STUDY GUIDE

Topic 6:

BMIT5103

Information Technology for Managers

E-Business and E-Commerce

Learning Outcomes
By the end of this topic, you should be able to:
1.

Describe e-business strategies and e-commerce operations;

2.

List effective business-to-consumer e-commerce applications;

3.

Explain business-to-business applications, logistics, procurement,

order fulfilment and payment systems;

4.

Describe e-government activities and public sector e-commerce;

5.

Examine e-commerce support services; and

6.

Identify and describe ethics and legal issues of e-business.

Topic Overview
This topic highlights e-commerce and its benefits to organisations,
consumers and society. Nevertheless, it also has technological and nontechnological limitations. The current technological limitations are expected
to lessen with time. The major mechanism of e-commerce is the use of
electronic markets, which frequently include online catalogues. Another
mechanism of e-commerce is auctions. The Internet provides an
infrastructure for executing auctions at lower cost and with many more
involved sellers and buyers, including both individual consumers and
corporations. Two major types of auctions exist: forward auctions and
reverse auctions. Forward auctions are used in the traditional process of
selling to the highest bidder. Reverse auctions are used for buying, using a
tendering system to buy at the lowest bid.
B2C e-tailing can be pure (such as Amazon.com) or part of a click-andmortar organisation (such as Walmart). Direct marketing is done via solo
storefronts or in malls. It can be done via electronic catalogues or by using
electronic auctions. The leading online B2C service industries are banking,
securities trading, job markets, travel and real estate. The major issues faced
by e-tailers are channel conflict, conflict within click-and-mortar
organisations, order fulfilment, determining viability and risk, and identifying
appropriate revenue models.

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BMIT5103

Information Technology for Managers

The major B2B applications are selling from catalogues and by forward
auctions (the sell-side marketplace), buying in reverse auctions and in group
and desktop purchasing (the buy-side marketplace) and trading in electronic
exchanges. E-government commerce can take place between government
and citizens, between businesses and governments, or among government
units. It makes government operations more effective and efficient.
New electronic payment systems are needed to complete transactions on
the Internet. Electronic payments can be made by e-checks, e-credit cards,
purchasing cards, e-cash, stored-value money cards, smart cards, personto-person payments via services such as Paypal, electronic bill presentment
and payment, and e-wallets. Order fulfilments are especially difficult and
expensive in B2C because of the need to ship relatively small orders to
many customers. Several activities take place, some of which can be done
simultaneously; others must be done in sequence. Activities that take
place in order fulfilments include: (1) making sure the customer will pay;
(2) checking for in-stock availability; (3) arranging shipments; (4) insurance;
(5) replenishment; (6) in-house production; (7) use of contractors;
(8) contacts with customers; and (9) returns (if applicable). Ethical and legal
issues are persistent in e-commerce and must constantly be addressed.

Focus Areas and Assigned Readings

Focus Areas

Assigned Readings
Turban, E., & Volonino, L. (2012).
Information technology for
management, International student
version. Asia: John Wiley.

6.1
6.2
6.3

6.4
6.5

e-Business Challenges and

Strategies
Business-to-Consumer (B2C)
e-Commerce
Business-to-Business (B2B)
e-Commerce and
e-Procurement
e-Government
e-Commerce Support Services:
Payment & Order Fulfilment

Chapter 6, pp 160167.
Chapter 6, pp 167171.
Chapter 6, pp 171173.

Chapter 6, pp 173176.
Chapter 6, pp 176182.

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6.6

BMIT5103

e-Business Ethics and Legal

Issues

Information Technology for Managers

Chapter 6, pp 183184.
Extra Readings
Amazon.coms First Website, 1995
digitalenterprise.org/images/amazo
n.gif
e-Business forum
ebusinessforum.com

Google Merchant Centre

google.com/merchants
Google Product Search
google.com/products
Shopzilla shopzilla.com
US Federal Trade Commission
ftc.gov
PCI Security Standards Council
pcisecuritystandards.org/index.sht
ml
Internet statistics
internetworldstats.com
Many Eyes (beta) data sets and
visualisation tools
manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/ma
nyeyes/
Washington, DC Data
Catalogue data.octo.dc.gov/

Content Summary
6.1

e-Business Challenges and Strategies

x
x

IT at Work 6.1 E-Commerce Auctions.

E-Business and E-Commerce fundamentals.

The Dot.Com era 19952002.

E-Business websites requirements and challenges.

E-Business Models.

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6.2

x
x
x
x
x

Leading online service industries: banking, trading of securities,

employment, travel, and real estate services.
Issues in e-tailing.
Online business and marketing planning.

x
x

E-sourcing.

Sell-side market places.

E-Procurement.

e-Government
x
x
x

6.6

IT at Work 6.3 ING Direct Has Soaring Profits.

IT at Work 6.4 Global Chemical Commodity Portal.

6.5

IT at Work 6.2 IT Patents Are Amazon.coms Edge.

Business-to-Business (B2B) e-Commerce and e-Procurement

6.4

Information Technology for Managers

Business-to-Consumer (B2C) e-Commerce

x

6.3

BMIT5103

IT at Work 6.5 Using a Contest to Generate Open Source Apps

for Citizens.
E-Government in the cloud.
The City of Carlsbad turns to the cloud.
E-Government serves citizens with apps to curb drunken driving.

e-Commerce Support Services: Payment & Order Fulfilment

x
x

IT at Work 6.6 E-Money Lifestyle.

Web advertising.

Electronic payments.

Market research for e-commerce.

Representative advertising strategies online.

Security electronic payments.

Order fulfilment process.

e-Business Ethics and Legal Issues

x
x

Ethical and implementation issues.

Legal issues specific to e-commerce.

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STUDY GUIDE

BMIT5103

Information Technology for Managers

Study Questions
1.

What are the requirements and challenges of e-business?

2.

What are the major types of e-business transactions?

3.

Define a business model and discuss five e-business models.

4.

Describe how digital content and services can lead to significantly

lower costs.

5.

What general features make the delivery of online services successful

for both sellers and buyers?

6.

Explain the major issues related to e-tailing.

7.

Determine the viability and risk of online e-tailers.

8.

Identify appropriate revenue (business) models.

9.

Discuss three online marketing planning recommendations.

10.

Briefly differentiate between sell-side marketplace and e-sourcing.

11.

What is the advantage of using cloud computing as the platform for

e-government?

12.

What are the major e-commerce support services?

13.

Describe the issues in e-commerce order fulfilment.

14.

What are some of the online advertisement strategies?

15.

List some ethical issues in e-commerce.

16.

Distinguish between business-to-business forward auctions and

buyers bids for RFQs.

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