E-commerce Digital Businesses

RUNNING HEAD: MARKETING MARKETING Name of the University name of the Student Author’s note 1 MARKETING Table of Contents 1. Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 2 2. Critical analysis ................................ ................................ ................................ ............................... 2 3. Conclusion ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 9 Reference ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ .............. 10 2 MARKETING 1. Introduction By the end of 20 th century some significant rapid changes happened in the business world. Retail giants like Amazon emerged as one of the authority of digital business. Gradually by the first half of 21 st century it introduced itself as the pioneer in this model. Many small and medium e -commerce digital businesses started to follow Amazon’s benchmark strategy (Johnson 2010) . Two of the key reasons of Amazon’s success is use of internet and knowledge management. On the other hand Covid -19 pandemic has pushed the major workfor ce into their homes. Therefore these people are connected through internet. This social distancing has also a deep impact on the digital business. 2. Critical analysis Amaz on was founded in the year 1994. In the initial it was only selling books and gradually it became the largest retailer in the world. The company has been the vanguard of retail innovation. Amazon has invested into internet technology to create a seamless process of customer service. This is one of the main reasons why Amazon has bec ome more successful retail business. On the other hand Amazon’s strategy pf knowledge management has also created a strong digital business model (Chaffey, Edmundson -Bird, and Hemphill 2019) . From the beginning of their business Amazon has tried to recogni ze the how their user experience their product and service. Amazon has also tried to understand the ability of their customers to explore what they want. Through ages Amazon has used the knowledge management to develop the experience of customers through g iving the right service at right time (Ismail, Khater, and Zaki 2017) . This was not enough for Amazon as it tried to help customers to fulfil their aims with a customized way. To leverage the experience level of the customer Amazon found through knowledge management that there has to be one common portal for every product. The one common 3 MARKETING point of contact has been able to attract more customers. Through the same portal cus tom er get the same experience. This is not a mere experience of the customers. This becomes a habit for the customer and therefore it becomes a platform of social interaction also. The customers are directly conversing with the sellers, but through the buying process customers get to know about the seller (Smith, Wollan, and Zhou 2011) . Both customer and sellers exchange their taste and preference. This way it turns into a social interaction. Such social interaction is very important in knowledge management. Such exchange of thoughts also helps in new knowledge development which is again very important for digital businesses like Amazon (Varian 1998) . Now -a— days custom er have become so familiar with the use of one portal that if Amazon tries to introduce different portals for different products then there is a chance that Amazon will fail in its business. Interaction through a single portal has provided a comfort zone for customer which has leveraged the business of Amazon. Amazon has not only utilized th e knowledge and information regarding the t aste and preference of the customers , but it has also introduced a method of interview to choose the best candidate to deliver best customer experience. It is important to note that Jeff Bezos, the founder of Amaz on, has put special emphasis on the new knowledge development. To elevate the new knowledge development process Bezos has focused on the recruiting p eople from diverse backgrounds with a range of experience (Turban, et al. 2012) . This is done very purposefully. The purpose is to know about people with different ideas and preferences. Through gathering them A mazon can identify different socio -cultural trends in the market. Even during interviews Jeff Bezos involves other executive s, and the reason for this inclusion is to know differe nt perspectives. In this way Bezos tries to get an unbiased viewpoint. Such proc ess also helps to get an unbiased view of customers’ choice. It is very clear from the above instance that Amazon puts a great emphasis on knowledge management. In knowledge management it is important to focus on the 4 MARKETING interaction between individual, groups or communities and organization. Amazon tries to understand an individual’s perspective and then connects it with the socio -cultural perspective and organizational goals. The goal is to create new technologies to enhance the digital business. The main driver of this business is innovatio n which is achieved through the exchange of knowledge and information. Apart from one portal and experimental interviews, Amazon uses knowledge management in its web technologies. Amazon web technologies, which is known as AWS (Amazon web services) starte d its journey in the year 2000. Amazon web services assists third party vendors for creation of shopping sites. It helps to reduce price for data consumption and helps to save the cost increased by an additional level of production (Quah, 2003) . It is one of the ways through which Amazon has become more successful in their digital business. It is true that technology has a remarkable role to play in manging the problematic aspects of knowledge . But it is also true that the superiority of web servi ce and search engine interface do not obviously depend on the technological supremacy . Amazon’ s web techn ologies are more inclined to the way the knowledge is being classified. From the private domains of the customers their personal knowledge is seized by Amazon. After it is taken from the private domain it is then made explicit by Amazon and available for further utilization and manipulation. In traditional system suc h classification is done by different agents. Utilization of internet and knowledge management has equipped Amazon to make it faster . Amazon’s feature of your store or wish -list is another example of knowledge management . Through these feature Amazon sugg ests preferable products to meet the choice of customers. When Customers sign in and puts something in the wish list or store , Amazon retains the information of all movements of the customer on the website or app (Rayna, and Striukova 2008) . Amazon uses cookies to keep track of their 5 MARKETING preferences. A considerable change from ambiguous to unambiguous knowledge happens when preferences are linked to unspoken private information about specific customers. After the customers gives any feedback , it keeps the feedback open to all the customers and it gives other customers ways to analyse the information in their own way. Covid -19 has pushed the major workforce into their residences in all over the world. United Kingdom is not an exception of this sy stem. Governmen ts have issued many social distancing norms. Gradually social distancing has become an un written norm of the society. In UK 45% of the workforce are working from their home. The employees who are working have ample access to internet. The kn owledge they are getting via internet are not always filtered. They often get information from different sources which are both implied or tacit and explicit or clear. Therefore there is deep connection between the social distancing and knowledge managemen t (Davis, Ghent, and Gregory 2021) . The employees who are working from home are required analyse different data related to sales growth, leads and conversions. Therefore it is important for them to understand the classification of information. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi knowledge transformation may occur from tacit to tacit, tacit to explicit , explicit to tacit and explicit to explicit (Deghani, and Ramsin 2015) . Their model is also known as SECI model of knowledge conversion. SECI implies to soci ali zation, externalization, combination and internalization . 6 MARKETING Figure : SECI Model Source : (Natek, and Zwilling 2016) The SECI model suggests an evolutionary path of knowledge. Sequentially it goes through different stages of evolution. The quality of the k nowledge remains the same through the entire journey. It is very useful to understand the organizational culture of knowledge management. Knowledge management mostly refers to obtaining, storing, disseminating and application of knowledge . SECI model also helps to generate better quality of knowledge through a holistic process (Deghani, and Ramsin 2015) . Knowledge conversion process helps to identify the better quality knowledge. It deals with explicit and tacit knowledge. If the entire knowledge is conside red as an iceberg then explicit knowledge remains in the top of that iceberg. Ex plicit knowledge is such type of knowledge which is visible to the people clearly, or it can be said that people are capable of arranging and transferring explicit knowledge through official language. Example of explicit knowledge can be organizational communication and knowledge of different products. In covid -19 scenario most of the organizational communications are happening through internet based interface and product know ledge are gathered from different web platforms. On the other hand tacit knowledge is more inclined to analogical aspects. It has 7 MARKETING emerged from different experience related to specialised works. Tacit knowledge is rooted into the significant activities (Orenga, and Chalmeta 2019) . Often habits and practices are influenced by the tacit knowledge. Using a particular machine or any software can be examples of tacit knowledge. In the pandemic scenari o, the employees who are working from home are requir ed use different tools and tach nologies to communicate with their colleagues, superiors (Orenga, and Chalmeta 2019) . Other communication those employees also need to learn different new technological skills to work on different data related to industry. Therefore there is a strong base of tacit knowledge. According to Nonaka and Takeuchi knowledge is formed through a very critical process of knowledge conversion from tacit to explicit knowledge. The SECI model refers to the four steps of socialization, externalization, combination and internalization conversion modes. These four conversion modes are generated through shifts from one type of knowledge to another type. The spiral model of conversion starts with sociliaztion mode. Here tacit knowledge is shared between the individuals or peers. Individuals share their experience on a regular basis. It important to remember that tacit knowledge is often timbound and related to specific space (Orenga, and Chalmeta 2019) . Therefore it can be acq uired through direct exchange of work related experiences. In pandemic scenario employees, trainees, interns often deal with tacit knowledge as they have to go through a daily practice of new technologies. Whether the employees are entirely able to learn t hrough shared experience is a big question. Even this may create barrier for learning new skills which may lead to decreasing of performance and profit of the organization. Through externalization mode the knowledge is converted into new explicit knowledg e. From different concepts, ideas, visual expressions the knowledge is 8 MARKETING converted from tacit to explicit (Osterwalder, Pigneur, and Tucci 2005) . To make the tacit knowledge capable of codification individuals use metaphors and allegories. To succeed in this con version process it necessary to disseminate the knowledge through a process of replication and action (Osterwalder, Pigneur, and Tucci 2005) . This process reduces the gap between subject and the object. Through this replica tio n and a ction process a concrete knowledge is formed. This type of knowledge helps an orgnization to build a strong mission and vision (North, and Kumta 2018). In pandemic situation employees may become less competent in terms o f learning new skills and technol og ies. Ther efore it is very crucial for the orgnization to build a strong learning and development mission and vision for future growth so that the orgnization can both retain employees and grow simultaneously. In the combination mode of conversion explici t knowledge is then united with intra or inter -or ganizational explicit knowledge. Then it is assembled, revised to be more composite and organized form of explicit knowledge . Usage of online database is the best example of combining explicit knowledge (Girard, and Girard 2015) . In pandemic scenario digital mode of communication and big data can enhance this form of knowledge. Using of different video conferencing tools, sales lead management tools, and online databases has been very cr uci al si nce th e ou tbreak of the pandemic. Individuals absorb explicit knowledge, enhancing their tacit knowledge base, as part of the SECI spiral. Formal knowledge is linked to personal experiences, which are subsequently transmitted and applied in practical circumstances, establishing the foundation for employees' updated routines (Dávideková, and Hvorecký 2016) . In work from home set up employees are trained with different skills through different reading materials, audio -visual items . Employees can learn from them and reflect the knowledge upon their ta sks responsibilities. 9 MARKETING 3. Conclusion From the above discussion it can be concluded that knowledge management has become a very crucial component of 21 st century business world. Amazon has used knowledge management in its ow n way. It has set a benchmark for the smaller businesses. On the other hand through the SECI model the transformation of knowledge has also become clear. In work from home set up employees learn many a things through shared experience, audio -visual content and organizations use various data base to manage their complex knowledge to grow in the market. 10 MARKETING Reference Chaffey, D., Edmundson -Bird, D. and Hemphill, T., 2019. Digital business and e -commerce management . Pearson UK. Dávideková, M. and Hvorecký, J., 2016, September. Collaboration tools for virtual teams in terms of the SECI model. In International Conference on Interactive Collaborative Learning (pp. 97 -111). Springer, Cham. Davis, M.A., Ghent, A.C. and Gregory, J.M., 2021. 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