Johnson Graduate School of Management - Cornell University



Johnson Graduate School of Management

Cornell University

NBA600: Strategic Role of Information Technology

Spring 2003[1]

Professor: Dan Huttenlocher

E-mail: dph2@cornell.edu

Phone: 255-1974

Office: 346 Sage Hall

Place: Sage B06

Time: TR 2:55-4:10

Office hours: I will be in my office Tuesdays 1-2 for walk-ins. You can also make an appointment via email, or try stopping by at other times.

Materials: Readings will consist of articles and book chapters. Most articles have URL’s where they can be obtained on the Web. Any required reading not available online will be made available in printed form in class. As this is a new course, the precise topics and readings will undoubtedly change as the semester progresses. This is why there is no prepared course pack. There are also several books listed below that you may be interested in reading as background material (some chapters from these books may also be assigned readings). These books are not required reading (other than potential assigned chapters).

Course grade components:

1. Class participation 15 %

2. Individual written assignments (5-6) 40 %

3. Group case write-up (1) 15 %

4. Final group project write-up 20%

5. Group final presentation 10 %

The learning objectives for all course grade components are:

• This course is about the strategic impact of information technology; you should always be looking for relations between business strategy and IT

• You need to learn how to deal with ambiguous, unstructured situations in this course

• When approaching a problem or a case, decide what are important issues and what are not important issues and substantiate your decisions

• Make logical arguments supported by facts, not assertions

• Deliver clear, concise and persuasive written and oral reports

Some details about the class and grading:

It is everyone’s job to make the class the best learning environment. By being prepared, arriving on-time and having an attitude that encourages productive discussion, we can make this happen.

Honor code: If I find you in violation of the honor code, your final grade will drop 2 full grades. In particular, it is a violation of the honor code to use material obtained from other sources without fully crediting that material.

Class participation: I will cold call and you can volunteer answers as well. Please bring your name cards to class every day.

Ways in which you can contribute to class participation include:

1) lay out what’s going on in a case by framing the problem.

2) lay out analyses for a case or a lecture topic

3) ask thoughtful questions, because you don’t know the answer and you think it will contribute to further learning

4) relate your relevant experience in an area.

N.B., your grade for class participation is based on quality rather than quantity. Air-time alone will detract from your score. Make sure you have something to say, and say it clearly and concisely.

I am glad to take requests for cold-calling from students who are not able to volunteer for any reason.

Regrade requests for any written assignment are due within a week of when the papers are returned to you. Please write your regrade request reasons, attach your graded paper and put it in my mailbox.

Additional administrative details:

Course evaluation: In addition to a final evaluation, we will have a midterm evaluation. I will remind you in advance of the dates. In addition, you are welcome to communicate your thoughts on course improvement, directly with me at any time during the semester.

We will also have a group participation evaluation form when we do final course evaluations. You will grade your team-mates' performance as percentage of work done by them. I will collate these rankings across all members across a team when determining any one person's performance. I strongly urge you to be honest rather than kind when you fill these evaluations.

Draft Syllabus by Week

Week 1 (1/21 & 1/23) Basics of Internet, Web and Strategy

1. Pew Internet Project Report,

2. Stanford Website Credibility Study,

3. Survey of Web Server Software

4. ISP Planet article on Growth of Internet



5. E-week article on geo-location

6. Economist article on geo-location

Week 2 (1/28 & 1/10) Internet and “New Economy” Debate; Productivity Paradox

1. Rethinking Strategy in a Networked World, Don Tapscott,

2. Strategy and the Internet.; By: Porter, Michael E., Harvard Business Review, Mar2001, Vol. 79 Issue 3, p62

3. Why Business Models Matter.; By: Magretta, Joan, Harvard Business Review, May2002, Vol. 80 Issue 5, p86

4. Productivity and the New Economy, Nordhaus,

Week 3 (2/4 & 2/6) Owning the Customer by Providing Access to Information

1. American Airline SABRE system,

2. FEDEX package tracking,

3. Web travel booking, Harrell report,

4. Dell Direct, Stanford GSB case,



Week 4 (2/11 & 2/13) Rise, Fall and Return of e-Commerce

Week 5 (2/18 & 2/20) Markets, Commerce and Pricing

Week 6 (2/25 & 2/27) Markets and Online Communities

Week 7 (3/4 & 3/6) Digital Goods and Services

Week 8 (3/11 & 3/13) Digital Rights Management Possibilities

Week 9 (3/25 & 3/27) Open Source vs. Proprietary Software

Week 10 (4/1 & 4/3) Network Effects and Demand-Side Economies of Scale

Week 11 (4/8 & 4/10) Small Worlds and Information Networks

Week 12 (4/15 & 4/17) IT and Organizational Structure

Week 13 (4/22 & 4/24) Emerging Trends: Self-Identifying Objects, “Smart Mobs”

Week 14 (4/29 & 4/31) Project presentations

Extra Materials

1. Buchanan, Mark. Nexus: Small Worlds and the Groundbreaking Science of Networks. Norton, 2002.

2. Rheingold, Howard. Smart Mobs: The Next Social Revolution. Perseus, 2002.

3. Shapiro, Carl and Varian, Hal. Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to the Network Economy. HBS Press, 1999.

4. Hagel, John III. Out of the Box: Strategies for Achieving Profits Today and Growth Tomorrow through Web Services. HBS Press, 2002.

5. Porter, Michael E. Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. Free Press, 1980.

6. Brown, John Seely and Duguid, Paul. The Social Life of Information. HBS Press 2000.

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[1] Many thanks to Professor Vrinda Kadiyali from whom large parts of the material covering the course mechanics were cribbed.

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