E-commerce and corporate culture? (urgent, 3000 words)

Electronic Commerce and Corporate Culture Reengineering

Since the 1990s, with the popularization and application of the Internet in the world, a brand-new business model-e-commerce has emerged, which is based on the Internet, with both parties as the main body, electronic payment and settlement by banks as the means, and relying on customer data. It brings a new value concept to enterprises, reorganizes the internal resources of enterprises and brings many benefits to enterprises, such as reducing transaction costs, improving efficiency and shortening production cycle. It also challenges the existing corporate culture. In the process of implementing e-commerce, some enterprises have an "information island" phenomenon, information resources can not be fully integrated and shared, and the advantages of e-commerce can not be fully exerted. The reason is that these enterprises "value hard over soft" and blindly invest in the implementation of e-commerce. Practice has made many enterprises realize "software" (organizational culture, strategy, etc. ) is as important as "hardware" (technology, equipment, etc.). ). Without proper software, no matter how good the hardware configuration is, it can't help the computer complete the expected task. Similarly, in an organization, if the "software" part is not in place, the "hardware" part can not really play a role. The development of e-commerce has raised new issues for corporate culture, such as how to enhance the value of knowledge and how to face the knowledge update of employees. The rise of network technology provides a sharp weapon for the birth of new corporate culture. [1] In short, in the e-commerce environment, enterprises will face the problem of corporate culture reengineering. In other words, it is necessary to establish a brand-new culture that adapts to the development of e-commerce within the company to replace the old culture that is difficult to meet the growth needs of the company now and will hinder the development of the company in the future. Its essence is to make the original corporate culture undergo qualitative change, realize sublimation, make the corporate culture construction take a new step, and enable the company to adapt to the ever-changing e-commerce environment.

First, based on the characteristics of corporate culture in the e-commerce environment

Stephen Robbins, a famous scholar, believes that corporate culture is a system of values and beliefs owned by members of an organization. It represents the same view held by the members of the organization. Just like the totem and precepts that govern each member's treatment of the same tribe and foreigners in tribal culture, the organization has a culture that governs the behavior of its members. [2] This view is another re-examination of the relationship between management concepts, management processes and long-term organizational performance after the assumptions of "economic man", "social man", "self-actualizing man" and "complex man" in western management theory. [3] With the constant changes in the internal and external environment of enterprises, some values and belief systems of enterprise organizations are not static, but should keep pace with the times. In other words, corporate culture is a dynamic concept, and its characteristics are constantly changing with the change of environment. The characteristics of corporate culture based on e-commerce environment are closely related to the characteristics of e-commerce. Enterprises need to face two different environments, internal and external, so their corresponding corporate culture characteristics can also be analyzed from two levels: internal culture and external culture.

(A) internal cultural characteristics

1. Change the culture. E-commerce has greatly promoted the trade between enterprises, set off a structural business revolution and brought new opportunities and challenges to the business development of various enterprises. At the same time, it also requires enterprises to change their business model from competition to open cooperation, business management model from vertical to flat, and business management means from paper to paperless and information. Therefore, the e-commerce environment invisibly requires change. As the saying goes, "If you don't break, you will stand." In today's competitive environment, if enterprises want to win the competitive advantage in the information economy era, they must broaden their horizons, recognize the realistic gap and devote themselves to active innovation.

The development of e-commerce requires enterprises to make corresponding changes, and corporate culture plays an important role in hindering or promoting the changes of enterprises. When the internal and external environment of an enterprise has undergone major changes and needs to be changed, if the corporate culture at this time is a culture that supports change, it will give a great impetus to the change of the enterprise; On the contrary, if the corporate culture at this time is a culture that inhibits change, it will seriously hinder the pace of corporate change. [4]

2. Spread culture. The popularity and use of the Internet makes it possible to exchange information horizontally and leapfrog. With the help of the internet, business people who used to communicate rarely can communicate quickly and conveniently now. Senior leaders of enterprises always know the needs and ideas of their subordinates, and employees can communicate with their superiors directly if they have any good ideas and suggestions. Obviously, this model can not only greatly mobilize the enthusiasm of employees, but also enhance the cohesion and centripetal force of enterprises. But its function must be responded by the corresponding culture, which is what we call "communication culture". It is a higher level embodiment of enterprise communication system caused by the existence of enterprise network. On the one hand, enterprise members can communicate in different places through the network anywhere; On the other hand, due to the expansion of communication channels, the scope of communication between enterprise members has also been greatly improved.

In the e-commerce environment, information technology is fully applied to all business activities of enterprises, which greatly optimizes the traditional communication methods among members, departments and members, and also calls for the emergence of a good communication culture to support this change.

3. Learn culture. Peter, a famous American management scientist? Through research, Peter. Sage vividly summarizes the learning culture of enterprises into five disciplines: self-transcendence, improving mental model, establishing common vision, teamwork and systematic thinking. [5] With the development of economic networking, globalization and diversification, especially with the rapid development of Internet and e-commerce, not only business talents of computer and network technology are urgently needed, but all members of enterprises need to master certain e-commerce skills. This requires the formation of a learning culture within the enterprise. While strengthening employees' computer operation and ability to use all kinds of software, we will continue to strengthen training in business value analysis, so that employees can truly become "knowledge-based" employees.

In addition, in the e-commerce environment, customers' needs are increasingly personalized and diversified, and at the same time, new technologies and new knowledge appear at an explosive speed. How to improve the adaptability of enterprises has become the core task of enterprise management. Reality tells us that only by constantly learning and gradually improving the overall informatization level of enterprises can we meet the needs of the development of the times and bring endless opportunities and benefits to enterprises. Peter. Shengji put forward: "The truly outstanding enterprise in the future will be an organization that can try to make people from all walks of life fully involved and have the ability to keep learning." [6] Therefore, in the e-commerce environment, enterprises must establish a learning culture to cope with the rapidly changing environment and increasingly fierce competition.

4. Team culture. The so-called "team culture" refers to the system of values, beliefs and habits in the team, and is the sum total of working methods, thinking habits and codes of conduct formed and followed in the process of team development. After the formation of team culture, it will strongly support the thoughts and behaviors of team members, so that team members can cooperate with each other and achieve their work goals. In the e-commerce environment, the competition among enterprises will be launched on a global scale, and the internal and external environment faced by enterprises will become more and more changeable, which requires enterprises to respond quickly to fierce market competition. E-commerce enterprises are smart enterprises, and employees who operate e-commerce are knowledge-based employees. The work of an enterprise can only be accomplished by efficient teamwork, not by administrative orders. If enterprises still rely on traditional administrative orders and centralized control to manage enterprises, it is difficult to adapt to the development of e-commerce. Therefore, it is necessary to cultivate a unified team culture in order to enable enterprises to achieve efficient and rapid development in the e-commerce environment.

(B) external cultural characteristics

1. Credit culture. The credit of e-commerce is not only a necessary condition for the development of e-commerce, but also a mutual demand of relevant stakeholders when developing e-commerce, which is integrated into the processing of e-commerce. These credit demands can be roughly divided into: credit that can guarantee the identity and reliability of relevant stakeholders; It can guarantee the quality of digital assets and protect related credit; The reliability of credit guarantee service and system, etc.

Since the emergence of e-commerce, the credit problem has become an important bottleneck restricting its development. As a commercial activity, e-commerce is based on credit. Moreover, the characteristics of e-commerce, such as remoteness, variability of records and complexity of topics, determine that its credit problem is more prominent. In order to overcome this bottleneck, it is not enough to formulate corresponding trading rules or policies and regulations. Therefore, we must establish a credit culture and use it to create a credit environment to guide enterprises to adopt a credit model that suits them.

2. Image culture. The emergence of e-commerce began to change the market behavior of many businesses. Many enterprises develop and build enterprise online information portals by independent means or by entrusting service providers, aiming to use the advantages of network information dissemination to create a good corporate image, seize the opportunities in the Internet virtual market and lay the foundation for future development.

Enterprise web page is a business platform, which can not only promote itself by providing customers with company information and displaying the latest products or services, but also convey the image of the enterprise to customers invisibly. For the corporate image on the network, we must pay attention to observing network etiquette. The core of network etiquette is to respect customers and abide by the default rules of the public on the network, otherwise the promotion behavior of enterprises may be counterproductive. In other words, efforts should be made to make the corporate image that customers see on the Internet consistent with reality. Now there are many companies whose web pages are really exquisite, but in fact they don't pay attention to the establishment of corporate image, which makes customers feel cheated and thus lose their trust in the company. Therefore, in the e-commerce environment, enterprises must regard image culture as an important part of corporate culture construction.

3. Culture of cooperation. Cooperation among enterprises based on e-commerce environment is an important resource for business activities. It will transform the knowledge, intelligence and innovative ability that can enhance the interests of both sides into a sustained force for sustainable development, resource control and long-term cooperative relations.

In the e-commerce environment, enterprises are faced with changing technology, customer demand and integrated market, and must respond quickly. It requires enterprises not only to meet the needs of products or services of cooperative enterprises, but also to meet the needs of cooperative enterprises in knowledge, intelligence and innovation development. On the one hand, through cooperation, the knowledge, intelligence and innovation ability among enterprises can be transformed into "digital capital" advantages, the accuracy of forecasting can be improved, the uncertain risks brought by e-commerce environment can be minimized, risks and opportunities can be grasped, and the success rate of cooperation can be improved; On the other hand, cooperation can optimize logistics, capital flow and information flow, improve process competitiveness and improve the supply chain process of enterprises in e-commerce environment.

It can be seen that the demand for cooperation in the e-commerce environment is very strong. Enterprises must have the support of a "cooperative culture" if they want to use e-commerce to mobilize resources from all sides and promote the efficient operation of enterprises.

Second, ways to reshape corporate culture in the e-commerce environment

Even if a decision is correct and reasonable, if it is not implemented, it will only be a dead letter and will not play any role in solving the problem. The same is true of corporate culture construction. As far as many domestic enterprises are concerned, what they lack is not the ability to respond to the new culture in the information age, nor the ability to build a corporate culture with the characteristics of the times, but the execution of cultural reconstruction. If an enterprise wants to establish a corporate culture that adapts to the e-commerce environment, it can't just stay on the surface of this corporate culture discussion, but should infiltrate this corporate culture into every detail, and standardize employee behavior by constantly strengthening implementation, so as to achieve the purpose of corporate culture reconstruction.

(A) internalized in the heart

In order to strengthen the implementation of corporate culture in e-commerce environment and stimulate the vitality of corporate culture under the new situation, we must not let the formed corporate culture stay in a dead letter stage, but let the employees understand and master it, that is, we must internalize it-pay attention to the dissemination and learning of corporate culture in the new period. There are many subtle forms in this process, such as stories, rituals, physical symbols, languages, signs and so on. But in the e-commerce environment, training is the most critical of these forms. Training is not only to help employees improve their job skills, but more importantly, to promote employees to change their concepts. Because idea is the starting point of behavior, it can produce stronger and more lasting ability. It can be said that "concept" is the fundamental guarantee for the implementation of corporate culture in employee behavior, especially in the absence of regulations in the system. This is also the reason why many successful enterprises at home and abroad brainwash their employees to adapt to the development of e-commerce. However, training, as the main way to spread and learn corporate culture in the new era, will not happen overnight, and should be continuously strengthened through various forms. In this respect, Haier Company is an obvious example: in the process of corporate culture reconstruction, employees are not only given technical training, but also given subtle moral education, so as to spread the values of corporate culture in the new era in enterprises in a timely and diverse manner.

American political scientist Harold? Harold D.Lasswell used the 5W model (also known as the lasswell model) to express the spread of corporate culture in the new era, that is, an interactive system composed of communicators, information, media, audiences and effects. [7] From this perspective, e-commerce on the Internet platform should be the darling of communication culture in this era. E-commerce provides a broad space for the promotion and dissemination of corporate culture, and all its processes, processes and procedures can convey cultural information. Therefore, in the era of e-commerce, we should not only make good use of traditional forms of communication, but also give full play to the role of e-commerce platform and make good use of this platform to raise the corporate culture of enterprises to a new height.

(2) Materialization in the system

System is the material attachment of thought. "Materialization in the system" means to establish and improve the corresponding restraint and incentive mechanism, promote the re-creation of corporate culture, and prevent the phenomenon of "the heart is willing but the strength is weak" with rules and regulations. If training is to solve the problem of ideas, the system is more to solve the behavior problem of corporate culture implementation. Training requires employees to "do this", and the system helps employees to "I should do this", making corporate culture a conscious code of conduct for employees, realizing employees' ideological identity and consistency with the enterprise, and improving employees' loyalty and efficiency. [8]

1. Strengthen training and ideological education, and mobilize the enthusiasm of employees to accept new cultures. Employees are always the main body of the enterprise, and a good corporate culture can't really play its role if it is not recognized and supported by employees. Therefore, in the process of "materializing in the system", we must strengthen the knowledge training and ideological education for employees, so that they can not only master the skills of e-commerce, but also truly understand the importance and necessity of corporate culture reengineering. So as to integrate the strength of all employees (or most employees), form strong cohesion and centripetal force, and promote the "institutionalized" construction.

2. Strict management, standardize employee behavior. It is not enough to arouse the enthusiasm of employees, because they move towards their goals in different ways. At this time, if they are not strengthened and standardized, the reconstruction of corporate culture will fail. Taking Wal-Mart, a global retail giant, as an example, in order to effectively promote the re-creation of its corporate culture, the company has formulated the creed of "the customer is the boss" and a series of strict rules and regulations, thus putting the spirit of corporate culture into practice. Therefore, in the initial stage of corporate culture reconstruction in e-commerce environment, mandatory indoctrination is essential, and then "standardize" employees' behavior according to unified systems and requirements, and finally create an excellent corporate culture that adapts to the development of e-commerce.

(C) externalized in the line

In the environment of e-commerce, it is not enough to recreate corporate culture only by "internalizing in the heart" and "materializing in the system". It is also necessary to externalize this new culture-combining up and down and persisting. The journey of corporate culture reconstruction is formed by correct thinking and correct thinking (that is, thinking determines the way out). Correct thinking and thinking are formed by correct actions, which are carried out in thinking and thinking by doing. Thinking and doing promote each other and complement each other. [9]

The formation of a new corporate culture is a cumulative process of individual psychology, which not only takes a long time, but also needs to be continuously strengthened. In addition, in the process of corporate culture reconstruction based on e-commerce environment, we will encounter various unexpected difficulties and setbacks. This requires: on the one hand, business leaders should practice and persevere; On the other hand, enterprises should be closely integrated to form a whole. Zhang Ruimin, president of Haier Company, explained the Haier culture of "pursuing excellence" with practical actions, which is a good example. He insisted on embodying this spirit in himself to educate his employees. The good cultural atmosphere advocated by this practice has greatly infected and educated every employee of Haier company, thus forming a whole that works hard to achieve the company's goals. Therefore, only by firmly grasping these two points, the reconstruction of corporate culture can be steadily promoted.

Third, the conclusion

Many enterprises with good traditional benefits are facing the challenges brought by e-commerce, one of which is the cultural challenge. Some enterprises that implement e-commerce are successful and profitable because of their strong leadership and corporate culture that adapts to the development of e-commerce. This cultural reconstruction is a kind of "people-oriented" information management, which should reflect the characteristics of "people-oriented" and the IT spirit of enterprises. It is a systematic project that emphasizes people-centered, involving all aspects of enterprises, and its ultimate goal is to establish a harmonious and effective man-machine information culture. [10] In short, in the process of corporate culture reengineering under the e-commerce environment, people-oriented management ideas must be established, because without people's participation and cooperation, no technology will effectively change people's behavior, and corporate culture reengineering is impossible.