E-Business Course 2024-25

• Course is E-Business for 2024-25.

Instructor Information

• Frank Chan is the Professor of Information Systems; email: [email protected], office: N314.
• Office hours are by appointment.
• Research interests include E-government and technology implementation.
• Teaching areas include E-Business, Excel, and quantitative research methods.

Key Questions

• The course prompts reflection on personal expectations and relevance.
• Consider who you are, what is expected from the course and why is it important to you.

Course Schedule

• Introduction to E-business takes place Jan 6/7.
• E-business revenue models are covered Jan 20/21.
• E-business infrastructure, focusing on cloud computing, is scheduled for Jan 27/28.
• Blockchain and big data will be discussed Feb 3/4.
• Introduction to Artificial Intelligence (AI) takes place on Mar 3/4.
• Generative AI is scheduled for Mar 10/11.
• Information security will be covered Mar 17/18.
• IT and sustainability are scheduled on Mar 24/25.
• Course review and Q&A will be covered on Mar 31/Apr.
• The final exam will be held during the final class on Apr 7/8; no alternative arrangement is planned.

Teaching Methods

• Each session includes a lecture on a specific topic, followed by a self-learning module (readings, video cases, short exercises) that takes about half an hour.
• Subsequent sessions include a wrap-up of the self-learning module.
• All teaching materials will be available on the course website.

Assessment Breakdown

• Class exercises are worth 20% of the final grade.
• Class exercises must be completed in class or before the next class date, check Moodle for due date for each session.
• Class exercises serve to ensure engagement with the course materials.
• Scoring for class exercises: 2 points for good effort, 1 for average, and 0 for poor or incomplete effort.
• The final grade is based on the top 7 scores of 8 total exercises.
• The individual project is worth 60% of the final grade.
• The individual project is a research/consulting report on a self-selected e-business topic.
• Individual projects are due one week after the course ends (April 18, 2025).
• The final exam is worth 20% of the final grade.
• The final exam consists of multiple-choice questions.
• To be held in the last class (April 7 or 8), with no alternate arrangement.

Learning Objectives

• Learn e-business and e-commerce meaning, scope and elements.
• Summarize reasons for adopting, and barriers restricting e-commerce and e-business.
• Learn how businesses use value chain analysis to spot e-business opportunities.
• Introduction to the concept of a sharing economy.

E-Business Examples

• Common e-business include Spotify, Shopify, Amazon, Uber, Google, LinkedIn, Alibaba, Ebay, Meta and Youtube.

Taobao Villages

• Dongfeng Village in Shaji Town, Jiangsu Province, was the first to embrace e-commerce on a large scale.
• The village's households engaged in furniture production and sold finished goods online, joining the digital economy.
• A Taobao village involved residents spontaneously starting in e-commerce using Taobao Marketplace.
• Total annual e-commerce transaction volume is at least RMB10 million ($1.6 million).
• At least 10% of village households actively participate in e-commerce, or a minimum number of 100 online shops opened by villagers.
• In 2020, 5425 Taobao villages existed, generating RMB 1000 billion in revenue with about 30000 online shops.

E-Business Opportunities

• E-business offers significant reach with over 5.5 billion internet users globally, or 68% of the world's population.
• On average, Internet users spend 6 hours and 36 minutes online daily.
• E-business provides constant connectivity via digital devices.
• E-business provides richness thanks to product details indexed by Google, videos, feeds, and reviews.
• E-business provides personalized messages for customers.
• Affiliation, or partnership, is a key of the networked economy in E-Business.

Network Economic Structures

• Strategic alliances (strategic partnerships)
  • Network Economic Structures coordinate strategies, resources, and skill sets.
  • Network Economic Structures form long-term, stable relationships with other companies and individuals.
  • Network Economic Structures are based on shared purposes.
• Strategic partners
  • Strategic Partners come together for a specific project or activity.
  • Strategic Partners form many intercompany teams.
  • Strategic Partners undertake a variety of ongoing activities.
  • Partnership between Starbucks and Spotify where Starbucks provides in-store music via Spotify is an example.
• Network organizations
  • Network organizations are suited to information-intensive technology industries.
  • The sweater industry is an example.
  • Knitters organize into networks of smaller organizations.
  • Knitters Specialize in styles or designs
  • H&M works with 800+ independent suppliers instead of owning factories.
  • IT makes construction and maintenance of networks easier.

E-Commerce and E-Business Defined

• Electronic commerce involves buying and selling products over the Internet.
• Electronic commerce involved transactions between organizations and customers.
• Electronic commerce consists of all electronically mediated transactions between an organization and third parties.
• Electronic commerce include all pre-sale and post-sale activities across the supply chain.
• Electronic business is broader, involving the transformation of key business processes with IT like research, marketing, and logistics.

Studying E-Commerce

• Studying E-Commerce is important, thanks to the fundamental changes it brings to commerce
• Traditional commerce traits: Consumers are passive targets, driven by mass-marketing/sales-forces, fixed prices, information asymmetry.

E-Commerce Technology Features

• Ubiquity
• Global reach
• Universal standards
• Information richness/density
• Interactivity
• Personalization/customization
• Social technology

E-Commerce Types

• Buy-side e-commerce involves transactions for procuring resources needed by an organization from its suppliers.
• Sell-side e-commerce involves transactions for selling products to an organization's customers.

Sell-Side E-Commerce Site Types

• Transactional e-commerce sites enable the purchase of products online.
• Service-oriented relationship-building websites provide information to stimulate purchase and build relationships/encourage offline sales
• Brand-building sites provide an online experience of the brand, without products available for purchase.
• Portal or media sites provide information, news, or entertainment.
• Social networks facilitate company and customer communications.

E-Commerce/E-Business Categories

• Business-to-consumer (B2C) involves consumer shopping on the Web.
• Business-to-business (B2B) focuses on e-procurement, supply management and negotiations via Web.
• Consumer-to-consumer (C2C) involves individuals buying and selling among themselves (e.g., Web auction sites).
• Business-to-government (B2G) includes business transactions with government agencies for paying taxes and filing required reports.

Adoption Drivers

• Cost/efficiency drivers increasing speed, reducing costs and dispatch.
• Competitiveness drivers address customer demand and avoid missed market share.

E-Commerce and E-Business Benefits

• Tangible benefits include increased sales from new sales leads, marketing and supply-chain cost reductions, and administrative cost reductions from more efficient routine business practices.
• Intangible benefits include corporate image enhancement, better marketing communications, faster product development, and improved customer service/information.

Business Adoption Risks and Barriers

• Website failure because of traffic overload
• System security
• Customer privacy
• Problems with order fulfillment
• Poor customer service
• Costs (set-up and running)

Future E-Business Trends - Technology

• Strategic technology trends as of 2025 including AI, new computing frontiers, and human-machine synergy.
• Five IT Megatrends include mobile, social media, cloud computing and Big Data.
• Mobile computing is in the post-PC era, where mobile devices often leapfrog traditional PCs.
• Burger King is using phone scanning technology to determine the level of hangover of the customer and give discounts
• Social Media users share status updates or pictures with friends and family.
• Social media help organizations with employee collaboration.
• Devices are incorporating connectivity to become a key element in the Internet of Things.
• Cloud computing enable applications and data on the Internet, regarding it as the beginning of the "fourth wave".

Netflix and Big Data

• Netflix looks for the episode that, after viewing, kept 70% of people on board for the rest of the season.
• “We found that no one was ever hooked on the pilot,” - Ted Sarandos, Netflix's content chief.
• Netflix's conclusion is its current method of releasing an entire season of a TV show all at once wins over fans.

Predictions and trends

• Growth in retail e-commerce and mobile/social/local e-commerce continue.
• On-demand service firms are showing explosive growth.
• Big Data and business analytics' growth continues.
• Continued growth of user-generated content on social networks, blogs, and wikis continues to grow.
• Government surveillance of online communications is expanding.
• Tech will propagate through all commercial activity.
• Traditional companies will continue to play a dominant/consolidating role.
• Limited start-up ventures will continue to attract large audiences
• Market dominance of Amazon, Google, Meta.
• Increased regulation and control is expected.
• Online security will be of increased importance.
• Cost of Energy.

E-Business Opportunities

• To identifiy one, view a firm as multiple business units such as accounting, marketing and Human resources.
• Focus on specific business processes.
• Break business processes down into value-adding activities for profits.

Business Unit Value Chains

• Strategic business unit organizing activities, product design, production, promotion, marketing, delivery, and service support.
• Primary activities identify customers, design, supplies and support.
• Support activities include financial and human resources.

IS Role In Value Chain Analysis

• Analyzing the firm’s activities to determine where the value is added to products and services.
• Identify which IS can be used to gain a competitive advantage.

Sharing Economy

• The sharing economy is defined as an economic system for shared assets and services.

Self-Learning Module

• Reading: "Three Differentiation Strategies for Competing in the Sharing Economy"
• Video Case #1 (8 minutes): “Why Turo, the 'Airbnb for Cars', Is Angering Rental Companies”
• Video Case #2 (7 minutes): "DogVacay is the Airbnb of Animal Care"
• Complete concept-checking questions on Moodle.
• Focus on the concepts of technology, partnership and user experience.