The (R)evolution Goes Mobile
(March 26-27, 2001) (Fifth Conference)

Annual University of Minnesota Electronic Commerce Conference Series

The fifth annual conference in this series was held at the Carlson School in March. The conference was sponsored by the III Member companies: Born, Cargill, Guidant, Johnson Grossfield, Sprint PCS, Syntegra, and Unisys.

The conference theme of “The (R)evolution goes Mobile: Dots down, bricks up, wireless emerging, Scandinavia leads the way” was presented in two tracks. Each track was a mix of business and academic research presentations. The tracks were:

• Adoption of e-Commerce channels by traditional industry leaders
• Mobile and wireless applications and technologies

Conference Chair Les Wanninger welcomed participants and summarized the ideas behind the “(R)evolution goes Mobile” theme. Jeffrey Lewis, Patricia Seybold Group gave the keynote presentation “The Customer Revolution” which set the tone of focusing on the customer instead of the technology.

Speakers were a mix of academics and key individuals from industry leaders that are adopting e-commerce as an additional channel of communication with customers and suppliers. Over 200 people attended the conference. Presenters included:

• Barry Judge, Best Buy, “e-Commerce for a Traditional Retailer”
• Chuck Wood, Mendoza School of Business, Notre Dame University, “Followers and Leaders: Competition in E-Commerce”
• Chris Bennett, Unisys, “Atlantic Canada Online -  Mobile Access to Government for Citizens”
• Prof. Steve Parente, Healthcare Management, Carlson School of Management, “Can Health Insurance be an e-Business? Findings from Early Innovators”
• Jari Parkkisenniemi, Chief Technology Officer, Yomi Vision Ltd., “Text Messaging in Scandinavia - What is this and Why is it so Popular?”
• Mrs. Sinikka Salmi, Valtra Ltd., “Mobile Applications for Farmers and Dealers”
• Jim Wanninger, Sr. Director of Merchandising, Bluelight.com -
  ”Integrating e-channels with Retail Stores”
• Prof. Kingshuk K Sinha, “e-Commerce in Operations”
• Mike Minnick,  Unisys, “ e-@ction Logistics Solutions - Air Freight Focus”
• Jappy Takhar, Syntegra, “ Mobile and Wireless Solutions in Europe”
• Mark Lacek, Milepoint.com, “Connecting the Dots, Turning Miles into Money”
• Prof. Robert J. Kauffman, Carlson School Information & Decision Sciences, “The High Frontier of Intermediation in Electronic Commerce”
• Jaakko Lyytinen, Grip Studios, “ Mobile Games”
• Antti Kela, Sales Director, Yomi Vision Ltd., “Text Messaging Applications that Attract End Users”
• Tom Posz, Unisys, “Mobile Portals”

Les Wanninger moderated a Mobile and Wireless Industry Vendor Panel around the theme, “ Mobile and Wireless Capability in the U.S. Now and the Near Future”.Panelists included:

• Sprint PCS - Mike Bauerle, Manager Strategic Planning
• Sprint PCS - Noel Strong, Sr. Director of Application Development
• Hewlett Packard - Jason Stout, Sprint PCS Client Manager
• Kyocera Wireless Corporation - Tim Boyd, Sr. Director, Marketing and Business Development
• Lucent - Sorabh Gupta,  Technology Planning Bell Labs
• Qualcomm - Jan Lezny, Director of Business Development

We expanded and featured the PhD Research Poster Session this year. Presenters were:

• Alina Chircu - Management Science and Information Systems, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin, “Show Me the Money: Comparing the Business Value of Traditional and Electronic
  Procurement Systems for Corporate Travel”
• Angela (Qimei) Chen - School of Journalism and Mass Communication , “Measurement, Meaning and Consequences of .Com Satisfaction”
• · Jungpil Hahn - Carlson School Information & Decision Sciences, “The Dynamics of Mass Online Marketplaces: A Case Study of an Online Auction”
• Qizhi Dai - Carlson School Information & Decision Sciences, “Business Models for Internet-Based E-Procurement Systems and B2B Electronic Markets: An Exploratory Assessment”
• Yoris Au - Carlson School Information & Decision Sciences, “Should We Wait? Network Externalities and Electronic Billing Adoption”
• Bin Wang - Carlson School Information & Decision Sciences, “Bid Together, Buy Together: On the Efficacy of Group-Buying Business Models in Internet-Based Selling”
• Angsana Techatassanasoontorn - Carlson School Information & Decision Sciences,  “A Research Framework for Mobile Commerce”

Profs. Everest and Wanninger mentored a Carlson School team of undergraduate and MBA students on a research project on biometric Iris Scanning. Unisys sponsored this project with a grant and supported it with personnel from their research lab. The student team conducted research with the conference attendees by first “enrolling” them and later “recognizing” them with the Iris Scanning system. Mark Oderman and Steve Ehnes, Carlson MBA Students, analyzed the data and presented a summary “Iris Scanning Research Project Results and Findings” at the final conference session.