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... e. Research has shown that the incident of credit card fraud incurred through the use of a cell phone is greater than that incurred over the Internet. (Internet Scam Busters, 1998) But it's not the consumer who is hurt in the end by these scams. There is protection in place for the consumer, but there is not as much protection provided to the merchant. The following are eight steps to minimize credit card fraud according to Internet Scam Busters magazine (1998): 1. Make sure all information is filled out - do not accept partially filled forms. 2.
Question orders that have different "bill to" and "ship to" addresses. 3. Be careful of orders placed through free email account systems. 4. Be wary of orders that far exceed your normal order amount. 5. Pay extra attention to foreign orders.
Make every attempt to validate order. 6. If the order is questionable, call the customer to confirm the order. 7. Use software or services to fight credit card fraud such as Cybersource or Clear Commerce Corp. 8. If you have been a victim of credit card fraud, immediately inform the cardholder's bank, your bank, and the authorities.
One of the legal issues affecting this sector is that of Internet sales tax. In October of 2000, Active Research stated that most Americans would cut down on Internet purchasing if taxes were imposed upon them (E-Commerce Times, 2000). In March of 1997, Congress introduced the Internet Tax Freedom Act. This bill would impose a moratorium on states and localities directly or indirectly taxing Internet purchases (Journal of Internet Law, 2000). What the law would not stop would be the imposition of taxes on services provided over the Internet that were similar to those obtained through telephone, mail order, or other remote means. Even though less than one percent of purchases are made online currently, that is sure to grow in the next three to five years that the moratorium will be extended. (E-Commerce Times, 2000) Though the numbers are still small, there is little doubt that a few years from now quite significant portions of commerce will take place over the Internet.
The question of whether and how to tax purchases on the Internet will become ever more a debate about how and where to tax overall rather than a sideshow. Not having a sales tax is an unfair advantage to Internet retailers. Due to this fact, it's only a matter of time before that advantage is taken away. (E-Commerce Times, 2000) Cultural Sector Societal norms are those standards that mold the behavior, attitudes and values of those members who constitute a society. Norms come from laws, customs, religious teachings and common practice. There are two cultures that Amazon. com lives within.
The first culture is the external, the society within which Amazon conducts business. Thus Amazon conducts business in the American, English, German, and the Japanese cultures. The second culture is the organizational culture, the internal culture. The internal culture affects such things as styles of dress, manner, and conduct of negotiations. Organizational culture are norms, beliefs, assumptions ideology, values and stern perception held by members of the organization.
Business must monitor their environment to detect threats or opportunities from changing values, beliefs, norms and behaviors. Culture could be an important source of opportunity. (Hodge, Anthony, and Gales; 1996) This new phenomenon of organizational culture was studied in the works of William Ought in "Theory Z" and by Thomas Peters and Robert Waterman in "In search of Excellence." Organization culture must be observed. Here are indicators of the unobservable characteristic of organization culture; the architecture, artwork, dress pattern, language, stories, myths, behavior, formal rules and rituals. Focusing on the External Culture of Amazon. com, in the various countries, where Amazon. com operates, it is easy to compare the performances of other companies within that culture.
Let us boundary span and collect some information that might help Amazon. com forecast her future. According to the Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2001 daily paper, 1) The Bank of Japan is pumping millions into its economy to bolster confidence. An equivalent of $ 92. 7 billion was pumped in. 2) Risk premium in investing in the U.
S. dollar has increased panic selling of U. S. dollars assets for repatriation 3) Renaissance Cruise shut down due to drop in vacation travels 4) Major Airlines have invoked "force majeur", a contract provision to cut jobs without notice to employee, no severance pay. 5) Rental cars firms have problems with one-way trips. These are few of the headlines in the news that affect the daily operations of Amazon. com directly or indirectly.
For example, as more and more people get layoff notices from work, the fewer books they will buy on line. As more airlines go out of business, the more people loose their jobs. The purchase of secondary items, such as books, music, or toys, will slow down and cause companies like Amazon to go bankrupt. Amazon. com must therefore be encouraged to expand within other cultures where the literacy rate is high and the use of the Internet is expanding. Some countries, which utilize the credit card, are Brazil, Spain, Switzerland, Holland and Nigeria.
Physical Resources Sector The physical Resources Sector of organizational Environment contains all the physical resources an organization needs to operate. A prime feature of the physical resources sector is those raw material that serve as inputs to an organization. For example, the steel, plastic, rubber, electronic components, paint, and so forth that a car manufacture needs to build cars are part of the physical resources sector. Wild fluctuation in the cost and availability of crude oil has caused problems and a broad cross section of businesses indirectly involved as consumer of crude oil.
The physical conditions of organization faces are also a critical part of the resource sector. These may include climatic conditions and geography. In the highly competitive E-Business Retailing industry, a prime factor in the success of retailing is the climatic condition. Before one can list these physical resources one needs to understand the operation of Amazon.
com. Amazon. com is a virtual bookstore that sells many items via the web (Internet). Through the web it provides the most comprehensive retail experience. Amazon. com does not produce any product.
It sells other company's products and then pays them. It is a retailer. What then are the Physical Resources of Amazon. com? 1) A web page: AMAZON. COM 2) Publishing companies that supply the books, DVD's, CD'S, etc 3) Distribution Warehouses a) 100, 000 sq.
ft. warehouse in Seattle Washington b) 200, 000 sq. ft. warehouse in New Castle, Delaware. 4) Computers a) Two Digital Alpha Servers 2000 systems containing 64 -bit processor with one gigabyte RAM b) Net Perception intelligent agent software 5) Jungle, a company, whose core technology expertise is in its use of XML to provide the platform for next-generation electronic commerce. 6) Customer Experience a) Read a synopsis or review from other readers. b) "Readers who bought (this book) also bought" device c) Lists three other titles in the same subject area or books by the same author. d) Each book carries anticipated delivery time.
e) Virtual bookstore carries unlimited inventory. One can order books that are slated for publication but that haven't hit the stores f) Amazon Publisher's Advantage program g) Proactive order confirmation h) Account Maintenance 1) billing information 2) shipping addresses 3) credit card information 4) list of every book he has ever bought 5) e-mail notification about things you are looking for. 6) Amazon's Recommendation center. 7) The 1 -Click purchase option -add or change profile -see everything you " ve ever ordered 8. ) Book Matcher game 9) 100, 000 associates can add their own book review. Some aspects of physical environment that could affect the sales of Amazon. com are the weather and physical disasters, like the Trade towers bombing. Even though it is an indirect effect on Amazon.
com, the direct outcome of on other industries such as the Airlines industry have caused terrible consequences on the E-business. The economy as a whole has experienced a serious slow down. E-Business as a whole will continue stay slow down unit the fear of terror diminishes and the public begins to use the infrastructure of this great country. There is nothing Amazon. com can do about this disastrous event. A slow economy, high price of petroleum products, the airline industry shut down due to security reasons have practically brought Amazon.
Com on its knees. Economic Sector The general condition of the economy is of great importance to Amazon. com. The economic factors that have a direct impact Amazon. com include the unemployment rate, interest rate, rate of inflation, currency stability, currency exchange rates, the availability of capital, labor costs, and population demographics (i.
e. , age, sex, education levels, and the growth rate of Internet and online commerce). These factors directly affect many of the firm's organizational aspects, including the competitive advantages Amazon. com may enjoy in certain economies. Additionally, these factors affect managerial decisions about the amount Amazon.
com invests in new business opportunities and the timing of those investments, customer spending patterns, the mix of products sold to the customer, risks of inventory management, and risks of distribution and fulfillment throughput and productivity. These risks and uncertainties could cause Amazon. com's actual results to differ significantly from management's expectations (Form 10 -K, December 2000). The latest GDP data released by the U.
S. Department of Commerce indicate that the economic expansion which began more than ten years ago have continued right through the second quarter of this year, 2001 Q 2 (Hymans, Crary, & Wolfe, 2001). The pace of economic expansion has recently downshifted dramatically. Over the entire period since the expansion began, economic growth has proceeded at an average annual rate of 3. 4 percent of real GDP, reaching as high as 4. 8 percent in 1998. For the first half of this year the real growth of GDP increased a lethargic 1. 0 percent.
The growth rate has been far too weak to keep the unemployment rate steady. The unemployment rate has increased by one half percent since the beginning of the year to 4. 5 percent and recently reached a nine year high. As the U. S. economic expansion weakens and the unemployment rate increases, this would indicate that there would be less disposable income available for the American public to purchase products offered by Amazon. com.
The major contributors to the current economic slowdown are following familiar trends. Part of the change in the economic sector is that economics have become more of a global issue and less restricted to local or national economics. Therefore, the trends include: Oil Prices - The price of crude oil increased by $ 11 dollars a barrel or approximately 57 percent from 1999 into 2000. Considering that this country imports ten million barrels of oil a day, an $ 11 price increase drains our economy of about $ 110 million per day, or about $ 40 billion per year, a depreciable impact on Amazon.
com's customers purchasing power. These increases in oil prices add to the distribution costs of Amazon. com, which puts further pressure on shipping and handling expenses for the firm's customer base. Natural Gas Prices - The price of natural gas followed oil prices right up. From early 1999 to its peak in January of 2001, natural gas prices rose nearly 400 percent, adding depreciative effects on disposable income of the firm's customer base. Monetary Policy - As the economic expansion continued to grow and with the labor market at a level considered to be full employment (4 percent unemployment), the Federal Reserve Board moved to a restrictive monetary policy.
The Fed funds rate was raised up by 175 basis points in a series of steps, which moved it from 4 3 / 4 percent in mid 1999 to 6 1 / 2 percent in mid 2000, where it stayed for the rest of the year. These steps affect consumer-lending rates over the near-term and can have a stifling effect on consumer spending. Financial Markets - From late 1994 to about mid 2000, security prices rose dramatically. The 5 - 1 / 2 year boom in stock prices sharply outpaced the corresponding rise in company's earnings. Among the companies in the S& P 500 stock index, the ratio of stock price to earnings per share (the P/E ratio) historically averaged 16. 3 since 1954 and, at a level about 17 1 / 2 in late 1994.
By mid 1999, the S& P 500 stock price had risen to an all-time high of more than 35 times earnings. This was an indication that the S& P 500 market was overvalued, the overvaluation was small compared with that in the NASDAQ market which had seen a far bigger run-up in prices among many high-tech and dot-com or dot-bomb companies with little or no earnings at all (Hymans, Crary, & Wolfe, 2001). Amazon. com trades its share on the NASDAQ exchange and recently was trading at $ 6 a share compared with prices well over $ 100 a share eighteen months earlier. Although the factors mentioned above have failed to produce a single quarter of negative GDP growth, the very slow growth in the first half of 2001 could very well degenerate into an economic recession.
The rises in energy prices and the slowdown in the U. S. economy have hurt the export markets of many other economies. If the global economic slowdown worsens, the strength of the U. S. export market could weaken further.
That could contribute to yet another factor for the U. S. economy to contend with. On September 11, 2001, a shocking terrorist assault of the United States of America occurred presenting another negative indicator to be factored into the economy of the United States and most other parts of the global economy as well. Since the terrorist attacks were deliberate with long-term security implications, the effects on consumer psychology could result in negative consumer confidence hindering buying patterns (Oakland Press, September 27, 2001). These acts will test the resilience of U.
S. society and the U. S. economy.
Substantial uncertainties and risks persist and a significant danger of a deeper and more prolonged slowdown exists since the assault on the fabric of U. S. society. Depending on the severity of the fallout from the attacks, the world's economic growth rate this year could turn out to be lower than initial projections. Amazon. com cannot ignore global economic conditions.
Consumer spending is key to the performance of the U. S. economy in the coming months. Past patterns suggest that consumer confidence will bounce back after an initial setback. The aftershocks of the terrorist attack are likely to depress economic growth during the second half of 2001, but the Fed probably will ease more than it would otherwise have done and fiscal policy will become more stimulative.
As a result, a rebound in growth in the second half of next year will likely be stronger than most expect (Global Weekly, September 2001). The stock market was in a lengthy correction and was deeply oversold before the event of September 11. Those conditions could help to support the major av...
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Research essay sample on Credit Card Fraud U S Economy
