THE NEW YORK INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
SCHOOL OF MANAGEMENT
spring, 2008
Intro E-Commerce
MGMT-775-W01
DR. STEPHEN W. HARTMAN
PREREQUISITE: mist 595
3 CREDITS
office hours
mondays and wednesdays
2-4 PM
Wisser Library, 3rd floor
and by appointment
OFFICE TEL.: (516) 686-7972 O.W.
Reference Web Site
Course Web Site
Course Objectives
This course explores how the landscape of online commerce is changing and evolving. With balanced coverage of both the technological and the strategic aspects of successful e-commerce, students are able to tackle the real-world business cases included in each chapter. Reflecting changes in the economy and how businesses are responding, this course emphasizes revenue and transaction cost reduction models as an alternative to the older ideas of business models.
The business phenomenon that we now call electronic commerce has had an interesting history. From humble beginnings in the mid-1990s, electronic commerce grew rapidly until 2000, when a major downturn occurred. Many people have seen news stories about the “dot-com boom” followed by the “dot-com bust” or the “dot-bomb.” In the 2000 to 2003 period, many industry observers were writing obituaries for electronic commerce. Just as the unreasonable expectations for immediate success fueled the high expectations during the boom years, overly gloomy news reports colored perceptions during this time. Although the rapid expansion and high levels of investment of the boom years are not likely to be repeated, the second wave of electronic commerce has begun.
Web Site
Supplementary information for the course is available at Dr. Hartman. The Web site contains PowerPoint slides, class announcements, the course syllabus, test dates, and other information for the course.
Textbook
Gary Schneider, Electronic Commerce, Seventh Edition (Thompson Course Technology, 2007). ISBN 1-4188-3703-2.
Greg Holden. Starting an Online Business For Dummies, 4th Edition
ISBN: 0-7645-8334-4. Paperback.
examinations
There will be two fifty question multiple choice examinations based upon the readings in the text and lecture material.
e-commerce term project
The students are required to prepare and develop an E-Commerce project. The purpose of this project is to have the students become familiar with the elements of an E-Commerce site and its functionality. While students are not required to make this an actual online site, the project will involve several steps.
1. Choose a product(s) or service(s) to market utilizing an e-commerce website. Refer to Chapter 2 of Starting an Online Business for Dummies for a range of choices.
2. Do a market study to justify choosing this particular product(s) or service(s). Who is the competition? What is the demand? Why will it be successful? What is your competitive advantage?
3. Explore hosting sites. What would be a practical hosting site for your e-commerce web site? Refer to Chapter 3 of Starting an Online Business for Dummies for an in depth discussion.
4. Choose a domain name. While it is not necessary to register your domain name unless you plan on activating the site, show all the steps necessary to register your domain. Refer to Chapter 8 of Starting an Online Business for Dummies for an in depth discussion.
5. Choose a web page editor and develop a web page for your business. In addition to having a full description of the product or service you are offering, It should have all the functionality necessary to insure a successful online business including having inventory management, a shopping cart, and a method of payment. Additional features such as a newsletter, search features, guest book etc. add to the value of your website.
6. Refer to Chapter 15 of Starting an Online Business for Dummies and develop a marketing strategy for your online business. What search services will you register with? What is the cost for this service? Is it possible to start a partnership for your business?
7. What is your Operations Plan? How will this site actually operate? Be comprehensive.
8. What is your Financial Plan? The Financial Plan should include a statement of the financial assumptions used to generate the plan numbers, a break-even analysis that identifies the amount of sales needed to cover fixed and variable expenses, a statement of the sources and uses of funds that explains how the e-business expects to secure capital and how it will spend it, the ownership of the e-business, and what the expected return on the business is.
9. Who will manage this business? There should be a management statement accompanying this business plan.
10. Prepare an Issues analysis and critical risk statement that identifies threats or opportunities the e-business will face including economic, market and environmental considerations.
11. Due Date April 30, 2008.
student Participation
As graduate MBA students it is expected in this course that each student will at least read the Wall Street Journal. The instructor will make available a special student discount subscription form for those not having access to the paper. Additionally, student discount subscription forms for Business Week, Fortune and Investor's Business Daily will be made available.
In recent years E-Commerce has revolutionized the way we do business. Students are therefore asked to contribute to the classroom discussion by reading publications such as the E-Commerce Times, http://ecommerce.internet.com/, New York Times, Forbes magazine, Money magazine, and others. KEEP UP TO DATE!
While it is impossible to keep up with everything, students should at least be aware of the major developments of the day. Consistent with this philosophy students are asked to cut out and bring to class one article from the press each class session relating to e-commerce. Prepare to be called on and discuss the contents of the article with the class.
grade weighting
Examination #1 30%
Examination #2 30%
Term Paper 30%
Class Participation (Articles) 10%
grading
90-100 = a
86-89 = b+
80-85 = b
76-79 = c+
70-75 = c
0-69 = f
attendance
If you stay current in your readings, get the notes, and do the assignments, isolated absences should not, in general, have any adverse effects. However, more than three absences may force your withdrawal.
Please exchange phone numbers with those sitting around you. Please do not call to notify me of your absence unless you have an unusual problem. Your absence will be obvious. If you do miss a class, stay current by calling one of your classmates and get the notes etc.
a b average is a passing grade
in all graduate courses.
makeup examinations are not given.
students who do not pass at
least one examination will not pass the course!
reading assignments
Week / Topics / ChapterReading / Chapter Projects / Exams
1 / Introduction to Electronic Commerce / Chapter 1
2 / Technology Infrastructure: The Internet and the World Wide Web / Chapter 2
3 / Selling on the Web: Revenue Models and Building a Web Presence / Chapter 3
4 / Marketing on the Web / Chapter 4 / Prepare a brief discussion paper that examines different brand names after searching for them on the Web. How does the presentation differ? Examine sites such as Amazon.com and BarnesAndNoble.com. What are their similarities? Their differences? Examine Pepsi.com and CocaCola.com as well. Examine these brands and their method of ‘getting the name out there’.
5 / Business-to-Business Strategies: From Electronic Data Interchange to Electronic Commerce / Chapter 5 / E-Commerce project outline due. State product(s) or service(s) of your e-commerce site. Justify it with a preliminary marketing survey. State your basic operations strategy.
6 / Online Auctions, Virtual Communities, and Web Portals / Chapter 6 / Mid-term Exam
7 / The Environment of Electronic Commerce: Legal, Ethical, and Tax Issues / Chapter 7
8 / Web Server Hardware and Software / Chapter 8
9 / Electronic Commerce Software / Chapter 9
10 / Security for Electronic Commerce / Chapter 10
11 / Payment Systems for Electronic Commerce / Chapter 11
12 / Planning for Electronic Commerce / Chapter 12
13 / Term Papers Due and Presentation / E-Commerce Term Paper Due Date April 30, 2008
14 / Final Exam
e-commerce references
CyberAtlas: Internet Statistics and Market Research for Web Marketers
http://cyberatlas.internet.com/
Publisher: Jupitermedia Corporation
Doing Business on the Internet
http://www.loc.gov/rr/business/ecommerce/inet-business.html
Publisher: LC Business Reference Service
E-Commerce Times
http://www.ecommercetimes.com/
Publisher: ECT News Network, Inc.
ebusinessforum.com: Global Business Intelligence for the Digital Age
http://www.ebusinessforum.com/
Publisher: Economist Intelligence Unit Limited
ecommerce-guide.com
http://ecommerce.internet.com/
Publisher: internet.com Corp.
Catalog Record/Annotation 98801970
Electronic Commerce Guide
http://ecommerce.internet.com/
Publisher: Mecklermedia Corporation
Catalog Record/Annotation 98801970
Market Research & Internet Marketing Research
http://www.knowthis.com/research/marketingresearch.htm
Publisher: Knowthis
OECD: Electronic Commerce Electronic Commerce OECD: Electronic Commerce
http://www.oecd.org/topic/0,2686,en_2649_37441_1_1_1_1_37441,00.html
Publisher: OECD
UNeTradeS.Net: Standards for Trade and Electronic Business
http://www.unece.org/etrades/
Publisher: United Nations
Virus Hoaxes and Netlore
http://www.hoaxinfo.com/
Publisher: J. Richards
Catalog Record/Annotation 2002556425
General Sources for Doing Business on the Internet
§ CommerceNet
A not-for-profit 501c(6) mutual benefit corporation which is conducting the first large-scale market trial of technologies and business processes to support interoperable electronic commerce via the Internet.
§ Free Pint
Written by information professionals in the UK, this free e-mail newsletter gives "tips, tricks and articles on how and where to find reliable Web sites and search more effectively."
§ Global Internet Statistics (By Language) (GlobalReach)
Provides the latest estimated figures of the number of native speakers online worldwide by language. Includes links to more detailed language information by country, as well as a chart showing the evolution & projections of online linguistic populations, beginning with 1996. Also includes a section on projected e-commerce by country. Sources for the data are included.
§ Internet Economy Indicators
The Internet Economy Indicators (TM), which are derived from analysis of four "layers" of the internet economy: infrastructure, application, intermediary/market maker, and commerce, are tools for tracking and understanding the rapidly expanding Internet economy. They are designed to quantify the sales volume and employment in various groups of Internet-related products and services.
§ Internet Fraud Watch (National Consumer League)
Part of the National Fraud Information Center, the Internet Fraud Watch assists consumers to "distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent promotions in cyberspace and route reports of suspected fraud to the appropriate law enforcement agencies."
§ PeerSpectives (Edward Lowe Foundation)
Designed for the business owner, the site emphasizes peer-networking and "next-level" thinking, encouraging business owners to anticipate issues the company is likely to encounter at the next level of growth and to understand the organizational changes required to move the company to that level. Includes numerous short articles on such topics as building an organization, acquiring and managing finances, human resources, legal issues, taxes, operations and technology. Some articles include citations to additional sources of information, including books, articles, research centers, professional associations, and web sites.
§ Marketing Resources (Tenagra Corp.)
Links to various resources and statistics on Internet marketing, as well as to bibliographic information on print publications on Internet marketing, advertising, and the business use of the Web. Includes links to purchase information and book reviews from Amazon.com.
§ Wilson Internet: Web Marketing and E-Commerce
Includes links to full-text articles and other resources relating to e-commerce and web marketing.
"Netiquette" for Doing Business on the Internet
§ Learn the Net
Covers a wide range of Internet basics, including a brief history or the Internet, netiquette, email, web browsers, newsgroups, web publishing, multimedia, conferencing, security, and privacy. Presents a guide and tutorial for learning to use the Internet, describes publishing, researching, and doing business on the Internet. Contains a glossary, a FAQ section, and a site search form. Provides access to French, German, Italian, and Spanish versions of site information.
§ The Net: User Guidelines and Netiquette (Arlene Rinaldi)
Sets forth guidelines to "assist users of the Internet to know what is considered abuse of available resources and ... to be responsible in how they access or transmit information through the Internet."
Internet Business Directories
§ BizWeb: Business Guide to the Web
Internet resources of businesses, arranged by the companies' products and services. Uses broad subject categories.
§ AllBusiness (AllBusiness)
Claims to be "the largest and most comprehensive business catalog in the world.".
§ SuperPages.com
Maintained by Verizon Information Services, the site allows users to search yellow and white pages nationwide. Also includes other features such as product reviews and an interactive MerchantMatch page.
Internet Services and Consultants for Businesses
§ BtoB: Advertising Age's Newspaper of the Marketing Revolution (Crain Communications)
Site includes the Web Price Index, a monthly study of the cost of web services; NetMarketing 200, a ranking of two hundred business-to-business sites, searchable by name, rank, or industry; and the BtoB 100, a listing of top advertisers by spending or by medium.
§ eBizSearch
"eBizSearch is an experimental niche search engine that searches the web and catalogs academic articles as well as commercially produced articles and reports that address various business and technology aspects of e-Business. The search engine crawls websites of universities, commercial organizations, research institutes and government departments to retrieve academic articles, working papers, white papers, consulting reports, magazine articles, and published statistics and facts." From the eBizSearch Web Site, February 6, 2003.
§ eCommerce-guide.com
This portal to information on electronic commerce offers daily news, feature articles, product reviews, case studies, and an e-commerce events calendar, as well as an e-commerce-focused discussion forum.
§ Internet Access Providers (Yahoo)
§ Internet Business Consultants (Yahoo
E - COMMERCE BIBLIOGRAPHY
Afuah, Allan. Internet Business Models and Strategies: text and
Cases. Table of Contents:
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/toc/mh021/00040692.html
Boston: Irwin/McGraw-Hill, 2001.
HD30.37.A33 2001
(Dobbs Ferry)
Bunnell, David. Making the Cisco Connection: the story behind the real Internet
Superpower. New York: Wiley, 2000.
HF5478 .B862000
(Dobbs Ferry)
Bunnell, David. The E-bav Phenomenon: business secrets behind the world's
hottest Internet company. New York: Wiley, 2000.
HF5478 .B86 2000