BCS 555  CURRENT ISSUES INe-BUSINESS As Taught by Prof. Tim Richardson School of Marketing and e-Business, Faculty of Business

Video, (made 2010 Sept 27) explaining the project

Case Study Assignment - pre-report

submit 3 pages showing your progress-to-date
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Case Study Assignment
 

click on Joseph's image to hear his comments on his experience in BCS 555 in Sept-Dec 2004

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This Case Study is worth a major  % of your final mark and due in class in 1st week in December

The assignment is designed in such a way that you should, as you attend the classes, and go through the web site, collect information which you will use in this assignment. You should be working on this assignment from the 3rd or 4th class and try to gather, as you go along, all the information you will need so that when you write the assignment in November, you will have covered all the required points.

The maximum number of persons in a group is 3. There cannot be 4 group members or more since experience shows this is too difficult for group members to set meeting times and work effectively and equally on completing the tasks.

If there is more than one person working on this assignment, it is necessary (obviously) that you include all the group members names on the cover page. Furthermore, if you do this assignment as a group you should verify that each group member contributed equally and, as far as it might be possible, identify which group member provided particular information/activity to completing the assignment.

1. Pick a Case
2. Read the Case and

• search for additional information, online and offline,which would help you understand the context and scenario of the Case.
• If it serves your purpose, you can add to the background information of the case scenario (just make sure you explain what the additional background is when you write out your answers)

• or it can be done as a website if you have the knowledge to do this well
• if you do it as a website, make SURE all the links work
• and make sure at the time I check it that all the information is up.
• Do NOT spend an excessive amount of time on the website part - it is only a "method" of presenting the information to me - this course is not about building websites - it is about understanding current issues in e-business and being able to show that understanding by applying it to a Case Study

Cases to pick from - just do one
 

A Specialty Record Shop This store is managed by the owners. It is in a moderately high rent district on Queen Street West in Toronto. The CD's, records and DVD's are themed based on the cultural interests of the store owners who come from country X. The store has many people browse in person, but don't buy. Others express interest in looking for a particular music title but cannot find it in the sprawled out mess of untidy shelves. Many of the people that shop here have bought CD's online from some of the major marketing companies like HMV.The owners of the store are 50% owners in a bar on Queen St. that specializes in house music.

A Themed bar/restaurant This place is on Yonge Street in a high pedestrian traffic area. They are not a franchise but do have a sister establishment out on the airport hotel strip. There are particular special events and activities at this bar which cause it to attract negative as well as positive attention from the public, and police. The managers of the establishment have little personal knowledge of computers and know almost nothing about the internet. Many of the people that patronize the bar work downtown but live in the suburbs. The bar has a number of themed items for sale such as T-shirts, mugs, posters of performers, etc. Sometimes very famous people come to this establishment.

Ethnic Newspaper This publication has been producing a weekly newspaper for a section of the (Asian, or Caribbean - you pick) community for more than 10 years. Many of the people who read the newspaper are recent New Canadians but there is also a large number who have lived in Canada more than 20 years. These people also have many restaurants, stores and establishments in a part of Toronto in which this newspaper prints its editions. Editions of the newspaper are presently available for free at all local convenience stores and food stores including specialty bakeries and hair salons. Sometimes the stories in the newspaper are very controversial and there are complaints that many letters to the editor go unpublished.

Questions

1. What are some of the "Current Issues in E-Business" that could effect the competitiveness of the organization?
In dealing with several of the Issues, you should also

• identify, and explain some of the barriers or challenges that might exist among the "Current Issues" - relevant to your Case
• and suggest ways the company could deal with the challenges - use your imagination and also feel free to draw from any real-life examples you might discover

Grading

You will be marked mostly on how well you follow the instructions, and answer the questions, using some modest degree of originality and some resources which demonstrate a degree of effort.

This assignment does not have to be "Big" to get marks - you have to think smart and use "interpretive language" - this means, eg. "from the article CCCC* - we learned that NNNNN* could be applied to WWWWW* in order that ZZZZZZ might happen.

You will also get marks for incorporating articles from online and offline sources which we might not have specifically discussed in class. If you use such articles, provide a link (or print the article out) so that the professor can see these when marking.
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