Economic Analysis of Amazon.com - Case Study Example

The Amazon.com Student’s Name Institution ASSIGNMENT 1 Amazon.com is an electronic commerce company based in America and its multi- national. Its headquarters are in Seattle’s south Lake Union in Washington. This is the global headquarter. The European headquarters are in Luxemburg’s capital, Luxembourg City. Another headquarter is in Miami, Florida. The company is the largest online retailer. The company is notably known due to production of Amazon kindle e-book reader and Kindle Fire. In 1994 the company was formed as a result of internet gold rush to claim its share, this was called ‘regret minimization framework’. The company was incorporated in 1994, in Washington. The company started off as an offline bookstore. During the early stages of business the company did not make any profit till the fourth year. During the first quarter of 2001 its profits was $5million. The company’s success was also recognized by the Time magazine named Bezos, the Person of the year 1999. Amazon.com has retail website in various countries which include; United States, France, Spain , United Kingdom ,Canada, Austria, Italy, , Brazil, Germany, Japan and China. It also operates retail web sites for Sears Canada, Timex, bebe Stores, Mark & Spencer and Mother care. Due to the growing number of enterprises Amazon has also provided a unified multichannel platform where a customer interacts with people of retail website (Sherman, J. 2001). Amazon.com com is involved in retail business of books , music CDs, DVDs, Videotapes, Software, Consumer electronics toys & games, kitchen items, baby products , apparel, Sporting Goods, musical instruments, , jewelry, watches, items, beauty products, gourmet food , health and personal –care , industrial & scientific supplies and groceries Amazon has also developed partnership with DC Comics for exclusive digital rights. The comics include; Batman, Superman, Green Lantern, Watchman and Sandman. This partnership has resulted into bookstores like Barner & Noble remove these titles from their shelves . Compared to other retail online companies Amazon.com has differentiated itself in according to the services offered to its customers. In the year 2007 it announced Amazon Flesh. This website offer services for perishable and non perishable foods. The customers can have their orders delivered at their homes at dawn or during a specified daytime window. Amazon has differentiated websites such as e-commerce sites like Zappos.com and Woot. Unlike the counterparts Amazon subscribes & Save program which offers a discounted price on an item. There is also free shipping on every Subscribe & save shipment. Amazon is also technology sensitive and due to this factor it gives it an advantage over old companies like Barnes. In 2007 it launched Amazon Kindle. This is an e-book reader which downloads content over Whispered. In the year 20011, Amazon also announced entry of tablet computer which is customized version of the operating system Android. Amazon .com has also gone digital and this gives it an edge in midst of other giant companies. Amazon’s Honor System makes the customers make donations or buy digital content. This is a milestone because it will be able to compete competitively with other big companies like Barnes & noble. Another digital content within the Amazon .com is the Amazon MP3 which was the first online offering DRM-Free music. Amazon usually employs a multi e-commerce strategy. This include; Business-to Customer strategy, Business-to-Business and Customer-to- Business. The availability of Amazon market place acts as intermediary to facilitate consumer to consumer transactions. The market platform lets anyone sell almost anything using it. Amazon.com there is able to reach out to many customers all over the world with use of the named strategies. Comparing the Amazon.com with its surfaced competitors is that the faster growth of the company is due to the fact of bracing the technological innovations. Over the past few years the company has witnessed massive technological improvements. Almost yearly there is always a launch of new website. This has led it being declared as the largest retail, online company surpassing competitors like Barnes and sand (Mueller, J. 2004). Amazon.com during the initial stages of development it sourced its personnel from another company and this saw the company being sued for that. The human capital was already developed and refined therefore, this saw the company being sued( Spector, R. 2000). The use of experienced human capital can be attributed to the faster growth of the company. This is because of prior knowledge and efficiency of these personnel. ASSIGNMENT 2 Amazon.com has changed the organizational environment significantly. It is based on the idea of bringing buyers and sellers in one market where accessibility is easier and convenient. Over the past few years since its formation in the year 1994 lot of changes have occurred. Institutions have changed and so are the organizational structures. This is because the Amazon.com braces technology for the development of its products. Amazon.com has become a platform where people can find and discover the things that they want to buy online. This makes the commodity become known to the customer and where to get. The company strives to give the information at lowest price, offer vast selection and ensure that there is convenience. Due to the rapid technological innovations experienced in this company, the company has grown tremendously. The company offers personalized shopping experience to customers and also there other websites that helps the customer to make informed decisions. This also makes customers discover new products. Amazon.com offer a very good platform to third parties enabling them sells their products. In the year 2006 key infrastructure services to business were exposed by the Amazon web services ( AWS) in what is known as cloud computing. The importance of cloud computing is the ability to leverage a new business and convert a capital structure into variable costs. The time that was required by businesses to plan and procure servers and any other IT requirement is today not necessary. Using the AWS, the business can take an advantage of the expertise in Amazon and economies of scale. The first kindle was launched in the year 2007. This is a reader that wirelessly downloads, magazines, books, blogs in high resolution electronic ink that reads like a real book. Touch and kindle 3G are the latest technology in amazon.com. It makes it easier turn pages, search for something, shop and also taking notes. Amazon.com has created an enabling environment for competiveness in the market place. The companies involved are able to work harder so as to improve their products and service delivery. Due to the need to improve services Amazon.com differentiates’ its products and services (Spector, R. 2000). These services are meant to make customers more attracted to products and enhance optimal efficiency. Amazon.com has enhanced customer friendly systems where one is able to call and communicate with the retailer, Amazon. This enhances communication between the two areas. When the goods have not being delivered in the right quantity there is a website where one uses in order to present complaints. The website is easy to use as it follows some pre-set commands (Mueller, J. 2004). Amazon.com has led to fast flow of information as information is shared in the market at low cost. This is because a market field has been provided by Amazon.com. The customers can access the cost of good and also they have an easier opportunity to make comparisons with other companies of equal magnitude. ASSIGNMENT 3 Institutionalized socialization is a situation where different institutions interact in different settings. The institutions may influence the behavior of individuals in that environment either positively or negatively. It also shows how different institutions interact in the same setting or different settings. The institutions include schools, workplaces, government and media Interpersonal relationship may hinder institutional socialization. This is where different institutions have relationships at different level of operation. The institutions may different policies in their operations and goals. This hinders mutual working of the different institutions. The individual companies are not ready to forgo their interests in the favor of the incoming institution or any institution that a relationship might exist. Institutions are believed to influence values and attitude of the members. This is a danger to socializations because it can negatively influence behavior of the members of the institution. They make the member follow a certain way of doing things which becomes a habit with time and due to constant subjection of individuals to the same environment it becomes part and parcel of them. Institutionalized socialization lacks an explanation power to predict the results of conflicting socialization influences. It does not provide a solution when it comes after it have created a problem. These problems include self-interest of members, lack of common objective or loss of independence of the institutions. The conflicting interests of workers are also major challenge to institutional socialization. The workers may have self-interests which hinder effective development of the institutional socialization. The institutional harmony is jeopardized as result of self interest. Each and every party involved wants to have the best for himself. Another danger that is posed by institutional socialization is loss of independence of the institution. The institution privacy becomes exposed due to the social interaction between different institutions. Institutional socialization takes a lot of time that could be used to could be used in other developmental activities. Institution like work place is a good example. People spend significant amount of time in their workplace they keep on socializing in the same environment (Perlmutter, A.1981). This is a danger in that they do not get to exposed to other experiences in life. These institutions define them and their way of life. Many people would end up not rediscovering themselves due to institutional rigidity that exists (Gillan, 2001) The danger of the government imposing certain values and norms on people through the law. The government has the power to impose certain values to its people. A good example is that the government may restrict the importation of certain commodities into the country. Another perspective is when the government defines the age that one should have in order to become legally liable to pay taxes, the minimum age of adulthood or old age (Bennich, L. 2007). It can therefore be concluded that institutional socialization pose a lot danger like loss of independent, time wastage, rigidity of the systems, lack of innovation and personal development and can promote dictatorship. References Mueller, J. (2004). Mining Amazon Web Services: Building applications with the Amazon API. San Francisco: Sybex. Spector, R. (2000). Amazon.com: Get big fast. New York: HarperBusiness. Sherman, J. (2001). Jeff Bezos: King of Amazon. Brookfield, Conn: Twenty-First Century Books.Top of Form Bennich-Björkman, L. (2007). Political culture under institutional pressure: How institutional change transforms early socialization. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Bottom of Form Stevenson, C. L. (1974). Sport, socialization, and the professions: A paradigm of institutional socialization. Perlmutter, A. (1981). Modern authoritarianism: A comparative institutional analysis. New Haven: Yale University Press. Read More