Supply chain management is the combination of the process and information technology that integrates the suppliers of raw materials or components, the manufacturers or assemblers of the finished products, and distributors of the products or services into one cohesive process to include demand forecasting, materials requisition, order processing, order fulfillment, transportation services, receiving, invoicing, and payment processing.
B2B or Business to Business refers to electronic trade or partnering between organizations. The volumes of B2B transaction is estimated to be counted about 90% of e commerce transaction, while B2C or business to consumer takes about 10% of e commerce activity. Many B2B exchanges offer functionality for managing procurement of row materials and coordinating with suppliers. Spectating of B2B market had driven the stock prices of B2B software providers (such Ariba) to sky-high in 2000. Public B2B exchanges have not lived up to their original ambitions. Today, many companies use both public B2B exchanges and their private supply chain management software for procurement.
Model of Consumer Behavior Consumers make many buying decisions every day. Most large companies research consumer buying decisions in great detail to answer questions about what consumers buy, where the buy, how and how much they buy, when they buy, and why they buy. Marketers can study actual consumer purchases to find out what they buy, where, and how much. But learning about the whys of consumer buying behavior is not so easy- the answers are often locked deep within the consumer’s mind. “For companies with billions of dollars on the line, the buying decision is the most crucial part of their enterprise,” states one consumer behavior analyst. “yet no one really knows how the human brain makes that choice.” Often, consumers themselves don’t know exactly what influences their purchases. “Buying decisions are made at an unconscious level.” Says the analyst, “and … consumers don’t generally give very reliable answers if you simply ask them, ‘Why did you buy this?”
Developing the Research Plan Once the research problems and objectives have been defined, researchers must determine the exact information needed, develop a plan for gathering it efficiently, and present the plan to management. The research plan outlines sources of existing data and spells out the specific research approaches, contact methods, sampling plans, and instruments that researchers will use to gather new data. a) Secondary Data “Information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose”
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