Hsu and Pant in Innovative Planning for Electronic Commerce and Enterprises: A Reference Model have proposed a management planning model for developing strategic goals for e-commerce enterprises. The authors feel they may be provocative sometimes; however, the field is so new that there is no working model for an e-commerce enterprise with a proven success record.

In this book, Hsu and Pant develop a framework for a working model. This framework has three parts: (1) The first part is the planning model and a methodology. The planning model is based on principles derived from the literature and the author’s research. The methodology also uses Value Chain Analysis to connect e-commerce goals with business processes. (2) The second part evaluates the model and calibrates it to industrial cases and established scholarly results in the field. (3) The last part consists of three exploratory plans for some industrial applications, including supply chain integration, Internet banking, and customer service (ordering) for heavy industry. About fifty cases are discussed in the book at various degrees of depth. The three industrial cases illustrate how to apply the planning model using the methodology. Hence, the book’s e-commerce reference model is obtained from the planning model, its methodology, and the industrial benchmarks.