E-Com Exam:

2 Cases plus 1 summary

1.) X = working culture in the business e.g.
Impact of B2C and B2B (increase or decrease), technical capabilities of staff
positively influence (8 pts)
2.) Regarding the two cases (plus also from other cases) Apply models: Porters
value chain model and Tecces model and capturing value from innovation + six
stage model online purchasing process (circle, CHECK on website) (14 pts)

General
information
(see also
illustration at
the bottom)
Inbound
Logistics

Flatpebble.com

Fishbay.in

Online wedding photography

company

Online fish store

Porters value chain:

Relatively unimportant since

immaterial service of photography

does not require a detailed logistics
service

Operations

Provide online marketplace to bring

photographers for weddings and
customers together currently only
in large Indian cities:
- technology platform with a high
ease of use (e.g. in the registration
process)

Outbound
Logistics

Relatively unimportant since

immaterial service of photography
does not require a detailed logistics
service
For customers (one-stop-solution for
all customer needs regarding

Marketing &
Sales

as fish is a perishable good,

therefore logistics play a successcritical role for the online fish
store this is especially the case
for imported fish (Basa from
Vietnam) in order to secure the
cold chain

Online:
Initial investments for:
Computers to process online
orders
Insulated box
Air conditioner
Freezer
Refrigerated fish display
Current operations:
Processing online orders
Offline:
Brick-and-mortar outlet Karavali Fresh
Fish
Outbound logistics mainly concerned
with cleaning and packaging of the fish
prior to delivery
Value proposition for customers:
convenient fish shopping online and

Service

wedding photography)
Free registration for
customers (foster growth of
customer base, encourage
trials and prevent switching
to other channels online or
offline)
For photographers (value
proposition as a business system)
Registration fee for
photographers (entry barrier
for amateurs and low quality
photographers)
Bidding fee for
photographers in order to
prevent fake-bids
Transaction commission for
photographers (only up to a
certain amount in order to
prevent switching to other
channels online or offline)
Subscription to Free, Starter,
Awesome and Legend
options with increasing
facilities and therefore prices
Mainly online advertising
Satisfied customers as best
word-of-mouth marketing
No own offered photography,
printing or videography
service
For customers:
all necessary information
about wedding
photographers (e.g. verified
reviews and location)
Online and telephone-based
job-posting process
Online payment gateway
For photographers:
wedding photographers can
bid for customer jobs
meeting their needs (esp.
regarding price and location)
time-efficient job search

circumvention of dirty, crowded local

fish markets or high prices in private
retail outlets
Distribution of pamphlets in daily
newspapers at fish-selling
operations to raise customer
awareness about the website
Market survey with restaurants to
understand their and endconsumers requirements
Incentives for customer feedback
(gift coupon for constructive
feedback)

For customers:
order fish online and receive
same day delivery
four available categories of fish:
ocean fresh, shell, freshwater
and frozen fish & information
about availability and price
COD as customer-friendly
payment option (high level of
trust)

process for photographers /

receiving much more leads
(due to higher traffic on this
platform)
share their portfolio of their
best work easily

Supporting activities not covered yet (minor importance apart from technology development,
and procurement for fishbay.in)

Flatpebble.com
Teeces: Capturing
value of innovation

1) appropriability
regime
- ability to capture
value, determined by
the nature of
technology (e.g.
difficulty of imitation)
and the efficacy of legal
mechanisms of
protecting IPR. These
factors vary across
industries and
geographies
other factors: tacitness
complexity of
innovation.
legal mechanisms like
patents, trade secrets

Fishbay.in

Answers the question if firms can capture value from innovation. The
answer is dependent on three factors:
1) appropriability regime:
2) complementary assets:
3) dominant design paradigm
- currently, Flatpebble.com has a
first mover advantage
- moderate difficulty for online
photography and photo printingrelated websites to expand their
business into selling photography
services (for weddings and other
occasions)
- So far Flatpebble cannot benefit
from network effects due to its
limited size in the growing stage
(other competitors like Facebook
can)
innovation of moderate
complexity
- legal mechanisms like patents
or copyrights only applicable to a
limited extend

- low difficulty to imitate as

already competitors with similar
offerings exist, e.g.
Freshfishindia.com
- innovation of moderate
complexity
- legal mechanisms like patents or
copyrights only applicable to a
limited extend

and copyrights also

strengthen the
appropriability of the
innovation and increase
the likelihood of
capturing value from it
2) complementary
assets
- assets, infrastructure
or capabilities required
to successfully
commercialize and
market the technology
- Companies which
innovate but lack
access to the
complementary assets
are unlikely to profit
from innovations

- website as main infrastructure

to generate revenue streams
from photographers in various
forms (Registration fee, bidding
fee,
Transaction commission and
subscription for service packages
- threat for transaction
commission: high incentive to
circumvent the platform to save
the commission (analog:
Groupon)

- website fishbay.in works in

combination with the brick-andmortar fish store Karavali fresh fish
omnichannel strategy seems to
be possible in the future
(customers who want to see and
touch the fish before their first
purchase may come first to the
store before buying online)

3) dominant design
paradigm:
de facto standard in an
industry (When a new
industry emerges it
struggles with the right
product/process initially
until it reaches a point
where a product/process
becomes a de facto
standard and gains
legitimacy)

- innovative customer-friendly
purchasing process of hiring a
wedding photographer (currently
the industry standard is
characterized by time-consuming
incovenient search processes on
supply and demand side)

- website does not offer special

services
- significant amount of products
which cannot be added to
shopping cart due to lack of
announced prices
- some photos of the offered fish
products lack quality and seem
from amateur photographers

3.) Two stoner questions in EC: (12pts)

3 pro and 3 con arguments
4.) marketing concepts
a) e.g. Identify and explain factors related to growth / failure of social media
marketing

b) marketing campaign profitable for EC firm. (metrics and knowledge if campaign is

profitable or not, click through-rate, conversion rate, etc.) (6 pts)
5.) Application and Knowledge
True or false (like Quiz but with True or False)
Hint = agree or disagree (discuss)
Note = follow instructions
?success: Pandora and failure stories?