Trends in E-business Applications - Essay Example

Research Plan- Trends in E-business Applications We’ll study the development of the globalisation phenomenon and the transition towards centric economy, in which companies were forced to come out with innovative ways to reach out to the customers. Globalisation has been in existence for quite a while. In the early ages it was essentially limited to business and trade. But with the beginning of the new form of market driven governments, globalisation has filtered down to almost all walks of life like, media, art, culture, and of course the trade and business practices. During the early ages, globalisation essentially meant the spread of businesses by the trading companies. These trading companies, once in a foreign land, used to try influencing the ruling class in order to strengthen their business goals. Gradually these companies also succeeded in capturing power in those countries, thus giving rise to the practice of imperialism. This practice also led to many wars around the world resisting the imperialistic trends. But the recent trend is different from the imperialistic trends. Now the liberalisation policies have opened up the turf for competition from all around. With multinational companies reaching out to almost all parts of the world, the smaller domestic companies have started feeling the competition. To study this phenomenon we will; Compare the functioning of some of the banks over a period of last 15-20 years and figure out the changes taking place Find out how the government backed regulatory mechanism has undergone a change over the years Trace the history of some of the prominent multinational corporations in different sectors like Automobile, retail, banks etc. This will also involve how they expanded their reach around the world Study how the services sector has become pro-customer in terms of services charges, service offers, value additions etc. 2. How the e-business saga emerged in the developed world followed in quick succession by the developing world nations. Asian region and some of the so-called lesser developing nations have emerged as key players in this globalisation regime. E-Business or online business activities are closely linked to the process of industrialisation, computerisation, IT penetration and overall development of the country’s economy. Developed nations in the western world have played a leading role in such matters; therefore, it is quite natural that these economies played a key role in the development and proliferation of e-business activities. But as the profit margins started shrinking, the economies of scale coupled with the size of the available market started becoming major factors in carrying forward the e-business opportunities. The Asian region led by countries like China and India, with billions of population and an equally dependable IT infrastructure started attracting the multinational companies (MNCs). On the one hand these MNCs started depending on the Asian region for production of goods and services because of lower production costs, on the other hand the availability of huge market also became an added attraction for the multinational companies. Therefore, they started making products and services custom made for these very regions. Some of the companies in manufacturing sector like Auto-companies preferred destinations like Beijing and Shanghai while many IT majors thought it wise to outsource their operations to places like Bangalore and Hyderabad. This trend resulted in an increasing role of the developing nations in the globalisation phenomenon and the IT sector. There were some backlashes as well in places like UK, US, Germany where a number of people were left jobless because of the outsourcing of services. During the presidential elections in US, this issue was also widely discussed across the political spectrum, but the trend has continued unabated. Therefore, it will make an interesting analysis with inputs about; The levels of outsourcing The numbers of job losses over the last 8-10 years The numbers of companies shifting to destinations like China How the trade unions have reacted to the job shifting and job losses over the years The point of views of the companies opting for outsourcing How the political spectrum has reacted to the outsourcing and job losses 3. Studying the cases of the some of the dot-com companies involved in the e-business operations. Online business, internet retailing or e-tailing are the terms which are now being used quite often not only by the tech-savvy youth of the day, but even by an average computer literate person in the society. A number of companies like amazon.com, e-bay.com, banks, retailers, IT companies etc. have made a strong online presence, with an eye on the convenience to its customers and being future ready. Amazon.com, for example, aspires to be1 ‘earths most customer centric company; to build a place where people can come to find and discover anything they might want to buy online. Having started its journey since July 1995, the company has earned a distinct identity for itself in a very short span of its journey in online retailing. Since the reach of internet knows no boundaries, it helped amazon.com in diversifying its range of offerings, which further helped in strengthening its image internationally. A strong brand image helps in taking on the competition and also provides competitive edge to the company in the online retail industry while helping in attracting more dedicated as well as curious customer traffic. Amazon’s ranking amongst the top 100 global brands ranking has consistently improved over the years from 68 in 2005 to 61 in the year 2008 and with an astonishing rise2 in value of about 85 percent at number 26 in the year 2009. Many other companies with an online presence have been able to register similar improvement over the years. Analyzing the trend with practical examples will therefore help us in better understanding the phenomenon. 4. Taking the opinion of some of the industry experts and some general customers. The study will be incomplete without taking the opinions of the general users and the service providers. Therefore, an effort would be made to seek the opinions of some of the people involved in the proliferation of e-business activities. To this end we can; Interview some of the managers of dot.com companies. Since this study is for academic purposes only, therefore it won’t be an easy task to seek responses from the companies, therefore to this end I’ll try to approach some companies which are within my easy reach or where I can take the help of someone known to me. At times, it might become difficult to interview the managers, and some of the managers might not be forthcoming in divulging too many details about their business activities. In that case, newspaper reports or media interviews might serve the purpose for the study. Seek an insight into the rules, regulations and procedures put in place by authorities, like retailing companies, banking companies, government authorities, judicial mechanism etc. to make the e-business experience trouble free. For this we need to take an inside view about how the regulating authorities help in resolving fraudulent cases, id-thefts etc. To seek the views of the customers and regular users of the IT services like banking customers, online auctioneers, online buyers etc. We can resort to soliciting their opinion through questionnaires or interviews. Results of some surveys undertaken by researchers in the recent past will also serve as an opportunity for us to gain some information about the manner in which the e-business opportunities have helped the customers in making a better choice. Marketing research agencies, academic institutions, NGOs, independent researchers, world bodies like UN, WTO etc. are the ones whose work will be of immense help in this study. Read More