e-Business Minor Courses

Overview

The e-Business minor requires three interdisciplinary foundation courses that all students in the minor are required to complete. The first level foundation course deals with systems fundamentals. The second level foundation courses address business-to-business e-Business and business-to-consumer e-Business.

In addition to the foundation courses, the minor requires two elective courses. Some of the elective courses will require completion of all three foundation courses. Other elective courses will require completion of other prerequisites.  Carefully check prerequisites before you enroll.  You may be administratively removed from a course for which you have not completed prerequisites.

Program Requirements

The minor in e-Business is available to all students.

Foundation Courses

e-Business Systems Fundamentals

e-Business Systems Fundamentals is the cornerstone course for the e-Business minor. It prepares students for the remaining e-Business minor courses by providing a common foundation composed of the fundamental concepts required for the use and application of systems and technology in the e-Business environment. Specific topics include technical components of e-Business, e-Business information systems support for all aspects of business activities, and definitions of e-Business topics such as customer relationship management, security and privacy concepts (including digital signatures), legal and ethical issues, electronic payment systems, databases in e-Business, and integration with ERP systems. The students gain an understanding of the functions of the various types of communications networks, hardware, and software and their uses to support all activities throughout the e-Business organization, including how to enhance analytical skills through the use of the Internet and other decision support tools. Students will be challenged by a combination of practical, hands-on projects to supplement discussions. These projects will include state-of-the-art business models for e-Business. They will focus on the required infrastructure technologies, and how the parts must be integrated with back office information systems to support all aspects of e-Business.

Advanced e-Business - Business-to-Business (B2B)

This course will focus on current trends in B2B, design and implementation issues, customer relationship management, selling chain management, enterprise resource planning, supply chain management, e-procurement, knowledge-tone applications, agents, bots, virtual corporations with virtual employees, global issues, security concerns, and legal implications. In addition, the course will address issues related data warehousing, data mining, bartering, taxation, human resource management, the economics of transactions. Finally, the course will explore how the current trends in B2B are fundamentally changing the many functions of a business and what the future trends are likely to be. The course will have a significant electronic component including electronic cases that deal with contemporary issues related to e-Business.

Advanced e-Business - Business-to-Consumer (B2C)

This course addresses the manners in which e-Business is changing the way that firms market their products and services. The course will explore the basic issues of advertising and selling on the Internet, the use of web sites to provide service and support to customers, consumer decision making when shopping on the Internet, the development of databases which allow customization of products and services to specific customer segments, and payment and transaction processes. The course will also address strategic issues such as how marketing communications and distribution strategies are changing due to the Internet. Additional topics include: targeted e-mail; banner advertising effectiveness; integrated content sponsorships; banner ad placements; online versus off-line advertising; integrated marketing communications on the Internet; measuring return on investment, banner ad tracking, affiliate programs, and permission marketing; net promotions and incentive behavior; online customer behavior; importance of fulfillment, and customer service; e-commerce payment and transactional issues; and conducting research on the Internet.

Elective Courses (Choose Two)