Electronic Commerce

http://kogan.rutgers.edu/ec-phd

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A Ph.D. course offered in the spring of 2023

by the Department of Accounting and Information Systems
Rutgers Business School - Newark and New Brunswick
Rutgers University

Prof. Alexander Kogan
One Washington Park 924 (Newark), (973) 353-1064
kogan@rutgers.edu

Location:

Day:

Time:

Newark Campus; 1WP-204

Thursday

10:00 a.m. - 12:50 p.m.

Overview: This course covers the theoretical foundations, implementation problems, and research issues of the emerging area of electronic commerce. It discusses technological, conceptual and methodological aspects of electronic commerce. The course format combines lectures, seminar presentations and classroom discussions.

The course will utilize the Canvas online facilities, which can be found at:

Rutgers Canvas

For a student to gain access to our Canvas system, s/he must be enrolled and have a NETID. Once an enrolled student obtains a NETID, they will be added to the roster within 2 business days. Students should also check their email account in the Rutgers system and if it is not correct, they need to update their official student record. Students who do not have a NETID, can create one online using this link:

https://netid.rutgers.edu/

A student who is not familiar with Canvas can find introductory tutorial level information at:

Rutgers Getting Started In Canvas for Students

Online Course and Hardware Specifications:

In the Spring of 2023 this course will be conducted face-to-face. As a backup option, in parallel with the face-to-face meetings, this class will also take place on Zoom. These Zoom sessions CANNOT BE used instead of face-to-face participation in this class meetings, and are intended only as an emergency backup option. To take part in these Zoom mettings, students MUST use their Rutgers Zoom account with the name netid@rutgers.edu. It will be IMPOSSIBLE to participate using personal Zoom accounts. To be able to participate successfully in this course students should have access to a stable Internet connection and a computer with the hardware specifications equal or exceeding the items listed below to make sure that this computer can capably support MS Office Professional and virtual computing environments. Instructions for activating a Rutgers Zoom account can be found at:

https://it.rutgers.edu/zoom/knowledgebase/how-to-create-your-rutgers-zoom-account/

Note that the activation of the Rutgers Zoom account will involve browsing to netid.rutgers.edu and selecting Service Activation as explained in the link. Please also note that accounts with the correct name CAN be created in other ways, and students may have done this already - such accounts will work for some purposes but will not provide proper access to required service during the semesters - you must seek assistance in removing such accounts if they prevent your creating the required account through Service Activation at netid.rutgers.edu.

Instructions for signing into the activated Rutgers Zoom Account can be found at:

https://it.rutgers.edu/zoom/knowledgebase/how-do-i-log-into-my-zoom-account/

Regular attendance of class meetings is essential and will be monitored. Absence for reasons of religious obligation shall not be counted for purposes of reporting. Be prompt for class. Classes will begin on time. Late arrivals disrupt class discussions. Please turn your cell phones off during class. Please avoid private conversations with neighbors. Please do NOT engage in online chat or any other online activities during the class. Make sure that your behavior shows respect to the instructor and to your classmates.

The penalties for cheating are severe. There is a university wide policy on academic integrity, which we will follow. It is not worth the risk of suspension from the university to cheat.


Rutgers University Academic Integrity Policy

Please follow very carefully all the academic integrity guidlines you can find at:


Rutgers Business School Academic Integrity for Students

Coursework: The coursework includes presentations of research articles, in-class discussions, and a final course project researching one of the problems of electronic commerce. All after hours communications related to this course are expected to be conducted over the Internet.

Every student is required to study and briefly summarize in writing IN YOUR OWN WORDS (!) ALL required articles for every lecture, and submit these summaries as a single document before the beginning of each class. Every student will be assigned ONE of the required articles to prepare a class presentation of the article. Students will be given an option to express their preference for which of the three article they would like to present, but the final assignment can be modified by the instructor. A slide deck for the presentation should also be submitted before the beginning of each class. One of the students (chosen randomly during the class) has to present the article in class. All students have to participate in discussing the presented articles and be prepared to (possibly) replace the main discussant.

It is absolutely essential to start working on the course research project as soon as possible. Every student is required to prepare a three page long proposal for the course research project, and submit this proposal for instructor's evaluation by March 9, 2023. The course research project should be prepared in the form of a term paper, and presented during the last meeting of the class on April 27, 2023.

The final exam will be administered using Respondus Lockdown Browser and Monitor integrated into Canvas. The students are required to take a practice Lockdown Browser with Monitor Test Quiz by March 27, 2023.

Grading: The presentations of articles, the course project and the final exam will provide the basis for the course grade:

1%

Summaries of articles

2%

Slide decks for article presentations

45%

Article presentations

1%

Proposal for course project

1%

Slide deck for course project presentation

30%

Course project

20%

Final exam
The course is supported by the RAMS e-mailing list ec-phd-list. The list membership is automatically synchronized with the current class roster. Make sure that your current e-mail address is available in the Rutgers online directory. To post a message to the list, e-mail it to

ec-phd-list@rams.rutgers.edu

All the postings to this list are permanently archived and available from

https://rams.rutgers.edu/rams/list_edit.cgi?.State=View%20Archive&list_id=13778

Please note that your postings should be appropriate for this course.

This course does not have any required texbooks. Any appropriate textbooks, as well as online materials, can be used for studying the basics. I recommend the following elementary textbook for getting up to speed fast.

Background Readings:

Office Hours:

The office hours for this course will take place online every Wednesday from 3 PM until 4 PM on Zoom. Please email the instructor in advance if you are planning to attend, and then email again right after you enter the Zoom meeting waiting room.

The List of Topics to Be Covered in This Course:

  1. 1/19/2023 Introduction to electronic commerce, telecommunications infrastructure, and Internet technology; client-server architecture of Internet applications, standard Internet services, HTTP

    Required readings:

    1. Exploring the Digital Nation - Computer and Internet Use at Home, U.S. Department of Commerce, Economics and Statistics Administration and National Telecommunications and Information Administration, Washington, DC, November 09, 2011. http://www.ntia.doc.gov/report/2011/exploring-digital-nation-computer-and-internet-use-home
    2. OECD Measuring the Digital Economy: A New Perspective, http://www.oecd.org/sti/measuring-the-digital-economy-9789264221796-en.htm

    Additional readings:

  2. 1/26/2023 Markup languages (HTML, XML, etc.), dynamic Web content, security and cryptography
  3. 2/2/2023 Problems of Internet technology: network architecture and quality of service

    Required readings:

    1. Marjory S. Blumenthal and David D. Clark, "Rethinking the Design of the Internet: The End-to-End Arguments vs. the Brave New World", ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, Vol. 1, No. 1, August 2001, Pages 70–109. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=383034.383037
    2. Anindya Datta, Kaushik Dutta, Helen Thomas and Debra VanderMeer, "World Wide Wait: A Study of Internet Scalability and Cache-Based Approaches to Alleviate It", Management Science, Vol. 49, Issue 10, October 2003, Pages 1425–1444. http://mansci.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/49/10/1425
    3. Scott Jordan, "Implications of Internet architecture on net neutrality", ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, Vol. 9, No. 2, May 2009, Pages 5.1-28. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?doid=1516539.1516540

    Additional readings:

  4. 2/9/2023 Internet access and services: measuring and pricing the Internet

    Required readings:

    1. A. M. Odlyzko, "Internet pricing and the history of communications", Computer Networks, 36 (5-6) (2001), 493-517. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1389128601001888. Also see http://www.dtc.umn.edu/~odlyzko/doc/history.communications1b.pdf
    2. Lee W. McKnight and Jahangir Boroumand, "Pricing Internet services: after flat rate", Telecommunications Policy, 24 (6-7) (2000), 565-590. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0308596100000410
    3. Costas Courcoubetis, Laszlo Gyarmati, Nikolaos Laoutaris, Pablo Rodriguez, Kostas Sdrolias, "Negotiating Premium Peering Prices: A Quantitative Model with Applications", ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, Volume 16 Issue 2, April 2016, Pages 14.1-22. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2883610&CFID=713602857&CFTOKEN=53306251

    Additional readings:

  5. 2/16/2023 Digital economy and e-business models

    Required readings:

    1. Erik Brynjolfsson, Yu (Jeffrey) Hu and Michael D. Smith, "Consumer Surplus in the Digital Economy: Estimating the Value of Increased Product Variety at Online Booksellers", Management Science, Volume 49, Issue 11, November 2003, pp. 1580-1596. http://mansci.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/49/11/1580
    2. Kevin Zhu and Kenneth L. Kraemer, "Post-Adoption Variations in Usage and Value of E-Business by Organizations: Cross-Country Evidence from the Retail Industry", Information Systems Research, 16 (1) (2005), 61–84. http://isr.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/1/61.
    3. Anitesh Barua, Prabhudev Konana, Andrew B. Whinston, and Fang Yin, "An Empirical Investigation of Net-Enabled Business Value", MIS Quarterly, 28 (4) (2004), 585-620. http://misq.org/an-empirical-investigation-of-net-enabled-business-value.html.

    Additional readings:

  6. 2/23/2023 Security of Internet hosts and networks, public key infrastructure, safety of e-commerce applications

    Required readings:

    1. Hui, Kai-Lung, Kim, Seung Hyun, Wang, Qiu-Hong, "Cybercrime Deterrence and International Legislation: Evidence from Distributed Denial of Service Attacks", MIS Quarterly, June 2017, Vol. 41 Issue 2, p. 497-A11. https://misq.org/cybercrime-deterrence-and-international-legislation-evidence-from-distributed-denial-of-service-attacks.html
    2. Qinyuan Feng, Ling Liu, Yafei Dai, "Vulnerabilities and countermeasures in context-aware social rating services", ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, Volume 11, Issue 3, January 2012, pp. 11:1 - 11:27. http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2078319
    3. Andrew D. Fernandes, "Risking "trust" in a public key infrastructure: old techniques of managing risk applied to new technology", Decision Support Systems, 31 (3) (2001), pp. 303–322. http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167923600001391

    Additional readings:

  7. 3/2/2023 Electronic payment systems

    Required readings:

    1. Rainer Bohme, Nicolas Christin, Benjamin Edelman, Tyler Moore, "Bitcoin: Economics, Technology, and Governance", Journal of Economic Perspectives, VOL. 29, NO. 2, SPRING 2015, pp. 213-38. https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.29.2.213/
    2. Eric B. Budish, "The Economic Limits of Bitcoin and Anonymous, Decentralized Trust on the Blockchain", Becker Friedman Institute for Economics Working Paper No. 83, 2022, University of Chicago, June 10, 2022. https://bfi.uchicago.edu/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/BFI_WP_2022-83.pdf
    3. Danton Bryans, "Bitcoin and Money Laundering: Mining for an Effective Solution", Indiana Law Journal, Volume 89, Issue 1, Winter 2014, pages 441 - 472. http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/ilj/vol89/iss1/13/.

    Additional readings:

  8. 3/9/2023 Trust and reputation in e-commerce

    FINAL RESEARCH PROJECT PROPOSAL IS DUE

    Required readings:

    1. Harrison McKnight, Vivek Choudhury and Charles Kacmar, "Developing and Validating Trust Measures for e-Commerce: An Integrative Typology", Information Systems Research, Volume 13, Issue 3, September 2002, pp. 334–359. http://isr.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/13/3/334
    2. Paul A. Pavlou and David Gefen, "Building Effective Online Marketplaces with Institution-Based Trust", Information Systems Research, Volume 15, Issue 1, March 2004, pp. 37–59. http://isr.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/15/1/37
    3. Gayatri Swamynathan, Kevin C. Almeroth and Ben Y. Zhao, "The design of a reliable reputation system", Electronic Commerce Research, 10 (3-4) (2010), 239-270. http://www.springerlink.com/content/1389-5753/

    Additional readings:

  9. 3/23/2023 E-business intelligence: Data mining, Web merchandising and recommender systems

    Required readings:

    1. Juhnyoung Lee, Mark Podlaseck, Edith Schonberg, Robert Hoch, "Visualization and Analysis of Clickstream Data of Online Stores for Understanding Web Merchandising", Data Mining and Knowledge Discovery, 5 (1-2) (2001), 59-84. http://www.springerlink.com/content/1573-756X/
    2. Author links open overlay panelDemitrios E.PournarakisDionisios N.SotiropoulosGeorge M.Giaglis, "A computational model for mining consumer perceptions in social media", Decision Support Systems, Volume 93, January 2017, Pages 98-110. https://www-sciencedirect-com.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/science/article/pii/S0167923616301671
    3. Saverio Perugini, Marcos Andre Goncalves and Edward A. Fox, "Recommender Systems Research: A Connection-Centric Survey", Journal of Intelligent Information Systems, 23 (2) (2004), 107-143. http://www.springerlink.com/content/1573-7675/

    Additional readings:

  10. 3/30/2023 Business-to-consumer e-commerce: online marketing and selling, information goods

    Required readings:

    1. Yannis Bakos and Erik Brynjolfsson, "Bundling and Competition on the Internet: Aggregation Strategies for Information Goods", Marketing Science, Vol. 19, No. 1, Winter 2000, pp. 63–82. https://www-jstor-org.proxy.libraries.rutgers.edu/stable/pdf/193259.pdf
    2. Jianan Wu, Victor J. Cook Jr., and Edward C. Strong, "A Two-Stage Model of the Promotional Performance of Pure Online Firms", Information Systems Research, Vol. 16, No. 4, December 2005, pp. 334-351. http://isr.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/16/4/334
    3. Stephen P. Smith, Robert B. Johnston, and Steve Howard, "Putting Yourself in the Picture: An Evaluation of Virtual Model Technology as an Online Shopping Tool", Information Systems Research, Vol. 22, No. 3, September 2011, pp. 640–659. http://isr.journal.informs.org/content/22/3/640.full.pdf+html

    Additional readings:

  11. 4/6/2023 Electronic markets and auctions on the Internet

    Required readings:

    1. Christina Soh, M. Lynne Markus, and Kim Huat Goh, "Electronic Marketplaces and Price Transparency: Strategy, Information Technology, and Success", MIS Quarterly, Volume 30, Number 3, September 2006, 705-723. http://misq.org/electronic-marketplaces-and-price-transparency-strategy-information-technology-and-success.html
    2. Eric Overby and Sandy Jap, "Electronic and Physical Market Channels: A Multiyear Investigation in a Market for Products of Uncertain Quality", Management Science, Vol. 55, No. 6, June 2009, pp. 940-957. http://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/mnsc.1090.0998
    3. Anindya Ghose, "Internet Exchanges for Used Goods: An Empirical Analysis of Trade Patterns and Adverse Selection", MIS Quarterly, Volume 33, Number 2, June 2009, 263-291. http://misq.org/internet-exchanges-for-used-goods-an-empirical-analysis-of-trade-patterns-and-adverse-selection.html

    Additional readings:

  12. 4/13/2023 Intelligent agents in electronic commerce

    Required readings:

    1. Robert J. Kauffman, Salvatore T. March, Charles A. Wood, "Design principles for long-lived Internet agents", International Journal of Intelligent Systems in Accounting, Finance & Management, Volume 9, Issue 4, December 2000, 217-236. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/10.1002/%28ISSN%291099-1174/issues
    2. Joris Claessens, Bart Preneel, Joos Vandewalle, "(How) can mobile agents do secure electronic transactions on untrusted hosts? A survey of the security issues and the current solutions", ACM Transactions on Internet Technology, Vol. 3, No. 1, February 2003, Pages 28 - 48. http://portal.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=643477.643479
    3. Mark E. Nissen and Kishore Sengupta, "Incorporating Software Agents into Supply Chains: Experimental Investigation with a Procurement Task", MIS Quarterly, Volume 30, Number 1, March 2006, 145-166. http://www.misq.org/contents-30-1/

    Additional readings:

  13. 4/20/2023 Business-to-business e-commerce and supply chain management

    Required readings:

    1. Joakim Kalvenes and Amit Basu , "Design of Robust Business-to-Business Electronic Marketplaces with Guaranteed Privacy", Management Science, Vol. 52, No. 11, November 2006, pp. 1721-1736. http://mansci.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/52/11/1721
    2. Sunil Mithas and Joni L. Jones, "Do Auction Parameters Affect Buyer Surplus in E-Auctions for Procurement?", Production and Operations Management, Volume 16, Issue 4, pages 455–470, July-August 2007. http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1937-5956.2007.tb00272.x/abstract
    3. W. M. P. van der Aalst and Akhil Kumar, "XML-Based Schema Definition for Support of Interorganizational Workflow", Information Systems Research, Volume 14, Issue 1, March 2003, pp. 23–46. http://isr.journal.informs.org/cgi/content/abstract/14/1/23

    Additional readings:

  14. 4/27/2023 Presentation of course research projects
  15. 5/4/2023 Final Exam