Digital Business: Trends, Advantages, and Disadvantages

This article discusses the key trends, advantages, and disadvantages of managing virtual business in the global environment. It explores the importance of technology and its impact on Alibaba.com and MakeMyTrip.com. It also compares native apps against web apps and discusses the ROI of digital business. Additionally, it evaluates emerging digital business models and the challenges associated with information security threats and ethics.

Digital Business

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Question 1........................................................................................................................................1
Question 2........................................................................................................................................3
Question 3........................................................................................................................................8
Question 4........................................................................................................................................9
Question 5 .....................................................................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Digital business is defined as technology and new process in relation to a business that
provides internal and external operations in order to increase the organisational productivity and
profitability. Information technology has changed the infrastructure and operation of a business
by using internet and innovation which can help to maintain a competitive business (Chaffey,
Edmundson-Bird and Hemphill, 2019). This is mainly considered as digital transformation,
holistic business optimisation, disruption and integration that increases activities and
performance and productivity. This report is based on case study of Alibaba.com and Make my
trip that are different organisation, being uses different types of technology and encourage
customers to buy the products and services. Such organisation are using PWA technology that is
progressive web apps that is types of application software delivered through web and involves
HTML, CSS and JavaScript. This can help to operate and manage the all activities in changing
environment. This report involves discussion about trends, advantages and disadvantages of
managing virtual business in global environment, importance of technology and its impacts,
compare and contrast native apps against web apps. On the other side, this involves emerging
business model challenges that are associated with information security and E-commerce
principles.
Question 1
Critically discuss the key trends, advantages and disadvantages of managing virtual business in
the global environment.
In global business environment there are different types of business that are operating by
managing and organising the performance effectively. This is important for business organisation
to analyse the situation and make plans accordingly which can help to increase the profitability.
The virtual business employs electronic means to transact the actions that are opposed to
traditional brick and mortar business which relies on face to face transaction. In other words
virtual business is defined as any organisation that conducts all activities that needs to be operate
by using internet. Different types of industry are running in changing environment where it is
important to bring new technology and innovation that can help to operate and manage the
business effectively (Park, and Mithas, 2020).
The advantages and disadvantages of virtual business in global environment are as explained:
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Advantages:
Bricks and Mortor cost saving – This can help to reduce the need for employee
workspace and retail space that saves money on overhead cost which are connected with physical
business. The cost involves in Brick and Mortor are commercial building lease, utility bills,
insurance premium and more (Skog, 2019).
Flexibility – This means to bring the changes and new process in their existing procedure
that can help to operate the business and increase profitability. Alibaba.com and Make my trip
are taking the advantage of flexibility in their virtual business that can help react faster to
changes in the market place and increase sales.
Happier employees – By using new technology and online process it become easy for
employees to work from home and manage all activities. Therefore, Make my trip and Alibaba.
Com making happy to their staff by providing chance to work from home that create a better life
balance for them (Bouncken, Kraus and Roig-Tierno, 2019).
Disadvantages:
Lack of institutional cohesiveness – The employees of organisation are being located at
different location and region that has different language, culture and tradition which can create a
challenge for organisation to maintain organisation culture (Heeks, 2020).
Communication issue – This is absolutely true that face to face communication is
enough easy and understandable than others. In virtual business and via internet sometime
organisation face a lack of proper communication due to low speed, connectivity and others.
Discuss the importance of technology and its impact on Alibaba.com and
MakeMyTrip.com
Technology is the sum of technique, skills and methods which are uses to produce the
products and services in order to accomplish the organisational objectives. In global business
environment different types of business are running that all are using technology and new
process which can help to operate and manage the activities. In daily life and business buzz
technology is most important that can help to make the working easy and timely which can help
to increase the sales and profitability. The importance of technology is defined:
Education: In education technology helps to run many educational system that can help
teachesr, student and principle to handle report cards and storing the data.
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Communication: Whether in business and personal life technology is vital that has
improved the communication like people uses Voxer, Skype, video calling, chatbots etc. that
impacts on Alibaba. Com and Make my trip positively. This can help to reach the potential
customers and provide easiest way to place order (Newman, Fletcher, Kalogeropoulos and
Nielsen, 2019).
Helps in security: This can help family and business to feel safer by using the software
and other device that can help to increase performance. This impacts positively on Alibaba and
Make my trip to keep secure financial data, customer's record and their personal information
properly.
The impacts on technology in chosen organisation are as defined:
For example, Alibaba. Com that is Chinese multinational technology company which
specialise in e-commerce, retail, internet, and technology. This was founded in April 4th 1999 in
Hangzhou, Zhejiang. This is B2B organisation that offer various types of products and services.
This organisation is using virtual business activities in which it introduce different types of
services to customers at one time. As this business is operating at various location that may be
difficult to organise and manage so virtual activities like internet and other technology is helpful
to make it successful business. In this, customers can place order any time by checking the
websites and place the order that can help to buy the products (Cui, Mou, Cohen and Liu, 2019).
On the other side, Make my trip is an Indian online travel organisation which was
founded in 2000. The headquarter in Gurugram, Haryana and othere where it provides online
travel services. The management of such organisation focuses on Virtual business that make easy
way for customers to book travelling tickets, flight tickets, domestic and international holiday
package which influence customers and increase the organisational profitability. It bring new
technology and discount offer for customers and update on websites that can help to maintain the
all activities and increase the sales.
Question 2
Compare and contrast native apps against web apps. Critically discuss the impact of Return on
Investment (ROI) on any digital business in general and then specifically of PWA, either on
Alibaba.com and MakeMyTrip.com.
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Native apps is defined as one which is installed directly on smartphone and can work in
many cases without the help of internet connectivity that depends on nature of app.
A web app works via a web browser on the smartphone but it requires either a cell signal
or wi-fi to foundation.
Compare and contrast between native and mobile web apps
Native apps Web apps
 This can developed specifically for
particular mobile device which can
installed directly on smart device.
 This built for specific mobile operating
system like as Apple iOS and Android
OS.
 This can be used offline that make
faster to open (Comparision and
contrast between Native app and
Mobile web apps, 2020).
 This mainly based on internet enables
application that are accessible via
mobile device's web browser.
 The user does not need to download
and install the app on mobile device.
 It is much easier to update and maintain
by developer.
In business environment different organisation are running where it is important to have
good knowledge about investment and returns. A business is impossible to run without making
investment where it is important to gather the investor and use their money in organisational
activities so that higher return can be provided to investors. Return on investment has impacts on
digital business as every organisation thinks to adopt new technology and innovation in their
activities so it needs funds to operate which are difficult to arrange. This can create cost for
organisation in adopting the new technology and process. For instance, Alibaba is larger size
multinational technology company that uses new technology and digital transformation in their
business for the purpose of increasing returns on investment. Many investors have invested
money in their organisation and earning good return as it is focusing on activitis an introducing
new products and services (Sharif, Carbone, Ranise and Sciarretta, 2019).
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Illustration 1: ROI of Alibaba. Com, 2020
Source: ROI of Alibaba. Com. 2020
This graph is showing the Return on Investment of Alibaba. Com it was high in 2015 that
was around 32.26% and in present 18.13% has been reduced. The organisation is using new
technology that support to operate and regulate the business continuously. Brexit is the mai9n
reason which affected the business and profitability of organisation.
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Illustration 2: ROI of Alibaba. Com, 2020.
Return on Investment of Make my trip
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Illustration 3: ROI of Make my trip, 2020.
Source: ROI of Make my trip, 2020.
This trend is showing that ROI of Make my trip is increased negatively than past year
because having many competitor and working with traditional method has created challenge for
organisation.
PWA is a technology which is uses by organisation in order to increase their capabilities
and business performance. This can help to know how an organisation can increase its
productivity and sales by introducing new services. Alibaba. Com uses Progressive Web
application by combining the capabilities of websites and mobile software that allows to create
an immersive user experience and increase user engagement and conversion rate. This can also
help to reduce the development cost, fast installation, increase mobile traffic, and reduce the uses
of device storage. On the other side, by using PWA technology Make my trip increase the
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average session rate, increase page views, responding to customers, provide platform and device
agnosticism and improve the business performance (Joseph, 2019) .
Question 3
Critically evaluate emerging digital business models and challenges associated with information
security threats and ethics in general.
In global business environment companies are adopting different types of business model
that are important and helps to increase the performance. As new technology is adopted by
organisation for improving their performance and maintain higher performance. Now many
problems and challenges are facing by organisation as some hackers thefts the data and personal
information of company due to which a heavy loss being incurred and reduce the organisational
organisational performance. The threats and ethics in relation to security consider computer
virus, phishing, worm, Trojans horse, Spyware and hacking which create the challenge for
organisation to operate and regulate business continuously (Chaffey, Edmundson-Bird and
Hemphill, 2019).
From the Given case study Alibaba is world's largest online business to business (B2B)
trading platform that serves wide range of products and services to users base over 200 countries
and regions. This mainly uses a web business model which totally depends on internet and web
services that are providing by organisation. The customers who wants to buy products can place
order online and get easy delivery of products. But many challenges are also faced by company
that are web browsers often limited in functionally, delivering an engaging experience for mobile
users by using web tools that was the main problem. The another is leak of information about
customer's and its order resulting fake calls are given to customers about discount, buy one get
one, and many offers resulting loss of money. In online services, customers face the problem of
receiving low quality and different design of products which they have ordered that make
dissatisfied the customers and affected profitability negatively.
The other organisation is Make my trip that also uses digital business model are
manufacturer, distributor, and franchise that uses to run the business and increase the business
performance. The customers who wants to visit place can book tickets from Make my trip that
can help to run the business. The another business model is Canvas that provide a simple page
framework for brainstorming, prioritising where to start and tracking ongoing process that helps
to operate a business. The problem facing by organisation was that many potential users only
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have intermittent connectivity at best. Others are faced with data limitations and the
shortcomings associated with using low-end phones.
For solving the problem organisation start to use PWA technology that help to bring new
process and security from threats and ethics in organisation. This can also help to maintain the
good business performance by providing good products and services (Siriwardena, 2020).
Question 4
From the case study it is clear that the companies mentioned did make use of PWA. How would
you have dealt with the situation at both companies differently if you were responsible?
As a manager of Alibaba. Com and Make my trip I wants to recommend that organisation
must use the PWA technology that is best tool to improve the business performance by dealing
with situation smoothly. The Progressive Web Apps is a part of digital marketing strategy that
can help to promote their products and services. The problem facing by Alibaba was limited web
browser, transaction was seen by users as an unnecessary barrier as compared to quick that all
can be solve by using the Progressive web apps. After using PWA Alibaba become an effective
organisation and develop the effective, and reliable web experience that helps to delivered 76%
increase in total conversions. As a manager I would suggest to bring the new technology and
services that can help to increase the business activities and sales mby effering variety of
products and services (Aguirre, and et. al., 2019) .
Make my trip is big travel company who have faced many situation in starting as lower
sales, traffic in sites, connectivity problem, booking issues and getting other information. So I
would suggest to such organisation to bring the more uses of PWA that will help to build
effective mobile presence to reach the Indians in different areas. Moreover, this will help to
reach that audience who wants to enjoy their holiday by becoming new standard for
organisation's operations.
Therefore, PWA is best technology for both organisation which can help to overcome the
problem, providing great UX at lower cost, providing easy to use alternative app, delivering high
customer engagement. Other than this, Progressive Web App is useful to build collaborative
relationships and strategic alliance by using new technology which will helps to attracts more
and more attention and become a central point of mobile strategy that will help me and
organisation to operate a business effectively (Adetunji, Ajaegbu, Otuneme and Omotosho,
2020).
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Question 5
Compare and contrast digital business and e-commerce. What are the E-Commerce principles
and discuss how they could be applied to digital businesses?
Digital business means to adoption of digital technology to transform the services and
businesses through replacing non digital and manual processes. Digital business is the use of
technology in a organisation and other place for the purpose of creating new value in business
model, customer experience and internal capabilities that supports its core operations. Alibaba
and Make my trip is uses this model for creating the organisational value and brand image by
focusing on internal capabilities and maintaining operations (Wang, Song, Zhao and Xu, 2020) .
E-commerce is the activity that uses by organisation for selling products and services via
online over the internet and helps to increase the industrial capabilities. This is important for
organisation use the electronic mode for selling and introducing its new products which can help
to increase productivity and profitability. Both chosen organisations are using E-commerce for
introducing and selling their products to customers, reaching to them and providing better
customer services that increases performance (Park and et. al., 2019).
Principles of E-commerce
Information Dissemination: E-commerce is very useful for organisation that can help to
publish relevant information, uses in crisis mode and identifying the worst case scenario by
providing details that can help to manage the organisational activities.
Data capture: E- commerce is also helps to collect the information about customers by
using two method such as auto mated and manual input which uses to make plans and organise
the activities (Ooi, and et. al., 2020).
Promoting and Marketing: Organisation is using Banner advertising, affiliate
programs, registration with directories and traditional marketing which can help to bring new
ideas and attract the larger number of customers.
Transaction with stakeholders: E-commerce is uses top display the products and services,
cross selling, customize the websites and react to the competition by operating a business
effectively and maintain higher profitability.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that digital business is the opportunity for
traditional business in which it adopted the new technology and process for increasing sales and
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performance. Native apps and web based apps are two different application which uses for
running and operating the activities. PWA is the combination of native and web that can help to
maintain the online business activities and performing functions and cratering the digital services
in global environment that helps to maintain higher profitability. Moreover, E- Commerce is tool
that uses by organisation to provide products and services online that based on internet. This can
help to increase the performance and profitability.
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REFERENCE
Books and Journal
Chaffey, D., Edmundson-Bird, D. and Hemphill, T., 2019. Digital business and e-commerce
management. Pearson UK.
Park, Y. and Mithas, S., 2020. Organized Complexity of Digital Business Strategy: A
Configurational Perspective. MIS Quarterly. 44(1).
Skog, D. A., 2019. The Dynamics of Digital Transformation: The Role of Digital Innovation,
Ecosystems and Logics in Fundamental Organizational Change (Doctoral dissertation,
Umeå Universitet).
Bouncken, R. B., Kraus, S. and Roig-Tierno, N., 2019. Knowledge-and innovation-based
business models for future growth: digitalized business models and portfolio
considerations. Review of Managerial Science, pp.1-14.
Heeks, R., 2020. ICT4D 3.0? Part 1—The components of an emerging “digital‐for‐development”
paradigm. The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries.
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Sharif, A., Carbone, R., Ranise, S. and Sciarretta, G., 2019. A Wizard-based Approach for
Secure Code Generation of Single Sign-On and Access Delegation Solutions for Mobile
Native Apps. In 16th International Joint Conference on e-Business and
Telecommunications-SECRYPT (Vol. 2, pp. 268-275).
Siriwardena, P., 2020. Accessing APIs via Native Mobile Apps. In Advanced API Security (pp.
227-241). Apress, Berkeley, CA.
Ooi, C. Y., and et. al., 2020. Implementation Strategies for Web-Based Apps for Screening:
Scoping Review. Journal of medical Internet research. 22(7). p.e15591.
Park, J.Y.E., and et. al., 2019. Mobile phone apps targeting medication adherence: quality
assessment and content analysis of user reviews. JMIR mHealth and uHealth. 7(1).
p.e11919.
Wang, J., Song, C., Zhao, J. and Xu, Z., 2020. A PWA model identification method for nonlinear
systems using hierarchical clustering based on the gap metric. Computers & Chemical
Engineering, p.106838.
Adetunji, O., Ajaegbu, C., Otuneme, N. and Omotosho, O.J., 2020. Dawning of Progressive Web
Applications (PWA): Edging Out the Pitfalls of Traditional Mobile
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Sciences (ASRJETS). 68(1). pp.85-99.
Aguirre, V., and et. al., 2019, October. PWA and TWA: Recent Development Trends.
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Chaffey, D., Edmundson-Bird, D. and Hemphill, T., 2019. Digital business and e-commerce
management. Pearson UK.
Joseph, P. T., 2019. E-commerce: An Indian perspective. PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd..
Cui, Y., Mou, J., Cohen, J. and Liu, Y., 2019. Understanding information system success model
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Online
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Comparision and contrast between Native app and Mobile web apps. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:
<https://www.technocrat.com.au/blog/comparison-native-apps-vs-web-apps>
ROI of Alibaba. Com. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/BABA/alibaba/roi>
ROI of Make my trip. 2020. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.macrotrends.net/stocks/charts/MMYT/makemytrip/roi>
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