Businesses using Web sites conservatively.

Businesses are moving cautiously to establishing electronic commerce on the World Wide Web as they continue to develop and refine the use of Web sites, indicate Pierre Balthazard and Chang Koh, faculty members at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro's Department of Information Systems and Operations Management. They surveyed 82 national companies to determine the extent to which they are using the Web for business activities. The firms ranged in size up to $10,000,000,000 and included banks and companies in manufacturing, retail/wholesale, publishing, communications and utilities, medical and health care, consulting, education, and construction. Major findings showed the following: * Most firms are using the Web as a business tool conservatively. They want to test the water before plunging themselves into full-fledged electronic commerce on the net. * The Web is used more often for marketing, advertising, and public relations than for direct sales. *...