Electronic Commerce

It sells its presses, grinders, and milling
equipment using a few inside salespeople and telephones. It buys its raw materials and
supplies from a variety of steel mills and small-parts fabricators located around the world.
BECO’s president, Tom Dalton, has hired you as a consultant and would like your advice
regarding how best to share information with the company’s suppliers. Tom would like to
connect his network of computers into their ordering systems so he can order supplies
quickly when he needs them. Use the Web and this book’s accompanying Web Links to
locate information about extranets and VPNs. Write a report of about 200 words that
describes an extranet and outlines why Tom might want to use a VPN to connect BECO’s
suppliers to his extranet
2- Some business and political leaders argue that offshoring is dangerous because it can move
jobs from developed countries to less-developed countries. Others argue that although
offshoring might displace workers in the short run, in the longer term, everyone benefits
by having developing economies create new industries, products, and markets for products
and services that create high-level service and managerial jobs in the developed world. In
recent years, some economists have argued that offshoring today is having a negative
impact on service and professional employment in highly developed countries. Using
resources in your library or online, present two arguments for and two arguments against a
U.S. company offshoring the management of its customer relationships to technical and
managerial personnel in a less developed country.
3- Visit the Amazon website.
(A) Explain its value proposition and revenue model.
(B) Find competing sites in this category and assess how they differ from Amazon.
(C) What is Amazon’s competitive advantage?
4- Search the Web for an example of each of the major types of e-commerce. Prepare a written
report describing each company (take a screenshot of each, if possible), and explain why it
fits into the category of e-commerce to which you have assigned it.
5- This question has three parts:
(A) Given the development and history of e-commerce in the years from 1995–2020, what
do you predict we will see during the next five years of e-commerce? (5 points)
(B) Describe some of the technological, business, and societal shifts that may occur in the
post-COVID-19 global economy. (10 points)
(C) Prepare a written report to explain your vision of what e-commerce will look like in
2025.