MBA 662: Management of Information Technology and the Digital Enterprise Master Syllabus
Course Instructor:
Office Number:
Office Hours:
Email:
Course Meeting Times:
Course Materials:
Course Website Canvas
Readings
Please read these cases and articles following the schedule on the last page. All cases are required readings.
Textbook
Guiding the Digital Transformation of Organizations, Sambamurthy and Zmud, 2nd Edition, 2017: Legerity Press (note: see tentative course schedule: only select chapters and content from the textbook are required readings).
E-book available on Canvas
Cases
- (Bombardier) Benoit Aubert, Simon Bourdeau, and Brett Walker. “Successfully Navigating the Turbulent Skies of a Large-Scale ERP Implementation,” Product number: HEC035-PDF-ENG (2012), Harvard Business School Publishing.
Available from above Harvard site
- (Mohawk) Paul J. Stamas, Michelle L. Kaarst-Brown, and Scott A. Bernard. “The Business Transformation Payoffs of Cloud Services at Mohawk,” MIS Quarterly Executive, 13, no. 4 (2014): 177-192.
George Mason Library / Google Scholar on Campus
- (Audi AG) Martin Mocker, and Nils O. Fonstad. “How AUDI AG is Driving Toward the Sharing Economy,” MIS Quarterly Executive, 16, no. 4 (2017): 279-293.
George Mason Library / Google Scholar on Campus
- (Airbnb, Etsy, Uber) Thales Teixeira, and Morgan Brown. “Airbnb, Etsy, Uber: Acquiring the First Thousand Customers,” Product number: 516-094-PDF-ENG, (2018), Harvard Business School Publishing.
Available from above Harvard site
- (Text Analytics) Oliver Muller, Iris Junglas, Stefan Debortoli, and Jan vom Brocke. “Using Text Analytics to Derive Customer Service Management Benefits from Unstructured Data,” MIS Quarterly Executive, 15, no. 4 (2016): 243-258.
George Mason Library / Google Scholar on Campus
- (Target) Suraj Srinivasan, Lynn S. Paine, and Neeraj Goyal. “Cyber Breach at Target,” Product number: 117027-PDF-ENG, (2019), Harvard Business School Publishing.
Available from above Harvard site
- (Adidas) Aubert, Benoit A., Carol Saunders, Martin Wiener, Reinhard Denk, and Tobias Wolfermann. “How Adidas Realized Benefits from a Contrary IT Multisourcing Strategy,” MIS Quarterly Executive, 15, no. 3 (2016): 179-194.
George Mason Library / Google Scholar on Campus
Course Description
Advances in information technology (IT) have transformed business models, organization structures and processes, and the methods for sustaining innovation and firm performance. IT has impacted business activities such as product design, production, purchasing, marketing, customer and supplier relationships, and human resource management, and contributed significantly to productivity growth. Most firms have realized that information technology-based innovation is a strategic imperative. The Internet and associated technological innovations have helped in restructuring the global economy into a networked economy, characterized by unprecedented levels of electronically-mediated communication, collaboration, and commerce.
With information technologies becoming an important force shaping entire industries and value creation in firms, it is important that you as future business leaders understand the potential role of IT in creating value and competitive advantage. The objectives of this course are to help you develop the critical thinking to assess how information technology and systems shape business strategy, innovation, and operations in firms. The key goal of the class is to help you be better prepared to analyze and evaluate business challenges for maximizing the impact of IT on products, processes and services in different settings. The central questions we will examine through the course are:
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How do information technologies improve and transform business processes, business models, and innovation activities in firms?
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What structures, processes, and managerial actions will allow firms to leverage the power of information technologies and sustain superior firm performance?
The approach of this course is that every business executive must know how to think of information technologies as a strategic resource. They must be able to think of finding answers to the following questions:
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How can I use information technology to improve work processes and practices within my work unit?
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How can I convince others to support the technologies that are most valuable for my work unit?
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If implemented, will my employees use the installed technology? What can I do to make sure these employees use the installed technology and use it well?
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Why do our competitors always seem to be one step ahead of us with regards to information technology?
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Is it ever possible to create a sustainable competitive advantage with information technology?
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What new entrepreneurial opportunities and business does information technology facilitate? How should I assess the economic and strategic aspects of these opportunities?
Overall, this course will help students understand how to align IT investments with their firms’ business strategies, processes, and skills to create competitive advantage and superior performance. It will present an integrative perspective around business processes, information, and information technologies. Learning in the course will be accomplished through a combination of lectures and case discussions.
Course Objectives
This course will help you develop sophisticated understanding of the links between IT, business strategy and business process. You will also gain an appreciation of the organizational and management practices that complement IT investments and are needed to extract the appropriate return on the IT investments. Four main themes are emphasized in this course:
- What is the strategic role of information technologies? How do information technologies impact business operations and strategy? How do they transform business models and innovation in contemporary firms? How are information technologies catalyzing the emergence of new industries?
- What are the current and emerging information technologies of particular significance? How do they impact organization’s work processes, customer relationships, and extended enterprise networks?
- What are the innovative trends in the organizational use of information technologies (e.g., business intelligence, cloud computing, etc.)?
- How should the business value of information technologies be assessed and synchronized with other important business processes and activities? What managerial practices are vital for the effective leverage of information technologies?
Naturally, this entire course is about information technology and its strategic impact on organizations and markets. However, the goal of the course is NOT to develop an engineering or technical perspective on information technologies. Instead, it is designed to help you develop a financial, strategic, and organizational perspective on information technologies. Along the way, you will gain an understanding of specific information technologies, such as Enterprise Resource Planning systems, Cloud Computing, Platforms, Internet of Things, etc. The discussion of case studies and materials relies heavily on critical reasoning in a variety of managerial contexts.
To the extent that IT can be leveraged in all business functions and in every stage of a company's value chain, much of the content in this course is interdisciplinary in nature. Examples of such integrative cross-functional topics include: how IT enables more effective operations and supply chains, marketing strategies, organization structure, and how techniques from corporate finance are used to analyze IT investments.
Learning Objectives
- Understand how IT influences the business environment
- Analyzing and assessing the impact of IT on business performance
- Identifying key challenges to managing security of and risk to IT infrastructure
- Understanding practices and challenges in system implementation projects
- Supporting executive decision making with business intelligence
Course Deliverables and Evaluation
| Deliverable | Weight |
|---|---|
| Case Reports (5 cases) | 25% |
| Mid-term Exam | 20% |
| IT Innovation and Industry Disruption Analysis Project | 25% |
| Final Exam | 20% |
| Class Contribution | 10% |
Deliverable 1: Case Reports (25% for 5 case reports with 5% per case report; individual work). We will discuss 7 cases in class as part of the course. You are expected to have read all cases, familiarize yourselves with its details before the class so that you can perform the required analyses and participate in class discussions. Except for Case 6: Target, you will need to submit a report for each case, for a total of 6 case reports. I will post questions for each case that you need to respond to. Please upload your report for each case to the assigned case report link on Blackboard by the designated due date. The case report with the lowest grade will be dropped and the remaining 5 case reports will count towards your grade.
Deliverable 2: Mid-term Exam (20%; individual work). The take home mid-term exam will be posted online on Canvas and made available for a 72-hour window. You should download the exam, complete it in 4 hours max, and then upload your solution to Canvas by the designated due date.
Deliverable 3: IT Innovation and Industry Disruption Analysis Group Project (25%; group work). In this course, you will learn about the effects of information technology on innovations in business models, products, and services. Often, these innovations tend to disrupt existing industries. At other times, these innovations tend to provide incumbents with opportunities for sustaining their competitive leadership. The goal of this assignment is for you to work in teams and analyze the effects of specific information technologies in fostering innovations in business models, products or services in specific industries.
A list of the topics that might be appropriate candidates for your analysis is identified below. These topics identify a list of specific technologies or industries that are experimenting with innovations in business models, products or services. As a first step, each team should select one of those topics and focus on a specific firm related to the topic to conduct in-depth research. In addition, this list is only meant to provide ideas about candidates for the assignment; students are also encouraged to approach the instructor with any other topics or firms that they wish to analyze. For example, students may identify a start-up that is utilizing information technology to create an innovative business model in a specific industry. The initial list of topics is as follows:
- Virtual reality or Augmented reality
- FinTech, such as algorithmic trading, robo-advisor, and mobile bank
- Blockchain technology and Cryptocurrency
- Internet of Things (such as home automation, smart city, etc.)
- Mobile payment, micropayments, etc.
- Crowdfunding, crowdsourcing
- Big data and analytics, data science
- Artificial intelligence
- Geo-tagging or geo-location enabled applications
- Wearable technologies
- Telemedicine, health exchanges
- Education and distance learning
- An upstart e-commerce/mobile commerce/internet company (past 2 years or so)
- Cybersecurity
In your analysis, please use frameworks and concepts that you learned in class to address the following questions wherever appropriate.
- What value proposition is being created by the firm? How are information technologies being used to create this value proposition?
- How is the firm likely to generate revenue and profit through this innovation? What is the firm’s agile business model?
- What is the sustainability of the competitive advantage of the innovation? What suggestions would you provide to the company to prevent erosion of competitive advantage?
- Will it have a disruptive effect on the industry or society or economy? If so, how will the disruption occur?
Topic Selection. Topic selection (with instructor approval) must be completed by the next day of the second class session. You should communicate your choice of a specific topic to the designated discussion board on Canvas. Each team should work on a different topic that will be approved on a first-come, first-served basis.
Team Presentation & Discussion. The order of team presentations will be randomly drawn. Each team has a total time of 12-15 minutes for presentation, followed by 10-15 minutes of Q&A. Each team has to submit a copy of the presentation slides to the discussion board on Canvas. A team will receive 0 points if the slides are not submitted; a team that does not submit presentation slides by 7:20:59pm on the day of presentation will be penalized on the team score. Each team’s presentation will be evaluated by the instructor (counts for 50% of the team score) as well as by other students (counts for 50% of the team score), in the following 10 dimensions:
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Deliverable 4: Final Exam (20%; individual work). The take home final exam will be posted online on Blackboard and made available for a 72-hour window. You should download the exam, complete it in 4 hours max, and then upload your solution to Blackboard by the designated due date.
Deliverable 5: Class Contribution (10%; individual work). All students are expected to contribute to case discussions, exercises, in-class polls, and other class activities throughout the course. Evaluation is based on “class contribution” rather than “class participation”. Each class period is an opportunity for you to engage with others and bring diverse ideas into the discussion. You are encouraged to discuss your own work experience when relevant to the material being covered in class. You are also encouraged to ask questions in class. Quality of contribution in class matters much more than quantity. Points are awarded not for what you do for yourself (e.g., being present in class), but for what you do positively for the class such as making good quality comments without dominating the conversation, asking relevant questions throughout the semester, helping answer or clarify others’ questions, etc. A rule of thumb is that making one substantial comment in at least 6 out of 8 weekly sessions in addition to completing other required activities on time (e.g., rating other teams’ presentations)) is sufficient to receive a perfect score. You may document all substantial comments that you make in class and submit the document to me at the end of the semester. Comments that are vague, unrelated to discussion, repetitious, disrespectful of others, and made without sufficient foundation will be viewed negatively. Similarly, “disappearing” into non-class related activities (such as surfing on the web, texting on your mobile phone, etc.), disrupting the class (e.g., arriving late or leaving early without in advance notification, making loud noises, etc.), or exhibiting lack of attention will be viewed negatively. I do award 0 points for contribution, so please do not assume that most will receive a high score on this deliverable.
Grading Policies
Normally all deliverables are due at the beginning of class on the due date that has a class or at 11:59pm on the due date that does not have a class. No late submissions are accepted unless you have legitimate reasons and have made in-advance arrangements with me. See Blackboard for specific deliverables and due dates.
Make up Exams/Quizzes: Barring medical circumstances, no exceptions will be made for absence from exams/quizzes. Final exam date/time will not be rescheduled. If you have any work-related time conflict, you need to inform me as in advance as possible. If become ill or are in quarantine and isolation due to COVID-19, please get in touch with me to discuss possible alternative arrangements.
Re-Grading Request: if you have a question about your grade on any of the deliverables or you believe that you were graded incorrectly, please submit a formal request in the written form describing the situation and the reasons that justify your request for re-grading. You should also submit any supporting evidence that helps justify your regrading request. In this case, I will go through your re-grading request and decide if your request is legitimate or not. The decision regarding a re-grading request will be at the sole discretion of mine. If your request is accepted, I will re-grade your assignment/exam/quiz, and the grade may go up or down. This grade will be final. You have one week from the date the grade is returned to submit a written request for re-grading or review. After one week, no changes will be considered.
Course Letter Grade: grading for the course will be based on total points earned and will be as follows; no extra credit will be available.
| A+ | 98% - 100% |
| A | 94% - 97.99% |
| A- | 90% - 93.99% |
| B+ | 88% - 89.99% |
| B | 84% - 87.99% |
| B- | 80% - 83.99% |
| C | 70% - 79.99% |
| F | below 70% |
Other Course Policies
Communication: Outside of the scheduled class time, e-mail is the easiest and quickest method to contact me. Consistent with federal privacy laws, I do not respond to non-George Mason emails with confidential information. Your emails to me must include "MBA 662" or “MBA662” in the subject and your full name in the body. If you use another e-mail account as your primary e-mail, please be sure to forward your George Mason e-mail to that account.
Attendance: Attendance in class is NOT mandatory. If you are absent from a session, you will not be able to earn class contribution points for that session; in addition, it is your responsibility to find out from a classmate what you missed (both course materials and announcements).
Tentative Schedule
You must read the chapters from the book and assigned cases prior to class meetings. Class time will be used to further discuss relevant concepts/cases. Time spent on lecturing chapters in the book will be limited.
| Week | Date | Activity | Topics | Deliverables |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Oct 18th | Syllabus | ||
| Read Chapter 19, Chapter 21 prior to class | Business Processes, ERP | |||
| *Oct 19th | (optional) Resume upload due | |||
| 2 | Oct 25th | Case discussion | Case 1: Bombardier | Case report due |
| Read Chapter 22 (p.436-440), Chapter 24 (p.450-463), Chapter 4 (p.73-75) prior to class | Cloud Computing, Enterprise Architecture | |||
| *Oct 26th | Topic for group project due | |||
| 3 | Nov 1st | Case discussion | Case 2: Mohawk | Case report due |
| Read Chapter 2 prior to class meeting | Digital Disruption, IT & Competitive Advantage | |||
| 4 | Nov 8th | Case discussion | Case 3: Audi AG | Case report due |
| Read Chapter 1 (p.1-13), Chapter 3 (p.44-49, 54-55, 6569) prior to class meeting | Business Ecosystem, Long Tail | |||
| *Nov 12th - Nov 14th | Mid-term online (take home), covering topics from Week 1-4. Mid-term exam due by Nov 14th end of day. | |||
| 5 | Nov 15th | Project presentation(s) | Presentation slides due | |
| Read Chapter 6 (p.123-142), Chapter 7 (p.150-160, p.167170) prior to class meeting | Platform, Network Effects, Platformication | |||
| 6 | Nov 22nd | Project presentation(s) | Presentation slides due | |
| Case discussion | Case 4: Airbnb, Etsy, Uber | Case report due | ||
| Read Chapter 4 (p.77-87) prior to class meeting | Big Data & Ethics, Business Intelligence | |||
| 7 | Nov 29th | Project presentation(s) | Presentation slides due | |
| Case discussion | Case 5: Text Analytics Case 6: Target | Case report for Case 5 due | ||
| Read Chapter 5 (p.102-114), Chapter 8 (p.177-200) prior to class meeting | IT Risk, Security, IT Outsourcing | |||
| 8 | Dec 6th | Project presentation(s) | Presentation slides due | |
| Case discussion | Case 6: Adidas | Case report due | ||
| Read Chapter 12, Chapter 13, Chapter 14 (p.281-291, p.296299) prior to class meeting | IT Investment, Business Case for IT | |||
| *Dec 10th - Dec 12th | Final exam online (take home), covering topics from Week 5-8. Final exam due by Dec 12th end of day. | |||
*: dates without a class; deliverables due by the end of day.
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