CIS 220, Business Information Systems and Analytics

Fall 2020

Reading Assignment and Case Write-up due at 11:59pm on Monday, September 7th

Teams (by noon on Thursday, September 3rd) If you are going to do the assignments on your own this semester, you do not need to do anything. My recommended team size is two and the maximum team size is three. You may be on a team with someone from the other section if you would like. If you are going to be on a team of two or three, please do the following by noon on Thursday, September 3rd:

1. Have one person on your team send an email to [email protected] with subject “220 Team”.

2. CC this email to the other people on your team. 3. In the body of your email list everyone on your team, including you, one person per line,

with first name, last name, and optionally preferred name in parenthesis if it is different than the first name, e.g., Michael Wang (Mike).

Reading Assignment NOTE: you should only write up answers to the Case Write-up questions in the section below this, i.e., you should NOT write up answers to the six questions in this section. Read Chapter 7 from the text on Amazon and be prepared to discuss it in class. Think about the following questions:

1. From a customer’s perspective, what are the pros and cons of buying a physical book online from Amazon vs. Barnes and Noble store?

2. From a business model perspective excluding the customer’s perspective, what advantages does

Amazon enjoy over Barnes and Noble? What advantages does Barnes and Noble enjoy over Amazon?

3. What are the pros and cons of Amazon’s recent investments to support faster, even same day, delivery? Do you think these investments make sense?

4. Which of the five value disciplines does Amazon exhibit? What would you say is their primary value discipline?

5. In 2017 Amazon purchased Whole Foods for $13.7 billion. Why do you think Whole Foods was attractive to Amazon?

6. Shortly after purchasing Whole Foods, Amazon announced they would be cutting prices at Whole Foods. What is the primary con of doing so? Why do you think they cut prices?

Commented [RJ1]: If there is a second session, you may be on a team with someone from the other section (but there’s not this spring).

mailto:[email protected]
Case Write-up

1. The chapter discusses Amazon’s use of dynamic pricing, i.e., changing prices somewhat rapidly over time. Consider a related concept of individualized pricing, i.e., charging different customers different prices for the same product at the same point in time. What are the pros and cons of individualized pricing for Amazon? Do you think Amazon should do individual pricing? Why or why not?

2. Initially, Amazon primarily sold physical books. Thinking of the term product more broadly, in

what ways have they added value to their physical book products using information? Think about what information you get from Amazon when you buy a new hard cover copy of a physical book from them that you don’t get when you purchase the same book from other online retailers.

3. The text mentions that Amazon has a negative cash conversion cycle. What does this mean? Assume Amazon’s Cash Conversion Cycle is -20 days. Try to estimate what this was worth to Amazon in FY 2019. Make whatever assumptions you feel are necessary. There is no “right” answer, but it is likely that some will be more reasonable than others. I would not spend more than 20 – 30 minutes on this question. Think about what’s going on and how you might estimate the value and do a back of the envelope calculation, i.e., your answer should be a number and you should show how you came up with it. NOTE that I am not asking you to calculate the Cash Conversion Cycle, but instead telling you to assume it’s -20 and then asking you to estimate what this is worth on an annual basis.

Your entire write-up should be approximately one page, single-spaced, with at least 1” margins and 12- point font. Your case write-up only needs to address the three questions listed immediately above. Please submit your assignment on Blackboard with one submission per team. Note that you will not be able to submit until teams are created. While I hope this will be by Friday, you may not be able to submit until Monday evening.