AFM241 Study Guide - Midterm Guide: Mass Customization, Risk It, Encyclopedia

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1. Economies of scale: firms that can produce at large volumes can achieve lower per unit cost.
Large retailors increased fixed cost to adopt new procurement, distribution, and inventory
control technologies such as distribution centers, bar coding, and POS terminals. There
made it difficult for smaller retailers to enter because they don’t have economies of scale.
2. Network effects: a buyer’s willingness to buy a firm’s product or services increases with the number
of buyers who buy the firm’s product/services.
Use IT to generate network related effects. E.g. BlackBerry Messenger, allows messaging
among BlackBerry users. Similar with Facebook and Skype.
3. Customer switching cost: refers to the fixed costs that buyers face if they decide to switch to another
product or service. It may be physical capital such as investment in customized hardware or human
capital such as training time.
IT in this case connects a firm’s logistic facilities to a supplier’s manufacturing facilities
through a customized supply management system. These firms face a switching cost
4. Capital requirements: refers to the need to invest large amounts of resources in order to compete in
an industry.
IT investments had become a barrier to entry for smaller companies but;
Firms can leverage IT innovations such as cloud computing to alleviate the burden of capital
requirements. This reduces barrier to entry.
5. Incumbent advantage: existing firms may have a cost or quality advantage due to various isolating
mechanisms or proprietary technology.
E.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica was the oldest and most prestigious English language
encyclopaedia. But it gave in to Wikipedia and stopped their print edition.
In this case, the incumbent advantage was eroded by the power of crowd sourcing, which
was made possible through the Internet.
6. Access to distribution channels: works as a barrier to entry for newcomers because they have to
secure distribution of their product or service.
Traditionally people used physical channels of distribution but the power of IT now
introduced e-commerce and obsoleted the physical market. Online shopping vs retail stores.
Rip Blockbuster.
3.2.3 IT and Balance of Power
IT balances out the power between buyers and sellers
3.2.4 IT and New Products
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Document Summary

Economies of scale: firms that can produce at large volumes can achieve lower per unit cost. Large retailors increased fixed cost to adopt new procurement, distribution, and inventory control technologies such as distribution centers, bar coding, and pos terminals. Similar with facebook and skype: customer switching cost: refers to the fixed costs that buyers face if they decide to switch to another product or service. It may be physical capital such as investment in customized hardware or human capital such as training time. It in this case connects a firm"s logistic facilities to a supplier"s manufacturing facilities through a customized supply management system. These firms face a switching cost: capital requirements: refers to the need to invest large amounts of resources in order to compete in an industry. It investments had become a barrier to entry for smaller companies but; Firms can leverage it innovations such as cloud computing to alleviate the burden of capital requirements.

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