Electronic Business: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (4-Volumes) P108 pptx

The region: Regional infrastructure Web site and e-commerce support and interna-tionalisation The key results, evidence, and experience from the empirical case study research highlight

to changing conditions than larger organisations

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that the electronic environment offers (Stockdale

& Standing, 2004) E-commerce, for many SMEs,

is manifested in Web sites, which are viewed as

providing the most value within an inherently

mar-NHWLQJGULYHQFRQWH[W0F&XH3ÀXJKRHIW

5DPDPXUWK\6RR¿<DVDL$UGHNDQL )DWHPDK

2003; Quinton & Harridge-March, 2003;

Ray-mond, 2001; Sellitto, Wenn, & Burgess, 2003;

Sparkes & Thomas, 2001; Standing, Vasudavan,

& Borbely, 1998) Many SMEs initially adopt the

Internet for business use as a tool for e-mail and

VXU¿QJWKH:RUOG:LGH:HE+RZHYHU:HEVLWH

adoption takes this Internet adoption to a higher

level by requiring the SME to register a URL

and develop a Web site, which can be accessed

by visitors globally This Web site adoption, in

turn, will be at different levels at any particular

point in time in terms of its sophistication and

relevance to target customers

SMEs are adopting e-commerce for

market-ing, promotmarket-ing, buying and selling of goods

and services electronically In particular, this is

carried out as a new way of transacting business

and encompasses various aspects of Internet use

This involves virtual store fronts that are sites for

shopping and making purchases, exchange of data

and e-mail There is also business-to-business

buying and selling and the need for the security

of data handling and transactions (Van Ketel &

Nelson, 1998) In these terms, Forrester Research

 ZKLFK LV DQ LQGHSHQGHQW UHVHDUFK ¿UP

GH¿QHVHFRPPHUFHDV³WKHWUDGLQJRIJRRGVDQG

VHUYLFHVLQZKLFKWKH¿QDORUGHULVSODFHGRYHU

the Internet” (p 1) It is evident that a growing

number of SMEs are accessing the Internet for

their business and to reach new customers It may

seem intuitive to conclude that larger companies

with greater levels of expertise and resources

would appear to be in a much stronger position to

implement e-commerce strategies Indeed, Smyth

and Ibbotson (2001) found that smaller businesses

exhibited much lower rates of e-commerce

adop-tion than larger companies Development of ap-propriate skills, investment in staff training and poor knowledge of the Internet adoption process

KDYHEHHQLGHQWL¿HGDVFHQWUDOEDUULHUVWRe-com-merce diffusion (Smyth et al., 2001) However,

60(,QWHUQHWFRPSHWHQFLHVKDYHEHHQLGHQWL¿HG and studied by McGowan, Durkin, Allen, Dougan, and Nixon (2001) They contend that Internet technology can be a facilitator of SME relation-ships through its ability to transfer information EHWZHHQWKHPDQGRWKHU¿UPVLQDQHWZRUN%\ creating Internet-based competencies, a SME can potentially transcend traditional business barri-ers such as physical distance between markets DQG WKXV DOORZLQJ PRUH HIIHFWLYH DQG HI¿FLHQW interactions within the network To facilitate this process, McGowan et al (2001) postulate that a broad range of skills will be essential in enabling

it to happen Knowledge of the medium will

be important as well as the vision to predict its usefulness in future business strategies, and the ability to translate the vision into actual proac-tive business practice Technological awareness

of how Internet technology operates will also be essential within the process A survey, conducted

by the Arthur Anderson Enterprise Group and the National Small Business United (1998), reported that e-mail and research are the most popular use

of the Internet amongst SMEs In the survey it was found that SMEs used a Web site in order

to reach new and potential customers (78%), sell goods and services (65%), provide information PRUH HI¿FLHQWO\  UHDFK QHZ SURVSHFWLYH employees (13%) and expand globally (17%) Potential entrepreneurs can be discouraged from setting up ventures in the global market place because of the many complexities and barriers that appear to reduce their chances of success Through the use of Web sites many of these barriers can be overcome By performing case study interviews this chapter provides a detailed understanding of the role of Web sites and e-commerce for global KLJKHUHGXFDWLRQVSLQRIIV7KHUHLVDQLGHQWL¿FD-WLRQRIWKHVSHFL¿FSUREOHPVHQFRXQWHUHGDQGWKH

key Internet factors, which have helped them to

succeed, based upon the university and regional

support available The six case study interviews,

described, lasted about one hour each and were

centred on three key elements:

1 The company:3UR¿OHDQGEDFNJURXQGRI

the spin-off’s Web site, e-commerce

devel-opment and major milestones

2 The university: Analysis of the technology

WUDQVIHURI¿FH772LQWKHGHYHORSPHQWRI

the Web site, e-commerce and

internation-alisation

3 The region: Regional infrastructure Web

site and e-commerce support and

interna-tionalisation

The key results, evidence, and experience

from the empirical case study research highlight

clear and precise reasons for the development of

Web sites and e-commerce by the global

start-ups The limitations of the results are that they

report early stage development of Web sites and

e-commerce by global start-ups It is planned to

undertake follow-up interviews in future years to

develop a longitudinal study There are important

implications of the study for entrepreneurs, policy

makers, practitioners, researchers, and educators

IRUWKHVSHFL¿F¿HOGRIHFRPPHUFHGHYHORSPHQWV

for global start-ups

BACKGROUND

The increasing importance and role of Web-based

technologies to support company operations

(e-business) is widely acknowledged by both

practitioners and academicians A number of

studies have appeared in the management

litera-ture, trying to describe and better understand the

e-business phenomenon One of the key points

WKDWKDYHEHHQFODUL¿HGLVWKDWWKHFRQFHSWRIH

business itself is rather wide, since it includes a

number of different applications and uses of the Internet technology

$PRQJ WKH SRVVLEOH FODVVL¿FDWLRQ GLPHQ-sions, a relevant one is based on the process supported by Internet tools For example, supply chain management refers to the management of different processes, such as customer relation-ship management, customer service, demand management, order management, production and PDWHULDOÀRZVDQGSXUFKDVLQJ/DPEHUW&RRSHU

& Pagh, 1998) In this context, e-business could EHFODVVL¿HGDV

• E-commerce (Brynjolfsson & Smith, 2000): Support to sales, distribution and

customer service processes

• E-procurement (De Boer, Harink, & Heijboer, 2002): Support to sourcing,

pro-FXUHPHQWWHQGHULQJDQGRUGHUIXO¿OPHQW processes

• E-manufacturing (Kehoe & Boughton, 2001): Supporting demand and capacity

planning, forecasting and internal supply chain integration

Three phases of Internet use, which SMEs

go through as their e-commerce involvement

develops, are described as connectivity, customer relations, and commerce (Ng, Pan, & Wilson, 1998; YG, 1998;) The three phases are seen as the building blocks of e-commerce (Williams & Phillips, 1999), as shown in Figure 1 (based on von Goeler, 1998)

The three phases towards e-commerce can be described as follows:

• Brochure-ware sites: Enterprises use their

Web sites for product/service advertisement, gather information, and improve services through customer feedback forms Such enterprises need to install electronic tech-nology to sell goods over the World Wide Web

• Pre-commerce sites: Enterprises are able to

provide information on price for immediate

orders from their Web sites But they do not

carry out online point-of-sale transactions,

although they keep their site current

• Simple e-commerce sites: Enterprises

ac-cept orders and payments over the Web

Customers have developed a behavioural

sequence to online shopping Indeed, Forrester

Research (1998) has divided the online retail

mar-ket into the three categories of convenience items,

replenishment goods, and research purchases

Convenience items are low cost discretionary

items such as books, clothes and music

Replen-ishment goods are medium cost high frequency

purchases like groceries Research purchases are

information driven and cost more than the other

two categories and include planned purchases

such as cars, computers and airline tickets The

)RUUHVWHU5HVHDUFKVWXG\IRXQGWKDW¿UVW

time buyers usually bought convenience items and

that it took around one year for online shoppers

to move to a further category

Internet sales have shown a fast growth in

books, cars, computers, and software (USDoC,

1998) Important players in this growth are online

entrepreneurs (Simons, 1999) Whereas some

SMEs have been early adopters of e-commerce, others have lagged behind in establishing the ability to sell their products and services over the Internet (Williams et al., 1999) In fact, SMEs have been slower than large businesses in embrac-ing e-commerce (Mehlembrac-ing, 1998) Even though the number of SMEs using the Internet is rising there are a number of obstacles to their use of HFRPPHUFH6SHFL¿FDOO\60(VDUHSDUWLFXODUO\ constrained by resource factors, and are there-fore more sensitive than larger organisations to

e-commerce adoption costs (Lewis & Cockrill,

2002; Smith & Webster, 2000) If there is no FOHDUEHQH¿WLQ:HEVLWHDGRSWLRQIRUH[DPSOH within resource constraints, SMEs will be more constrained in adoption than a larger company who will have more latitude to experiment (Jones, Muir, & Benyon-Davies, 2004) However, on a more cautionary note, Sadowski et al (2002) argue that over-concentration on perceived costs/bar-riers has prevented many SMEs from properly H[SORULQJWKHEHQH¿WVZKLFKFRXOGEHH[WUDFWHG from e-commerce adoption, resulting in adoption which is opportunistic, rather than being based

on a clear perception of its potential value Es-VHQWLDOO\E\FOHDUO\H[SORULQJERWKWKHEHQH¿WV and the barriers, a SME can more effectively perceive the value of e-commerce within their

Figure 1 Phases in the development of e-commerce for SME Web sites (Adapted from von Goeler, 1998)

Phases Information exchange Web site development

Connectivity Product/Service and Enterprise

Information Customer Feedback Forms

Brochure-ware sites

Customer Connections Online catalogue Pre E-Commerce sites

E-Commerce Online ordering

Online payment

Simple E-Commerce sites

business context Quayle (2001), who explores

perception and level of implementation of

e-com-merce, has eloquently described the e-commerce

challenge for SMEs Results of a survey of 298

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by these enterprises and he suggests paths, which

might be followed in seeking to achieve best

in class performance for e-commerce In order

to overcome the barriers to e-commerce, the

e-commerce ladder has been developed which

involves step 0 (not started), step 1 (using e-mail

and the Web), step 2 (basic Web site), step 3 (an

effective Web site), step 4 (an online store), step 5

(integration), and step 6 (advanced e-commerce)

(Opportunity Wales, 2007) In relation to this the

chapter proposes the e-commerce stairway as

a method of measuring the type of e-commerce

adopted by case companies (Figure 2)

SMEs rely on knowing customer needs and

build business processes and quality control

around communications A major concern is that

the loss of customer contact may lead to a lower

quality of service, and there may be customer

resistance to product price at the point of

transac-tion Low technology enterprises, in contrast to

high tech businesses, will have concerns about

online sales and e-commerce (von Goeler, 1998)

Most SMEs recognise the importance of selling

on the Internet as being important in the future

(Williams et al., 1999) It is the proposition of this

chapter that, because of the increasing importance

of SMEs being able to sell their products and ser-vices over the internet, it is necessary for regional governments to develop an e-commerce policy,

particularly as affects global start-ups, to ensure

the future competitiveness of their regions

GLOBAL START-UPS’ WEB SITES AND E-COMMERCE

Rialp-Criado, Rialp-Criado, and Knight (2002) noted several key driving forces behind the emergence of global start-ups as well as their age, LQGXVWU\DI¿OLDWLRQH[SRUWEHKDYLRXUDQGSHUIRU-mance, geographic distribution, (rise in) number and size In addition, international operations from the start-up of the business have been seen to be important General consensus has provided that WKHXQGHUO\LQJQRWLRQDQGWKHRUHWLFDOGH¿QLWLRQ

of the global start-up phenomenon perceives them DV\RXQJHQWUHSUHQHXULDO¿UPVHQJDJHGLQLQWHU-national business from inception (Rialp-Criado

et al., 2002) On the one hand, researchers have considered a six-year period as the standard in measuring international operations from the

start-up of the business (Oviatt & McDougall, 1997)

On the other hand, academics have selected other

FULWHULDWRHPSLULFDOO\GH¿QHWKHglobal start-ups

being analysed Rennie (1993) has reported that

Step 6: Full e-commerce Step 5: Integration

Step 4: On-line store

Step 3: Operational Web site Step 2: Web site

Step 1: E-mail & the Web

No e-commerce activity

Figure 2 The e-commerce stairway

on average and realised 76% of their total sales

E\ H[SRUWLQJ 2WKHU DXWKRUV KDYH GH¿QHG WKLV

according to foreign sales of 25% or more after

starting exporting activities and within three

years of birth (Knight & Cavusgil, 1996; Madsen,

Rasmussen, & Servais, 2000; Servais &

Rasmus-sen, 2000) By describing, understanding, and

interpreting the reasons behind the emergence of

global start-ups it is possible to gain insight into

their needs for IT support provision Interestingly,

according to Rialp-Criado et al (2002), much of

the present literature about global start-ups has

been assumed to be concerned with high tech

businesses, considering the globalisation aspects

SUHVHQWLQVHFWRUVZLWKLQZKLFKWKHVH¿UPVFRP-pete (Autio & Sapienza, 2000; Autio, Sapienza,

& Almeida, 2000; Bell, 1995; Burgel & Murray,

2000; Coviello & Munro, 1995; McDougall &

Oviatt, 1996; Roberts & Senturia, 2000; Zahira,

Ireland, & Hitt, 2000)

According to Rialp-Criado et al (2002), the

top ten characteristics considered as critical

suc-cess factors (CSFs) for global start-ups (not in

rank order) are:

• Managerial global vision from

inception.

• High degree of previous international

experience on behalf of managers.

• Management commitment.

• Strong use of personal and business

networks (networking).

• Market knowledge and market

commitment.

• Unique intangible assets based on

knowledge management.

• High value creation through product

differentiation, leading edge technology

products, technological innovativeness

(usually associated with a greater use

of IT), and quality leadership.

• Niche focussed, proactive international

strategy in geographically spread lead

markets around the World from the very beginning.

‡ 1DUURZO\GH¿QHGFXVWRPHUJURXSVZLWK

strong customer orientation and close customer relationships.

• Flexibility to adapt to rapidly changing

external conditions and circumstances

(Rialp-Criado et al, 2002, p 25-26)

Further to this, Rialp-Criado et al (2002) from their research into twenty seven of the most important studies in the decade 1993-2002, which consider global start-ups amongst other forms of these types of businesses, say that hav-LQJLGHQWL¿HGH[DPLQHGDQGFULWLFDOO\DVVHVVHG these studies they have been able to formulate

an adequate observation of the state of the art of WKLVLPSRUWDQWUHVHDUFKDUHDZLWKLQWKH¿HOGRI

international entrepreneurship (IE).

According to Wakkee, van der Sijde, and Kir-wan (2003), global start-ups are described in the literature as perfect examples of entrepreneurial ventures and therefore need to be investigated from an entrepreneurial perspective They go on WRVD\WKDWWKHFRQFHSWRIJOREDOVWDUWXSZDV¿UVW mentioned in a paper by Mamis (1989) At about the same time, Ray (1989) undertook four cases for which the term global start-up was used Following WKLVWKHWHUPJOREDOVWDUWXSZDVGH¿QHGE\2YLDWW DQG0F'RXJDOO³DVRQHWKDWVHHNVWRGHULYH VLJQL¿FDQWFRPSHWLWLYHDGYDQWDJHIURPH[WHQVLYH co-ordination along multiple organisational ac-tivities, the location of which is geographically unlimited” (p 59-60) Wakkee et al (2003) add WKDWWKHVH¿UPVGRQRWRQO\UHVSRQGWRJOREDOPDU-ket conditions, they also act to acquire resources and sell wherever in the World there is the largest value Since Oviatt and McDougall (1994, 1995) the term global start-up has been referred to by Harveston (2000), Madsen and Servais (1997), and Saarenketo (2002) Furthermore, Rasmussen and Madsen (2002) have suggested that they are the only type of international new venture Wakkee HWDOKDYHVDLGWKDW³DJOREDOVWDUWXSLVWKH

most radical manifestation of the international

new venture"(pp 6-7) According to Wakkee et

al (2003), from their discussion of the literature on

WKHGH¿QLWLRQRIDglobal start-up¿YHUHOHYDQW

characteristics are apparent, and these are:

1 The diversity or scope of the international

activities

2 The company age

3 The timing of international activities (time

to entry)

4 The global diversity of the international

activities

5 The purpose of the international activities

(strategic choice) (Wakkee et al., 2003, p

13)

In fact, they say that the nature of the

opportu-nity differences global start-ups from other types

of start-ups since the opportunity is a global one

)URPWKLV:DNNHHHWDOGH¿QHDJOREDO

start-up as:

A new venture that from its inception

(“opportu-nity recognition”) seeks to pursue opportunities

wherever they arise (i.e., global or in an unlimited

number of countries around the world), it

coordi-nates multiple activities in the value chain through

the interaction with network actors around the

World The entrepreneur(ial team) leading the

¿UP LV LQWHUQDWLRQDOO\ H[SHULHQFHG DQG VNLOOHG

(Wakkee et al., 2003, p 14)

They go on to say that global start-ups are

characterised by high levels of entrepreneurial

orientation (EO) although originally developed

by Lumpkin and Dess (1996) and Lumpkin (1998)

IRUHVWDEOLVKHG¿UPVZKHQFRQVLGHUHGIRUJOREDO

start-ups they exhibit high levels of EO In these

terms, Wakkee et al (2003), bring together the

descriptions of global start-ups and, describe them

DV³DQHQWUHSUHQHXULDO¿UPWKDWOLWHUDOO\IURPLWV

inception is involved in a variety of international

activities around the World” (Wakkee et al., 2003,

p 28)

The case studies selected are spin-offs, from

a new university, which are believed to have global potential and exhibit differing states of

technological innovativeness Those that have

been selected are university spin-offs operating

in the global market or with a global potential Founders, closely involved with the spin-offs from establishment until now, have been interviewed

No restrictions have been placed with regard to the spin-off age and industry Although, it is the case that spin-offs running for a number of years will provide more valuable information about their

IT development than those only recently founded For spin-offs in existence for many years it may be GLI¿FXOWWR¿QGDIRXQGHUZKRKDVEHHQLQYROYHG with the business since the original idea It might DOVREHPRUHGLI¿FXOWIRUWKHVHSHRSOHWRUHPHPEHU WKH VSHFL¿F SUREOHPV HQFRXQWHUHG LQ WKH HDUO\ stages of the IT development of the spin-off The spinout managers (see http://www.spinoutwales co.uk/man.htmlLGHQWL¿HGWKHLQWHUHVWLQJVSLQRII cases and provided contact names for interviews 7KH\DOVRDSSURDFKHGWKHFRPSDQLHVLQWKH¿UVW instance to gain their support The stages of development of the case study companies have

been measured against the e-commerce ladder

(Opportunity Wales, 2007)

GLOBAL START-UPS: CASE STUDIES

Described next are the six global start-up case studies, which were investigated, and these reveal different characteristics and aspects for Web site development and e-commerce activity Perhaps the main limitation is that most of the companies are in the early stage of IT and business development, but

it is envisaged that this work will be developed into

a longitudinal study, which will show interesting evolutionary Web site and e-commerce dynamics

in future years Due to the sensitive nature and

stage of their development all the companies have

been referred to anonymously

Consultancy Services

3UR¿OHDQG%DFNJURXQGWRWKH

Company’s Web Site and E-Commerce

Development

The consultancy services (CS) company founded

in January 2004 as a University spinout,

com-menced trading in January 2005 to assist

organi-sations access European Union (EU) funding in

RUGHUWRLPSOHPHQWVSHFL¿FSURMHFWVLQDFFRUGDQFH

with regulations accompanying the use of funds

In particular, the Internet has been used to interact

with organisations who, as the customers, need to

access EU funds This has been taken into account

in the company’s overall marketing strategy and

e-business strategy Services involve a range of

training courses that cover all aspects of European

Union (EU) funded projects, including State Aid

Rules and Public Procurement Directive CS has

a team of Prince 2 practitioners and freelance

FRQVXOWDQWV7DEOHVXPPDULVHVWKHSUR¿OHDQG

background of the company

The company has grown on an incremental

basis and this followed a long period of time to

receive approval with the University The

con-struction of the Web site took six months and this

was achieved on 1st March 2005 The company has won a number of contracts and this has therefore not been an issue It has also been important to have clients returning and to draw on their exper-tise There are six current clients including public sector and voluntary organisations

Development of the Web Site and E-Commerce

To a large extent the company has relied on public support, through the Spinout programme, in its early stage development The founder has been VDWLV¿HGZLWKWKHXQLYHUVLW\VXSSRUWWKDWKDVEHHQ provided and the company has received £30,000 from its activities, which has included grant aid

to pay for the Web site and employees’ wages that have been subcontracted from the Univer-sity Commercial Services Company to carry out work Whilst these staff have been undertaking this work the company has been making money and this has been found to be a good arrange-ment Support through the Spinout programme

to set up the business plan was slow and it was not proactive This could have been undertaken

in a month, rather then six or seven months, if more advice had been provided at the start As part of the business plan the Founder is hoping

to recruit a partner to drive the business forward off campus so that he can retain his position on campus

7DEOH3UR¿OHDQGEDFNJURXQGFRQVXOWDQF\VHUYLFHV

7DEOH3UR¿OHDQGEDFNJURXQG²consultancy services

%ULHIRYHUYLHZRIWKH¿UP¶VDFWLYLWLHVLWVPLVVLRQDQGIRFXV

Industry European Project Management

Technology Project Management software

Product/service Training and consultancy

Market and targeted customers Wales, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Bulgaria and other

European countries Company’s current mission and focus To develop the company at a European level over the next three

years.

Web Site and E-Commerce Support

A spinout loan has been secured and there has

been an undergraduate working with the company

for 10 weeks Additionally, the company has been

assigned a mentor to develop a strategy to make a

¿UVWFRQWDFWDQGUHFHLYHDFRQWUDFWLQ3RODQG

The company has also received grant aid to

develop the Web site There has been an additional

£750 provided for a Web site psychologist to

at-tract customers through the Web site Regarding

the potential role played by the Internet, since the

company has been trading for less than two years,

it is yet to be seen if the results of the company,

LQWHUPVRIUHYHQXHSUR¿WQXPEHUVRIVWDIIDQG

customers, generated through its Web site, are on

target when compared with the original business

plan In terms of the e-commerce ladder, the

company is at step 3 of development

Energy Management Systems

3UR¿OHDQG%DFNJURXQGWRWKH

Company’s Web Site and E-Commerce

Development

Energy management systems (EMS) was launched

in January 2005 as a spinout company The focus

of the company is to reduce utility costs and to

provide customised online utility information

regarding these costs and to ensure that they

remain low The company works with customers

to provide a full energy/utility service ranging

from fuel purchasing, meter installation, advanced

monitoring and targeting to project engineering

and information technology (IT) solutions In its

early stages the company received public support

through the Spinout programme and more recent

developments have been resourced by the

foud-ners In addition to IT and software developments,

EMS undertakes remote analysis of customers’

consumption patterns and works closely with

cli-ents to achieve reduced costs The company aims

to be a professional service provider by establish-ing trust through buildestablish-ing personal relationships with customers over the Internet This has been LQFOXGHGLQWKH¿UP¶VRYHUDOOPDUNHWLQJDQGH business strategy Through this trust it enables EMS to work with customers, employing the most appropriate technology to gain outstand-ing results The products and services provided include metering hardware and connectivity; IT support, hosting, VDN and networking; installa-tion of metering hardware and network cabling; installation of gas, water and steam meters; Web design, Web development and consultancy Table

VXPPDULVHVWKHSUR¿OHDQGEDFNJURXQGRIWKH company

Development of the Web Site and E-Commerce

The reasons why customers have chosen EMS for their energy system requirements are because they have energy bills over £100,000, require a rebate, have experienced a large rise in energy bills, want to improve their bottom line for little capital outlay and are concerned about the environ-ment Additionally, technical reasons for choosing EMS include their unique and advanced Net Web management system, advanced statistical process control and proactive alarming, secure VPN data connectivity to each company, customisable re-porting, visualisation, and an exceptional range of business patterns and support Also, the company

is one of the few organisations that offer a full energy management service remotely So far there have been four pilot customers

Web Site and E-Commerce Support

With the company Web site, it is possible to log

on from anywhere and it provides online real-time monitoring Through the Web site it will be possible to market the company internationally Due to the importance of this, the founders have allocated money in the business plan to update

the site since it will be the main marketing tool

Again, since the company has been trading for

less than two years it is yet to be seen if the

re-VXOWVRIWKHFRPSDQ\LQWHUPVRIUHYHQXHSUR¿W

numbers of staff and customers, generated through

its Web site, are on target According to the

e-commerce ladder, the company is again at step

3 of development

Literary Book Publishing

3UR¿OHDQG%DFNJURXQGWRWKH

Company’s Web Site and E-Commerce

Development

Literary Book Publishing (LBP) was launched

and registered, as a limited company in May 2001

as a spinout company from the university with

public support through the Spinout programme

The company publishes short stories by authors

in a small book format and provides retailing

through coffee shops, tearooms, restaurants, and

hotels The books are being marketed, over the

Internet, to customers in the United Kingdom

(UK), United States (U.S.) initially and the English

speaking world due to the co-founders’ business

partner being American This role of the

Inter-net has been included in the company’s overall

marketing and e-business strategy Other markets

and languages will be considered later There is

a three-year business plan targeting sales in the

8.DQG86$IRUWKH¿UVWWKUHH\HDUV7KHVSLQ off is linked to the University since both of the co-founders are graduates of the English Depart-ment Centre for Creative Writing This provides

a link with academics and a network of authors The co-founders are MPhil students from the 8QLYHUVLW\7DEOHVXPPDULVHVWKHSUR¿OHDQG background of the company

Development of the Web Site and E-Commerce

The initial markets are in the UK and U.S to

be followed internationally Work with partners LV¿QLWHIRULQWHUQDWLRQDOGLVWULEXWLRQ2QFHWKH product is proved LBP will approach international chains such as Marks and Spencer As a small start-up company they are not ready to sell to Marks and Spencer who have 6 warehouses and

140 coffee shops in the UK The large international chain stores will consider the product once it is proven A contact for London and Cambridge has taken the books to shops that are willing to pay a higher price The product will sell better

in the South East of England and it is hoped that this will be the case with international markets The company organised a short story competition for authors on its Web site for the winners and UXQQHUVXS WR KDYH WKHLU ¿UVW ERRNV SXEOLVKHG There are also competitions for poetry and writ-ing for children

7DEOH3UR¿OHDQGEDFNJURXQGHQHUJ\PDQDJHPHQWV\VWHPV

7DEOH3UR¿OHDQGEDFNJURXQG²energy management systems

%ULHIRYHUYLHZRIWKH¿UP¶VDFWLYLWLHVLWVPLVVLRQDQGIRFXV

Technology Energy management technology

Product/service Net Web management system

Market and targeted customers Public, private and leisure organisations

Company’s current mission and focus To maintain and consolidate company activities over the next

¿YH\HDUV

Web Site and E-Commerce Support

Networks are important to the business on a

na-tional level and to grow internana-tionally The power

of the Web is also important and the company Web

site has been set up to give creditability, publicise

the competitions and people have been referred to

the site for information Since no one had heard

of the company this was important The Web site

involves graphics and the competition had a good

response Another Web site is being constructed

to complement the current site, which provides

information about the company in order to sell

books online This will develop the current four

pages into a 16-page site with online ordering It

is envisaged that this potential role of the Internet

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impact, on how the company will grow since

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staff and customers The company is moving from

step 3 to step 4 of the e-commerce ladder.

Mobile Phone Security

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Company’s Web Site and E-Commerce

Development

The mobile phone security (MPS) company is

a spinout of the university with limited public

support through the spinout programme It was

formed in 2004 by the founder who as an un-dergraduate developed a unique patent pending software application, which overcomes password protection technology limitations The application

is different to existing mobile security software since it is undetectable This provides high levels

of data security since there is no evidence that data is hidden Once the application is installed

in a mobile phone it creates a second menu for XVHUVWRVWRUHFRQ¿GHQWLDOFRQWDFWLQIRUPDWLRQ RI¿FHGRFXPHQWVSLFWXUHVRUYLGHR¿OHV7KHVH are safe since there is no trace of the second menu, which is not visible in the event of unauthorised use, theft, or loss Since the menu mirrors stan-dard phone functionality it is easy for the user to navigate requiring little effort to learn

Since the take up of 3G services has not been

as strong as the industry forecast companies are looking for third party content to differentiate between their own and competitors’ service and product offerings This will result in third party software developers such as MPS to be in a strong position It is envisaged that the primary route to the OEM market will be through regional licens-ing agreements with major network operators Through the pre-installation of the software in phones this will enable users to experience the software application and will allow the encour-agement of new potential users through direct marketing by the network operators In order to encourage new users to adopt the service the try before you buy approach is a powerful tactic

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7DEOH3UR¿OHDQGEDFNJURXQG²literary book publishing

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Technology Book publishing graphic design technology

Product/service A6 pocket sized books

Market and targeted customers UK, USA and the English speaking world

Company’s current mission and focus To develop the company in the book publishing trade over the

next three years.

site and e-commerce support and

interna-tionalisation

The key results, evidence, and experience

from the empirical case study research highlight

clear and precise...

Product/service Training and consultancy

Market and targeted customers Wales, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Lithuania, Bulgaria and other

European