Developing Sustainable Business Models for E-commerce Success

The portfolio presents a cohesive examination of the contemporary business landscape by discussing strategic planning processes, the importance of ethical frameworks, advancements in e-commerce, and sustainability efforts within business models. It highlights how integrating these elements can lead to enhanced performance, corporate citizenship, and competitive advantage. Through critical analysis and reflection on relevant literature, this assignment underscores the significance of adopting holistic approaches for achieving long-term success and societal impact in today's dynamic business environment.

Autumn 2017 First-sit Portfolio
Effectiveness in the Business World
(EBWO3001)
Student Name:
Student Number:
Lecturer Name:
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World1
Assessed Learning Outcomes:
1. Demonstrate an understanding of the concept of the organisation and the
environment in which it operates, including determining the competitive
advantage for an organisation.
2. Identify and analyse organisational operations, responsibilities
3. Discuss the needs of the consumer and people who work in a business.
4. Recognise a range of issues related to business and how they interlink.
5.

As a requirement for the completion of this portfolio, you should first decide
on a type of business you have or would potentially like to start up in the
future (e.g. restaurant, shop, service etc.). Your answers to the tasks below
will relate to this business.
Week Contents (350-400 words per task) Page
Learning
outcomes
Week 2-3 a. Briefly describe the nature of business you
have or might like to have in the future.
b. What are the advantages and disadvantages
of owning your own business?
c. In what ways could PESTEL be useful in
planning your start-up business?
3 LO1/4
Week 4-5 a. In what ways can ‘globalisation’ have an
impact on your business? Discuss two
examples. 4 LO1/2
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World2

b. What suitable technology wouldyour business
useand how would it improve the operations
of the business?
Week 6-7 a. Briefly identify who your ‘customer’ is likely to
be. Why is it important for a business to
understand its customers?
b. DescribeTWOways in which you might attract
more customers to your business.
5 LO1/3
Week 8-9 a. What is the role of ethics in business?
b. With examples from other businesses, describe
how your business can treat its staff ethically.
6 LO3/4
References 7
Total word limit: 1500 words(+/- 10%)
This portfolio is a working document that MUST be completed over the 10-week course.
By the end of the 10-week course, you should have completed 4 tasks. You will also be
required to work on your portfolio during your weekly tutorial sessions.
ASSESSMENT – PORTFOLIO
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World3

Week Task 1 Learning
Outcomes
Week
2-3
a. Briefly describe the nature of business you
have or might like to have in the future.
b. What are the advantages and disadvantages
of owning your own business?
c. In what ways could PESTEL be useful in
planning your start-up business?
LO1/4
Your answer should go in the box below.
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World4

Answer to a.
A website business that will be a dedicated platform for photography. This website will invite all local
photographers who cannot afford their own portfolio and are trying to show their passion off to the world.
It will be a business that will allow various advertisers to invest in the website and promote their own
products. This website will provide the local photographers to acquire an opportunity to promote their
talents. A photographer will create an account and will upload their original pieces of work. People on the
internet will be directed to the home page of the website that will contain multiple images. These images
will contain metadata informing about the uploader. People can download these images, images of portrait
and landscape resolutions will be available; thus, the photographers will get a solid ground on establishing
their work.
Answer to b.
Advantages – The biggest advantage of owning a business is the freedom to work out self-creativity. A
business owner can realize his dream through his/her business plans. The benefits of owning a business are
plenty (Bocken 2014). The owner can put to work his/her own ideas, the methods and strategies undertaken
to develop a business are fully according to the creative thought process. Controlling own choices for a
better future than working on other’s orders is a great advantage. Flexible lifestyle is also a benefit of
owning a business. Along with everything, people who own businesses get the opportunity to help people
in their own way. Making more money by being self-employed is a fundamental reason to own a business.
Disadvantages – Owning a business requires investment leading to a financial crisis initially. In self-
employment, it is required by the owner to work for longer periods. Rather than enjoying the fact of
owning a business, owners tend to get involved in work so much that they cannot make enough time for
themselves. The income is not always stable with immense load of work pressure.
Answer to c.
PESTLE stands for Political, Economical, Social, Technological, Legal and Environmental factors.
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World5

These are the factors that can affect a business. These factors are generally the external factors. PESTLE
analysis is very useful for a business as it helps in making crucial and critical decisions in a company. This
analysis helps a company understand the changing market trends and demands. PESTLE analysis will help
in understanding the way the external factors are affecting the business and efficient decisions can be made
accordingly (Crane and Matten 2016). Businesses that tend to reach a global market, PESTLE analysis is
extremely beneficial to examine the conditions of the business opportunities overseas. It can be very
helpful to understand the profitability of the market and encourage enhanced strategies in business
expansion.
Week Task 2 Learning
Outcomes
Week
4-5
a. In what ways can ‘globalisation’ have an impact
on your business? Discuss two examples.
b. What suitable technology would your business use
and how would it improve the operations of the
business?
LO1/2
Your answer should go in the box below.
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World6

Answer to a.
Globalisation is a factor that affects the business the most. Competition rises along
with globalisation of a business. Competition regarding costs of products and services,
market positioning and technology can rise to challenge a business firm. Usually, in the
face of competition, business firms sell products at a much cheaper price to gain a
competitive advantage in the market. Increasing market share becomes a big target while
globalising a company. Handling demands become a tough job to perform. With
globalisation, handling of expectations of people is very difficult; handling customer
services and manage networks are the crucial tasks that a business firm must match up to
(de Waal and Kourtit 2013). Price management according to the global market and
meeting all the requirements are the essential ways in which globalisation affects a
business.
Introduction to latest technologies is also an aspect of globalisation. Business
globalisation requires a business to face many technological challenges. Upon
globalisation, it can be seen that in many countries, different demands of technologies are
existent. These technologies have to be adapted in the business strategies to provide
efficient execution. Technology revolves around the pricing strategy of a business plan; a
business firm must integrate latest technologies to stay relevant in the global competition.
Improvement has its own speed in the global market and a business firm has to adapt to
that speed to make improvements with customer satisfaction kept
in mind. R&D management and technical strategies should be such that they can
provide an upper hand for the business firm in the global market.
Answer to b.
In order to develop the website, such technology will be used which will be relevant
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globally and highly optimized for operation. ASP.NET is the technology for web
development which will be a perfect choice. C# coding language will be used. The above
mentioned technology will be used for its efficiency in providing online security. The
language is very much productive and efficient. This is a technology that can easily
survive with the changing market globally (Flint and Maignan 2015).
Week Task 3 Word
Count
Learning
Outcomes
Week
6-7
a. Briefly identify who your ‘customer’ is likely
to be. Why is it important for a business to
understand its customers?
b. Describe TWO ways in which you might
attract more customers to your business.
5 LO1/3
Your answer should go in the box below.
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World8

Answer to a.
Customers are who actually bring profit to a business. In this case, the website holds people who like
collecting wallpapers and who love photography as its customers (DaSilva and Trkman 2014). Customers
are the crucial aspect of a business. A business is built on the basis of exchanging process. This exchange
happens when there is something useful to provide to its potential customers. Benefit of customers can only
mark profit for a business. A business thrives on customer satisfaction; without giving anything to the
customers, a business cannot hope to proceed. Customers actually decide the position of specific business
in the market. Profitability depends on the customer demands. If the production or operation of a business
is not according to the customer requirements then a business operation is useless. Therefore, it can
possibly be stated that customers are who decide the fate of a business (Nicholas and Steyn 2017).
Answer to b.
Attracting customers is the only way a business can hope to earn profit. Attractive Idea is a way to gain
customer ratings and visits more. In an e-business, such strategy can be implemented that will attract the
potential customers. Implementing such idea that will have the customers compelled to use it is the main
step towards gaining attention towards the business. Free of charge is a facility that always works out best
for e-business. A website that is provided to the customers for their own purpose and making it free will
allow more and more visitors to hit it (Weiss 2014). News will get easily spread among the community and
people will be eager to try out the website and then people will realize the utility of the website. Once
people get interested with the central theme of the business, traffic will increase which only prove the
effectiveness of the website (Flint and Maignan 2015).
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World9

Week Task 4 Learning
Outcomes
Week
8-9
a. What is the role of ethics in business?
b. With examples from other businesses, describe
how your business can treat its staff ethically.
LO3/4
Your answer should go in the box below.
EBWO3001 | Effectiveness in Business World10

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Answer to a.
Ethics guides the judgemental process of an individual, it develops discretion in an individual. The
ethical behaviour of an individual is also influenced by the ethical understanding of oneself (Andam
2014). Ethical behaviour is very much significant in business as it develops corporate social
responsibility. A company with good ethical standards are known to have good will that ultimately
attract customers efficiently. A company that follows ethical guidelines faces risks at a minimum
amount. A company needs to acquire good reputation. Reputation is an asset that will help a business get
popularity elegantly. The proposals that a company makes, ethically maintaining them is very important.
Businesses that do not follow ethical standards can lead to illegal consequences (Sinkovics, Penz and
Molina-Castillo 2014). Unethical operations will damage a company’s reputation. The entire world will
ultimately face a fatal situation if companies do not follow ethical rules. Business firms can enhance its
reputation using ethical standards.
Answer to b.
Treating the staff of a company ethically means to pay the employees in a business organization
fairly and creating an environment for the staff so that the staff do not face any harmful effects like
stress. Large companies like McDonald’s, Walmart have reputation of failing to pay its employees and
earn excessive amount of profit. Small business owners get rewarded on treating their staff ethically.
Earning the staff’s loyalty will enhance the company’s performance. Inflexible work hours will lead to
employee dissatisfaction, which will ultimately damage a company’s reputation.
In this case, employees will have a flexible work hour and a good work-life balance. Sometimes, due
to pressure, work hours may get extended but a nice, cozy, friendly environment will help employees
enjoy their time at the office and they will happily finish their work without any sense of stress (Lee
2015). Fair payment will be made according to the economical condition of the firm. It will be a
responsibility of the company to create an interesting, learning and creative environment for the staff
that help in improvisation and out-of-the-box thinking (Yee-Loong et al. 2014). The business firm will
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