INSTRUCTOR DETAILS

Dr. Alan D. Smith

Office: Business Administration Building

Office Hours:  TBA

Telephone:  (330) 206-3557

E-mail: smitha@rmu.edu (preferred) or adsmith3@kent.edu

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Overall Objective and Course Description:

The overall objective of this course is to introduce the student to vendor management and procurement strategies in global supply chains.  The course involves hands-on coverage of global supply chain vendor management principles with emphasis on supplier partnering and development, strategic sourcing and pricing, measuring vendor performance, supplier selection models, and coordinating supply chain operations. Selected Excel-based analytical tools and models will be introduced into the course, when needed, to illustrate the development, implementation and coordination of vendor management and procurement strategies.  

The emphasis will be on students developing their own term projects by selecting appropriate literature reviews, lead treaded discussions online, presentation of a slide show of their research findings.

Learning Objectives:

After completing this course the student will be able to complete the following course specific objectives:

1)      Understand the basics and goals of global supply (value) chain management.

2)      Identify how sourcing and procurement integrate with global supply chain strategy.

3)      Manage materials in a supply chain environment.

4)      Gain familiarity with technology in supply chain procurement.

5)      Understand the evaluative process in vendor performance.

6)      Be exposed to various types of vendor selection models in supply chain management.

7)      Develop sustainable practices in purchasing and procurement management via term individual term projects.

8)      Describe and document the various impacts of coordination (or lack thereof) on the supply chain.

CLASS MATERIALS

i) Three is no official textbook for this course.  Lecture Notes on supply chain management and SCM-related e-commerce posted to Blackboard course shell.

ii) Readings in Supply Chain Management, SCM E-commerce, and Vender Selection posted to Blackboard course shell.

COURSE PREREQUISITES AND ENROLLMENT REQUIREMENTS:

Prerequisite: MIS 64005 Statistics for Management or permission.  All assignments are due Sunday, 5 PM on the last week that they are due.  Check Blackboard weekly tabs for exact due dates.

Syllabus 16-week Course:

This course is a graduate level seminar exploring e-commerce and its application to business and industry. At a macro-level, the topics covered will include supply chain applications, business-to-business applications, retail applications, and industry applications. At a micro-level, the topics will include marketing and online consumer behavior issues, security and privacy issues, start‑up issues, and technical issues. Students will perform research and deliver a series of white papers and presentations regarding the state of vendor selection strategies and e-commerce activity within their company and industry.

COURSE OVERVIEW:

In the time of Adam Smith, the three main factors of production were land, labor, and capital. The hallmark of post-industrial society is that human intellect has become a more important factor of production than any of these three. The ability to create and deploy intellectual capital-typically via services--underlies wealth creation in modern economies.

However, the nature of managerial work is not what it once was.  Knowledge workers account for a growing fraction of overall employment and of the gross national product. The enterprises that employ them have substituted information and communication systems for layers of management. Once, managers had a monopoly on information about suppliers, customers, competitors, industry trends, and the functioning of internal business processes; today, software systems routinely make such information available to anyone with a Web browser.

Today's managers compete for attention in a marketplace of ideas that is characterized by massive information overload. Your colleagues, customers and supply chain partners are bombarded with more messages than they can absorb. The ability to create and use intellectual capital is more important than ever, but merely having insight is not enough if you wish to exercise thought leadership. You also have to be able to break through the clutter. 

As a consequence, new management literacy is emerging. Once, executives were called upon periodically to build and communicate a business case, either via an oral presentation or through a written memorandum. Today, they must communicate in real time using intranets, extranets, and public website. In addition to crafting presentations, they must design and manage portals that provide easy access to their ideas and productive ways of managing interactive dialogs.

The challenge this creates is making knowledge available to those who need it, not coding website.  Usually, the actual building of a website is either outsourced or automated, but you cannot delegate creating and organizing the insights the knowledge portal is meant to convey.  How do you create compelling content that makes an impact?  How do you organize the way it is presented so that busy people find what they need instead of giving up because they aren't able to locate it rapidly?  How do you promote interaction and build a community of practice that works together to push ideas forward?  Managers who can respond to these demands will prevail in a crowded marketplace of ideas.  This course is designed to provide the MBA with the insight and know how needed to address them.

How will you put these tools to use? The course is targeted at three major applications.  First, every executive needs to learn how to use new media to manage knowledge creation and deployment.  This is true whether you are creating a portal for a product, for a project, or for an entire business unit.  Second, since lifetime employment has become the exception rather than the rule in many industries, you may find it useful to manage your own personal portal, conveying your leading-edge thinking to a global audience.  If you manage your own brand, then you must learn how to manage the way people access and pay attention to your ideas via the Web.  Third, you are likely at some point to manage an enterprise whose success depends on its ability to attract and retain an audience via the Internet.  The barriers to setting up an entrepreneurial media venture have never been lower.  In addition, many e-commerce sites rely on original content to draw customers and keep them coming back.   If you leave Robert Morris University knowing how to manage an Internet content venture, you will make yourself invaluable in a world where the World Wide Web is penetrating every business process.

Groupware (Shareware):

What is the best way to learn how to manage an Internet-content venture?  Because this field is so new and fast-changing, practice leads theory at the present time.  Consequently, this course adopts an experiential approach. The goal is develop a globally distribution for the white papers possibly through an alliance, especially in these difficult financial times.  Students who take Vender selection strategies will be the primary content creators. In addition, interested students who enroll in the class will take on key management roles, working with other a professors and staff at Robert Morris.

GRADED COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

Vender selection strategies occupy a unique role in the School of Business curriculum.  First, there are only eight class sessions.  Traditionally, most of these sessions will be led by students and augmented by your own individual work effects.  Lecture and homework will play a minor role in the traditional sense, but within the online format, extremely minor.  Secondly, a major part of the course is essentially an independent study mini-course. Creating an individual white paper is a demanding project, but you will have help in terms of literature assignments and peer-review evaluations that can be directly used in your project.  Students will develop one comprehensive white paper on a selected topic in vender selection strategies within an e-commerce environment, which synthesizes the current state of practitioner literature using between 10 and 15 citations. The audience for this paper is the executive decision-maker. The second requirement is to complete two peer-reviews of other projects under completion in the class.  Although this may seem difficult as the course is offered in an online format, being able to critically help other researchers in the class will prove to be a benefit in the writing of your white paper; regardless if the papers you review are on the same topic.  It is important that you have a theoretical framework derived from the business literature that focuses on specific aspects of your topic. That is why you will receive help on your research project, not only from the instructor, but from two fellow students that you select that will perform a peer-review process that will critically assess your progress and help make useful recommendations in order for you to complete your individual term project.  There are numerous examples under Course Documents and Course Assignments folders in Blackboard.

REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS COURSE:

Each student will create a comprehensive white paper on a topic as part of your experience in this course (60% of your course grade). 

TOTAL 100 points

2.  A minimum two-page peer evaluation of a fellow student’s project.  There are two of these reports required, so help each other and I expect that these comments will be incorporated directly in the final paper. (10%, 5% each)

3. A total of six literature sets required in the course to acquire students to the business and academic literature in the field of Vendor Selection/E-commerce.  The last three sets will be of articles that you chose and directed related to your topic for the individual course project. (20%)

4.  A series of six weekly threaded discussion/assignments. (5%)

5.  Presentation of final project and related participation. (5%)     

Creating your vendor selection strategies/e-commerce topic:

Each student enrolled in this course will create a research project on a current topic for this course, with the final approve of your instructor.  What kind of topic should you pick?  One that:

1.      You care passionately about. If you truly enjoy the topic you have picked, it will be fun for you to spend time reading, thinking and writing about it.  Otherwise, this assignment will be drudgery.  Ideally, you should find your topic so interesting that you would be reading about it in your spare time.  It so happens that you can probably learn more about it and earn course credit for something that you take pleasure in doing.  Hot topics include P2P leading, virtual communities, social networking, medical self-help, industrial marketing, and mobile technologies, to name a few as related to vendor selection and supply chain strategies.

2.      You have mastered or are committed to mastering.  The course plan is to provide you with a global forum for conveying your expertise on the topic you choose.

3.      Lies at the cutting edge of business thinking and is consistent with your career positioning. If your groupware topic is generic or if it has little to do with your career direction, it would not create as much value for you as it should.

The target audience for your e-commerce project is busy executives, like yourself, who need to absorb and stay on top of cutting edge business topics as efficiently as possible.  You will attract a large global audience if the topic you pick is truly important to a variety of managers. Your core audience is someone who has just received an assignment that requires him or her to learn about your topic in a hurry.  If your topic is too narrow or too specialized, few will take an interest in it.  If it does not address an important problem area, it won't attract the attention of groupware readers.

What is the process for creating your groupware topic?

1. Pick a topic and submit it to me in writing via Blackboard. I will work with you to ensure that your topic is well positioned for the groupware audience.

2. Read via literature reviews, textbook, and other peer reviewed articles, other than non-peer reviewed periodicals. This will help guide you into topic areas that are of particular interest to business executives. Treat these readings as qualitative data that point to areas of interest. Do not simply restate these readings. Project the effects of change, come to conclusions. Support these conclusions with interviews with movers and shakers in the topic area.

3. Search both the printed literature using ProQuest Direct available on line through KSU website and the World Wide Web itself for articles and sites relating to your topic. Select as many as you think you need to read to get a handle on the current thinking in the area.

4. Examine the website you have selected, and read the articles you have chosen. Decide which are worthy of a review.  Most paper topics should contain 20-40 reviews. Why? Your busy readers are relying on you to choose the very best articles for them, so they can benefit from your information filtering.

5. Your review will be inked to a more comprehensive 15-30 page white paper on the topic.  This white paper should include interview excerpts, charts, graphs, references, website, and bibliography. It will be designed for the executive that needs more information to make critical decisions.

COURSE MATERIALS:

Research readings for this course are available through the KSU website and the Web itself. Consequently, there is no course packet, except for the textbook.  This course presumes that you are basically familiar with the Web.

If you choose to conduct one or more interviews as part of maintaining your topic, you may be interested in two books on the art of interviewing people:

Brady, John Joseph. 1977. The Craft of Interviewing. This is a thin and inexpensive primer which has useful advice but is fairly general.

Metzler, Ken. 1997. Creative Interviewing: The Writer's Guide to Gathering Information by Asking Questions. This is more expensive, but is an outstanding guide to conducting really creative interviews.

Both books are optional. They are easily obtainable.

Enrollment Requirements:

Students attending the course who do not have the proper prerequisites risk being deregistered from the class. Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Web for Students) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until Sunday January 27, 2013 to correct the error with your advising office.  If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

Grading Policies:

The grading for this course will be based on a contract approach. The student will be required to discus and report on various topics and prepare a course term paper and related assignments previously documented. 

Please note that student’s your overall score (OS) for the course is determined by the following equation:

OS = 0.10 (average of two-page peer evaluation of a fellow student’s project) + 0.20 (average of six literature sets required in the course to acquire students to the business and academic literature in the field of Vendor Selection/E-commerce) + 0.05 (average of series of six weekly threaded discussion/assignments) + 0.05 (PP presentation of final individual project) + 0.60 (Final group competitive forces/strategy project). 

2.  A minimum two-page peer evaluation of a fellow student’s project.  There are two of these reports required, so help each other and I expect that these comments will be incorporated directly in the final paper. (10%, 5% each)

3. A total of six literature sets required in the course to acquire students to the business and academic literature in the field of Vendor Selection/E-commerce.  The last three sets will be of articles that you chose and directed related to your topic for the individual course project. (20%)

4.  A series of six weekly threaded discussion/assignments. (5%)

5.  Presentation of final project and related participation. (5%)     

TIMELY SUBMISSION OF WORK:

Please note that timely submission of work is required.  With the exception of emergency situations, which will need to be verified, homework assignments, research projects or presentations must be done by the assigned date.  Please note that the grades will not be curved and there are no extra credit opportunities.  All exams are mandatory.  Exams are related to lecture material and readings. All exams are available via Blackboard only on posted days.  If you fail to take these exams during the posted hours, there will be no second changes or retakes.  You are responsible for having your own calculator if you want to use one on an exam.  Make-up exams will not be offered except for excusable conflicts such as sick leave with doctor’s notes; religious observance and family emergencies.

Homework: Problems will be assigned regularly.  Please submit a hardcopy solution in class, by the end of the class, on the assigned due date.  Late homework will not be accepted, unless unusual circumstances.

 ACADEMIC POLICY REQUIREMENTS:

1. There are generally no makeup exams in this class for undocumented reason unless requested and approved by the instructor. In emergency situations, which needs to be properly documented (i.e. doctor or employer's excuse-note).  In general, students are expected to attend class and are responsible for any material discussed and/or assigned. With respect to make-up, the general policy is no make-up of missed work (including exams) is allowed, and no late work will be accepted. The only exceptions are: A prearranged situation (e.g., course field trips, athletic trips, etc.) and/or emergency illness, death in the family, etc., in this case, the instructor should be notified as soon as possible.  Please contact the instructor early if there are any problems or concerns.  There will be no exceptions to this policy.

2. There are no excused absences, late arrivals, or early departures, but I appreciate notice if you know you will be missing a class and/or arriving late or departing early.

3. Cheating in any form will result in an automatic grade of F for the course.

4. Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Web for Students) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule and if registration errors are not corrected by the proper date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

5. Students may need a calculator for all examinations.  Your calculator should have a statistics mode to allow for the quick calculation of means, standard deviations and variances.

 Academic Integrity:

We will follow the University Policy on Academic Integrity.  Academic honesty: Cheating means to misrepresent the source, nature, or other conditions of your academic work (e.g., tests, quizzes, papers, projects, homework assignments) so as to get undeserved credit. In addition, it is considered to cheating when one cooperates with someone else in any such misrepresentation.  The use of intellectual property of others without giving them appropriate credit is a serious academic offence. It is the University’s policy that cheating or plagiarism result in receiving a failing grade (0 points) for the work or course. Repeat offences may result in dismissal from the University.

Course Withdrawal Dates:

Fall 2013 course withdrawal deadline is Sunday, March 22, 2015.  For Fall and Spring semesters, the course withdrawal deadline is always the Sunday following the 10^th week of the semester.

Course Attendance Information:

Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes. 

Enrollment/official registration:

Students have responsibility to ensure they are properly enrolled in classes.  You are advised to review your official class schedule (using Student Tools on FlashLine) during the first two weeks of the semester to ensure you are properly enrolled in this class and section.  Should you find an error in your class schedule, you have until Sunday, January 25, 2015 to correct the error.  If registration errors are not corrected by this date and you continue to attend and participate in classes for which you are not officially enrolled, you are advised now that you will not receive a grade at the conclusion of the semester for any class in which you are not properly registered.

Students with disabilities:

University policy 3342-3-01.3 requires that students with disabilities be provided reasonable accommodations to ensure their equal access to course content. If you have a documented disability and require accommodations, please contact the instructor at the beginning of the semester to make arrangements for necessary classroom adjustments. Please note, you must first verify your eligibility for these through Student Accessibility Services (contact 330-672-3391 or visit http://www.registrars.kent.edu/sas for more information on registration procedures).

Graduation Application Deadlines:

If you are eligible to graduate, it is your responsibility to apply for graduation before the set deadline (May Graduation: Apply before September 15^th August Graduation: Apply before December 15^th December Graduation: Apply before March 15^th).  If you apply after the deadline you will be assessed a $200 late fee. Please see your academic advisor as soon as   possible if you are uncertain as to your progress toward graduation.  To apply for graduation complete the following steps: Log onto your Flashline account 1. Click on the Student Tools tab, 2. Look in the Graduation Planning Tool Box, 3. Click on Application for Graduation; if an error message appears, you must contact your advisor.

The graduation application deadlines are follows:

May Graduation: Apply before September 15^th

August Graduation: Apply before December 15^th

December Graduation: Apply before March 15^th

To apply for graduation complete the following steps:

Log onto your Flashline account

1.      Click on the Student Tools tab

2.      Look in the Graduation Planning Tool Box

3.      Click on Application for Graduation

**If an error message appears, you must contact your advisor.

BI-WEEKLY LITERATURE WRITING ASSIGNMENT (TOTAL OF 6)

Purpose:         The purpose of written assignments is to provide the student with an opportunity to demonstrate integration of the information and critical thought processes at a graduate level as it applies to the material presented in the course.

Expectations:

1. Papers will follow current APA guidelines in terms of type, margins, and citations. (Title pages are not required for weekly written assignments).
2. The papers address the following areas:
1. Was the actual assignment topic addressed? (Please insure that you read and understand the assignment)
2. Was the topic covered in sufficient detail and depth? (Superficial or minimal information suggests rushed efforts, and fails to demonstrate integration of information.
3. Was there evidence of reading and materials in the product? (Verification of student preparation for the assignment.)
3. The student was able to provide evidence of investment and consideration of their own perspective with adequate elaboration.

Please see the attached rubric in order to understand how this assignment is to be graded.

THREADED DISCUSSIONS RUBRIC

Discussion Scoring Rubric

1. Initial Posts are due by Friday 5PM of each week Central Standard Time (CST).

2. A guideline for your first reply to post each week would be Friday midnight Central Standard Time.  

3. The key to a good discussion is interaction, and therefore it is expected that you will login and participate in the discussions on 3 separate days per week. 

4. Please note that posting all, or the majority, of your replies on the last day of the discussion after 6:00 pm will be considered for point deduction since this greatly decreases the interaction and impact of your posts.

5. Interaction is the key to a productive and meaningful discussion between you, your peers, and your instructor, so your goal and approach should be meaningful interaction rather than meeting minimum point requirements.