Exploring digital capital of automated cargo clearance business websites

The automation of the cargo clearance process has been a high-priority item on the agenda of the customs services of the world. Conventional clearance of import and export goods uses paper-based manual procedures, added as much as 10% to the product cost and led to delays and time penalties, lost business opportunities and reduced competitiveness. The World Bank report said "countries that cannot adapt quickly to the new e-trade paradigm will fall behind in export import competitiveness." As an export-oriented country, Ministry of Finance of Taiwan had been committed to reforming and speeding up the cargo customs clearance to sustain the trade competitiveness. The purpose of this research is to explore the digital capital measures of automated cargo clearance business website. The content analysis and fuzzy analytic hierarchy process were used while collecting and analyzing the data. The research subject is TradeVan, a semi-government controlled web-based service provider. This study has identified four dimensions to measure the digital capital of business website that is Internet relational capital. Internet customer capital, Internet innovative capital, and Internet service capital. The research findings may be referenced for the purpose of the design and development of successful website applications to catch the revolutionary opportunities and benefits of digital economy. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.