IST 755 Strategic Management of Information Resources School of Information Studies, Syracuse University Spring Semester 2015

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1 IST 755 Strategic Management of Information Resources School of Information Studies, Syracuse University Spring Semester 2015 Instructor: Frank Marullo Tel: (cell) Office Hours: Thursday 3:45pm-4:45pm, by appointment Class Hours: Thursday 5:00pm-7:45pm Class Room: Bowne Hall 125 Class Schedule and Topics: Please refer to Blackboard Course Description This class is a capstone course for the Masters of Science in Information Management. The primary objective of this course is to apply and expand on what you have learned throughout your masters program and work experiences to better understand the challenges of strategic management of information resources. We will use texts, articles, discussions, on-line sources, and student briefings to provide foundation material on strategic management concepts, their application to information resources, and the national and global contexts in which firms operate. We also will look at several current and emerging issues that are critical to the management of information resources. Objectives The learning objectives of this course are to be able to (1) use your knowledge to make strategic decisions with limited information, (2) demonstrate critical skills for understanding and evaluating global business and technology trends, (3) use analytic frameworks to understand how information resources can be put to work for businesses and other organizations, and (4) solve real problems through case studies, class exercises and individual and group projects. By the completion of this course, you should have increased your understanding of firm strategy, technology trends, industry structures, and national and global environments, and how all of these influence the strategic management of information resources. Readings and Other Resources to be Used Readings, videos and other resources will be posted on Blackboard in the weekly modules. Other materials will be handed out in class or available through the SU Library. Source materials for written projects

2 Your source materials may come from any number of quality venues, including on line databases, journals, newspapers, and magazines. a. Scholarly, peer reviewed journals include MIS Quarterly, Information Systems Research, Management Science, the Journal of Electronic Commerce, The Journal of Management Information Systems, the Journal of International Business Strategy, and Communications of the ACM, to name only a few. b. Practitioner-oriented journals include, but are not limited to, Sloan Management Review, Harvard Business Review, California Management Review, IEEE journals. c. Quality news sources include, but are not limited to, major newspapers such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, etc.; news and trade journals such as Newsweek, the Economist, Fortune, Forbes, Bloomberg/Business Week, Wired, Information Week, CIO, and Business 2.0; as well as reputable news sources from other countries that you will be researching in your projects. d. Online sources include the EIU Economist Intelligence Unit, Edgar and Disclosure databases, CIA world reports, OECD, UN, and World Bank publications, and other SU online database sources. Reports from consultancies such as McKinsey, Gartner, IDC and various Wall Street analysts can be valuable, but you need to distinguish between their viewpoints/predictions and hard data, as they are often blurred in these reports. e. Company financial reports and official announcements. Use corporate web sites with caution, as this is the public story. You should always validate this with your own research into the back story, rather than buying in to the edited and almost always positive version that appears on company websites. Wikipedia is not considered a definitive source, even if it provides a starting point. I should not see it in your bibliography of quality sources. The same is true of blogs, discussion forums and other sources whose information is not vetted. If those sources cite an original source, you should go to that source to confirm and cite it. Class Structure and Procedures This class will be organized around weekly class meetings and online learning modules. Learning modules will be available on Blackboard in advance so you can move ahead with the readings. New material may be added, or existing material may be modified up to the beginning of the week, so be sure to check on Blackboard regularly for any updates to assignments and discussions and for any announcements. You will be assigned to groups for discussions and other group activities both in class and online. The discussion groups will be rotated so that you will get to interact with different students throughout the semester. If you have any questions or suggestions regarding class procedures, please let me know right away. If you re not sure about something, ask me, or post a question to the general course discussion forum so others can respond and benefit from the answers.

3 Contribution to Grades Assignments and participation You will be tracking a company or organization throughout much of the semester, using concepts that are covered in class to study its strategies and use of information systems. You will write several papers analyzing a topic as it relates to your chosen company. You will be graded on your contribution to the class community, both in the classroom and online. The quality of the overall class experience will depend heavily on your own engagement and efforts within this community. Attendance will be taken, and will count toward your grade. The number of quality posts you make in the online discussions also will count. Projects Your final project will be to analyze an opportunity in information systems for a specific company or organization, and develop a final report with recommendations for delivery. More details will be provided when the assignment is given. Grades Final grades will be determined on approximately the following weighting. Final project: 40% Assignments: 40% Class contribution: 20% The following are my standards for grades: A Outstanding work, far exceeds expectations A- Excellent work, exceeds expectations in many areas B+ Above average work, meets all expectations, exceeds some B Average work, meets expectations B- Below average work, meets most expectations but not all C+ Below average on most dimensions C Well below average on all dimensions C- Meets the bare minimum for passing F Failing, does not meet minimum standards Expectations for the course include quality of thinking, quality of communication in presentations, discussion and writing, timeliness and consistency of effort, contribution to the understanding of others, teamwork, and overall professionalism. My expectations for Masters level students are high, so it is not easy to exceed them. Academic Integrity Syracuse University sets high standards for academic integrity. Those standards are supported and enforced by students, including those who serve as academic integrity hearing panel members and hearing officers. The presumptive sanction for a first offense is course failure, accompanied by the transcript notation Violation of the Academic Integrity Policy. The standard sanction for a first offense by graduate students is suspension or expulsion. Students

4 should review the Office of Academic Integrity online resource Twenty Questions and Answers About the Syracuse University Academic Integrity Policy and confer with instructors about course-specific citation methods, permitted collaboration (if any), and rules for examinations. The Policy also governs the veracity of signatures on attendance sheets and other verification of participation in class activities. Additional guidance for students can be found in the Office of Academic Integrity resource: What does academic integrity mean? Turnitin This class will be using Turnitin, a plagiarism prevention system. The ease of using the Internet has made it very easy for students to cut and paste material into papers that they are writing without proper citation. I will submit all/some/ papers that you write in this class to Turnitin, a service that identifies matched text. I will then interpret the originality report, based on your writing capability and writing style. In this class, you will also be given the opportunity to submit your own papers to Turnitin to check that all sources you have used are properly acknowledged and cited. Note that all submitted papers will be included as source documents in the Turnitin.com reference database, solely for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of such papers. IMPORTANT: For a group assignment, each member of a group whose name appears on any work that is turned in will be held fully and equally responsible for any violation of academic integrity. It is your responsibility to ensure that the entire paper meets the standards for academic integrity, not just the sections that you write yourself. Technology The ischool uses Syracuse University s Blackboard system to facilitate distance learning and main campus courses. The environment is composed of a number of elements that will help you be successful in both your current coursework and your lifelong learning opportunities. To access Blackboard, go to the following URL: Questions regarding Blackboard should be directed to ilms@syr.edu or Peggy Brown at (315) Disabilities If you believe that you need accommodations for a disability, please contact the Office of Disability Services (ODS), located at 804 University Avenue, room 309, or call for an appointment to discuss your needs and the process for requesting accommodations. ODS is responsible for coordinating disability-related accommodations and will issue students with documented disabilities Accommodation Authorization Letters, as appropriate. Since accommodations may require early planning and generally are not provided retroactively, please contact ODS as soon as possible. Ownership of Student Work This course may use course participation and documents created by students for educational purposes. In compliance with the Federal Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, works in all media produced by students as part of their course participation at Syracuse University may

5 be used for educational purposes, provided that the course syllabus makes clear that such use may occur. It is understood that registration for and continued enrollment in a course where such use of student works is announced constitutes permission by the student. After such a course has been completed, any further use of student works will meet one of the following conditions: (1) the work will be rendered anonymous through the removal of all personal identification of the work s creator/originator(s); or (2) the creator/originator(s) written permission will be secured. As generally accepted practice, honors theses, graduate theses, graduate research projects, dissertations, or other exit projects submitted in partial fulfillment of degree requirements are placed in the library, University Archives, or academic departments for public reference.