Business Studies

Emerging Modes of Business

Question:

Evaluate the need for outsourcing and discuss its limitations.

Answer:

Outsourcing has emerged as a way of doing business due to global competitive pressures for higher quality products at lower costs, ever demanding customers and emerging technologies. Need for outsourcing can be understood from the benefits which are given below:

  • Focusing of Attention: Business firms are realizing the importance of focusing on core areas where they have distinct ability and core competence and contracting out the rest of the activities to their outsourcing partners. A business organization needs to decide its core areas and non-core areas. Once they outsource non-core areas, they can focus their attention on selected activities. It will increase efficiency and effectiveness.
  • Quest for Excellence: Outsourcing enables the firms to attain excellence in two ways:
    (a) By focusing on activities selected, their excellence in those activities increases.
    (b) They excel by extending their capabilities through contracting out the remaining activities to them who excel in them.
  • Cost Reduction: In the age of globalization, cost reduction is of vital importance to survive in the market. Division of labour not only enhances quality but also reduces cost. For example, India is preferred as an outsourcing destination because of cost factors.
  • Growth through alliance: When some activities are outsourced then these alliance partners invest for the outsourced activities. Business can be expanded by same amount of investible funds as now these funds are to be invested in limited number of activities.
  • Fillip to Economic Development: Outsourcing stimulates entrepreneurship, employment and exports in the host countries. For example, in India there has been remarkable growth in entrepreneurship, employment and exports that today India is an undisputed leader in software development and IT enable services.

But outsourcing is not an unmixed blessing. It has its own limitations. Some of which are discussed below:

  • Confidentiality: When a business opts for outsourcing, it has to share a lot of vital information and knowledge. This information may be leaked by the outsourcing partner. It may be against the outsourcing firm. It is also possible that the outsourcing partner starts a business of same line after getting such information.
  • Ethical Concerns: Many a time, outsourcing makes use of child labour and violates labour laws to reduce costs. They also discriminate in wages on the basis of sex.
  •  Sweat Shopping: A firm which goes in for outsourcing actually transfers ‘doing' skills rather than ‘thinking' skills. Therefore, they do not create skilled manpower in developing countries but just take maximum benefit of low cost labour by transferring non intellectual tasks.
  •  Resentment in their Home Countries: Outsourcing is being disliked by people in developed countries because the jobs which they could get are being transferred to developing countries through outsourcing. The problem is still more severe if there is problem of unemployment in home country of outsourcing firm.
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Emerging Modes of Business

Q 1.

Write a short note on the history of e-commerce.

Q 2.

What is digital divide? How is it relevant in context of e-business?

Q 3.

Explain various payment mechanisms under e-business.

Q 4.

Explain the measures taken to protect the security and safety of e-transactions.

Q 5.

Discuss the salient aspects of B2C commerce.

Q 6.

State any three differences between E-business and traditional business.

Q 7.

How does outsourcing represent a new mode of business?

Q 8.

Hackers lack certain values. Which are these?

Q 9.

Discuss the limitations of electronic mode of doing business. Are these limitations severe enough to restrict its scope? Give reasons for your answer.

Q 10.

Elaborate the steps involved in online trading.

Q 11.

Which values are of utmost importance while we get involved in e-business?

Q 12.

Differentiate between e-commerce and e-business.

Q 13.

Evaluate the need for outsourcing and discuss its limitations.

Q 14.

Discuss utility of E Commerce in:
(a) Health,
(b) Education,
(c) Governance,

Q 15.

What are the ethical concerns involved in outsourcing?

Q 16.

Describe briefly any two applications of E-business.

Q 17.

Describe briefly the data storage and transmission risks in E-business.

Q 18.

Write a short note on the scope of e-business.

Q 19.

What are the threats to e-transactions? Which measures have been devised for their protection?

Q 20.

Why are E-business and outsourcing referred to as the emerging modes of business? Discuss the factors responsible for the growing importance of these trends.

Q 21.

Show the anatomy of outsourcing.

Q 22.

What resources are required for successful implementation of e-business?

Q 23.

"E-commerce is the need of the hour."Comment.

Q 24.

"E-commerce is giving way to paperless society and government is supporting it."  Substantiate.

Q 25.

Differentiate between traditional business and e-business.