Discussion of business concepts and strategic opportunities surrounding the emergence of eBusiness. Understanding how the Internet impacts existing business models and how these models are adapted for the digital economy.

This course is the first in the series of courses that form the Ebusiness concentration in the MBA program.

Firms are spending billions of dollars on information technology to create the infrastructure needed to compete in a digital economy. As the process of "getting wired" continues, the need to understand how this new environment is and will affect enterprises and individuals increases. We are rapidly discovering that business practices that have evolved over hundreds of years no longer work. Every aspect of a business is in the process of being transformed; firms are being forced to adapt or fail.

The Internet has already had an impact on how individuals and organizations exchange goods and services. The effects are just beginning to be felt. Over the next few years we will undoubtedly witness substantial changes in the business environment and in society as a result of the evolution that is taking place.

The Internet has given rise to new organizational forms (e.g., virtual organizations) and markets which feature electronic transaction models in new categories of goods and services. These developments have profound implications for society and raise several legal and policy issues that are yet largely unresolved (e.g., copyright, taxation, etc.). The convergence of computing and communications technologies is affecting such organizational processes as new product development, resource acquisition, order fulfillment and customer service.

In this course, we will focus on Ebusiness models, i.e., on business models that are evolving to take advantage of the changes being brought about by these new technologies.