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Essay text:

Economists now believe that IT has contributed significantly to U.S. productivity growth. It is therefore not surprising that worldwide more than $2 trillion are invested on IT each year, which is over 50% of all capital expenditures. However, the decline in IT investments in the last few years and the well-publicized bankruptcies of technology companies, have led skeptics to question the economic contribution of IT. Indeed, the rapid rate of IT innovation, massive investments in IT infrastructure and applications, conflicting viewpoints regarding the value of IT and the erosion of technology related wealth raise a gamut of issues for managers in user organizations, financial institutions, vendor organizations and consulting firms: Do IT and the Internet change basic economic principles and strategies? Does the ability to search, seek and share information regardless of time, space and geographical differences increase market efficiency? Is such efficiency beneficial to all market participants? How and where can IT benefit an organization? How should a firm proceed to transform itself into an electronic business? Are there any killer applications that can still justify large investments in IT infrastructure? Which types of information technologies hold promise for the future? This course has been designed to provide frameworks and analytical tools to address these and other related issues...