Electronic commerce curricula: an overview of current electronic commerce courses and implications for marketing education.

Chen, Leida ; Brunswick, Gary J. ; Basu, Choton 等

INTRODUCTION

Electronic commerce (EC) is defined by Zwass (1998) as a way of "sharing business information, maintaining business relationships, and conducting business transactions by means of telecommunications networks". EC has experienced phenomenal growth in recent years. Forrester Research Inc. projects that Internet business will grow to $1.3 trillion in 2003, compared to $43 billion in 1998 (Frook and Karpinski, 1999). As the concept of EC and e-business increasingly influences the form of organizations' business strategies, business schools around the world react to the market demand for quality graduates with an EC background by creating electronic commerce and e-business mainstream courses and degree programs within business schools. However due to the dynamic nature of the field, most colleges lack a standardized curriculum for EC. Educators are struggling to keep up with the technological and business rate of change, hence EC courses are often planned in an ad hoc fashion. As the result, many EC courses and programs lack the rigor and comprehensiveness sought in higher education due to their offering a piecemeal coverage on EC issues. Competing programs and various approaches to EC education are making it even more difficult to choose the program that is right for students' and job market's needs.

EC is an interdisciplinary field that is composed of a wide range of business and technical issues. In the 11th annual Electronic Commerce Conference in 1998, researchers in this field identified 174 issues pertinent to EC that were clustered into 22 categories (Electronic Commerce Conference, 1998). As an interdisciplinary field, the education of EC must include the discussion on a variety of topics including information technology (IT) and other managerial areas, most notably marketing. EC courses involve topics that do not have any of the traditions that underlie most business school courses. As such, typically no individual discipline area is ready to provide a comprehensive coverage on these topics. Therefore, a successful EC curriculum requires cross-functional integration and a change in pedagogy. Information Systems (IS) and Marketing are the two fields that have the most intrinsic connections to EC. The current practice of most schools of business can be divided into the following two categories: 1. IS and Marketing departments offer separate EC courses that focus on topics most related to each discipline. 2. Joint teaching effort by instructors from different academic disciplines to provide a more comprehensive coverage of EC. One recurring question is how effective each approach is.

Despite its importance, little research effort has been devoted to the EC curriculum development. To partially fill this void, this study attempts to provide a snapshot of the current EC curriculum programs and recommendations to EC-related educators (e.g., Marketing educators). This study is designed to render insights to the following questions:

1 Is joint teaching by instructors from different academic disciplines (e.g., IS and marketing) a viable solution for the education of interdisciplinary fields like EC?

2 What improvements need to be made to the current EC curricula?

3 What are the preferred teaching approaches for EC?

4 What are the viable strategies for EC program design?

By discussing the finding of this study, the authors investigate means of improving future EC curriculum development.

RESEARCH DESIGN

The primary research methodology of this study is syllabus analysis. By analyzing the syllabus of a sufficient number of EC courses, the authors expect to identify the trends in current EC curricula. The further analysis of these trends will generate valuable insights about the pros and cons of the EC curricula today. Data regarding course topics, course focuses, and teaching methods are collected via the analysis of syllabuses.

Data regarding course topics reveal what topics are currently explored in EC courses, and at the same time, it identifies the topics that demand more attention. These data are collected by studying the course description and course schedule sections of the syllabuses. The topics are then classified into four broad categories proposed by Kalakota and Whinston (1996). The four broad categories include:

1 Business-to-customer transactions such as online banking and online shopping.

2 Business-to-business transactions such as electronic data interchange (EDI).

3 Transactions that involve information processing such as point of sales (POS) information for marketing research and supply chain management (SCM).

4 Transactions that involve information distribution to potential customers and partners.

Another dimension of interest is data regarding course focuses. Course focuses reveal the approaches an EC course takes to study the topics. An EC course can take different approaches by focusing on technological, managerial, or social and legal issues. For example, by focusing on technological issues, an EC course approaches the topics from an IS (Information Systems) point of view by studying the enabling technologies rather than the underlying business strategies. However, an EC course can focus on more than one type of issue. The current trend of cross-functional integration has given rise to various techno-business course approaches (Slater, et al., 1995). Data regarding course topics and course focuses together give a two dimensional view of the comprehensiveness of the coverage of current EC courses.

As stated earlier, EC courses involve topics that do not have any of the traditions that underlie most business school courses. Effective EC education requires innovative changes in teaching pedagogy. In this age of the WWW and multimedia teaching tools, educators are equipped with a wide variety of tools to enhance teaching effectiveness. Data describing teaching methods and assigned course activities are collected. The analysis of these data will present an overview of the current practice of EC and Marketing educators. This information is expected to help EC and Marketing educators in their development of future courses.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SAMPLES

A search on the World Wide Web (WWW) rendered sixty-nine EC courses offered between 1998 and 2000 by schools of business around the world. Among the 69 EC courses, 63 (91.3%) courses are offered by universities in the U.S., and six (8.7%) courses are offered by foreign universities. The authors conducted detailed study of the course syllabuses and Web sites to collect data regarding topics covered, course emphases, and teaching methods. The characteristics of the surveyed courses are summarized in Table 1.

RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Data are entered into a spreadsheet for analysis. To minimize data entry errors, all data are entered twice and checked for consistency. The findings of the study are discussed in the forthcoming sections.

Table 2 indicates that topics related to B-to-C EC and information distribution are the most frequently covered topics among the EC courses surveyed. The reason for this phenomenon is obvious; these two areas are the most visible areas of EC. Less than half of the courses provide coverage on topics relevant to B-to-B EC including EDI, supply chain management and interorganizational systems. Less than a third of the courses offer discussion on topics related to information processing such as POS, data warehousing and data mining. Although less visible to consumers, B-to-B EC and information processing are among the most important building blocks of electronic economy. There is clearly a lack of coverage on these topics in many of the current EC curricula.

One possible reason for this void may be the lack of expertise of a single instructor to cover a wide array of topics. EC courses offered and taught jointly by both IS and Marketing departments consistently have a more comprehensive coverage than those offered by a single department. The results indicate that joint programs are viable solutions for the education of interdisciplinary fields such as EC.

Table 3 summarizes the issues that are the primary focuses of the surveyed EC courses. A comprehensive EC course is expected to provide a balanced coverage of all three focuses. Social and legal issues are found to receive the least attention from the current EC curricula. Social and legal aspects of EC include important issues such as privacy, social impacts of EC, taxes and regulations. Understanding of these issues helps Marketing managers and IS professionals develop more effective EC applications and business strategies. However, among the surveyed courses, only less than a third of them provide discussion on these issues. It is clear that EC and Marketing educators should start including them into course designs.

It is expected that courses offered by IS department will have a heavier emphasis on technological issues while the courses offered by Marketing departments focus primarily on managerial issues. This prediction is confirmed by the findings. Nevertheless, besides a clear focus on technological issues, almost 70 percent of IS EC courses provide sufficient coverage on managerial issues. The similar phenomenon is found among Marketing EC courses. A great majority of the Marketing EC courses require more technology-related course work and lab time than the traditional Marketing curriculum involves. This is a positive reaction to the market demand for more technically capable business managers (McGee, 1996). These dual sided courses give students a chance to understand both the enabling technologies of EC and the new managerial challenges and opportunities that stem from these technologies.

EC courses that are jointly offered by IS and Marketing departments are again found to have a more comprehensive coverage of technological, managerial, and social and legal issues. This again confirms that a joint EC course is an effective solution if the comprehensiveness of EC course is important.

Table 4 summarizes the teaching methods and typical assignments found in the surveyed EC courses. Half of the courses require students to be involved in commercial web site development projects. The scope of the projects range from building a web site for marketing a product or service to developing an e-procurement system that allows suppliers to bid for contracts. Students are asked to apply marketing strategies and technological tools to implement a Web-based business component that will support and enhance an organization's overall business strategy. The projects are often judged on their originality, technical merits and soundness of its integration with the overall marketing strategy of the organization. Practicum has become an integral part of many EC courses. Students are given opportunities to apply the concepts being studied in a classroom to practical applications. Research in cognitive theories has found that solving real world problems help students achieve the maximum transfer of a concept (Nitsch, 1979). In the cases of practicum-oriented EC courses, students are often assigned to work in teams to develop acceptable solutions. Such curriculum design has broadened the scope of requirements to include the competency in not only the discipline areas, but in communication and cooperative teamwork as well.

39.1% of the surveyed courses include a lab assignment component in their course work. The lab assignments often include exercises on web page development, accessing Internet resources and other Internet applications. Almost half of the Marketing EC courses require hands-on lab assignments that allow students to learn the enabling technologies of EC. These courses are designed to supply the job market with more technically capable business managers.

Another popular teaching method implemented in the surveyed EC courses is case study. Real-life cases are an integral part of many EC courses offered today. It is found in 37.7% of the survey courses. They present real-world problems and situations to be analyzed by students. Students will be evaluated by their understanding of the case, quality of analysis of alternative solutions to problems stated in cases, and ability to offer feasible recommendations. As a qualitative method, case studies are preferred research method to answer the "how" and "why" questions, and they are most appropriate for new and dynamic areas (Yin, 1989; Benbasat et al., 1987). In the education of EC, using case studies should also be a preferred method because it conveys abstract and complex business strategies through real-world examples. We expect to see an increasing use of case studies in EC courses in the future.

Only less than a third of the surveyed courses use a term paper as a means of evaluating students. Term papers have traditionally been used for evaluation in special topic courses, but in the case of EC courses, instructors seem to replace term papers with project based assignments like commercial web site analysis and written e-business plans. Many instructors that the authors talked to have expressed their intention to incorporate more guest speaker sessions in their EC courses, but few were able to actually do so. The reason for the small number of EC courses that currently invite guest speakers from the industry is mainly due to the lack of partnering with industry.

Two interesting and innovative teaching methods emerge from EC courses: online discussion and company diagnosis. While only a fraction of the surveyed courses utilize these two methods, the feedback from the instructors and students involved in these exercises is very positive. Online discussion allows students and instructors to exchange opinion on the course or any related issues in a virtual chat room. It opens up a new channel of communication, and at the same time, it help students realize the power of the communication medium. Company diagnosis exercises are to some extent similar to case studies, but they often involve local companies. Students are brought to the company as business and technical consultants to analyze a wide range of EC related issues that the company is facing. Company diagnosis exercises give students real world experience, and the instructors have sensed great enthusiasm from students during the exercises.

DISCUSSION

This study presents an overview of the EC courses currently offered in business schools around the world. The findings regarding course topics, course focuses, and teaching methods reveal the pros and cons of these courses. This information provides EC and Marketing course developers with valuable insights and recommendations for their future course design and adjustment. In addition to the recommendations for course design, the findings of this study also discovered a number of propositions for EC program design.

Jointly taught EC courses are consistently found to offer a more comprehensive coverage of EC topics. Today, the majority of business schools use the one-course approach for EC. As most modern business systems are cross-functional systems (Wetherbe, 1991), graduates are expected to understand a wide range of business and technical issues. Hence joint EC course and program development would be a preferred approach when the comprehensiveness of course coverage is important

The results also indicate the inability of a single EC course to provide students with a comprehensive understanding of EC and e-business. The limitation of the expertise of a single instructor and the time prescribed by course length may be at fault here. There is a clear need for a more comprehensive EC curriculum for business schools, and two strategies are recommended. The first strategy is to diffuse the concept of EC and e-business through existing curriculum. Within some colleges of business, the concept of EC is being diffused into a number of traditional IS courses including System Analysis and Design, Software Engineering and Network Concepts. The diffusion strategy allows the college to provide students with the necessary technical background for the EC capstone course without major modification in current IS curriculum. This approach has been used and proven successful in other academic disciplines (French, 1994). The key to integrate EC into current curriculum in a meaningful way is to have a critical mass of faculty who are comfortable with the technology and committed to the curricular changes.

The second recommended strategy is to "reinvent the wheel" by developing a brand new EC concentration or degree program within the business school. The advantage of developing a brand new EC program is that the new program can be designed to better meet the needs of the job market for highly skilled EC professionals. Universities like DePaul University chose to implement this strategy in their EC curriculum design (Knight et al., 1999). DePaul University's MS in e-commerce technology was designed following four curriculum principals. These four principals include exposing students to a brand mix of technologies and tools, flexible curriculum design to adapt to rapid changes in technology and industry norms, compliance with industry needs, and maximum opportunities for practicum and team projects. The program consists of nine courses offered by a number of academic disciplines covering a wide range of EC topics.

CONCLUSION AND FUTURE RESEARCH

This study is designed to provide an overview of the current EC courses offered by business schools around the world. The findings indicate that the lack of comprehensiveness of coverage is discovered in most EC courses today. This raises some serious questions about the effectiveness of the "one course" approach of EC education. The analysis of course focuses suggest that while courses offered by different academic disciplines are able to address the EC issues most relevant to their discipline, they are also making an effort to expose students to other discipline areas. Positive reactions to the market needs for technically capable business managers and business oriented IS professionals are found in the courses. While educators seem to realize the equal importance of technological and marketing issues of EC, social and legal issues are found to receive the least amount of attention from the surveyed EC courses. Changes in teaching pedagogy are reflected in the surveyed EC courses. Most courses are designed to be practicum-oriented by requiring students to be involved in hands-on projects to maximize transfer of concepts. More partnering with industry is needed to bring more guest speakers and opportunities for real world company diagnosis exercises to these courses. As EC becomes an integral part of business, more research in developing effective EC curricula is needed. Qualitative research methods such as case study are most appropriate for new and dynamic areas where previous research is scarce (Benbasat et al., 1987; Davis and Cosenza, 1993). They produce much richer information relevant to the study than quantitative research. Future qualitative research on EC curriculum develop will be of great interest to IS educators.

REFERENCES

Benbasat, I., Goldstein, D.K., & Mead, M. (1987). The Case Research Strategy in Studies of Information Systems, MIS Quarterly, (September), 369-386.

Davis, D. & Cosenza, R.M. (1993), Business Research for Decision Making, 3rd edition, Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company.

Knight, L., Chan, S., Kellen, V. & Epp, H. (1999). Internet Commerce in the Information Systems Curriculum, Proceedings of the 5th Conference of AIS, Milwaukee, WI.

McGee, M. K.(1996). Techno-MBAs in Demand, Informationweek, (602), October, 98.

Nitsch, K.E.(1979). Structuring Decontextualized Forms of Knowledge, Ph.D. Dissertation, Vanderbilt University.

Slater, J.S., McCubbrey, D.J. & Scudder, R.A. (1995). Inside An Integrated MBA: An Information Systems View, MIS Quarterly, 19(3), September, 391-410.

Wetherbe, J. C.(1991). Executive Information Requirements: Getting It Right, MIS Quarterly, 15(1), March, 51-65.

Yin, R. K. (1989). Research Design Issues in Using the Case Study Method to Study Management Information Systems, Harvard Business School Research Colloquium, 1-6.

Zwass, V. (1998). Structure and Macro-Level Impacts of Electronic Commerce: From Technological Infrastructure to Electronic Marketplaces, in Emerging Information Technologies, edited by Kendall, K.E., Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Leida Chen, Creighton University

Gary J. Brunswick, Northern Michigan University

Choton Basu, Northern Michigan University

Table 1
Characteristics of Samples

 Offered by IS Offered by Marketing
 Department Department

Undergraduate level 10 23
Graduate level 16 16
Total 26 39

 Jointly offered Total

Undergraduate level 0 33
Graduate level 4 36
Total 4 69

Table 2
Course Topics

 B-to-B B-to-C

Offered by IS department 14 (53.8%) 20 (76.9%)
Offered by Marketing department 12 (30.8%) 37 (94.9%)
Jointly offered 4 (100%) 4 (100%)
Overall 30 (43.5%) 61 (88.4%)

 Information Information
 Processing Distribution

Offered by IS department 3 (11.5%) 18 (69.2%)
Offered by Marketing department 14 (35.9%) 36 (92.3%)
Jointly offered 3 (75%) 4 (100%)
Overall 20 (29.0%) 58 (84.1%)

Table 3:
Course Emphasis

 Social
 Technological Managerial and legal
 issues issues issues

Offered by IS department 22 (84.6%) 18 (69.2%) 10 (38.5%)
Offered by Marketing 20 (51.3%) 37 (94.9%) 8 (20.5%)
 department
Jointly offered 4 (100%) 4 (100%) 3 (75%)
Overall 46 (66.7%) 59 (85.5%) 21 (30.4%)

Table 4
Teaching Methods

 Offered by
 Offered by IS Marketing
 department department

Commercial web site 12 (46.2%) 19 (48.7%)
development project
Lab assignment 8 (30.8%) 18 (46.2%)
Case study 12 (46.2%) 12 (30.8%)
Paper 5 (19.2%) 13 (33.3%)
Guest speaker 3 (11.5%) 7 (17.9%)
Commercial web site 7 (26.9%) 5 (12.8%)
analysis project
Written e-business plan 5 (19.2%) 6 (15.4%)
Online discussion 4 (15.4%) 5 (12.8%)
Company diagnosis 1 (3.8%) 3 (7.7%)

 Jointly offered Overall

Commercial web site 2 (50%) 33 (47.8%)
development project
Lab assignment 1 (25%) 27 (39.1%)
Case study 2 (50%) 26 (37.7%)
Paper 0 (0%) 18 (26.1%)
Guest speaker 3 (75%) 13 (18.8%)
Commercial web site 1 (25%) 13 (18.8%)
analysis project
Written e-business plan 2 (50%) 13 (18.8%)
Online discussion 0 (0%) 9 (13.0%)
Company diagnosis 0 (0%) 4 (10.3%)