Barriers to E-Procurement Adoption

E-procurement practice is not well-established in emerging countries. There are barriers in terms of transportation, financial, telecommunication, and legal infrastructures. Also, a lack of a qualified workforce, cultural barriers, and security problems hinder the development of e-procurement activities. These are not such significant problems in the developed countries. In this study, we examined the Turkish practice. We gave country background information including macroeconomic data and Internet penetration data, and we gave a picture of the current situation of Turkey. We then discussed how these barriers can be overcome in Turkey. Finally, we gave predictions about how m-procurement may alter the situation and its potential for the Turkish market.

Business Ethics and Technology in Turkey

IT ethics cannot be analyzed without assessing business ethics in general and the cultural environment. This study is based on the Turkish case. Turkey lies at the crossroads of civilizations, making it hard to define a generally accepted set of ethical principles. Western, Islamic, and Turkish cultures are in competition with each of them, and a synthesis has not yet been achieved. Therefore, a common identity and common ethical standards cannot be acquired. In fact, such a synthesis could be categorized as a new civilization. This disagreement causes proliferation of unethical behaviors such as the illegal copying of software. The majority of highly educated technical people in Turkey approves of the illegal copying of software, if it is necessitated by the interests of the country. This shows that we have a long way to go to reach global ethical standards, and country-specific differences cannot be eliminated in the short term.

E-HRM as a Reality in Virtual World

The human resources (HR) profession has had a rich history: that is, from the concept of labor unions in 1930 to the creation of selection tools in 1940 then to the reward systems in 1970 shifting to teamwork and then to partnerships in 1990. After the 1990s, like all other businesses, HR also influenced the Internet revolution. Classical human resources management (HRM) concerns the recruitment, selection, development, compensation, retention, evaluation, and promotion of personnel within an organization (Bernardin & Russel, 1993), which could be mostly transferred to the virtual world. Therefore, the HR profession faces an important challenge with new e-HRM and virtual actions encountered in the business world. This chapter examines the e-HRM phenomenon in the virtual world in detail and tries to bring new angles to e-HRM, and then manifests new definitions for the new reality while changes and interactions take place in the virtual world.

Mobile Affected Socialization

While mobile intrusion comes to life insidiously, it has been affecting our lives in many different ways. At first social networking and some implementations such as mobile dating comes to mind. On the other hand, mobile literacy and educational implementations are evolving and spreading rapidly with the facilities of mobile systems. Having turned into one of the most important elements that trigger and develop the social genes in the twentieth century, communication technology is also drawing the attention with its impacts that direct socialization. Internet and cyberspaces which are used in mobile communication create communication organs with their multi but non-conflicting features for person to person connections, where individuals focus on a unity through the utilization of different modes to connect (Urry, 2002). This environment is suitable to create virtual societies where many people join with various reasons and they should also be considered in terms of marketing. The inclusion of people on the Internet as social actors evokes gathering metaphor on the background. General behaviors of any kind of gathering such as chatting, discussing, challenging and keeping secrets are also seen on this platform (Sproull & Faraj, 1997). Chat rooms, organized clubs, facebook type of websites, and virtual games are places where people spend time or perform communication-based activities.

Mobilizing World

The human being benefits from his or her ability to communicate and turn knowledge into action in order to sustain its ability to survive on this planet, the earth. As a result of the fast life conditions imposed on humanity, point-to-point relationships have begun to be established in a faster way and the idea to use technology to acquire and share knowledge has become widespread. Doing the right thing leads to improving and advancing the standard of life. The products of the mind can now be produced easier than ever by scope of technology. Intercommunication between people begins with talking; humans first talk and then express his or her emotions and opinions. Mobile telephone is the name of the latest technology which creates a worldwide area to talk in. One can easily notice how much the sector and its applications have developed only by looking at the first mobile phone which was launched in the world. Motorola Dyna TAC 8000x is one of these telephones. Its dimensions are 13x1.75x3.5. This is a brick-size device and you had to pay US $3,995 to own it in 1983. In return, what you would get was just a telephone which provides just voice communication and which could be used while moving. This affected concurrently users, families, types of entertainment even health issues and payments. The positive and negative effects have appeared in the evolutionary stage. Like the virtual environment (Han, Kim & Lee, 2005), the mobile environment which is used in order to cover customers’ needs for communication, information and entertainment is related to marketing with its different spirals and own sanctions. In this chapter we would like to give short notices for future researchers about the present conditions of major important topics and some new trends of these subjects.

Problems

In their Works titled “High Tech/High Touch: Technology and Our Accelerated Search for Meaning” (2001), Naisbitt, Naisbitt and Philips express that technology should be questioned due to its aggressive and brutal speed and that cultural desensitization cannot be prevented, and that it would cause certain social conflicts. Besides, they also draw the attention to the importance of balance in human-technology relationships, and to the issue of balancing material miracles with the spiritual demands of man while creating technology. It is highlighted that due to the continuous tracing caused by technology, both technological immoralities and related personal concerns will continuously increase and spread along society. With respect to health, high speed technology can cause to extreme stress and tiredness and other problems as its coercive effects may increase because technology proposes eternal series of formations and continuously pushes the limits of mind.

Information Age

In this section, the processes leading to the information age and mobile technology are examined. The affects of certain inventions are discussed through having a look at the period which began when human kind gained the ability to direct energy with the invention of fire, and continued with the construction of simple machinery, and then reaching the Industrial Revolution with the influence of the modern scientific approach. Here, the appearance of technological development and technique in order to provide ease for people are being inspected. In the development and advancement of the human being, it is suggested that the work that initially required raw power, was transferred to simple machinery, and then to normal machinery. Many technological innovations with many contributions to living are taken into account from fairy tales to films made through the use of virtual means as the products of the creative mind related with the passion of invention. Passage to the Industrial Revolution has been triggered with the appearance of the required ideas for the invention of the work performer and caller forces or intelligent machines.

Mobile Marketing

This section overviews marketing and the impacts of technology on marketing, and presents the current situation where certain traditional rules of marketing are not valid anymore and certain new efforts are required. Also the mechanism of exploration is taken into consideration before going into the details of mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is discussed with its narrow and wide meanings.

Mobile Marketing Practices

Business types seen in e-commerce such as: e-shopping, e-store, e-tailing, e-auctioning, e-banking, e-trading, e-entertaining, e-learning, e-realtor, e-gambling, e-directory, e-news, e-zine, e-advertising, and e-logistics are now transforming into m-shopping, m-store, m-tailing, m-auctioning, m-banking, mtrading, m-entertaining, m-learning, m-realtor, m-gambling, m-directory, m-news, m-zine, m-advertising, and m-logistics.

Mobile Customer

Organizations and people, whenever they need to, aim to fulfill their requirements with suitable products and services. The suppliers of these requirements perform a certain marketing process until the requirement is fulfilled. In this process, first the attributes of the product or service are determined. Various studies are made during the identification of these attributes. These studies are evaluated from the customer’s perspective for conformity to taste, functionality, suitability to place and culture, convenience for budget and time. The purchasing process is concluded upon the final decision of the people or organizations that see the suitability of the product to fulfill their requirements. In this context, the mobile customer tries to cover his or her requirements with the knowledge based on information obtained from the virtual environment, and reaches facts via virtual data, and the customer creates a new structure with different features. This section aims to detail the changing customer structure, the individualization and the experienced changes and considers the transformation of individuals into mobile customers. Generations who depended on products of high-technology development, which show themselves with different aspects, have also brought differences to marketing. They have both changed the production and service approach, and began to benefit from different types of products and services. In addition to other environmental conditions that affect life, human generations who change due to the effects of the means of the age should also be examined in this context.