Multidimensional view of e-commerce socio-economic impacts

The development of e-commerce is a complex phenomenon whose effects extend to the social and ecological sphere. As an example, there is much interest today in the progress of an ICTbased economy that might be beneficial to the environment. While the majority of studies has investigated the direct cause-effect relations between specific e-commerce implementations and some environmental indicators, there is the need for a multidimensional analysis of the various factors involved. This may help to place the implications of online sales in the broader socioeconomic picture, highlight the various conflicting elements, and stressing the circular effects. This paper analyses a number of intertwined factors that are influenced and, in turn, can influence both the development of e-commerce and its socio-economic impacts with a focus on the environment, and in particular: a) e-strategies, i.e. the approaches adopted by online firms; b) e-consumers, namely the modality and amount of online purchases; c) e-policies, i.e. the actions by public authorities to regulate the business context and/or promote environmentalfriendly activities. In addition, the study uses a model of equations previously proposed in the literature to examine the links between the elements illustrated above and their expected impacts. The findings show that the environmental implications of online sales are important not only for the ecosystem, but in turn for the potential changes of consumer behaviours and for the viable strategies of firms, thus for the development of e-commerce itself.