Is Amazon’s Business Model a Disruptive Technology or Sustaining Innovation?

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Table of Contents
Discussion Body..............................................................................................................................3
1. Is Amazon’s business model a disruptive technology or some form of sustaining
innovation? Explain why you think this way..............................................................................3
2. In light of the described push by both Walmart and Target, does Amazon have sustainable
competitive advantage? If so, explain what characteristics give it this capability. If not,
describe why................................................................................................................................4
3. How does Costco fit in? Are they different from Amazon, Walmart, and Target? Are
they in danger of failing because of the growth of the other three and the apparent shift in
buying patterns?...........................................................................................................................5
4. In the last year or so, Amazon has seen a big jump in profits (see chart below). Per the
video, do you think Amazon is a monopoly or could be one?.....................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7
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Discussion Body
1. Is Amazon’s business model a disruptive technology or some form of sustaining
innovation? Explain why you think this way.
The business model of Amazon is a disruptive technology, bringing change in the future of doing
work further challenging the status quo. Amazon since its inception has been a pioneer in
disruptive technologies. It is likely that this term might not be known far apart, but way for it has
surely been paved by the company, now used ubiquitously. Being the very first brand in
disrupting the way consumers purchasing products online, Amazon undoubtedly is an ultimate
disruptive company. According to Gilbert (2015), the power of audacious and ceaseless
disruption has not been better embodied by any other organization in the world than Amazon.
Ever since it was founded in 19994, the company took on publishers and booksellers across the
globe, forcing many incumbents in either disrupting their business models or turning the lights
off. The immense value generated from efficiently and cheaply offering billions of books and
other printed material to customers worldwide overshadowed the short-term negative
consequences of initial actions. Not satisfied in just being a logistics company, Amazon
successfully went on disrupting the early domination of companies like Sony, Apple and
Samsung in two categories namely e-readers and tablets. Some or the other ways Amazon has
disrupted the lives of people across the globe. Most of the people from being skeptical about
making an online purchase today are shopping exclusively with Amazon. According to Allahar
(2017), at present the retail juggernaut is intending to break into the ticketing industry by
planning to partner with the venue owners for selling events tickets. This move of Amazon will
possibly disrupt the monopoly that was enjoyed by Ticketmaster for decades. By employing its
infrastructure and services to new industries, the sales powerhouse continues to show its pattern
to shaken things. The acquisition of Whole Foods is real case example. Amazon’s Kindle Fire
too is a disruptive innovation, which just is not a low-end iPad’s competitor. It has scalable
technology at its core, lacking in present-generation iPad that is large-scale utilization of Cloud.
Moreover, for subsidizing the hardware, content is been used by Amazon, giving has a business
model advantage to Fire.
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