Exploratory study and empirical study on critical website success factors of Chinese publishing enterprises

The study on the critical success factors (CSF) for electronic commerce (EC) systems has been a hot topic in both academe and industry. On the basis of reviewing papers on CSF and analyzing their problems, this paper designs the initial assessment indicators and website features and functions influencing EC success. Using Delphi survey and data analysis, we get the five important assessment indicators and seven important web features and functions. Furthermore, the hypothesis of CSF model is proposed. Finally, we conduct a survey on the Chinese Publishing Industry to test the hypothesis. The result shows that the hypothesis is partly supported, which means useful and understandable information, complete and timely information, credible and accurate information, all product-related information are the critical success factors for EC publishing industry. This research not only impels EC research in China, but also has instructional effect on the implementation of EC for enterprises to increase the success rate of EC.