INTERNET MARKETING: A LITERATURE REVIEW
Much of the academic literature concerning the Internet has been focused recently on trying to discern who the customer really is and what that customer's buying habits are (Freiden, Goldsmith, Takacs & Hofacker, 1998; Kingsley & Anderson, 1998). Weiber and Kollmann (1998) provide a unique focus for this problem by suggesting that the Internet should be looked at as two markets instead of one, and the two terms the authors suggest are "marketplace" and "market space" and evaluate the significance of virtual value chains in opening up further possibilities in the marketplace and marketspace. This work complements the in depth research being conducted by Gould and Lerman who have built on the works of Firat and Venkatesh to establish two essentially different views of the possible postmodern consumer.
One view suggests that the Internet customer has increased expressive flexibility and is therefore liberated from prior ideologically-created restraints. A second view, provided by Thompson and Hirschman and based on an empirical study of bodily-related consumption, argues that "long-standing cultural narratives" continue to inhibit the consumer. Much of the research is based on surveys and online discussions in NetGirl, a gender and relationship-oriented, online forum. The research suggests that the Internet is a mental hyperreal and therefore a more flexible phenomenon than the body, yet it also manifests the long-standing need of people to socialize.
Ratnasingham (1998) also analyzes the Internet consumer, focusing on the importance of finding and maintaining "trust" (both interpersonally in chat rooms and in E-commerce situations). She also suggests that there are new paradigms of trust and that they can influence the process of managing the security of an organization operating in an electronic commerce environment has been introduced.
Pragmatically, the study suggests awaren...