Tutorial 13 (Chapter 14)

Tutorial 13

Chapter 14

End of Chapter Questions (p.878)

1. How has the Internet impacted the content that newspapers can offer? (Question 8)

Almost any information can be found on internet, even more than those newspapers can cover, because newspapers has limited pages of information whereas internet will never be limited.

With the technology of search engine, people can just type in any information they want and the links will be listed and users can jus click and find the information they need.

2. What are the advantages and disadvantages of e-book content? (Question 11)

Advantages:

Can be accessed by people anywhere, anytime, without time and place boundaries.

Easy to search for keywords.

Easy to carry (e-book files can be saved into any portable media or e-mails).

Easy to navigate

Disadvantages:

Must be viewed using media such as laptops, PDAs, Handheld mobile devices, computers, etc.

Projects

1. Examine and report on the progress, if any, made with respect to the delivery of movies on demand over the Internet. (Question 4)

Tutorial 12

Chapters 8 & 13

End of Chapter Questions, Chapter 8 (p.485):

1. What is the difference between an interstitial ad and a superstitial ad? (Question 5)

Interstitial ad : a way of placing a full-page message between the current and destination pages of a user

Superstitial ad : a rich media ad that is pre-loaded into a browser’s cache and does not play until fully loaded and the user clicks to another page

2. What are some of the advantages of direct e-mail marketing? (Question 9)

è Low cost (sending e-mail is free)

è Fast & worldwide

è Sent to interested users

3. List and describe some Web site design features that impact online purchasing. (Question 15)

Compelling experience: provide interactivity, entertainment, human interest, site is dun to use.

Editorial content: provide helpful content, opinions, features on subjects of interest to visitors in order to increase stickiness.

Fast download times: quicker is better, if longer, provide amusement.

Easy product list navigation: consumers can easily find the products they want.

Few clicks to purchase: the shorter the click list, the greater the chance of a sale.

Customer choice agents: recommendation agents/configurators help the consumer make quick, correct choices.

Responsiveness: personal e-mail response; 1-800 phone capability show on Web site

End of Chapter Questions, Chapter 13 (P. 808):

1. What is personalization or personal value pricing and how can it be used at the beginning of a product’s life cycle to increase revenues? (Question 1)

Personalization / personal value pricing : adjusts prices based on the merchant’s estimate id how much the customer truly values the product.

For example, Web merchants may charge committed fans of a musician a higher prices for the privilege of receiving a new DVD before its official release to retail stores.

2. What is an affinity community and what is its business model? (Question 2)

Statistical aggregrates of people who self-identify with one another to some material extent in their attitudes, values, beliefs, and behaviour.

Affinity group tends to offer less well-known brands in their business compared to general purpose portals.

3. Why did most communities in the early days of e-commerce fail? What factors may enable some online vertical communities to prosper today? (Question 13)

In the old days, not many companies goes online, so the online shops offered limited products and not everyone in the old days trust online products and online transactions (safety reason).

Nowadays, you can find anything online, and the online shops provide the safe online transaction so many consumers start to buy things online and they find it easy, convenient and secure.

Tutorial 11 (Chapter 12)

Tutorial 11

Chapter 12

End of Chapter Questions (P. 739)

1. List at least five potential benefits of B2B e-commerce. (Question 3)

• Lower administrative costs
• Lower search costs for buyers
• Reduced inventory costs by increasing competition among suppliers and reducing inventory carried
• Lower transaction costs by eliminating paperwork, automation
• Increased production flexibility by ensuring just-in-time parts delivery
• Improved quality of products by increasing cooperation among buyers and sellers
• Decreased product cycle time by sharing of designs and production schedules
• Increased opportunities for collaborating with suppliers and distributors
• Greater price transparency

2. Explain the difference between a horizontal market and a vertical market. (Question 7)

Horizontal market : markets that serve many different industries

Vertical market : one that provides expertise and products for a specific industry

Projects Chapter 12

1. Examine the Web site of one of the e-distributors listed in Figure 12.11, and compare and contrast it to one of the Web sites listed for e-procurement Net marketplaces. If you were a business manager of a medium-sized firm, how would you decide where to purchase your indirect inputs – from an e-distributor or an e-procurement Net marketplace? Write a short report detailing your analysis. (Question 2)

Tutorial 9 (Chapter 10 & 11)

Chapter 10

Retailing on the Web

End of Chapter Questions:

1. Why were so many entrepreneurs drawn to start businesses in the online retail sector initially? (Question 1)

n Greatly reduced search costs on the Internet would encourage consumers to abandon traditional marketplaces in order to find lower prices for goods

n Market entry costs would be much lower than those for physical storefronts, and online merchants would be more efficient than offline competitors

n Traditional offline physical store merchants would be forced out of business

n Some industries would become disintermediated as manufacturers built direct relationship with consumer

n Ultimately, few of the above assumptions proved to be correct, and structure of retail marketplace in the U.S. has not be revolutionized

2. Explain the distinction between disintermediation and hypermediation as it relates to online retailing. (Question 9)

3. What are five strategic issues specifically related to a firm’s capabilities? How are they different from industry-related strategic issues? (Question 14)

n Strategic factors that pertain to firm include:

§ Firm value chain

§ Core competencies

§ Synergies

§ Technology

§ Social and legal challenges

Chapter 11

Online Service Industries

End of Chapter Questions:

1. Compare and contrast the two major types of online service industries. What two major features differentiate services from other industries? (Question 2)

n Within service industry groups, can be further categorized into:

§ Transaction brokers

§ Hands-on service provider

n Services industry features:

§ Knowledge- and information-intense, which makes them uniquely suited to e-commerce applications

§ Amount of personalization and customization required differs depending on type of service

2. Define channel conflict and explain how it currently applies to the mortgage and insurance industries. Name two online insurance companies or brokers. (Question 6)

3. Explain how global distribution systems (GDSs) function. (Question 13)

Merchants who buy reservations from suppliers, and then resell the “inventory” to agencies, which then retail the inventory to customers or create vacation packages that are then sold to retail.

4. In addition to matching job applications with available positions, what larger function do online job sites fill? Explain how such sites can affect salaries and going rates? (Question 15)

Company Location, Salary offered by the company, Background and Overview of the company can be found through online job sites.

Tutorial Questions 8 (Chapter 9)

Chapter 9

Ethical, Social and Political Issues In E-Commerce

End of Chapter Questions (p. 565):

1. Name some of the personal information collected by Web sites about their visitors. (Question 6)

Name, Address, Phone Number, E-Mail Address, Bank Accounts, Education, Credit card accounts, gender, age, occupation, browser type, preference type, transaction data.

2. Explain how Web profiling is supposed to benefit both consumers and businesses. (Question 12)

To business: it is the most effective marketing tool available nowadays, because it targets the customers who prefer the particular products offered by online businesses.

To customer: it is easier for them to find particular products online.

3. How could the Internet potentially change protection given to intellectual property? What capabilities make it more difficult to enforce intellectual property law? (Question 14)

4. What are some of the tactics illegal businesses, such as betting parlors and casinos, successfully use to operate outside the law on the Internet?(Question 18)

Project (p. 566):

1. Go to Google’s Preferences page and examine its SafeSearch filtering options. Now surf the Web in search of content that could be considered objectionable for children, to see how the parental controls function works. What are the pros and cons of such restrictions? Are there terms that could be considered inappropriate to the software but approved by parents? Name five questionable terms. Prepare a brief PowerPoint or other form of presentation to report on your experiences and to explain the positive and negative aspects of such filtering software.

External Questions:

1. List some of the ways that the Internet can be used to collect information about individuals. (p.716, E. Turban, D. King, D. Viehland and J. Lee, 2006)

2. If you were in the process of establishing a commercial web site, would you need to investigate the bona fides of linked site(s) if you provided hypertext links to other web sites? Could you protect yourself from legal disputation arising from users who gained access to the linked site through your own? If so, how? (p.263, E. Lawrence, J Lawrence, S. Newton, S. Dann, B. Corbitt, T. Thanasankit, 2003)

Internet Commerce - Week 7 Tutorial Question

Tutorial Questions: Chapter 6

End-of-Chapter Questions (Page 351)

1. Compare and contrast stored value payment systems and checking transfers. (Question 3)

Checking transfer: funds transferred directly via a signed draft or check from a consumer’s checking account to a merchant or other individual

Stored value payment systems: account created by depositing funds into an account and from which funds are paid out or withdrawn as needed

2. Name six advantages and six disadvantages of using cash as a form of payment. (Question 53)

Advantages

Portable

No transaction fee

Low cognitive demands

Anonymous

Provides instant purchasing power

Private and difficult to trace

Disadvantages

Easily stolen

Limited to smaller transaction

Does not provide any float

When it is spent, it is gone

Purchases tend to be final and irreversible

Irrefutable otherwise agreed by the seller

3. Briefly discuss the disadvantages of credit cards as the standard for online payments. How does requiring a credit card for payment discriminate against some consumers? (Question 8)

Disadvantages:

• Merchants pay a hefty transaction fee of 3% to 5% of the purchase price to the issuing bank
• Risks of transaction (credit card fraud, repudiation of the transaction, or nonpayment)
• Once a card is reported stolen is reported stolen, consumers are not liable for any subsequent charges
• Credit cards have less finality than other payment systems because consumers can refute or repudiate under certain circumstances

Social equity: many people do not have access to credit cards (young adults, plus almost 100 million other adult Americans who cannot afford cards or are considered poor risk)

4. What are the primary differences between the SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protocol and the SET (Secure Electronic Transaction) protocol? (Question 10)

5. Compare and contrast smart cards and traditional credit cards. (Question 14)

Project (Page 351)

1. Research the challenges associated with payments across international borders and prepare a brief presentation of your findings. Do most e-commerce companies conduct business internationally? How do they protect themselves from repudiation? How do exchange rates impact online purchases? What about shipping charges? Summarize by describing the difficulties between a U.S. customer and an international customer who each make a purchase from a U.S. e-commerce merchant. (Question 2)

Internet Commerce - Week 6 Tutorial Questions

Tutorial Questions: Chapter 5

End-of-Chapter Questions (Page 301)

1. Why are some online merchants hesitant to ship to international addresses? What are some of the risks of doing so? (Question 1)

2. What are some of the steps a company can take to curtail cybercriminal activity from within a business?(Question 11)

3. Compare and contrast firewalls and proxy servers and their security functions? (Question 14)

Firewalls : software applications that act as filters between a company’s private network and the internet itself, denying unauthorized remote client computers from attaching to your internal network.

Proxies : software servers that act primarily to limit access of internal clients to external internet servers and are frequently referred to as the gateway.

4. Identify and discuss the five steps in developing an e-commerce security plan. (Question 16)

1. perform a risk assessment - an assessment of the risks and points of vulnerability

2. develop a security policy - a set of statements prioritizing the information risks, identifying acceptable risk targets, and identifying the mechanisms for achieving these targets.

3. develop an implementation plan - the action steps you will take to achieve the security plan
   
   
4. create a security organization - educates and trains users, keep management aware of security threats and breakdowns, and maintains the tools chosen to implement security

5. perform a security audit - involves the routine review of access logs

Project (Page 302)

1. Given the shift toward m-commerce, identify and discuss the new security threats to this type of technology. Prepare a presentation outlining your vision of the new opportunities for cybercrime.

Internet Commerce - Week 5 Tutorial Questions

Tutorial Questions

Week 5 (Chapter 4)

End-of-Chapter Questions (Page 242)

1. Define the systems development life cycle and discuss the various steps involved in creating an e-commerce site. (Question 2)

Systems Development Life Cycle (SDLC) is a methodology for understanding the business objectives of a system and designing an appropriate solution

Five major steps in the SDLC are:

o Systems analysis/planning

o Systems design

o Building the system

o Testing

o Implementation

2. Why is a Web site so costly to maintain? Discuss the main factors that impact cost? (Question 6)

Because maintaining a website means to maintain all the parts that makes that website works, eg. Servers, databases, etc.

3. Name five basic functionalities a Web server should provide. (Question 8)

1. Processing of HTTP requests
2. Security services (Secure Sockets Layer)
3. Files Transfer Protocol
4. Search engine
   
5. Data capture
6. E-Mail
7. Site Management tools
   

4. What are the eight most important factors impacting Web site design, and how do they affect a site’s operation? (Question 12)

Project (Page 243)

5. Visit several e-commerce sites, not including those mentioned in this chapter, and evaluate the effectiveness of the sites according to the eight criteria/functionalities listed in Table 4.10. Choose one site you feel does an excellent job on all the aspects of an effective site and create a presentation including screen shots to support your choice. (Question 2)

Internet Commerce - Tutorial Question Week 4 - Chapter 7

Chapter 7

E-Commerce Marketing Concepts

End-of-Chapter Questions (Page 433)

1. Name the five stages in the buyer decision process, and briefly describe the online and offline marketing activities used to influence each. (Question 7)

• Awareness of need
• Search for more information
• Evaluation of alternatives
• Actual purchase decision
• Post-purchase contact with firm

2. Why are “little monopolies” desirable from a marketer’s point of view? (Question 8)

3. What are the components of the core product, actual product, and augmented product in a feature set? (Question 10)

4. List the differences among databases, data warehouses, and data mining. (Question 13)

• Database: Software that stores records and attributes

• Database management system (DBMS): Software used to create, maintain, and access databases

• Data warehouse: Database that collects a firm’s transactional and customer data in a single location for offline analysis by marketers and site managers

5. Compare and contrast the four marketing strategies used in mass marketing, direct marketing, micromarketing, and one-to-marketing. (Question 17)

Marketing Strategies		Marketing Attributes
	Product	Target	Pricing	Techniques
Mass Marketing	Simple	All consumers	One nation, one price	Mass media
Direct Marketing	Stratified	Segments	One price	Targeted Communications
Micromarketing	Complex	Micro-segments	Variable Pricing	Segment Profiles
One-to-one Marketing	Highly Complex	Individual	Unique Pricing	Individual profiles

6. How is online survey-taking and analysis different from the traditional process of mailing surveys? (Question 24)

By using online survey, a company can gather the information/data from the participants directly after they submit the survey online, whereas those of traditional mailing surveys need more time to gather the survey result/information (after the survey is completed, participant needs to send it back to the company by post services).

Projects (Page 434)

1. Find an example of a Web site that you feel does a good job of appealing to both goal-directed and experiential consumers. Explain your choice. (Question 2)

http://www.pooldawq.com/

This is one of the Online Billiards Store in US which sells anything about billiards in a very good and reasonable price. The shipping cost offered by this Online Store is very reasonable too, and this company offers free shipping to their customers who live in US.

Pooldawq.com offers a broad range pool/billiard cue and all the things the customers need in billiards game, and customers can decide which products to buy by searching based on Price range, Brands, or skill level (beginner, intermediate, and advanced).

Internet Commerce - Tutorial Question Ch3-1

Tutorial Questions: Chapter 3

End-of-Chapter Questions (Page 188)

1. What are the three basic building blocks of the Internet? (Question 1)

Packet Switching, which slices digital messages into packets, routes the packets along different communication paths as they become available, and then reassembles the packets once they arrive at their destination.

TCP/IP, which is the core communication protocol for the internet. TCP establishes the connections among sending and receiving Web computers and makes sure that packets sent by one computer are received in the sequence by the other, without any packets missing. IP provides the addressing scheme and is responsible for the actual delivery of the packets.

Client/server Technology, which makes it possible for large amounts of information to be stored on Web servers and shared with individual users on their client computers.

2. Why isn’t the Internet overloaded? Will it ever be at capacity? (Question 7)

It is not possible for internet to be overloaded, because it is forever growing.

3. Compare and contrast intranets, extranets, and the Internet as a whole. (Question 11)

Internet: An interconnected network of thousands of networks and millions of computers, linking businesses, educational institutions, government agencies, and individuals

Intranet: TCP/IP network located within a single organization for purposes of communication and information processing

Extranet: Formed when firms permit outsiders to access their internal TCP/IP networks

4. What are some of the challenges of policing the Internet? Who has the final say when it comes to content, such as with Yahoo! France? (Question 13)

5. Compare and contrast the capabilities of Wi-Fi and 3G wireless networks. (Question 15)

3G Wireless Networks: new generation of cellular phone standards that can connect users to the Web at 2.4 Mbps

Wi-Fi:

Project (Page 189)

Q2: Locate where cookies are stored on your computer. (They are probably in a folder entitled “cookies” within your browser program.) List the top 10 cookies you find, and write a brief report describing the kinds of sites that placed the cookies. What purpose do you think the cookies serve? Also, what do you believe are the major advantages and disadvantages of cookies? In your opinion, do the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, or vice versa?

A cookie is a text-only string of information that a website transfers to the cookie file of the browser on your computer's hard disk so that the website can remember who you are.

A cookie will typically contain the name of the domain from which the cookie has come, the "lifetime" of the cookie, and a value, usually a randomly generated unique number. Two types of cookies are used on this website-session cookies, which are temporary cookies that remain in the cookie file of your browser until you leave the site, and persistent cookies, which remain in the cookie file of your browser for much longer (though how long will depend on the lifetime of the specific cookie).

Cookies can help a website to arrange content to match your preferred interests more quickly. Most major websites use cookies. Cookies cannot be used by themselves to identify you.

Source: http://www.allaboutcookies.org/cookies/

Internet Commerce - Tutorial Task 2

Chapter 2 E-Commerce Business Models and Concepts

1. What are the eight key components of an effective business model? (Question 3, p.103)

1. Value proposition
2. Revenue model
3. Market opportunity
4. Competitive environment
5. Competitive advantage
6. Market Strategy
7. Organizational development
8. Management team

2. Besides music, what other forms of information could be shared via peer-to-peer sites such as Kazaa? Are there legitimate commercial uses for P2P commerce? (Question 6, p.105)

Video, Picture (image file) and any types of document.

Company can efficiently distribute massive amounts of information across an organization and also make it searchable.

3. What are the major differences between virtual storefronts such as Drugstore.com and bricks-and-clicks operations such as Walmart.com? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each? (Question 13, p.106)

Major difference:

Virtual storefronts do not have any ties to a physical location.

Advantages of virtual storefronts are:

Low barriers to entry into Web e-tail market

Do not bear the costs associated with building and maintaining physical stores.

Disadvantages of virtual storefronts are:

Must build a brand name from scratch quickly and become profitable with no prior brand name or experience

Major advantage of bricks-and-clicks operations are:

4. What are four generic business strategies for achieving a profitable business? (Question 21, p.106)

Differentiation

Setting your firm or product apart from the competition

Cost

Unique set of business processes, a unique resource, or a low cost supplier

Scope

A scope strategy sets out to compete in all markets around the glose, rather than just locally or regionally

Focus

A plan to compete within a narrow market segment or product segment

5. How has Priceline (and similar online services) impacted the travel services industry? (Question 3, p.103)

Introducing price sensitivity signal into the industry which segments the market

Internet Commerce - Tutorial Task 1

Chapter 1 The Revolution Is Just Beginning

In order to give you an idea on how to answer the questions the first three questions have been answered.

1. What are some of the unique features of e-commerce technology?( Question 3, p.52)

The unique features of e-commerce technology include:

1. Ubiquity: It is available just about everywhere and at all times.
2. Global Reach: The potential market size is roughly equal to the size of the online population of the world.
3. Universal standards: The technical standards of the Internet and therefore of conducting e-commerce, are shared by all of the nations in the world.
4. Richness: Information that is complex and content-rich can be delivered without sacrificing reach.
5. Interactivity: E-commerce technologies allow two-way communication between the merchant and the consumer.
6. Information density: The total amount and quality of information available to all market participants is vastly increased and is cheaper to deliver.
7. Personalization/Customization: E-commerce technologies enable merchants to target their marketing messages to a person’s name, interests and past purchases. They allow a merchant to change the product or service to suit the purchasing behavior and preferences of a consumer.

2. What are three benefits of universal standards? (Question 5, p.52)

The benefits of universal standards are:

1. reduced search costs for consumers
2. becomes simpler, faster, and more accurate price discovery
3. lower market entry costs for merchants

3. How are the Internet and the Web similar to, or different from other technologies that have changed commerce in the past? (Question 9, p.52)

The Internet and the Web are similar to other technologies that have changed commerce in the past in that each new technological innovation spawns explosive growth characterized by thousands of start-up companies. Many of these fail in a period of retrenchment and consolidation that follows establishment. As with other technological revolutions, eventually it is the large, already established firms who have the resources to exploit the new technology. The growth of the Internet, when compared to other electronic technologies such as radio and television, has been much more rapid: the Internet and Web achieved a 53% share of U.S households in only 10 years. In comparison, it took 38 years for radio and 17 for television to achieve a 30% share.

4. Define disintermediation and explain the benefits to Internet users of such a phenomenon. How does disintermediation impact friction-free commerce? (Question 12, p.52)

Disintermediation: displacement of market middleman who traditionally are intermediaries between producers and consumers by a new direct relationship between manufacturers and content originators with their customers. Such as: wholesalers and distributors.

Benefits of disintermediation:

Decline of prices for products and services

Intense competition

Lowered transaction costs

Eliminate product brands

Source: Text book page 29

5. What are some of the major advantages and disadvantages of being a first mover? (Question 13, p.53)

Advantages:

· Gather more profits

· Gather market share

· Establish a large customer base

· Build brand name recognition early

· Create an entirely new distribution channel

· Inhibit competitors by building in Switching Costs for their customers through proprietary interface designs and features available only at one site.

Disadvantages:

· Many first movers have not succeeded and are instead replaced by fast followers, larger firms with the financial, marketing, legal, and production assets necessary to develop mature markets.

Source: Text book page 30

Choose an e-commerce Web site and assess it in terms of the seven unique features of e-commerce technology described in Table 1.2. Which of the features does the site implement well, and which features poorly, in your opinions? Discuss with your partner and suggest ways of improvement (take brief notes). (Question 2, p.53)

Carsales

http://www.carsales.com.au

Brief description:

A good E-Commerce website which allows people to find new or used cars from private sellers or from dealers all over Australia. This website is quite similar to Ebay, the only difference is that Carsales is more specific in dealing car transaction and Ebay is dealing a broad range of good and services.

7 Features of E-Commerce	Comments about Carsales.com.au
Ubiquity	Good. This website is accessible anywhere and anytime.
Global Reach	Good. This website is also accessible by users outside Australia.
Universal Standards	Good.
Richness	Neutral.
Interactivity	Good. Potential buyer of the car can contact the sellers, by leaving a message that will be sent to the sellers, and then the sellers can contact the potential buyer to negotiate about the price etc.
Information Density	Good.
Personalization Customization	Good.