Deck 1: The Revolution Is Just Beginning

Question 1

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 1

C

Question 2

E-commerce is available just about everywhere and anytime. This is known as ________.

A)richness
B)information density
C)ubiquity
D)reach

Answer 2

C

Question 3

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 3

B

Question 4

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

Question 5

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

Question 6

The term e-commerce refers to the digital enabling of transactions and processes involving an exchange of value across organizational boundaries.

Question 7

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.

Question 8

Which of the following is a physical place you visit in order to transact?

A)marketspace
B)marketplace
C)social network
D)the Internet

Question 9

Which of the following terms can be considered synonymous with the term e-commerce?

A)e-business
B)digital commerce
C)the Internet
D)the Web

Question 10

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

Question 11

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.

Question 12

In 2015, the world's online population was estimated to be around:

A)310 million.
B)3)1 billion.
C)31 billion.
D)310 billion.

Question 13

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"?

Question 14

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

Question 15

The total number of users or customers an e-commerce business can obtain is a measure of which of the following?

A)ubiquity
B)interactivty
C)reach
D)information density

Question 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

Question 17

Which of the following is not a unique feature of e-commerce technology?

A)interactivity
B)social technology
C)information asymmetry
D)richness

Question 18

Which of the following refers to the complexity and content of a message?

A)richness
B)reach
C)information density
D)interactivity

Question 19

Which of the following is an example of e-business?

A)Amazon's inventory control system
B)the Amazon.com Web site
C)an Amazon mobile app
D)Amazon's Pinterest page

Question 20

E-commerce and e-business systems blur together at the business firm boundary, at the point at which internal business systems link up with suppliers or customers.

Question 21

All of the following are examples of social networks except:

A)Instagram.
B)Twitter.
C)Y Combinator.
D)Pinterest.

Question 22

Universal standards make price discovery more costly, slower, and less accurate.

Question 23

Personalization involves targeting marketing messages to specific individuals by adjusting the message based upon a consumer's preferences or past purchasing behavior.

Question 24

Why study e-commerce?

Question 25

Which of the following is an example of social e-commerce?

A)Amazon
B)eBay
C)Wikipedia
D)Facebook

Question 26

Which of the following is an example of C2C e-commerce?

A)Amazon
B)Groupon
C)Craigslist
D)Go2Paper

Question 27

The fact that e-commerce is conducted on the basis of universal standards increases search costs for consumers.

Question 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.

Question 29

How has e-commerce changed the marketing of goods?

Question 30

Which of the following is an example of B2B e-commerce?

A)Airbnb
B)Facebook
C)Groupon
D)Go2Paper

Question 31

Business-to-consumer (B2
C)e-commerce in the United States:

A)has grown at double-digit rates between 2010 and 2015.
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.

Question 32

Which of the following is an example of an on-demand service company?

A)YouTube
B)Airbnb
C)Tumblr
D)Facebook

Question 33

Cost transparency refers to the ease with which consumers can find out the variety of prices in a market.

Question 34

E-commerce technologies provide a unique, many-to-many model of mass communication.

Question 35

Ubiquity lowers the cognitive energy required to transact in a marketspace.

Question 36

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 (B2

Question 37

Which of the following is not true about the use of apps?

A)The average U.S. consumer spends over two hours a day using apps.
B)Users still spend less time using apps than they do using desktops or mobile Web sites.
C)Apps are easier to control and monetize than Web sites.
D)Around 280 million people worldwide launch a smartphone app more than 60 times a day.

Question 38

Which of the following statements about e-commerce in the United States in 2015 is not true?

A)Social e-commerce generates more revenue than mobile e-commerce.
B)About 200 million U.S. consumers use mobile apps.
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.

Question 39

B2B e-commerce is the largest type of e-commerce.

Question 40

List and briefly explain the main types of e-commerce.

Question 41

Which of the following is not a major business trend in e-commerce in 2015-2016?

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 multi-billion dollar valuations.
D)Mobile and social advertising platforms begin to challenge search engine marketing.

Question 42

In which year can e-commerce be said to have begun?

A)1983
B)1985
C)1995
D)2001

Question 43

Which of the following is not a major business trend in e-commerce in 2015-2016?

A)the growth of a mobile app ecosystem
B)the weakening revenues of B2B e-commerce
C)the emergence of social e-commerce
D)the growth of the on-demand service firms

Question 44

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.

Question 45

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.

Question 46

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

Question 47

All of the following are issues facing Pinterest except:

A)copyright infringement.
B)inability to retain users.
C)spam.
D)scams.

Question 48

Which of the following is not a major technology trend in e-commerce in 2015-2016?

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)Computing and networking component prices increase dramatically.

Question 49

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.

Question 50

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.

Question 51

In 2015, roughly ________ million people in the United States accessed the Internet via tablets.

A)59
B)94
C)159
D)194

Question 52

Which of the following 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

Question 53

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.

Question 54

The size of the B2B market in 2015 was estimated to be around:

A)$630 million.
B)$6.3 billion.
C)$630 billion.
D)$6.3 trillion.

Question 55

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.

Question 56

All of the following are major social trends in e-commerce in 2015-2016 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)the refusal of online retailers to accept taxation of Internet sales.
D)the growth of government surveillance of Internet communications.

Question 57

In 2015, there were an estimated ________ Internet hosts.

A)1 million
B)10 million
C)100 million
D)1 billion

Question 58

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.

Question 59

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 Web site 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 Web site depicting the firm's brand.

Question 60

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.

Question 61

Which of the following was the original "killer app" that made the Internet commercially interesting and extraordinarily popular?

A)e-commerce
B)The World Wide Web
C)social networks
D)mobile apps

Question 62

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.

Question 63

The emergence of mobile, social, and local e-commerce occurred during the Consolidation period of e-commerce.

Question 64

The Internet has shown similar growth patterns as other electronic technologies of the past.

Question 65

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

Question 66

The Reinvention period of e-commerce is as much a sociological phenomenon as it is a technological or business phenomenon.

Question 67

What is a first mover? Why was being a first mover considered to be important during the early years of e-commerce?

Question 68

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.

Question 69

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.

Question 70

Retail e-commerce in the United States is not expected to continue growing at double-digit growth rates in 2015-2016.

Question 71

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.

Question 72

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.

Question 73

The Internet is a worldwide network of computer networks.

Question 74

Price dispersion remains pervasive online.

Question 75

Which of the following is an example of an e-commerce first mover that failed?

A)Etsy
B)eToys
C)eBay
D)E*Trade

Question 76

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

Question 77

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)

Question 78

Above all, e-commerce is a ________ phenomenon.

A)technology driven
B)finance-driven
C)sociological
D)government-driven

Question 79

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

Question 80

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