Published: August 2014
Page Count: 442
ISBN (Digital): 978-1-4533-6657-8

Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology

Version 3.0
By John Gallaugher

Included Supplements

Manual

Slides

Tests

Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Techonology, v. 3.0

John Gallaugher

WHAT'S NEW IN 3.0:

UPDATED, MORE RELEVANT INFORMATION:

New coverage including Uber, WhatsApp, Facebook, and bitcoin breathes fresh life into existing material. The popular Zara and Netflix case studies remain but contain refreshed information.

EMPHASIS ON SOCIAL MEDIA:

Instagram, SnapChat, WhatsApp, Tinder, Secret, and Whisper all receive mention, ensuring relevancy and proper understanding of the current field.

MOBILE VS. DESKTOP:

In a number of renamed chapters, Gallaugher weighs the pros and cons of social media use on desktop computers and mobile devices, prompting classroom dialogue surrounding the rise of different technologies and how businesses and managers adjust to emerging trends.

DISCUSSION OF THE SHARING ECONOMY:

With the addition of an entirely new chapter focused on the sharing economy, Gallaugher introduces examples of citizens coming together to create or share resources across markets.

For a comprehensive list of what's new in version 3.0, visit Gallaugher’s blog.

John Gallaugher of Boston College was one of BusinessWeek’s “Professors of the Year.” His widely popular textbook offers a proven approach that has garnered student praise and increased information systems enrollment. There is no other Information Systems author today who keeps his text as "up-to-the-month" current.

For regular updates, follow Gallaugher’s blog, The Week in Geek, and connect with him on Twitter at @gallaugher.

This textbook is suitable for these courses:Undergraduate or graduate courses in Management Information Systems and Information Technology

This textbook is suitable for 2 and 4 year institutions.

PEDAGOGICAL FEATURES:

FOCUS ON STRATEGIC THINKING:

Rather than lead with technical topics, the book starts with strategic thinking, focusing on big-picture issues that have confounded experts but will engage students.

ENGAGING CASE STUDIES:

While chapters introduce concepts, cases on approachable, exciting firms across industries further challenge students to apply what they've learned.

CUSTOMIZABILITY:

The Flat World Knowledge publishing model allows instructors to adapt the textbook to the exact needs of their specific class and student body.

See how easy it is to customize a textbook in this 4 minute demo: Flat World Editing Platform Video Demo

1.1 Tech’s Tectonic Shift: Radically Changing Business Landscapes

1.2 It’s Your Revolution

1.3 Geek Up—Tech Is Everywhere and You’ll Need It to Thrive

1.4 The Pages Ahead

Chapter 2: Strategy and Technology: Concepts and Frameworks for Understanding What Separates Winners from Losers

2.1 Introduction

2.2 Powerful Resources

2.3 Barriers to Entry, Technology, and Timing

2.4 Key Framework: The Five Forces of Industry Competitive Advantage

Chapter 3: Zara: Fast Fashion from Savvy Systems

3.1 Introduction

3.2 Don’t Guess, Gather Data

3.3 Moving Forward

Chapter 4: Netflix in Two Acts: The Making of an E-Commerce Giant and the Uncertain Future of Atoms to Bits

4.1 Introduction

4.2 Act I: David Becomes Goliath: Crafting Killer Assets for DVD-by-Mail Dominance

4.3 Act II: Netflix and the Shift from Mailing Atoms to Streaming Bits

Chapter 5: Moore’s Law and More: Fast, Cheap Computing, Disruptive Innovation, and What This Means for the Manager

5.1 Introduction

5.2 The Death of Moore’s Law?

5.3 Bringing Brains Together: Supercomputing, Grids, Clusters, and Putting Smarts in the Cloud

5.4 Disruptive Innovations: Understanding the Giant Killers and Considerations for Avoiding Extinction

5.5 E-waste: The Dark Side of Moore’s Law

5.6 Bitcoin: A Disruptive Innovation for Money and More?

Chapter 6: Amazon: An Empire Stretching from Cardboard Box to Kindle to Cloud

6.1 Introduction

6.2 The Emperor of E-Commerce

6.3 Kindle on Fire: The Rise of Digital, the Everywhere Store, and New Opportunities from e-Book, Tablet, TV, and Phone

6.4 Amazon and the Cloud: From Personal Storage to AWS

Chapter 7: Understanding Network Effects: Strategies for Competing in a Platform-Centric, Winner-Take-All World

7.1 Introduction

7.2 Where’s All That Value Come From?

7.3 One-Sided or Two-Sided Markets?

7.4 How Are These Markets Different?

7.5 Competing When Network Effects Matter

Chapter 8: Social Media, Peer Production, and Web 2.0

8.1 Introduction

8.2 Blogs

8.3 Wikis

8.4 Social Networks

8.5 Twitter and the Rise of Microblogging

8.6 Prediction Markets and the Wisdom of Crowds

8.7 Crowdsourcing

8.8 Get SMART: The Social Media Awareness and Response Team

Chapter 9: The Sharing Economy, Collaborative Consumption, and Creating More Efficient Markets through Technology

9.1 Introduction

9.2 Boom Times and Looming Challenges in the Sharing Economy

9.3 Future Outlook: Established Players Get Collaborative

9.4 Airbnb—Hey Stranger, Why Don’t You Stay at My Place?

9.5 Uber: Tech-Fueled Superior Service Loved by All—Except Incumbents

Chapter 10: Facebook: A Billion-plus users and Big Business from the Social Graph

10.1 Introduction

10.2 Disrupting Competition, Building Competitive Advantage, and the Challenging Rise of Mobile

10.3 Advertising and Social Networks: A Work in Progress

10.4 A Platform Player that Moves Fast and Breaks Things: What All Managers Can Learn from Facebook’s Mistakes, Responses, and Pursuit of New Opportunities

Chapter 11: Understanding Software: A Primer for Managers

11.1 Introduction

11.2 Operating Systems

11.3 Application Software

11.4 Distributed Computing

11.5 Writing Software

11.6 Understanding Technology beyond the Price Tag: Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and the Cost of Tech Failure

Chapter 12: Software in Flux: Open Source, Cloud, and Virtualized and App-driven Shifts

12.1 Introduction

12.2 Open Source

12.3 Why Open Source?

12.4 Examples of Open Source Software

12.5 Why Give It Away? The Business of Open Source

12.6 Defining Cloud Computing

12.7 Software in the Cloud: Why Buy When You Can Rent?

12.8 SaaS: Not without Risks

12.9 Understanding Cloud Computing Models: PaaS, IaaS, and Motivations and Risks

12.10 Clouds and Tech Industry Impact

12.11 Virtualization: Software That Makes One Computer Act Like Many

12.12 Apps and App Stores: Further Disrupting the Software Industry on Smartphones, Tablets, and Beyond

12.13 Make, Buy, or Rent

Chapter 13: The Data Asset: Databases, Business Intelligence, Analytics, Big Data, and Competitive Advantage

13.1 Introduction

13.2 Data, Information, and Knowledge

13.3 Where Does Data Come From?

13.4 Data Rich, Information Poor

13.5 Data Warehouses, Data Marts, and Technology behind “Big Data”

13.6 The Business Intelligence Toolkit

13.7 Data Asset in Action: Technology and the Rise of Walmart

13.8 Data Asset in Action: Caesars’ Solid Gold CRM for the Service Sector

Chapter 14: A Manager’s Guide to the Internet and Telecommunications

14.1 Introduction

14.2 Internet 101: Understanding How the Internet Works

14.3 Getting Where You’re Going

14.4 Last Mile: Faster Speed, Broader Access

Chapter 15: Information Security: Barbarians at the Gateway (and Just About Everywhere Else)

15.1 Introduction

15.2 Why Is This Happening? Who Is Doing It? And What’s Their Motivation?

15.3 Where Are Vulnerabilities? Understanding the Weaknesses

15.4 Taking Action

Chapter 16: Google in Three Parts: Search, Online Advertising, and Beyond

16.1 Introduction

16.2 Understanding Search

16.3 Understanding the Increase in Online Ad Spending

16.4 Search Advertising

16.5 Ad Networks—Distribution beyond Search

16.6 More Ad Formats and Payment Schemes

16.7 Customer Profiling and Behavioral Targeting

16.8 Profiling and Privacy

16.9 Search Engines, Ad Networks, and Fraud

16.10 The Battle Unfolds

Instructor’s Manual

The Instructor’s Manual guides you through the main concepts of each chapter and important elements such as learning objectives, key terms, and key takeaways. Can include answers to chapter exercises, group activity suggestions, and discussion questions.

PowerPoint Lecture Notes

A PowerPoint presentation highlighting key learning objectives and the main concepts for each chapter are available for you to use in your classroom. You can either cut and paste sections or use the presentation as a whole.

Test Bank Files for Import to Learning Management Systems

For your convenience, we've packaged our test items for easy import into Learning Management Systems like Blackboard, Brightspace/D2L, Canvas, Moodle, or Respondus.

Test Item File

Need assistance in supplementing your quizzes and tests? Our test-item files (in Word format) contain many multiple-choice, fill-in-the-blank, and short-answer questions.

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John Gallaugher

Boston College

John Gallaugher (PhD Syracuse University School of Management) is the founder of the Boston College TechTrek field study programs, and as an advisor to multiple successful student entrepreneurs, John has had unprecedented access to the world’s leading technology and tech investment firms. An award-winning educator and author, John has been named a "Distinguished Educator" by Apple Inc., a "Most Popular Professor" by Bloomberg Businessweek, and “Guru to Grads” by Entrepreneur Magazine. He has also received the Boston College Trzaska Faculty Leadership Award, the all-university Boston College Teaching Award, the Carroll School of Management Teaching Award, and the student newspaper’s Momentum Award for campus impact. His bestselling textbook Information Systems: A Manager's Guide to Harnessing Technology has been used at over 450 universities worldwide, and has twice won the Textbook and Academic Authors' Association "Texty" award for excellence. John has taught on five continents and has led field study experiences in Seattle, San Francisco/Silicon Valley, Boston, New York, Dublin, Ghana, and Sydney. John’s research has been published in leading journals including the MIS Quarterly and Harvard Business Review, and he has consulted for leading organizations including Apple Inc., Accenture, ING, Partners Healthcare, State Street, and the U.S. Information Agency, among others. John has worked extensively with student entrepreneurs and has seen several former students gain admittance to elite accelerators (Y-Combinator, TechStars, MassChallenge), raise capital, and build thriving businesses, with some garnering unicorn ($1 billion plus) valuations. His comments on Business and Technology have appeared in several media outlets, including The New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Associated Press, National Public Radio, and Wired. One of the rare academics who teaches managerial as well as software and hardware programming courses, you can find hundreds of "flipped learning" and project videos at: YouTube.com/profgallaugher. John holds both a BA in Computer Science and an MBA from Boston College, and a PhD in Information Systems from the Syracuse University School of Management. He occasionally publishes on Substack (http://profgallaugher.substack.com) and is also active on social media—having left X for Threads: @john.gallaugher.