Smart-card based electronic commerce: Characteristics and roles

Based largely on its potential as an electronic cash substitute for low-value transactions, the market for smart-cards has been predicted to be US$9 billion by the year 2000. The numerous international pilot implementations of smart-card systems appear to support this prediction. Compared with the number of pilots, however, there has been remarkably few full scale roll-outs of a broad-based product. Four diverse smart-card pilot implementations in Australia were investigated and analyzed to better understand the nature of smart-card systems. The objective was to propose a basis for further research into the costs and the benefits and thus the drivers and inhibitors of specific smart-card implementations. The mini cases indicate that the costs and benefits of smart-card implementation ma?: be dependent on the specific characteristics of the system and on the specific roles adopted by the major players. A structure of system characteristics/features and roles/functions which can be utilized for further research into the drivers and inhibitors of smart-card implementation is proposed. A range of other research issues is also identified.