Electronic Commerce and Business Models

This assignment requires you to analyze the influence of electronic commerce (e-commerce) on various aspects of business models. Specifically, it asks you to examine how e-commerce influences acquisition strategies by businesses, exploring case studies like the acquisition of R&D departments post-merger. The analysis should also delve into consumer behavior in the e-commerce landscape, considering factors like customer orientation and trust in online platforms. Lastly, the assignment encourages an exploration of the role of technology in shaping e-commerce business models, referencing advancements like web-based cognitive apprenticeship and cloud classrooms.

Running head: BUSINESS ACQUISITION AND E-COMMERCE 1
Business Acquisition and E-Commerce
Student’s Name:
Institution Affiliation:

BUSINESS ACQUISITION AND E-COMMERCE 2
Introduction
Business acquisition is the process adopting another company to build strength or
weakness of acquiring another company. There are different advantage of business acquisition
which includes the building of technologies that are present in other companies, increase of
economies of scale and many others. Many businesses tend to thrive after going through
acquisition since they are able to consolidate all the powers, resources, and customers. In today’s
business world, there are improved business operations that have gone through tremendous
technological change such using online platforms to reach the targeted customers. The move
aided by the high rate use of the internet from the individual to business arena. The online
business operation is also known as electronic commerce. The paper therefore examines the
business and technical issues faced by Asif the founder of FlashMobz mobile retailer in
acquiring of PhoneRus outlet. The paper further examines the process of transition of the
company from the conventional method to the new technological method known as e-commerce.
Every business tends to face challenges when transforming from one type of business to
another or transferring from one country to another (Cirjevskis, 2017). The principal business
challenges that FlashMobz faced in an acquisition of the PhneRus are numerous and include the
following; communication challenges that resulted from the employee's differences. When Asif
bought the PhoneRus, the employees were never laid down and, therefore bringing together the
staffs to work together with the teams at the FlashMobz was not an easy task as there were
different business cultural behavior. Inadequate information among the employees created
distrust among the employees hence leading to lower engagement (Coate, 2013). Therefore, to
overcome this, it was essential to keep all employees from both the business with constant
information to build and regaining the loss of transparency and trust. The second challenge was

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the retention of employees. Many at times when company comes together or merge best
employees tend to resign or leave as a result of the negative attitude felt by the employees. It was
a tough decision for Asif to identify and decide on who stays and who goes since those that were
skilled and best in their work were not willing to go away unlike those that were not performing
very well. The situation was dilemmatic since Asif was likely to lose all the employees. The
staffs’ negative attitudes that developed as a result of uncertainty of the leadership, future, job
security, negative perceptions of the leadership style (Le et al., 2014). The acquisition of the
PhoneRus by Asif brought different organizational changes that led to stress anxiety and conflict
of roles by the staffs. Meaning, Asif had to work proactively to maintain and regain the trust of
the best employees from phones. Asif faced the organizational cultural differences as the
employees from the phones had entire different organizational culture as they were not ready to
replace the culture to conform with the FlashMobz’s. Therefore was very important to carry out
the culture survey to understand the similarities and differences between the two corporate
cultures. The third business challenge that Asif met was inadequate of supply incurred by
customers from the products supplied by PhoneRus as the employee's performance had reduced
during the acquisition process.
The electronic commerce is all about business; therefore, an efficient usage is called for
to achieve the business goals (Guzzo et al., 2016). The principal business issues resulting from
transformations include change of the marketing strategy, improvement of the marketing and
competition, the cost incurred and the measure of the success. The technical issues that
FlashMobz is like to face when is transforming to the e-commerce include the change of the
technology, security issues, transactions changes and marketplace set up. The company will
meet a dramatic shift in technology as it is transforming from the traditional commerce is

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characterizable by the face-face involvement of customers and seller at all stages of the
transaction (Boateng, 2016). The company, therefore, will have to acquire new technological
equipment such as the desktop, internet providers and set up the social network platforms to
enable the success of the traditional method of operation to the new internet usage business. The
business suffered challenges of poor customer care as many customers’ issues went unnoticed
during the first few days. The problem caused by a large number of messages that are streaming
in the company’s website due to a large number of internet subscribers. When customer’s issues
go without reply by the company, they tend to get bored and feel unappreciated that might result
from a shift of customer’s attention.
Asif overcomes the organizational cultural difference through creating a transition period
to enable the migration of the existing PhoneRus practices to the FlashMobz practices. During
this time, there was excellent communication from Asif highlighting every staff's concern,
questions and assuring them of the support that they would need. During that stage, Asif sets a
date that all the old structures will cease to operate and when the time that the newly introduced
mechanism will take off then communicated to the staff (McCourt, Low, & Tappin, 2017). The
second stage is ensuring an excellent training to the acquired teams so that they conform to the
practices and protocol of the new organization. It is advisable to offer training to the old staffs on
the changes that are about to occur. For example the accounting officer making the required
changes like in the financial reports and the information technology officer, gaining more
training on the new technical ideas brought in. The technical challenges that faced FlashMobz in
transiting into e-commerce are the problem of addressing the internal transitional changes that
required Asif to make several implementation processes such as proper internal planning and
education of the existing staffs. The company has to offer delivery services.

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Just like the traditional commerce that involves either business to customer, or business
to business, e-commerce too includes both processes conducted over the electronic networks due
to the increased network usage (Luterbach, Rodriguez, & Love, 2012). Electronic commerce
entails aspects such as EDI, EDI on the internet, email on the internet, shopping on the World
Wide Web, product sales and service on the web, electronic banking, and fund transfer and
outsourced customer and employee care operations (Bateng, 2016). Many companies across the
globe have found that B2Ce- commerce is currently a natural way of making sales since it is
more efficient and cost-efficient in all business transaction. The process of e-commerce allows
the buyers to make the inquiry about the products, review the products, place orders, and receive
the products and service through the online. On the other hand, the e-commerce enables the
seller to advertise the products, receive the orders, collect the payments, deliver the products
electronically, improve on the marketing strategy, and provide customer care electronically. The
internet commerce allows easy access to the global market since the FlashMobz can reach new
customers and create the more close relationship with all the customers. The constant
communication with the customers tends to build a long-term relationship .There are a lot of
differences between the electronic commerce and the traditional commerce in that the
conventional trade has a lot of more personalized engagement in all stages of the business
transaction. While the e-commerce focuses on the use of internet or any other form of
communication, pulls up together all the activities that are involved in the business transactions
through the use of the automated transactions process and communication technology.
Numerous advantages benefit organizations that are operating on the online internet such
as a large number of customers, competitive marketing strategies, constant communication with
customers and many others. However, some challenges faced by the business that is looking

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forward to embracing the system. For example, FlashMobz having built a brand name through
the face to face engagement with customers faced different challenges when it went into the
online platform. Some of the obstacles that FlashMobz faced include; customers mistrust on the
company’s website as a result of extensive online frauds. A large number of people tends to
create accounts with the names of personnel or enterprises and impersonates to be the official.
The crime has led to many customers losing a large sum of money. Therefore however much the
company might be the best and create the sophisticated website, customers would not
automatically trust the Website. In absences of trust, sales are unlikely to follow. To overcome
this, a good website with specific features such as the picture of the physical location of the
store, the phone numbers, names and photographs of contact personnel. Customer’s testimonials
added on the blog-post as they tend to spread the right image of the company. All these help to
boost on the customer trust on the website.
The e-commerce has disadvantages such as limited personal contact that most business
and customers uses. Without proper usage of the social media platforms most companies lose the
virtue of having the relationship; therefore it requires a consistent update and replies to the
customer's comments to keep them close. Inadequate information about e-commerce business in
regards to the laws, administrative, customs procedures, and customs duties on return and
administrative problems. In most cases, the legal situation is always uncertain Barriers. Some
states still help in facilitating the business while other always put massive regulations that must
be observable. Another barrier is the shortage of staffs well versed with the media platforms
since the existing teams might only be good in the traditional business operations. Lack of such
skilled staff will mean that the company will have to recruit more staffs or take the existing
teams of training to drop the prevailing ideology and attitude of “we always do it this way.” They

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will acquire new skills. Most of the online businesses are prone to the hackers who at times post
unethical issues about the industry, that spell disaster on the customers’ trust. At times, the
customer's credit cards and personal information compromised and even find your website
blocked. These issues are resolved through consistent password alteration.
The main barrier to e-commerce is the high venture capital needed, unlike the traditional
business operations (Grewal, 2014). The new technologies needed to operate the e-commerce is
high at the start of the business and the long time is always spent on online trying to catch the
attention of the customers who do not always turn around to the online shopping. The long time
spent on the internet and the high costs of buying the items tend to shy away from small business
that is unprepared Guzo et al., 2016). Logistics issues always affect the entry of a business to the
e-commerce as the products delivery varies from the geographical location of both the supplier
and the customer. Inefficiencies of international delivery companies make it difficult to do
business with customers that are far away. It is not always evident that the companies name will
automatically conform with the product during the transition to the e-commerce (Yi-Fen, 2016).
Therefore numerous Logistical changes are very critical to the developing e-commerce business
enterprises to facilitate the delivery of the items within the stipulated time and maintain the
customer's trust. Language is another common hindrance to the transition of the business to the
e-commerce as it hinders the access information and participation with the followers on a
particular social media that have different cultural bases
E-Commerce is very advantageous, and Asif should consider that should consider the
extent of the benefits in case of adoption of the e-commerce. The advantages include the removal
of long queues caused by a large number of customers that require service from the retail shop.
The issue is resolvable by the fact that the online stores always opened throughout the day and

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night (Guzzo et al., 2016). Therefore it is possible to make engagement with the customers all
the time unlike the traditional where working hours appropriately stipulated hence blocking
customer would make inquiries past the time. The second reason is the capability of the company
to expand and sell to international customers that are beyond England and Belgium due to the
ability to discover audience globally. As a result, the total sales of the company increase. The
third reason is the ability to continue with the personalized engagement from the traditional
commerce into the e-commerce through the creation of different platforms managed with
qualified personnel. The creation of an email list based on the purchase made location and the
total money spent y customer. The website is customizable to have an ad that appears whenever
a customer logs in such as “welcome back “indicating the name.
The customized ad assures the customer that the business knows him/her personally. The
fourth reason is that e-commerce encourages impulse buying since the catchy images attract
customers who are browsing. The platform offers a better way of tracking and retargeting the
customers with Facebook pixel. Apart from the advantages, there are disadvantages too
associated with e-commerce. These include the inability of a customer to make purchases when
there is a crash on the website, another problem I the failure of customers trial before making
purchase making many people avoid engaging in the online shopping with fear of making the
wrong choice, buying inferior goods or even being conned. By comparison of the above
advantages and disadvantages, it is evidential that the companies that engage in the e-commerce
reap more than those that have not embraced the technology.
Conclusion

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The business organization acquires and merges one another to improve the basic
functionality that results in improved sales and returns. The organizations may extend the market
command through transiting into e-commerce. Many organizations have thrived because of the
transition of the business activities from the traditional methods of the new technological
process. However, during the transition, there are always some challenges faced regarding both
business and technology.
Contribution to online technology
Collaborative education and cloud computing
Cloud computing is the ability to access file storage, applications, and collaboration tools
from any point by the use of the internet. It is an aspect that has been adopted in several ways to
promote collaborative learning among students. For instance, it allows sharing learning materials
such as lesson plan, topic information, and presentations with students. In other words, cloud
computing allows collaborative learning environment that is extended beyond the classroom. As
a result, learners and teachers can work in groups irrespective of their geographical locations or
distance between them. It thus allows learning institutions in different states, countries, or
districts, to create partnerships and collaborate with the aim of increasing student engagement
and improving learning. As a result, cloud computing has been adapted to bridge learners and
classrooms globally.
With the discovery and development of cloud computing, collaborative learning can be
adopted by students and educators in several ways. According to Hsiao-Chi et al. (2016),
collaborating learning is possible as long as the user has an internet connecting to enable them

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access information stored in the clouds. The same study denotes that the increase in the use of
digital devices such as smartphones, laptops, and tablets have allowed for an extensive adoption
of digital tools such as Google App. Such tools are essential in saving essential documents and
sharing files between learners as well as the teachers, an aspect that has proven cloud computing
to be very reliable and accessible provided there is an internet connection. Students are hence
able to access relevant learning materials through their phones. In other words, cloud computing
has enabled collaborative education to be in the forefront in embracing technology with the aim
of ensuring that students have instant and simple access to files and collaborative learning
materials.
Reflective Statement
With the advancement in technology, the word has developed into a small village.
Technology has been adopted in various aspects of life such as health, education, and business
among other vital industries that use technology. Integrating technology in education is found to
have several benefits to the learners. Cloud computing is among the newest technology that
offers a collaborative environment that extends beyond a confined classroom. As an information
system professional, the use of cloud computing still offers me the chance to advance my studies
irrespective of my geographical position. According to Hsiao-Chi, Pei-Di, Yi-Fen, and Chia-
Wen (2016), cloud computing allows exceptional and new learning experiences to be made
available for both learners and tutors. Since classroom learning has been primed for dynamic and
dramatic improvements, it is a system that I can adopt in the future to advance my studies online
even when am still working.

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Focusing on its use in the organizational context, cloud computing is easy to access. As a
result, lab reports, education lesson plans, notes on different subjects, and grades or related
powerpoint slides can be accessed easily just like any other digital material that can be accessed
through the internet. These materials are essential teaching materials and will be vital to both
current and future organizations when they can be accessed and used at will. According to Hsiao-
Chi et al. (2016), the continuous advancement in technology is in future expected to become
more stable, an aspect that will make it more reliable for use in different industries and service
providers globally. As a result, businesses will have the ability to tap the use of cloud computing
services for the advancement of service delivery just as it has been proven to offer classroom
education. It also gives the students access to information should anything happen that can lead
to the loss of data or information such as the fire that would destroy the traditional storage
systems in a manner that they could not be easily recovered.
Source:
Hsiao-Chi, W., Pei-Di, S., Yi-Fen, C., & Chia-Wen, T. (2016). Effects of Web-based Cognitive
Apprenticeship and Time Management on the Development of Computing Skills in
Cloud Classroom: A Quasi-Experimental Approach. International Journal Of
Information & Communication Technology Education, 12(3), 1-12.
doi:10.4018/IJICTE.2016070101

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