RSM Erasmus University

Department of Decision & Information Sciences

Web: http://www.rsm.nl/mscba/bim

E x p l o r e  E x p a n d  A p p l y

Information Strategy

Fall 2020

++ Information economy

++ E-commerce

++ Social Media

++ Digital transformation

++ Business networks

++ Online consumer behavior

++ Business models

++ Information goods

++ Internet marketing

++ Mobile and search

++ Information strategy

++ Electronic markets and auctions

General Course Information

Date: September 7, 10, 17, 21, 24, 28, October 1, 5, 8, 2020

Time and Location: See Timetable

Instructor Information

Instructor: Prof. Ting Li

Course Email: inst@rsm.nl
Telephone: +31-(0)10-408-1961

Course Overview

Information technology (IT) is revolutionizing the way people and firms transact business. This
process is only being accelerated with the development of e-commerce, social media, mobile
technologies, artificial intelligence, and the availability of big data, which has enormous impact
on our activities and the way organizations work and compete. This rapid movement towards the
new information economy is being led by both established firms such as Google, Amazon, and
new entrepreneurial firms such as Uber and Airbnb. As a master student of Business Information
Management, you need a thorough understanding of the latest technology trends, how firms
embrace disruptive technologies to create value, and what new business models emerge that
allows firms to compete and lead in the information economy. This course will devote to the
study of how firms compete in the digital age and its implications on economics, marketing, and
operational issues. This course will focus on problems unique to information-intensive
businesses that you will soon encounter as a consultant, analyst, technologist, or entrepreneur.
This course is a combination of lectures, guest lectures, and a high degree of case analysis and
discussions. The content will be delivered online in both synchronous sessions and asynchronous
sessions. The course will cover a number of subjects: digital disruption, digital business models,
information goods, digital platforms, value of information, online market, and online auctions.
The objectives of the course is to help you:
 Analyze how the presence of IT enables new business models and how digital disruption
changes industry structure, and alter marketing, sales, operations, and business practices.
 Explain how information products differ from physical products; and apply theories of
pricing, versioning and bundling of digital goods to real-world examples.
 Examine the key features of digital platforms; and explain the common challenges and
strategies in managing them.
 Articulate the challenges and opportunities in managing data, information, and AI strategies.
 Distinguish among different forms of online markets and online auctions; identify
information-based problems in them and create solutions to solve them.

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Course Schedule

The course consists of 9 sessions. Each session covers a specific theme and consists of a list of
topics. Before each online class, you are required to watch the recorded videos and read the
assigned articles so that we can have an engaged discussion during our live sessions.

SESSION THEME TOPICS

Session 1  Introduction
Digital Disruption
Sep 7 (10:00-12:45)  Digital disruption
Session 2  Digital business models
Digital Business Models
Sep 10 (10:00-12:45)  Disruptive innovation
Session 3  Economics of information goods
Information Goods
Sep 17 (10:00-12:45)  Pricing of information goods
Session 4  Versioning
Versioning and Bundling
Sep 21 (10:00-12:45)  Bundling
Session 5  Guest lecture
Guest Lecture
Sep 24 (10:00-12:45)  Clarification
Session 6  Two-sided platforms
Digital Platforms
Sep 28 (10:00-12:45)  Network effects and platform pricing
Session 7  Value of information
Value of Information
Oct 1 (10:00-12:45)  AI strategy
Session 8  Electronic markets
Online Markets
Oct 5 (10:00-12:45)  Information asymmetry
Session 9  Different forms of auctions
Online Auctions
Oct 8 (10:00-12:45)  Programmatic advertising
Oct 23
Final Exam  Individual exam (online)
(13:30-16:30)

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Course Grading

GRADED DELIVERABLE ASSESSMENT DEADLINE TOTAL

Homework Write-up
Blog Contribution
Exam
Emerging Technology
Digital Strategy
Total
Individual assessment Before respective session at 23:59 15%
Individual assessment Before October 10, 2020 at 23:59 10%
Individual assessment October 23, 2020, 13:30-16:30 35%
Team assessment Before September 26, 2020 at 23:59 15%
Team assessment Before October 17, 2020 at 23:59 25%
100%

Class Attendance
This course will be delivered fully online and has both synchronous sessions and asynchronous
sessions. The students are required to watch the recorded videos and read the assigned readings
prior to the live sessions. The live sessions will be mainly used for interactions and case
discussions so that we can exchange perspectives and you can learn from each other. Attendance
of all sessions is important and highly recommended, but not mandatory. Whether or not you
attend an online session is your own responsibility. Previous years' results show that there is a
strong correlation between class attendance and participation on the one hand, and students’ final
grades on the other. We therefore encourage you to use all modes of learning offered in this
course. The online sessions will be recorded and posted online for later viewing. Lecture slides
will be posted on Canvas after each session (not before), so that adjustments are made depending
on the actual content coverage.

Passing Grade and Grade Validity

The passing grade for the exam, the assignments, and the entire course is 5.5 (out of 10). Failing
for the exam (< 5.5) or failing for any of the assignments (< 5.5) automatically means one fails
the course. With respect to the grade validity, we follow the standard RSM policy that
assignments are only valid in the current academic year, i.e. failing the course means doing the
entire course again next year, including all assignments.

About Team Assignment

 How to form a team? There are two team assignments. For team assignments, you will work
together in a group of 4-5 students. You are free to form your own teams. You are asked to
form teams before or during the first day of the class. If you have any problems finding
teammates, please contact us at inst@rsm.nl. If for some reason you cannot attend the first
lecture, please make sure you form teams no later than the first week. Later than that, we will
no longer be able to help you.

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 Fair participation. You are expected to contribute equally to team assignments. Any
problems regarding the equality of contributions from team members should be raised by
writing to inst@rsm.nl. On the first page of the team assignments, please write down each
team member’s name and contribution.

About Assignment Report

What’s the required format of the assignment report? For assignments that require a report as a
deliverable, you are asked to write the report in the following format: 1" margins, 1.5 spaced, 12-
point fonts in Times New Roman, and Harvard reference style. It is important to include citations
when you cite other sources.
How is the report graded? We grade the report based on quality. You will find some guidelines
below for what content needs to be included in the report. It is entirely up to you to decide what
exactly goes to the report and how you want to organize the document, as long as you cover the
required content.
 You’re encouraged to apply theories, concepts, models, and frameworks covered in class as
needed;
 Please keep a good balance between fact and analysis. In-depth analysis is what we’re
looking for in a report;
 Write a clear, concise, and well-structured text; provide in-depth analysis and sound
arguments; provide references and electronic resources that are used;
 Many of you may split the task, which is fine. But please make sure to check for
inconsistency before submission. Make sure you have consistent writing throughout the
report. Spell check your document. Spelling errors may cause a bad impression of the quality
of your report.

Detailed Guidelines for Each Grading Components

Homework Write-up (15%) - Individual

A large part of this course is based on self-study using pre-recorded videos, assigned articles, and
relevant web readings. These activities need to be done before you join our online live sessions.
To help you with the self-study, I developed a set of questions that are important for each session.
For a selected number of sessions, you are asked to prepare a short write-up on one or more of
the “Preparation Questions” before each class session. Distinct questions are indicated by
numbers. You need to choose from seven content sessions (2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9) and complete five
write-ups on time (by midnight the night before class). Failure to submit at least four sessions on
time will be sufficient grounds for receiving a failing grade for this assignment. All write-ups
must be completed individually. Please limit your response to max. 300 words.

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We will use peer evaluation to provide feedbacks on your homework write-ups. Each homework
write-up will be evaluated by three other students. They will provide comments for improvement
(e.g., two strong points and two points for improvement). Each homework write-up will be
graded on a pass and fail. You do not need to address all preparation questions for a given
session. Evaluation will be based on quality, not quantity. A few students will be asked to
discuss their responses during class. Homework write-ups must be submitted to Canvas by
midnight on the evening prior to the respective class in order to receive credit.

Blog Contribution (10%) - Individual

Over the last few years, we have developed a course blog as a way to encourage students to
extend classroom discussions to outside of the classroom, give everybody an opportunity to
“talk”, and foster interactions among students. The course blog website was created in 2012,
students were given permissions to be authors of the site and to write Information Strategy
related blog posts during the course. This also allows us to create a portfolio of work over time.

 The course blog can be found at: http://digitalsocialstrategy.org/informationstrategy/.

 Why a course blog? The use of this course blog is to foster critical thinking, encourage self-
editing and re-writing, keep yourself updated with the IT/IS news, and allow you interact
with and learn from your peer students.
 What do you need to do? For the individual assignment, each student is expected to
contribute at least two good quality posts and two thoughtful comments that are evenly
distributed throughout the course. The required length of the blog post is around 300 words
(excluding references). You are welcome to write more and longer posts if you’re interested.
The blog posts need to be different from your homework write-ups.
 What to write? To give you some ideas about what to write in a blog post, you can: discuss
real-world examples and give illustrations of up-to-date applications of our discussed topics;
discuss and share something NEW with your own opinion so that others can better comment
on; and share newspaper and magazine articles relevant to the topic with your own insights.
You are encouraged to write the blog posts as informative as possible and to use multimedia
(image, video) as needed.
 How are you graded? This individual assignment will be graded as a pass or fail. Once you
meet the required number of posts and of good quality, you will be given a pass on this
assignment. We will contact you only when your post does not meet the requirements. If you
write the required number of posts and don’t hear from us, you will get a pass.
 When to post the blogs and comments? This is entirely up to you, but we suggest you to post
and comment throughout the course. Please do not post and comment everything last minute
on the very last day, if that happens, you will get a fail. I’d recommend the following timing:

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 1st blog within two weeks after the course starts, 1st comment within the next week, 2nd blog
within the next two weeks, and then 2nd comment.
 Is there any bonus point for people who write more and better posts/comments? Yes, we will
give two bonus points to (1) the top 5 authors who write the highest number of blogs; (2) the
top 5 authors of the most commented posts; and (3) the top 5 commenters who provided the
most comments. The bonus point is added to the individual assignment grade. That is, if you
get a pass for this assignment, you get 10 points; and the ones who get bonus will get 12
points. Only one type of bonus applies per person.
 How to sign up? To sign up, please use your first name and surname, and use the student
(ERNA) email as the signup email. Other students will see your name as the screen name,
and we will use your email to verify it is you.
 You’re NOT allowed to use algorithmic programs to generate views and comments.
Otherwise, you will fail this assignment.

Exam (35%) – Individual

The exam is worth 35% of the course grade. The passing grade for the exam is 5.5 (out of 10).
The exam will be a digital exam. More information about the digital exam will be posted on
Canvas.

Emerging Technology (15%) - Team

Focusing on technologies and industry, this assignment is about critically assess how emerging
technologies could affect an industry. Each team is asked to investigate how a particular industry
is or will be disrupted by two new technologies and/or innovative business models.
 You can choose any industry that you’re interested in: newspaper, music, book, healthcare,
advertising, video, travel, insurance, retail, banking, mobile payment, car rental, education,
etc. For example, you can choose the car rental industry and discuss how Uber and
autonomous driving change the way people travel and disrupt the industry structure.
 The report should cover at least the following: (1) describe the industry of your choice; (2)
describe the chosen technology innovations or business models; (3) critically assess how the
industry has been disrupted or will be affected by the two technologies and/or business
models; (4) present your own prediction of how this industry will be revolutionized in the
future.
 You need to apply concepts, theory, and frameworks that are discussed in class or in your
reading. For example, Porter’s five forces is a good framework for such an analysis. For a
refresher, you might find Porter’s 2001 HBR article on “Strategy and the Internet” useful.
 This assignment will be peer evaluated. The peer evaluation guidelines will be posted on
Canvas.

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 Each student is asked to deliver a report of max. 15 pages including everything. The deadline
for submission is September 26, 2020 at 23:59 on Canvas.

Digital Strategy (25%) – Team

This is a team assignment. In this assignment, each team is required to select a real-world
company/organization and create a digital business model for this company. You need to cover
at least the following: (1) describe the company and its industry; (2) analyze the company’s
current business model and discuss its digital threat and opportunities; (3) develop a new digital
business model for this company; highlight one or two specific elements that the company
should focus on (product, information, platform, customer); and articulate the challenges the
company might face. It’s better to carry out an in-depth analysis of one particular element than to
cover many areas superficially; (5) discuss how it will create competitive advantage for this
company over the next few years; and (6) provide a set of recommendations for the company in
order to implement your proposal.
 You should make a compelling case for your proposed plan. To do so, it’s important that you
motivate as much as possible your analysis and recommendations with factual information.
You should also explore potential issues with your proposal (e.g., what are going to be likely
barriers to implementation?). You should assume that you are writing this to the CEO of the
company and the executives.
 It is entirely up to you to decide what exactly goes to the report as long as you cover the
above-mentioned points. For example, you can have interviews with managers and co-
workers; you can also simply conduct desk research; you can illustrate the proposed ideas
using graphs; you can describe proposed business plans and your recommendations.
 Each team is asked to deliver a report of max. 30 pages including everything. The deadline
for submission is October 17, 2020 at 23:59 on Canvas.

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Required Readings

Some of the topics covered will correspond to book chapters of different textbooks. However, a
big part of the course will be based on lecture slides, readings made available on Canvas through
university’s library e-journal, and a list of optional readings. Thus, you are not required to
purchase any books. The required readings are listed here.

Session 1: Digital Disruption

1. Iansiti, M., and Lakhani, K. R. 2014. Digital ubiquity: how connections, sensors, and data are
revolutionizing business. Harvard Business Review. 92 (11) 90–99.
2. Brynjolfsson, E., and Mcafee, A. 2017. The business of artificial intelligence: what it can and
cannot do for your organization. Harvard Business Review
3. Iansiti, M., & Lakhani, K. R. 2018. Managing our hub economy. Harvard Business Review,
96(1), 17-17.

Session 2: Digital Business Models

4. Weill, P., & Woerner, S. L. 2013. Optimizing your digital business model. MIT Sloan
Management Review, 54(3), 71.
5. Weill, P., & Woerner, S. L. 2015. Thriving in an increasingly digital ecosystem. MIT Sloan
Management Review, 56(4), 27.
6. Christensen, C. M., Raynor, M. E., & McDonald, R. 2015. What is disruptive innovation?
Harvard Business Review, 93(12), 44-53.

Session 3: Information Goods

7. Shapiro, C., and Varian, H. Pricing Information. In Information Rules: A Strategic Guide to
the Network Economy. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Business School Press.
8. Whinston, A.; Stahl, D. O.; Choi, S.-Y. 1997. Chapter 2: Characteristics of digital products
and processes. The Economics of Electronic Commerce. Indianapolis, IN: Macmillan
Technical Publishing.
9. Sundarajan, A. 2003. Economics of IT – Pricing. http://oz.stern.nyu.edu/io/pricing.html
10. Rao, A.R., Bergen, M.E., and Davis, S. 2000. How to fight a price war.
https://hbr.org/2000/03/how-to-fight-a-price-war

Session 4: Versioning and Bundling

11. Shapiro, Carl, and Hal R. Varian. 1998. Versioning: the smart way to. Harvard Business
Review 107(6).
12. Smith, M. and Telang, R. 2019. Netflix and the economics of bundling. Harvard Business
Review.

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13. Fox, J. 2014. How to succeed in business by bundling and unbundling. Harvard Business
Review.

Session 6: Digital Platforms

14. Eisenmann, T., Parker, G., and Van Alstyne, M.W. 2006. Strategies for two-sided markets.
Harvard Business Review 84(10) 92-101.
15. Van Alstyne, M. W., Parker, G. G., & Choudary, S. P. 2016. Pipelines, platforms, and the
new rules of strategy. Harvard Business Review, 94(4), 54-62.
16. Li, Z., & Agarwal, A. 2016. Platform integration and demand spillovers in complementary
markets: evidence from Facebook’s integration of Instagram. Management Science, 63(10),
3438-3458.

Session 7: Value of Information

17. Wixom, B.H. and Ross, J.W., 2017. How to monetize your data. MIT Sloan Management
Review, 58(3).
18. Vidgen, R., Shaw, S. and Grant, D.B., 2017. Management challenges in creating value from
business analytics. European Journal of Operational Research, 261(2), pp.626-639.
19. Kohavi, R., & Thomke, S. 2017. The surprising power of online experiments. Harvard
Business Review, 95(5).
20. Agrawal, A., Gans, J. and Goldfarb, A., 2018. A simple tool to start making decisions with
the help of AI. Harvard Business Review Online.

Session 8: Online Markets

21. Kauffman, Robert J., and Hamid Mohtadi. 2004. Proprietary and open systems adoption in e-
procurement: a risk-augmented transaction cost perspective. Journal of Management
Information Systems, 21(1), pp.137-166.
22. Dimoka, A., Hong, Y., and Pavlou, P.A. 2012. On product uncertainty in online markets:
Theory and evidence. MIS Quarterly 36(2) 395-426.
23. He, Jia, et al. 2019. Superstition, conspicuous spending, and housing market: Evidence from
Singapore. Management Science.

Session 9: Online Auctions

24. Lu, Y., Gupta, A., Ketter, W. and Heck, E.V., 2016. Exploring bidder heterogeneity in
multichannel sequential B2B auctions. MIS Quarterly, 40(3), pp.645-662.
25. Edelman, B., Ostrovsky, M. and Schwarz, M., 2007. Internet advertising and the generalized
second-price auction: Selling billions of dollars worth of keywords. American Economic
Review, 97(1), pp.242-259.
26. Lambrecht, A. and Tucker, C., 2019. Algorithmic bias? An empirical study of apparent
gender-based discrimination in the display of STEM career ads. Management Science.

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Course Policy

It is crucial to appreciate that students in the class are co-producers of class discussions and
collective learning. Because this course relies heavily on class participation for its success, class
norms and expectations regarding class behavior are very important:

Participation and discussion are critical elements of the course. Discussion in online live
sessions presents a unique opportunity for you to develop and enhance your confidence and skills
in articulating a personal position, sharing your knowledge, and reacting to new ideas. Since this
course has substantial discussion-based content, active participation is important to the learning
of the class. We will organize many break-out sessions during our online class to give each one
of you the opportunity to discuss a certain topic. We will take time to discuss questions,
comments and reactions from you. You can contribute to the class in the following ways: raising
questions that make your classmates think, providing imaginative yet relevant analysis of a
situation, contributing background or a perspective on a classroom topic that enhances its
discussion, and simply answering questions raised in class. You are encouraged to listen
carefully to one another and build on prior comments. All of you have personal experience with
technology, e-commerce, social media that can enhance our understanding of the subject, and
you’re encouraged to share.

Effectively use of online material to facilitate learning. You can access our course material on
Canvas (using your ERNA username and password), and choosing the course titled Information
Strategy. You are responsible for checking the course website for announcements, readings,
videos, assignments and updates. In the event that you feel the need to email directly with a
question, please use the course email inst@rsm.nl and make sure you use IS2020 – (subject) as
the subject line, so that it can be recognized that it is from one of you and can be handled timely.

On a final note, in today’s very special circumstance, for the first time this course is offered
online for this large audience. I will try my best to provide you with a great online learning
environment on the subject. I will try to share as many topics as possible with you to expose you
to the area of information strategy. I believe learning is a reciprocal process and I am actively
looking for your feedback on this course. Please feel free to share your comments. Let’s together
make it a successful learning experience for you.

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