Page 9 - Introduction to Electronic Commerce and Social Commerce

Preface ix

• EC 2015 is designed mostly for graduate levels. This book is for undergraduate and industry
training.
• EC 2015 has a strong strategy and research orientations with many more references and Internet
links.
• In many places, more technical details, examples, and discussions are available in EC 2015.
• Several major topics were eliminated in this book or combined (e.g., payments and order
fulfillment is one chapter, instead of two).
• This book includes some simplified cases and examples.

PEDAGOGICAL FEATURES AND LEARNING AIDS

The text offers a number of learning aids for the student:

• Chapter Outlines. A listing of the main headings (Content) at the beginning of each chap-
ter provides a quick overview of the major topics covered.
• Learning Outcomes for the Book. Learning outcomes for the entire book are available in
this preface. They can be used for creating course syllabi.
• Learning Objectives for Each Chapter. Learning objectives at the beginning of each
chapter help students focus their efforts and alert them to the important concepts to be
discussed.
• Opening Cases. Each chapter opens with a real-world example that illustrates the impor-
tance of EC to modern corporations. These cases were carefully chosen to call attention to
the major topics covered in the chapters. Following each case, a short section titled “Lesson
Learned from the Case” links the important issues in the case to the subject matter of the
chapter. Questions to each case are provided at the end of the chapters.
• EC Application Cases. In-chapter cases highlight real-world problems encountered by
organizations as they develop and implement EC. Questions follow each case to help direct
student attention to the implications of the case material.
• Figures and Tables. Numerous attractive figures and useful tables extend and supplement
the text discussion.
• Review Questions. Each section ends with a series of review questions about that section.
These questions are intended to help students summarize the concepts introduced and to
digest the essentials of each section before moving on to another topic.
• Glossary and Key Terms. Each Key Term is defined in the text when it first appears. In
addition, an alphabetical list of key terms appears at the end of each chapter. Definitions of
all terms are provided in a glossary at the end of the book.
• Managerial Issues. At the end of every chapter, we explore some of the special concerns
managers face as they adapt to doing business in cyberspace. These issues are framed as
questions to maximize readers’ active engagement with them.
• Chapter Summary. The chapter summary is linked one-to-one with the learning objec-
tives introduced at the beginning of each chapter.
• End-of-Chapter Exercises. Different types of questions measure students’ comprehension
and their ability to apply knowledge. Questions for Discussion and Topics for Class
Discussion are intended to develop critical-thinking skills. Internet Exercises are challeng-
ing assignments that require students to surf the Internet and apply what they have learned.
More than 250 hands-on exercises send students to interesting websites to conduct research,
investigate an application, download demos, or learn about state-of-the-art technology. The
Team Assignments and Projects exercises are challenging group projects designed to foster
teamwork.
• Closing Cases. Each chapter ends with a real-world case, which is presented in somewhat
more depth than the in-chapter EC Application Cases. Questions follow each case relating
the case to many of the topics covered in the chapter.