Over the past several decades, electronic products have a rapid development; People’s daily life has become more convenient and efficient, by the help of these modern tools. However, electronic waste (e-waste), is the ‘by-product’ of electronic products success, is troubling the environment as well. E-waste is a part of electrical and electronic waste, E- waste is ‘.waste including all components, sub-assemblies and consumables, which are part of the product at the time of discarding’. Since mobile phones have a shorter lifecycles, and are replaced by new product within even several months, end-of-life; cell phone has been treated as one of the most significant problem among all e-waste categories (Bains et al., 2006)
Buyer behavior theory analysis
Buyer behavior theory can be defined as the body of knowledge which studies various aspects of purchase and consumption of products and services by individuals with various social and psychological variables. Unlike third-party recyclers who want to make a profit in the recycling industry, consumers have other reasons for recycling, which depend on their different individual characteristics or back ground. In addition to this, consumers, to a certain extent decide on the number of end-of-life products will flow back to consumers toward raw materials (Pagell et al., 2007) after disassembling and disposing, thus the consumer has had the most significant and unstabilizing impact in recycling process.
There is a significant impact of buyer behavior on the strategic decisions made by the mobile sector companies. In technology driven businesses, understanding the voice of consumers and their buying patterns has emerged a tough challenge for the mobile companies. The reason for the growth of this sector is consumer involvement as human being spends most of his time in interacting with others. In modern business scenario consumers are considered as the inception point and the last corner of marketing activities. In the era of diversified competition where customer is the king, success depends not only on the efficiency of the managers in delivering what they have promised but at the same time responsibility lies on the organization to develop such an harmonious atmosphere and culture within the organization where value for the services are provided and quality services could be offered to achieve the higher level motivational need of customer satisfaction. An organization has to synchronize all its activities towards the enhancement and achievement of satisfaction of the consumer at every stage. For achieving customer satisfaction, understanding of dynamic buyer behavior is essential
Due to growing interest of the consumers, companies have shifted from the sales orientation to marketing orientation. Here, the focus was to know more about the consumer’s needs and preferences. The basic belief of marketing-oriented company is that the customer is the attraction point around whom the business revolves. Therefore, understanding about people in general and what makes a customer happy is a vital part of business success
Advertising and the knowledge of cell phone recycling; Advertising is an important way to deliver the relevant knowledge to the public and to encourage people to participate in recycling activities (Ongondo and Williams, 2011). The amount of cell phone recycling knowledge of consumers hasl influenced behaviour (do Valle et al., 2004, Pagell et al., 2007). More consumers know about cell phone recycling, more willing they want to take part in cell phone recycling. According to this, recycling likely to be thought of as a marketing problem, though an effective marketing tool, the proportion of cell phone will grow up(Shrum et al., 1994), recycling advertisement in the street and on websites are good example for applying of this principle.
Competitive advantage theory analysis
Competitive scope is a powerful tool for creating competitive advantage. Broad scope can allow the company to exploit interrelationships between the value chains serving different industry segments, geographic areas, or related industries. For example, two business units may share one sales force to sell their products, or the units may coordinate the procurement of common components. Competing nationally or globally with a coordinated strategy can yield a competitive advantage over local or domestic rivals. By employing a broad vertical scope, a company can exploit the potential benefits of performing more activities internally rather than use outside suppliers. The problem of used cell phone is more serious in developed countries, especially in the UK. Data from the UK National Statistics Office (ONS) cites that 87% of households had mobile phones in 2012, and it is only 80% in 2010 (ONS, 2012), that means the quantity of mobile phone is growing rapidly.
In part due to the transformation of the mobile phone industry, the competition in handset manufacturing has become increasingly intensive and aggressive. This transformation has taken place gradually over a few years on all technologically advanced markets including Europe and the United States. Competitive advantage in either cost or differentiation is a function of a company’s value chain. A company’s cost position reflects the collective cost of performing all its value activities relative to rivals. In addition to the differences in the market composition the European and U.K. operators have partly opted for different cellular technologies. While in Europe, the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) has been the dominant technology, two out of the four biggest U.K. operators have adopted a competing technology Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA). These and other more subtle differences of the European and U.S. mobile phone markets have necessitated distinct approaches to each market on the part of the handset manufacturers
Transforming the value chain; Information technology is permeating the value chain at every point, transforming the way value activities are performed and the nature of the linkages among them. It also is affecting competitive scope and reshaping the way products meet buyer needs. These basic effects explain why information technology has acquired strategic significance and is different from the many other technologies businesses use. Every value activity creates and uses information of some kind.
Transforming the product; Most products have always had both a physical and an information component. The latter, broadly defined, is everything that the buyer needs to know to obtain the product and use it to achieve the desired result. That is, a product includes information about its characteristics and how it should be used and supported. For example, convenient, accessible information on maintenance and service procedures is an important buyer criterion in consumer appliances.
Direction & pace of change; although a trend toward information intensity in companies and products is evident, the role and importance of the technology differs in each industry. Banking and insurance, for example, have always been information intensive. Such industries were naturally among the first and most enthusiastic users of data processing. On the other hand, physical processing will continue to dominate in industries that produce, say, cement, despite increased information processing in such businesses.
Changing the Nature of Competition; after surveying a wide range of industries, we find that information technology is changing the rules of competition in three ways. First, advances in information technology are changing the industry structure. Second, information technology is an increasingly important lever that companies can use to create competitive advantage. A company’s search for competitive advantage through information technology often also spreads to affect industry structure as competitors imitate the leader’s strategic innovations. Finally, the information revolution is spawning completely new businesses. These three effects are critical for understanding the impact of information technology on a particular industry and for formulating effective strategic responses.
Changing industry structure; the structure of an industry is embodied in five competitive forces that collectively determine industry profitability: the power of buyers, the power of suppliers, the threat of new entrants, the threat of substitute products, and the rivalry among existing competitors (see Exhibit V). The collective strength of the five forces varies from industry to industry, as doe’s average profitability. The strength of each of the five forces can also change, either improving or eroding the attractiveness of an industry.
Creating competitive advantage
In any company, information technology has a powerful effect on competitive advantage in either cost or differentiation. The technology affects value activities themselves or allows companies to gain competitive advantage by exploiting changes in competitive scope.
Lowering cost; as we have seen, information technology can alter a company’s costs in any part of the value chain. The technology’s historical impact on cost was confined to activities in which repetitive information
Enhancing differentiation; the impact of information technology on differentiation strategies is equally dramatic. As noted earlier, the role of a company and its product in the buyer’s value chain is the key determinant of differentiation. The new information technology makes it possible to customize products.
Changing competitive scope; Information technology can alter the relationship between competitive scope and competitive advantage. The technology increases a company’s ability to coordinate its activities regionally, nationally, and globally.
Action taken by companies so far to in order to improve recycling
Considering the number of cell phone consumer is increasing, and the frequency of new phone replacement, some targeted measures has be adopted to enhance the phone age of people who change new phone more frequently, and enhance the recycling participation rate of people who have less enthusiasm to recycle they old cell phone.
Recycling saves energy, helps keep materials out of landfills and incinerators, and provides raw materials for the production of new products. When waste cannot be prevented, recycling is the next best option. Recycling is more than extending the life of landfills. It is about making the best use of the resources we have available and conserving those resources for future generations. It is about conserving water, energy, land and raw materials. When looking to increase recycling, there are two interrelated components to address, availability and engagement.
Engagement through education of the use of recycled mobile phones; companies have taken an initiate in passing the knowledge of cell phone recycling through education programmes. In order to foster motivation and awareness for a sustainable use and recycling of mobile phones it is important to communicate knowledge about the resource consumption of these products along their value chain, including social and environmental problems associated with such extensive resource use. Comprehensive and targeted communication and education measures are necessary to ensure a thorough understanding of the problem
Whats still need to be done to improve recycling of mobile phones
In this era, where the development and advancement is going at a great pace and every now and then new gadgets appear in the market, it is very difficult to stick to the old ones. There is a great competition going on between all the mobile companies and they try their best to give new features to their mobile phone so that they get attracted and buy them. This means the number of old mobile phones is increasing in numbers. There are a number of activities which a company can involve itself as ways of recycling the mobile phones
Industrial Process; the making of new mobile phones requires raw material, which can be decreased by recycling. The covers and protective casing of mobile phones can be made from the old ones. During the recycling
process the functioning parts are removed and are used in low cost gadgets. But the transportation of raw material from source to destination produces pollution by emission of poisonous gasses. The productions in industries also increase pollution as wastes are secreted from the industries which can be in solid form or in gaseous forms. So it is better that the mobile phone are traded and recycled among people instead of all the industrial recycling
Recycling Through Trade; the best way to get your phones recycled is by trade within the country. They should be circled within the people. The old mobiles should not be thrown; rather they should be sold to the people who are looking for old models or second hand phones. As most people change their phones after a year or so, so this will increase the electronic trash and soon there would be piles of poisonous waste. So we should pay heed to get our phones recycled by some means. To solve this; Mobile phones can be refurbished and resold at an affordable price, they can be traded with the shop keepers, they can be given to charity, so that they can provide the deserving people with mobile phones as they cannot afford them.
Companies should also establish a system in which consumers can properly return their used mobile phones for recycling.
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