Technology and Business: Advantages and Disadvantages of E-commerce for Mac Donald's

This article discusses the role of technology in business, the advantages and disadvantages of technology, and the different types of e-commerce. It also explores the features of the Mac Donald's e-commerce website and provides recommendations for improvement.

Running head: Technology and Business
Technology and Business
Name of the company
Name of the University
Author note

1Technology and Business
Table of Contents
Technology and Business................................................................................................................1
Overview of the company................................................................................................................3
Technology in business....................................................................................................................3
Advantages of technology...........................................................................................................4
Disadvantages of technology:......................................................................................................4
E commerce.....................................................................................................................................4
Business to business:...............................................................................................................5
Consumer to business:.............................................................................................................5
Business to consumer:.............................................................................................................5
Consumer to consumer:...........................................................................................................6
Advantages of ecommerce...........................................................................................................6
Disadvantages of ecommerce:.....................................................................................................6
Features of the Mac Donald’s e-commerce website:.......................................................................7
Advantages:.................................................................................................................................8
Disadvantages:.............................................................................................................................8
Recommendation.............................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9

2Technology and Business
Overview of the company
Mac Donald’s is a popular fast food chain of restaurants that is established in America,
the organization is multinational and has been operating in Australia from 1971
(Mcdonalds.com.au 2018). There are currently over 970 outlets in Australia, the company also
employs around 10,000 people in the country. The company has a franchise system of expansion
in the international territory and 80 percent of the franchise holders in the country are
Australians. And the rest of the restaurants are direct investments of the company and hence are
run and managed by Mac Donald’s (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018).
Technology in business
With progression in technology there are a number of software as well as hardware
developed and innovated to support the business environment (Weaver et al. 2017). Technology
is considered to be one of the most important external environment factors in business;
organizations have to keep in sync with the technological advances in order to meet the
requirements of the industry as well as the requirements of the employees (Dunning 2013). There
is software to manage the human resource, logistics and supply chain, there are hardware devices
and mechanisms which are used to reduce the workload and make the process of business more
organized. Technology is used in every step in an established organization, one of the most
important part of the business function relies on communication. Communication is more than 70
percent dependent on technology (Westerman, Bonnet and McAfee 2014). E-mail, telephone,
internal communication website, presentations etc are all part of the communication process
(Botha et al. 2014).

3Technology and Business
Advantages of technology
Technology is a boon to the business environment; it provides the business with better
opportunities of growth and development (Dunning 2013). It provides the management with
directions towards developing responsible and sustainable strategies in the business. It helps the
business to achieve the objectives in a better and organized way (Drnevich and Croson 2013).
Disadvantages of technology:
As technology brings revolutionary changes in business sphere, there are certain
disadvantages too which are occurred improper handling of technical stuffs or lack of knowledge
(Otoo, Acheampong and Otoo, 2017). The implementation of technology and its successfulness
depends upon the effective training of the employees who hold the responsibility operating the
technology based business. Thus, a major risk remains involved in the process of the ecommerce
in relation with lack of knowledge of the persons responsible for the activities.
Environmental issues are another major concern in relation with technology and business.
Implementation of modern technology demands modern infrastructure like air conditioned
setting and so on (Otoo, Acheampong and Otoo, 2017). This modern machine generates
greenhouse gases which impact on the environment in an adverse manner. On the other hand,
there are issues related with the printing of documents and waste packaging using several
chemicals. All this adversely influence the whole environment.
E commerce
The term e commerce refers to the idea of business which is conducted through the usage
of computers, telephones and other electronic mediums (Joshi and Dumbre, 2017). The
automated teller machines thus hold a major importance in order exchange of money and other

4Technology and Business
paper-related documents. The major activities that are classified as the ecommerce activities are
as the below mentioned:
 Procurement
 Control of inventory
 Exchange of money
 Process of transaction
 The fulfillment of order
 Support to customers
 Non repudiation of authentication
The each types of ecommerce will be discussed in the below:
Business to business: the concept of business within companies and the whole idea of
the business are to initiate and increase trade among companies (Joshi and Dumbre, 2017). In the
mode of business to business, the companies negotiate in terms of quantity, pricing and so on.
Consumer to business: In the business type of consumer to business, a customer’s sends
his project details along with budget to the business (Allen et al. 2018). Businesses or companies
respond to that bid on the project after reviewing the project. Then the consumer makes the
ultimate selection of the company in order to complete the project.
Business to consumer: In this type of ecommerce, companies conduct business by
selling the products or ideas directly to the consumers (Joshi and Dumbre, 2017). Hence, for the
means of this business type, the entire business is conducted using shopping cart options and
catalogues.

5Technology and Business
Consumer to consumer: There are several websites available over internet which offers
free classifieds or auctions and serves as a common forum where consumers themselves can
conduct business among them (Allen et al. 2018).
Apart from that, there are several other types of ecommerce, for example, government t
to government, government to general public, government to private entities and vice-versa.
Advantages of ecommerce
The major benefit that ecommerce generates is that it involves low cost transaction. The
ecommerce also benefits the business since it gives the opportunity of increasing competitiveness
by reaching out to maximum number of employees within minimum time (Hertlein and Ancheta
2014). On the part of students, the ecommerce gives an ease to the customers by decreasing the
efforts involved in the physical purchase. Since most of the people nowadays are more
aquatinted with the internet and spends a lot of time over internet, it is advantageous for the
businesses to reach out to customers using the mode of internet. The idea of business which is
conducted through the usage of computers, telephones and other electronic mediums are seen to
benefit not only the customers but also the companies (Habtay and Holmén 2014). The
automated teller machines thus hold a major importance in order exchange of money and other
paper-related documents. Despite of certain issues and risks remain involved in the whole
process of ecommerce or e business, this mode benefits companies by opening up new avenues
for increasing competitive advantages.
Disadvantages of ecommerce:
Similar to advantages, there are certain disadvantages which ecommerce generates. For
example, it has been observed that several issues are occurred like untimely delivery of physical

6Technology and Business
products (Allen et al. 2018). On the other hand, there are other issues as well. For instances,
often technical issues are occurred causing disruption in the business process. As a result, it is
seen that customer satisfaction becomes a major issue for companies dealing into ecommerce
practice. Environmental issues are another major concern in relation with technology and
business. Implementation of modern technology demands modern infrastructure like air
conditioned setting and so on.
Features of the Mac Donald’s e-commerce website:
Mac Donald’s is a multinational organization that is based out of America and the
company has also segregated the e-commerce segment according to the country as well. The
Australian division of the site has the extension of .au (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018).
Mac Donald’s is a popular brick and mortar chain of restaurants and the company has
over the years tried to keep up with the trends of the business and thus with technological
innovations and acceptance of technology among the target market of the company, Mac
Donald’s also ventured into developing the e-commerce services to the customers. Take away
and take out has been a part of the service for a long time with the introduction of the e-
commerce services Mac Donald’s have achieved another segment of target market as well.
The most striking feature of the E-commerce website is promotional aspect, for instances,
the deals of the day, the promotion of the mobile application which are also a part of the e-
commerce site, introduction of new products in the menu etc. The website also helps the visitor
of the website find the nearest store as well as help the visitor to download the application in the
mobile and then place an order (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018).

7Technology and Business
The website of Mac Donald’s Australia does not allow the visitor to order food rather it is
an informative website about the company. It has descriptive data regarding the menu that is
available in Australia and the places where the restaurant is located. It also has the job openings
and other such corporate information (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018).
The information is very easily available for the customers as the labeling and the tabs that
are made are clear. However, the website cannot be termed as e-commerce as the food cannot be
ordered from the website (Mcdonalds.com.au 2018).
Advantages:
All the information of that a customer requires in ordering the food is available in the
website. The link directs the download option that the customers will choose.
Disadvantages:
The process is complex; if the customer logs in to look for ordering the food they would
want it to be hassle free. If the customer does not want to download another mobile application
then he or she would like to skip from the option and order from some other website.
Recommendation
It is recommended for the company to allow the customers to order food form the website
as well. This will provide the customers with more options to reach out to the service.
Another recommendation for the website is to allow the people to locate the store and be
able to place an order from the specific store.

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References
Allen, C.O., Carter, B.A., Ghosh, R., Kozhaya, J.N. and Price, D.L., International Business
Machines Corp, 2018. Sorting and displaying ecommerce product reviews. U.S. Patent
Application 15/990,945.
Botha, A., Kourie, D. and Snyman, R., 2014. Coping with continuous change in the business
environment: Knowledge management and knowledge management technology. Elsevier.
Chaffey, D., 2015. Digital business and e-commerce management. Pearson Education Limited.
Drnevich, P.L. and Croson, D.C., 2013. Information technology and business-level strategy:
Toward an integrated theoretical perspective. Mis Quarterly, 37(2).
Dunning, J.H., 2013. Multinationals, Technology & Competitiveness (RLE International
Business). Routledge.
Habtay, S.R. and Holmén, M., 2014. Incumbents’ responses to disruptive business model
innovation: The moderating role of technology vs. market-driven innovation. International
Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation Management 11, 18(4), pp.289-309.
Hertlein, K.M. and Ancheta, K., 2014. Advantages and disadvantages of technology in
relationships: Findings from an open-ended survey. The Qualitative Report, 19(11), pp.1-11.
Joshi, J.M. and Dumbre, G.M., 2017. Basic Concept of E-Commerce. International Research
Journal of Multidisciplinary Studies, 3(3).
Mcdonalds.com.au. 2018. Macca’s® Story. [online] Expatica.com. Available at:
https://mcdonalds.com.au/about-maccas/maccas-story [Accessed 30 Oct. 2018].

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Otoo, A.A.A., Li, Z., Acheampong, P. and Otoo, C.O.A., 2017. Electronic Commerce in
International Trade in Emerging Economies: A Qualitative Review of Challenges and
Opportunities. AUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF ECONOMICS AND MANAGEMENT
SCIENCES, 7(5).
Weaver, P., Jansen, L., Van Grootveld, G., Van Spiegel, E. and Vergragt, P., 2017. Sustainable
technology development. Routledge.
Westerman, G., Bonnet, D. and McAfee, A., 2014. Leading digital: Turning technology into
business transformation. Harvard Business Press.