E-Commerce vocabulary: Chapter 2

Affiliate revenue model

A company steers business to an affiliate and receives a referral fee or percentage of the revenue from any resulting sales.

Business plan

A document that describes a firm's business model.

Business model

A set of planned activities designed to result in a profit in a marketplace.

Commoditization

A situation where there are no differences among products or services and the only basis for choosing products is price.

Value proposition

Defines how a company's product or service fulfills the needs of the customers.

Revenue model

Describes how the firms will earn revenue, produce profits, and produce a superior return on invested capital.

Private industrial network

Digital network designed to coordinate the flow of communications among firms engaged in business together.

Industry consortia

Industry-owned vertical marketplaces that serve specific industries.

Value web

Networked business ecosystem that coordinates the value chains of several firms.

Portal

Offers users powerful Web search tools as well as an integrated package of content and services all in one place.

Intellectual property

Refers to all forms of human expression that can be put into a tangible medium such as text, CDs, or in the web.

Firm value chain

The set of activities a firm engages in to create final products from raw inputs.

Value chain

The set of activities performed in an industry or in a firm that transforms raw inputs into final products and services.