Indian Institute of Management Kashipur

Postgraduate Program in Management

Digital Business and Frontier Technologies

Term V, 2019-20
Credit: 1 (Full credit)

Instructors
Name: Prof. Venkataraghavan K
Office: D1-6, Ground Floor, Academic Building, IIM Kashipur
Email: venkat.krishnaswamy@iimkashipur.ac.in
Office Hours: During 1 hour period immediately after the class. No appointments required.

Name: Prof. Mayank Sharma

Office: D1-7, Ground Floor, Academic Building, IIM Kashipur
Email: mayank.sharma@iimkashipur.ac.in
Office Hours: During 1 hour period immediately after the class. No appointments required.

Course Description
The Internet and frontier technologies are having a dramatic impact on how individuals and organizations
transact goods and services. Opportunities have emerged for new business models because of confluence
of people, technology and things. It has given rise to new organizational forms, digital business for physical
and digital goods and services, and a variety of new business models. These developments have potentially
profound implications for organizations, consumers and society as a whole. This course will provide you
with some analytical and technical frameworks to understand the emerging world of digital business from
managerial perspective.
This course has special focus on frontier technologies as well, such as, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of
Things, Autonomous Vehicles, Robotics, Virtual Reality, Gaming technologies, Blockchain, Cognitive
Analytics and NeuroIS.

Course Objectives
At the end of this course, you will:

 PLO1a, PLO1b - Understand types of Digital Business models & important concepts
 PLO1a, PLO1b – Introduction to opportunities & challenges for starting digital business
  PLO1a, PLO1b – Sensitization to the need of IT infrastructure for digital business
 Understand the complexities of Digital business marketplace
 Learn the concepts of social, location-based and mobile marketing
 Learn to apply frontier technologies in leveraging digital business opportunities
 PLO1f – Apply analytic solutions using an AI platform

Required Textbook
Laudon, K.C. & Trevor, C. G. E-Commerce: Business, Technology, Society 2018. Prentice Hall.

Pedagogy and Course Requirements

The course will be primarily taught though a combination of class discussions, quizzes, term-long
project, and case analysis, and presentations.

Class Discussions

The class discussion will involve the readings assigned for the class, which may include book
chapters, articles, and cases. Students are expected to have done all the assigned reading and to
actively participate in these discussions.

Quizzes/Assignment

N quizzes/assignments will be given at random and without announcement. Each quiz/assignment

will cover the material assigned for and/or discussed in that class. For quizzes if you are late for
class, you will not receive extra time to complete the quiz. The missed quizzes/assignment shall
not be made up under any circumstances and you will receive zero points.

Group Project

Each team will provide a written report of their project work at the end of the term, but before the
presentation is scheduled. Each project team will make a presentation of their work in the class.
Each member must present an equitable share of the overall team presentation. Instructor will let
you know beforehand the time allowed for your presentation.

Class participation

Each student will analyze the case problems individually assigned for that class. The analysis
will involve answering questions assigned for the case(s).

During the class discussion, the student must be prepared to share his/her analysis when called
upon and only when called upon. S/he must move the discussion forward; simply paraphrasing
others’ analysis would earn negative points.
 Your class participation grade will reflect evaluation of your participation during class
discussions.

Grading
Component Weightage PLOs
Mid-Term Exam 25% PLO1a/b
End-Term Exam 25% PLO1a/b
Quiz/Assignment 20%
Class Participation 10%
End Term Project 20% PLO1f

Tentative Class Schedule

(Additional readings, cases, and articles may be assigned as they become available)
Session Topics Readings
Introduction – Digital-Business Models & Challenges
1 Getting Started with Digital Business Laudon & Traver: Chap. 1
 Digital Business: What?
 Digital Business Vs E-Business: How? Creating Digital Value at Scale: A Gartner
 Digital Business Transformation: Why? Trend Insight Report
https://www.gartner.com/document/3866563

2 Digital Business Models & Concepts Laudon & Traver: Chap. 1

 B2C; B2B; C2C
 m-commerce; app-commerce
 social commerce
 digital business strategy
3 Challenges for new Venture
 Experience
 Legitimacy
 Technological
 Teamwork
 Geography/Demography/Social
4 Funding Options for Digital Start-up
 Range of Capital Funding
 Comparison of various funding options
Information Technology Infrastructure
5 IT Infrastructure
 Development Models
 H/w S/w Requirements
 Building Digital Business Presence
Case: Tencent’s Business Model
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/HK1003-
PDF-ENG
Case: MusicJuice.net: The Challenges of
Starting Up a New Internet Venture
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/910A13-
PDF-ENG
Case: Golfgamez (A): Funding a Digital
Startup
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/W13133-
PDF-ENG
Laudon & Traver: Chap. 3
The Internet, Web, And Mobile Platform
6 Building Business Presence Laudon & Traver: Chap. 4
 Systematic Approach Websites, Mobile Sites, And Apps

7 Payment System & Digital Security Laudon & Traver: Chap. 5

 Security environment
 Security threats
 Security Solutions
Business Concepts
8 Digital Advertising & Communication Laudon & Traver: Chap. 6
 Digital Business: Users & Consumers Case: Twitter
 Digital Business: Marketing Technologies https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/710455-PDF-
ENG

9 Social, Location & Mobile Marketing Laudon & Traver: Chap. 7

 Social Marketing Social, Mobile, and Local Marketing
 Mobile Marketing
 Location-based Marketing
10 Social Networks, Auctions & Portals Laudon & Traver: Chap. 11
 Social Networks & Online Communities Social Networks, Auctions, and Portals
 Online Auctions

MID-TERM
Frontier Technologies
11 Virtual Reality Case: HTC and Virtual Reality
Objective: How the company seeks to develop the virtual https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/718421-PDF-
reality ecosystem and will weigh the merits of pursuing ENG
innovation in hardware, software and services, or both
12 Gaming Technologies Case: Pokemon Go: Virtual Invading Reality
Objective: Describe the economic benefits that an https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/W17339-
augmented reality game delivers to its developers and PDF-ENG
owners; analyze the business implications and
opportunities of augmented reality technology
13 IoT and Wearable Devices Case: invisaWear Smart Jewelry: Providing
To appreciate the expertise needed to design, create, and Peace of Mind
launch a technical product, especially one that uses IoT https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/BAB436-
technology. 2. To recognize the significance of leveraging PDF-ENG
external IoT providers to help fill the knowledge gaps
needed to create complex smart products. 3. To Case: Google Glass: Development, Marketing
understand an IoT product's physical, smart, and
and User Acceptance
connectivity components as well as the value of the data it
collects. https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/W15592-
PDF-ENG

14 Neuro IS and Market Research Case: Salesbrain LLC - B2B Communications

Appreciate more recent developments in market research https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/W12743-
like layered voice analysis and facial action coding PDF-ENG
system, which are rooted in neuro-marketing
15 Autonomous Vehicles Case: Reinventing E-Commerce: Amazon's
Evaluate the disruptive impact of autonomous vehicles on Bet on Unmanned Vehicle Delivery
retailing, transportation, and other delivery-dependent
businesses;
 https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/KEL911-
PDF-ENG

16 Blockchain Case: R3 Corda: A Distributed Ledger

The case introduces students to fintech, distributed ledger Technology for Financial Services
technology, blockchain and bitcoin, and the world of https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/W18592-
technology start-ups. PDF-ENG

Case: Note on Blockchain and Bitcoin, 2017

https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/718433-PDF-
ENG
17 Cognitive Analytics Case: Evaluating the Cognitive Analytics
Appraise how machine learning, natural language Frontier
processing, and cognitive analytics platforms can
facilitate access to information https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/KE1046-
PDF-ENG
18 Artificial Intelligence Case: SenseTime: World's Most Valuable
 Explore the development of AI innovations and Artificial Intelligence Startup
the rise of deep learning. https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/NTU201-
 Implementation PDF-ENG?

Case: Du Pont's Artificial Intelligence

Implementation Strategy
https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/189036-PDF-
ENG
19 Artificial Intelligence Case: Noodle Analytics in 2018: AI for the
AI Delivery Enterprise
AI Platforms
 Vision API https://hbsp.harvard.edu/product/SM301-
 Auto ML PDF-ENG
 Facebook Fast Text
 Azure Machine Learning Studio
AI for Business
20 Student Presentations
END TERM EXAM

Course Policies

1. Responsibility for Course Materials:You are responsible for all material covered in
class. If you are absent, you are responsible for obtaining the information you missed.
2. Classroom Behavior: We expect you to participate in class activities in a mature and
appropriate manner. Disruptive or otherwise unacceptable behavior will not be tolerated.
3. Mobile: Mobiles are not permitted in the classroom. I will let you know beforehand if
laptop is required for a class.
4. Academic Conduct:All members of the academic community at IIM Kashipur are
expected to practice and uphold standards of academic integrity and honesty. Academic
integrity means representing oneself and one’s work honestly. Misrepresentation is
cheating since it means students are claiming credit for ideas or work not actually theirs
 and are thereby seeking a grade that is not actually earned. Following are some examples
of academic dishonesty:
i. Cheating on quizzes and examinations. This includes using materials such as
books and/or notes when not authorized by the instructor, copying from someone
else’s paper, helping someone else copy work, substituting another’s work as
one’s own, theft of exam copies, or other forms of misconduct on exams.
ii. Plagiarizing the work of others. Plagiarism is using someone else’s work or
ideas without giving that person credit; by doing this students are, in effect,
claiming credit for someone else’s thinking. Whether students have read or heard
the information used, they must document the source of information. When
dealing with written sources, a clear distinction should be made between
quotations (which reproduce information from the source word-for-word within
quotation marks) and paraphrases (which digest the source of information and
produce it in the student’s own words). Both direct quotations and paraphrases
must be documented. Even if students rephrase, condense or select from another
person’s work, the ideas are still the other person’s, and failure to give credit
constitutes misrepresentation of the student’s actual work and plagiarism of
another’s ideas. Buying a paper or using information from the World Wide Web
or Internet without attribution and handing it in as one’s own work is plagiarism.
iii. Falsifying records or providing misinformation regarding one’s credentials.
iv. Unauthorized collaboration on computer assignments and unauthorized
access to and use of computer programs, including modifying computer files
created by others and representing that work as one’s own.
v. Unless they specifically indicate otherwise, instructors expect individual, unaided
work on homework assignments, exams, lab reports and computer exercises, and
documentation of sources when used. If instructors assign a special project other
than or in addition to exams, such as a research paper, or original essay or a book
review, they intend that work to be completed for that course only. Students must
not submit work completed for a course taken in the past or for a concurrent course
unless they have explicit permission to do so from both faculty members.

Any academic misconduct will automatically result in a failing grade for the class and the
student will be reported to the committee on academic misconduct for further disciplinary
action.

4. Attendance:As far as I am concerned, you are an adult and it is your decision whether or
not you attend class. However, your decision not to attend a class may have negative
consequences for your class grade. (Please consult PGP Participants’ Handbook for this
purpose).
If you decide to attend a class, you must come to the class and take your seat sufficiently
before the beginning of the class time. Under no circumstances you would be allowed in
once the class has started. You are expected to sit through the class unless you have a prior
permission from the instructor to leave the classroom before the end of the class.
5. Late submission: Any late submission beyond the deadline (even by few seconds) will
result in 0 point. Except in case of emergencies, with a doctor's note, any questions
about late submission will not be entertained.
 6. Missed exam: There is no make-up for the missed exams unless the student has
discussed and made an arrangement with the instructor for a valid reason beforehand. In
all other instances, the student must produce a valid doctor's note for the day the student
missed the exam. Such doctor's note must be produced in the same week the student missed
the exam.
7. Grade Discussion:It is the student’s responsibility to monitor his or her own grades and
raise any questions s/he may have within one week of the grades assigned.
8. Extra Credit: No Extra credit shall be given to make-up for missed quizzes, assignments,
exams, project, or poor performance in the course.

Learning Accommodations
To provide equal access to the educational programs and opportunities, IIM Kashipur is dedicated to
providing appropriate accommodations to students with documented disabilities such as attention deficit-
hyperactivity disorders, physical disabilities, sensory impairments, and psychiatric disorders in order to
help them achieve their academic and personal potential. These academic accommodations are provided
to students at no cost.

Inclusivity Statement
IIM Kashipur believes that diversity and inclusiveness are essential to excellence in education and
innovation. Our community represents a rich variety of backgrounds, experiences, demographics, and
perspectives. IIM Kashipur is committed to fostering a learning environment where every individual is
respected and engaged. To facilitate a dynamic and inclusive educational experience, we ask all members
of our community to:
• be open to the perspectives of others
• appreciate the uniqueness of their colleagues
• take advantage of the opportunities to learn from each other
• exchange experiences, values, and beliefs
• communicate in a respectful manner
• be aware of the individuals who are marginalized and involve them
• keep confidential discussions private