(ACEM) - Integration of Research and Practice for Teaching of e-Business and e-Marketplaces

Tuesday, June 17, 2008, Hotel Golf Flora, 9:00 - 10:30

Co-chairs:
Andreja Pucihar, Associate Professor & Head of eMarkets Laboratory
eCenter, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, University of Maribor, Slovenia
Matt Glowatz, College Lecturer
MBS eBusiness Coordinator, School of Business, University College Dublin, Ireland
Ronald Batenburg, Associate Professor
Department of Information and Computing Sciences, Utrecht University, The Netherlands

Presenters:
to be indicated

This year’s Academic Electronic Marketplace (ACEM) workshop will build on ACEM workshop meetings organized as part of the 2005, 2006, and 2007 Bled eConference.

Workshop outline

Use of Internet e-commerce technologies enables organizations to simplify internal and inter-organizational business processes. Business partners cooperate in more effective way. Moreover, use of recent Internet technologies results in new innovative business models. Organizations using these models might gain important competitive advantage in the market. 
One of these models is also e-marketplace.

E-marketplaces are new business models using recent e-commerce technologies. E-marketplace can be defined as a virtual marketplace where buyers and suppliers meet to exchange information about product and service offerings, and to negotiate and conduct business transactions. E-marketplace enables sellers to enter new markets, to find new buyers, and to increase sales. Conversely, an e-marketplace gives a buyer access to a broader range of products and services offered by sellers and to quickly compare various offerings by price and performance. E-marketplace services support the exchange of large amounts of data regarding supply and demand between buyers and sellers, and the implementation of the business transactions.

Due to the lack of awareness and knowledge many organizations are not exploiting benefits of new e-commerce technologies and new business models. Therefore it is important for the universities to identify the needed business environment knowledge, to create it and to transfer it to its customers – students and companies. This is possible only by close collaboration of researchers (universities), e-commerce technology providers, organizations and governments.

The aim of the ACEM initiative is to improve understanding, awareness and practical skills of students and managers in e-business.

Invited workshop participants are to

• Present current teaching methods of e-business and e-marketplaces
• Address problems facing with in teaching of e-business and e-marketplaces
• Discuss previous experience organizing and managing collaborative e-business and e-marketplaces related student projects between Universities
• Outline future collaborate research activities and discuss possible avenues to get there

Workshop Objectives

• To implement existing electronic marketplace solution into academic environment and learning system.
• To create environment for practical training and knowledge transfer for students and SME’s in the field of e-business.
• To create European academic e-marketplace network for managerial games and business simulations as innovative method of e-business management education.
• To create environment for e-business and e-marketplace research and development (analysis, problem solving…).
• To create environment for testing e-business models.

Workshop Action Points

The ACEM initiative is a highly dynamic process, thus, the following action points are necessary to achieve objectives set by ACEM committee:

• Agree on collaborative student research projects to be conducted during the 2008/2009 academic year.
• Set timeframes and deliverables for those projects.
• Agree to publish joint research papers discussing ACEM related topics.
• Set timeframes and deliverables for those projects.
• Identify Universities who may contribute to future ACEM meetings.
• Discuss and organize a “mini”-ACEM meeting as part of the annual Merkur Day gathering.