Master of Business Administration-MBA Semester 4MB0053 – International Business Management

Assignment Set- 2

Q1. Write a note on strategic objectives?

Ans: Strategic objectives

Strategic objectives assist in the implementation process of the organisations objectives or goals. While implementing an international strategy, an organisation has to identify the opportunities present in these countries, explore the various resources available, their strengths and capabilities and plan to work on their core competencies. The objective should be formed in a way that it is not deficient or immeasurable. The strategic objectives must help the organisation to achieve their mission and vision.

Most of strategic objectives focus on producing greater profits and returns for the business owners; others focus on customers or society at large. The strategic objectives are as follows:

Measurable To measure progress against fulfilling the objective there must be at least one indicator.

Specific A clear message as to what needs to be achieved is provided.

Appropriate With the given vision and mission of the organisation, objectives must be consistent.

Realistic Objectives must be an achievable target given the organisations abilities and opportunities in the environment. This means that objectives must be challenging and attainable.

Timely To accomplish the objective there need to be a time frame.

When strategic objectives are thoroughly implemented, it will result in strategic competitiveness that improves the performance and innovation of these organisations. When objectives fulfil the above conditions, there are many profits for the organisation. The profits are:

First, they help guide employees throughout the organisation towards achieving the common goals. This aids the organisation to concentrate and conserve valuable resources and to work together in a timely manner.

Second, challenging objectives help encourage and inspire employees throughout the organisation to higher levels of commitment and effort. A research has supported the

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concept that individuals work harder when they are motivated toward specific goals, instead of being asked simply to do their best.

Third, for different parts of an organisation there is always the potential to follow their own goals rather than the overall company goals. Though these intentions are good, these may work at cross purposes to the organisation as a whole. Thus, meaningful objectives help resolve divergence when they occur.

Finally, appropriate objectives offer a standard for rewards and incentives. They not only result in higher levels of motivation by employees but they will also help ensure a greater sense of equity or fairness when rewards are allocated.

There are other objectives that are even more specific. These are commonly referred to as short-term objectives that are essential components of action plans. They are critical in implementing an organisations chosen strategy.

Q2. Discuss in brief the role of WTO in promoting international business?

Ans: The key objective of WTO is to promote and ensure international trade in developing countries. The other major functions include:

• Helping trade flows by encouraging nations to adopt discriminatory trade policies.• Promoting employment, expanding productions and trade and raising standard of

living and income and utilising the worlds resources.• Ensuring that developing countries secure a better share of growth in world trade.• Providing forum for trade negotiations.• Resolving trade disputes.

The important functions of the WTO as stated in the WTO agreement are the following:

Developing transitional economies Majority of the WTO members belong to developing countries. The developing countries such as India, China, Mexico, Brazil and others have an important role in the organisation. The WTO helps in solving the problems of developing economies. The developing states are provided with trade and tariff data. This depends on the countrys individual export interest and their participation in WTO-bodies. The new members benefit hugely from these services.

Providing help for export promotion The WTO provides specialised help for export promotion to its members. The export promotion is done through the International Trade Center established by the GATT in 1964. It is operated by the WTO and the United Nations. The center accepts requests from member countries, usually developing countries for support in formulating and implementing export promotion programmes. The center provides information on export market and marketing techniques. The center

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also provides assistance in establishing export promotion and marketing services. Through this WTO proves its commitment in the upliftment of the world economy.

Cooperating in global economic policy-making The main function of the WTO is to cooperate in global economic policy-making. In the Marrakesh Ministerial Meeting in April 1994, a separate declaration was adopted to achieve this objective. The declaration specifies the responsibility of WTO as, to improve and maintain the cooperation with international organisations such as the World Bank, International Monetary Fund (IMF) that are involved in monetary and financial matters. WTO analyses the impact of liberalisation on the growth and development of national economies which is the important factor in the success of the economy.

Monitoring implementation of the agreement The WTO administers sixty different agreements that have the statue of international legal documents. The member-governments sign and confirm all WTO agreements on attainment.

Providing forum for negotiations The WTO provides a permanent forum for negotiations among members. The negotiations can be on matters already in the WTO agreements or matters not addressed in the WTO law.

Administrating dispute settlement The important function of WTO is the administration of the WTO dispute settlement system. It helps in settling multilateral trading dispute. A dispute arises when a member country adopts a trade policy and other fellow members consider it as a violation of WTO agreements. The Dispute Settlement Body (DSB) is responsible for the settlement of disputes. The dispute settlement system is prohibited from adding or deleting the rights and obligations provided in the WTO agreements. The WTO dispute settlement system helps to:

1. Preserve the rights and responsibilities of the members.2. Clarify the current provisions of the agreements.

Role of WTO in promoting international business

The WTO principles of the trading system are:

Trading without discrimination One aspect of nondiscrimination is that foreigners and people within the home country must be treated equally. This implies that imported goods that are in the market must not face discrimination. There is also a Most Favoured Nation (MFN) principle which requires the nations to treat all WTO members equally. In case one nation grants a special trade deal to another nation, the deal must be extended to all WTO members.

Trade barriers negotiated downwards To lower trade barriers such as import tariffs, red tape and encourage trade growth.

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Predictable trading The predictability in business helps to know the real costs. The WTO operates with tariff bindings and agreements that restricts raising a specific tariff over a given time. This provides the business people with realistic data. Making trade rules clear and accessible helps the business people to anticipate stable future.

Competitive trading The WTO works towards trade liberalisation and understands that trade relationships between nations can be very complex. The WTO agreements support healthy competition in services and intellectual property and discourage subsidies and dumping of products at prices below the cost of their manufacturer.

Encourage development and economic reforms The majority of the WTO members are developing economies that are changing to market economies. The developed nations must give market access to goods from the under developed countries and provide technical assistance. Developed countries are allowing duty-free and quota-free imports for all the products from the under developed countries.

Agreements

The WTO agreements are a set of rules that are followed by the member governments while formulating policies and practices in the area of international trade. The agreements mainly cover goods, services and intellectual property. The agreements comprise the rights and obligations of the government that are enforceable in multilateral framework. The agreement supports individual countries commitments to lower customs tariffs and other trade barriers, and to open services markets. The agreements recommend governments to make their trade policies transparent. According to the agreement, the government must notify the WTO about the measures adopted to make their trade policies transparent.

The major agreements are:

General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) - GATS is a framework agreement defining the rules under which trade in services must occur. GATS aim at extending the rules covering trade in goods to trade in services. The detailed rule has been included to take into account the differences between goods and services and the way in which trade in services is conducted. Trade in services cover a wide range of activities in the area of telecommunication, information, banking, insurance and education. WTO has recognised over 150 service sub-sectors.

The main objective of GATS is to establish framework for liberalising trade in services. It encourages countries to modify their domestic regulations. This modification results in elimination of restrictions applied to service products entering the country and is applicable to international service suppliers who are carrying out business in various modes. According to the GATS, MFN status and transparency is applicable to all services. The other commitments such as national treatment and market access are only applicable to services that are opened according to the specified negotiated commitments. GATS cover services known as consumption abroad where services are used by the

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consumers in a host country such as e-commerce and where citizens of a country travel overseas to consume products such as tourism or education.

Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) - The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) is one of the WTO agreements that are compiled by all the WTO members. According to TRIPS, developed and developing members of WTO must adopt the same minimum levels of intellectual property protection. The TRIPS Agreement includes rules on domestic enforcement procedures. TRIPS Agreement focuses on issues such as innovation and the dissemination of technology, development of biotechnology, health care and the operation of multilateral environment agreements.

According to TRIPS Agreement, members can adopt measures to protect the public health and nutrition. It encourages protection of new plant varieties. The members are encouraged to develop national systems that promote local breeding and rights of farmers and protect human fundamental human rights which include rights to food and health. It promotes use and protection of knowledge that is relevant to the conservation and use of biological diversity. This includes knowledge in technology and genetic material. The 1995 WTO TRIPS Agreements covers copyright and related rights, geographic indications, trademarks, and patents of integrated circuits, protection of information and control of anticompetitive practices in contractual licenses.

General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) - GATT is a multilateral agreement among countries providing a framework for conducting international trade. GATT is regarded as an international institution governing international trade relations. It consists of disciplines on governments and matters related to import and export of goods. It was established to promote international trade by reducing tariff and non-tariff restrictions on imports imposed by member nations. Tariff barrier refers to imposing import duty and non-tariff barriers means restricting imports through import licensing and by banning the imports. GATT provides a framework for negotiations on the level of tariff. It promotes multilateral trade among member nations. It provides protection against unfair trade and obstructions to trade.

Q3. Write a note on various export promotion schemes by GOI?

Ans: Export promotion schemes are the incentive programs that are developed to attract more firms into exporting. It helps in identification of the product and market. This also helps in pre-shipment and post-shipment financing, training, payment guarantee schemes, trade fairs, trade visits, and foreign representation and so on.

India being a developing economy, export promotion schemes are needed to give a boost for our economy.

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The needs of the export promotion scheme are explained as follows:

As the economy of the country is progressing with the increase in terms of population, there is a need for more number of imports. We need to have surplus exports to pay our imports.

1. It is not wise to depend on the other external assistances for financing essential imports, rather exportable surplus needs to be created.

2. In any country, there are some capital goods, machinery and raw materials that cannot be produced for some more time and it has to be imported from the other countries. In order to pay for such imports, the country needs to have sufficient funds so that the country has to promote for its exports.

3. The earning of the exports need to be raised to create the purchasing power in order to import the essential goods.

4. We need to explore the foreign markets in order to expand the capacities of the existing units and find market for the new units.

5. To tap our export potentials completely, we need to focus on our strengths like, price stability, low wages and the industrial bases to increase its exports.

6. The deficits of payments in Indian economy can be resolved through funds received through the foreign assistance. We need to create the repaying capacity with the help of exports.

There are three main categories that are associated with the export promotion measures.

Export Promotion Measures

The export promotion measures are explained as follows:

Export production - For gearing up the production, we need to sharpen the competitive edge and upgrade the technology to get a better quality.

Liberalisation - The policies like the trade and industrial licensing are oriented towards exports.

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Supply of raw materials - There are some license free import goods such as the raw materials, intermediates, components, consumables, spares, part accessories and other items that are not regulated by negative list of imports.

There are many export promotion schemes and Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) is one of the export promotion schemes.

Export Promotion Capital Goods (EPCG) scheme

This scheme allows import of the capital goods at the reduced rate of 15percent customs duty. The goods can be both new and second hand goods and to the Services sector.

This scheme has even extended to the services sector. These are explained as follows:

Import of second hand capital goods The import of second hand goods that have the minimum residual life of five years are allowed free of licence but is subjected to actual user conditions.

Duty exemption scheme - This scheme aims at import of duty free goods. The goods that can be imported by this way include raw materials, components, consumables, accessories, computer software. They can be imported under various schemes.

Investment in plant and equipment - The investments beyond 75 lakhs is permitted for the small scale industrial sectors.

Processing zones for export - The establishment of the Export Processing Zones (EPZ), Export Oriented Units (EOU), Electronic Hardware Technology Parks (EHTP) and Software Technology Parks (STP) helps in facilitating the export production in non-traditional sectors.

Quality - The central government helps in modernising and upgrading the test houses and laboratories in order to bring the standards so that the certifications from such test houses are very well recognised within and outside the country.

Q4. What do you understand by regional integration? List its types.

Ans: Regional integration can be defined as the unification of countries into a larger whole. Regional integration also reflects a country’s willingness to share or unify into a larger whole. The level of integration of a country with other countries is determined by what it shares and how it shares. Regional integration requires some compromise on the part of countries. It should aim to improve the general quality of life for the citizens of those countries. Regional integration results in the creation and diversion of trade. It supports overall growth of the region, coupled with efficient trading practices. Trade

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creation increases production and income, and also leads to new entries in the market and therefore, results in tougher competition. The transfer of technology is also faster.

Regional integration provides some sort of reduction on tariffs and prohibitions. It spreads goodwill among member countries and also helps in reducing the chances of conflict between countries.

Types of Integration

1. Preferential trading agreement

Preferential trading agreement is a trade pact between countries. It is the weakest type of economic integration and aims to reduce the taxes on few products to the countries who sign the pact. The tariffs are not abolished completely but are lower than the tariffs charged to countries not party to the agreement. India is in PTA with countries like Afghanistan, Chile and South Common Market (MERCOSUR). The introduction of PTA has generated an increase in the market size, and resulted in the availability and variety of new products.

2. Free trade area

Free Trade Area (FTA) is a type of trade bloc and can be considered as a second stage of economic integration. It is made up of all the countries that are willing to or agree to reduce preferences, tariffs and quotas on most of the services and goods traded between them. Countries choose this kind of economic integration if their economical structures are similar. If the countries compete among themselves, they are likely to choose customs union.

The importers must obtain product information from all the suppliers within the supply chain, in order to determine the eligibility for a Free Trade Agreement (FTA). After receiving the supplier documentation, the importer must evaluate the eligibility of the product depending on the rules surrounding the products. The importers product is qualified individually by the FTA. The basis on which the product will be qualified is that the finished product should have a minimum percentage of local content.

3. Common market

Common market is a group formed by countries within a geographical area to promote duty free trade and free movement of labour and capital among its members. European community is an example of common market. Common markets levy common external tariff on imports from non-member countries.

A single market is a type of trade bloc, comprising a free trade area with common policies on product regulation, and freedom of movement of goods, capital, labour and services, which are known as the four factors of production. This agreement aims at making the movement of four factors of production between the member countries easier.

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The technical, fiscal and physical barriers among the member countries are eliminated considerably as these barriers hinder the freedom of movement of the four factors of production. The member countries must come forward to eliminate the barriers, have a political will and formulate common economic policies.

A common market is a first step towards a single market. It may be initially limited to a FTA with moderate free movement of capital and services, but it is not capable of removing rest of the trade barriers.

Benefits and costs

A single market has many advantages. The freedom of movement of goods, capital, labour and services between the member countries, results in the efficient allocation of these production factors and increases productivity.

A single market presents a challenging environment for businesses as well as for customers, making the existence of monopolies difficult. This affects the inefficient companies and hence, results in a loss of market share and the companies may have to close down. However, efficient companies can gain from the increased competitiveness, economies of scale and lower costs. Single market also benefits the consumers in a way that the competitive environment provides them with inexpensive products, more efficient providers of products and increased variety of products.

A country changing over to a single market may experience some short term negative effects on the national economy due to increased international competition. The national companies that earlier benefited from market protection and subsidies, may find it difficult to cope with their efficient peers. If the companies fail to improve their methods, they may have to close down leading to migration and unemployment.

4. Economic union

Economic union is a type of trade bloc and is instituted through a trade pact. It comprises of a common market with a customs union. The countries that are part of an economic union have common policies on the freedom of movement of four factors of production, common product regulations and a common external trade policy.

The purpose of an economic union is to promote closer cultural and political ties, while increasing the economic efficiency between the member countries.

Economic unions are established by means of a formal intergovernmental legal agreement, among independent countries with the intention of fostering greater economic integration. The members of an economic union share some elements associated with their national economic jurisdictions. These include the free movements of:

• Goods and services within the union along with a common taxing method for imports from non-member countries.

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• Capital within the economic union.• Persons within the economic union. Some form of cooperation usually

exists when framing fiscal and monetary policies. 5. Political union

A political union is a type of country, which consists of smaller countries/nations. Here, the individual nations share a common government and the union is acknowledged internationally as a single political entity. A political union can also be termed as a legislative union or state union.

Q5. What are the challenges faced by Indian businesses in global market?

Ans: Challenges for Indian Businesses

India is a developing country and every developing country has its own organisational problems. In the past decade, some Indian companies have made remarkable progress by reaching the international platform in short time. India has transformed from being primarily domestic players into confident global corporations. The TATA Jaguar deal was one prominent example of an Indian global power house to acquire an internationally reputed automotive company

1. Brand India

Brand India is a phrase that describes the campaign which projects India as an emerging destination for business in various fields such as information technology, manufacturing, infrastructure, service sector and so on. Country names can amount to brand names and assist consumers in evaluating the products before purchasing them.

Brand India is receiving a positive response. However, Brand India is weak in many ways. In developed countries, people are yet to associate India with world-class standards. The initial market entry strategy of a company from a developing country is to offer cheaper products of acceptable quality, example, China and Korea. The customers of developed countries buy those products only on the basis of price. Brand India is comprised of a large number of sub-brands that are relatively established. It reflects the economic reforms and liberalisation process that Indian economy has undergone. The famous brands from India are Indian information technology (IT) companies such as Infosys, Wipro and Tata. The positive image of these companies help in changing consumer perceptions and also help in re-branding India as a leading manufacturing and service hub by improving Indias brand equity.

Brand equity is the worth derived from the goodwill and name recognition acquired over a period of time. It improves sales volume and profit margins. The India Brand Equity Foundation (IBEF) was established to promote brand India.

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2. Government and bureaucracy

The political environment of a country influences the business to a large extent. The political environment includes political stability in the country, nature and extent of bureaucracy, ideology of government, party in power and so on. Another challenge that influences business is bureaucracy. Industrial incentives are administered by an elaborate and expensive bureaucracy. The relationship of government to international business is based on the concept of sovereignty. The concept identifies that the nation has complete control over the international affairs. The infrastructure such as airport, road or port upgradation takes years for completion or are stalled for many years. This affects the business in India negatively.

Government policy and procedures in India are very complex and confusing. Government policy and bureaucratic culture in India do not encourage international business. Unnecessary government interference can hinder globalisation. Government support is essential to encourage globalisation. Government support is extended in the form of policy reforms, development of infrastructure, financial market, R&D support and so on. Changes in government and political instability disrupt business. Good business thrives on predictability which is lacking in India.

3. Corporate governance

Corporate governance is a process of promoting corporate transparency and accountability. It is set of policies that affect the way a company is administered and controlled. Quality corporate governance is a tool for socio-economic development. Corporate governance deals with power and accountability for the safety of assets and resources entrusted to the operating team of the firm.

The objective of the corporate governance is to attain highest standards of procedures and practices that are followed by the corporate world. The new emerging corporate India needs guiding principles for corporate governance. The common aspects for the failure of corporate governance are misuse of power, frauds, misappropriation of funds and so on. Good corporate governance promotes accountability in relation to public satisfaction and responsive delivery of service. In India, corporate governance initiatives are undertaken by Ministry of Corporate Affairs (MCA) and the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI).

Ethics

Corporate governance is about ethical conduct of the business. Ethics is related to the code of values and principles that helps a person to choose between right or wrong. Managers make decisions based on a set of values and principles that are influenced by the culture of the organisation. Ethical leadership is important for the business to be conducted by meeting the expectations of all the stakeholders. Corporate governance is the ethical framework under which corporate decisions are taken. Ethics is a generalised value system avoiding discrimination in recruitment and adopting fair business practices.

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Business ethics provide a general guidelines within which a management can operate. An organisation has to be ethical because it has to exist in the competitive world. The varying ethical norms and social values make international business environment complex. The ethical norms vary from country to country.

Labour practices

Ethical concerns are at the core of dispute regarding the labour practices. The multinational enterprises are charged of unjust treatment of workers in developing nations. The labour law enforcement is weak. The laws that force firms to obtain permission from the government prior to retrenchment are not enforced properly. Hiring labors to contractor and subcontracting non-core activities to other companies provides flexibility to the firms that seek to manage their labour force in volatile context. Child labour is used in the manufacture of exports from the developing countries is criticised by people in the developed countries. For example, in India the carpet industry uses child labour and social activists in developed nations demand ban on the import goods embodying child labour. Consumers tend to boycott such goods and this in turn adversely affects the business.

4. Managing diversity

Most of the international businesses face problems in managing multicultural diversity. Previously, MNCs had a country specific business strategy but now it is moving towards a global one. Managing diversity is a process of establishing workforce to perform in an unbiased environment where no member has an advantage or disadvantage. For an international manager, managing diversity is a challenge. The challenge is to create a work environment where every person performs to his full potential and compete for rewards and promotions that based on merits. The success of an MNC is determined by its ability to manage diversity. In an international organisation, the workforce consists of variety of cultures. Today, a typical firm is a combination of diverse workforce in terms of gender, race and so on. Most companies encourage exchange programs where employees from one country come and interact with employees of other countries. There are some practical steps taken by managers to manage diversity. They are:

• Focusing on bringing in best talent.• Establishing programmes among employees of same and different race.• Developing an age, gender and race profile of the workforce.• Promoting minorities and other sections to decision-making positions.• Providing extended leaves, flexible time, and job sharing opportunities.

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Q6. Discuss the various e- business models?

Ans: E-Business Models

The business model describes the manner in which an organisation creates, delivers and captures the value. The values can be social, economic forms of value. The design of the business model is part of the business strategy.

1. Business to business model

The business to business (B2B) model describes the transactions between the buyers, suppliers, manufactures, resellers, distributors, and trading partners. This involves the transactions that involve the products, services, and the information. Internet based e-business is carried out through the industry sponsored marketplaces and private exchanges that are conducted by the large companies. The B2B model is shown in the figure:

Business to Business Model

The above diagram indicates direct business to business model. In this direct business, the selling enterprise includes wholesaler, retailer or manufacturers who sell to the buyers of other business.

The main reason behind introducing this B2B model is to overcome the problems met by industry sponsored marketplaces in approaching buyers and sellers. Most of the companies do not want to get customised designs through marketplaces as they do not want to expose proprietary information on a site that is shared by competitors. Therefore, companies use such marketplaces mainly to purchase products, manage their supply chains, and conduct indirect procurement transactions, as these are not related to their core business.

B2B e-commerce differs from business-to-consumer e-commerce in many ways. Business to consumer merchants sells on a first-come, first-serve basis. Most B2B transactions are done through negotiated contracts that allow the seller to think and plan for how much the buyer is likely to purchase. In most of the cases, B2B model mainly focus on maintaining relationship with the business partners.

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2. Business to consumer model

The activities that serve the business customers with the products and services are described in the business to consumer model.

The best example we can give for the business to consumer (B2C) transaction is the person buying a pair of shoes from the retailer. The manufacture of the shoes performs many transactions such as the purchase of leather, laces, rubber and other raw materials.

There are two models of implementation related to the business to consumer. They are described as follows:

Generic B2C model - The generic model is mainly designed for the small and medium enterprises. The third party e-market place is used to help the enterprises for selling the products online.

Dedicated B2C model - Many of the large enterprises use the dedicated B2C model. The enterprise itself owns the e-market place to sell service and support the customers online. As the name indicates this model is fully dedicated to the customers and is almost equivalent to the customer relationship management.

There are some e-commerce constituents with the B2C model. These constituents are explained as follows:

Commerce - This involves the process like the catalog, compare, products and a service, advertisements, order status and also enables the online payment.

Personalisation - This involves the activities like profile matching that matches the web content to specific profiles and gets the feedback from the customers and deals with the events, calendaring, and registration.

Community services - These include the services that are dealt for the whole community. The community services can be chat, message boards, e-mail services, subscriptions, and newsletters.

Customer services - This process involves the services that are helpful for the customers. These include the activities such as the product support, online support like the call centers and telephony integration.

The products that are browsed and mostly sold over the internet are explained as follows:

Computer hardware and software - Most of the people buy software products online. The major online retailers of computer hardware and software are Dell and Gateway.

Consumer electronics - The second largest product category sold online is electronics. Some of the electronics items shopped or purchased online are digital cameras, printers,

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scanners, and wireless devices like mobile phones, pen drives and so on. For example, www.ebay.com

Sporting goods - Sports related items like cricket bats, tennis bats, golf accessories like clubs, golf balls are some of the sporting goods which are sold online. Examples for this include sites like www. summitonline.com, www.dicksportinggoods.com and so on.

Office supplies - Business to consumer sales of office supplies are increasing all over the world. For example, www.officedepot.com alone reached over 10,000 crores in 2002.

3. Consumer to consumer model

The consumer to consumer (C2C) model involves the transaction between the customers through the third party.

This can be explained by taking the example of online auction where the customer posts an item for sale and other customer purchases the product. But in between the third party charges a commission for the sale.

C2C is also called as Peer to Peer (P2P) exchanges. The C2C transaction includes the classifieds, music and file sharing, and also the personal services. There will be million consumers those who want to sell their products in the e-business field. Equally on the other side there are million people who want to purchase the products and services. Finding each other are beneficial for both the retailer and the consumers and this can happen many times only with the help of third party that act as the intermediaries. The intermediaries in the C2Cbusiness model charge the sellers. The intermediaries charge because they bring the customers and sellers to one marketplace.

C2C e-business has created a new dimension in online shopping business. C2C e-business gives many small business owners a way to sell their products without running a highly profit draining bricks-and-mortar store. The efficient C2C businesses involve items like handmade gifts, personal artwork, clothing design, and collectables.

4. Consumer to business model

A consumer to business (C2B) model is the electronic business model, in which the consumers offer products and services to the enterprises. This is called as the inverted business model since the process operates completely in the opposite direction of the traditional e-business model, in which the organisations offer the goods and services to the consumers.

The C2B model involves consumers themselves presenting as a group and provides the goods and services to the enterprise. For example, www.speakout.com. This site provides consumers market strategies and businesses and it also makes them familiar with the requirements of the various businesses. A concrete example of this is when competing airlines gives a traveler best travel and ticket offers in response to the travelers post.

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This C2B model is advantageous because of the following reasons. The model helps:

• In connecting large group of people by the bidirectional network. Many of the traditional media is of unidirectional but the internet is the bidirectional media.

• Individuals to access the technologies that were once available only for the large companies.

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