FIT9123 INTRODUCTION TO BUISNESS INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Semester 2, 2019

Assignment 1: National Culture and E-commerce: A Critical Reflection

Value: This assignment is worth 100 marks. It however contributes to 20% of your overall
assessment for the unit.
Submission Date: Friday, 13 September
Type of Assignment: Individual


1. Submission: The assignment must be submitted in electronic format only through Moodle.
Please follow the submission process described below:
a) Your assignment deliverables include a single file: Assignment Report (MS-Word). The
filename should contain Unit Code, Assignment Number and your student ID number,
similar to the following example:
FIT9123Assignment1Report_StudentID.docx, OR
FIT9123Assignment1Report_StudentID.doc
b) Submit an electronic version (in MS-Word format, without completed Individual
Assignment Cover Sheet) of your completed Assignment Report through the Moodle site
of this unit, by 11:55pm (13 September, 2019). In doing so, please click on the
acceptance box of Individual Assignment Submission.
2. Late Submissions: Late assignments submitted without an approved extension may be
accepted (up to two weeks late) at the discretion of the lecturer, but will be penalised at the
rate of 5% of total assignment marks per day (including weekends). Assignments received later
than two weeks after the due date will not normally be accepted. (Please refer to the Unit
Guide).
3. References: Students are encouraged to look for relevant readings, and draw on scholarly
literature. All sources of information must be fully and appropriately acknowledged using in-
text citation and reference list. Please use APA style of referencing.
4. Format and Length: The format of the assignment report is shown below:
• Title page (with Assignment title, Student name, ID, Unit code, Tutor name)
• Table of contents
• Introduction section
• Responses to assignment tasks
• Conclusion section (Assignment Task 5)
• Use one single aggregated Reference list at the end of the document.
• Use Times New Roman format, font 11 or 12, and single space.
• Each page (except the Title page, Table of contents) must be numbered.
• Assignment length should not exceed 3000 words (excluding Title, Table of contents,
and Reference List)

5. Other Questions: Please contact your tutor or lecturer should you require further
clarifications.
6. Assignment Assessment Criteria: Assignment 1 will be evaluated in terms of the following
criteria:
• Written communication skills
• Logical structure of report
• Critical analysis/synthesis
• Identification of key themes/issues as well as rich discussion
• Literature used (relevance, type, up-to-date, number) and referencing/citation technique
• Use of in-text references and list of references in APA style
7. Warning: Students are encouraged to use materials from a variety of sources BUT materials
copied from other sources that are NOT acknowledged in appropriate references will be
considered as PLAGIARISM and is a serious offence that will result in failure (see Section 8
on “Plagiarism and Collusion” section below for more details). Any students suspected of
copying other students’ work will be immediately referred to the relevant disciplinary
committee.
8. Plagiarism and Collusion: Note that this is an individual assignment. While general
collaboration between students in terms of understanding of concepts is acceptable, the
assignment report must reflect entirely your own work. You must not:
• Use another student’s work as the basis for your own.
• Steal, appropriate or make use of the work of another student without their knowledge.
• Lend your work to another student for any reason.
• Use the ideas, words or other intellectual property of anyone without proper
acknowledgement.
9. Extension Policy: Note the extension policy in the Unit Guide. When an extension is to be
requested, students should consult the lecturer. Extensions will not be granted due to last
minute “technical problems” such as an inability to connect to the Internet, PC, laptop problems
etc.
10. Broad Assignment Aim
This assignment aims at assessing understanding of students on how various key aspects (i.e.
adoption decision, implementation process, outcomes) of E-commerce systems for
organisational context are influenced by national culture.
11. Specific Instructions
Students are required to carefully read a number of research articles (a minimum of 10), that
discuss E-commerce systems from the perspective of national culture. Students are encouraged
to use google scholar search engine to find those articles. They can also access those articles
using Monash Library e-catalogue. Drawing on a reading of those articles, students are required
to perform the following tasks:

Task 1: Identifying frameworks on national culture for E-commerce context (10 + 10 =
20 marks)
a) What theoretical frameworks of national culture have been reported in the scholarly
literature to help explain various key aspects (i.e. adoption decision, implementation
process, outcomes) of E-commerce systems in organisations? Discuss.
b) How popular are the frameworks, identified in Task 1a, to help explain those key aspects of
E-commerce systems for organisational context? Discuss.
Task 2: Describing how national culture frameworks explain E-commerce systems
adoption decision (20 marks)
How do those frameworks, identified in Task 1, help explain E-commerce systems adoption
decision of organisations? Discuss.
Task 3: Describing how national culture frameworks explain E-commerce systems post-
adoption (implementation process, outcomes) (20 marks)
How do those frameworks, identified in Task 1, help explain E-commerce systems
implementation process initiated by organisations, and/or outcomes experienced by
organisations? Discuss.
Task 4: National culture and E-commerce systems from the perspective of developed
and developing countries (15 + 15 = 30 marks)
Drawing on your critical review of the literature, compare and discuss the research findings
reported in the existing literature on the influence of national culture on various key aspects
(i.e. adoption decision, implementation process, outcomes) of E-commerce systems for
organisational context from the perspective of developed and developing countries alike.
Task 5: Conclusion (5 marks)
Present your insightful views about the suitability of national culture to help explain
E-commerce phenomenon.
Report Structure (5 marks)
Adherence to the format and length of the report as outlined in Section 4.
Include a minimum of ten (10) scholarly references and cite them in the body of your
assignment report and add full references in the bibliography (use APA style).

Notes:
1. Please feel free to make any relevant assumptions (if needed) in support of your arguments
and clearly articulate those assumptions in your report.
2. Your answer should be approximately the “suggested length” specified for each task.

(The End)