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xviii Preface

Essay questions: conventional essay questions.
Examination questions: typical short-answer questions found in exams and can also be
used for revision.
References: these are references to books, articles or papers referred to within the chapter.
Further reading: supplementary texts or papers on the main themes of the chapter. Where
appropriate a brief commentary is provided on recommended supplementary reading on
the main themes of the chapters.
Web links: these are significant sites that provide further information on the concepts and
topics of the chapter.All web site references within the chapter, for example company sites, are
not repeated here. The web site address prefix ‘http://’ is omitted from www links for clarity.
At the end of the book

Glossary: a list of all definitions of key terms and phrases used within the main text.
Index: all key words and abbreviations referred to in the main text.

Learning techniques

The book is intended to support a range of learning styles. It can be used for an active or
student-centred learning approach whereby students attempt the activities through reflect-
ing on questions posed, answering questions and then comparing to a suggested answer at
the end of the chapter. Alternatively, students can proceed straight to suggested answers in a
more traditional learning approach, which still encourages reflection about the topic.

Module guide

The table below presents one mapping of how the book could be used in different weekly
lectures and seminars through the core eleven weeks of a module where the focus is on man-
agement issues of e-business and e-commerce.
A fullset of PowerPoint slides and accompanying notes to assist lecturers in preparing lec-
tures is available on the lecturer’s side of the Companion Web Site.

Enhancements for the fourth edition

The effective chapter structure of previous editions has been retained, but many other
changes have been incorporated based on lecturer and student feedback. There are two main
new features. First, new case studies in boxes ‘Real-world e-business experiences – the E-
consultancy interview’ are introduced at the start of most chapters. These are interviews
with e-commerce managers at a range of UK, European and US-based organizations con-
cerning the strategies they have adopted and their approaches to strategy implementation.
Second, there are numbered boxes which explore a concept in more detail or give an ex-
ample of a principle discussed in the text. There are also three major new case studies to
enable learning from brands that will be well-known personally to students in different
countries: Dell, Facebook and Google. To help accommodate these, less reference is given to
the running ‘B2C and B2B Company’ case.