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 1547
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)