CURRICULUM REDESIGN OF BUSINESS SCHOOLS IN DIGITAL INDIA

Jenipher Carlos Hosanna, M.Com, MFM, MCS, LLM, MBA, PGDT, Assistant Professor, Henry Baker
College, Melukavu, Kottayam

Abstract
Growth of e-commerce trends is becoming more popular day by day as per the market
demand. This is actually carrying us to the new innovative world which eventually saves lot
of time and money as well because of the attractive features provided by the online market.
According to the present scenario we can imagine the growth of overall E-commerce that will
increase with the emerging market of India. I do hope all of the b-schools in India at least
give some exposure in digital marketing in their curriculum and share how and why digital
marketing is important for the students to face the real world. Just look at the rate of
successful e-commerce start-ups and the amount of funding each start up gets. When Indian
start-ups, e-commerce, mobile apps are growing at a rapid rate, there is a lot of opportunity
for those who understand Digital. According to a Forrester research, E-Commerce in India to
grow at 57 %, reach $ 8.8 billion by 2016. This research paper which is an outcome of a
review of various research studies carried out on E-Commerce inter alia include the reality of
digital India at the moment, the statistics and facts on internet usage in India, the need for
redesigning the B-schools curriculum in in India and a proposed redesigned curriculum in the
aforesaid context.

Reality of Digital India

E-commerce market in India expected to quadruple to $60-70 billion over the next 5 years,
driven by faster growth in goods than services
Internet users expected to increase 3 times from ~200 million in 2014 to ~600 million by
2020
Increased proliferation of smartphones from 120-140 million in 2014 to 600-700
million in 2020
Lower cost of connectivity and improved quality
Expanded reach in lower tier cities and rural areas due to investments in network
infrastructure
Customers attracted to e-commerce because of superior value proposition on several counts
Broader assortment
Higher discounts
Greater convenience
Efforts by players to develop payment channels (cash on delivery, mobile wallets) and
streamlined logistics infrastructure to also aid e-commerce growth

Statistics and facts on internet usage in India

As of 2014, India was the third-largest online market with more than 198 million internet
users, ranked only behind China and the United States and declaring itself as a market not to
be ignored on the global stage. Of the millions of internet users in India, 38 percent of those
who use the internet at home or at work come from the 25-34 age brackets, a percentage
which was higher than any other age group surveyed. Furthermore, men dominated internet
usage with 61 percent to womens 39 percent. Average daily online usage in the country
amounted to 5.1 hours among internet users.

40 Million Online Shoppers in India

Online shoppers have been increased from 20 million in 2013 to 40 million in 2016, as an
additional 200 million Indians are accessing the Internet in the next three years, with
majority of them coming online through smartphones, indicates a new joint study by
Assocham and Grant Thornton.
According to the study, a significantly low (19 percent) but fast-growing Internet population
of 243 million in 2014 is an indicator of the sector's huge growth potential in India. This
underlines the potential of Internet use in India and as Internet penetration increases, the
potential of growth of the e-commerce industry will also increase, it says.
It also predicts that the Indian e-commerce market is estimated to grow at a compounded
annual growth rate (CAGR) of 63 percent to reach $8.5 billion (Rs. 54,304 crores
approximately) by the end of this year, 2016 on the back of growth in the penetration levels
of mobile and Internet and increased consumer demand.
"The number of users making online transactions has also grown exponentially, and it is
increased from 11 million in 2011 to 38 million in 2015. Government of India's plan to
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rebuild and modernise the Indian postal infrastructure and plan to implement Digital India
will also boost the e-commerce sector," says the study.
India's current dynamics are similar to what existed in China then - growing broadband
penetration, acceptance of online marketplaces, and lack of physical retail infrastructure in
many places due to high realty costs, it adds.
The study, titled 'Law & Technology: Evolving challenges as a result of fraud in e-commerce
sector', says online travel dominates the Indian e-commerce market although online travel
contributes a smaller share to the global e-commerce market.
"Online travel accounts for nearly 71 percent of the e-commerce business in India. This
business has grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 45 percent between 2011
and 2015. E-tailing, on the other hand, accounts for only 8.7 percent of organised retail and a
minuscule 0.3 percent of total retail sales," the study shows.
The study also showed that the percentage of working women in India grew 43 percent yearon-year in 2013, which constitutes 10 percent of the active online users in India. The women
focused share of e-commerce market increased from 26 percent in 2013 to 35 percent in
2016.

Need for Redesigning the B-Schools Curriculum in India

The B-school curriculum in India needs to be redesigned, and we must infuse innovation,
creativity and the most modern technology into it. We have to rethink management education
with innovation, creativity and technology. The time is ripe for changing the curriculum for
management education of digital India. And the perspective should include not only that of
creativity and innovation from a student's perspective but that of the various educational
institutions as well. The global recession with the exception of a few emerging economies
and the growing uncertainties across the business spectrum calls for newer skill sets. The
whole thinking and pedagogy need to be redesigned in the context of digitalization across the
world.

Curriculum Redesign of Business Schools in India

Business Schools in India have to prepare students for the future work, iterate and redesign
their programs to get out ahead of industry trends and develop content that carries both
immediate relevancy and should also offer lasting, even lifetime value. In this context how
the curriculum should be redesigned to balance these needs. A few topics relevant to this
context and come in front of us very quickly are leadership development, managing in a
global context, innovation & creativity, critical thinking & communication skills and
experimental learning. Of course, we might have already redesigned our curriculum in these
areas. However, a question arises whether the programs cover e-business technologies &
strategies, interactive media management, integrated marketing communications, etc. so as to
cover the current technological environment. Our business schools in this country should
include the following topics in their curriculum so as to build a world class graduate in
business and administration:

1. E-Business Management (Digital Business Management)

The paper may contain techniques to evaluate and manage strategic development of ebusiness based organisations and manage appropriate enabling e-business technologies. It
may include: e-business fundamentals, finance for e-business, supply chain integration,
information systems management, Digital marketing, Software & Techniques, eCustomer relationship management, etc. One should also learn how to evaluate, manage
and improve the operational functions of an organisation and apply the concepts of
systems integration to the design and development of products and services through
market analysis. You may also learn Big Data, Analytics and Visualisation, Enterprise
Information Systems, Computer Programming, Collaborative Product Development, Computer
Graphics & Visualisation, Information and Communication Technologies

2. Digital marketing Strategies (Strategic Marketing)

Digital marketing strategies like Instagram, Yahoo! Bing Network, Facebook lookalike
audience, Paid Promotion on Facebook, Email Marketing, twitter Outreach, Facebook remarketing, Better blogging, Youtube videos, Compelling graphics, Search Engine
optimization, Content Contribution, Digital PR, Unique promotion, etc. should be
covered in the curriculum.
3. Statistics and Information management

As regards the statistical tools for e-business research, Analysis of Price Dynamics,
Bidder Networks, and Market Structure in Online Art Auctions, Modelling Web
Usability Diagnostics on the Basis of Usage Statistics, Developing Rich Insights on
Public Internet Firm Entry and Exit Based on Survival Analysis and Data Visualization,
Modelling Time-Varying Coefficients in Pooled Cross-Sectional E-Commerce Data,
Optimization of Search Engine Marketing Bidding Strategies Using Statistical
Techniques, Clustering Data with Measurement Errors, Functional Data Analysis for
Sparse Auction Data, Growth Models for Representing the Price Process in Online
Auctions, Models of Bidder Activity Consistent with Self-Similar Bid Arrivals, Dynamic
Spatial Models for Online Markets, Quintile Modelling for Wallet Estimation,
Applications of Randomized Response Methodology in E-Commerce, etc. should be
covered in the curriculum. As regards the information management in ecommerce,
Business challenges & Solution, Supply chain analytics, Web/e-commerce analytics,
Customer & Marketing analytics, Social media analytics, Fraud analytics, etc. should be
covered.
4. E- Business Technologies
Emerging e-business technologies like Micro payments, Mobile technologies, Social media,
Fulfillment options, Global availability, Localization, Customizability, Time-based
availability, etc. should be covered
5. Integrated Marketing Communications

Barriers and benefits, Communications Theory, Golden rules, etc. should be covered in the
curriculum
6. Multimedia Design
Students should be able to:

Plan and produce a multimedia program using Adobe Director.

Prepare basic planning and design documents for a multimedia program that include a
goal statement, program objectives, navigation and layout diagrams, and an audience
analysis.
Apply effective visual design, media integration, and layout for a multimedia
program.
Effectively incorporate image, audio, animation, and text media into a multimedia
program.
Implement basic interactivity in a multimedia program.
accurately estimate the time required to produce a multimedia program.
Organize the files that are part of a multimedia program logically and efficiently.
Apply practical backup and archiving methods to the production of a multimedia
program.
Realize the importance of keeping a project journal.

7. Innovations in E- Business
Latest innovations in e-business like mobile shopping, the new personalization, Real-time
analytics, Video marketing, Social collaboration, should be covered in the curriculum.
8. Logistic Technologies
Courses of Logistic Technologies inter alia include:

Fundamentals of E-Commerce Technologies

Electronic Payments Systems
Engineering Economics
Logistics Management
Supply Chain Management

Area I - Internet and Information Systems

Cryptography, Information Security and E-Commerce

E-Commerce Data Mining Techniques
Distributed and Mobile Systems
Network and Web Programming
Open Systems for E-Commerce
Project I in E-Commerce and Logistics Technologies

Area II - Enterprise Solutions

Mobile Commerce and Mobile Logistics

Information Technology Management
5

Decision Methodology with Financial Application

Supply Chain Management
Project II in E-Commerce and Logistics Technologies

9. Internet Strategy and web Management

Website design and domain name branding, Segmentation and Position, E-marketing mix
(Product, Pricing and Place), Search Engine marketing, etc. should be covered under the title
Internet Strategy and web Management
10. Search Engines and Technologies
Architecture of a general-purpose search engine, such as Google or AltaVista; Issues in the
implementation of an industrial-strength web crawler; Indexing and retrieving text files by words.
Database structure. Measuring the relevance of a text to a query; Using link structure to evaluate the
importance of a Web page. PageRank. Hubs and Authorities; Organizing text documents into groups;
Measuring the quality of a search engine. Precision/recall and other measures; Standard and extended
query languages; Question answering to the web; The invisible web and specialized search engines;
Multimedia retrieval: Images; Multimedia retrieval: 3D Models; The Semantic web; Web mining;
Focussed crawling; Structure of the web, etc. should be covered.

11. Communication Strategies

It should cover the following areas:
New Strategies to Connect with Customers
Reaching Global Markets through E-Commerce
Measuring Success through E-Communication
E-Commerce Sales Messages
12. Interactive Media Management
These courses teach a student how to plan all elements of an effective interactive digital
experience, starting from assessing what your audience needs then accommodating their
needs through the interface, its design and the words it contains. The students should also
have the opportunity to work on their own project, from concept to prototype.
The interactive digital media industry is changing as mobile and immersion computing
becomes more important and prevalent. As such, this project-driven course should
emphasize:

Digital strategy
UX design
Content strategy and planning
Interactive storytelling
Analytics
Digital project management (grant charts, budgets, project planning, agile
methodology)
Researching and surveying the interactive media landscape

In addition to the aforesaid 12 courses (papers) the curriculum may inter alia include:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.

Commerce and Administration

International Business and International Marketing
Advanced Analytics
Internet Engineering
Econometrics and
Advertising Strategies

References
1. CNNMoney.com, September 27, 2016: "Cisco e-commerce study reveals mobile
phone to be new 'fourth channel' for revenue."
2. Bradley, Bartlett & Weber, "Retail Shopping in 2015: The Net versus the Mall"
(HBR)
3. http://www.studymode.com/essays/E-Commerce-1554293.html "E Commerce
Essays Hpandurang92". Study mode. Retrieved 27 September 2016.
4. Laus, Petronela (8 January 2014)."India Weighs FDI In E-Commerce The Wall
Street Journal India.
5. Bansal, Rashmi, Growth of Electronic Commerce in China and India A Comparative
study
6. Kaur,Ramneet,Dr. Joshi Mukesh ,E-Commerce in India: A Review ,IJCST Vol 3,
issue 1, 2012.
7. Dubey Rahul, E-Commerce poised for a leap in 2015
8. E-Commerce Guide.com
9. www.forrester.com
10. https://www.linkedin.com/.../e-commerce-india-scope-challenges-futur
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309-322.
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Retailer
(http://www.internetretailer.com/)
12. Sarbapriya Ray Emerging Trend of E-Commerce in India: Some Crucial Issues,
Prospects and Challenges
13. Tkacz, Ewaryst; Kapczynski, Adrian (2016). Internet Technical Development and
Applications Springer. p. 255. ISBN 978-3-642-05018-3. Retrieved 27 September
2016. The first pilot system was installing in Tesco in the UK (first demonstrated in
1979 by Michael Aldrich).
14. Nisha Chanana and Sangeeta Goele Future of E-Commerce in India