The use of electronic commerce both for export and for the wholesale domestic market in Cuba imposes the necessary coordination and cooperation between various actors that allow and make commercial transactions viable. This shows the importance of electronic commerce for the creation of cooperation networks between national companies with a view to strengthening the commercial exchanges that are generated.
The objective of this paper is to reflect on the importance of the use of electronic commerce for Cuba to promote inter-company cooperation.
Introduction
Today's world is characterized by rapid technological development and by the great speed of human processes and activities that these changes generate. Productions that previously took months now take hours, what was done yesterday in an hour today is done in a minute; all this coupled with a considerable decrease in time and capital costs.
Commerce is not the exception to this improvement process, the purchase and sale of merchandise through physical contact has been gradually replaced by other means of exchange until reaching what we now know as electronic commerce or e-commerce.
This new form of commerce is supported by the technological advances that exist today (Internet, computers relatively easy to use and acquire, email, etc.) and due to the convenience and speed it imparts to commercial transactions, it has passed to be the most used way within the First World, to offer and acquire products or services.
The Third World countries, for their part, although they do not use e-commerce with the same intensity, have seen the need to join this commercial practice so as not to be left behind in the market, mainly companies that are dedicated to export of products.
Cuba cannot turn its back on the new trends imposed by the international market. It is necessary that the practice of electronic commerce be increasingly aware, especially for those companies that face export to try to climb successful positions in the market.
In turn, within its borders it is also necessary to promote electronic commerce between companies as a way to increase the speed of response to the market.
The use of electronic commerce both for export and for the wholesale domestic market imposes the necessary coordination and cooperation between various actors that allow and make commercial transactions viable, the conception of electronic support, the strengthening of supply, etc.
This shows the importance of electronic commerce for the creation of cooperation networks between national companies with a view to strengthening the commercial exchanges that are generated.
For this reason, the purpose of this paper is to reflect on the importance of using electronic commerce for Cuba to promote inter-company cooperation.
1.-Electronic commerce as a driver of inter-company cooperation
Inter-company cooperation and its benefits for SMEs
Cooperation between companies or inter-company cooperation is a phenomenon that has been booming since the 1970s. According to the definitions given by the Dictionary of the Royal Spanish Academy (DRAE) to the words cooperate and cooperation, it can be inferred that inter-company cooperation is nothing more than the set of agreements and actions that two or more companies take to work together for a certain common goal.
Due to the globalization of the economy, maintaining a company's competitive advantages increasingly demands flexibility, responsiveness, and adaptability to rapidly changing conditions. Added to this is the existence of large transnational companies that threaten to ruin small and medium-sized companies.
In such a competitive and hostile environment, companies find it vital to strengthen relationships throughout the chain as much as possible: supplier-producer-distributor-consumer; reason why forming small alliances and cooperation pacts with other companies has become a necessary practice for survival and permanence in the market.
One of the best-known examples of cooperation between companies is that of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy, where inter-company collaboration occurs, through the flexible manufacturing of various products, using the specialized knowledge of each company..
The Italian industrial centers, which comprise thousands of small companies specialized in specific industrial sectors, such as ceramic tiles, wool fabrics and agricultural machinery; They have reached an excellent level in terms of innovation and market responsiveness, thanks to a combination of competition and cooperation, also having service centers that offer assistance in technological and marketing issues.
Depending on the conditions, characteristics and objectives of the companies, the cooperation to be established will vary (duration, organization, distribution of profits and expenses, etc.), which is why there are different types of inter-company cooperation; such as: strategic partnerships, short-term alliances and contractual relationships. Company-university relations for certain research and development activities are another form of cooperation.
One of the most peculiar variants of inter-company cooperation is the so-called industrial ecology. Broadly speaking, industrial ecology presents a system in which the waste of one company (outputs) becomes the raw material of another (inputs), this creates a "closed cycle" in which fewer materials are discarded. It is therefore a matter of grouping together as many companies as possible in the same area, as long as they comply with the requirement of assimilating waste from other companies or supplying their own waste as raw material. The best-known example of an industrial ecosystem is that of Kalundborg, a small industrial area off the coast of Denmark.
Kalundborg's industrial symbiosis began to develop in the 1970s, when several participants, trying to reduce their costs and comply with established regulations, looked for innovative ways to manage their waste and use drinking water more effectively. Energy and waste exchanges were initially designed to find profitable uses for waste and unused energy. Over time, however, entrepreneurs discovered that significant environmental benefits could also be realized with this innovative exchange system.
These cooperating groups of companies are referred to by some specialists as business networks. Some of these networks are highly developed and include formal management structures and programs, while others are less formalized. Examples of cooperative networks may include: research and development (R&D); manufacture and assembly of products; training; purchases; and marketing. For participating small and medium companies, the networks are:
- a means of increasing economies of scale or a way to compete with large corporations, an opportunity to lower costs and create organizations that continually 'learn'.
Furthermore, national and regional authorities around the world have formulated programs to encourage the creation of business networks. The Business Links Program in Great Britain (Grayson, 1996) and Québec's network and cluster policy (Ferland, Montreuil and Poulin, 1996) are attempts to reap the benefits of inter-company cooperation.
It is obvious that the cooperation between companies constitutes a quite attractive and practical variant, since it achieves:
- Reduce costs Improve the quality of the product offered Increase the value of the product Face the competition Increase profits Improve working and salary conditions from the incremental results obtained with cooperation.
In achieving successful cooperation, communication between its members plays a decisive role. Obtaining and sharing information quickly and accurately, becomes vital in achieving the successful coupling of various productions (generally of different products); But not only that, but also being able to carry out monetary transactions and product disclosure with the speed demanded by the new times. These processes are greatly assisted by current digital communication media and its derivatives, such as: the Internet, email, fax and electronic commerce, among others.
Existing relationship between electronic commerce and inter-company cooperation.
Due to oversupply in many sectors of the economy, customers are becoming increasingly demanding because what they don't find in a bidder can quickly be found by the competition. It is very important to think about the customer and anticipate their needs and desires.
The increasing spread that Internet use has among consumers and the little time that in many cases is dedicated to the purchasing process, the customer quickly thinks about searching the Internet for information about what they want to buy and knowing which ones bidders possess what he demands.
In this sense, the company must think that the creation of a web page that provides detailed information about the products or services that the company offers is of vital importance to make itself known in the market.
It turns out that the customer increasingly wants to see the products through catalogs on the web, to know which company is selling them and also to buy them directly through the internet, that is, to carry out an electronic purchase.
The company alone cannot often face this world immersed in a computer, but must necessarily cooperate with other companies in order to meet the increasing demands of customers and thus face competitors.
A company may need to start relationships with a bank that provides online services as well as companies that are dedicated to setting up all these systems on the network.
Cooperation is inevitable when it comes to electronic commerce. Not only from those companies that provide the services that guarantee its operation but also with other companies that perhaps complement a more attractive offer of the company's products.
For example, say that a company that provides technical assistance services can complement its offer with the sale of certain products that the customer needs and that are related to the basic service in question.
In other words, a relationship is established between business cooperation and e-commerce that favors, complements and facilitates both processes.
In other words, electronic commerce decisively encourages cooperation between companies.
Using e-commerce within the framework of inter-company cooperation or a network of companies provides:
- Speed, since the current Internet conditions guarantee that the information reaches its destination almost at the same time as it is sent. Security, because as they are companies that have established formal agreements there is no considerable danger that they will try to cheat when making the monetary transactions. Monetary transactions may be based on the purchase of raw materials among themselves, from other companies, or jointly; the sale of products to each other, the contribution of common funds to finance technological improvements, research or services that benefit the group, etc.
Buying items on the Internet has become a common practice due to how comfortable it is, which is why every company finds it beneficial to sell their goods or services using this route, however not all have conditions that allow them to take advantage of this opportunity.
Accessing the Internet and creating a page where products are offered is not a very complicated task, but ensuring that they reach their recipients once they are sold sometimes involves costs that the company cannot afford and therefore is forced to abandon. the practice of electronic commerce.
Some examples of this are the companies that are dedicated to selling solid items such as: books, clothing, flowers, household appliances, perfumes, etc., which require to be sent to the customer through delivery agencies, people specialized in home delivery, etc.; not to mention that most of the time these are foreign clients and you have to incur export costs.
A solution for those companies that are in this situation may be to establish cooperation agreements with companies that are dedicated to sending packages, in this way they would produce and market the products and the other company would send them to the recipients, obtaining both benefits..
2. Electronic commerce in Cuba. Its importance to encourage cooperation between companies.
In our country, Internet service is not within the reach of all Cubans and therefore they cannot actively participate in electronic commerce and business economic activity is controlled, for the most part, directly by the government; that is why it is more appropriate to refer in the Cuban case to the evolution and characteristics of B2B e-commerce, that is, commerce between companies, and B2C commerce, which in this case would be between a company and a foreign consumer (companies exporters).
In Cuba, many companies have started to use electronic commerce to market their products, some since the last decade.
The first company to use electronic commerce was ARTEX in 1996 with the opening of a virtual store for the sale of Cuban music cassettes and CDs, months later Granma Internacional Digital offered on its website the possibility of buying the printed edition online, then TELEDATOS and CIMEX with the mission of carrying out electronic monetary transactions corresponding to the sending of remittances to Cuba; Likewise we find CUBANACAN and its site Cubacar, -a rent-a-car from any country-, which manages to sell hotel reservations and souvenirs electronically.
Other companies such as InfoMaster, Global Philatelie, and Génesis Multimedia commercialize educational softwares, Cuban philately and multimedia compact discs, respectively, while Gran Caribe, La Turcadena, rents rooms from its hotels on its website, among others.
Other companies such as GENIX, Tecnomática, SITRANS, ACINOX, TECUN and the Copextel Corporation have also ventured on this front.
As of 2001, there were 16 B2C sites with sales of $ 1,150,000, primarily in money remittances, tourism packages, and sales of groceries, appliances, and perfumery.
Today, among the most popular Cuban e-commerce sites are comprad'todo.com and bazarvirtual.com, which are mainly dedicated to the export of products and services, with the peculiarity that these products can be purchased by people who do not live in Cuba and be delivered to Cuban homes; For example: if Mr. Pérez, who lives in Argentina, wants to give his Cuban aunt a bouquet of roses or a television on his birthday, through one of these websites he can buy the product and it is delivered to his aunt. on the date that Mr. Pérez decides.
However, although it is worth highlighting the role that the companies promoting these sites have played in the development of virtual stores, it is worth mentioning that many others still do not consider the importance of their employment and especially those that seek to climb successful positions in the markets. international.
It is also worth mentioning that in many cases the benefits and strengths that can be granted to a company and its image on the internet are not fully exploited if it cooperates with other companies that produce complementary goods to its offer or that support the basic services they give as delivery. at home, electronic payments, etc.
Main drawbacks that influence the development of electronic commerce in Cuba.
These companies have been able to carry out this activity facing and overcoming numerous obstacles, including:
- the difficulty of making collections and payments online: The accounts in freely convertible currencies of the Cuban business environment are in the BFI, in the Banco Internacional de Crédito SA (BICSA), in BANDEC, in the BPA and in the Banco Metropolitano and these They are not yet ready for e-commerce transactions in real time. The only bank that has developed an interface for making e-commerce transactions is BANDEC, although this is not used due to lack of agreements between the companies and the bank; therefore, until a system is created that connects these 5 banks, monetary transactions will continue to be slow, and hindering the successful completion of electronic commerce.
- Incomplete or inaccurate knowledge about Marketing that makes websites unattractive or informative for customers.
- the restrictions imposed by the North American Economic Blockade on the country: Since 1962, Cuba has been prohibited from accessing telecommunications and computer equipment from any US company or subsidiary, it is unable to access global networks by submarine fiber optic cable, people or companies that want to buy Cuban products and have credit cards issued by US banks, cannot send their dollars to a Cuban account, because those banks would automatically cancel the operation, due to the harassment that the United States Treasury Department deploys in In the financial and commercial sphere against Cuba, many times the online payment has to be made through a third financial entity (not North American) that charges a commission for this service, among other examples.
- Customs procedures involved in the export of products delay and make their delivery more expensive.
Other barriers to the development of electronic commerce in Cuba, according to the National Commission for Electronic Commerce, are the problems of connectivity infrastructure and computer services, logistics, certification and registration, the lack of trained personnel, among others.
Not all these difficulties can be solved, since some do not depend on the Cuban government (for example, the economic blockade imposed on Cuba by the US government), but others can be gradually corrected by establishing cooperation agreements between the companies that are involved with the process in its different stages.
For example, if it is possible to create a mechanism by means of which the different banks that manage the accounts in freely convertible currencies operate jointly, the problem of slowness in monetary transactions would be solved. On the other hand, establishing agreements between companies and study centers or the University, would allow to correct the problems that companies have in communication, distribution, product design, etc.
The establishment of agreements between companies that export products marketed through electronic commerce and Customs, would allow finding and applying mechanisms for the declaration of products and payment of taxes that reduce the costs of the companies and increase the speed of delivery, and with it customer satisfaction.
An example of this is the case of the company Artex, which was forced to close a few years ago due to high shipping costs: the company had to pay a merchandise declaration for each shipment made, which implied a spending money and time impossible to bear. In this situation, Customs made an exception and began to take a monthly declaration of all products from the company, based on that experience, to define how to regulate such exports; with which the permanence of this in the electronic market was possible.
Another variant to the challenge for Cuban companies to carry out e-commerce is the creation, before starting to practice this activity, of alliances or agreements with companies that can support it, for example: if a company that is dedicated to rum production suddenly decides to start marketing it over the Internet, but realizes that it does not have the right conditions to send it to potential buyers, it can enter into cooperation agreements with another company that specializes in shipping packages, and in this way you could successfully market your product.
The use of digital communication for the commercialization of products represents, today, a market opportunity that those companies that want to succeed cannot ignore.
Cuba has a whole series of attractive products for the foreign market: music, tobacco, rum, distance learning, telemedicine, computer products and services, consulting, cultural products, travel and other tourist services; that commercialized through electronic commerce, the most popular means of buying and selling at present, would represent a source of considerable income for the country that, given the enormous economic restrictions to which it is subjected by the Blockade, cannot afford to waste.
Under these conditions, inter-company cooperation is one of the most suitable means to achieve it.
Conclusions
E-commerce is a convenient, cheap and fast option to market products, both from the point of view of sellers and buyers. In almost all the world this has been accepted as a commercial practice and its growing boom is a reality; hence, companies that have not yet used it have no choice but to begin to take steps to implement it or be at a significant disadvantage in the face of competition.
For its part, inter-company cooperation stands as a feasible, economical, efficient and to some extent ecological alternative to the danger posed by the presence in the market of large companies, especially transnational companies, for small and medium-sized companies of all the planet. Its use not only represents permanence in the market for many of these, but a way to solidify their position in it.
These processes are not alien to each other, but a beneficial two-way relationship is established between them, that is, it favors both. Thus we find that e-commerce provides inter-company cooperation with speed and security in the commercial transactions carried out; while without adequate inter-company cooperation it is not possible for the electronic marketing process to be carried out successfully, especially when it involves home delivery or the export of articles.
Cuba does not remain aloof from these processes, although there is still a long way to go towards a general and functional implementation of the same in the national territory.
The problems facing the country are largely remedial, although for this it is necessary for companies to understand the need and importance of electronic commerce processes and cooperation between companies, as well as the technical assistance of specialists, for economic activity. and material means with which to carry them out.
recommendations
- Deepen the current status of the agreements that exist between Cuban companies in order to know what other companies can avail themselves of these and evaluate the results that have been obtained with them. That the directors of the companies that are or should be informed to be involved with said processes regarding their characteristics, advantages and importance; so that they better understand the need for their application and can make better decisions in order to achieve a better operation of them. Inform the most advanced Cuban companies of the existence of websites such as "BazarVirtual" and "Compra D´Todo" for that they are integrated into them and obtain a new way to market their products or services, while the offer of these sites is diversified and their image is strengthened.That Cuban companies that are currently selling their products through electronic commerce receive specialized assistance in Marketing and IT so that they can improve the way they present and promote their items, as well as solve some technical difficulties such as: reducing the waiting time in the web pages and achieve a safe and fast operation of the links used.
Bibliography
Alonso, Iramis; Pradas, Toni and Jiménez, Eduardo / El Economista de Cuba ONLINE. Havana. Cuba / www.eleconomista.cubaweb.cu/2002/nro160/160_308.html
Article “Inter-company cooperation in Spain. Trends and empirical evidence ”/ www.cervantesvirtual.com/FichaObra.html?Ref=13122&ext=pdf
Electronic commerce in the Cuban legal reality. www.monografias.com/trabajos40/comercio-electronico-cuba/comercio-electronico-
Juliette Barrios, Mallelín Bolufé. Article: "The Web as a communication tool for exporting companies"
Guidelines for electronic commerce in Cuba. alejandro313.googlepages.com/lineamientoscomercioelectronico.
Pradas, Toni / www.eleconomista.cubaweb.cu/2000/nro46/46_161.html
Proposal for actions to promote the development of electronic commerce in Cuba alejandro313.googlepages.com/Propuestadeaccionesparaimpulsareldesarrollodel.ppt -
Betsime Magazine-The Magazine of the Cuban businessman: www.betsime.disaic.cu/secciones/jur_enemar_07.htm
Rosenthal, Edward and N. McGalliard, Thomas / “Eco-industrial development the case of the United States” / The IPTS Report - No. 27, September 1998 / http://libros-revistas-derecho.vlex.es/vid/desarrollo -eco-industrial-case-united-117597
Sarasa López, Miguel Ángel / “Present and future of electronic commerce” / www.iec.csic.es/criptonomicon/articulos/expertos25.html
Current situation and prospects for electronic commerce in Cuba www.aladi.org/…/40b793de37687ff303256dd30068817f/014c8435189d532b03256a8000598cf2/$FILE/Cuba.pdf.
