E-Commerce and the Undergraduate MIS Curricula: an Exploratory Study

Journal of Information Systems Education, Summer 2006 by Moshkovich, Helen M, Mechitov, Alexander I, Olson, David L

The reasonable resolution of the situation would be in "mapping" e-commerce content to some courses already present in MIS curricula. This approach was demonstrated for the "Project Management" module in Reif and Mitri (2005) and was proposed for "security Issues" in IS curriculum by Anderson and Schwager (2002). One of the early attempts to map e-commerce topics to IS'97 Model Curriculum was presented in Chaudhury & Rao (2000).

As the area of e-commerce matures, its academic content becomes more standardized. It makes it easier to discriminate between the case of core differences of ecommerce compared to traditional IS topics and the case of applying the same IS principles and theories to a new area of e-commerce. Evidence indicates that it is necessary to introduce E-commerce concepts and techniques in other MIS courses and to base separate E-commerce courses on the previous knowledge from other MIS areas.

An introductory course for information technology may be used to cover essential e-commerce content, including concepts and client-side Web development skills (see e.g., Grenci, 2005; Lim, 2002). The interdisciplinary nature of e-commerce allows using it as a capstone course for MIS majors (Denton and Sprangler, 2001; Mehta et al., 2005; Tabor 2005). Building a functional e-commerce business site integrates knowledge from different areas of MIS as well as from other business areas.

Table 6 provides an example where some specific knowledge and skills connected with e-commerce are covered in traditional courses (most often presented in MIS curricula - see section "Problem Statement"). This example may start a useful dialogue about the reasonable accommodations for new technologies within the traditional system.

Cooperation in the business core area with other disciplines would help cover such "managerial and marketing" topics of e-commerce as "selling and advertising on the web," "legal and international issues in e-commerce," "business planning for e-commerce," "strategic issues in e-commerce," and others.

This approach, though organizationally complicated, seems like a reasonable approach to resolving issues of incorporating e-commerce content in MIS programs. An analogous approach to assessing learning objectives in the business core is now required from all AACSB accredited schools. Applying it to MIS curricula may help ensure the right mix of fundamental knowledge and contemporary vocational skills that is appropriate for MIS students as well as their potential employers.

5. CONCLUSION, LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

The current study indicates that the academic community recognizes the need for incorporation of e-commerce content in MIS curricula. This paper discusses some aspects of e-commerce incorporation into MIS curricula. Our exploratory study tries to contribute to a dialogue about possible ways of providing the "right" curriculum in modern MIS programs. We attempted to collect and analyze past decisions of business schools about e-commerce and MIS curriculum. More thorough analysis of underlying factors and their mutual effect on the decisions is needed.