ENT301: Amazon's Value Proposition and Value Chain Case Study Analysis

This assignment is a case study analysis of Amazon.com, Inc., focusing on its value proposition and value chain within the context of entrepreneurship. The introduction defines entrepreneurship and its key characteristics, including innovation and risk-taking. The core of the analysis examines Amazon's value proposition, highlighting its core business, processes, and customers. The study then dissects Amazon's value chain, outlining its components like inbound logistics, operations, outbound logistics, marketing and sales, and service, along with secondary activities such as human resources and technology. The analysis also incorporates Amazon's vertical integration, warehouse operations, and utilization of artificial intelligence, offering insights into how Amazon delivers value to its customers through various processes like order delivery, payment portals, and added services such as Amazon Prime. The assignment concludes with a discussion of learnings and risk mitigation strategies. The work is supported by several academic references.

Entrepreneurship: Value
Proposition and Value Chain
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

Introduction
The capability and the willfulness to form concept, organize and manage an expected
productive venture which involves risks in the expectation of earning profits in return is
termed as Entrepreneurship.
In economic terms, it is the accumulation of factors of production namely, land, labor,
capital and organization (Parker 2018). The characteristics are as follows:
 Innovation (Drucker 2014)
 Vision
 Risk

Value Proposition: Elements
 Core Business (D'heur 2015)
 Process
 Customers

Company: Amazon.com, Inc.
 Trade Name: Amazon (Ritala, Golnam and Wegmann 2014)
 Company Type: Public Limited Company
 Share Price: $1757 (NASDAQ)
 Industry: E-Commerce, Consumer Electronics and Artificial Intelligence.
 Founded: 5th July, 1994.
 Headquarters: Seattle, USA.
 Area of Operation: Global.
 Key People: Jeff Bezos (CEO) and Werner Vogels (CTO)
 Revenue: $230 billion
 Employee Strength: 650000
 Website: www.amazon.com.

Value Proposition of Amazon
Amazon
Kindle
Web Services
Market Place

Value Chain: Definition and Components
Value Chain maybe defined as the accumulated set of activities executed by an
organization that enables it to conduct daily business. This enables to maintain the
flow of information and services to and from the customers towards the company
and vice versa. The components of the value chain are as follows:
 Inbound logistics
 Operations
 Outbound logistics
 Marketing and sales
 Service

Value Chain of Amazon
Inbound
Logistics
Operation
s
Outbound
Logistics
Marketing
and Sales Service
• Vertical
integration
(Payne,
Frow and
Eggert
2017).
• Warehouse
• Quality
• Market
Place
• Delivery
• Artificial
Intelligence.
• Order Delivery
• Accepting
Returns
• Invoice
• Added
Services-
Amazon Prime
(Barasch
and Berger
2014)
• Website
• Mobile
Application
• Product
Warranty
• Additional
AI Services
such as
Alexa and
Amazon Fire
Stick
• Payment
Portal
• Amazon Pay
Primary Activities
Custom
er Value

Value Chain of Amazon
SECONDARY ACTIVITIES
Human Resource,
Legal and Finance
• Employment
• Accountability
(Darmawan, Putra and
Wiguna 2014)
Technology
• Artificial Intelligence
• Product tracking System
• Machine Learning
Procurement
• Quality Test
• Large number of
Suppliers
• Warehouse

Amazon Supply Chain
1. CONVENTIONAL PROCESS
2. QUICK PROCESS
3. PRIME PROCESS

Learnings
 Idea
 Implementation
 Risk
 Mitigation strategies

REFERENCES
D'heur, M., 2015. Sustainable Value Chain Management (p. P21). Springer International Publishing: Imprint:
Springer.
Maon, F. and Sen, S., 2016. Sustainable value chain management: a research anthology. Routledge.
Osterwalder, A., Pigneur, Y., Bernarda, G. and Smith, A., 2014. Value proposition design: How to create products
and services customers want. John Wiley & Sons.
Payne, A., Frow, P. and Eggert, A., 2017. The customer value proposition: evolution, development, and application in
marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 45(4), pp.467-489.
Drucker, P., 2014. Innovation and entrepreneurship. Routledge.
Parker, S.C., 2018. The economics of entrepreneurship. Cambridge University Press.
Ritala, P., Golnam, A. and Wegmann, A., 2014. Coopetition-based business models: The case of Amazon. com.
Industrial Marketing Management, 43(2), pp.236-249.
Barasch, A. and Berger, J., 2014. Broadcasting and narrowcasting: How audience size affects what people share.
Journal of Marketing Research, 51(3), pp.286-299.
Shafer, G.M., Mercier, M., Eckert, L.H. and Wyatt, J.G., Checkpoint Systems Inc, 2014. Retail product tracking
system, method, and apparatus. U.S. Patent Application 13/901,926.
Darmawan, M.A., Putra, M.P.I.F. and Wiguna, B., 2014. Value chain analysis for green productivity improvement in
the natural rubber supply chain: a case study. Journal of Cleaner Production, 85, pp.201-211.

THANK YOU