Ferment in Business Education: E-Commerce Master's Programs

Business schools are developing strategies to prepare students for the new digital economy. In this study, the authors investigated recently launched master's programs in e-commerce by reviewing the curriculum and course descriptions of 67 programs that had Web listings of their programs. Findings suggest that the programs offered more nontechnical e-commerce courses than courses focusing on e-commerce technology. The authors explored the debate between those who believe e-commerce is a new discipline requiring its own degree programs and those who would weave e-commerce content into existing functional area courses.