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Quality Management (TQM) framework that enhances the internal audit effectiveness
and efficiency. This framework is based on five principles: activity analysis, control
analysis, evaluation analysis, risk assessment and continuous improvement. This
approach provides appropriate monitoring of business practices and internal controls
to ensure audit effectiveness and efficiency.
In Chapter 11, entitled, “Electronic Commerce Acceptance: A Study
Comparing the United States and the United Kingdom,” Donna McCloskey from
Widener University (USA) and David Whiteley from Manchester Metropolitan
University (UK) address the issues of what consumers buy, what factors motivate
them to buy via the Internet and what keeps them from shopping more. The chapter
reports the results of a survey carried out in both the United States and the United
Kingdom that was aimed at discovering what people bought online, why they did
or did not use Internet e-commerce, any differences in activity between the USA
and the UK and what might persuade people to take part in online shopping in the
future.
Chapter 12 entitled, “Intelligent Software Agents in Electronic Commerce:
A Socio-Technical Perspective” by Mahesh Raisinghani of the University of Dallas
(USA), Chris Klassen of The Software Construction Company (USA) and
Lawrence Schkade of the University of Texas at Arlington (USA) investigates
software agents as possessing goal-directed and possessing abilities such as
autonomy, collaborative behavior, and inferential capability. These agents can take
different forms, and can initiate and make decisions without human intervention and
have the capability to infer appropriate high-level goals from user actions and
requests and take actions to achieve these goals. The intelligent software agent is
a computational entity that can adapt to the environment, making it capable of
interacting with other agents and transporting itself across different systems in a
network.
Chapter 13 entitled, “Impacts of Software Agents in E-Commerce Systems
on Customer’s Loyalty and on Behavior of Potential Customers” by Juergen Seitz,
Eberhard Stickel and Krzysztof Woda of Viadrina University (Germany) analyzes the
possible consequences of new push and pull technologies in e-commerce, which are
jockeying for customers’ loyalty. The active technologies enabling customers to
purchase efficiently and force merchants to offer highly personalized, value-added
and complementary products and services in order to stay competitive. This chapter