E‐commerce Operations Management

Citation

Simpson, M. (2003), "E‐commerce Operations Management", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 10 No. 3, pp. 357-358. https://doi.org/10.1108/14626000310489844

This is the book that unites both operations management and e‐commerce. It is a comprehensive text on operations management that ensures that e‐commerce is fully integrated into the organisation. The topics of each chapter could easily be lifted from any operations management text, but with e‐commerce as its focus. For example, there are chapters on critical success factors, product and process design and management, quality, supply chain management, purchasing, forecasting and scheduling, inventory management, human resource management and business process re‐engineering.

The whole book is very well written and constantly refers back to the academic literature. There is an awful lot one could learn from this text both as a student and as a lecturer. The learning objectives for each chapter are presented followed by an overview of the chapter. Each chapter is carefully structured, has excellent diagrams and tables, provides a list of review terms, discussion questions and potential examination questions and references. There is a logical flow of information throughout each chapter and the reader rapidly develops a clear understanding of the topic. Each chapter has a comprehensive and carefully prepared list of references that would be easy to follow‐up and extend one’s reading on the topic. Most of the references are very recent, making this text as up to date as possible given the rapidly changing business environment in which e‐commerce is developing.

The text concerns itself with e‐commerce (transactional activity only, using a Web site) rather than the e‐business approach (integrated systems within the company). However, some chapters start with a description of the operations management issues and concepts first, then go on to examine the requirements for e‐commerce and the effect of e‐commerce on the operations and strategy of the organisation (e.g. the chapter on e‐commerce and supply chain management). This is a good way into the subject matter in my opinion.

There are some sections linking to ERP systems but these are somewhat shorter than I expected. I was particularly interested in the critical success factors (CSFs) for ERP implementation since I am involved in some research in this area. The list of critical success factors is interesting because it differs somewhat from the usually accepted list of CSFs and mentions some important areas that are sometimes overlooked, such as the commitment to a really good manual system. However, as with all complex management systems, the usual suspects of top management commitment and training and education are also presented as CSFs.

The authors do not hide the fact that the book is essentially an academic literature review. Many tables are given referring back to the literature on various topics. The literature covered is comprehensive but the discussion is somewhat short in places and tantalising. This would be fine for a research paper, but in a textbook more detail is needed to show the student the way forward, in my opinion. The book would have benefited from being somewhat longer (say a third longer) and more detailed and possibly more prescriptive in approach, in my opinion. This might have broadened the target audience somewhat to managers and practitioners.

The target audience for this text is claimed to be “upper level undergraduate course or a graduate business or engineering management course on e‐commerce operations management for university students”. The target audience is fine, in my opinion, for this textbook. However, for a more detailed understanding of a particular topic the original literature would also need to be consulted. This is not a bad thing for students to do but the textbook itself should address the topics in a little more detail, in my opinion. This is a minor criticism really because the text does provide an exceptionally well‐written review of the current state of thinking on this particular topic.

There is much of value in the current text that operations managers and undergraduate and postgraduate students can learn and benefit from. In fact, some topics are so clear and concise that, even if e‐commerce were not contemplated, the operations aspects are so well thought out and well presented that an operations manager would learn something about operations management. Where detail and summary tables are given the text has considerable merit and shows the expertise of the authors. Chapter 6 on e‐commerce and forecasting and scheduling management, which seems to have the least concern with e‐commerce, demonstrates this very well. The relationship of JIT with forecasting changes in demand and how this information is fed back down the supply chain is covered with some expertise.

I am aware that this review is for a journal on small businesses and that the text being discuss does not venture into the area of small business management. However, the nature of the text is such that it covers the very problems of operations management and e‐commerce witnessed in many small businesses and often tackled by these companies on an ad hoc basis. This text would allow clearer thought to prevail in dealing with operations related to e‐commerce. The book is therefore doubly useful for the SME manager in that operations and e‐commerce are covered in such a way that improvements to the organisation can be effected. However, the academic nature of the text and the lack of detail in places would be a frustration for many managers and probably for some students too, in my opinion.

My overall impression of the book is that it is well written, clear, concise and covers some useful and very relevant topics. Where the authors are allowed the space to write, their considerable expertise shows through and is a pleasure to read. The target audience of undergraduates and postgraduates tackling an e‐commerce module is correct, in my opinion. The usefulness and relevance to managers is more problematic in that the text is written in a very academic way with constant reference back to the literature, which managers do not have access to or the time to read. This approach is fine for academics familiar with the literature but a more prescriptive approach would be needed for managers, in my opinion. Nevertheless, there is much to be learned from this text that has a direct bearing on the way organisations operate when using e‐commerce and this would be very useful for managers, in my opinion.

The book appears to have been written to a concise formula with restricted page length and this shows throughout. Few case studies or case examples are given and again this may be seen as a weakness. However, the Dell example is interesting. If I was a student on an e‐commerce module, this book would be a very good introduction to the literature, but I would need to supplement my reading by tackling the academic literature cited for the fine details for an essay or assignment. The strength of the book is that it is well written, has comprehensive coverage of the literature and a list of references for each chapter. This textbook would make a very useful recommended text for any module in e‐commerce and operations management. It would also make very useful supplementary reading for students studying operations management.