Introduction
The business research proposal from the first assignment was about integrating the cultural and historical elements of the Great Wall of China to create a forward-thinking and modern business framework that merges business and cultural interests. However, given the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on business practices around the world, it is unclear how to realize the objectives of the proposed business plan in this uncertain environment. To recap, the objective of the proposed business was to conserve the cultural and historical value of the Great Wall of China through the development of innovative tourism products and services. Stemming from these changes, customer behaviors, and business models may change significantly due to the implementation of COVID-19 guidelines. This paper seeks to demonstrate how FinTech can be instrumental in enhancing the present business research proposal, which is about integrating the cultural and historical elements of the Great Wall of China to mitigate the financing and operational problems caused by the COVID-19 outbreak on the business idea.
FinTech Solutions for Financing
FinTech solutions can be used to improve the Great Wall of China business by increasing the avenues for raising capital. The initial investment amount was $145,452,000 and the enterprise is expected to span a decade – lasting between July 2021 and July 2013. In the context of this study, FinTech solutions will be proposed as solutions to expand alternatives for getting funding and an accountability tool (Chintalapati, 2020; Sohns and Wójcik, 2020).
Crowdfunding
Advancements in technology have made it easier for companies to tap into growing networks of people whose financial contributions can be merged to provide capital for a company (Pesch and Ishmaev, 2019). Fintech solutions can help the proposed business to access new sources of funds through crowdfunding, which is an online network of people, sharing common interests, and are willing to finance common causes (Knight and Wójcik, 2020).
Strengths
The expanded opportunities for getting additional funds through crowdfunding work best in countries with a high online presence, like China (Hasan, Yajuan and Mahmud, 2020). Therefore, it is easy to implement it in the Great Wall of China business because raising a significant sum of money requires that enough people are available online to support such a cause (Wójcik, 2021a; Saiedi et al., 2020; Wójcik, 2021b). In this regard, crowdfunding could help raise additional capital through selling tickets or donations.
Limitations
Digital lending has its downsides, in the sense that it can be hacked and the funds stolen (Gruin, 2020). Therefore, investing in data security and fraud minimization strategies may be useful in preventing such an eventuality.
Solution through Crowdfunding
Crowdfunding may be implemented by collaborating with other investors by displaying their link on the company’s website for anyone who may be interested in supporting the business. An online crowdfunding campaign could also be set up and social media influencers used to publicize it. The goal is to create awareness by reaching a significant percentage of the target market.
Digital Banks
Digital banks refer to the use of virtual means of completing financial transactions. Online and mobile banking are examples of fast-rising forms of digital banking services (Caicedo, 2019; Bourne, 2020).
Strengths
Digital banks could also lead to the development of more advanced capital raising initiatives or projects (Caicedo, 2019). This means that they are fertile ground for innovation and the development of creative solutions for raising capital.
Limitations
Digital banking can be hacked and customer’s funds stolen (Kuzmanova, 2020; Chintalapati, 2020; Sohns and Wójcik, 2020). Additionally, the laws of a country may limit the amount of funding a business receives from international investors (D’Alvia, 2021).
Solution through Digital Banks
The proposed business can benefit from having a robust source of funds to support its business objectives if it uses the proposed financing plans and combines them with mainstream sources of funds.
FinTech Solutions for Making Investment Decisions
The estimated cash flow for the proposed business was $148,620,000 and annual profits were $316,800. FinTech solutions could help to make wise investment choices to achieve this objective as shown below (Kuzmanova, 2020).
Robot Advisor
A robot advisor uses artificial intelligence to make investment decisions. Therefore, it plays the role of an investment analyst or advisor (Das and Das, 2020).
Strengths
A robot advisor could help in categorizing various investment options into different revenue areas that meet the requirements of each group of guests visiting the facility. In this regard, the revenues for different classes of visitors could be divided into foreign and local tourists with different rates and pricing structures employed to track their revenues across various categories of spend (Webstar, 2018). The same approach can be done to monitor the revenues obtained from the merchandise sold at the historical site because it could be used to differentiate money coming from bottles, t-shirts, shorts, and photos, which are the main merchandise for the proposed business.
Limitations
The strength of the investment choices made will depend on the data obtained from online interactions between businesses and customers where trends can be observed and opportunities for investment identified and exploited (D’Alvia, 2021; Das and Das, 2020). These possibilities are likely to have a positive impact on the investment options that the Great Wall portends but the unpredictability of the economic, political, and social costs of the COVID-19 pandemic limit its effectiveness due to the presence of many unknown variables.
Solutions through Robot Advisor
Digital marketing techniques could be used to improve the competitive profile of the Great Wall of China compared to its rivals because it competes with other tourist sites for the same customers. The biggest competitor for the Great Wall of China is the Forbidden City (Webstar, 2018). One of the proposed strategies of improving the business’ marketing profile was to provide international guidebooks for tourists as a promotion strategy. This could be done online by setting up a link on the company’s website that would direct customers to these options.
FinTech Solutions for Making Operational Decisions
The operational decisions of the Great Wall of China refer to activities undertaken by employees to achieve business objectives. In line with this statement, managing the operations of the Great Wall of China requires a critical understanding of its main operations. Assuming that the project runs for one year, key operational areas that may be improved through digital technology include revenue collection and cost management.
Self-Payment Kiosk
In terms of revenue collection, FinTech can improve the efficacy of ticket revenue collection through the introduction of a self-payment model that minimizes human contact at various transaction points (Manzerolle and Daubs, 2021). Unlike traditional payment methods, which are time-consuming and vulnerable to theft, a self-payment solution could be introduced at the point of sale (POS) – where a transaction between buyers and sellers is completed (D’Alvia, 2021; Das and Das, 2020) – to facilitate ticketing.
Strengths
The Chinese market is ready for the adoption of a self-payment solution because most of its population is integrated on the worldwide web in one form or another (Hasan, Yajuan and Mahmud, 2020). Therefore, a population that is already conversant with digital processes is likely to embrace the proposed changes (Bhattacharyya, 2019). Cost management processes can also be improved by developing software that would track expenses or predict the organization’s resource requirements. For example, in-house software may be developed to track costs and keep business processes organized. At the same time, it can be used to track fixed and variable costs to improve data accuracy and direct resources to important areas of spend.
Limitations
At the same time, incremental improvements on the revenue generation model should be done sparingly because of the need to integrate feedback in every step of the operational management process. Poor employee training could also limit the effectiveness of adopting this strategy. Therefore, it is important to train employees to manage these new systems because poor employee training could undermine the efficacy of the proposed plans.
Solution with PoS
Given the challenges brought by the COVID-19 pandemic and its impact on businesses, the self-payment option will be instrumental in minimizing contact between sales representatives and customers because the process will be cashless (Yun, Liu and Zhao, 2021). PoS may be instrumental in building, organizing, delegating, and reviewing tasks, which improves the overall operational performance of the business. The performance of indirect competitors, such as theme parks, could also be monitored using PoS data. Already, there are plans to use social media to maximize the number of people who are aware of the company’s services. Therefore, this plan should be extended to include an analysis of PoS data because the customer traffic of the competitors can be monitored via this platform. Additional support can be obtained when monitoring marketing trends, evaluating the economic environment, and assessing its impact on businesses.
The use of PoS tools to achieve the above-mentioned objectives is central to the adoption of a digital investment management system that can help to achieve investment objectives. For example, PoS data can help in identifying the right strategy to follow in achieving the business’s objectives because it is proficient in building revenue by enhancing existing customer networks and understanding competitors’ behaviors by providing openly accessible investment statistics that can be used for comparison purposes (Sharma, 2020). The impact of human error on the business’s investment choices is also eliminated through PoS because they involve advanced algorithms that can help to make investment choices based on the strength of the data generated (Dahlman, Gulbrandsen and Just, 2021). Therefore, PoS data are central in improving the operational performance of the proposed business.
Mobile Payment App
Mobile payment systems refer to the use of phone-based payment models, such as mobile banking and payment of goods using scanned QR codes.
Strengths
Mobile payment Apps are known to be more secure and transparent compared to traditional banking services (Caicedo, 2019). Due to the safeguards introduced in digital financial payments, the Great Wall of China could benefit from having an increase in financing options away from traditional banks and financial groups. At the same time, it could benefit from favorable standards of payment for securing digital loans, thereby improving its cash flow (Das and Das, 2020). Introducing a mobile payment application would also address accountability challenges and confer significant benefits to local communities and other stakeholders that may be involved in the implementation of the proposed business plan because they confer economic, environmental, and social benefits to business process management (Chintalapati, 2020). Particularly, the transition towards a digital-centered model of business management, which eliminates unnecessary human contact during payments, is positioned at the core of the new strategy for integrating the cultural and historical elements of the Great Wall of China.
Limitations
Despite the advantages that mobile payment may offer to the operations of the Great Wall of China, it has its drawbacks because funds can be hacked or intercepted by criminals (Sohns and Wójcik, 2020).
Solutions with Mobile Payment App
Despite the above-mentioned limitations of digital banking systems, they still offer a reliable and effective solution for obtaining additional money to finance proposed business activities at the Great Wall of China. The goal is to create a forward-thinking and modern perspective of managing business and cultural interests.
Conclusion
Digital technology is useful in navigating the current economic environment characterized by uncertainty and fear due to the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on businesses and customer behaviors alike. It helps to make communications and transactions possible between customers and businesses in an environment where both parties cannot meet each other face-to-face. Despite the merits or demerits of these techniques, it is important to monitor the safety of money obtained through these techniques, as they are vulnerable to hacks and malware attacks aimed at stealing funds or compromising business processes. Nonetheless, risks can be minimized by promoting business-to-business relationships through third-party partnerships to maintain the health of the entire system.
Reference List
Bhattacharyya, S. S. (2019) ‘LokSuvidha, converting non-customers to customers: the saga of organizational growth through technology’, Emerging Economies Cases Journal, 1(1), pp. 33–42.
Bourne, C. (2020) ‘Fintech’s transparency–publicity nexus: value co-creation through transparency discourses in business-to-business digital marketing’, American Behavioral Scientist, 64(11), pp. 1607–1626.
Caicedo, D. (2019) The types of digital banks and what they mean for business. Web.
Chintalapati, S. (2020) ‘BankBuddy.ai—business expansion and marketing dilemma: a case study to discuss the Ansoff growth matrix concepts combined with business expansion strategies for expanding into emerging markets’, Emerging Economies Cases Journal, 2(1), pp. 44–53.
Dahlman, S., Gulbrandsen, I. T. and Just, S. N. (2021) ‘Algorithms as organizational figuration: the sociotechnical arrangements of a fintech start-up’, Big Data and Society, 9(1), pp. 1-10.
D’Alvia, D. (2021) ‘Legal constants and the ‘constant’ outside of the law: mobile payments in comparative perspective under European Union law’, Maastricht Journal of European and Comparative Law, 28(3), pp. 332–355.
Das, A. and Das, D. (2020) ‘Perception, adoption, and pattern of usage of fintech services by bank customers: evidences from Hojai District of Assam’, Emerging Economy Studies, 6(1), pp. 7–22.
Gruin, J. (2020) ‘The epistemic evolution of market authority: big data, blockchain and China’s neostatist challenge to neoliberalism’, Competition and Change, 6(3), pp. 111-116.
Hasan, M. M., Yajuan, L. and Mahmud, A. (2020) ‘Regional development of China’s inclusive finance through financial technology’, SAGE Open, 5(1), pp. 1-10.
Knight, E. and Wójcik, D. (2020) ‘FinTech, economy and space: introduction to the special issue’, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52(8), pp. 1490–1497.
Kuzmanova, T. (2020) ‘Fine-tuning Europe: how to win the global fintech race?’, European View, 19(1), pp. 109–109.
Manzerolle, V. and Daubs, M. (2021) ‘Friction-free authenticity: mobile social networks and transactional affordances’, Media, Culture and Society, 7(2), pp. 1-10.
Pesch, U. and Ishmaev, G. (2019) ‘Fictions and frictions: promises, transaction costs and the innovation of network technologies’, Social Studies of Science, 49(2), pp. 264–277.
Saiedi, E. et al. (2020) ‘Distrust in banks and fintech participation: the case of peer-to-peer lending’, Entrepreneurship Theory and Practice, 5(2), pp. 1-11.
Sharma, A. K. (2020) ‘Naoko Nemoto and Naoyuki Yoshino (eds), fintech for Asian SME’, Journal of Asian Economic Integration, 2(1), pp. 122–125.
Sohns, F. and Wójcik, D. (2020) ‘The impact of Brexit on London’s entrepreneurial ecosystem: the case of the fintech industry’, Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 52(8), pp. 1539–1559.
Webstar, C. (2018) The Great Wall of China. London: Weigl Publishers.
Wójcik, D. (2021a) ‘Financial geography i: exploring fintech – maps and concepts’, Progress in Human Geography, 45(3), pp. 566–576.
Wójcik, D. (2021b) ‘Financial geography II: the impacts of fintech – financial sector and centres, regulation and stability, inclusion and governance’, Progress in Human Geography, 45(4), pp. 878–889.
Yun, J. J., Liu, Z. and Zhao, X. (2021) ‘Introduction: ambidextrous open innovation in the 4th industrial revolution’, Science, Technology and Society, 26(2), pp. 183–200.