E-Commerce and E-Government: How Do They Compare? What Can They Learn from Each Other?

For more than a decade e-Commerce and e-Government applications have made major impacts in their respective sectors, private and public. Some time ago, we presented early insights from a comparative study of the two phenomena. This paper reports on more robust findings from an ongoing empirical investigation and deepens our understanding of similarities and differences between e-Commerce and e-Government. The findings show that despite major similarities the two phenomena follow quite separate and distinct trajectories.