Discussion Questions

30 Jun Discussion Questions

1. Change in Organizations Why is it said that electronic commerce is a catalyst of fundamental changes in organizations?  Search the Ashford Online Library for an article that addresses change in organizations as a result of e-commerce.  Briefly summarize the article pointing out how electronic commerce directly impacts change.  Include the resource information in the reference list. Explain your answer in 200 words.

2. Marketspaces Compare marketplaces with marketspaces.  What are the advantages and limitations of each?  What is your favorite marketspace and why?  What is the impact of your favorite marketspace on the industry?  Explain your answer in 200 words.

3. E-Tailing Business Models Discuss the advantages of established click-and-mortar companies such as Walmart over pure-play e-tailers such as Amazon.com. Conversely, what are the disadvantages of click-and-brick retailers as compared with pure-play e-tailers? Explain your answer in 200 words.

4. Web Design Read the article “How To Let Web Design Drive Your Marketing Strategy.” (Link: http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2013/11/20/how-to-let-web-design-drive-your-marketing-strategy/) Explain why it is important to provide a strong first impression with your website. Provide a brief description of the types of content you would include on your webpage and why you would include this information.

5. Four P’s of Marketing In a paragraph, relate B2B to the four P’s of marketing (product, price, placement, promotion). Then, describe a B2B exchange and identify how it demonstrates the four P’s. Prepare your response in 200 words.

6. Knowledge Management Read Case 6.1, EC Application – Knowledge Management at Infosys Technologies. (See sources below) Identify the knowledge management cycle, found in exhibit 6.6, in this case, applying each entity such as create, capture, refine, etc. to the case and briefly explaining each one. Then, explore the broader question of how knowledge management is related to e-commerce. Prepare your response in 200 words.

7. M-Commerce First describe how m-commerce can expand the reach of e-commerce. Then, imagine you work for a fashion retailer and are in charge of a new mobile advertising campaign designed to generate sales for a new clothing line.  Explain how you would use m-commerce concepts and elements of e-commerce to meet your objective. The post should be a minimum of 200 words.

8. Security  A business wants to share its customer account database with its trading partners and customers, while at the same time providing prospective buyers with access to marketing materials on its Web site.  Assuming that the business is responsible for running all these network components, what types of security components (for example, firewalls, VPN, etc.) could be used to ensure that the partners and customers have access to the account information and others do not?  What type of network configuration (for example, bastion gateway server) will provide the appropriate security?  Be sure to include your rationale for each security component as well as the type of network.  The post should be a minimum of 200 words.

9. Payment Online Discuss the difference between accepting a payment online versus in person and describe some of the problems associated with online payments from the vendor and customer points of view. Be sure to answer the following questions: a. How do you believe payment system benefits, complications, and complexity can help or hinder new online business owners from establishing a business online? Compare and contrast new owner scenarios with large and established businesses. b. How do you believe customers view online payment systems?  Explain your answer in 200 words.

10. Copyright Issues Read the Closing Case in Chapter 11, Why is Disney Funding Chinese Pirates? Give a reasoned answer to why Disney might be investing in 56.com instead of fighting with this popular Chinese file-sharing website. The post should be a minimum of 200 words.

SOURCES

Text Book

Turban, E., King, D, Lang, J. (2011). Introduction to Electronic Commerce (3rd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall. ISBN: 9780136109235

Case 6.1, EC Application – Knowledge Management at Infosys Technologies.

The Problem

Infosys Technologies, a global software services company based in India, is a worldwide leader in outsourcing. With over 23,000 employees and globally distributed operations, Infosys develops IT solutions for some of the largest corporations in the world. During the past 10 years, Infosys has experienced annual growth of 30 percent. Infosys faced a challenge of keeping its large employee base up-to-date, staying ahead of both its competitors and clients, and ensuring that the lessons learned in one part of the organization were available to its consultants so they could reuse the knowledge accumulated in the company. The company’s motto is “Learn once, use anywhere.” The company’s vision is that every instance of learning within Infosys should be available to every employee. But how does an organization turn such a vision into a reality?

The Solution

Infosys Technologies’ effort to convert each employee’s knowledge into an organizational asset started in the early 1990s and extended well into the first decade of the 2000s.

In the early 1990s, Infosys launched its bodies of knowledge (BOK) initiative, which involved encouraging employees to provide written accounts of their experiences across various topics, such as technologies, software development, and living abroad. These experiences were then shared in hard-copy form with all other employees. This early effort ballooned into a full-fledged KM effort supported by e-mail, bulletin boards, and various knowledge repositories. In 1996, a corporate intranet was developed to make BOKs, in HTML format, easily accessible to all. In 1999, Infosys began an organization-wide program to integrate the various knowledge initiatives. A central knowledge portal was created, called KShop, and although the KM group developed the technology infrastructure, local groups were encouraged to maintain their own content on KShop.

The content of KShop consisted of different content types—BOKs, case studies, reusable artifacts, and downloadable software—each with its own homepage. Content was carefully categorized by the KM group to ensure that as the amount of content increased, it would still be possible for people to quickly find what they needed.

In early 2000, Infosys appeared to have a very functional KM system, and yet patronage by employees remained low. The KM group therefore initiated a reward scheme to increase both use and contribution. The scheme gave employees who contributed to KShop knowledge currency units (KCUs) that could be accumulated and exchanged for monetary rewards or prizes.

As you can see, KM initiatives are much more than the implementation of technology tools to allow employees to create or document knowledge. Infosys’s KM initiatives involved processes to organize knowledge, to categorize knowledge, and to rate knowledge usefulness, as well as strategies to encourage knowledge sharing and reuse.

The Results

Within a year of the introduction of the incentive KCU scheme, 2,400 new knowledge assets had been contributed to KShop by some 20 percent of Infosys’s employees. However, as the volume of content increased, so, too, did problems relating to finding the needed information. Moreover, the heavy growth in contributions taxed the limited number of volunteer reviewers, who served an important quality-control function. The KM group therefore modified the KCU incentive scheme. It developed a new KCU scheme that rated the usefulness of knowledge from the perspective of the users of the knowledge, rather than the reviewers. And, to increase accountability, the KM group requested tangible proof to justify any high ratings. Finally, the KM group raised the bar for cashing in KCU points for monetary awards.

Closing Case: WHY IS DISNEY FUNDING CHINESE PIRATES?

Disney’s funding arm, Steamboat Ventures, invested $10 million in a popular Chinese video- and file-sharing site called 56.com. The site had 33 million registered members in 2009. Note that the words for “56” in Chinese sound similar to “I’m Happy.”

The Problem

In May 2008, The Walt Disney Company released its animated film WALL-E; the film was released on DVD in November 2008. However, immediately after the movie release in May, the robot love story was available for free on the Chinese video site 56.com. In other words, Disney is funding a Chinese site that bootlegs it own work.

The problem is that pirated movies are difficult to detect because they appear under different names. Although 56.com managed to remove some of the full-length bootlegged copies, many others remain. The 56.com site is often referred to as a Chinese version of YouTube. But unlike YouTube, 56.com and similar sites like Tudou and Youku don’t impose 10-minute limits on uploaded videos. And that makes them a haven for illegally uploaded videos, including full-length movies and TV episodes.

If 56.com were in any country but China, we’d expect the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and similar organizations to put pressure on the company to remove copyrighted materials. But China doesn’t have a very strong record of enforcing Western copyright laws.

The Solution

One reason that Disney invested in 56.com was that it hoped that Steamboat Ventures, as a major investor, would influence 56.com to take action against copyright violators. In other words, Steamboat Ventures is trying to help 56.com curb pirated videos.

In the United States, you can take legal action against companies such as 56.com. For example, media giant Viacom is suing YouTube for $1 billion. However, that is not an option (yet) in China. At best, the Chinese government will provide a warning to violators.

The Results

Although 56.com is still facilitating free movies, video games, and the like, Disney seems not to be too concerned with these actions. Its investment provides the company a channel of distribution for its products that may provide a strategic advantage to Disney in China. In March 2009, Disney allowed YouTube to run short videos as well as full episodes of its ABC (a television station) and ESPN (Internet and television sports channel) networks under an ad-revenue sharing arrangement.

Other sources:

Bacic, H. (2013, November 20). How to let web design drive your marketing strategy. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/allbusiness/2013/11/20/how-to-let-web-design-drive-your-marketing-strategy/

Jones, C. (2014, August 11). Five best practices to improve your online checkout. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/paypal/2014/08/11/five-best-practices-to-improve-your-online-checkout/#36d73a5c4003

BtoB Magazine  http://www.btobonline.com/

SpamLaws.com http://spamlaws.com/

Molander, J. (2009, March). Brand as Behavior. Target Marketing, 32(3), 23-24. Retrieved from ProQuest database.

Trembly, A.C. (2009, January). Internet Regulation: Distasteful But Inevitable. National Underwriter. Life & Health, 113(2), 14. Retrieved from ProQuest database.