Critically discuss on the answers(answers only not the questions) of the following five(5) Q & A.
Each of the discussion must be answered with 100 words, with 1-2 Harvard referencing sources.

Question1: Kodak and its poor adaptation to the digital marketplace.
Answer1: Kodak did not view the age of digital photography as being disruptive or a challenge to its own brand of technology and thus did not take steps to adapt to new markets and demands (Lucas and Goh, 2009). Kodak’s main consumer base was responsible mothers who would treasure the importance of capturing ‘Kodak moments’ for their families (Munir, 2012). With digital technology and gadgets, the market shifted to include more men, and Kodak did not adequately adjust their products or marketing schemes (Munir, 2012). Kodak’s management was also entrenched in bureaucracy that prevented timely responses and innovation to the digital marketplace (Lucas and Goh, 2009). As a result of poor adjustment to change, Kodak’s market shares kept declining until they had to file for bankruptcy protection in 2012 (Mui, 2012).
References:
Lucas, H.C. and Goh, J.M. (2009). ‘Disruptive technology: How Kodak missed the digital photography revolution.’ The Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 18(1). pp.46-55.
Mui, C. 2012 ‘How Kodak Failed.’ Forbes Business. [Online] Available at: http://www.forbes.com/sites/chunkamui/2012/01/18/how-kodak-failed/ [Accessed: 30 May, 2015].
Munir, K. (2012) ‘The Demise of Kodak: Five Reasons.’ The Wall Street Journal- The Source.
February 26, 2012. Available at: http://blogs.wsj.com/source/2012/02/26/the-demise-of-kodak-five-reasons/ [Accessed: 30 May, 2015].
Question 2: What problems of push manufacturing do you think pull manufacturing solves?
Is pull manufacturing suitable for all industries, if not which industries does it not suit and why?

Answer 2: Push Manufacturing depends on the availability of resources and also the forecasting of customer demands for production but in Pull Manufacturing, production is done only when demanded by the customers and material is only drawn when consumed or needed by the downstream operations (Productivity Press Development Team, 2002). Therefore Pull Manufacturing eliminates the waste that results from the more traditional push manufacturing which also results in cost savings incurred through inventory storage via overproduction or manufacturing downtime and delivery delays via waiting for raw materials from downstream.

Pull Manufacturing is not suitable for all industries especially those having only one product with no variation or have seasonal and steep fluctuations in demands for that product as seasonal production forecast is done in advance and production is continuous (Productivity Press Development Team, 2002). An example would be a cotton factory (1 product) supplying cotton to make clothing materials for the fashion industry (Seasonal and Steep fluctuations in demand).
References:
Productivity Press Development Team (2002) Pull Production for the Shop floor. USA: Productivity Press.
Question 3: Why is it an advantage to the government to allow application for vehicle taxation to be done online? Why is some of the process not done online? Why is there a method available to do the process offline?
Answer 3: Allowing applications for vehicle taxation online is time-saving and convenient as there is no ‘waiting-in-line’ involved and more hours of access available to the consumer. The online process can be utilised by any citizen in any location, once there is internet connectivity. There is less of a paper-trail for the government and more ease in obtaining required information and following through with applications. Cost of transactions is less for the government and the consumer (Center for Public Policy and Administration, 2012).
Some parts of the process may involve the validation of certain documents (registration, insurance) and/or the vehicle to check for authenticity, and this may not be able to be done online. Methods are also available for offline processing since not all citizens may be internet-savvy or have access to the internet to proceed with online applications (Alonso, 2009). Some citizens may also be distrustful of sharing personal information online and may prefer in-person interactions.

References:
Alonso, J., Ambur, O., Amutio, M. A., Azañón, O., Bennett, D., Flagg, R. and Sheridan, J. (2009). ‘Improving access to government through better use of the web.’ World Wide Web Consortium. 12 May, 2009. Available at: http://www.w3.org/TR/egov-improving/ [Accessed: 4 June, 2015]
Center for Public Policy and Administration. (2012) Smarter eGovernment- The Economics of Online Services in Utah. Available at: http://cppa.utah.edu/_documents/publications/e-gov/Smarter%20eGovernment%20Economics%20Final.pdf [Accessed: 4 June, 2015]
Question 4: You will notice that only one of these statements mentions online activities, why do you think that is?
Answer 4: Out of the 4 companies mentioned, only Amazon (2013) is a truely online retailer with no physical presence and therefore only their mission statement mentions online activities as it lets people know that it is an online company although its misson statement have changed since then to “We seek to be Earth’s most customer-centric company for four primary customer sets: consumers, sellers, enterprises, and content creators” which places less emphasis on the online actitives. The rest of the 3 companies, Alesco Gmbh and Co (2015), Bodyshop (2012) and Microsoft (2014) have a physical presence in the form of retail shops or physical locations for conducting of businesses. For example, Bodyshop and Microsoft sells their products in retail shops although both have an online webshop for customers to buy their products but the only way for people to buy from Amazon is through their online webstore. The mission tells people the emphasis that the company is placing on the business on such as in Amazon’s case which is their online website. Comparitively,
Microsoft on the hand does their business everywhere online or physical presence as their mission is to help people and businesses throughout the world realize their full potential and these can come in the form of softwares that changes people’s life or business solution that help companies and these can be conducted either in person via retail stores or online via their virtual stores.

References:
Alesco Gmbh and Co (2015). How to find us. Available at: http://www.alesco.net/index.php/en/kontakt-2/how-to-find-us [Accessed” 5th June 2015]
Amazon (2013) FAQs. Available at: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=97664&p=irol-faq#6986 [Accessed” 5th June 2015]
Body shop (2012) Store Locator. Available at: http://www.thebodyshop.com.sg/en/store_locator.aspx [Accessed” 5th June 2015]
Microsoft (2014) Visit one of these Microsoft Store locations. Available at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/store/locations/ [Accessed” 5th June 2015]
Question 5: Find examples of some the different categories in the narrative and post them on StudyNet try to make these European, African and Asian. Do you think that the categories used above are useful, do some of them overlap and would it be more useful if there were fewer?
Answer 5:
Asian – Click and Mortar – Kinokuniya (2013) Bookstore with physical shops and online presence

Manufacturer – Yoshida & Co (2015) – An established Japanese Branded Bag Manufacturer who sells direct to customers via its own website and retail channels.

European – Information Intermediaries – Amazon (2013) UK collects and analyses customer data including demographics (via online registration data) and consumption data (customer purchase history), this data is used to optimise the advertising campaigns (by Amazon or its vendors) and also to provide ratings for products and merchants (done by customers who purchased the products).

African – Internet Services Providers – Afrihost.com (2015) an Internet Service Provider in South Africa

Although I felt that the categories used are useful, some of them do overlap such as Virtual Merchants and Information Intermediaries. An example would be the case of Amazon UK while being classified as a Virtual Merchant as it conducts its business online without a physical presence also analyses customers data based on their demographics, consumption data and subsequently using the same data for advertising campaigns and also product recommendations which falls under the category of Information Intermediaries. The same can be said for catalogue merchants category which overlaps with the Click and Mortar category but without a physical store and also with the Virtual Merchant Category but with added channels for ordering merchandise such as mail and telephone. It would be far more useful if there were fewer but broader categories as nowadays business models tend to overlap and it is not uncommon to find manufacturers such as Apple (2015) who sells their own products online and via its retail partners which falls under the Manufacturer and Virtual Merchant Category and they can be categorized as Bit Vendors as they sell software and music purely online through their Appstore.

References:

Afrihost.com (2015) The Afrihost Story. Available at: https://www.afrihost.com/site/page/the_afrihost_story?src=website_nav [Accessed: 1st June, 2015]

Amazon (2013) Latest News. Available at: http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=251199&p=irol-mediaHome [Accessed: 1st June, 2015]

Apple (2015) Apple Info. Available at: https://www.apple.com/about/ [Accessed: 1st June, 2015]

Kinokuniya (2013) Amazon Press Info. Available at: https://www.kinokuniya.com.sg/corp_about.php [Accessed: 1st June, 2015]

Yoshida & Co (2015) Company Info. Available at: http://www.yoshidakaban.com/company/ [Accessed: 1st June, 2015]