Author : Jong-Ki Kim (Digital Economic Division)

There has been a recent spread of Business to Business electronic-commerce (B2B) throughout Korean firms as well as the growth of the private sector’s awareness of e-commerce. This sudden trend is primarily attributed to the firms’ efforts to prepare for and to cope with the rapidly changing digital economic era. Meanwhile, government-level efforts to vitalize e-business continuously was illustrated through the establishment of the “e-Business Initiative in Korea” in 2001, followed by the “Comprehensive Policies for e-Commerce Development” in the year 2000. These endeavors are considered as major factors that have lead to the rapid spread of B2B. Similar to this, in order to adopt B2B effectively in industry, the adoption of B2B should be initiated from the firm level, since firms are the main users of electronic transactions conducted through the internet (bottom-up approach). However, the adoption of B2B should also be initiated from the industry level reflecting characteristics of each industry sim
taneously, since the restructuring of industry could not be completed just by waiting for all firms to adopt B2B (top-down approach).