With $20 million, new
center to focus on e-commerce
The Graduate School of
Business, which aims to be the world leader in research
on e-commerce, announced last month it is creating the
Center for Electronic Business and Commerce with initial
funding of $20 million.
The school's dean, Robert
Joss, said the center will develop new research and
education initiatives needed to understand the impact of
information and communication technologies on firms,
industries and markets. The center will encourage
industry leaders to become involved in the school and its
programs and will disseminate research to the business
community through seminars and educational programs for
executives.
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"The impact of
electronic commerce on all aspects of business will be
profound," Joss said. "Given our proximity to
Silicon Valley -- the heart and origin of these changes
-- the top priority for me is that we remain the leading
school in the research and teaching of electronic
commerce issues. These partnerships with corporate
leaders will provide us with the financial resources as
well as leadership in ideas to enable us to stay at the
forefront."
Joss announced Dec. 13
that the center's three founding partners are e-commerce
pioneers Charles Schwab & Co., General Atlantic
Partners LLC and eBay. Charles Schwab & Co. provides
investor services, including the world's largest online
trading operation. General Atlantic Partners LLC, with
more than $5 billion in capital under management, focuses
exclusively on global information-technology and
Internet-enabled businesses, such as Priceline.com and
Tickets.com. The online auction company eBay, founded in
1995, is the world's largest personal online trading
community, currently providing some two million new
auctions every day.
Other funders of the
center include BP Amoco p.l.c., General Motors, Jeffrey
S. Skoll, and Carl and Marilynn Thoma. The school
anticipates it will secure further support in a
subsequent round of funding.
The codirectors of the
center are Garth Saloner, the Robert A. Magowan Professor
of Strategic Management and Economics, and Haim
Mendelson, the Theodore J. Kreps Professor of Information
Systems and Management. Saloner is known for his
pioneering work on network effects, which underlie much
of the economics of electronic commerce and business.
Mendelson is known for his work on the links between
electronic business, organizational practices and market
structure. He is also coauthor of the recently released
book Survival of the Smartest (Wiley, 1999).
"Electronic commerce
will affect virtually every company and pervade almost
every area of management," Saloner said. "There
are opportunities for research in all of our existing
disciplines. These funds will enable us to engage in the
research that is so necessary for managers to fully
understand the breadth and impact of the phenomenon and
to quickly diffuse the ideas throughout the curriculum
and back out to corporations."
The center will emphasize
developing new research and courses in all phases of the
curriculum rather than establishing a separate degree in
electronic commerce. "We believe that within five
years the effects of electronic commerce and electronic
business-to-business transactions will be ingrained into
all aspects of our curriculum," Saloner said.
The business school is
among a small number with a required course on electronic
business in the MBA core. The course, "Management in
an Information Age," was developed by Mendelson and
his colleagues. The school currently has 10 other
elective courses that examine electronic business and
commerce issues from different perspectives. It is
developing a new course, "Electronic Commerce,"
offered for the first time in winter quarter, that was
developed by Saloner and Dean Emeritus Michael Spence. In
addition, the course "Evaluating E-Business
Opportunities" will be offered for the first time
next academic year.
A new executive program
focused on electronic commerce will be offered for the
first time next fall. New course development already has
required researching and writing 15 new cases that will
be revised frequently to reflect the rapid changes in the
industry.
"To stay at the
forefront of this fast-moving, information-rich area, we
will focus our research and accelerate the creation and
dissemination of knowledge," Mendelson said.
"The Internet captures data from customers, users
and website visitors in a volume and at a speed never
before experienced. The center will provide opportunities
for groundbreaking research through the acquisition of
unique data sets in this area."
The center will act as a
clearinghouse and library for faculty research and
e-commerce case studies. In addition, the center will
provide support for curriculum development and student
activities related to e-commerce. The center will be
managed by Executive Director Margot Sutherland. Staff
will include case writers, researchers and administrative
personnel.
Visit the center's website
at www.gsb.stanford.edu/CEBC. SR
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