Identify and evaluate at least 3 major trends in each of business, technology and society for managing virtual business in the global environment by drawing on your chosen business.

Individual Report

Individual Case Study Analysis / an investigation of a chosen organisation / theory / relevant

100%

4000 words

January 25th 2025

Assessment brief/s:

BACKGROUND

Technology today is no longer seen as a facilitator of everyday business practices. It has now become the heart, the centre of almost every business strategy, and data can be used by businesses to produce, store, and analyse relevant information to achieve the competitive advantage over their peers. Digital business, as it relates to business technology, offers companies and individuals new ways to connect, collaborate, conduct business, and build bridges between people. It impacts the basis of business functionality and determines the way business is managed today. However, security and privacy have become one of the biggest concerns in the digital world.

TASK

Choose a well-established digital business or e-commerce business in a B2B or B2C context. The business should be based in Europe. The chosen business must have a well-developed website, where you can find information about their strategies and operations. You are taking the role of an independent digital/e-commerce business consultant tasked to evaluate the strategies that the chosen digital/ e-commerce business is applying based on the tasks outlined below and complete these in a report.

The tasks include:

1. Identify and evaluate at least 3 major trends in each of business, technology and society for managing virtual business in the global environment by drawing on your chosen business.
2. Critically evaluate new and emerging digital business modelsin the context of key business issues such as cybersecurity and ethics that your chosen business uses or may use.
3. Evaluate the impact of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through digital technology for your chosen business.
4. Critically discuss the impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on businesses in general and its impact on businesses. Critically discuss any three applications of AI that you can adopt on your chosen business.

LENGTH REQUIRED

4000 words [+/-10%]

FORMATTING AND LAYOUT

Please note the following when completing your written assignment:

1. Writing: Written in English in an appropriate business/academic style
2. Focus: Focus only on the tasks set in the assignment.
3. Document format: Report
4. Ensure a clear title, course, and name or ID number is on a cover sheet and a reference using Harvard referencing throughout is also provided.
5. Research: Research should use reliable and relevant sources of information e.g. academic books and journals that have been peer reviewed. The research should be extensive.

The use of a range of information sources is expected – academic books, peer reviewed journal articles, professional articles, press releases and newspaper articles, reliable statistics, company annual reports and other company information. All referencing should be in Harvard style.

Structure/ Template:

Title/ Cover page  - NOT included in wordcount ( state the name of the chosen company in the title)

Executive Summary/ Abstract (aim of the report, summary of the key points emerging from your analysis ; one paragraph for each of the 4 parts) ( max. one page approx. max 300 words) (write past tense) ( no references) NOT included in wordcount

Table of contents (headings, sub-headings with numbering and page number) NOT included in wordcount

Introduction (outlining the aim the report; overview to the chosen digital business (reference the website); discuss/ overview of digital business (present the growth of digital business globally/ nationally, supported with evidence such as statistics, news etc. ); outline structure of report) ( Sources:- references to the website of the digital business / other websites/ news/ magazines) (approx. 200 words)

1. Overview of Key Trends and Advantages

Identify and evaluate at least 3 major trends in each of business, technology and society for managing virtual business in the global environment by drawing on your chosen business (approx. 900 words)

a. Impact of  Digital/Virtual Business (Sources: books; journal article)

b. Three trends in Digital/Virtual Business (Sources: books; journal article)

c. Application of these trends to using digital business with their impact applied to your chosen organisation (Sources: website of the chosen organisation; news; magazines; other websites eg. BBC news, Harvard Business Review, Marketing Week, The Drum etc.)

Critically evaluate new and emerging digital business models in the context of key business issues such as cyber security and ethics that your organisation uses or may use (approx. 900 words) (https://morethandigital.info/en/9-disruptive-business-models-new-opportunities-for-companies/#4_Marketplace_Model)

Emerging digital business models (Sources: books, journal articles)

Discussion on new, emerging digital business models in the context of key issues such as cyber security and ethics (Sources: based on book and article above and other similar sources)

Apply how your chosen organisation is using / could use any of these new, emerging business models (Sources: website of the organisation, other websites; news; magazines; publications)

Evaluate the impact of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through digital technology for your chosen organisation (approx. 900 words)

Collaborative relationship and definition of strategic alliance/s (Sources: books; journal articles)

Advantages and disadvantages of new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through digital technology (Source: books; journal articles)

Application to your chosen organisation on how they use or could use new collaborative relationships and strategic alliances through digital technology (Source: organisation’s website, other websites, magazines, news, publications)

Impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) on business (approx. 900 words)

Impact of AI in general and its implications on businesses. (Sources: books, journal articles)

Critically evaluate any three applications of AI that can be adopted to your chosen business. (Sources: organisations’ websites, other websites, news, magazines, publications)

Conclusion (approx. 200 words)- summary of key points emerging from the evaluation ( no references )

References (min. 20 references, well balanced: academic (Sources: books and journal articles from sources such as Ebsco, Emerald etc.) and non-academic sources (websites, news, magazines, online publications) ) NOT included in wordcount

LENGTH REQUIRED

4000 words (+-10%)