Information Systems A Managers Guide To Harnessing Technology Version 7.0 1st Edition John Gallaugher - Solutions

Which firms use AWS? What do they gain by using a cloud provider, and what do they give up? How might Amazon or other cloud firms reduce concerns potential and existing clients might have?
Investigate the Amazon Echo online. Would you buy the product? Why or why not? Why will the Echo get "smarter" and offer more features over time?
Which requires more code-the firm's customer-facing website or warehouse automation?
List the ways in which Amazon Go's in-store technology could improve the customer experience. How might it improve the cost economics of retail? What kinds of additional costs do you think are associated with the rollout of this tech?
Why do you suppose Amazon's Fire Phone struggled in its first iteration? Do you think Amazon could ever be successful in phones? Why not, or what will it take to be successful? What, beyond phone hardware, could Amazon do to leverage smartphone platforms?
Although Amazon is investing in robotics, human beings still do most of the product picking. How does Amazon ensure that customer privacy is protected despite heavy human involvement? Do you think it needs to go to such great lengths? Why or why not?
Are network effects at work in cloud platforms? How so? What kinds of complementary products might make AWS seem more attractive than a new cloud computing effort?
How successful have Kindle e-book readers been? How about Fire tablet, Fire TV, and Echo? What barriers does the firm face in competing? What advantages does Amazon have?
What is the cash conversion cycle (CCC)? What factors enable Amazon to have a CCC that is negative? Why are offline rivals unable to match these efficiencies? What advantage does this give Amazon over rivals?
How big is this business relative to Amazon's other divisions? How big does Amazon think it can get?
How has Kindle pricing changed over time? Would you expect similar changes with Amazon's other consumer electronics products? Why or why not?
How do Amazon's prices compare with rivals' prices? What gives Amazon such advantages? What other pricing advantages does Amazon have that a conventional retailer might not be able to take advantage of?
Why did Amazon decide to get into cloud computing? This business is radically different from shipping books and other physical products. Do you think Amazon should continue to keep AWS as part of Amazon, or should it spin the firm out as a separate company? What would be the advantages to either
How does the traditional publishing value chain differ from the Kindle value chain when Amazon is an author's publisher? List the rough percentages of revenue taken by each element in the value chain.
What is dynamic pricing, and why might this be risky?
What advantages does the Echo platform offer for Amazon? Would you (or do you) use an Echo? Why or why not?
What are private-label products, and what advantages do they offer Amazon?
Log into Amazon (or pull up a page if you "remain" logged in). Compare it to a classmate's page. What similarities do you notice? What differences? Why do you think Amazon made the choice to show you the things that it did? Do you think it guessed accurately regarding your interests? Why or why not?
If you were an author, would you use Amazon as a publisher or not? What factors would influence this decision? What do you think will happen regarding trends and these factors over time?
Amazon's unique customer data have allowed the firm to enter the advertising business. Which firms does this bring Amazon into competition with? Research Amazon's role in matching advertisers to consumers. How big a player is Amazon? How do you feel about a firm using your personal data on
How is Amazon acting as a hothouse for content creation beyond books? What other categories of media products is Amazon involved in developing? Investigate these-has Amazon done well, or have these products been flops? Does your research suggest why the firm has had success or struggled in various
What is channel conflict, and how has Amazon been subject to channel conflict?
How does Amazon keep management focused on customer issues and "putting the customer first"?
Is Amazon good or bad for the book business? Explain your answer.
Describe how Amazon Marketplace offers two-sided network effects.
What is Twitch? Why did Amazon buy it? Why is it a compelling service for the firm?
Besides network effects, what additional benefits does Amazon gain by allowing other retailers to sell potentially competing products on Amazon?
Why do you suppose Amazon has begun publishing video games? Producing more original video content?
What are the factors that contribute to the value created by network effects?
What is the difference between same-side exchange benefits and cross-side exchange benefits?
How is competition in markets where network effects are present different from competition in traditional markets?
Is market entry timing important for network effects markets? Explain and offer an example to back up your point.
List several products or services subject to network effects. What factors do you believe helped each of these efforts achieve dominance?
Give examples of one-sided and two-sided markets.
What are network effects? What are the other names for this concept?
Amazon's operations are a marvel of automation and procedural efficiency, but the firm has also been subject to criticism regarding its warehouse work environment. Investigate these criticisms on your own. Do you feel they are valid? Are any of the critics also worthy of criticism? If so, how? Do
How is scale important to Amazon? What advantages does scale offer Amazon over its smaller rivals?
What is the long tail? How does the long tail change retail economics? How does it influence shoppers' choice of where to look for products? What firms, other than Amazon, are taking advantage of the long tail in their industries?
Why is staying power particularly important to many technology products and services?
What is the difference between a one-sided market and a two-sided market?
What are the reasons why it is so difficult for late-moving, incompatible rivals to compete in markets where a dominant, proprietary standard is present? What is technological leapfrogging and why is it so difficult to accomplish?
How might a firm subsidize adoption? Give an example.
Which firm do you suspect has stronger end-user network effects: Google's online search tool or Microsoft's Windows operating system? Why?
Think about the kinds of technology products that you own that are subject to network effects. What sorts of exchange do these products leverage (e.g., information, money, software, or other media)?
Does it make sense to try to prevent monopolies in markets where network effects exist?
Give an example of a partnership or alliance targeted at increasing network effects.
Network effects are often associated with technology, but tech isn't a prerequisite for the existence of network effects. Name a product, service, or phenomenon that is not related to information technology that still dominates due to network effects.
Think about the kinds of technology projects you own. What sorts of switching costs are inherent in each of these? Are these strong switching costs or weak switching costs? What would it take for you to leave one of these services and use a rival? How might a competitor try to lessen these
Identify examples of two-sided markets where both sides pay for a product or service. Identify examples where only one side pays. What factors determine who should pay? Does paying have implications for the establishment and growth of a network effect? What might a firm do to encourage early
Are network effects good or bad for innovation? Explain.
Is it ever advantageous for firms to give up control of a network and share it with others? Why or why not? Give examples to back up your point.
Which other terms are sometimes used to describe the phenomenon of switching costs?
The Apple iOS Developer Program provides developers access to the App Store, where they can distribute their free or commercial applications to millions of iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch customers. Would the iPhone market be a one- or two-sided market? Why? considered a one- or two-sided market? Why?
What is the relationship between network effects and the bargaining power of participants in a network effects "ecosystem"?
Think about the kinds of technology products that you own that are subject to network effects. What sorts of complementary benefits are available for these products? Are complementary benefits strong or weak (meaning, do people choose the product primarily based on these benefits, or for some other
Cite examples where the best technology did not dominate a network effects-driven market.
How did Sony seed the market for Blu-ray players?
Identify firms that you believe have built a strong platform. Can you think of firms that have tried to develop a platform, but have been less successful? Why do you suppose they have struggled?
What does backward compatibility mean and why is this important? What happens if a firm is not backward compatible?
What tactic did Apple use to increase the acceptability of the Mac platform to a broader population of potential users?
How has Apple kept clones at bay?
What are preannouncements? What is the danger in announcing a product too early? What is the term for negative impacts from premature product announcements?
How did PayPal subsidize adoption?
Why is viral adoption especially important to PayPal and Uber?
Name two companies that leveraged viral promotion to compete.
Name a product that is the result of the convergence of media players, cameras, and phones.
How does thredUP leverage its seller payout policy to balance sell-side supply with buy-side demand?
What tactic might an established firm employ to make it impossible, or at least difficult, for a competitor to gain access to, or become compatible with, their product or service?
How do Apple, Microsoft, and Facebook encourage the development of complementary products?
What is the "congestion effect"? Give an example.
Do network effects apply in nontech areas? Give examples.
Search online to find out which blogs are currently the most popular. Why do you suppose the leaders are so popular?
Visit the major social networks (Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest). What distinguishes one from the other? Are you a member of any of these services? Why or why not?
If you don't already have one, set up a Twitter account and "follow" several others. To get more from Twitter, consider installing the free TweetDeck or using the Twitter smartphone app. Follow a diverse group-corporations, executives, pundits, or other organizations. Do you trust that account
What makes for a "wise" crowd? When might a crowd not be so wise?
What is crowdsourcing? Give examples of organizations that are taking advantage of crowdsourcing and be prepared to describe these efforts.
The chapter provides several examples of how customers and employees can embarrass a firm. Find other examples of customer-and-employee social media incidents that reflected negatively on an organization. What happened? What was the result? How might these incidents have been prevented or better
What distinguishes social media and peer production sites from the prior generation of Internet sites? How have you seen social media sites impact businesses, large and small?
How are popular blogs discovered? How is their popularity reinforced?
How are organizations like Deloitte, Goldman Sachs, and IBM using social networks? What advantages do they gain from these systems?
Visit Twitter and record which hashtags are most active at this time. Are there other "trending topics" that aren't associated with hashtags? What do you think of the activity in these areas? Is there legitimate, productive activity happening? Have you tweeted to join a bandwagon found in a
Find a prediction market online and participate in the effort. Be prepared to share your experience with your class, including any statistics of predictive accuracy, participant incentives, business model of the effort, and your general assessment of the appeal and usefulness of the effort.
What ethical issues should firms be aware of when considering crowdsourcing? Are there other concerns firms may have when leveraging this technique?
Hunt for examples of social media excellence. List an example of an organization that got it right. What happened, and what benefits were received?
Make a list of some noteworthy dominant as well as up-and- coming social media sites and apps. Would you invest in them? Why or why not? Are there cautionary tales of efforts that may not have lived up to their initial hype or promise? Why do you suppose they failed?
Are blog comment fields useful? If so, to whom or how? What is the risk associated with allowing users to comment on blog posts? How should a blogger deal with comments that they don't agree with?
If anyone can edit a wiki, why aren't more sites crippled by vandalism or by inaccurate or inappropriate content? Are there technical reasons not to be concerned? Are there "social" reasons that can alleviate concern?
What factors might cause an individual, employee, or firm to be cautious in their use of social networks?
Search Twitter for topics, firms, brand names, and issues of interest to you. What do you think of the quality of the information you've uncovered on Twitter? Who might find this to be useful? You can target your search with greater detail using Twitter's "Advanced Search."
Brainstorm on the kinds of organizations that might deploy prediction markets. Why might you think the efforts you suggest and advocate would be successful?
Assume the role of a manager or consultant. Recommend a firm and a task that would be appropriate for crowdsourcing. Justify your choice, citing factors such as cost, breadth of innovation, time, constrained resources, or other factors. How would you recommend the firm conduct this crowdsourcing
Social media critics often lament a lack of ROI (return on investment) for these sorts of efforts. What kind of return should firms expect from social media? Does the return justify the investment? Why or why not?
In what ways do social, peer-produced efforts challenge the assumptions that Michael Porter made regarding strategy and the Internet?
Why would a corporation, an executive, a news outlet, or a college student want to blog? What are the benefits? What are the concerns?
Give examples of corporate wiki use, as well as examples where firms used wikis to engage their customers or partners. What is the potential payoff of these efforts? Are there risks associated with these efforts?
How do you feel about the feed feature common in social networks like Facebook? What risks does a firm expose itself to if it leverages feeds? How might a firm mitigate these kinds of risks?
Search for examples of branded emoji campaigns (note that emojis associated with these campaigns may vanish after a period of time). What do you think of these campaigns? Have you or friends participated in these campaigns? If so, what was their motivation? Do you think they are successful, and are
In what ways are legal issues of concern to prediction market operators?
Visit Kaggle.com and examine the current contests that are on offer. Note that the site also has learning resources so that anyone can gain analytics skills. Do these resources seem useful to you? What can firms gain from using a site like Kaggle?
What kinds of firms should aggressively pursue social media? Which ones might consider avoiding these practices? If a firm is concerned about online conversations, what might this also tell management?

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Information Systems A Managers Guide To Harnessing Technology Version 7.0 1st Edition John Gallaugher - Solutions

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