Personal Data Use and Morality in the E-Business Environment

This paper deals with personal data use by firms in the e-business environment from the viewpoint of business administration and information ethics. Whereas the tremendous development of information and communication technology (ICT) has made it easier for firms to acquire, store, share,and utilise personal data on their customers, firms that use personal data are exposed to risks related to privacy issues. Since individuals fear the invasion of their privacy, the failure of a firm to appear or remain trustworthy would make it difficult for it to maintain accurate, up-to-date databases and to construct desirable business processes, which would affect the bottom line. Therefore, modem firms should do what they can to ensure that their customers trust them. For them, one promising way to remain trustworthy is to behave as a moral agent. Although it is difficult for any firm to meet the conditions necessary to be a moral agent, competence in behaving as a moral agent is a hard-to-imitate capability of firms for which personal data use is vital for enjoying the benefits of business relationships in the e-business environment.     

Effects of Institutional Pressures on Information Technology Investments: An Empirical Investigation

Information technology (IT) investments account for a significant proportion of capital budgets of most firms today. While research attention so far has been focused on if and how firms benefit from these investments, limited attention has been paid to understand what determines the IT investment levels of firms. In this study, we examine the effects of institutional pressures and firm characteristics on the IT investment levels of a firm after controlling the financial conditions of the firm. Using available data from secondary sources, we find that the IT investment intensity of a firm is positively associated with that of its competitors, suppliers, and customers. We also find that the degree of institutional shareholding is positively associated with its IT investment intensity. Our results shed light on the motives and drivers of IT investment decisions by highlighting that these decisions are influenced by both economic considerations and legitimacy considerations such as conforming to institutional norms.     

Do organizations achieve their objectives from computer-basedmanufacturing technologies?

Before a firm can make an investment decision on implementing computer-based advanced manufacturing technologies, it should understand what it is trying to accomplish. This empirical study of 222 US manufacturing firms found that a considerable gap exists between the firms' expectations and their perceived achievements. All the technologies are neither equally appropriate nor equally effective in meeting the challenge of more competitive manufacturability. While the type of advanced manufacturing technology plays a key role in how the firms go about formulating their objectives, the industry segment exhibits only moderate influences. A number of unintended benefits do appear to accrue to the adopting firms     

Six steps to excellent customer service

As of November 2005, there were 6.2 million broadband customers in the UK and this figure is still growing. North and South America had approximately 49 million broadband users, Asia-Pacific 74 million and Europe 53 million. In the last two years, broadband has turned from a niche product into a truly mass-market product. This success story brings with it huge challenges for service providers who wish to give their broadband customers the support they need while at the same time running a profitable business in what is a highly competitive and price-sensitive market. This paper first discusses the issues that exist with supporting broadband customers. It then shows how taking an end-toend view of the complete customer experience, from when the problem first occurs right through to when the customer is happy that a permanent resolution has been achieved, enables service providers to identify the key support capabilities that are required in order to deliver an excellent customer experience. Finally, some innovative ways in which those capabilities can be realised, in a cost effective way, are identified.     

Unique Features of Mobile Commerce

While the market potentials and impacts of web-based e-commerce are still in the ascendant, the advances in wireless technologies and mobile networks have brought about a new business opportunity and research attention, what is termed mobile commerce. Commonly, mobile commerce is considered to be another new application of existing web-based e-commerce onto wireless networks, but as an independent business area, mobile commerce has its own advantages and challenges as opposed to traditional e-commerce applications. This paper focuses on exploring the unique features of mobile commerce as compared with traditional e-commerce. Also, there are still some limitations arisen in m-commerce in contrast to web-based e-commerce. Finally, current state of mobile commerce in Japan is presented in brief, with an introduction of several cases involving mobile commerce applications in today's marketplace.     

Selecting a Customization Strategy Under Competition: Mass Customization, Targeted Mass Customization, and Product Proliferation

Customization requires not only an implementation of proper manufacturing systems but also a proper strategy regarding when firms should offer customized products and what the nature of customization should be. This paper questions 1)whether customization is better than no customization, and, if so, 2) what kind of customization strategy firms should adopt under competition. We find that customization is not optimal when the cost of soliciting customer preference information is sufficiently high. When competing firms choose to customize, we show that firms target only certain customer segments with customized products. We also find that the optimal customization strategy may require firms to offer only a few discrete product varieties. Despite the concern that customization may initiate price wars because customization reduces product differentiation, we find that customization does not escalate the price competition, because aggressive price competition exacerbates cannibalization. Although customers within the product line of a firm are charged higher prices, we show that on average customers are better off when firms adopt customization. However, unless the customization is quite cheap, when firms choose to customize, we find that firms cannot generate more profits than when firms offer only a single product     

Mining Demand Chain Knowledge for New Product Development and Marketing

Many enterprises devote a significant portion of their budget to new product development (NPD) and marketing to make their products distinctive from those of competitors, and better fit the needs and wants of consumers. Hence, knowledge and feedback on customer demand and consumption experience has become an important information and asset for enterprises. This paper investigates the following research issues in a world leading bicycle brand/manufacture company, GIANT of Taiwan: what exactly are the customers’ “functional needs” and “wants” for bicycles? Does knowledge of the customers and the product itself reflect the needs of the market? Can product design and planning for production lines be integrated with the knowledge of customers and market channels? Can the knowledge of customers and market channels be transformed into knowledge assets of the enterprises during the stage of NPD? The a priori algorithm is a methodology of association rule for data mining, which is implemented for mining demand chain knowledge from channels (sales and maintenance) and customers. Knowledge extraction from data mining results is illustrated as knowledge patterns and rules in order to propose suggestions and solutions to the case firm for NPD and marketing.      

Joint Ventures with Third World Multinationals: A New Form of Entry to International Markets

Besides domestic competition in steel, textiles and electronics, US firms face competition from Third World Multinationals in Third World markets in industries such as construction, service contracts as well as manufacturing. Third World firms have advantages such as lower labor and management costs, lower input costs, a more appropriate technology supplied without strings, and a greater familiarity with the business and working environment that is characteristic of Third World nations. However, these companies lack capital, are often subject to exchange controls in their own country, and lack a flow of up-to-date and improved technologies in manufacturing. These are the complementary assets that firms from the US and other industrialized countries can provide in a joint venture partnership as well as providing management and marketing skills and head office services that often are scarce resources for many Third World firms. There are certain situations in Third World countries where the combined advantages of the US and Third World firms make market entry or survival possible where otherwise neither could go it alone.     

Characterizing ADSL customer behaviours by network traffic data-mining

The very rapid adoption of new applications by some segments of the adsl customers may have a strong impact on the quality of service delivered to all customers. This makes the segmentation of adsl customers according to their network usage a critical step both for a better understanding of the market and for the prediction and dimensioning of the network. Relying on a “bandwidth only” perspective to characterize network customer behaviour does not allow the discovery of usage patterns in terms of applications. In this paper, we shall describe how data mining techniques applied to network measurement data can help to extract qualitative and quantitative knowledge.     

基于决策树的网络客户分类方法研究

传统的网络购物只是对商品进行一个简单的分类和陈列,对于电子商务的商家并没有对网络消费者的购物数据进行深入研究探讨.针对网络购物过程中消费者选择商品的趋向性的不同,引入了基于决策树分类方法对网络客户购买商品的行为进行分析,并从决策树中挖掘出影响网络购物的主要因素以及各因素对网络购买行为的强弱影响程度.实验结果表明,此方法可以有效的对网络客户进行分类,有利于决策分析.     

Segmentation and endogenous entry under consumer uncertainty of novel technologies

The paper presents a model of new product marketing when consumers are unable to provide perfect information on their preferences. Given the information available, firms have to decide their new product introduction strategy. Two situations are examined: a monopolist deciding on how many segments to enter, and a duopoly facing a single market segment in which each firm must decide to enter first or second. The monopolist strategy turns out to be either entering many segments when the uncertainty is low or a market niche when it is high. For the duopoly situation, a firm with limited resources wants to enter first whereas a firm with large resources wants to go second. This outcome is an endogenous equilibrium of the model.     

CellStream — pilot customer experience

The announcement in October 1996 of BT's pilot CellStream asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) service marked a significant milestone in the provision of broadband services within the UK telecommunications market. Building on the success of BT's initial broadband Switched Multi-megabit Data Service (SMDS), CellStream provides BT's customers with high-speed and operationally flexible communications within the UK and internationally. This paper outlines BT's CellStream ATM services, and, by taking a particular example, illustrates how customers have been supported in their introduction to them.     

Learning from the ‘wow’ factor — how to engage customers through the design of effective affective customer experiences

’I think ‘exceeds expectations’ is the most pitiful pair of words uttered in the English language. Our aspirations are too low. Think Cirque de Soleil, not Siegfried and Roy. Aim to put a shiver up your customers’ spines. That’s what you should even be trying to do with your call centers’, Tom Peters, Uber-Guru. In a survey by Shaw and Ivens [1], 85% of business leaders said that differentiation by price, product and service is no longer a sustainable business strategy. 71% of these leaders also stated that they believed that ‘customer experience’ is the new battleground. The same survey found that customers found 44% of customer experiences to be bland and uneventful. Yet only 15% of companies are actually starting to engage customers on both an efficient and emotionally engaging manner. The implication is that companies which start to leverage the power of emotion in the purchasing decision-making process, and leverage that power to improve the customer experience, are likely to succeed in an increasingly commoditised market. How do companies who are renowned for outstanding levels of customer experience, loyalty and advocacy achieve these levels? To find the answer to that question, this paper looks across organisations globally to find out how the best achieve effective affective customer experiences across all contact channels. A distinct pattern emerged.     

Strategic e-Business Decision Analysis Using the Analytic Network Process

The rapid global deployment of electronic business (e-business) and information systems has required managers to make decisions that seek to balance technical factors with strategic business goals. This research utilizes the analytic network process (ANP) to provide insight into optimum-seeking decision processes by managers, as investments are made to utilize e-commerce technologies. The nonlinear network approach of ANP was used to study the "systems with feedback" where the e-commerce strategy may both dominate and be dominated, directly and indirectly, by the business-level strategy. This study analyzes e-business decisions in organizations, based on management heuristics and perceptions of expected contributions of e-commerce strategies, as well as the business-level strategies. The ANP research methodology process is employed since it is well suited for the study of a multi-attribute decision problem to explore qualitative and quantitative preferences of top managers in independent, nondiversified firms involved in e-business. ANP is used to model decision complexities involved in integrating e-commerce innovation into the overall strategic planning of firms. Optimal e-business strategies are chosen by using systems-with-feedback, where interdependencies between four virtual e-commerce domains and two generic business level strategies are explored. This study obtained significant results and identified several important avenues for further research. Implications for theory and research are discussed.     

Differentiating market strategies for disruptive technologies

The literature is full of anecdotes that show new small firms attacking existing markets with innovations based upon disruptive technologies and achieving phenomenal success. Because of this, some theorists argue that disruptive technologies are best commercialized by new small firms. If this is true, can a logical rationale be developed that explains this unique capacity of new firms? If so, can empirical research of new and established firms in an industry fraught with a disruptive technology identify the advantages that new firms have over established firms in the commercialization process? The purpose of this paper is to examine the different roles of established and new firms in disruptive technology commercialization. The authors begin by developing a model of the innovation process beginning with technology creation and ending with user adoption and application. From this model they develop propositions for testing. The authors use survey data collected from 72 micro-electro-mechanical-systems (MEMS) manufacturing firms. Their results from the MEMS industry show that established firms rarely commercialize disruptive technologies and then prefer to use market-pull strategies to accomplish this. New firms select primarily disruptive technologies and choose either market-pull or technology-push strategies for commercialization. Perhaps more important, time to market for new firms is one-fourth that for established firms. These results suggest that new firms have two advantages in commercialization of disruptive technologies-flexibility in marketing strategy and much shorter times to market.     

Service Innovation Involved by Employees and Customers: From Conceptual Model to an IT Service Case

With the service industry and information technology developing, Service innovation occurs continually in business today. It is important for service firms to understand the service's business and process; customer knowledge including needs, expectations and experiences. However, employees are key factor to collect the customer's advice. At the same time, employees may organize customers for the new service. So, the integration of employees and customers will help service firm in the way of developing a new service and upgrading a service. The paper describes some models to explain the relation based on some literatures and give some advices for service firms. At last, we introduce an IT service case.     

Service Innovation Involved by Employees and Customers： From Conceptual Model to an IT Service Case

With the service industry and information technology developing, Service innovation occurs continually in business today. It is important for service firms to understand the service＇s business and process; customer knowledge including needs, expectations and experiences. However, employees are key factor to collect the customer＇s advice. At the same time, employees may organize customers for the new service. So, the integration of employees and customers will help service firm in the way of developing a new service and upgrading a service. The paper describes some models to explain the relation based on some literatures and give some advices for service firms. At last, we introduce an IT service case     

基于探针的固网漏话通知业务的实觋

随着本地呼叫移动趋势的不断加大,各大运营商之间的竞争更加激烈,面对市场的竞争压力,如何通过业务创新提升用户的ARPU值,保持客户忠诚度,成为运营商关注的重点。漏话通知业务是为了解决固定电话的不足而推出的新业务,是一种基于语音的增值服务,它可以及时地通知被叫错失的来电,并提高现有客户的ARPU值。论文基于探针侦听信令方式实现的漏话语音增值业务平台,在未来语音增值业务市场中将会起到非常重要的作用。     

The commercialization of the transistor radio in Japan: thefunctioning of an innovation community

In the 1950s, Japanese electronics firms moved from a technological level that seemed far behind their US and European rivals to dominate the first commercial markets for semiconductors. The processes by which this happened have been little studied and are not well understood. Aside from the apparent mystery of how the Japanese advanced so quickly with the technology are such related issues of importance to policymakers and managers as: did government contribute to or detract from the Japanese success? How did the major Japanese electron-tube producers, unlike their US counterparts and dominant firms in numerous other industries undergoing a major shift in technology, successfully make the transition to the new technology? This paper explores the history of the commercialization of the transistor radio, Japan's first successful semiconductor product. The history is organized into a theoretical framework to help permit systematic comparison and analysis     

Product line competition

This paper studies product line competition in a simple model of a duopoly. There are two identical firms each of whom must choose a line of product qualities and supply quantities for each product in the line. They face consumers who prefer a higher quality product to a lower quality product but differ in how much they are willing to pay for quality. For the firms, a higher quality product is more costly to produce than a lower quality product. The basic question analyzed is the nature of product line competition. Will the firms choose to segment the market — one firm producing a line of lower quality products and the other firm producing a line of higher quality products — or will they interlace their products? Also, how is consumer welfare affected by these alternative ways of product line competition?