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LOS ANGELES - 10/06/05 - Graduate students at the University of Southern California's Marshall School of Business have launched an online survey asking businesses, trade agencies and researchers in the Americas and Asia to weigh in on the internationalization of e-Commerce in their countries and its influence on trade and foreign investment.

Responses will be incorporated into an annual report to the 21 Heads of State of the Asia Pacific Economic Corporation (APEC), which facilitates economic growth, cooperation, trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific region.

The survey can be accessed at http://www.marshall.usc.edu/abac.
 
"The project seeks to provide the US president and his peers in APEC with a business perspective on the development of the digital economy, and the roles that trade and international investment play in the development of the electronic exchange of goods and services," according to Ravi Kumar, vice dean of International and Graduate Programs at USC Marshall.

In particular, he said, it will analyze the factors that promote the development of e-Commerce in these economies, as well as the barriers that hinder it. 

According to the business school, the survey examines three primary areas - the factors that promote and hinder the development of electronic networks, including the environment for professional support and trends for applications adoption; the barriers and promoters of access to electronic networks among potential suppliers and customers for e-Commerce goods and services, including consumer attitudes towards Internet shopping; and the factors that promote and hinder the exchange of software and entertainment goods and services across international borders.

The team of eleven MBA researchers will present their findings later this month as part of a report at the ABAC meeting in Santiago, Chile, prior to the APEC CEO Summit.

According to Kumar, the students have spent the last several months researching the available literature, traveling and interviewing resident business professionals and experts in two developed and two emerging economies - the US, China, Japan, and Mexico.
 
The research project, he said, "will further the objectives of the 1998 APEC Leaders' Declaration on Trade and the Digital Economy, the organization's blueprint to promote and facilitate the predictable, transparent and consistent development and use of electronic commerce in the APEC region."

The document was signed by every APEC member except China with additional material such as the USC survey due for review by APEC next year.
 
Last year, Marshall was the only business school selected by the APEC Business Advisory Council (ABAC) to conduct research on its behalf and to present its findings at the APEC CEO Summit in Bangkok, Thailand.

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