E-mail: a7636ai BUS642E001 "a7636ai@hibbs.vcu.edu" Or: mbagal@i2020.net
BIZStrat is a prototype of a student on-line textbook companion. It is the creation of two MBA students at Virginia Commonwealth University, in the fall of 1995.
This gives an example of what can be put on a World Wide Web site for students -- and professors -- to use as an aid to in-class materials and textbooks. The original concept aimed to add value to the traditional required textbook. While this on-line companion would not take the place of a textbook, it would augment that information in a cost-efficient and more up-to-date manner.
This BIZStrat prototype is based on an undergraduate Strategic Management class for senior business majors who have completed all core business courses.
Through the use of this tool, we foresee textbooks being published at half their traditional size and a fraction of their current cost. We feel that the savings in the actual publishing side (paper, ink, typesetting, etc.) will more than offset the cost of setting up and updating the Web site and placing the extensive instructor's manuals on diskette. Additionally, use of this tool, electronic communications and diskettes would allow quicker updating of cases (which often make up half of these books) than traditional publishing does now, and less expensive marketing.
We believe a Web site will provide a more stable revenue stream than the current textbook market. Currently, within a year or two of a new book coming out, the market is glutted with used books, thus a limited number of new books are ordered. With the use of the Web site, there would be a steady stream of new subscribers each semester, even with the use of secondhand textbooks. We anticipate that the address of the Web site will change on a semester basis, to ensure this revenue stream.
This site is under construction, but we would like you to browse it and give us your comments and suggestions before we meet with publisher representatives.
Please excuse our mess, we are learning as we go. This product is best viewed using a Netscape browser.
Copyright © Marilyn Shaw and Merri Incitti
This page last updated November 1995
The text contained in this prototype is original, but based loosely on introductory chapters in "Strategic Management An Integrated Approach," Third Edition, by Charles W. L. Hill and Gareth R. Jones, published by Houghton Mifflin, 1995, and in "Strategic Management: Formulation, Implementation & Control,'' by John A. Pearce II and Richard B. Robinson Jr., published by Irwin, 1995.
May we suggest you start your tour by viewing the:
Chapter 1 summary