“Net benefits” are the most important success measures as they capture the balance
of positive and negative impacts of the e-commerce on our customers,
suppliers, employees, organizations, markets, industries, economies, and even
our societies. Have Internet purchases saved individual consumers time and
money? Have the benefits such as larger markets, supply chain efficiencies, and
customer responsiveness yielded positive net benefits for an organization? Have
countries’ investments in e-commerce infrastructure yielded a net positive growth
in the gross national product? Have societal investments in e-commerce infrastructure
and education reduced poverty? “Net benefits” measures must be determined
by context and objectives for each e-commerce investment. Thus, there
will be a variety of e-commerce “net benefits” measures, but many will be the
same ones that have been developed and tested for IS investments in general.