On Modelling Internet Transactions as a Time-Dependent Random Walk: An Application of the Retail Aggregate Space-time Trip (RASTT) Model

The mathematical description of the Internet is a new challenge facing applied modellers. There are now new spatial and temporal accessibilities to consider and new concepts emerging, such as, 'e-tailing', where commercial transactions can take place globally and almost instantaneously. This freedom of access into the Internet for consumers means issues of physical location, travel time or market area may be less relevant and the research frontier has to deal with such things as 'virtual distance' and unrestricted shopping opportunities between countries. There even appears to be some sort of time substitution for spatial interaction (particularly from time-poor affluent households). A key theoretical question is whether cyberspace is a product of what Marx described as 'time annihilating space'.