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Cover of Information Systems: A Manager's Guide to Harnessing Technology v8.0
Published: 
December 2019
Page Count: 
664
ISBN (Digital): 
978-1-4533-9788-6

Information Systems: A Manager's Guide to Harnessing Technology

Version 8.0
By John Gallaugher

Included Supplements

Key Features

  • Unique approach to information systems by leading with strategic thinking before diving into technical topics
  • Current and engaging case studies that challenge students to apply what they’ve learned
  • Coverage of not only strategy and technology basics, but also of critical concepts including data analytics, security, social media, the sharing economy, disruptive innovation, network effects and more
  • In-depth profiles on widely known firms such as Facebook, Amazon, Google, Netflix, Rent the Runway, and Zara
  • Customizable

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Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology is suitable for undergraduate or MBA-level courses on business or management information systems taught in two- or four-year schools that are often called Introduction to Information Systems, Strategic Information Systems, Capstone Information Systems course, Technology Entrepreneurship, Digital Organization/Digital Leadership, Management Information, Information Technology or similar.

Information Systems: A Manager’s Guide to Harnessing Technology is updated regularly. In doing so, its primary goal is to strike a balance between core content and new developments in a rapidly evolving field. The result is a narrative grounded in relevant management theory and practice that features current, fresh, and engaging case studies and applications. Nearly all chapters receive at least some refresh of examples, statistics, and other data, while also ensuring the book’s underlying framework remains consistent and reflective of management best practices for using and successfully leveraging technology for individual and company success.

New in This Version

  • Includes new or updated discussions on: artificial intelligence (AI) (Chapter 1); tech’s role in commoditization and differentiation (Chapter 2); robotic distribution and AR in fashion (Chapter 3); Netflix’s newest challenges (Chapter 4); cloud, high-performance computing, and e-Waste (Chapter 5); cryptocurrencies and blockchain (Chapter 6); Amazon logistics, Amazon’s use of machine learning, and antitrust concerns (Chapter 7); tech giants’ power (Chapter 8), new popular players in the social landscape (Tik Tok, Fortnite, and Tinder) and Microsoft's acquisition of GitHub (Chapter 9); bad investments versus bad models (Chapter 10); Facebook’s ethics challenges and the Libra cryptocurrency effort (Chapter 11); Caastle and LeTote/Lord & Taylor compete with profitable “Unicorn” Rent the Runway (Chapter 12); security mistakes in Big Data, third-party data sales, unintended consequences of general data protection regulation (GDRP), differences in privacy laws between the US and other countries, McDonald’s AI play, high rates of artificial intelligence failures, and crafting ethical practices in data, machine learning, and other business technologies (Chapter 15); updates regarding trademark cases and other legal proceedings of note, 5G explained and implications explored, and satellite tech (Chapter 16); updates on cybersecurity breaches (Chapter 17); and downloading your Google data and Google+ shutdown (Chapter 18)
  • Introduces new concepts and terminology: local focus strategy (Chapter 3); exclusive licensing arrangements, transfer pricing, on-again-of-again digital subscribers, and microservices (Chapter 4); high-power computing, microcontrollers, and smart license plates (Chapter 5); Amazon’s computer vision/AI and new packaging standards (Chapter 7); Facebook’s violations of Apple terms-of-service violations, Facebook home assistant, Facebook-backed Libra cryptocurrency, and microtransactions (Chapter 11); serverless computing, data lakes, and the technology behind big data (Chapter 15); redefining LEO, MEO, and GEO (Chapter 16); and Google’s Stadia Gaming (Chapter 18)
  • Updated call-out boxes and graphics: transfer pricing and digital products/marginal costs (Chapter 4); server farms as power sources and their cooling costs (Chapter 5); Amazon’s evolving logistics strategies (Chapter 7); debates surrounding size and influence of big tech firms (Chapter 8); understanding the competition (Chapter 12); consumers unwittingly training artificial intelligence and the ethical use of artificial intelligence (Chapter 15), URLs and security (Chapter 16), debates over appropriate size and influence of tech firms (Chapter 18)
  • New or updated cases and examples: FreshDirect, Dell computer, Apple Music v. Spotify, Walmart’s and Jet.com (Chapter 2); Zara (Chapter 3); Netflix (Chapter 4); AdhereTech (Chapter 5); Amazon (Chapter 7); Tumblr (Chapter 9); Uber (Chapter 10); Facebook (Chapter 11); Rent the Runway, Caastle, and Nuuly (Chapter 12); and Google (Chapter 17)
  • New video links: Artificial Intelligence (AI) (Chapter 1); Zara AR Studio Collection (Chapter 3); Somaliland’s transformational cashless economy, e-Waste pollution, and Apple’s recycling efforts (Chapter 5); Amazon’s delivery drone, wheeled delivery robot, Echo, and overall use of AI (Chapter 7); Facebook’s 2019 Keynote address, Libra/cryptocurrency, and TenCent/WeChat (Chapter 11); Airbnb and data science (Chapter 15); 5G networks (Chapter 16); and Google’s Stadia Gaming announcement and Google CEO’s Keynote at Google’s 2019 developer conference (Chapter 18)
  • About the Author
  • Acknowledgments
  • Dedication
  • Preface

    • Chapter 1: Setting the Stage: Technology and the Modern Enterprise

  • 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 Achieving Success

  • 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—Make Small Batches of What Customers Want & Ship It Fast!
  • 3.3 Moving Forward

    • Chapter 4: Netflix in Two Acts: Sustaining Leadership in an Epic Shift from 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, and What This Means for the Manager

  • 5.1 Introduction
  • 5.2 The Death of Moore’s Law?
  • 5.3 The Power of Parallel: Supercomputing, Grids, Clusters, and Putting Smarts in the Cloud
  • 5.4 E-waste: The Dark Side of Moore’s Law
  • 5.5 Mickey’s Wearable: Disney’s Magic Band

    • Chapter 6: Disruptive Technologies: Understanding Giant Killers and Tactics to Avoid Extinction

  • 6.1 Introduction
  • 6.2 From Bitcoin to Blockchain and Beyond: A Disruptive Innovation for Money and More?

    • Chapter 7: Amazon: An Empire Stretching from Cardboard Box to Kindle to Cloud

  • 7.1 Introduction
  • 7.2 The Emperor of E-Commerce
  • 7.3 The Lord of Logistics
  • 7.4 Beyond Clicks: More Bricks
  • 7.5 Amazon's Disruptive Consumer Hardware Businesses: Kindle, Fire, Alexa, and More
  • 7.6 Amazon and the Cloud: From Personal Storage to AWS

    • Chapter 8: Platforms, Network Effects, and Competing in a Winner-Take-All World

  • 8.1 Introduction
  • 8.2 Platforms Are Powerful, But Where Does All That Value Come From?
  • 8.3 One-Sided or Two-Sided Markets?
  • 8.4 How Are These Markets Different?
  • 8.5 Competing When Network Effects Matter

    • Chapter 9: Social Media, Peer Production, and Leveraging the Crowd

  • 9.1 Introduction
  • 9.2 Blogs
  • 9.3 Wikis
  • 9.4 Social Networks
  • 9.5 Twitter and the Rise of Microblogging
  • 9.6 Prediction Markets and the Wisdom of Crowds
  • 9.7 Crowdsourcing
  • 9.8 Get SMART: The Social Media Awareness and Response Team

    • Chapter 10: The Sharing Economy, Collaborative Consumption, and Efficient Markets through Tech

  • 10.1 Introduction
  • 10.2 Boom Times and Looming Challenges in the Sharing Economy
  • 10.3 Future Outlook: Established Players Get Collaborative
  • 10.4 Airbnb—Hey Stranger, Why Don’t You Stay at My Place?
  • 10.5 Uber's Wild Ride: Sharing Economy Success, Public Company Concerns, and Lessons from a Fallen Founder

    • Chapter 11: Facebook: Platforms, Privacy, and Big Business from the Social Graph

  • 11.1 Introduction
  • 11.2 Lengthening Leaders, Quick Catch-Ups, and the Challenging Rise of Mobile
  • 11.3 Lessons from Platform Facebook: Big Growth, Bad Partners, APIs, and a Mobile Melee
  • 11.4 Advertising and Social Networks: A Challenging Landscape but a Big Payoff
  • 11.5 Move Fast and Break Things: Fumbles, Fake News, and Global Growth Challenges

    • Chapter 12: Rent the Runway: Entrepreneurs Expanding an Industry by Blending Tech with Fashion

  • 12.1 Introduction
  • 12.2 Founding the Business: Are We On to Something?
  • 12.3 Customer Engagement (Mobile, Social, and Physical Storefronts)
  • 12.4 Data
  • 12.5 Operations and Logistics
  • 12.6 Subscription: Bigger than Rental
  • 12.7 Conclusion

    • Chapter 13: Understanding Software: A Primer for Managers

  • 13.1 Introduction
  • 13.2 Operating Systems
  • 13.3 Application Software: Apps, Desktop Products, and Enterprise Systems
  • 13.4 Distributed Computing, Web Services, and APIs: The Platform Builders
  • 13.5 Writing Software
  • 13.6 Software Development Methodologies: From Waning Waterfall to Ascending Agile, plus a Sprint through Scrum
  • 13.7 Beyond the Price Tag: Total Cost of Ownership and the Cost of Tech Failure

    • Chapter 14: Software in Flux: Open Source, Cloud, Virtualized, and App-Driven Shifts

  • 14.1 Introduction
  • 14.2 Open Source
  • 14.3 Why Open Source?
  • 14.4 Examples of Open Source Software
  • 14.5 Why Give It Away? The Business of Open Source
  • 14.6 Defining Cloud Computing
  • 14.7 Software in the Cloud: Why Buy When You Can Rent?
  • 14.8 SaaS: Not without Risks
  • 14.9 Understanding Cloud Computing Models: PaaS, IaaS, and Motivations and Risks
  • 14.10 Clouds and Tech Industry Impact
  • 14.11 Virtualization: Software That Makes One Computer Act Like Many
  • 14.12 Apps and App Stores: Further Disrupting the Software Industry on Smartphones, Tablets, and Beyond
  • 14.13 Make, Buy, or Rent

    • Chapter 15: Data and Competitive Advantage: Databases, Analytics, AI, and Machine Learning

  • 15.1 Introduction
  • 15.2 Data, Information, and Knowledge
  • 15.3 Where Does Data Come From?
  • 15.4 Data Rich, Information Poor
  • 15.5 Data Warehouses, Data Marts, Data Lakes, and the Technology behind “Big Data”
  • 15.6 The Business Intelligence Toolkit
  • 15.7 Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Machine Learning: It’s Now Everywhere!
  • 15.8 Ethical Information Systems: Understanding Risks and Building More Responsible Technology
  • 15.9 Data Asset in Action: Technology and the Rise of Walmart

    • Chapter 16: A Manager’s Guide to the Internet and Telecommunications

  • 16.1 Introduction
  • 16.2 Internet 101: Understanding How the Internet Works
  • 16.3 Getting Where You’re Going
  • 16.4 Last Mile: Faster Speed, Broader Access

    • Chapter 17: Information Security: Barbarians at the Gateway (and Just About Everywhere Else)

  • 17.1 Introduction
  • 17.2 Why Is This Happening? Who Is Doing It? And What’s Their Motivation?
  • 17.3 Where Are Vulnerabilities? Understanding the Weaknesses
  • 17.4 Taking Action

    • Chapter 18: Google in Three Parts: Search, Online Advertising, and an Alphabet of Opportunity

  • 18.1 Introduction
  • 18.2 Understanding Search
  • 18.3 Understanding the Increase in Online Ad Spending
  • 18.4 Search Advertising
  • 18.5 Ad Networks: Distribution beyond Search
  • 18.6 More Ad Formats and Payment Schemes
  • 18.7 Customer Profiling and Behavioral Targeting
  • 18.8 Profiling and Privacy
  • 18.9 Search Engines, Ad Networks, and Fraud
  • 18.10 The Battle Unfolds
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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.

    Additions & Errata

    3/4/20:

    Section 11.1, corrected title of Figure 11.1 to "Largest Firms by Market Cap (in billions of $USD)".

    7/31/21:

    Section 2.1, updated FreshDirect video to: https://youtu.be/E3_3gTkADZY 

    Section 4.1, updated Netflix video to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-HNnicxtQVQ

    Section 6.2, updated blockchain intro video to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QphJEO9ZX6s&t=2s

    Section 11.1, changed "Warren Hatch" to "Orrin Hatch."

    Section 17.3, updated SolarWinds Hack video to: https://youtu.be/jxTxGlE9X5s

    2/3/22:

    Section 2.1: The broken link to "The FreshDirect Operation" video was replaced: https://youtu.be/ma3p1uFcdk0.

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