INTERNATIONAL SUMMER CAMPUS Summer 2016

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Q B. Chung, Ph.D.
Professor of Information Systems | Villanova University
E-mail: q.chung@villanova.edu
Office Hours: By appointment.

Course Number and Title:

ISC214: Fundamentals of E-Business

Course Description:

Having dramatically changed the way businesses operate and compete in the local, national,
and global marketplaces, electronic commerce (e-commerce) is now a well-established idea.
This course provides an overview of e-commerce from a managerial perspective. It
introduces fundamental concepts of e-commerce and the frameworks with which to examine
existing business models, to assess new e-business opportunities, to appreciate enabling
technologies, and to discuss the strategic issues confronting new Internet ventures as well as
established clicks-and-mortar firms. Learning in this course will be accomplished through
reading, lecture, discussion, and case studies.

Course Objectives:

By completing this course, students will be able to:

 Understand the current state of e-business and follow its new development;
 Identify various business models and their cost and revenue structures;
 Understand the nature of the Internet as an enabler of e-business;
 Identify e-business opportunities and develop business models for such opportunities;
 Articulate the pros and cons of various e-business strategies;
 Recognize the key implementation issues associated with e-business strategies;
 Analyze cases involving e-business decisions and provide recommendations; and
 Appreciate the importance of the security, legal, and privacy issues and understand how
they may impact a firm’s e-business strategy.

Required and Supplemental Reading Materials:

(1) Reading Assignments

There is no textbook in this course. However, reading materials will be chosen from such
prominent sources as Harvard Business Review and McKinsey Quarterly.

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 Reading materials will acquaint the students with the topic to be covered in the upcoming
class. Students are expected to come to class with basic knowledge of the assigned
reading. The complete reading list is provided in the “Schedule of Topical Coverage”
section of this syllabus.

In addition, appropriate and trendy reading materials from various other news sources
such as Wall Street Journal, New York Times, and BBC News may be assigned and
discussed.

(2) Harvard Business School Cases (available from https://cb.hbsp.harvard.edu/ )

 Netflix in 2011 [9-615-007] (August 19, 2014)

 Google Inc. in 2014 [9-915-004] (September 13, 2014)
 Brief Case: Evergreen Natural Markets 2012 [4450] (May 29, 2012)

(3) Lecture Slides (available on Blackboard)

 ISC214-01.ppt (Fundamentals of E-Commerce)

 ISC214-02.ppt (Case Method)
 ISC214-03.ppt (Competitive Online Strategies)
 ISC214-04.ppt (Transition to E-Business)
 ISC214-05.ppt (New Venture Development)
 ISC214-06.ppt (Taxonomy of E-Business Models)
 ISC214-07.ppt (B2C Models)
 ISC214-08.ppt (B2B Models)
 ISC214-09.ppt (Enabling Technologies)
 ISC214-10.ppt (Mobile Commerce)

Additional Resources:

A laptop with Microsoft Office suite is required for this course. Course materials – including
lecture slides, readings and references, assignments, and midterm and final exams – will be
available on Blackboard.

Course Format:

Class sessions will include lectures, discussions, case analyses, and computer hands-on
exercises. Cases will be used to help students analyze real-world problems and issues. Given
the objectives of the course and the rapidly changing nature of this field, emphasis will be
placed on the process of “learning how to learn” rather than on “memorizing” the contents.

Course Requirements:

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 1. Participation: Students are expected to attend classes, be familiar with the course
materials, having completed assigned reading before class, participate in class
discussions, and contribute to group work. (See the following policies: ‘Attendance
Policy’ and ‘Laptop Use Policy’)

2. Exams: Midterm and final exams will be given. Exams are equally weighted and non-
cumulative. (See ‘Make-up Exam Policy.’)

3. HBS Cases: Groups will work together to define problems and render solutions to
assigned Harvard Business School cases. (See ‘E-mail Policy’ and ‘Late Submission
Policy.’)

Grading:

Course grades will be based on the following structure:

Participation 20%
Case Studies 20%
Midterm Exam 30%
Final Exam 30%

Total 100%

Schedule of Topical Coverage:

Week 1 [June 28, 29, 30]

 Introduction | Group formation | Course overview
 Fundamentals of E-Commerce
 “Strategy and the New Economics of Information”
 Case Method
 “Netflix in 2011”
 “Google Inc. in 2014”
 “Brief Case: Evergreen Natural Markets 2012”

Week 2 [July 4, 5, 6, 7]
 Competitive Online Strategies
 “What is Strategy?”
 “Strategy and the Internet”
 “The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy”
 “Rethinking Strategy in a Networked World”
 “The Balanced Scorecard: Measures that Drive Performance”
 “How to Use Balanced Scorecards to Implement E-Strategy”
Week 3 [July 11, 12, 13, 14]

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  Transition to E-Business
 “Get the Right Mix of Bricks and Clicks”
 “A Framework for Cyber Enhanced Retailing”
 “A Framework for Performance Measurement in the e-Business
Environment”
 New Venture Development
 “The Future of Commerce”
 “A Crash Course in CRM”
 “Cohabiting with your e-commerce partners”
 Midterm Exam [July 14]

Week 4 [July 18, 19, 20, 21]

 Taxonomy of E-Business Models
 “Overview of E-Business Models”
 “Online Content Providers”
 “Online Portals”
 “Online Retailers”
 “Online Brokers”
 “Online Market Makers”
 “Is It Time to Trade in Your Business Model?”
 B2B Models
 “E-Hubs: The New B2B Marketplaces “
 “Beyond the Exchange: The Future of B2B”
 B2C Models
 “Customer Loyalty in E-Commerce”
 “Introduction to Electronic Auctions”
 “Retailing: What’s Working Online”
 “The Consumer Sector in 2030”

Week 5 [July 25, 26, 27, 28]

 Enabling Technologies
 “An Executive’s Guide to the Internet of Things”
 “The Internet of Things: Mapping the Value beyond the Hype”
 Mobile Commerce
 “M-Commerce: An Operator's Manual”
 “M-Commerce at Crossroads”
 “Learning from South Korea’s Mobile-Retailing Boom”

Week 6 [August 1, 2, 3, 4]
 HBS Case Study
 “Netflix in 2011”
 “Google Inc. in 2014”
 “Evergreen Natural Markets 2012”
 Final Exam [August 3]
 Case Presentations [August 4]
Applicable Policies:

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1. E-mail Policy: When submitting a group work, the group member who represents the
group should send the submission to the instructor, and carbon copy (cc:) the rest of the
group.

2. Attendance Policy: Absences will result in reduced participation scores. An absence can
be considered ‘excused’ if it is unavoidable, and will result in a 0 participation point for
the missing class. An unexcused absence will result in a -1 participation point.

3. Laptop Use Policy: Use of a laptop computer or an electronic mobile device is allowed
for class participation and note-taking purposes only. Other uses will be noted, corrected,
and regarded as an unexcused absence.

4. Make-up Exam Policy: If a student has to miss an exam due to an excusable reason, it
will be rescheduled to be taken no later than one week from the originally scheduled
exam time. After one week, no make-up exam is given. Unlike exams, missed quizzes are
not made up.

5. Late Submission Policy: Any work submitted after the deadline will lose 10% of its full
credit per day. In case of a prolonged network failure, and if no one in the class is able to
meet the deadline due to the outage, a new deadline will be set and announced.

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