The Specific Role of Consumers in Global Enterprise Management: Controller of the Supply Chain in Web-Based Experiences

Rauno Rusko

Chapter Chapter 17 in Global Enterprise Management, 2015, pp 75-89 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract This chapter focuses on the active role of the consumer as a supply chain manager in web-based products, which are an important part of contemporary international business. The situation in which the consumer is opening the Web is analogous to the situation in which a tourist is beginning her trip to a tourism destination, or when the customer is switching on the television (Ferguson & Perse, 2000): she decides mostly the content and the order of the services in the supply chain (Rusko et al., 2009). Analogically, the web surfer decides the content of her “virtual trip” on the Web. The history of the Web is still relatively short. In the long term, the basic underlying needs of customers might be relatively constant. Only the means and the technology are changing. Therefore, analogies such as watching television or taking a trip might tell more about the basic underlying needs and habits of the customer during her trip to the Web, and these analogies and found explanations might be fruitful for international business and marketing strategists. The virtual trip to the Web consists of the platforms and the contents of the various content providers. While traveling on her virtual trip, the consumer is the supply chain manager of her personal experience product. Furthermore, depending on the degree of the activity of the consumer, she is possibly the content provider in different products and platforms during her virtual trip to the Web and in its social media and other virtual platforms.

Keywords: Supply Chain; Supply Chain Manager; International Business; Network Effect; Uncertainty Avoidance (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2015
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

There are no downloads for this item, see the EconPapers FAQ for hints about obtaining it.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-137-51070-9_5

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.palgrave.com/9781137510709

DOI: 10.1057/9781137510709_5

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Palgrave Macmillan Books from Palgrave Macmillan
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().