E-tailing : Korea and Japan

The purpose of this paper is to identify and examine possible yet practical reasons for lack of successful e-tailers in Korea and Japan by exploring and analyzing some of the existing researches in e-commerce. This is an analytical case study that examines the existing scholarly articles in e-tailing in response to the fact that no e-tailing companies from Korea or Japan are included in the top 50 e-tailers of the world when Korea and Japan, especially Korea, are generally identified as two of the world’s most technologically advanced countries and advanced in retail industries. The existing scholarly research articles are limited in explaining the relationship between technology of advanced nations and successful e-tailing companies, and it is difficult to link existing e-tailing research to identify and explain possible reasons for not having successful e-tailers in Korea or Japan. However, some researches explain the relationship between customers’ perceived e-tailing service quality and e-tailing technology. Despite limited number of e-tailing researches and their topics, some of the existing researches and their results could be used as practical variables to identify and explain possible reasons for not having successful e-tailers in Korea or Japan. Therefore, practical approach rather than scholarly approach to examine this phenomenon would benefit both scholars and practitioners in e-tailing.