The effect e-commerce

Learning Outcomes addressed:

• explain how the e-business value networks operate
• assess the role of macro and micro economic factors on the e-business environment
• formulate, develop and evaluate an e-business strategy
• formulate separate e-procurement, e-marketing and e-CRM strategies and evaluate them as part of a general e-business strategy

1. Coursework Brief

For this assignment you are required to work individually. You are required to conduct research and analysis of the digital strategy of your designated company and present it in the form of a report.

Choice of company

You must choose a company for your coursework report from the given options. Your designated company can be one of the following:

1. Just Eat
2. Lidl
3. Virgin Trains
4. Metro Bank
5. IKEA

If you choose a company with global presence in multiple countries, then you must try to focus on its presence in a single country. For example, if you choose IKEA as your case study, you must limit your choice to its presence in a single country, for example IKEA in Russia or IKEA in India, etc. Your analysis will then be expected to be conducted from the business environment perspective of that country.

You must critically analyse how the company is using internet and mobile technology to support its digital business model. You must formulate and evaluate the company’s strategies using theory and knowledge gained in the module.

You should clearly outline recommendations for further development of the company’s strategy, taking into consideration the role of technology in future business operations.

You must use reputable and recognised sources to conduct your research, e.g. company’s annual reports, library e-databases (Mintel, Business Source Complete) and academic journals. Students must avoid using obscure websites. Your research must consider any recent developments in your company’s strategy. In addition to using reliable sources outlined before to conduct research into your company, your analysis must also use information about the company that you obtained using competitive intelligence tools.

You should write in clear, concise and correct English. Remember to Spell check, Grammar check and Proofread. Do not put far too many points into one paragraph. Keep the points separate, at the very least by using a new paragraph for each point.

1. Marking
   The end-of-module individual assessment is worth 75% of module marks.
   The assessment criteria are in the form of marking rubric which is given at the end of assessment brief. Rubric will be recorded on blackboard and will form part of your online feedback.

Marking criteria should not be seen as the structure of the report nor expected headings of your report. You should view the marking criteria as a useful indicator about the level you need to achieve for your work.

Note that textbook descriptions of tools and techniques will not be given marks, although a brief description of such techniques may sometimes be necessary.

Anonymous marking

Your submitted report file will be marked anonymously. Your file name should be: module title and name of coursework. Do NOT include your name or student number within the file name or anywhere within your submission. The submission will be subject to anonymous marking. Having logged into Turnitin on Blackboard, the system will record your details anonymously and tutors will only see your name after the entire submission has been assessed and provisional marks have been released to all students at the same time.

1. Report Structure

You should write in clear, concise and correct English. The report should be single spaced, 12 point text, standard margins with page numbers clearly shown on each page. The length of the report is 3000 words + 10%. The limit excludes executive summary, TOC, diagrams, references and appendices. The word count must be stated on the cover page.

The report is expected to have the following structure, which you may adapt according to your needs:

Title Page (name of the company and word count).

Executive Summary (~100 words)

Table of Contents (TOC) showing titles of (sub)sections and corresponding page number. Number the sections and subsections of your report.

1. Introduction.

The introduction should contain a brief description of the company and sets the context of the report.

1. E-commerce Business Model

You must describe the key elements of company’s business model and the type of B2C/B2B business model it operates. You are expected to include the Business Canvas outlining the business model of your company.

1. E-commerce Impact on Business Strategy

Describe the effect e-commerce has on the business environment in which your company operates. You may include:

Industry Structure Analysis
Outline of Business strategy

The industry structural analysis will show how e-commerce impacts on (your) industry structures and competitive conditions. You must show this from the perspective of your chosen company, indicating if these changes have a negative or positive implication. The industry structure can be described using Five Forces by Michael Porter’s diagramme and must consider the impact of e-commerce technology.

The outline of business strategy must briefly describe the adopted business strategy from Five Generic Business Strategies.

1. E-commerce Presence map

Outline company’s presence using e-commerce presence map, showing four different kinds of presence and the platforms and activities associated with each type of presence

1. Social, mobile and local marketing and advertising

Describe company’s marketing and advertising strategies together with relevant tools and technology platform that it uses.

1. Conclusions and Recommendations.

Summarise your findings and include recommendations for the company’s future e-commerce strategy.

References
References must be organised alphabetically by the first author’s surname.

Appendices

1. Referencing

When writing a report, you will need to support your arguments by referring to published work such as books, journal or newspaper articles, government reports, dissertations and theses, and material from the Internet. All work must be fully referenced and follow the correct referencing style guide. You must use the Westminster Harvard referencing. You may want to consult a university guide on Referencing your Work. All submitted work is passed through plagiarism detection software (e.g. Turnitin or SafeAssign) to determine the originality score.

1. Report Deadline and Submission
   All submissions must be in electronic forms and submitted directly to the module’s Blackboard site.

Important: The electronic handling system for all assignments on all modules makes automatic penalties as follows:
• 1 second to 24 hours late: Lose 10 marks. Marks in the range 50-59 are only reduced to 50. Failing marks are not reduced.
• 24 hours late: Zero marks.
The above penalties are based on university regulations. Your lecturers have no power whatsoever to reduce these penalties.
In case of Mitigating Circumstances (MC) please note that the Module Leader cannot grant any extensions to the deadline date. Extension requests should be made to the Mitigating Circumstances Board through e-vision and followed by appropriate evidence. For more information on this please contact the Marylebone Registry.

1. Academic Offences
   Academic offences, including plagiarism are treated very seriously. Plagiarism must be avoided at all costs and students who break rules, however innocently, will be penalised. It is your responsibility as a student to make sure that you understand what constitutes an academic offence, what plagiarism is and how to avoid it. Consult the Handbook of Academic Regulations for more information.
2. Coursework Feedback
   Coursework feedback will be available on blackboard and will be in the form of written commentaries taking into consideration the marking scheme presented in this assignment.
   Further feedback can be given individually when necessary. All marks are classed as provisional until approved by the final Examination Board and are subject to change.