Globalization and E-Commerce IV: Environment and Policy in Mexico

Abstract

This article examines Mexico as one of the countries in Latin America where e-commerce expanded the most, second only to Brazil, and where a digital economy is emerging as a result of a complex set of forces. Key environmental factors that exert an important influence on e-commerce diffusion include the performance and the sectoral and business structure of the economy, the size of the population, and the distribution of national income. It is hypothesized that two critical factors that determine the pace, quality and orientation of e-commerce are: 1. the work of private organizations devoted to promoting e-commerce practices, and 2. the political will the Mexican government demonstrated in recent years to improve the country’s telecommunications infrastructure. These two factors reinforce one another in the sense that promoting organizations operate by means of specialized working groups whose membership includes representatives from both the private sector and the federal government. Jointly, these organizations created a favorable environment and the required physical conditions for the development of both business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce transactions.