MSIT3830

Description

Section information text: E-Commerce and E-Business continue to have huge financial impact, to fundamentally alter how business is done. Since 1995, the 16-year life-span of e-commerce, revenues have grown in the United States alone to almost $362 billion in retail, travel and media business (B2C) and $4.1 trillion in inter-business transactions (B2B). The change dynamics occurring run the gamut from dramatic redesign of business models (sometimes whole industries) and organizations to fundamental shifts in consumer behavior. Similar effects are felt in businesses globally in Europe, Asia and Latin America. Is this a business enabler, a technology trend, a social phenomenon?Rather than just an interesting alternative to better operational efficiencies, e-commerce has become a platform for new, unique services and capabilities that are just impossible in the physical world. There is no Google, no Amazon, no Facebook without it. The success of firms like these and still other emerging business models have an immediate and transformational impact on old economy counterparts. Understanding the business, technology and societal dynamics at play in e-commerce is fundamental for anyone today, as an employee, as a business partner, or as an entrepreneur in either profit or non-profit enterprises.