CIS: Chapter 7
Identify the ethical and legal issues related to electronic commerce, providing examples.
E-business presents some threats to privacy. First, most electronic payment systems know who the buyers are. It may be necessary, then, to protect the buyers' identities with encryption. Another major privacy issue is tracking, where individuals' activities on the Internet can be tracked by cookies. The use of EC may eliminate the need for some of a company's employees, as well as brokers and agents. The manner in which these unneeded workers, especially employees, are treated can raise ethical issues: How should the company handle the layoffs? Should companies be required to retrain employees for new positions? If not, how should the company compensate or otherwise assist the displaced workers?
Describe the various online services of business-to-consumer (B2C) commerce, providing specific examples of each.
Electronic banking, also known as cyberbanking, involves conducting various banking activities from home, at a place of business, or on the road instead of at a physical bank location. Online securities trading involves buying and selling securities over the Web. Online job matching over the Web offers a promising environment for job seekers and for companies searching for hard-to-find employees. Thousands of companies and government agencies advertise available positions, accept resumes, and take applications via the Internet. Online travel services allow you to purchase airline tickets, reserve hotel rooms, and rent cars. Most sites also offer a fare-tracker feature that sends you e-mail messages about low-cost flights. The Internet is an ideal place to plan, explore, and arrange almost any trip economically. Online advertising over the Web makes the advertising process media-rich, dynamic, and interactive.
Describe the six common types of electronic commerce.
In business-to-consumer (B2C) electronic commerce, the sellers are organizations and the buyers are individuals. In business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce, the sellers and the buyers are businesses. In consumer-to-consumer (C2C) electronic commerce, an individual sells products or services to other individuals. In business-to-employee (B2E) electronic commerce, an organization uses EC internally to provide information and services to its employees. E-government is the use of Internet technology in general and e-commerce in particular to deliver information and public services to citizens (called government-to-citizen or G2C EC) and business partners and suppliers (called government-to-business or G2B EC). Mobile commerce refers to e-commerce that is conducted entirely in a wireless environment. We leave the examples of each type to you.
Describe the three business models for business-to-business (B2B) electronic commerce.
In the sell-side marketplace model, organizations attempt to sell their products or services to other organizations electronically from their own private e-marketplace Web site and/or from a third-party Web site. Sellers such as Dell Computer (www.dellauction.com) use sell-side auctions extensively. In addition to auctions from their own Web sites, organizations can use third-party auction sites, such as eBay, to liquidate items. The buy-side marketplace is a model in which organizations attempt to buy needed products or services from other organizations electronically. E-marketplaces, in which there are many sellers and many buyers, are called public exchanges, or just exchanges. Public exchanges are open to all business organizations. They are frequently owned and operated by a third party. There are three basic types of public exchanges: vertical, horizontal, and functional. Vertical exchanges connect buyers and sellers in a given industry. Horizontal exchanges connect buyers and sellers across many industries. In functional exchanges, needed services such as temporary help or extra office space are traded on an "as-needed" basis.
IT'sAbout Business 7.4 Penske Used Trucks
Penske faced several challenges in creating the site. To begin with, the site had to incorporate the correct terminology and keywords to attract the attention of shoppers and search engines. To address this challenge, IT and marketing interviewed customers to obtain feedback concerning effective keywords. They discovered, for example, that Penske calls one type of truck a "cargo van," whereas some potential customers refer to it as a "high cube" or a "box truck." Ultimately, the additional keywords and cross-referencing dramatically expanded Penske's keyword base from roughly 100 vehicle names to more than 2,000.
IT'sAbout Business 7.5 Can Simple Disrupt Traditional Banking?
Simple has no IT infrastructure and no physical branches to support, so they are able to operate on a lower profit margin than traditional banks. Simple's market is paradoxical, in that banking customers desire the convenience of Internet banking, but they remain wary of the Internet itself. Simple experienced rapid growth, attracting roughly 100,000 customers across the United States by the end of 2013. That year the bank completed $1.6 billion in transactions. Then, in February 2014, Simple was purchased by BBVA Compass Bank (www.bbvacompass.com) for $117 million. Simple promised that it would continue to operate as it always had and that nothing would change for its existing customers.
About Business 7.2 Overcoming the Limitations of Electronic Commerce in the Developing World
Using application to overcome regular commerce
