摘要：The paper aims at explaining empirically the diffusion of E-commerce based on two large-
scale sample surveys conducted in the Swiss economy. The paper adds to previous work in
two ways: firstly, we estimate separate models for E-selling and E-purchasing, and, secondly,
we distinguish between inter-firm diffusion (i.e. technology adoption) and intra-firm diffusion
(i.e. intensity of technology use). It turns out that the pattern of explanation strongly differs
between the two types of E-commerce as well as the two types of diffusion. Therefore, further
studies dealing with the diffusion of E-commerce should differentiate along these two
dimensions. Besides, it is shown that institutional, technological and economic uncertainty as
well as adjustment costs, which are neglected in most studies of diffusion, are important
explanatory variables. Moreover, it turned out that “rank effects” are clearly more important
drivers of adoption and intra-firm diffusion of the two types of E-commerce than “epidemic
effects”, which are of some importance only in case of adoption
关键词：Technology diffusion; Inter- vs. intra-firm diffusion; E-commerce; E-selling
vs. E-purchasing; Information and Communication Technologies (ICT); Rank
and epidemic effects of diffusion
