The Impact of E-Commerce Technology on the Air Travel Industry

This case study examines the impact of online reservation systems and e-commerce on the travel industry. Two questions are examined: 1. How can competitive advantage be obtained from the exploitation of new information technologies—in particular, e-commerce technologies? 2. How has the role of travel agents changed because of the new information technologies being used to achieve competitive advantage in the air travel industry? Initial discussion concerns the impact of the American Airlines SABRE system, as this has often been touted as giving American Airlines first-mover advantage in the industry. The wider impact of remote-access, computerized reservation systems, or Global Distribution Systems, and e-commerce access to online reservations in the travel industry is analyzed, using Porter’s five-force model of industry competitive forces, to understand how the travel industry has shaped and has been shaped by information systems. The case study concludes with a comparison of the impact of information technologies between the U.S. and European travel industries. It concludes that technology alone does not affect the roles of industry players, but the development of winning technologies exploits structural factors in the environment. Constant evolution of strategic information systems is critical to producing competitive advantage, but opportunism also plays a strong role.

World Trade Point Federation

This case provides an overview of the roles of the Global Trade Point Network (GTPNet) in facilitating small- and medium-sized enterprises’ (SMEs’) adoption of the Internet and e-commerce technologies. The GTPNet puts potential and actual traders in the position of suppliers and users of strategic information. Using the services provided by a Trade Point, traders can identify markets for their products, complete export formalities and procedures, and meet other international trade related requirements on the spot. The functioning of the Trade Points program is also discussed in terms of three core aspects of the program: Market Point, Knowledge Point, and Info Point.

E*Trade Securities, Inc., Poineer Online Trader, Struggles to Stay on To

E*Trade revolutionized the securities brokerage industry by “creating” Internet trading. E*Trade’s original strategy was to deliver cost savings to customers while amortizing fixed costs over a greater number of accounts. In 1997, several competitors established Internet sites and E*Trade was dethroned as the price leader. Its management team introduced a strategic initiative to transform the company into a financial, one-stop shop for investors. The initiative included expanding its information technology, improving its marketing and advertising program, and developing new strategic alliances. By early 1999, E*Trade had established a popular Web site offering the convenience and control of automated stock, options, and mutual fund order placement at low commission rates. E*Trade’s success pleased management but was challenged by fierce competition and emerging ethical and operational problems.

ENI Company

ENI Company is an electronic commerce firm in South Korea. ENI Company provides English news items and English lessons to the subscribers through daily e-mail service that includes free English news-related question and answer sessions via e-mail. This case study deals with the struggle of this firm to establish and sustain its business in a less-developed national information infrastructure. Information on national information infrastructure and the Internet in South Korea is provided in order to facilitate understanding of the difficulty that ENI Company faces while conducting e-commerce in South Korea. The chronology of ENI Company evolution is described and the organizational structure of ENI Company is also presented. The marketing of ENI Company’s products that is the biggest challenge for the firm is also discussed. This case is a good example of how to conduct an e-commerce in a county where national IT infrastructure is not ready for it.

Web-Enabling for Competitive Advantage

This case emphasis is on the reduction of the logistical aspects of adventure travel and increase in the customer base by using the Web-enabling information technology resources. A global travel company, Himalayan Adventures (HA), based in Pakistan wants to build a one-stop electronic commerce store for its customers. Through this Website, HA hopes to provide all of their travel services, visa details, health and safety insurance, weather information, flight reservations, police registration, currency exchange, travel itineraries, sale and purchase of equipment, souvenirs and communication requirements. To implement the online store for HA, the owner, Abdul Bari, is planning to utilize the Porter electronic business model in analyzing the market needs, and identifying the appropriate information technology to gain a strategic advantage. This project, once implemented, will compliment the already existing HAbrick model with a bricks-and-clicks model.

Implementing and Managing a Large-Scale E-Service

This case concerns a recently launched retirement protection scheme, the Mandatory Provident Fund (MPF), in Hong Kong. Service providers, employers, employees and the government are the four main parties involved in the MPF. The service has been implemented in two versions, that is, a bricks model and a clicks model. The former is based on conventional paper-based transactions and face-to-face meetings. The focus of this case, however, is on the latter, which introduces MPF as a service in an e-environment that connects all parties electronically and conducts all transactions via the Internet or other computer networks. The case discusses the MPF e-business model, and its implementation. We analyze the differences between the old and the new model and highlight the chief characteristics and benefits of the e-business model as they arise from the emerging digital economy. We also discuss some major problems, from both managerial and technical perspectives, that have occurred during the phases of implementing and launching the new service.

Student Advantage Captures the College Market Through an Integration of Their Off and Online Businesses

This chapter describes how Student Advantage successfully transformed itself from a brick-and-mortar company to the leading online portal to the higher education community. The company has followed a business strategy that includes creating Websites that appeal to college students and forming partnerships with businesses and universities. Through its activities, Student Advantage has assembled a wealth of information about college students, all organized around a common student identifier. This information is important to Student Advantage and to its partners who are willing to pay for the insights that Student Advantage can provide about the college market. Interestingly, Student Advantage only recently developed a strong in-house information technology capability. This capability is now allowing Student Advantage to implement a variety of e-marketing applications. Lessons learned from Student Advantage’s experiences are discussed.

Implementation Management of an E-Commerce- Enabled Enterprise Information System

This chapter presents a case study of an overview of the efforts of Texas Instrument’s (TI’s) internal and external ERP implementation, with a focus on linking its ERP system in a global e-commerce setting. This linkage is especially important since it had been stated in TI’s strategic plan as an objective of this project to provide visibility of the ERP system to external constituents via Web linkages along with the objective of standardizing internal processes and important information technology systems to support market needs. Thus, its ERP system is central to managing its supply chain and B2B e-commerce linkages from both a customer and supplier perspective. Issues faced by TI are clearly outlined with future questions also posed in the final section.

Building an Online Grocery Business

This chapter uses the case of ASDA.com, ASDA’s home-shopping arm, to demonstrate the challenges in building and developing an online grocery business in the UK. To set the stage, the initial implementation and learning from phone/catalogue home-shopping in ADS is outlined to demonstrate why e-commerce was seen as most economically suitable to conduct a grocery home-shopping business. Then the chapter illustrates the development stages and critical aspects of ASDA.com’s Web shop. Particularly, it delineates the operational aspects of B2C e-commerce in the grocery business: fulfillment center and fulfillment process. The case will also describe ASDA’s efforts in overcoming problems with their home-shopping fulfillment model and present important elements of ASDA.com’s virtual store and its operation. The chapter concludes with the challenges that ASDA.com has been facing, their current status, and future prospects.

mVine Ltd

This chapter analyzes a new digital music label—mVine.com—from conception in December 2003 to launch in March 2005. It discusses the turbulent context within which the company was launched and the particular individual strengths of the founding directors. The business model and specific revenue streams are described, and financial and marketing data are given to support the company’s launch development. A full description of how mVine operated initially as a virtual organization provides a full understanding of the benefits and challenges that such a company faces and the opportunity to discuss the strategies that mVine employed to overcome this. Technical information is given that explains how open source software was used to address issues of security and cost while reinforcing the company’s open and democratic ethic. An outline is given of the planned development of mVine from virtual startup to fully financed “clicks-and-mortar” corporation.