Blended Learning System

Chapter 1
The Second Wave of Global E-Business  https://www.facebook.com/groups/403ecommerce/

 Email: 403ecommerce@groups.facebook.com

E- Business  TEXTBOOK: Electronic Commerce by Gary P. Schenider

Course Teacher:
 RECOMMENDED TEXT: E-Business and E-Commerce Management:
Musfiq Mannan Choudhury, PhD
Strategy, Implementation and Practice By Dave Chaffey
Associate Professor

Learning Objectives (cont’d.)

Learning Objectives
 How businesses use value chains and SWOT analysis to identify electronic
commerce opportunities
In this chapter, you will learn about:  The international nature of electronic commerce and the challenges that
arise in engaging in electronic commerce on a global scale
 What electronic commerce is and how it has evolved
into a second wave of growth
 Why companies concentrate on revenue models and the
analysis of business processes instead of business
models when they undertake electronic commerce
initiatives
 How economic forces have created a business
environment that is fostering the second wave of
electronic commerce

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Electronic Commerce: The Electronic Commerce and

Second Wave Electronic Business
 Electronic commerce history  Electronic commerce
 Mid-1990s to 2000: rapid growth  Shopping on the Web
 “Dot-com boom” followed by “dot-com bust”  Businesses trading with other businesses
 2000 to 2003: overly gloomy news reports  Internal company processes
 2003: signs of new life  Broader term: electronic business (e-business)
 Sales and profit growth return  Electronic commerce includes:
 Electronic commerce growing at a rapid pace  All business activities using Internet technologies
 Electronic commerce becomes part of general economy
 Internet and World Wide Web (Web)
 2008 general recession  Wireless transmissions on mobile telephone networks
 Electronic commerce hurt less than most of economy
 Dot-com (pure dot-com)
 Second wave underway
 Businesses operating only online

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Categories of Electronic Commerce

 Business-to-consumer (B2C)
 Consumer shopping on the Web
 Business-to-business (B2B): e-procurement
 Transactions conducted between Web businesses
 Supply management (procurement) departments
 Negotiate purchase transactions with suppliers

 Business processes
 Using Internet technologies to support organization selling and purchasing
activities
 Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
 Business-to-government (B2G)

FIGURE 1-1 Elements of electronic commerce

Categories of Electronic Commerce

(cont’d.)
 Consumer-to-consumer (C2C)
 Individuals buying and selling among themselves
 Web auction site
 C2C sales included in B2C category
 Seller acts as a business (for transaction purposes)

 Business-to-government (B2G)
 Business transactions with government agencies
 Paying taxes, filing required reports
 B2G transactions included in B2B discussions

FIGURE 1-2 Electronic commerce categories

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THE DEVELOPMENT AND GROWTH OF The Development and Growth of Electronic

ELECTRONIC COMMERCE Commerce (cont’d.)
 People engaging in commerce:  Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)
 Adopt available tools and technologies  Business-to-business transmission
 Internet  Computer-readable data in standard format

 Changed way people buy, sell, hire, organize business activities  Standard transmitting formats benefits
 More rapidly than any other technology  Reduces errors
 Avoids printing and mailing costs
 Electronic Funds Transfers (EFTs)
 Eliminates need to reenter data
 Wire transfers
 Trading partners (These are Businesses engaging in EDI with each other)
 Electronic transmissions of account exchange information
 Uses private communications networks
 EDI pioneers (General Electric, Sears, Wal-Mart)
 Improved purchasing processes and supplier relationships

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The Development and Growth of Electronic The Dot-Com Boom, Bust, and Rebirth
Commerce (cont’d.)
 EDI pioneers problem  1997 to 2000 irrational exuberance
 High implementation cost  12,000 Internet-related businesses started
 Expensive computer hardware and software  $100 billion of investors’ money
 Establishing direct network connections to trading partners or subscribing to value-  5,000+ companies went out of business or acquired
added network
 2000 to 2003
 Value-added network (VAN)
 Independent firm offering EDI connection and transaction-forwarding services  $200 billion invested
 Ensure transmitted data security  Fueled online business activity growth rebirth
 Charge fixed monthly fee plus per transaction charge  Online B2C sales growth continued more slowly
 Gradually moved EDI traffic to the Internet  2008-2009 recession
 Reduced EDI costs  B2C and B2B increasing growth rates continue
 Driving force: people with Internet access increasing

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The Second Wave of Electronic Commerce

 Four waves based on the Industrial Revolution

 First and second wave characteristics
 Regional scope
 First wave: United States phenomenon
 Second wave: international
 Start-up capital
 First wave: easy to obtain
 Second wave: companies using internal funds
 Internet technologies used
 First wave: slow and inexpensive (especially B2C)
 Second wave: broadband connections

FIGURE 1-3 Actual and estimated online sales in B2C and B2B categories

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The Second Wave of Electronic Commerce The Second Wave of Electronic Commerce
(cont’d.) (cont’d.)
 First and second wave characteristics (cont’d.)  First and second wave characteristics (cont’d.)
 Internet technology integration  Digital product sales
 First wave: bar codes, scanners (These tracking technologies were not well  First wave: fraught with difficulties (music industry)
integrated)
 Second wave: fulfilling available technology promise
 Second wave: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) devices, smart cards, biometric
 Mobile telephone based commerce (mobile commerce or m-commerce)
technologies
 Smart phone technology enabling mobile commerce
 Electronic mail (e-mail) use
 Web 2.0: making new Web business possible
 First wave: unstructured communication
 Business online strategy
 Second wave: integral part of marketing, customer contact strategies
 First wave: first-mover advantage
 Revenue source
 Second wave: businesses not relying on first-mover advantage
 First wave: online advertising (failed)
 Second wave: Internet advertising (more successful)

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 Business Models, Revenue Models, and
Business Processes
 Business model
 Set of processes combined to achieve company goal of yielding profit
 Electronic commerce first wave
 Investors sought Internet-driven business models
 Expectations of rapid sales growth, market dominance

 Saw copying of successful “dot-com” business models

 Michael Porter argued business models did not exist

FIGURE 1-4 Key characteristics of the first two waves of electronic commerce
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Business Models, Revenue Models, and Focus on Specific Business Processes

Business Processes (cont’d.)
 Instead of copying model, examine business elements  Companies think in terms of business processes
 Streamline, enhance, replace with Internet technology driven processes  Purchasing raw materials or goods for resale

 Revenue model used today, which is (in definition)  Converting materials and labor into finished goods
 Managing transportation and logistics
 Specific collection of business processes
 Hiring and training employees
 Identify customers
 Managing business finances
 Market to those customers
 Generate sales
 Identify processes benefiting from e-commerce technology

 Helpful for classifying revenue-generating activities  Uses of Internet technologies

 Communication and analysis purposes  Improve existing business processes, identify new business opportunities, adapt
to change

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Role of Merchandising Product/Process Suitability to Electronic

Commerce
 Merchandising
 Combination of store design, layout, product display knowledge
 Salespeople skills
 Identify customer needs
 Find products or services meeting needs

 Merchandising and personal selling

 Difficult to practice remotely
 Web site success
 Transfer merchandising skills to the Web
 Easier for some products than others
FIGURE 1-5 Business process suitability to type of commerce
 Classifications
 Depend on available technologies’ current state
 Change as new e-commerce tools emerge

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Product/Process Suitability to Electronic Product/Process Suitability to Electronic
Commerce (cont’d.) Commerce (cont’d.)
 Commodity item: well suited to e-commerce selling  Easier-to-sell products have:
 Product or service hard to distinguish from same products or services provided  Strong brand reputation (Kodak camera)
by other sellers
 Appeal to small but geographically diverse groups
 Features: standardized and well known
 Price: distinguishing factor  Traditional commerce

 Consider product’s shipping profile  Better for products relying on personal selling skills

 Collection of attributes affecting how easily that product can be packaged and  Combination of electronic and traditional commerce
delivered
 Business process includes both commodity and personal inspection items
 Note value-to-weight ratio
 DVD: good example
 Expensive jewelry: high value-to-weight ratio

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Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic Advantages and Disadvantages of Electronic

Commerce Commerce (cont’d.)
 E-commerce increases sales and decreases costs  Benefits extend to general society welfare
 Virtual community: gathering of people online  Lower costs to issue and secure:
 Using Web 2.0 technologies  Electronic payments of tax refunds
 Public retirement
 E-commerce buyer opportunities
 Welfare support
 Increases purchasing opportunities
 Provides faster transmission
 Identifies new suppliers and business partners
 Provides fraud, theft loss protection
 Efficiently obtains competitive bid information
 Electronic payments easier to audit and monitor
 Easier to negotiate price and delivery terms
 Reduces commuter-caused traffic, pollution
 Increases speed, information exchange accuracy
 Due to telecommuting
 Wider range of choices available 24 hours a day
 Products and services available in remote areas
 Immediate access to prospective purchase information

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Disadvantages of Electronic Commerce Disadvantages of Electronic Commerce

(cont’d.)
 Poor choices for electronic commerce  Additional problems
 Perishable foods and high-cost, unique items  Calculating return on investment
 Disadvantages will disappear when:  Recruiting and retaining employees
 E-commerce matures  Technology and software issues
 Becomes more available to and accepted by general population  Cultural differences
 Critical masses of buyers become equipped, willing to buy through Internet  Consumers resistant to change
 Online grocery industry example  Conflicting laws

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 Transaction Costs
Economic Forces and
Electronic Commerce  Total costs a buyer and seller incur (Transaction costs contd…)
 While gathering information and negotiating purchase-and-sale transaction
 Economics  Includes:
 Study how people allocate scarce resources  Brokerage fees and sales commissions
 Through commerce and government actions  Cost of information search and acquisition
 Commerce organizations participate in markets  Sweater dealer example (Figure 1-6)
 Potential sellers come into contact with buyers
 Medium of exchange available (currency or barter)
 Organization hierarchy (flat or many levels)
 Bottom level includes largest number of employees
 Pyramid structure
 Transaction costs
 Motivation for moving to hierarchically structured firms
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Markets and Hierarchies

 Coase’s analysis of high transaction costs

 Hierarchical organizations formed
 Replace market-negotiated transactions
 Strong supervision and worker-monitoring elements

 Sweater example (Figure 1-7)

 Oliver Williamson (extended Coase’s analysis)
 Complex manufacturing, assembly operations
 Hierarchically organized, vertically integrated

 Manufacturing innovations increased monitoring activities’ efficiency and

effectiveness

FIGURE 1-6 Market form of economic organization

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Using Electronic Commerce to Reduce

Transaction Costs
 Electronic commerce
 Change vertical integration attractiveness
 Change transaction costs’ level and nature
 Example: employment transaction
 Telecommuting
 May reduce or eliminate transaction costs
FIGURE 1-7 Hierarchical form of economic organization
 Strategic business unit (business unit)
 One particular combination of product, distribution channel, and customer
type
 Exception to hierarchy trend
 Commodities

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Network Economic Structures Network Economic Structures (cont’d.)

 Neither market nor hierarchy  Network organizations

 Strategic alliances (strategic partnerships)  Well suited to information-intensive technology industries
 Sweater example
 Coordinate strategies, resources, skill sets
 Knitters organize into networks of smaller organizations
 Form long-term, stable relationships with other companies and individuals
 Specialize in styles or designs
 Based on shared purposes
 Electronic commerce makes such networks easier to construct and maintain
 Strategic partners  Will be predominant in the near future
 Come together for specific project or activity  Manuel Castells predicts economic networks will become the organizing
 Form many intercompany teams structure for all social interactions

 Undertake variety of ongoing activities

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Network Effects

 Activities yield less value as consumption amount increases

 Law of diminishing returns
 Example: hamburger consumption

 Networks (network effect)

 Exception to law of diminishing returns
 More people or organizations participate in network
 Value of network to each participant increases

 Example: telephone

FIGURE 1-8 Network form of economic organization

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Using Electronic Commerce to Create Identifying Electronic Commerce

Network Effects Opportunities
 E-mail account example  Focus on specific business processes
 Provides access to network of people with e-mail accounts  Break business down
 If e-mail account is part of smaller network  Series of value-adding activities
 E-mail generally less valuable  Combine to generate profits, meet firm’s goal
 Internet e-mail accounts  Commerce conducted by firms of all sizes
 Far more valuable than single-organization e-mail  Firm
 Due to network effect  Multiple business units owned by a common set of shareholders or company
 Need way to identify business processes  Industry
 Evaluate electronic commerce suitability  Multiple firms selling similar products to similar customers
 For each process

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 Strategic Business Unit Value Strategic Business Unit Value
Chains Chains (cont’d.)
 Value chain  Strategic business unit primary activities (cont’d.)
 Organizing strategic business unit activities to design,  Importance depends on:
produce, promote, market, deliver, and support the  Product or service business unit provides
products or services
 Customers
 Michael Porter includes supporting activities
 Central corporate organization support activities
 Human resource management and purchasing
 Finance and administration
 Strategic business unit primary activities
 Human resource
 Identify customers, design, purchase materials and
supplies, manufacture product or create service, market  Technology development
and sell, deliver, provide after-sale service and support

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Industry Value Chains

 Examine where strategic business unit fits within

industry
 Porter’s value system
 Describes larger activities stream into which particular
business unit’s value chain is embedded
 Industry value chain refers to value systems
 Delivery of product to customer
 Use as purchased materials in its value chain
FIGURE 1-9 Value chain for a strategic business unit
 Awareness of businesses value chain activities
 Allows identification of new opportunities
 Left-to-right flow
 Useful way to think about general business strategy
 Does not imply strict time sequence
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SWOT Analysis: Evaluating

Business Unit Opportunities
 SWOT analysis
 Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats
 Consider all issues systematically
 First: look into business unit
 Identify strengths and weaknesses
 Then: review operating environment
 Identify opportunities and threats presented

 Take advantage of opportunities

 Build on strengths
 Avoid threats
FIGURE 1-9 Value chain for a
 Compensate for weaknesses
strategic business unit
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 FIGURE 1-12 Results of Dell’s SWOT analysis
FIGURE 1-11 SWOT analysis questions
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International Nature of Trust Issues on the Web

Electronic Commerce
 Internet connects computers worldwide  Important to establish trusting relationships with
customers
 When companies use Web to improve business process:
 Rely on established brand names
 They automatically operate in global environment
 Difficult for online businesses
 Key international commerce issues
 Anonymity exists in Web presence
 Trust
 Banking example: browsing site’s pages
 Culture
 Difficult to determine bank size or how well established
 Language
 Business must overcome distrust in Web “strangers”
 Government
 Infrastructure

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Language Issues

 Business must adapt to local cultures

 “Think globally, act locally”
 Provide local language versions of Web site
 Customers more likely to buy from sites translated into
own language
 50 percent of Internet content in English
 Half of current Internet users do not read English
 By 2015: 70% of e-commerce transaction will involve at least
one party outside of the United States

 Languages may require multiple translations

 Separate dialects
FIGURE 1-13 This classic cartoon from The New Yorker illustrates
anonymity on the Web
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Language Issues (cont’d.) Cultural Issues

 Large site translation may be prohibitive  Important element of business trust

 Decided by corporate department responsible for page  Anticipating how the other party to a transaction will act
content in specific circumstances
 Mandatory translation into all supported languages  Culture
 Home page  Combination of language and customs
 All first-level links to home page  Varies across national boundaries, regions within nations
 High priority pages to translate  Personal property concept
 Marketing, product information, establishing brand  Valued in North America and Europe (not Asia)
 Use translation services and software  Cultural issue example
 Human translation: key marketing messages  Virtual Vineyards (now Wine.com)
 Software: routine transaction processing functions

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Cultural Issues (cont’d.) Cultural Issues (cont’d.)

 Subtle language and cultural standard errors  Online business apprehension

 General Motors’ Chevrolet Nova automobile  Japanese shoppers’ unwillingness to pay by credit
 Baby food in jars in Africa  Softbank
 Select icons carefully  Devised a way to introduce electronic commerce to a
 Shopping cart versus shopping baskets, trolleys reluctant Japanese population
 Hand signal for “OK”: obscene gesture in Brazil
 Dramatic cultural overtones
 India: inappropriate to use cow image in cartoon
 Muslim countries: offended by human arms or legs
uncovered
 White color (purity versus death)

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Culture and Government Culture and Government

(cont’d.)
 Online discussion inhospitable to cultural environments  Internet censorship
 Government controls in some cultures  Restricts electronic commerce
 Reduces online participant interest levels
 Unfettered communication not desired
 Unfettered communication not considered acceptable
 China
 Wrestling with issues presented by the growth of the
 Denounced Internet material content
Internet as a vehicle for doing business
 Unrestricted Internet access forbidden  Created complex set of registration requirements and
 Filter Web content regulations governing any business engaging in electronic
commerce
 Regularly reviews ISPs and their records
 Regularly conducts reviews of ISPs and their records
 Impose language requirements
 Strong cultural requirements finding their way into the
legal codes that govern business conduct

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Infrastructure Issues Infrastructure Issues (cont’d.)

 Internet infrastructure  Business face challenges posed by variations and

 Computers and software connected to Internet inadequacies in the infrastructure supporting the
Internet throughout the world
 Communications networks’ message packets travel
 Local connection costs
 Infrastructure variations and inadequacies exist
 Inability to handle order
 Outside United States
 Government-owned industry  Freight forwarder
 Heavily regulated  Arranges international transactions’ shipping and insurance
 High local telephone connection costs  Customs broker
 Affect buying online behavior
 Arranges tariff payment and compliance
 International orders: global problem
 No process to handle order and paperwork
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Infrastructure Issues (cont’d.)

 Bonded warehouse
 Secure location
 Holds international shipments until customs requirements
or payments satisfied
 Handling international transactions paperwork
 Annual cost: $800 billion
 Software automates some paperwork
 Countries have own paper-based forms, procedures
 Countries have incompatible computer systems

 See Figure 1-14: complex information flows

FIGURE 1-14 Parties involved in a typical international trade transaction
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