Electronic Commerce, Seventh Annual Edition

Gary Schneider is the William S. Perlroth Professor of Accounting at Quinnipiac University. He previously held teaching appointments at the University of San Diego, the University of Tennessee, and Xavier University. The author of more than 50 books and 100 research papers, Dr. Schneider has written extensively on accounting and information systems topics with his work appearing in such journals as INTERFACES, IS AUDIT & CONTROL JOURNAL, and JOURNAL OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS. His books have been translated into Chinese, French, Italian, Korean, and Spanish. A CPA who practiced public accounting in Ohio for 14 years before undertaking his academic career, Dr. Schneider holds a Ph.D. in accounting information systems from the University of Tennessee, an MBA from Xavier University, and a BA in economics from the University of Cincinnati.

First let me disclose that I have been a programmer for years (and for some of the businesses described in the book).

In general the book is good.

Pros:
It summarizes the business end of ecommerce very well.
The book covers most of the technical aspects of ecommerce from a high level.
The book is not about abstract, useless business theory that is common in many university business courses; the book is a collection of good case studies of ecommerce.

Cons:
The book chews more than it can swallow given the pace it needs to set for a normal class. Since it needs to stay at certain length, the book doesn't always do a good job explaining the technical aspects of ecommerce with enough detail from a layman's point of view. At times it is more of a review for people already with the knowledge. So unless your technical background is strong and deep (eg you are either a programmer or systems administrator for web servers), there may be a lot of jargon in some areas that will confuse and bore you. Consequently this is probably a senior year book

(The author should take notes from the HeadFirst series of technical books.)

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Schneider's seventh edition of "Electronic Commerce" graciously takes the user through many of the major topics that relate to electronic commerce and online business initiatives. I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book and it is packed full of real-life sites and examples to support the material being taught. Likewise, I found the "Learning From Failures" section within each chapter to be fascinating to read. There are many colored graphics and screenshots to help illustrate points and each chapter concludes with a thorough review along with dozens of additional resources that can be explored if further knowledge is desired.

It is worth noting that, with an average of 50 pages per chapter and 12 chapters in all, the wide range of material taught can be difficult to digest and at times topics seem to be brushed over far too quickly. Also, this book teaches the business concepts, evolution, trends, and terminology involving e-commerce but does not walk the reader through the actual process of designing and deploying such a site. So, people looking for a book that will directly assist them in setting up their own online store may wish to look elsewhere, since only a few chapters in the book even touch upon the subject of hardware and software options available for e-commerce design, although the book as a whole teaches the underlining concepts and knowledge useful in setting up such sites.

This book kept my interest from start to finish, and was written in a more leisurely and personable fashion than many other technical books I have read in the past. For this reason, I recommend this book to anyone majoring in an IT/Web-related field.