By Susan Thomas
The Marriott School of Management and The Rollins Center for e-Business are opening a 400 -level management elective to students of all majors for the first time during Winter Semester 2005.
Internet Marketing (Business management 457) explores the new technology and new media forms that create challenges and opportunities for business.
'The internet has grown faster than any other medium in the history of the world,' said John Richards, managing director of the Rollins Center for e-Business. 'It is crucial that BYU students entering today''s business world understand how marketing works in a networked society.'
Professor for the course, Doug Witt said e-commerce is reshaping the way business leaders think about management, strategy and business design. There is a need for managers and executives who understand strategy in the networked economy.
Witt said the Internet continues to break down traditional barriers to global commerce enabling companies to extend their operations and services worldwide to a seamless global economy.
The Marriott School wants BYU students of all academic disciplines to be familiar with how to strategically employ the Internet to solve a variety of economic, social and cultural problems, Witt said.
'We think as we intermingle students with a variety of backgrounds and interests we can discuss a mix of new ideas and applications,' he said.
Although the class brings together students of diverse disciplines and backgrounds, there is a heavy business and marketing component to the course. Students will learn to apply an understanding of Internet technology, various business models, resource structures and basic marketing principles.
The Marriott School and Rollins center for e-Business invite students from all majors to take the course in order to measure the overall interest in e-business courses.
The three-credit course will meet Mondays and Wednesdays from 8 to 9:20 a. m. starting next semester.
Depending on student interest in the course, it is undetermined whether or not the course will be open to non-business majors in the future.