Markets require beyond people and purchasing power, that is money in any available form. Managers need to know and forecast economic figures if they want to survive. The fact is that no matter the size of the business it is essential to deal with simple economic terms such as interest rates and inflation up to more «difficult» macroeconomic figures such as : Changes in Economic and Business trends / factors income. Inflation, unemployment rates, taxes, salary increases affect the consumer income. As economic conditions improve consumers spend more.

Changes in income are affected from other reasons. The credit card increasing use lead to more spending sometimes with out the necessary money being available.

Marketers have to pay attention to income distribution across the market segments. Classifications for this issue contain:

Upper-class income
middle class
working class and finally
underclass (people on welfare)

Giving a more detailed segmentation for the consumer economic condition. Beyond the economic characteristic these classifications include social factors (life style etc.) to improve the quality of this approach.

Changing consumer spending patterns

Consumer spending in goods and services has been changing over the years. Ernest Engel , a German statistician observed as family income rises , percentage spent on food declines, spending on housing and household operations remains constant and spending on other categories and saving increase categories.

Low rate of saving and high debt

Consumer tend to hold their savings in banks, or money market funds. These savings are an important factor for financing purchases of, big or smaller value. As it was mention as a contributor to the rapid growth of local economics enabling people to buy more than they earn.

Changes in such major economics variables have a large impact in the market place and it is more than essential to analyse them in the best possible way.

As a summary managers for this topic have to deal with issues such as:

overall level of development
economic growth: GNP, industrial sector
role of foreign trade in the economy
currency: inflation rate, availability, controls, stability of exchange rate
balance of payments
per capita income and distribution
disposable income and expenditure patterns

4.3.2 Internet and Economic and Business trends / factors

Here we will use Web sites that:

Can be used as resources and references for economic research
Connect us with important government, academic, and professional economic agencies and societies
Allow real-time and daily economic news and data updates
Provide key economic demographic data
Provide online copies of important economic journals

The mainstreaming of the World Wide Web has created a virtual library for domestic and international economic information. By perusing the Web we can now access an unlimited amount of economic data, trends, leading market indicators, and statistics. Easy reference to economic knowledge is crucial in the fast paced business world. The application of the knowledge, theory, and philosophy gained from the Web can assist independent business organizations in understanding market strategy and creating opportunities which foster growth.

Futurists on the New Economy -( IBM)

http://32.97.242.17/smallbusiness/ca/smbcapub.nsf/detailcontacts/E-Newsletter5FC6?OpenDocument#faq

Like most entrepreneurs you probably think your company offers great service. But as the economy moves to the Web, how will the definition of service change? According to Stan Davis and Christopher Meyer, authors of Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy, service will be bundled

with traditional products, forming «offers.»

«These offers are a kind of hybrid: The difference between products and services blurs. . . » insist Davis and Meyer. For instance, the latest innovation at Porsche is a sensor that calls your cell phone if your airbag deploys. If you don’t respond, the call centre tracks your whereabouts and dispatches help automatically. The traditional product (the car) is combined with the service (the call centre), forming a compelling offer.

Likewise, services can become products. Recruiting, for example, has moved on-line with sites like jobshark.com. Employers pay a fee to query a database of over 150,000 resumes. The resulting service has been «productized.»

This «blurring» of product and services has implications on how «offers» are priced. Meyer and Davis contend that offers will become more fluid, acting more like financial markets — changing with input from the market. Technology allows you to get instant feedback on how you price your offer. Just look at auction sites like e-Bay for examples of how pricing «offers» is moving into the hands of a well-informed market.

4.3.2.1 General Economic Resources

The Web sites presented in this section provide comprehensive resources for economists and those researching economic issues. Several of the sites offer exhaustive lists of links to additional economic resource sites and can be bookmarked for continual reference. Most of the sites are resources for a broad range of economic theories while some are single-subject economic sites, that is, sites that focus on one economic theory or philosophy.

Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economyhttp://brie.berkeley.edu/BRIE/Business & Economics Numeric Datahttp://www.clark.net/pub/lschank/web/ecostats.htmlEconomic Growth Resources

http://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/Economics/Growth/

Macroeconomic Resources on the Internet

http://www.hbs.edu/units/bgie/internet/main.html

NB&A New Economy Web Site

http://www.neweconomy.com/
The Planet Earth Home Page of Economics ?????

http://canyon.ucsd.edu/infoville/goldmine/Economics/economics.html

Delete Top PickResources for Economists on the Internet ???

http://wuecon.wustl.edu:80/other_www/EconFAQ/EconFAQ.html

Wall Street Research Net

http://www.wsrn.com/

WebEc-The List of Economic Journals

http://netec.wustl.edu/%7eadnetec/WebEc/journals.html

World Economic Window

http://nmg.clever.net/wew/

http://rfe.wustl.edu/ AND http://www.fred.ifas.ufl.edu/resources/node71.html

4.3.2.2 Economic Agencies, Associations, and Societies: Government, Professional, and Academic

Access to a large number of economic agencies, associations, and societies is available online. Many of these organizations are professional in nature and seek to register and enroll members who have similar economic concerns, theories, or practices. The primary focus to these organizations is research of economic theory to further promote their economic ideals. Most of the organizations detailed below provide links to their own online journals for additional details on membership.

American Economic Association http://www.vanderbilt.edu/AEA/Bureau of Economic Analysis http://www.bea.doc.gov/beahome.html

4.3.2.3 Economic Indicators, Forecasts, and Trends

An abundance of sites exist that provide daily, weekly, and monthly information on leading economic indicators, forecasts, and trends. The sites highlighted in this section are some of the more popular economic information sites on the Web. There are several sites in this section that are not solely devoted to providing forecasting and trending information, although the sections within their site that do provide forecasting or trending are significant.

Centre for Economic Forecasting http://www.lbs.lon.ac.uk/cef/Maastricht Economic Research Institute on Innovation and Technology
http://meritbbs.rulimburg.nl/European Economic Indicatorshttp://www.europages.com/economic-data09-en.html

First Alert

http://www.fcnbd.com/cor/fcnbd/econ/econ.html

4.3.3.4 Tax

Regardless of whether you run a business or not, taxes are unavoidable. Except for a precious few people, everyone is required to file a tax return at least once a year.

Businesses face greater tax challenges. Not only does a business have to pay income taxes, but a business needs to pay payroll, sales, use, property, and a host of other taxes. Ignorance of tax regulations will not keep you from paying hefty penalties.

Making sure you are familiar with tax regulations that affect you and your business can be a time-consuming process. Here you will find the information you are looking for quickly.

4.3.3.4.1 Sales Taxes and Electronic Commerce

If you run an operation you are very familiar with the process of collecting, reporting, and paying sales and use taxes. You might even be familiar with your sales tax responsibilities for sales made to people who live in other countries.

However, the process becomes more difficult when your business gets involved in electronic commerce. The following Web pages discuss how this emerging issue will define online sales and the success of electronic commerce.

The Great Internet Tax Drain KPMG Perspectives http://www.ice.kpmg.com/articles/perspectives.htmlKPMG Study

http://www.keyway.net/mmp/archive/anet/HTM/628nr!g.htm ?????

Research Institute of America

http://www.riatax.com/state.html and http://www.riatax.com/

TAXWARE International

http://www.taxware.com

Taxaction of internet commerce

http://www.ato.gov.au

http://www.kpmg.com.au

http://www.tax.org

http://www.law.flinders.edu.au/tax

http://www.uncitral.org/

4.3. 4. Transactions

There are many ways the Internet is used as a vehicle for doing business.

Realize the Internet can serve as a means for conducting research by sampling the diversified resources available online. Examine the various technologies employed on the Internet to ensure security in electronic transactions and transfers. View the success secrets of others who are conducting business on the Internet as we examine actual case studies.

From the initial planning stages of your business’s site to actual electronic transactions, the Internet is at the center of it all. It allows you to conduct research, contact vendors, obtain your domain name, analyze the market, and study the competition. The Internet will serve as an electronic storefront for your business, giving you exposure 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

4.3.4.1 Resources

The Internet is widely recognized as a resource for gathering information on any topic known to humanity. Small business transactions and the current electronic commerce trends are no exception. You can learn everything you need to know, from where to go for financial help in starting your electronic business to innovative ideas for marketing your existing business to which forms of electronic payment offer the most security to you and your consumers.

4.3.4.1.1 Online Business Associations and Other Resources

There is a global move afoot toward electronic commerce. Businesses large and small are establishing an online presence for increased exposure. Federal agencies are backing their efforts by funding small businesses in pursuit of Internet trade. Some programs involve technical counseling to manufacturers, educating them in the technical steps necessary to market their business online. In addition, federal funding strengthens a nation’s standing in global competition and can serve to bolster sales. In this section we will explore the varied online organizations that offer support to small business owners, or that serve as a resource for information that pertains to getting your business online and generating income.

CommerceNet http://www.commerce.netThe Georgia Tech User Survey http://www.gvu.gatech.edu/ user_surveys/survey-1998-10The Small Business Administration

http://www.sbaonline.sba.gov

World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

http://www.w3.org

W3C did a recent study of what forms of payment are being used to conduct business on the Web. The released report can be viewed at http://www.w3.org/pub/WWW/Payments. http://www.w3.org/Ecommerce/

4.3.4.2 Forms of Electronic Payment

When conducting business over the Internet the key thing that business owners and consumers look for is security. With the increased transmission of confidential information, software vendors are rising to the challenge of providing innovative methods that ensure secure transmission of confidential information.

CyberCash http://www.cybercash.comDigiCash http://www.digicash.com http://www.ecashtechnologies.com/MasterCard

http://www.mastercard.com/newways/future.html

Pretty Good Privacy

http://web.mit.edu/network/pgp.html

Secure Electronic Transactions

http://www.visa.com/

Electronic payment systemshttp://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/ElectronicCommerce/EPM/Issueshttp://www.unece.org/trade/untdid/text/d422_d.htmhttp://www.commerce.nethttp://www.mondex.com

Securityhttp://www-genome.wi.mit.edu/WWW/faqs/wwwsf1.htmlMaintaining security becomes more important as we use the Internet for commercial transactions or transmitting sensitive data. NIST Computer security resource clearing house http://first.org To find out more about firewalls read Internet Firewalls FAQ http://www.v-one.com/documents/fw-faq.htm

Fore more information on viruses, check the hyperlinks at other sources of virus information http://www.datafellows.fi/vir-info/virother.htm

A good document to read about security and privacy is “Identity , privacy and anonymity on the Internet” by L. Detweiler http://www.eff.org/pub/Privacy/Anonymity/privacy_anonymity.faq

The Web page “Staying street smart on the Web” http://www.yahooligans.com/docs/safety , is a good place to find information about Internet safty issues for children and parents.

4.3.5 Daily Financial and Economic News Services

In addition to online economic indicators, there also exist a variety of daily economic news services. Many of these news services provide their information for a global audience, although some are devoted to economic developments in specific countries or regions. Most of these sites are updated as necessary on a 24-hour-a-day basis, seven days a week, to accommodate economic markets around the world.

Financial Timeshttp://www.FT.com/FT-Television Home Pagehttp://www.ftvision.com/Global Newsbrokers International Financial News Service

http://www.onfile.nl/newsbrokers//

Morgan Stanley Global Economic Forum

http://www.ms.com/GEF/

4.3.5.1 Market Quotes on the Web

Many Internet sites provide market quotes in a variety of ways. Some sites even provide quotes in Java

applications that scroll across the bottom of your screen, similar to the NASDAQ and NYSE tickers. It is

important to realize that these quotes are normally delayed by about 15 to 20 minutes. Real-time stock quotes are available online, but in most cases you will pay for either the software or the dial-up connection to retrieve the real-time information. Delayed quotes should not be used to make a buy or sell decision.

RealTime Quoteshttp://www.rtquotes.com/

4.3.6 General Economic Demographics

The following sites provide databases and statistics pertaining to demographics that influence economics. The information contained in the sites below is vast, although generally a distinct section on economics is available.

Housing and Household Economic Statisticshttp://www.census.gov/ftp/pub/hhes/www/index.htmlLabor and Demographic Economicshttp://wueconb.wustl.edu/EconFAQ/node435.htmlSocial and Economic Information Library

http://www.oseda.missouri.edu/infolib/osedareprts.html

The Social Statistics Briefing Room

http://www.whitehouse.gov/fsbr/ssbr.html

4.3.7 Sample Economic Journals Online

Most online versions of economic journals provide only the abstracts of the papers presented in their journals on a quarterly basis. In order to read the complete papers and articles, you must actually subscribe to the journal. In many instances, the online version of the journal may allow you to order the full article or the complete journal by sending an e-mail message.

The Economisthttp://www.economist.com/De Economisthttp://kapis.www.wkap.nl/kapis/CGI-BIN/WORLD/journalhome.htm?0013-063XHistory of Economic Ideas

http://netserver.unimc.it/hei/HEI.htm

International Review of Economics and Finance

http://www.udayton.edu/~iref/

Journal of Applied Econometrics

http://qed.econ.queensu.ca:80/jae/

Journal of Consumer Research

http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/JCR/home.html

Journal of Economic Issues

http://economics.csusb.edu/orgs/JEI/

The Pacific Economic Review

http://www.cuhk.edu.hk/eco/per/per.htm

The Quarterly Journal of Economics

http://www-mitpress.mit.edu/jrnls-catalog/quart-econ.html

RAND Journal of Economics

http://www.rand.org/misc/rje/

4.3.8 Business Trends

4.3.8.1 General

http://jabi.com/incubate/tm01.html

The business world we live in is changing. In order to keep up with change, the workforce is learning to adapt to change as well. At the beginning of this century, an individual would go to college or seek training for a specific vocation or job and then remain in that field until retirement. Well, today’s workforce has been knocked off kelter by the ongoing change in technology.

«You cannot stop change, but you can shape it to your advantage.» Daniel Burrus ‘Techno Trends’

«Less than half the workforce in the industrial world will be in proper full-time jobs in organizations by the beginning of the 21st century. Full time workers will be the new minority.»

Charles Handy ‘The Age of Unreason’

The coming decades will be a time of unparalleled opportunity as new styled businesses are fueled by a cycle of tremendous economic expansion. So, it seems, there is hope. But more importantly, we know things are changing. So, What do we do to prepare ourselves to be positioned in front of change?

«The key to achieving wealth lies in the distribution rather than the accumulation of goods and resources.»

Paul Zane Pilzer ‘Unlimited Wealth’

«When a new technology satisfies a major social need, a revolution is created.» Daniel Burrus ‘Techno Trends’

The advance in the last decade of the personal computer, fax machines, and overnight delivery have been the technology that has launched the revolution known as the birth of the home based business

«By the year 2000, 50% of all retailing will be through franchises (mostly self operating small units linked to giant systems) and direct marketing networks (mainly individuals linked to world suppliers).»

Gordon Drydon ‘The Learning Revolution’

Capitalize on these growing trends.

Our world is changing. All of us have seen or heard about people being affected by layoffs, cutbacks, and corporate downsizing. Instability in today’s job markets are forcing many to take hard looks at alternative and new career choices. As technology expands the potential for new careers in growing and

expanding fields increases.

«You start to see that technology controls how we have in quantities, how much quantity of a resource we have. And technology and how we use it determines what we get out of it.»

Paul Zane Pilzer – Economic advisor to 2 US Presidents.

«What you want to do is give customers the ability to do what they currently can’t do, but would really want to do, if they only knew they could have done it.» Daniel Burrus – author, Techno Trends

«The old model of business was the way of the large corporation, vertically integrated, all this stuff, beauracratic. The new is the school of minnows. The power is in the individual, leveraging those right brain, sensory creative human individuals, individually and in small teams. Those individuals need to be

networked. They need to be able to learn from a leading edge source. They need to be able to tap economies of a large scale, while still being individuals running their businesses.» Harry S. Dent, Jr. -author, futurist

The way we are doing business is changing.

In 1980, there were 5.7 million people working out of their homes. Compared to over 42.5 million in 1995. That’s just 15 years later. Crime, gridlock, lack of job security and a deep dissatisfaction in the corporate environment have led our workforce to look elsewhere. Home based businesses are popping up

everywhere. It is estimated by the year 2000, 1 out or 3 workers in North America will run their own home based business.

4.3.8.2 Seven inter-business activities can be identified

http://www.tradewave.com/products/whitpapr.html

1.Thinking – redeveloping strategies, market research2.Product design and engineering3.Finding and advertising – customers and suppliers4.Evaluation of potential for business partnership5.Ordering goods or services

6.Delivery of goods sold

7.Getting paid!

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Content

Chapter 4

4.3

Economic and Business Trends/Factors