A Conceptual Framework and an Extended SOA Model for Consumer-Oriented E-Commerce

Abstract

and value from different business providers and Semantic Web Services can become a key enabling technology in this effort. 2. An overview of customer-oriented concepts In this section we review some consumer-oriented concepts that have been developed in the literature in business-related and IT-related fields, including service management, value creation, e-services, business ecosystems, enterprise architectures, SOA and Web Services and the Semantic Web and the Web 2.0., we analyse their meaning and evaluate their impact. 2.1. Consumer-oriented concepts in value creation There is quite a lot of research recently that focuses on the concerns and the role of the consumer in economic transactions and promotes consumer-oriented concepts in value creation. All this research suggests that a paradigm shift is apparently under way in regard to the concept of value and the way it is created. The evidence of this shift is not clearly manifested in business practice yet, because it challenges deeply rooted theories of business management and suggests reconsidering the role of the business firm in the economic setting. We can distinguish three approaches on value creation: a) the production-oriented approach, b) the marketing-oriented approach and c) the consumer-oriented approach. The production-oriented approach conveys the traditional ideas of the manufacturing paradigm and expresses the notion of "value-in-production". Here emphasis is put on the role of the producer. The basic assumption is that the producer creates value, which is embedded in the product and becomes an attribute of it. The customer, on the other hand, consumes the value that has been created. As a result, each piece of product should normally contain the same amount of value and each customer should receive the same amount of value by consuming any piece of product. The value chain analysis is a key instrument of this approach, with value being added incrementally in each business activity that takes place along the intra-firm or the inter-firm value chain. The marketing-oriented approach is an extension of the production-oriented approach that introduces the notion of "value-in-dissemination" and draws attention to the role of marketing in organisations as a means for the creation and dissemination of value. The marketing mix is the key instrument of this approach, with value being added on the total offering to the consumer through the successful manipulation of the "four P's". The product is still a container of value, but emphasis is put on the way that the firm manages to promote it, disseminate it and sell it. A marketing-oriented organisation recognizes the significance of the customer, tries to understand the customer concerns, develops an interest for the customer (genuine or not) and tries to develop new approaches to become more responsive to the customer needs. Yet, value is still developed as business value. In other words, it is the business firm that recognizes customer needs, groups customers together and dictates how customer can sati...