MGSC-590 Chapter 1
2) Which of the following is an example of e-business? A) Amazon's inventory control system B) the Amazon.com website C) an Amazon mobile app D) Amazon's Pinterest page
A
8) Which of the following features of e-commerce technology enables merchants to market and sell "complex" goods and services to consumers via marketing messages that can integrate video, audio, and text? A) richness B) ubiquity C) information density D) personalization
A
Above all, e-commerce is a ________ phenomenon. A) technology driven B) finance-driven C) sociological D) government-driven
Answer: A Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.6: Describe the major themes underlying the study of e-commerce.
37) All of the following are examples of social networks except: A) Instagram. B) Twitter. C) Y Combinator. D) Pinterest.
Answer: C Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.4: Describe the major types of e-commerce.
31) Which of the following is an example of social e-commerce? A) Amazon B) eBay C) Wikipedia D) Facebook
Answer: D Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.4: Describe the major types of e-commerce. 9 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
The emergence of mobile, social, and local e-commerce occurred during the Reinvention period of e-commerce.
Answer: TRUE Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
What are the major stages in the development of corporate computing, and how does the Internet and Web fit into this development trajectory?
Answer: The major stages of computer technology are the following Mainframe Computers (1950-1975); Minicomputers (1970-1980); Personal Computers (1980-present): Local Area Networks and Client/Server Computing (1980-present); Enterprise-wide Computing (1990- present); and the Internet and Web/Mobile Platform/Cloud Computing era (1995-present). The Internet, while representing a sharp break from prior corporate computing and communications technologies, is nevertheless just the latest development in the evolution of corporate computing and part of the continuing chain of computer-based innovations in business. Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge; Written and oral communication Learning Objective: 1.6: Describe the major themes underlying the study of e-commerce.
10) Which of the following is the best definition of transaction cost? A) the expense of changing national or regional prices B) the cost of participating in a market C) the cost of finding suitable products in the market D) the cost merchants pay to bring their goods to market
B
12) Which of the following features of e-commerce technology is related to the concept of network externalities? A) richness B) interactivity C) universal standards D) information density
C
13) Which of the following statements is true about the traditional tradeoff between the richness and reach of a marketing message prior to the development of the Web? A) Marketing messages had little richness. B) The smaller the audience reached, the less rich the message. C) The larger the audience reached, the less rich the message. D) Richness was unrelated to reach.
C
7) Which of the following is not a unique feature of e-commerce technology? A) interactivity B) social technology C) information asymmetry D) richness
C
9) Which of the following features of e-commerce technology allows users to participate in the creation of online content? A) ubiquity B) global reach C) information density D) social technology
D
5) E-commerce and e-business systems blur together at the business firm boundary, where internal business systems link up with suppliers or customers.
TRUE
All of the following are issues facing Pinterest except: A) copyright infringement. B) inability to retain users. C) spam. D) scams.
Answer: B Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.6: Describe the major themes underlying the study of e-commerce. 15 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
Explain why a firm's online inventory control system is an example of e-business rather than e-commerce. What is the key factor in determining if a transaction is "commerce"?
[ Answer: E-business refers primarily to digitally enabled transactions within a firm, involving information systems, such an online inventory control system, under the control of the firm. E- business does not involve commercial transactions in which an exchange of value across organizational boundaries takes place. E-commerce, on the other hand, is a revenue-generating operation. The key factor in determining if a transaction is commerce, therefore, is "exchange of value." To be e-commerce, a transaction must include the direct production of revenue. Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Analytical thinking; Written and oral communication Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
1) E-commerce can be defined as: A) the use of the Internet, the Web, and mobile apps to transact business. B) the use of any Internet technologies in a firm's daily activities. C) the digital enablement of transactions and processes within an organization. D) any digitally enabled transactions among individuals and organizations.
A
7) Which of the following is not a unique feature of e-commerce technology? A) interactivity B) social technology C) information asymmetry D) richness
Answer: C Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
30) Which type of e-commerce is distinguished by the type of technology used in the transaction rather than by the nature of the market relationship? A) consumer-to-consumer (C2C) B) social e-commerce C) mobile e-commerce D) business-to-business (B2B)
Answer: C Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.4: Describe the major types of e-commerce.
All of the following were visions of e-commerce expressed during the early years of e- commerce except: A) a nearly perfect information marketspace. B) friction-free commerce. C) disintermediation. D) fast follower advantage.
Answer: D Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today. 16 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
Describe the visions and forces during the early days of e-commerce in terms of what the various interest groups hoped for: the computer science and information technology people; the economists; and the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and marketers. Explain whether what each group envisioned came to fruition and why or why not.
Answer: The computer scientists and information technologists' vision included universal communications and a computing environment that everyone could access with inexpensive computers. Their interest was in creating a vast worldwide information collection from libraries, universities, governments, and scientific institutions that was ungoverned by any nation and free to all. They believed that the Internet, and by extension, the e-commerce that operated within the infrastructure, should be self-governed and self-regulated. The economists envisioned a near-perfect competitive market where price, cost, and quality information are equally distributed. The marketspace would include a nearly infinite number of suppliers with equal access to hundreds of millions of customers, but where those consumers in turn would have access to all relevant market information—a hypercompetitive market. Market middlemen would disappear, resulting in lowered costs to consumers. This intensely competitive, disintermediated environment with lowered transaction costs would eliminate product brands as well as the possibility of monopoly profits based on brands, geography, or special access factors. Unfair competitive advantages and the ability to reap returns on capital that far extended a fair market rate of return would be eliminated. Their vision was called friction-free commerce. The entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and marketers in turn saw e-commerce as an opportunity to earn great returns on invested capital. They saw the e-commerce marketspace and technologies as a powerful method of increasing their ability to even more precisely segment the market into groups with different price sensitivities. They believed that huge profits could be garnered by firms that quickly achieved high market visibility and that these successful first movers would become the new intermediaries of e-commerce, displacing the traditional retail merchants and content suppliers. The computer scientists' vision of an ungoverned Internet has not come to fruition as governments have increasingly sought to regulate and control the technology to ensure that positive social benefits result. The economists' vision has also for the most part not materialized for a variety of reasons. Consumers have proven to be less price sensitive than expected and the importance of brand names to consumers' perceptions of quality and service has been extended rather than decreased or eliminated. Entrepreneurs have discovered new methods for differentiating products and services. New information asymmetries are continually being introduced by marketers. Disintermediation has also not occurred as new middlemen emerged. The visions of the entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, and marketers have also largely not come to fruition as the first movers from the early years of e-commerce only rarely succeeded. The fast follower large traditional firms with the resources needed to develop mature markets are displacing most of the venture capitalist backed entrepreneurs. Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking; Written and oral communication Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today. 22 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
Which of the following is not true regarding e-commerce today? A) Economists' visions of a friction-free market have not been realized. B) Consumers are less price-sensitive than expected. C) There remains considerable persistent price dispersion. D) The market middlemen disappeared.
Answer: D Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
24) Price transparency refers to the ease with which consumers can find out what merchants pay for products.
Answer: FALSE Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
38) B2B e-commerce is the largest type of e-commerce.
Answer: TRUE Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.4: Describe the major types of e-commerce.
The Reinvention period of e-commerce is as much a sociological phenomenon as it is a technological or business phenomenon.
Answer: TRUE Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today. 20 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
11) The world's online population was estimated to be around ________ in 2017. A) 350 million B) 3.5 billion C) 35 billion D) 350 billion
B
3) Which of the following can be considered synonymous with the term e-commerce? A) e-business B) digital commerce C) the Internet D) the Web
B
The early years of e-commerce were driven by all of the following factors except: A) an emphasis on exploiting traditional distribution channels. B) a huge infusion of venture capital funds. C) an emphasis on quickly achieving very high market visibility. D) visions of profiting from new technology.
Answer: A Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Which of the following best describes the early years of e-commerce? A) They were a technological success but a mixed business success. B) They were a technological success but a business failure. C) They were a technological failure but a business success. D) They were a mixed technological and business success.
Answer: A Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today. 17 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
40) Which of the following statements about e-commerce, in the United States in 2017, is not true? A) Social e-commerce generates more revenue than mobile e-commerce. B) Desktop advertising still accounts for almost 70% of all digital advertising spending. C) On-demand service firms are fueling the growth of local e-commerce. D) Growth rates for retail e-commerce are higher in Europe than in the United States.
Answer: A Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
19) Which of the following refers to the complexity and content of a message? A) richness B) reach C) information density D) interactivity
Answer: A Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
34) Which of the following is an example of an on-demand service company? A) YouTube B) Airbnb C) Tumblr D) Facebook
Answer: B Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.4: Describe the major types of e-commerce.
In which year can e-commerce be said to have begun? A) 1983 B) 1985 C) 1995 D) 2001
Answer: C Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
36) Which of the following is an example of C2C e-commerce? A) Amazon B) Groupon C) Craigslist D) Go2Paper
Answer: C Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.4: Describe the major types of e-commerce.
Which of the following is not a major technology trend in e-commerce in 2017-2018? A) Mobile messaging services become popular with smartphone users. B) Firms are turning to business analytics to make sense out of big data. C) The mobile computing and communications platform creates an alternative platform for online transactions, marketing, advertising, and media viewing. D) Growth of the Internet of Things slows down.
Answer: D Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
It is estimated that by 2021, the size of the B2B market will reach: A) $760 million. B) $7.6 billion. C) $760 billion. D) $7.6 trillion.
Answer: D Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.4: Describe the major types of e-commerce.
Retail e-commerce in the United States is not expected to continue growing at double-digit growth rates in 2017-2018.
Answer: FALSE Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
Price dispersion has been eliminated in e-commerce
Answer: FALSE Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
The Internet has shown similar growth patterns as other electronic technologies of the past.
Answer: FALSE Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
The term e-commerce refers to the digital enabling of business processes both inside and outside the firm.
Answer: FALSE Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
23) Universal standards make price discovery more costly, slower, and less accurate.
Answer: FALSE Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
What is a first mover? Why was being a first mover considered to be important during the early years of e-commerce?
Answer: First movers are firms who are first to market in a particular area, and who move quickly to gather market share. First movers hope to establish a large customer base quickly, build brand name recognition early, and inhibit competitors by building in switching costs for their customers through proprietary interface designs and features. The thinking was that once customers became accustomed to using a company's unique web interface and feature set, they could not easily be switched to competitors. In the best case, the entrepreneurial firm would invent proprietary technologies and techniques that almost everyone adopted, creating a network effect, which occurs where all participants receive value from the fact that everyone else uses the same tool or product. Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Analytical thinking; Written and oral communication Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today. 21 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
22) The fact that e-commerce is conducted based on universal standards decreases search costs for consumers.
Answer: TRUE Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
E-commerce and e-business systems blur together at the business firm boundary, where internal business systems link up with suppliers or customers.
Answer: TRUE Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
26) E-commerce technologies provide a unique, many-to-many model of mass communication.
Answer: TRUE Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance. 6 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
21) Ubiquity lowers the cognitive energy required to transact in a marketspace.
Answer: TRUE Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
The Internet is a worldwide system of computer networks.
Answer: TRUE Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
25) Personalization involves targeting marketing messages to specific individuals by adjusting the message based upon a consumer's preferences or past purchasing behavior.
Answer: TRUE Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
28) Identify the eight unique features of e-commerce technology and explain how these features set e-commerce apart from more traditional ways of conducting commercial transactions.
Answer: The eight unique features of e-commerce technology are ubiquity, global reach, universal standards, richness, interactivity, information density, personalization/customization, and social technology. The fact that e-commerce is available nearly everywhere, at any time, (ubiquity) extends the marketplace beyond traditional boundaries and removes it from a temporal and geographic location. A marketspace is created in which shopping can take place anywhere, enhancing consumer convenience and reducing shopping costs, whereas in traditional commerce the marketplace is a physical place you must visit in order to transact. The global reach of e-commerce means that commerce is enabled across national and cultural boundaries as never before, with potentially billions of consumers and millions of businesses worldwide included in the marketspace. Traditional commerce, by contrast, is local or regional involving local merchants or national merchants with local outlets. Universal standards (one set of technical media standards) also allow for the seamless enablement of global commerce. In contrast, most traditional commerce technologies differ from one nation to the next. In traditional markets, national sales forces and small retail stores can provide a complex and content-rich message. However, there is generally a trade-off between the richness of the message and the number of consumers who can be reached with the marketing message. In e-commerce the trade-off is no longer necessary. An information rich environment is extended globally. Unlike any other commercial technology of the twentieth century, except perhaps the telephone, e-commerce technologies are interactive, allowing for two-way communication between the seller and the consumer. E-commerce technologies reduce information collection, storage, processing, and communication costs, thereby greatly increasing the prevalence, accuracy, and timeliness of information. This information density (information that is more plentiful, cheaper, and of higher quality) sets e- commerce apart from all other traditional methods of conducting transactions. E-commerce technologies also permit the personalization and customization of marketing messages on a level that was impossible with previous commerce technologies. Marketing messages can be targeted to specific individuals based on their interests and past purchasing behavior, and the product or service can be altered to suit a customer's preferences and prior behavior. Social technology allows users to easily generate and share content and permits a many-to-many model of mass communications that is different from previous technologies. This supports the creation of new business models and products that support social network services. Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance. 8 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
39) List and briefly explain the main types of e-commerce.
Answer: The main types of e-commerce are business-to-consumer (B2C), in which online businesses attempt to reach individual consumers; business-to-business (B2B), in which businesses focus on selling to other businesses; consumer-to-consumer (C2C), which provides a market in which consumers can sell goods to each other; mobile e-commerce (m-commerce), which refers to the use of wireless digital devices to enable online transactions; social e- commerce, which is commerce enabled by social networks and online social relationships; and local e-commerce, which is e-commerce that is focused on engaging the customer based on his or her geographical location. Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge; Written and oral communication Learning Objective: 1.4: Describe the major types of e-commerce. 11 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
27) Why study e-commerce?
Answer: The reason for the interest specifically in e-commerce is that e-commerce technology is different and more powerful than any of the other technologies we have seen in the past century. E-commerce technologies—and the digital markets that result—have brought about some fundamental, unprecedented shifts in commerce. While other technologies transformed economic life in the twentieth century, the evolving Internet and other information technologies are shaping the twenty-first century. Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge; Written and oral communication Learning Objective: 1.1: Understand why it is important to study e-commerce. 7 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
4) The term e-commerce refers to the digital enabling of business processes both inside and outside the firm.
FALSE
Which of the following statements about the Web is not true? A) The Web is the technology upon which the Internet is based. B) The Web was the original "killer app." C) The Web provides access to pages written in Hypertext Markup Language. D) The Web is both a communications infrastructure and an information storage system.
Answer: A Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
32) Business-to-consumer (B2C) e-commerce in the United States: A) has grown at double-digit rates between 2010 and 2017. B) has less revenue than C2C e-commerce. C) now constitutes over 50% of the overall U.S. retail market. D) is growing more slowly as it confronts its own fundamental limitations.
Answer: A Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.4: Describe the major types of e-commerce.
E-commerce can be defined as: A) the use of the Internet, the Web, and mobile apps to transact business. B) the use of any Internet technologies in a firm's daily activities. C) the digital enablement of transactions and processes within an organization. D) any digitally enabled transactions among individuals and organizations.
Answer: A Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
Which of the following is an example of e-business? A) Amazon's inventory control system B) the Amazon.com website C) an Amazon mobile app D) Amazon's Pinterest page
Answer: A Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
8) Which of the following features of e-commerce technology enables merchants to market and sell "complex" goods and services to consumers via marketing messages that can integrate video, audio, and text? A) richness B) ubiquity C) information density D) personalization
Answer: A Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance. 2 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
16) Which of the following refers to any disparity in relevant market information among parties in a transaction? A) information asymmetry B) unfair competitive advantage C) imperfect competition D) dynamic pricing
Answer: A Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance. 4 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
All of the following can be considered a precursor to e-commerce except: A) the development of the smartphone. B) Baxter Healthcare's PC-based remote order entry system. C) the French Minitel. D) the development of Electronic Data Interchange standards.
Answer: A Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Unfair competitive advantages occur when: A) one competitor has an advantage others cannot purchase. B) market middlemen are displaced. C) information is equally distributed and transaction costs are low. D) firms are able to gather monopoly profits.
Answer: A Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Which of the following statements is not true? A) No one academic perspective dominates research about e-commerce. B) Economists take a purely technical approach to e-commerce. C) There are two primary approaches to e-commerce: behavioral and technical. D) Management scientists are interested in e-commerce as an opportunity to study how business firms can exploit the Internet to achieve more efficient business operations.
Answer: B Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.7: Identify the major academic disciplines contributing to e-commerce.
33) Which of the following is not true about the use of apps? A) U.S. adult mobile Internet users spend almost 3-1/2 hours a day using apps. B) Users still spend less time using apps than they do using desktops or mobile websites. C) Apps are easier to control and monetize than websites. D) Around 280 million people worldwide launch a smartphone app more than 60 times a day.
Answer: B Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
Which of the following is not a major business trend in e-commerce in 2017-2018? A) Mobile e-commerce continues to grow. B) Small businesses and entrepreneurs are hampered by the rising cost of market entry caused by increased presence of industry giants. C) On-demand service companies garner multibillion-dollar valuations. D) Social e-commerce continues to grow.
Answer: B Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce. 12 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
Which of the following is not an element of friction-free commerce? A) Information is equally distributed. B) Transaction costs are high. C) Prices can be dynamically adjusted to reflect actual demand. D) Unfair competitive advantages are eliminated.
Answer: B Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
In 2017, almost ________ of Americans only used a mobile device to access the Internet. A) 7% B) 15% C) 25% D) 33%
Answer: B Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
Which of the following can be considered synonymous with the term e-commerce? A) e-business B) digital commerce C) the Internet D) the Web
Answer: B Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
Which of the following was the original "killer app" that made the Internet commercially interesting and extraordinarily popular? A) e-commerce B) The Web C) social networks D) mobile apps
Answer: B Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
17) Which of the following is a physical place you visit in order to transact? A) marketspace B) marketplace C) social network D) the Internet
Answer: B Difficulty: Easy AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
Which of the following statements about the mobile platform is not true? A) Over 93% of Americans used a mobile device to access the Internet at least some of the time in 2017. B) The size of the mobile app audience greatly exceeds that of the mobile web audience. C) Retail purchases made on desktops account for almost two-thirds of all online purchases. D) The time U.S. adults spend using mobile apps accounts for over 60% of total digital minutes spent.
Answer: B Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce. 13 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
10) Which of the following is the best definition of transaction cost? A) the expense of changing national or regional prices B) the cost of participating in a market C) the cost of finding suitable products in the market D) the cost merchants pay to bring their goods to market
Answer: B Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
11) The world's online population was estimated to be around ________ in 2017. A) 350 million B) 3.5 billion C) 35 billion D) 350 billion
Answer: B Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
35) Which of the following is an example of B2B e-commerce? A) Airbnb B) Facebook C) Groupon D) Go2Paper
Answer: B Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.4: Describe the major types of e-commerce. 10 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
Which of the following is an example of an e-commerce first mover that failed? A) Etsy B) eToys C) eBay D) E*Trade
Answer: B Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Which of the following refers to the displacement of market middlemen and the creation of a new direct relationship between producers and consumers? A) network effect B) disintermediation C) friction-free commerce D) first mover advantage
Answer: B Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today. 19 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
The early years of e-commerce are considered: A) the most promising time in history for the successful implementation of first mover advantages. B) an economist's dream come true, where for a brief time, consumers had access to all relevant market information and transaction costs plummeted. C) a stunning technological success as the Internet and the Web increased from a few thousand to billions of e-commerce transactions per year. D) a dramatic business success as 85% of dot-coms formed since 1995 became flourishing businesses.
Answer: C Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Which of the following is a characteristic of the Consolidation phase of e-commerce? A) predominance of pure online strategies B) emphasis on revenue growth versus profits C) brand extension and strengthening becomes more important than creating new brands D) shift to a technology-driven approach
Answer: C Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Which of the following statements is not true? A) Information asymmetries are continually being introduced by merchants and marketers. B) Intermediaries have not disappeared. C) Overall transaction costs have dropped dramatically. D) Brands remain very important in e-commerce.
Answer: C Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today. 18 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
12) Which of the following features of e-commerce technology is related to the concept of network externalities? A) richness B) interactivity C) universal standards D) information density
Answer: C Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance. 3 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
Which of the following is a characteristic of e-commerce during the Invention period? A) mobile technology B) earnings and profit emphasis C) disintermediation D) extensive government surveillance
Answer: C Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
13) Which of the following statements is true about the traditional tradeoff between the richness and reach of a marketing message prior to the development of the Web? A) Marketing messages had little richness. B) The smaller the audience reached, the less rich the message. C) The larger the audience reached, the less rich the message. D) Richness was unrelated to reach.
Answer: C Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
All of the following are major social trends in e-commerce in 2017-2018 except for: A) concerns about the flood of temporary, poorly paid jobs without benefits being generated by on-demand service companies. B) the continuing conflict over copyright management and control. C) participation of adults in social networks begins to decrease. D) the growth of government surveillance of Internet communications.
Answer: C Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce.
15) The costs incurred by merchants in having to change product prices (such as the costs of reentering prices into computer systems) are referred to as which of the following? A) subscription costs B) fixed costs C) menu costs D) variable costs
Answer: C Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
18) The total number of users or customers an e-commerce business can obtain is a measure of which of the following? A) ubiquity B) interactivity C) reach D) information density
Answer: C Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
B) information density. C) ubiquity. D) reach.
Answer: C Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance. 5 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
________ was the first truly large-scale digitally enabled transaction system in the B2C arena. A) Telex B) The Baxter Healthcare system C) The French Minitel D) EDI
Answer: C Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Which academic disciplines have a technical approach to e-commerce? What is each discipline interested in?
Answer: Computer scientists, operations management scientists, and certain technical groups within the information systems discipline all take a technical approach to e-commerce. Computer scientists are interested in e-commerce as an exemplary application of Internet technology. They are concerned with the development of computer hardware, software, and telecommunications systems, as well as standards, encryption, and database design and operation. Operations management scientists are primarily interested in building mathematical models of business processes and optimizing these processes. They are interested in e-commerce as an opportunity to study how business firms can exploit the Internet to achieve more efficient business operations. Technical groups within the information systems specialty focus on data mining, search engine design, and artificial intelligence. Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge; Written and oral communication Learning Objective: 1.7: Identify the major academic disciplines contributing to e-commerce. 24 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
Which of the following is a characteristic of the Reinvention phase of e-commerce? A) massive proliferation of dot-com start-ups B) widespread adoption of broadband networks C) rapid growth of search engine advertising D) expansion of e-commerce to include services as well as goods
Answer: D Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Which of the following is not a characteristic of a perfect competitive market? A) Price, cost, and quality information are equally distributed. B) A nearly infinite set of suppliers compete against one another. C) Customers have access to all relevant information worldwide. D) It is highly regulated.
Answer: D Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Which business application is associated with the technological development of local area networks and client/server computing? A) transaction automation (e.g., payroll) B) desktop automation (e.g., word processing) C) industrial system automation (e.g., supply chain management) D) workgroup automation (e.g., document sharing)
Answer: D Difficulty: Difficult AACSB: Information technology Learning Objective: 1.6: Describe the major themes underlying the study of e-commerce.
9) Which of the following features of e-commerce technology allows users to participate in the creation of online content? A) ubiquity B) global reach C) information density D) social technology
Answer: D Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
Which of the following describes the basic web policy of large firms during the Invention period? A) Integrate social networks and the mobile platform with website marketing. B) Emphasize the necessity for the Web to generate profits. C) Use the Web to sell complex goods and services online. D) Maintain a basic, static website depicting the firm's brand.
Answer: D Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Analytical thinking Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
In 2017, there were more than ________ Internet hosts. A) 1 million B) 10 million C) 100 million D) 1 billion
Answer: D Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.2: Define e-commerce, understand how e-commerce differs from e- business, identify the primary technological building blocks underlying e-commerce, and recognize major current themes in e-commerce. 14 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
14) Interactivity in the context of e-commerce provides which of the following functionalities? A) the ability to physically touch and manipulate a product B) complexity and content of a message C) the ability of consumers to create and distribute content D) the enabling of two-way communication between consumer and merchant
Answer: D Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
All of the following are examples of Web 2.0 sites and applications except: A) photo-sharing sites. B) blogs. C) wikis. D) auction sites.
Answer: D Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Which of the following refers to the practice of researching a product online before purchasing it at a physical store? A) zooming B) grazing C) showrooming D) webrooming
Answer: D Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.5: Understand the evolution of e-commerce from its early years to today.
Which of the following is one of the three primary societal issues related to e-commerce? A) liability B) anonymity C) equity D) intellectual property
Answer: D Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge Learning Objective: 1.6: Describe the major themes underlying the study of e-commerce.
6) Explain why a firm's online inventory control system is an example of e-business rather than e-commerce. What is the key factor in determining if a transaction is "commerce"?
Answer: E-business refers primarily to digitally enabled transactions within a firm, involving information systems, such an online inventory control system, under the control of the firm. E- business does not involve commercial transactions in which an exchange of value across organizational boundaries takes place. E-commerce, on the other hand, is a revenue-generating operation. The key factor in determining if a transaction is commerce, therefore, is "exchange of value." To be e-commerce, a transaction must include the direct production of revenue.
29) How has e-commerce changed the marketing of goods?
Answer: E-commerce has greatly changed the marketing of goods. Before e-commerce was developed, the marketing and sale of goods was a mass-marketing and sales force-driven process. Marketers viewed consumers as passive targets of advertising campaigns. E-commerce has brought many new possibilities for marketing. The Internet and Web can deliver, to an audience of millions, rich marketing messages with text, video, and audio in a way not possible with traditional commerce technologies such as radio, television, or magazines. Merchants can target their marketing messages to specific individuals by adjusting the message to a person's name, interests, and past purchases. In addition, much information about the consumer can be gathered from the website the consumer visits. With the increase in information density, a great deal of information about the consumer's past purchases and behavior can be stored and used by online merchants. The result is a level of personalization and customization unthinkable with existing commerce technologies. Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Analytical thinking; Written and oral communication Learning Objective: 1.3: Identify and describe the unique feature of e-commerce technology and discuss their business significance.
What kind of problems does the global nature of e-commerce pose?
Answer: The global nature of e-commerce poses public policy issues of equity, equal access, content regulation, and taxation. For instance, in the United States, public telephone utilities are required under public utility and public accommodation laws to make basic service available at affordable rates, so everyone can have telephone service. Should these laws be extended to the Internet and the Web? If goods are purchased by a New York State resident from a website in California, shipped from a center in Illinois, and delivered to New York, what state has the right to collect a sales tax? Should some heavy Internet users who consume extraordinary amounts of bandwidth by streaming endless movies be charged extra for service, or should the Internet be neutral with respect to usage? What rights do nation-states and their citizens have with respect to the Internet, the Web, and e-commerce? Difficulty: Moderate AACSB: Application of knowledge; Written and oral communication Learning Objective: 1.6: Describe the major themes underlying the study of e-commerce. 23 Copyright © 2019 Pearson Education, Inc.
