E-Business

E-Business

A.K.A. Electronic Business, Internet Business, Electronic Commerce, Internet Commerce (I-Commerce), Web Commerce, Information Economy, Online Economy, and Financial Global Village.

They say there is no business like show business, but is Internet – business? Prominent sites such as E-Bay and Amazon have been so successful that it seems safe to assume that e-business is indeed a profitable endeavor.

The World Stats: Usage and Population Statistics Website states that there are nearly 2 billion Internet users worldwide. More than one quarter of them use Facebook. Occupying such a notorious place in people’s lives, online marketing opportunities appear endless.

The author of the next article discussed is an electronic musician, an unlikely resume for a publication of the sort. His biography reveals that he developed academic interest in Internet business to avoid being ripped off by electronic music record companies. Bambury (1998) elaborates on the following Website models:

• mail order
• advertizing based
• subscription
• free trial
• direct marketing
• real estate
• incentive scheme
• business to business
• library
• freeware
• information barter
• digital products and digital delivery
• access provision
• Website hosting
• miscellaneous Internet services
• mixed

On the net, real estate refers to businesses providing space, e-mail and domain name. How the paper differentiates between this model and the Website hosting one remains unclear.

Angehrn (1997) provides some classification parameters about the Interned viewed through a unidemensional lens, the ICDT model (Information, Communication, Distribution and Transaction). The author also draws attention to simple versus advanced, and generic vs. customized, distinctions of Internet based service provider presence in the Virtual Information Space (VIS).

Manhattan, Plaza One. Photo by Elena

Clearly, the exponential growth of the World Wide Web poses unexpected challenges, but also uncovers new business opportunities. In order to remain competitive, firms must innovate and adapt to change. A leveraging ability, coupled with Intranet and Extranet technology, may be tactically vital.

To succeed, businesses need three capabilities: know how, know why and know what, facilitated by Customer Relationship Management (CRM) technology (Fahey et al., 2001). Other platforms include the Supply Chain Management (SCM) and the Product Development Management (PDM). Below are some examples of what each system would concentrate on:

Platform/Knowledge	CRM	SCM	PDM
Know What	Customer wants and needs	Changes in supply to keep cost low	New design ideas
Know How	Information	Opération	Coopération
Know Why	Continual adaptation	Why supply matters	Innovation

The goal is to find what drives market development for profitability. Other issues e-business knowledge management tackles are customer solutions, rivals, marketplace strategy, assets and business processes.

Business Essay: E-Business

The purpose of this business essay is to describe electronic business, also called e-business. Indeed, economics is certainly a dynamic social science. Industry, and the way people do business, keeps changing with the times. Business follows the development of technology, which is why electronic commerce is something prevalent today. For example, only in the last thousands of years, most societies in the world transitioned from a barter economy to one based on money. Money became a medium of exchange, and a repository of value, when centuries ago the first bankers would give notes in exchange of gold they kept. Today, private and central banking are the standard in most countries.

Clearly, another major development in economic history has been the Industrial Revolution, with the invention of electricity and machinery. One may argue that the Internet, together with its online transactions, social media and entirely new elements such as the bitcoin, has transformed commerce once again on an unprecedented, international scale. Thus, today most stores have a strong online presence. Large detail commercial undertakings such as Saks Fifth Avenue or Holt Renfrew shopping centres and malls, all have online cart systems, which allow users and shoppers to check out directly online and have the items shipped directly to them, a similar system to EBay in terms of online items being bought through online transactions.

Economic equilibrium. Image: Megan Jorgensen (Elena)

So who succeeds in business? A question most who are thinking about becoming an entrepreneur have asked themselves at least once. Successful entrepreneurs share many qualities with each other. For example, they say the spirit of entrepreneurship is hardy, that such individuals usually react to challenges by trying harder rather than by giving up. When the going gets though – the though get going, as the saying goes… Fear of failure has stopped many a potential successful businessman, or businesswoman, from pursuing their dreams and realizing their full potential. However, as another saying has it, if you try – then you already have a better chance of succeeding than the person who shies away from difficulties, or even opportunities.

At the end of the day, fear is an emotion. Fear is largely considered a negative emotion and is regulated by the amygdala (a brain structure). Fear is different from anxiety in that anxiety means fearing something unconfirmed, while fear implies a real threat. Still, it remains the result of neurons releasing neurotransmitters into synapses… In contrast, as the saying goes, you will miss 100% of the shots you do not take. After all, if everybody remained too afraid to succeed in business by presenting their own ideas to investors, there would be no Dragons’ Den TV show. However, caution and balance are always warranted in any endeavour, be it in the business world or elsewhere. Thus, the purpose of the present paper was to describe e-business as it applies to entrepreneurship.