E-Businesss-Ethics and e-commerce

A model for e-commerce
When deciding on a model for e-commerce one must take into account three important factors.  These are:

• Ethical
• Social
• political

When it comes to ethics. there are three basic principles that all ethical school share:

• Responsibility
• Accountability
• Liability

If a company is facing an ethical dilemma (recall a product or leave it on the shelf because of the costs invovled in recalling the product) they have to consider the following:

• Identify and clearly describe the facts
• Define the conflict or dilemma
• Who are the stakeholders-how much power do they have?
• What are the options facing the company?
• What are the consequences of the companies actions?

Social
How is information collected on websites especially on social networking sites? What about privacy?  Does your company undertake profiling and behavioural targeting.

Political
Who owns intellectual property rights? What about copyright and trademarks?   Can the internet be governed and controlled? 

Business Admin and marketing students-Promotion

Communication is part of the promotional process.   The communication process comprises of a number of stages.  First of all the sender devises a message to send to their intended recipients.  The message is encoded and a medium is chosen.  This medium can be TV, Radio, Facebook, Newspapers etc.  The recipient receives the message and makes sense of it.  In some cases the receiver will give feeback (this can take the form of ringing a freephone number or using a coupon from the newspaper)/  While communication is taking place 'noise' may occur.  Examples of noise include- having a phone conversation while radio ads are on. reading the newspaper while radio adverts are playing etc. 

It is important that the sender keeps in mind the following factors in relation to communication:

• Clear
• Credible
• Context
• Content
• Continuity
• Channel
• Capability
• Compatibility
• Consideration

When the sender is choosing the message he/she needs to consider whether to use personal or non-personal means of communication. 
The sender also needs to decide on the budget for the promotion.  There are a number of techniques available to help the sender decide on the budget.  These are:

• The affordability method
• Objective and task method
• Percentage of sales method
• Competition matching approach

When it comes to deciding on the promotional mix there are a number of factors to consider which include:

1. Target market
2. Characteristics and cost effectiveness of each promotional tool
3. Availability of promotional tools
4. Stages of the PLC
5. Push v Pull strategy

Business Admin and Marketing-Product decisions

Companies need to be aware of where their product(s)/service(s) is in relation to the product life cycle (PLC)


The new product development process is the beginning of the PLC.  There are a number of stages involved in the new product development proces.  These are:

1. Idea generation
2. Idea screening
3. Concept development and testing
4. Marketing strategy
5. Business analysis
6. Product development
7. Test marketing
8. Commercialisation

Once the product has gone through the eight stages the product is introduced to the marketplace.  This is the first step of the PLC.  At this stage profits will be low maybe negative and marketing costs may be high (i.e. advertising).  The next stage is the growth stage.  If the product meets the approval of their target market, it will then enter the growth stage.  Early adopters may recommend the product to family and friends.  If competitors see that the market is expanding they may be tempted to enter the market.  At some stage the product will enter into the maturity stage.  Sales will began to slow down and profits began to decrease.  There may be overcapacity in the market which mean the weaker companies may leave the market.  A company has the option at the stage to develop the market, they may get involved in product development or marketing innovations.  If demand for the product does not pick up sales it will enter the decline stage.  A company has to decide whether it wants to keep weaker products or to invest in updating an existing product. 

Market Research-Report writing

Once the data has been completed the next step is to compile the research report.  There are a number of reasons why a research report is written.  These are:

1. It enables the research to communicate the findings of the research
2. It can be a document that others can use in the future

There are a number of stages involved in writing the research report.  These are:

1. Table of contents
2. Define the research objectives-this would have been done at the start of the research
3. Methodology/methodologies used-surveys, focus groups, observation etc.  Should also outline the reasons why particular methods were used.
4. Brief sumary of findings
5. Conclusions and recommendations-these should be make with the resources of the company in mind. 
6. Detailed introduction
7. Detailed analysis of findings
8. Detailed methodology
9. Limitations
10. Appendix

Once the report has been drafted considerable time should be spent on reading and re-reading the report for errors.  Often with a research report there will be an oral presentation.  This often takes the format of:

1. Presentation outline
2. Visuals
3. Executive summary

The presenter must remember that there may be a number of a barriers to communication.  These are:

1. Language
2. Perception
3. Listening
4. Authority
5. Distortation of the message
6. Non-verbal communication
7. Time

Equine Science-competitive analysis

There are three types of competitors that your company need to be aware of.  These are:

1. Direct competitors
2. Indirect competitors
3. Future competitors

The main reason for undertaking a competitive analysis is to gain an understanding into what your competitors are doing at the moment.  The findings from this analysis can then be used to create your companies.
However before this can happen companies should follow a number of steps:

1. What exactly is your target market?
2. Identify your direct competitors
3. Analyse all of your competitors
4. Conduct a summary of all your competitors products/services and their current marketing strategies
5. Comapare your offerings to your competitors
6. Repeat this analysis at least once a year

Companies can also use Porter's Five Force Model to identify the forces that may affect the level of competition in the industry.
The five forces are:

1. Threat of new entrants
2. Threat of buyers
3. Threat of Suppliers
4. Substitutes
5. Rivalry amongst competition

(use the Ryanaire case study for examples of each of these)

E-Commerce-Building an e-commerce website

Prior to building an e-commerce site a company may look at the systems development lifecycle. 
There are five steps involved in developing a systems lifecycle:
Stage 1 Systems analysis/planning
Stage 2 Systems design
Stage 3 Building the system
Stage 4 Testing
Stage 5 Implementation


Stage1 Systems analysis planning- need to ask the following question-what do we want the e-commerce  site to do for our busines.  It is essential that the business objectives are established prior to building an e-commerce site.

Stage 2 Systems design-company will have to decide on the hardware and software it needs to build its systems.

Stage 3 Building the system-Do we go inside or hire outside companies or consultants. 

Stage 4 Once the system has been built and programmed the company will have to test the system

Stage 5 Implementation-need to be aware of why systems break down.


The company has to decide on the merchant softwar that they will need to incorporate into their website.  This can include the online catalogue, shopping cart, credit card processing and order processing and logistics. 

What is the EC fulfillment process?

• Make sure the customer pays for their goods or services
• Check to make sure the stock is available
• Arrange for shipment of the goods
• Arrange to have insurance for the goods if the customer so desires
• Replace stock if necessary to ensure that there is sufficient stock there for new customers
• Do we need to conduct in-house production
• Do we need to employ contractors to manufacture the goods or deliver the services
• Who is responsible for contacting the customers
• How do we ensure that customers can easily return goods if necessary

Market Research-Sampling issues

While most companies will not be able to afford to conduct a census they will be able to use a sample to conduct their market research.  A sample should bea cross-section of the population.  There are a number of stages that need to be followed prior to a sample:

Stage 1 Define the population of interest
Stage 2 Choose the data collection method
Stage 3 Choose the sampling frame
Stage 4 Select a sampling method
Stage 5 Determine the sample size
Stage 6 Develop operational procedure for selecting sample
             elements
Stage 7 Execute the sampling plan

Sampling errors
There are a number of sampling and non-sampling errors.  Sampling errors result when the sample selected is not perfectly representative of the population.  This can be an administrative error, or a naturally occuring  random error.

There are four probability sampling methods:

1. Simple random sampling
2. Systematic sampling
3. Stratified sampling
4. Cluster sampling

Non-probability sampling

1. Convenience sampling
2. Judgement sampling
3. Quota sampling
4. Snowball sampling