E-Business Operations Shift: From Supply Chain Management to Sense-and-Response Systems

ABSTRACT

The design of e-business operations is often relegated to the implementation stage of the Internet commerce development process. The objective of this paper is to present a new framework to facilitate continuous electronic communication among trading partners in the supply chain and the seamless integration of electronic operations throughout the e-business development process. As background, the paper reviews e-business design methodology and related supply chain issues. Then, it articulates a demand-driven, sense-and-response system (SRS) framework for guiding e-business operations and monitoring products across value chain networks without hindering human autonomy. The paper presents a model for the SRS integration of business-process enabling strategies, technologies and systems, such as Enterprise Resource Planning, Customer Relationship Management, Supply Chain Management, Collaborative Planning, Forecasting, and Replenishment, Point of Sale, Radio Frequency Identification Tags, and Global Positioning System. These systems can be instrumental in the ultimate SRS framework realization. The paper also examines ways in which SRS framework implementation may prevent the bullwhip effect by quickly anticipating demand and reducing response time.     

Dividing or uniting Europe? Internet usage in the EU

Using Heckman’s sample selection procedure, we first analyse access to the Internet and then specific Internet usage given individual Internet access, across the EU countries using Eurobarometer data for 2004 and 2005. Internet access varies more within countries than between them. But the reverse is the case for Internet usage given access. Two specific country attributes are identified: first gross national income and the rule of law reflecting the extent to which people have confidence in the security of the Internet. Further variables also emphasize the importance of trust.     

影响我国电子商务产业结构的原因分析

从艾瑞咨询各年度的电子商务产业调研报告可以发现,自主型B2C电子零售产业的集中度要远低于平台型B2B和C2C电子商务产业,经过分析发现网络外部性、沉没成本、转换成本和价格或成本优势是导致集中度存在差异的主要因素,这些因素有可能对产业竞争带来长期伤害,本文试图寻找克服这些因素的方法。     

The impact of e-commerce: It always benefits consumers, but may reduce social welfare

This paper investigates the impact of e-commerce on social welfare using a linear city model. Our model incorporates the diversity of consumers such that some can purchase the good via the Internet while others cannot. Our main result is as follows. The appearance of e-commerce enhances retail competition and always increases consumer surplus. However, total surplus does not necessarily improve. This is because the equilibrium market division between conventional stores and e-commerce is not socially optimal and efficiency loss of distribution accrues if the population of Internet shoppers is small and/or the cost of e-commerce is high. Our theoretical results indicate that the small e-commerce market share in the Japanese and US economies may result in welfare loss.     

Market Model-Based Channel Selection in B2B E-Commerce: Exploring a Buyer's Adoption Decisions

Companies that seek to exploit the cost advantages of business-to-business (B2B) e-Commerce face a variety of strategic options. By analyzing the demand and cost functions for sellers, intermediaries, and buyers, this research develops an economic framework that clarifies the relative advantages of four common B2B e-Commerce channels: private exchange, web-based procurement, public aggregation, and public exchange. This research focuses on addressing two important questions: (1) How does a buyer select a suitable B2B e-Commerce channel (or an e-Marketplace structure) given a variety of market conditions, different levels of product substitution, and a range of purchasing patterns? (2) How does a buyer successfully manage a B2B e-Commerce channel for gaining the highest transaction-level buyer surplus? The analytic and numeric results of our study show that a company's product offerings, the market conditions it faces, and the purchase patterns it implements are all important determinants in the selection of B2B e-Commerce setting. For custom products, private networks (such as the private exchange or web-based procurement models) are more attractive than the public aggregation or exchange models. However, taking market conditions and purchasing behavior into consideration, the web-based procurement model is more suitable for spot purchasing, while the public exchange model is more suitable for systematic purchasing and fragmented markets. On the other hand, the aggregation model is preferable in concentrated markets while the exchange model is more suitable in fragmented markets. These results provide important implications for industrial development of B2B e-Commerce.     

Interfacing with Amazon Web Services Using Java and .NET: A Comparative Study

ABSTRACT

Web service has been touted by many as the next big thing in IT in recent years. It is a promising technology that opens up new avenues for software developers and permits businesses to explore new markets and forge new business partnerships. Amazon.com is one such business that is using Web services to improve sales of its products. This research activity involves developing a client application that consumes the Amazon Web services. The client application has been developed using the two competing environments, .NET and Java, and the experience of this activity has been thoroughly documented. The relative strengths and weaknesses of the two architectures are compared and contrasted and recommendations are provided for beginning and experienced developers wishing to get started with Web services.     

Brands as substitutes for the need for touch in online shopping

This article addresses the potential of reputable brands to overcome the lack of tangibility that characterizes the process of e-commerce through an experiment-based analysis. In a sequential argument, the authors propose that (1) the brand becomes more important in online than in offline channels, as a consequence of the intangibility or lack of physical contact in online purchasing processes; (2) the limitations associated with the need for touch and the lack of access to the physical product during the buying process does not have equal importance across all product categories and (3) the role of the brand in online channels thus is more relevant if the product category is associated with a higher need for touch. The study based on the experimental design reveals that leading brands enjoy an advanta in consumers' quality assessments, regardless of the objective attributes that characterize the products. This advantage may be greater in online channels, though only for product categories for which the lack of physical contact with the product during the purchase process is an important limitation. In such cases, brand associations can compensate for intangibility during purchase.     

Transforming an Online Portal Site into a Playground for Netizen

ABSTRACT

NHN was a laggard in the Internet portal business in Korea. When it entered the market, global giants such as Yahoo already had built a formidable presence in the Korean market, where leadership advantage was cited as a defining success factor. NHN was far behind not only because of timing but also because of information sources–which are the real root of their business–due to a lack of open web sites in Korea. They also discovered that an information portal has an inherent limitation in creating stickiness in its site. People click and leave the typical information portal upon finding their query results. However, the portal site business model is based on web advertisement, and performance depends on stickiness. This case explains how NHN beat the odds and became the leading portal in Korea. This company's innovative technology and customer-oriented strategy not only allowed it to surpass all of its competitors, but it also is revolutionizing the portal business both in Korea and globally.     

现代管理学与经济学、工学融合发展--以电子商务专业发展为例

工业社会以细分为特征,信息社会以综合为优势。信息时代学科发展呈现出新的发展规律和发展需要,学科的交叉、融合日益增加,新学科不断出现。管理学、经济学和工学三门学科在原有发展优势的基础上,在一定的条件下又相互影响、相互渗透并形成新的有生命力的综合学科。中国电子商务专业的发展进程和规律验证了本文分析的交叉学科优势和潜力。     

我国消费者对消费者的电子商务市场研究——基于客户、成本、便利、沟通的4C营销理论

本文认为,随着网络技术的发展和网络用户的增加,我国C2C(消费者对消费者的电子商务)市场未来的竞争将更加体现在4C(客户、成本、便利、沟通)之争、物流之争和诚信之争上,但归根结底是用户之争。作为一种商业行为,C2C运营商还需不断完善技术,创新服务,在为客户创造更多价值的同时增强自身的竞争力。只有以客户为中心,致力于客户关系的有效管理,为用户提供更多的增值服务,才能真正赢得市场。