IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Syllabus
University of Southern California
Marshall School of Business
IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Fall 2012
Units: 2.0
Prerequisites: None
Schedule: Wednesday, 6:00-7:50pm, ACC 310
Office Hours: Wednesday, 7:50-8:20pm, ACC 310
Professor Richard W. Selby
Bridge Hall 401
rselby@marshall.usc.edu
949-400-8941, cell
Course Introduction
The internet provides an innovative global digital platform that enables small businesses to
communicate information, create relationships, and conduct business in an efficient, effective,
and scalable manner. Understanding the current and future uses of the internet for small
businesses is essential and empowering for any student. This introductory course summarizes
the foundational knowledge and skills that any student needs to know about managing a small
business on the internet. This course focuses on internet strategies, tools, and resources
organized into eight major themes for managing small businesses:
 Innovation
 Market forces
 Challenges
 Search and advertising
 Analytics and targeting
 Security and privacy
 Organizational and market impact
 Future internet trends
This course does not assume prior knowledge of internet topics for managing small businesses,
and there are no prerequisites. This course is open to all USC students from all schools and all
majors.
Course Definition (from Course Catalog)
Foundational knowledge for managing a small business on the internet, including strategies,
tools, and resources integrated with hands-on skills for developing a small business website.
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IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Syllabus
Learning Objectives
In this course students will learn:
 Foundational knowledge and skills for managing a small business on the internet
 Knowledge of internet strategies, tools, and resources for managing a small business
 Hands-on skills of creating, developing, and launching an internet website for a small
business
Course Format
This course meets for 15 class sessions (except for any conflicts with holidays), and there is an
additional session at the end for the final exam. Classes include a mixture of lectures,
demonstrations, and discussions. Students are expected to read the materials in advance of class,
come to class prepared to discuss the readings, apply the internet skills they learn in class in a
project that uses commercial tools to customize a pre-configured system for internet-based small
businesses, and demonstrate their internet-based small business project to showcase its features.
Students are encouraged to collaborate with others on their projects to foster ideas and get
feedback for improvements.
Course Reading Materials
Course reading materials are provided that describe internet business topics including
knowledge, resources, and current events in the economy. Course reading materials are
organized into a course reader, and the materials are as follows:
Innovation
 “The World’s Most Innovative Companies in Web/Internet”, FastCompany.com, August 27,
2012, 4 pages.
 “The World’s Most Innovative Companies in Mobile”, FastCompany.com, August 27, 2012,
4 pages.
 “The World’s Most Innovative Companies in Social Media”, FastCompany.com, August 27,
2012, 3 pages.
 “The World’s Most Innovative Companies in Advertising”, FastCompany.com, August 27,
2012, 4 pages.
 “The World’s Most Innovative Companies: Top 10 by Industry”, FastCompany.com, August
27, 2012, 7 pages.
 Stu Woo, “U. S. Web Sales Sparkled for Holiday Season”, Wall Street Journal WSJ.com,
December 30, 2011, 2 pages.
 Spencer Ante, “Avoiding Innovation’s Terrible Toll”, Wall Street Journal WSJ.com, January
7, 2012, 3 pages.
Market forces
 Associated Press, “Report: Apple Leads the Mobile Computer Market”, Wall Street Journal
WSJ.com, February 16, 2011, 2 pages.
 Rolfe Winkler, “After Legal Victory, Apple Patently Rules in Mobile Devices”, Wall Street
Journal WSJ.com, August 26, 2012, 2 pages.
 John Letzing and Jessica Vascellaro, “Apple Seeks U.S. Sales Ban on Eight Samsung
Devices”, Wall Street Journal WSJ.com, August 27, 2012, 3 pages.
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IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Syllabus
 Amir Efrati and Jessica Vascellaro, “Power Shifts Atop Google”, Wall Street Journal
WSJ.com, January 21, 2011, 4 pages.
 Christopher Lawton and Nick Wingfield, “Nokia Gambles on a Microsoft Lifeline”, Wall
Street Journal WSJ.com, February 12, 2011, 4 pages.
 Holly Finn, “Can We Humanize the Web?”, Wall Street Journal WSJ.com, December 31,
2011, 2 pages.
 Spencer Ante and Shara Tibken, “IBM Buys Software Maker for $1.3 Billion”, Wall Street
Journal WSJ.com, August 27, 2012, 2 pages.
Challenges
 Emily Steel and Geoffrey Fowler, “Big Brands Like Facebook, But They Don’t Like to Pay”,
Wall Street Journal WSJ.com, November 2, 2011, 4 pages.
 Emily Steel and Geoffrey Fowler, “Companies that ‘Like’ Facebook Ads”, Wall Street
Journal WSJ.com, November 2, 2011, 3 pages.
 Roger Cheng, “So You Want to Use Your iPhone for Work? Uh-oh”, Wall Street Journal
WSJ.com, April 25, 2011, 4 pages.
 Michael Totty, “The First Virus”, Wall Street Journal WSJ.com, September 26, 2011, 3
pages.
 Mathew Schwartz, “Stuxnet Launched by United States and Israel”, Information Week
InformationWeek.com, June 1, 2012, 2 pages.
 Daniel Fineren and Amena Bakr, “Saudi Aramco Says Most Damage from Computer Attack
Fixed”, Reuters Reuters.com, August 26, 2012, 1 page.
 David Kiley and Burt Helm, “The Short Life of the Chief Marketing Officer”, Business Week
BusinessWeek.com, November 28, 2007, 3 pages.
Search and advertising
 Youngme Moon, “Google Advertising,” Harvard Business School case, Article Product
Number 9-507-038, October 11, 2007, 15 pages.
 David Segal, “The Dirty Little Secrets of Search”, The New York Times NYTimes.com,
February 12, 2011, 9 pages.
 Susan Wojcicki, “Increasing Transparency and Choice with Ads on Search and Gmail”, The
Official Google Blog googleblog.blogspot.com, October 31, 2011, 3 pages.
 “Search Engine Optimization”, Wikipedia Wikipedia.org, December 31, 2011, 8 pages. This
article is OPTIONAL reading.
Analytics and targeting
 Julia Angwin, “The Web’s New Gold Mine: Your Secrets”, Wall Street Journal WSJ.com,
July 30, 2010, 7 pages.
 Julia Angwin and Tom McGinty, “Sites Feed Personal Details to New Tracking Industry”,
Wall Street Journal WSJ.com, July 30, 2010, 3 pages.
 Emily Steel, “Using Credit Cards to Target Web Ads”, Wall Street Journal WSJ.com,
October 25, 2011, 3 pages.
 Amir Efrati and Jennifer Valentino-Devries, “Computers, Too, Can Give Away Location”,
Wall Street Journal WSJ.com, April 27, 2011, 3 pages.
 Steve Lohr, “The Age of Big Data”, The New York Times NYTimes.com, February 11, 2012,
5 pages.
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IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Syllabus
 Press Release, “Obama Administration Unveils ‘Big Data’ Initiative: Announces $200
Million in New R&D Investments”, Executive Office of the President of the United States,
March 29, 2012, 4 pages.
Security and privacy
 Jennifer Valentino-Devries, “How to Avoid the Prying Eyes”, Wall Street Journal WSJ.com,
July 30, 2010, 3 pages.
 Julia Angwin, “Latest in Web Tracking: Stealthy ‘Supercookies’”, Wall Street Journal
WSJ.com, August 18, 2011, 3 pages.
 Julia Angwin and Jennifer Valentino-Devries, “Google’s iPhone Tracking”, Wall Street
Journal WSJ.com, February 17, 2012, 4 pages.
 Geoffrey Fowler and Amir Efrati, “Facebook Adds New Privacy Controls”, Wall Street
Journal WSJ.com, August 24, 2011, 2 pages.
 Siobhan Gorman, “The Government Model”, Wall Street Journal WSJ.com, September 26,
2011, 3 pages.
Organizational and market impact
 Francesco Guerrera, “Lessons Learned from Apple, Facebook”, Wall Street Journal
WSJ.com, August 27, 2012, 2 pages.
 Chris Murphy, “Procter & Gamble CIO Filippo Passerini: 2010 Chief of the Year”,
Information Week InformationWeek.com, December 4, 2010, 6 pages.
 Jack Nicas and Daniel Michaels, “The Self-Service Airport”, Wall Street Journal WSJ.com,
August 27, 2012, 3 pages.
Prerequisites
This course does not assume prior knowledge of internet topics for managing small businesses,
and there are no prerequisites. This course is open to all USC students from all schools and all
majors.
Course Grading
Several dimensions of performance factor into the grades for students:
 Internet-based small business project. Students will apply the internet business knowledge
and skills they learn in class in an internet-based small business project. Students will
propose a business idea for an internet-based small business. Class materials will be
presented that explain commercial internet options available to small businesses and a
framework for deciding among these options. Students will apply the framework to decide
on an internet approach that best matches their business idea. They will use commercial
tools to customize a pre-configured system for internet-based small businesses, and their
website will operate using a commercial platform from a supplier who hosts small businesses
on the internet. Students will demonstrate their internet-based small business project to
showcase its features and collaborate with others on their project to foster ideas and get
feedback for improvements. Guidance, instructions, demonstrations, and resources will be
provided.
 Quiz. In order to highlight key concepts as well as provide evaluative feedback to students,
there will be a quiz. This quiz serves many purposes including facilitating focus on key
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IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Syllabus
principles, providing students an opportunity to share their understanding of the material, and
identifying areas where further explanations are needed.
 Exam. The final exam will be comprehensive and cover all materials presented in all classes.
This exam will provide students the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge and skills
for managing a small business on the internet.
 Class participation. Class participation will be assessed subjectively. All students are
expected to contribute to the class discussions.
The following table defines the detailed breakdown of the course grading.
Grading Type
Description
Grade
Breakdown
Grade
Total
Internet-based small
business project
Phase 1: Define business model, internet
strategy, and plans for your internet-based small
business; In-class presentation
Phase 2: Select and setup website platform for
your internet-based small business; In-class
demonstration
Phase 3: Enhance the website for your internetbased small business; In-class demonstration
Phase 4: Enhance the website for your internetbased small business; In-class demonstration
Phase 5: Finalize the website for your internetbased small business; In-class demonstration
Subtotal
9%
9%
9%
9%
9%
45%
Quiz
Quiz
Subtotal
10%
Final exam
Subtotal
35%
Class participation
Subtotal
10%
10%
Exam
35%
Class participation
Total
100%
10%
100%
Course Communication
Course communication occurs through the posting of class materials into Blackboard
(http://blackboard.usc.edu ), email, and announcements in class. All of the presentation
materials will be posted into Blackboard, and class announcements will be sent via email using
Blackboard. Therefore, all students are required to have an active Blackboard account that they
use regularly and this account needs to define a correct email address.
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IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Syllabus
Course Outline and Schedule
Class
Session
and
Date
Session
#1.
8/29/12
Session
#2.
9/5/12
Session
#3.
9/12/12
Theme:
Learning Objectives
Readings and
Class
Discussions
Innovation
 Understand
advantages of the
internet for small
businesses
 Be aware of
example
innovative
websites
 Create innovative
ideas for how
small businesses
can use the
internet
 Understand the
pitfalls and
barriers that have
hindered
innovation in
companies
(continued)
(continued)
Market forces
Team
Project
Phase
1
Define business
model, internet
strategy, and
plans for your
internet-based
small business
1
1
 Understand the
market forces that
are influencing the
internet, such as
mobile devices
and multimedia
 Identify leading
internet companies
and how they
partner and
compete with one
another
 Understand the
importance of an
internet business
model to generate
revenue, such as
ecommerce,
6
Team Project
Assignments
In-class
presentation of
business model,
internet strategy,
and plans for
your internetbased small
business
Exam and
Quiz
IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Session
#4.
9/19/12
(continued)
Session
#5.
9/26/12
Challenges
Session
#6.
10/3/12
Search and
advertising
Session
#7.
10/10/12
(continued)
Session
#8.
10/17/12
No class; Use
class time to
meet with
advertising, and
referrals
(continued)
2
2
 Understand the
challenges that
small businesses
face using the
internet
 Understand
commercial
internet options
available to small
businesses
 Understand and
apply a framework
for deciding
among
commercial
internet options
for small
businesses
 Understand how to 2
expand an
internet-based
small business to
multiple markets
and devices
 Understand how to
drive traffic to an
internet-based
small business
using search
engines and
advertising
(continued)
3
3
7
Syllabus
Select and setup
website platform
for your internetbased small
business
In-class
demonstration of
your initial
website
Enhance the
website for your
internet-based
small business
Quiz
(covers
class
sessions 16)
IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Session
#9.
10/24/12
your team
Analytics and
targeting
3
 Understand and
apply analytics for
evaluating usage
and trends of an
internet-based
small business
 Understand how to
grow a small
business’s internet
traffic using
referrals, affiliates,
and partnerships
(continued)
4
Session
#10.
10/31/12
(continued)
Session
#11.
11/7/12
Security and
privacy
Session
#12.
11/14/12
(continued)
N/A.
11/21/12
No class;
Thanksgiving
break
Session
#13.
11/28/12
Organizational  Understand
5
and market
organizational and
impact
market impacts of
managing an
internet-based
small business
 Understand how to
avoid common
mistakes when
managing an
 Understand how to 4
establish internet
data security
mechanisms for an
internet-based
small business
 Understand how to
protect intellectual
property when
doing business on
the internet
(continued)
4
5
8
Syllabus
In-class
demonstration of
enhancements to
your website
Enhance the
website for your
internet-based
small business
In-class
demonstration of
enhancements to
your website
Finalize the
website for your
internet-based
small business
IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Session
#14.
12/5/12
internet-based
small business
Future internet  Understand future
trends
trends for
managing an
internet-based
small business
Final
exam.
12/12/12.
7:00pm9:00pm
5
Syllabus
In-class
demonstration of
final version of
your website
Final exam
(cumulative)
USC and Marshall Policies
Add/Drop Process
In compliance with USC and Marshall policies, classes are open enrollment (R-clearance)
through the first week of class. All classes are closed (switched to D-clearance) at the end of the
first week. This policy minimizes the complexity of the registration process for students by
standardizing across classes. The professor can drop you from the class if you do not attend the
first two sessions. Please note: If you decide to drop, or if you choose not to attend the first two
sessions and are dropped, you risk not being able to add into another section if offered this
semester, since they might reach capacity. You can only add a class after the first week of
classes if you receive approval from the instructor.
Marshall Grading Guidelines
Marshall’s course grading policy specifies a target mean GPA of 3.0 for required classes and 3.3
for electives. The mean target for graduate classes is 3.3. Marshall’s assignment/exam grading
policy specifies that the professor determines what qualifies as an accurate grade on an
assignment, exam, or other deliverable, and the professor’s evaluation of the performance of
each individual student is the final basis for assigning grades for the course.
Retention of Graded Coursework
Final exams and all other graded work which affected the course grade will be retained for one
year after the end of the course if the exam or other graded work has not already been returned to
the student. If the exam or other graded work has been returned to the student, it is the
responsibility of the student to retain it if he or she desires to do so.
Technology Video/Audio Policy
Videotaping faculty lectures is not permitted, due to copyright infringement regulations.
Audiotaping may be permitted if approved in advance by the professor. Use of any recorded
material is reserved exclusively for USC students.
Statement for Students with Disabilities
Any student requesting academic accommodations based on a disability is required to register
with Disability Services and Programs (DSP) each semester. A letter of verification for
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IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Syllabus
approved accommodations can be obtained from DSP. Please be sure the letter is delivered to
the professor as early in the semester as possible. DSP is located in STU 301 and is open from
8:30am to 5:00pm Monday through Friday. The phone number for DSP is (213) 740-0776.
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USC seeks to maintain an optimal learning environment. General principles of academic
honesty include the concept of respect for the intellectual property of others, the expectation that
individual work will be submitted unless otherwise allowed by an instructor, and the obligations
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http://scampus.usc.edu/gov/ ).
Students will be referred to the Office of Student Judicial Affairs and Community Standards for
further review should there be any suspicion of academic dishonesty. The Review process can
be found at http://www.usc.edu/student-affairs/SJACS/ . Failure to adhere to the academic
conduct standards set forth by these guidelines will not be tolerated by the USC Marshall
community and can lead to dismissal.
Emergency Preparedness/Course Continuity
In case of an emergency that causes travel to campus to be difficult, USC executive leadership
will announce an electronic way for instructors to teach students in their residence halls or homes
using a combination of Blackboard, teleconferencing, and other technologies. Professors should
be prepared to assign students a “Plan B” project that can be completed at a distance. For
additional information about maintaining your classes in an emergency please see
http://cst.usc.edu/services/emergencyprep.html .
Incomplete Grades Explanation
An incomplete (IN) grade may be assigned due to an “emergency” that occurs after the 12th
week of classes. An “emergency” is defined as a serious documented illness or an unforeseen
situation beyond the student’s control that prevents a student from completing the semester.
Prior to the 12th week, the student still has the option of dropping the class. Arrangements for
completing an IN course should be initiated by the student and negotiated with the professor.
Class work to complete the course should be completed within one calendar year from the date
the IN was assigned. The IN mark will be converted to an F grade should the course not be
completed.
Sexual Harassment
USC policies prohibit sexual harassment. According to Faculty Handbook 2008 Section 6-D,
sexual harassment consists of unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other
verbal or physical conduct of a sexual nature when: (a) submission to such conduct is either
explicitly or implicitly made a term or condition of an individual’s employment, appointment,
admission, or academic evaluation; (b) submission to such conduct is used as a basis for
evaluation in personnel decisions or academic evaluations affecting an individual; or (c) such
conduct has the purpose or effect of unreasonably interfering with an individual’s work or
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IOM 499 (IOM 462) Managing a Small Business on the Internet
Syllabus
academic performance, or creating an intimidating, hostile, or offensive working or learning
environment.
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