Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
course in 1998, she found few textbooks or teaching materials and none that balanced
business and technical aspects of the topic. Since that time, the quantity of e-commerce
textbooks has exploded, yet most authors still emphasize either business or technology
issues and vary extensively in theory versus applicable knowledge.
An additional challenge revealed by e-commerce research shows an increasing ten-
dency for strategy and projects to be initiated outside the Information Technology (IT)
organization, a trend we have seen with other technical innovations as well (Swanson, 1994).
IT professionals must be aware of the potential for this phenomenon and understand the
cross-functional implications. At the same time, many organizations claiming success in e-
commerce, emphasize the importance of getting IT involved early in the strategy building
process, before a functional business model is developed. In fact, formation of a new breed
of IT professional that is business savvy as well as technically competent seems to be a critical
factor for e-commerce success (Tabor & Wojtkowski, 2001). This trend supports what
academics have been hearing from business advisory boards across the country — that
general business knowledge, communication, and team skills are as important as the
technology students learn in their degree programs.
To address this interesting challenge, the author searched the academic literature and
also drew upon a 20-year business background in management and technical consulting
roles. The goal was to find an approach that would improve team skills and the team
experience, while better preparing IS students to contribute in our increasingly electronic
business environment. After an initial try at small group projects of the teams' own choosing,
and a virtual company project that had each class conceptualize a company scenario, working
with live companies seemed to be an optimal solution. This method allows students to rapidly
apply new skills to business problems, while still in learning mode in the classroom. In addition
to being a more successful project effort, students contribute to the local business community
by developing e-commerce models and prototype Web sites that help small organizations
expand their horizons and explore the potential of e-commerce. This chapter outlines the
issues and challenges of teaching e-commerce as a realistic collaborative project effort with
the local small business community.
SMES AND E-COMMERCE
Primarily antidotal evidence tells us that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) are
adopting e-commerce rather slowly. They typically have limited financial resources, rarely
have the technical skills on staff to go very far toward building their own Web presence, and
often do not have a clue as to whether or not their business would benefit from the electronic
medium. If they think of e-commerce in relation to their business at all, it is often after seeing
a competitor take the plunge, or in the hopes of dramatically increasing sales (Auger &
Gallaugher, 1997; Lederer, 1997). Other benefits an e-commerce model can offer organizations,
such as transaction cost reduction, marketing, information retrieval, or strategic networking
(Wigand, 1997), rarely come into their thought processes.
Many of those small- to medium-sized enterprises that have ventured forth, however,
have found success and are showing profits. This segment of the new economy, labeled the
“mini-dots” by
Business Week
(Weintraub, 2001), is predicted to grow to $120 billion by the
end of 2002 (Weintraub, 2001). In addition to expected business-to-consumer (B2C) models,
SMEs are benefiting from participation in business-to-business (B2B) exchanges, where they
