Ebay Case Study

647 Words3 Pages
eBAY - The auction market that spans the world 1. What delivers profits in this company and how is the situation changing? The profits of eBay are derived from taking a profit margin on every product or service sold on its internet site. Sales are derived from an auction process that is transparent with the sellers being subject to a monitoring process after each auction on whether they conducted their side of the bargain well. However, from a strategy perspective, this is not the complete story. There are several other factors that are important for profit delivery. Using the RBV classification of competitive resources, we can see that: 1. A major competitive resource of the organization is its architecture or network of relationships built around its suppliers and customers – this depends crucially on having reached a critical mass and may be unique. 2. Another major resource responsible for profits is its reputation: it monitors its sellers and publishes the results on the web. 3. A third area of competitive resources is its core competence in managing its networks – they never (well, hardly ever!) go down. Arguably, in the early days, its innovative capability was important but the case gives the impression that this has now given way to the search for size, rather than some totally new initiative. As a result of the above, value added is high and the company makes a healthy profit. Equally, customers are happy but perhaps fearful that the friendly relationships will end if and when the company brings in much larger suppliers. It is in this principal respect that the company is changing. 2. To what extent are the competitive and supplier threats real? Would they alter your view of the future goal of this company? Do you believe that the goal will be achieved? Other companies like Yahoo and Amazon have tried to set up their own auction sites.
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