The impact of e-commerce is evident in much of the research being conducted at the Haas School and elsewhere at the University of California at Berkeley. Because e-commerce affects business in so many ways, the Haas School approaches e-commerce research within a variety of disciplines, including public policy, finance, manufacturing and information technology, marketing, organizational behavior, and industrial relations.

E-commerce research at the Haas School of Business
E-commerce research elsewhere at UC Berkeley

E-commerce research at the Haas School of Business
Faculty members at the Haas School are among the leading researchers in the area of technology and business. At the Haas School, much of this scholarly effort takes place within the Fisher Center for the Strategic Use of Information Technology. The Fisher Center is an umbrella organization that supports inquiry into areas such as marketing, human resources management, supply chain management, telecommunications, and business-to-business e-commerce.

The Management of Technology Program is also a major research producer at Berkeley, having created joint research programs in areas such as competitive semiconductor manufacturing, green design and manufacturing, and the Japanese management of technology. Many of the research efforts of faculty are spun off regularly into new MBA courses -- a key benefit of a research-oriented business school.

The Haas School’s proximity to Silicon Valley, the world capital of high tech, has created robust connections between research and practice at the Haas School. Through the activities of programs on the Berkeley campus, the Haas School is playing a pivotal role in the evolving Information Age.

Fisher Center for Strategic Use of Information Technology

The Fisher Center for Strategic Use of Information Technology focuses on the radical restructuring of business that is occurring today, largely as a result of the implementation of new information technologies. The Center brings together scholars in supply chain and logistics management, marketing and demand management, information technology, and communications to examine the rapidly changing competitive environment of the Internet age. The Fisher Center is devoted to interdisciplinary research, outreach, and education on the strategic use and management of information technology. Business-to-business e-commerce and marketplace transformation are of particular interest.

Russ Winer, Co-Director
Sara Beckman, Co-Director

These are some of the programs under the Fisher Center:

• Center for Information Technology and Marketplace Transformation (CITM)
  Professor Arie Segev, Director 
  The Center for Information Technology and Marketplace Transformation (CITM), established in 1994, focuses on the impact of the Internet and other advanced information technologies on marketplace transformation through e-commerce. Major projects include: web-based business-to-business procurement transformation, the impact of component-based electronic commerce technologies and standards on the marketplace infrastructure, and brokering and intermediation in e-commerce.

  The center runs the Forum on Procurement and Marketplace Transformation in cooperation with the CommerceNet Consortium and The Object Framework for Electronic Requisitioning (OFFER). OFFER includes a variety of brokerage services ranging from negotiation support to trusted third party services. Related work has been done in the area of Internet Auctions. Another CITM program, Procurement 2000, studies business-to-business procurement in the next millennium.

   

• Center for Marketing and Technology
  Rashi Glazer, Co-Director
  Peter Sealey, Co-Director
  The Center for Marketing and Technology (CMAT), established in 1998, focuses on major shifts in marketing management that have come about as a result of implementation of advanced information technology. Specifically, the CMAT examines development of brand equity on the World Wide Web, resolution of conflicts in channel of distribution, development of sustainable competitive advantage, mass customization opportunities, and implementation of new market research methods. The Center was founded on the premise that an unprecedented linking between marketing and technology is taking place. The Center explores this link by studying how marketing guides and improves the process of adopting technology and how technology is changing the theory and practice of marketing as well as the marketing function within the organization. The Center aims to attract leading firms, both small and large, domestic and international, users as well as providers of technology, across a representative set of industries.

   

• Center for Telecommunications and Digital Convergence
  Michael Katz, Director
  This research and outreach center helps businesses and governments understand the sweeping developments in telecommunications markets - including networked multimedia - and use that understanding to attain a competitive advantage and implement sound public policies.

  CTDC concentrates on critical issues in telecommunications convergence facing industry, government, and the international research community. Questions the Center addresses include: What are the proper horizontal and vertical scopes of content and conduit providers under convergence? Should firms specialize? Do economies of scale and scope extend to joint provision of content and conduit? Are cross-service economies of scope realized in the underlying transmission networks driving convergence?

   

• Supply Chain Management Initiative
  Dorit Hochbaum, Director
  Success in today’s competitive global environment requires the strategic management of high-tech, global and segmented production and delivery processes to meet increasing customer demands for responsiveness, quality, and low prices. Forward-thinking executives must employ new technological and quantitative tools to devise an integrated approach to managing their entire business, including procurement, inventory, manufacturing, logistics, distribution, and sales. The SCMI develops and analyzes effective strategies for improving the competitiveness of business enterprises through successful management of their global supply chains.

Berkeley Business Incubator
In 1997, supporters of the Lester Center established a business incubator for start-ups created by current Haas School students and recent graduates. Located near the business school, the incubator is designed to provide office space and advanced telecommunications capabilities to promising new ventures that have progressed beyond initial planning. Proximity to the school also allows enhanced access to the Lester Center's resources, including the networks of venture capitalists, attorneys, accountants, and consultants that are so important to the Bay Area's entrepreneurial process. The incubator is funded with donations from advisers and friends of the Lester Center.

Management of Technology Program
Robert E. Cole, Co-Director
Paul K. Wright, Co-Director

The Management of Technology (MOT) Program brings together faculty and students from the Haas School of Business, the School of Information Management and Systems, and the College of Engineering at UC Berkeley to address all aspects of the technology development process, from product definition and resource allocation to process development, manufacturing, and delivery of the new technology to the marketplace. The MOT Program sponsors a certificate open to MBA and Ph.D. students in the Haas School and the College of Engineering. MOT courses draw 40-60 students each year. MOT seminars, which expose students to current technologies and technology management issues, include the Emerging Technologies Seminar, hosted by the Center for Information Technology & Marketplace Transformation (CITM), as well as an annual lecture series in the Management of Technology endowed by Lucent Technologies. MOT research projects include:

• Competitive Semiconductor Manufacturing Program
  
• Consortium on Green Design and Manufacturing
  
• Organizational Responses in High-Risk Environments
  
• U.S.-Japan Industry and Technology Management Training Program
  

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E-commerce research elsewhere at UC Berkeley

• Berkeley E-conomy Project
  The E-conomy Project is a collaborative undertaking of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE), the College of Engineering, the Haas School of Business and the School of Information Management and Systems with participating faculty from other departments at UC Berkeley and other UC campuses. The project fuses these academics' research agendas with the knowledge and concerns of industry leaders and policy makers, creating an intellectual resource to focus on the profound transformation being wrought by new digital technologies. The project aims to develop new metrics, historical analogs and business models, and more effective policies, legal frameworks and corporate strategies.
  

• Computer Science Department
  Among its e-commerce projects, the Computer Science Department hosts the UC Berkeley Digital Library Project. This project is developing the tools to support improved models of the "scholarly information life cycle" to facilitate the move from the current centralized, discrete publishing model, to a distributed, continuous, and self-publishing model, while still preserving the best aspects of the current model.

• School of Information Management and Systems
  The School of Information Management and Systems educates information managers, a profession that is inherently interdisciplinary, requiring aspects of computer science, cognitive science, business, law, library/information studies, and communications.

• School of Journalism
  In the School of Journalism’s New Media Program, students learn to design, operate, and write for web publications. Specialized new media courses teach interactive story telling, editorial models for multimedia publishing, and the role of the professional journalist on the web.

• Boalt School of Law
  Boalt's Center for Law and Technology promotes the understanding and guides the development of intellectual property and related fields of law and policy as they intersect with business, science, and technology. The Center publishes the Berkeley Technology Law Journal.

• College of Engineering
  The Management of Technology Program, a joint effort between the Haas School and the College of Engineering is a research and teaching program that brings together faculty and students from both sides of campus to address critical technology management issues. Management of Technology is the set of activities associated with bringing high technology products to the marketplace.

• Institute for Management, Innovation, and Organization (IMIO)
  IMIO provides a focus for the study of management science and facilitates an interdisciplinary approach to the problems of management and policy. The new institute administers faculty research grants, arranges conferences, colloquia, and seminars, publishes working papers and technical reports, and hosts visiting scholars.

• Institute of Business and Economic Research
  The Institute of Business and Economic Research (IBER) promotes research by Berkeley faculty and graduate students on all aspects of business and economic science.

• Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE)
  The E-conomy Project is a collaborative undertaking of the Berkeley Roundtable on the International Economy (BRIE), the College of Engineering, the Haas School of Business and the School of Information Management and Systems with participating faculty from other departments at UC Berkeley and other UC campuses. The project fuses these academics' research agendas with the knowledge and concerns of industry leaders and policy makers, creating an intellectual resource to focus on the profound transformation being wrought by new digital technologies. The project aims to develop new metrics, historical analogs and business models, and more effective policies, legal frameworks and corporate strategies.

[E-commerce courses at the Haas School for MBA students]
[E-commerce courses at the Haas School's Center for Executive Development]
[E-commerce courses at the Haas School for undergraduate students]
[E-commerce courses elsewhere at UC Berkeley]
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