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Shopping in a Digital World – There’s an App for That!

By IGI Global on Sep 29, 2010
For some, shopping is an art. Skilled shoppers carefully skim racks for the ideal ensemble; scan shelves for the perfect find; enjoy a break in the local food court/coffee shop, taking in the scenery while surveying their purchases.

As with most things however, times change and so does the idea of the traditional shopper and shopping experience. One could say it's going out of style like last season's pumps as shoppers, from fashionistas to bargain hunters, discover the convenience of staying home and looking for the best buys online.

Contemplate for a moment the last time you left your house to buy a CD, or to purchase a book that you can physically hold, and I don't mean on your Kindle. Can you even remember such a time? Today logging on is faster, easier, and typically cheaper than running out.

As indicated by Troy J. Strader, Ph.D. from Drake University, USA, while "traditional products are not gone; in fact they still make up most of the products sold worldwide […] a few decades ago something changed. An array of computer and information technologies created a world where some products could be digitized. Most impacted by this change were industries where the product was information content, multimedia, or software. Newspapers, magazines, book publishers, music, movies, games, and all forms of software have all been dramatically affected by digital technologies and this transformation will continue in the future."

And while digital products may have high fixed development costs, unlike with traditional products sellers are not slammed with large marginal costs. "These differences impact most business functions (accounting, finance, legal, marketing, manufacturing, logistics, customer service, and so forth) and strategies (operations, tactical, and strategic-level) because they introduce new opportunities and challenges," says Dr. Strader.

Unfortunately such advantages are not without disadvantages. For the information, multimedia, and software industries, the biggest challenge they face is piracy. Product piracy within the entertainment industry has gained the most attention in recent years with the illegal file sharing of film and music. As recently as September 22, 2010, the European parliament called for a more concentrated effort to stop internet piracy within film and music.

In an article, published by the International News Agency, AFP, it was announced that "[t]he European Union's legislature adopted a non-binding resolution in a 328-245 vote calling for the creation within European law of the right to pursue people who violate intellectual property rights." A controversial issue that has spawned Internet user rights groups to lobby against the resolution on fears that it would lead to bandwidth restriction, among other things.

In an effort to provide scholars, academics, and students "insights and suggestions for how to manage digital products in the future", Dr. Strader in collaboration with information science and technology publisher, IGI Global developed Digital Product Management, Technology, and Practice: Interdisciplinary Perspectives. Dr. Strader brings together experts from around the world to offer their views on the technical, operational, and strategic challenges that face digital product managers and researchers now and in the next several decades.

"Digital Product Management, Technology, and Practice is a welcome and unique addition to scholarly literature – furnishing timely coverage of an important phenomenon that is an essential ingredient for business success."

- Clyde W. Holsapple, University of Kentucky



Framed by four sections, Dr. Strader outlines the book as follows: the first section discusses "the characteristics of digital technology and how digital products can be protected." Further addressing function issues associated with DPM, the second "includes chapters about digital product business functional issues from four perspectives: legal, marketing, finance, and accounting." Moving beyond the functional, the third section is comprised of "chapters for other important digital product issues and overall strategies, with the "fourth and final section exploring the future of digital product management, research, and technology."

It is Dr. Strader's hope that the book will "generate ideas for digital product management research so that answers can be found for important technical, business and social science questions."

To learn more about digital product management, product piracy, and the growth of digital product companies, please visit: www.igi-global.com/Bookstore/TitleDetails.aspx?TitleId=41782 and purchase a copy today!

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