Foundations of Business

Management
Technology and E-Business
 Learning Outcomes

• Understand the issues relating to the

technological environment

• Consider the basic elements of e-Business

What recent technological changes
are you aware of?
 c a r
r i v ing 3D printing?
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 Graphene
• Graphene is a substance composed of pure
carbon, but in a one-atom thick sheet. It is
strong, transparent, lightweight, and flexible
• Future Applications of Graphene
 3D printing

• It is an “additive”, rather than a “subtractive”,

form of processing. The machine is a modified
ink-jet printers that deposit successive layers
of material until a three-dimensional object is
built up. It typically use 1/10 of the material
needed in standard production
• How does it work?
 3D printing

Credit: Guardian.co.uk
 Disruptive Technology

• Technologies such as Graphene and 3D

printing are disruptive technologies.

• They will change a market completely or

create a totally new market
 E-Business Definition

• Broad definition: all electronically mediated

information exchanges between an organisation
and its external stakeholders.
• This includes not just the buying and selling of
goods and services, but also servicing customers,
collaborating with business partners, and
conducting electronic transactions within an
organization (Turban et al. 2006).
 E-Business

• Business to Customer –B2C

• Business to Business – B2B

• Customer to Customer – C2C

 Business-to-consumers
(B2C)

• There are retailing transactions with individual

shoppers (between an organisation and
consumers)
• Examples: www.tesco.com; www.next.co.uk
 Business-to-business
(B2B)
• Business transactions between an organisation and
other organisations.

• An example in the B2B category would be a company

that uses a network for ordering from its suppliers,
receiving invoices and making payments.

• Examples: www.b2byellowpages.com; www.alibaba.com

 Consumer-to-consumer
(C2C)
• Consumers sell directly to consumers.
• Online communities (knowledge sharing) – forum
discussions
• Examples: www.eBay.com; www.gumtree.com;
http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk
 Non-business

• An increased number of non-business institutions such

as academic institutions, non-profit organisations and
government agencies are using various types of E-
business tools to reduce their expenses or to improve
their operations and customer service.
• Example: www.dvla.gov.uk
Disintermediation

Chaffey (2009, p.65)

Disintermediation and
Reintermediation

Chaffey (2009, p.66)

 Intermediation
• Reintermediation
 New intermediaries providing services such as supplier
search and product comparison.
 Example: Kelkoo.com; Confused.com
• Counter-intermediation
 The creation of company’s own intermediaries.
 Example: B&Q own intermediary.
• Infomediary
 A business whose main source of revenue derives from
capturing consumer information and developing detailed
profiles of individual customers for use by third parties.
 Example: search engines, social networking websites
 Some Applications
• Supply Chain Management: Internet-based
purchasing. Tesco allows suppliers access to
view daily electronic point-of-sale data from its
stores.
• E-Marketing: The Facebook Example:
Mark Zuckerberg - Inside Facebook (26:35
-30:36)
 Summary
• New technologies in all industries, how are
businesses using them?
• Many developments in e-business giving
rise to new ways of adding value.
• Can be key source of competitive
advantage.
 References
• Chaffey, Dave (2009), E-business and E-commerce
Management (4th ed.). Prentice Hall