Questions and Answers of E-Commerce Essentials

5. Follow up on events at Uber since October 2017 (when the opening case was prepared). Prepare a short report on your findings.
4. Prepare a brief report or presentation on how companies are using Instagram or another company of your choosing as a social e-commerce platform.
3. Given the development and history of e-commerce in the years from 1995–2017, what do you predict we will see during the next five years of e-commerce? Describe some of the technological,
2. Search the Web for an example of each of the major types of e-commerce described in Section 1.4 and listed in Table 1.3. Create a presentation or written report describing each company (take a
1. Choose an e-commerce company and assess it in terms of the eight unique features of e-commerce technology described in Table 1.2. Which of the features does the company implement well, and which
20. What platform do the majority of Internet users in the United States use to access the Internet?
19. What are those who take a behavioral approach to studying e-commerce interested in?
18. What are some of the privacy issues that Facebook has created?
17. Why is a multidisciplinary approach necessary if one hopes to understand e-commerce?
16. What are five of the major differences between the early years of e-commerce and today’s e-commerce?
15. Discuss the ways in which the early years of e-commerce can be considered both a success and a failure.
14. What is a network effect, and why is it valuable?
13. What are some of the major advantages and disadvantages of being a first mover?
12. Define disintermediation and explain the benefits to Internet users of such a phenomenon. How does disintermediation impact friction-free commerce?
11. Describe the three different stages in the evolution of e-commerce.
10. How are e-commerce technologies similar to or different from other technologies that have changed commerce in the past?
9. Give examples of B2C, B2B, C2C, and social, mobile, and local e-commerce besides those listed in the chapter materials.
8. What is Web 2.0? Give examples of Web 2.0 sites and explain why you included them in your list.
7. Name three of the business consequences that can result from growth in information density.
6. Compare online and traditional transactions in terms of richness.
5. What are three benefits of universal standards?
4. What is a marketspace?
3. What are some of the unique features of e-commerce technology?
2. What is information asymmetry?
1. What is e-commerce? How does it differ from e-business? Where does it intersect with e-business?
3. Why is copyright infringement a potential issue for Pinterest?Like all successful e-commerce companies, Pinterest taps into a simple truth.In Pinterest’s case, the simple truth is that people
2. Why does Pinterest focus on the smartphone platform when it develops new features and products?Like all successful e-commerce companies, Pinterest taps into a simple truth.In Pinterest’s case,
1. Why does Pinterest view Google as its primary competitor?Like all successful e-commerce companies, Pinterest taps into a simple truth.In Pinterest’s case, the simple truth is that people love to
7. Have you worked on the development of a website for a business or started an online business yourself? How did it work out?
6. Our online sales have grown at about 20% a year for several years. Yet many of our customers also buy from our retail stores located in malls, sometimes based on what they see online. And vice
5. We gather a tremendous amount of personal information about our online customers. What kinds of issues do you think this poses for our company?
4. How can our company use social network sites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to expand our business?
3. We’re finding that quite a few of our customers come to our website to see our offerings, and then buy on Amazon. How do you think our firm can respond to this situation?
2. Based on what you already know about our online presence, how do you think we should expand our online activities?
1. We hope to build an omni-channel web presence where consumers can buy our products online or in physical stores, which will also have in-store kiosks where customers can also explore and order
QQ Identify the major academic disciplines contributing to e-commerce.
QQ Describe the major themes underlying the study of e-commerce.
QQ Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
QQ Describe the major types of e-commerce.
QQ Identify and describe the unique features of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
QQ Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e-business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
QQ Understand why it is important to study e-commerce.
4. You are involved in logistics management for your company, a national retailer of office furniture. In the last year the company has experienced a number of disruptions in its supply chain as
3. Assume you are a procurement officer for an office furniture manufacturer of steel office equipment. You have a single factory located in the Midwest with 2,000 employees. You sell about 40% of
2. Examine the website of one of the e-distributors listed in Figure 12.9, and compare and contrast it to one of the websites listed for e-procurement Net marketplaces. If you were a business manager
1. Choose an industry and a B2B vertical market maker that interests you. Investigate the site and prepare a report that describes the size of the industry served, the type of Net marketplace
21. Describe the differences and similarities between B2C and B2B marketing.
20. What is a cloud-based B2B platform and what advantages does it offer?
19. What is a multi-tier supply chain and why does it pose a challenge for B2B e-commerce?
18. Describe the challenges inherent to B2B e-commerce.
17. Describe six major trends in supply chain management and collaboration.
16. What is EDI and why is it important?
15. What are the barriers to the complete implementation of private industrial networks?
14. What is CPFR, and what benefits could it achieve for the members of a private industrial network?
13. Explain the difference between an industry consortium and a private industrial network.
12. What is the main reason why many of the independent exchanges developed in the early days of e-commerce failed?
11. List three of the objectives of a private industrial network.
10. Identify and briefly explain the anticompetitive possibilities inherent in Net marketplaces.
9. What are the three dimensions that characterize an e-procurement market based on its business functionality?Name two other market characteristics of an e-procurement Net marketplace.
8. How do the value chain management services provided by e-procurement companies benefit buyers? What services do they provide to suppliers?
7. Explain the difference between a horizontal market and a vertical market.
6. Define the term supply chain and explain what SCM systems attempt to do. What does supply chain simplification entail?
5. Name and define the two methods of purchasing goods.
4. Name and define the two distinct types of procurements firms make. Explain the difference between the two.
3. List at least five potential benefits of B2B e-commerce.
2. What are the key attributes of a B2B e-commerce website? What early technology are they descended from?
1. Explain the differences between total B2B commerce and B2B e-commerce.
3. How does the purchase of Elemica by Thoma Bravo, a private equity firm, change how Elemica fits into the B2B framework illustrated in Figure 12.9?It may seem unusual to refer to an entire industry
2. Elemica provides a community for participants where they can transact, coordinate, and cooperate to produce products for less. Yet these firms also compete with one another when they sell
1. If you were a small chemical company, what concerns would you have about joining Elemica?It may seem unusual to refer to an entire industry as a community, a word reserved typically for
5. We are trying to integrate our vendors more closely into our business planning and even the design of new products. We’re looking for a collaborative effort from our suppliers and greater
4. We are trying to reduce costs of our supplies by participating in a number of Net marketplaces where vendors compete with one another on price and quality to become one of our suppliers. What do
3. We’d like to use social media as a way to enhance communications with our suppliers. Do you have any suggestions about how we might build a social network to support our supply chain?
2. A key to our success is matching the stream of orders to our production and purchasing schedules. We try to avoid excess inventory of parts, and yet we need to have enough parts on hand to fulfill
1. Have you had any experience in purchasing supplies from vendors and managing purchase orders? Can you give an example? What were some of the challenges you faced dealing with vendors, and how did
4. Visit one of the social networks listed in Table 11.1 and compare it to Facebook. In what ways is it similar to Facebook, and in what ways is it different? Which do you prefer, and why?
3. Visit one for-profit and one nonprofit sponsored social network. Create a presentation to describe and demonstrate the offering at each site. What organizational objectives is each pursuing? How
2. Examine the use of auctions by businesses. Go to any auction site of your choosing and look for outlet auctions or auctions directly from merchants. Research at least three products for sale. What
1. Find two examples of an affinity portal and two examples of a focused-content portal. Prepare a presentation explaining why each of your examples should be categorized as an affinity portal or a
20. Why has Yahoo struggled in the past few years?
19. List and briefly explain the main revenue sources for the portal business model.
18. What are the two main types of vertical market portals, and how are they distinguished from one another?
17. What three characteristics define a portal site today?
16. What types of products are well suited for an auction market? At what points in the product life cycle can auction markets prove beneficial for marketers?
15. Name and describe five types of possible abuses and frauds that may occur with auctions.
14. What is herd behavior and how does it impact auctions?
13. Why has the FTC warned consumers about penny (bidding fee) auctions?
12. What are the four major costs to consumers of participating in an auction?
11. List and briefly explain three of the benefits of auction markets.
10. How does a Name Your Own Price auction, such as Priceline’s, work?
9. What is the difference between a C2C and a B2C auction?
8. List and describe four different types of auctions.
7. What is an affinity community, and what is its business model?
6. What are two measures that can be used to understand the importance of social networks and to compare them to other Internet experiences?
5. Why are mobile social networks growing so fast?
4. What are three mobile social networks?
3. Why is Pinterest considered a social network, and how does it differ from Facebook?
2. What are the four defining elements of a social network—online or offline?
1. What do social networks, auctions, and portals have in common?
4. Who are eBay’s top competitors online, and how will eBay’s strategy help it compete?Founded in 1995 as an offbeat, quirky place to buy and sell almost anything via online auctions, eBay now

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