Ecommerce 2016 - Quiz Chapter 04

E-commerce 2016: Business. Technology. Society., 12e (Laudon)
Questions Answers and Case Guides

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E-commerce 2016: Business. Technology. Society., 12e (Laudon)
Chapter 4   Building an E-commerce Presence: Web Sites, Mobile Sites, and Apps

1) Offline media is typically used for all of the following marketing activities except:

1. A) education.
2. B) exposure.
3. C) conversation.
4. D) branding.

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.

2) The cost of hardware, software, and telecommunications services needed to build a Web site have ________ over the last decade.

1. A) increased dramatically
2. B) increased moderately
3. C) decreased dramatically
4. D) decreased slightly

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.

3) Which of the following types of e-commerce presence is best suited for creating an ongoing conversation with one's customers?

1. A) Web site
2. B) e-mail
3. C) social media
4. D) offline media

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.


4) In developing an e-commerce presence, what questions must be asked and answered about the firm's target audience?
Answer:  Without a clear understanding of a firm's target audience, it is difficult to develop a successful e-commerce presence. There are two primary questions: who is the target audience and where can they best be reached? A target audience can be described in a number of ways: demographics, behavior patterns (lifestyle), current consumption patterns (online vs. offline purchasing), digital usage patterns, content creation preferences (blogs, social networks, sites like Pinterest), and buyer personas (profiles of your customer). Understanding the demographics of the firm's target audience is usually the first step. Demographic information includes age, income, gender, and location.
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Application of knowledge; Written and oral communication
LO:  4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.
5) What are the phases, activities, and milestones for developing an e-commerce presence for a typical start-up Web site over a one-year period?
Answer:  A one-year e-commerce presence timeline might include the following phases, activities, and milestones. Phase 1/Planning, in which an e-commerce presence would be envisaged and personnel developed, with a milestone of creating a mission statement; Phase 2/Web site development, in which content would be acquired, a site design developed, and hosting arranged for the site, with a milestone of creating a Web site plan; Phase 3/Web implementation, in which keywords and metatags would be developed, search engine optimization strategies deployed, and potential sponsors identified, with a creation of a functional Web site as the milestone; Phase 4/Social media plan, in which appropriate social platforms and content for products and services would be identified, with the creation of a social media plan as the milestone; Phase 5/Social media implementation, in which a Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and other social media presence would be developed, with a functioning social media presence as the milestone; and Phase 6/Mobile plan, in which a mobile plan would be developed with options for porting the Web site to the mobile platform considered, and with a mobile media plan as the relevant milestone. Phase 6/Mobile plan might also be the first phase for a firm that wanted to employ mobile first design.
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Application of knowledge; Written and oral communication
LO:  4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.


6) Your e-commerce design company has received an RFP to help create an e-commerce presence for Tucci's, a renowned gourmet and specialty butcher that now wishes to sell goods over the Internet. Describe the elements you will include in your proposal to Tucci's.
Answer:  Student answers will vary, but should include the following:
Elements that will be in the proposal include the (1) business goals, or vision, or mission statement, (2) identification of the target audience, (3) description of the marketspace, (4) a strategic analysis or SWOT analysis, (5) the content to be included, (6) a development timeline, and (7) a budget. Other recommendations that the student should mention include using social, local, or mobile marketing.
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
LO:  4.1: Understand the questions you must ask and answer, and the steps you should take, in developing an e-commerce presence.

7) What are the two most important management challenges in building a successful e-commerce presence?

1. A) developing a clear understanding of business objectives and knowing how to choose the right technology to achieve those objectives
2. B) having an accurate understanding of your business environment and an achievable business plan
3. C) building a team with the right skill sets and closely managing the development process
4. D) identifying the key components of your business plan and selecting the right software, hardware, and infrastructure for your site

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.
8) In order from beginning to end, the major steps in the SDLC are:

1. A) systems analysis/planning; systems design; building the system; testing; and implementation.
2. B) systems design; testing; building the system; and implementation.
3. C) systems analysis/planning; systems design; building the system; implementation; and testing.
4. D) systems analysis/planning; implementation; building the system; and testing.

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.


9) ________ are the types of information systems capabilities needed to meet business objectives.

1. A) Information requirements
2. B) System functionalities
3. C) System design specifications
4. D) Physical design specifications

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

10) Which of the following basic system functionalities is used to display goods on a Web site?

1. A) product database
2. B) digital catalog
3. C) shopping cart system
4. D) customer database system

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

11) Which system functionality must your Web site have in order to be able to personalize or customize a product for a client?

1. A) an ad server
2. B) a site tracking and reporting system
3. C) an inventory management system
4. D) customer on-site tracking

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

12) Which of the following are the two main components of a systems design?

1. A) logical design and physical design
2. B) behavioral design and technological design
3. C) business objectives and technology requirements
4. D) front-end systems and back-end systems

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

13) Which of the following helps you engage your customers in a conversation?

1. A) shopping cart
2. B) product database
3. C) on-site blog
4. D) site tracking and reporting system

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

14) Which of the following is not one of the basic business objectives for an e-commerce site?

1. A) display goods
2. B) execute a transaction
3. C) provide production and supplier links
4. D) optimize system architecture

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

15) All of the following are basic information requirements for a product database except:

1. A) product descriptions.
2. B) stock numbers.
3. C) customer ID numbers.
4. D) inventory levels.

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

16) Which of the following typically includes a data flow diagram to describe the flow of information for an e-commerce site?

1. A) physical design
2. B) logical design
3. C) testing plan
4. D) co-location plan

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.


17) Which of the following details the actual hardware components to be used in a system?

1. A) architecture plan
2. B) system functionalities plan
3. C) logical design
4. D) physical design

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.
18) Which of the following verifies that the business objectives of the system as originally conceived are in fact working?

1. A) system testing
2. B) acceptance testing
3. C) unit testing
4. D) implementation testing

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

19) Which of the following involves testing a site program's modules one at a time?

1. A) system testing
2. B) acceptance testing
3. C) unit testing
4. D) implementation testing

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.



20) Most of the time required to maintain an e-commerce site is spent on:

1. A) debugging code.
2. B) responding to emergency situations.
3. C) general administration and making changes and enhancements to the system.
4. D) changes in reports, data files, and links to backend databases.

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.


21) All of the following are simple steps for optimizing Web page content that can reduce response times except:

1. A) reducing unnecessary HTML comments.
2. B) segmenting computer servers to perform dedicated functions.
3. C) using more efficient graphics.
4. D) avoiding unnecessary links to other pages on the site.

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

22) Which of the following is the minimum system architecture requirement for an e-commerce Web site that processes orders?

1. A) single-tier architecture
2. B) two-tier architecture
3. C) three-tier architecture
4. D) multi-tier architecture

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.
23) All of the following offer Web site building tools except:

1. A) Weebly.
2. B) Google Sites.
3. C) WordPress.
4. D) Apache.

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

24) All of the following are major players in hosting/co-location/cloud services except:

1. A) GoDaddy.
2. B) WordPress.
3. C) Rackspace.
4. D) CenturyLink.

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.


25) Which form of testing compares a control page with one that is very different?

1. A) template test
2. B) new concept test
3. C) funnel test
4. D) system test

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

26) A template test is a form of which type of testing?

1. A) unit testing
2. B) system testing
3. C) acceptance testing
4. D) A/B testing

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

27) When using multivariate testing, if you wish to test two different versions of an image, a button, and a piece of text, how many combinations will you need to test?

1. A) 2
2. B) 4
3. C) 6
4. D) 8

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.
28) The process of comparing a Web site with that of its competitors in terms of response speed, quality of layout, and design is known as:

1. A) split testing.
2. B) funnel testing.
3. C) benchmarking.
4. D) system testing.

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.


29) The systems development life cycle methodology that can be used to create an e-commerce Web site has five major steps.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

30) When developing an e-commerce presence, it is important to understand that the business must drive technology decisions, not the reverse.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

31) Using prebuilt templates is typically one of the most expensive choices when building an e-commerce site.
Answer:  FALSE
Difficulty:  Easy
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

32) The annual maintenance cost for a Web site is typically much lower than its development cost.
Answer:  FALSE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

33) Two-tier architecture typically includes a Web server and a database server.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

34) Apache Web server software works with Linux and Unix operating systems.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

35) Describe the major issues surrounding the decisions to build and/or host your own e-commerce Web site or to outsource some aspects of site development. Include the advantages and disadvantages of each decision.
Answer:  If you decide to build an e-commerce Web site in-house, you will need a multiskilled staff including programmers, graphic artists, Web designers, and project managers. You will also have to select and purchase software and hardware. Building a site from scratch involves a great deal of risk, and the costs can be high because many of the required elements of an e-commerce site such as shopping carts, credit card authentication and processing, inventory management, and order processing are quite complex. Specialized firms have already perfected these tools and your staff will often have to learn to build all of these features themselves. The advantage is that you and your staff may be able to build a site that exactly suits the specific needs of your company. Another advantage is that you will be developing a skilled staff and consequently acquiring an invaluable supply of in-house knowledge that will enable your firm to change the site if necessary due to the rapidly changing business environment.

If, on the other hand, you decide to purchase an expensive site-building package, you will have to evaluate different packages to decide which one will be best suited to your firm's needs. This can be a lengthy process and some packages may have to be modified. Additional vendors may have to be hired to execute the modifications, and this can cause the costs to mount rapidly.

You can also purchase less expensive, prebuilt templates, but you will be limited to the functionality already built into the template. You can choose templates from merchant-solution vendors such as Amazon Stores, or use the templates from a site-building tool such as WordPress. Brick-and-mortar retailers can generally design a site themselves because they have a skilled staff in place and have made large investments in information technology, such as databases and telecommunications. They will usually use outside vendors to build the e-commerce applications for the site. Medium-size startups will often purchase a prepackaged site-building tool and make modifications as necessary. Small startups that only require a simple virtual storefront will usually use a template.

The hosting decision is independent from the building decision, but the two are usually considered at the same time. Most businesses choose to outsource hosting because it is generally less expensive than it would be for them to purchase all of the hardware and the physical space, lease the communications lines, and hire the staff. Large hosting firms can build the telecommunication links and emergency power supplies and achieve economies of scale by establishing huge "server farms" in strategic locations around the country. If you host your own site you must also build the security and backup capabilities yourself.


Another option is co-location in which a firm purchases or leases a Web server and has total control over its operation, but the server is located in the vendor's physical facility. In a co-location agreement, the vendor maintains the facility, the machinery, and the communication lines. Small ISPs may not be able to provide service that is as reliable as the large providers. The disadvantage of outsourcing hosting is that as your business grows, you may need more power or services than the hosting company can provide. This is the main reason that firms will decide to host their own sites, but the costs will almost always be higher than if they had chosen an outsourcing firm.
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
LO:  4.2: Explain the process that should be followed in building an e-commerce presence.

36) All of the following might be part of a Web site's middle-tier layer except:

1. A) a database server.
2. B) an ad server.
3. C) legacy corporate applications.
4. D) a mail server.

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

37) The leading Web server software is:

1. A) Apache.
2. B) Microsoft Internet Information Server.
3. C) Sun Solaris.
4. D) Google Enterprise Server.

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

38) All of the following are basic functionality provided by Web servers except:

1. A) site management tools.
2. B) data capture tools.
3. C) security services.
4. D) a shopping cart.

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.


39) Which of the following is used to process certificates and private/public key information?

1. A) HTTP
2. B) Secure Sockets Layer/Transport Layer Security
3. C) File Transfer Protocol
4. D) data capture tools

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.
40) Which of the following would you use to verify that links on Web pages are valid?

1. A) HTTP
2. B) FTP
3. C) data capture tools
4. D) site management tools

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

41) Which of the following is an example of a CMS?

1. A) Apache
2. B) WordPress
3. C) Dreamweaver CC
4. D) Webtrends Analytics

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

42) Advantages of dynamic page generation include all of the following except:

1. A) lowered menu costs.
2. B) market segmentation.
3. C) nearly cost-free price discrimination.
4. D) client-side execution of programming.

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.


43) Which of the following cannot be used to retrieve objects from a database?

1. A) CGI
2. B) ASP
3. C) JSP
4. D) HTML

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.
44) Which of the following type of application server monitors and controls access to a main Web server and implements firewall protection?

1. A) proxy server
2. B) list server
3. C) groupware server
4. D) mail server

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

45) Which of the following technologies is used to separate the design and presentation of content from the content creation process?

1. A) Apache web server
2. B) proxy server
3. C) shopping cart
4. D) CMS

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

46) MySQL is which of the following?

1. A) open source database software
2. B) a scripting language embedded in HTML documents
3. C) Web server software
4. D) Web site analytics software

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.


47) All of the following are basic functionality provided by e-commerce merchant server software except:

1. A) a product catalog.
2. B) marketing software.
3. C) a shopping cart.
4. D) credit card processing.

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.
48) Which of the following is not an open source software tool?

1. A) WebSphere
2. B) Apache
3. C) MySQL
4. D) PHP

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

49) Which of the following is a standard that makes it possible to access data from any application regardless of the database and operating system software being used?

1. A) CGI
2. B) ODBC
3. C) MySQL
4. D) HTTP

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

50) The Web server software used has a significant impact on how a Web site's Web pages look on a user's computer.
Answer:  FALSE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.


51) Prior to the development of e-commerce, Web sites primarily delivered static HTML pages.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

52) Dynamic page generation lowers menu costs.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.

53) A list server can be used to manage e-mail marketing campaigns.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.
54) Explain the main functionalities included in e-commerce merchant server software and the decision-making process for a manager choosing from among the various e-commerce merchant server software packages.
Answer:  The main functionalities included in e-commerce merchant server software are online catalog, order taking capabilities using an online shopping cart, and online credit card processing. Merchant server software typically includes a database and the capability to post lists, product descriptions, product photographs, and in larger sites even sound, animations, videos, or interactivities with product demonstrations and customer service representatives. Online shopping carts enable customers to set aside items they wish to purchase while they continue to shop at the site. Online shopping cart capabilities must also include the ability for consumers to review the items they have set aside and delete or edit items as necessary. Finally, the customer must be able to click a button to begin the order processing system. Credit card processing must work in conjunction with the shopping cart so that the customer's credit card can be verified, the charge can be debited to the card, and a credit to the firm's account can be made. Merchant server software/e-commerce suites offer an integrated environment that promises to provide most or all of the functionality and capabilities you will need to develop a sophisticated, customer-centric site. E-commerce suites come in three general ranges of price and functionality: basic, mid-range, and high-end.

Key factors to consider when selecting a package include functionality, support for different business models, business process modeling tools, visual site management tools and reporting, performance and scalability, connectivity to existing business systems, compliance with standards, global and multicultural capability, and local sales tax and shipping rules.


For instance, although e-commerce suites promise to do everything, your business may require special functionality. You will need a list of business functionality requirements. Your business may involve several different business models. Be sure the package can support all of your business models. You may wish to change your business processes, such as order taking and order fulfillment. Does the suite contain tools for modeling business process and work flows? Understanding how your site works will require visual reporting tools that make its operation transparent to many different people in your business. A poorly designed software package will drop off significantly in performance as visitors and transactions expand into the thousands per hour, or minute. Check for performance and scalability by stress testing a pilot edition or obtaining data from the vendor about performance under load. You will have to connect the e-commerce suite to your traditional business systems. How will this connection to existing systems be made, and is your staff skilled in making the connection? Because of the changing technical environment – in particular, changes in mobile commerce platforms – it is important to document exactly what standards the suite supports now, and what the migration path will be toward the future. Finally, your e-commerce site may have to work both globally and locally. You may need a foreign language edition using foreign currency denominations. And you will have to collect sales taxes across many local, regional, and national tax systems. Does the e-commerce suite support this level of globalization and localization?
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
LO:  4.3: Identify and understand the major considerations involved in choosing Web server and e-commerce merchant server software.
55) The term stateless refers to the fact that:

1. A) no one government entity controls the Internet.
2. B) the server does not have to maintain an ongoing dedicated interaction with the client computer.
3. C) system performance degrades as more simultaneous users require service.
4. D) Web servers may maintain multiple instances of server software to handle requests.

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate hardware for an e-commerce site.

56) Which of the following types of sites typically needs a high percentage of secure pages?

1. A) Web services
2. B) customer self-service
3. C) trading
4. D) publishing/subscription

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate hardware for an e-commerce site.


57) Which of the following is not a main factor in determining the overall demand on an e-commerce site?

1. A) file sizes of Web pages being served
2. B) number of simultaneous users in peak periods
3. C) speed of legacy applications that are needed to supply data to Web pages
4. D) whether content is dynamic or static

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate hardware for an e-commerce site.

58) All of the following are steps one can take to right-size a Web site's hardware platform and meet demands for service except:

1. A) scaling hardware vertically.
2. B) scaling hardware horizontally.
3. C) replacing static pages with dynamically generated pages.
4. D) improving processing architecture.

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate hardware for an e-commerce site.
59) All of the following are methods of improving the processing architecture of a Web site except:

1. A) separating static content from dynamic content.
2. B) optimizing ASP code.
3. C) optimizing the database schema.
4. D) adding Web servers.

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate hardware for an e-commerce site.

60) Upgrading a server from a single processor to multiple processors is an example of scaling a site horizontally.
Answer:  FALSE
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate hardware for an e-commerce site.


61) Storing HTML pages in RAM rather than on a server's hard drive is an inexpensive way to fine-tune the processing architecture of a Web site.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate hardware for an e-commerce site.

62) Explain both the demand-side and the supply-side considerations when choosing the hardware platform for an e-commerce site. Include a discussion of I/O-intensive vs. CPU-intensive operations and scalability.
Answer:  The hardware platform refers to the underlying computing equipment that a system will need in order to perform all of the necessary e-commerce functions. You must have enough platform capacity to meet peak demand, without overinvesting in unnecessary and expensive equipment. The question is: How much computing and telecommunications capacity will be enough to meet that peak demand?

On the demand side, the first factor to consider is the maximum number of simultaneous users your site experiences. System performance will degrade as more simultaneous users request service. Processing HTTP requests for static pages is an I/O or input/output intensive operation, meaning that it does not require heavy-duty processing power. However, as customers request more advanced services such as searching the site, registering with the site, filling a shopping cart and checking out, and particularly downloading large multimedia files, much more processing power is required and site performance can deteriorate rapidly. The user profile on your site will help to determine the necessary hardware platform. What types of requests will users on your site make, for how many pages, and for what kind of service? Another factor to consider is the nature of the content on your site. If your site uses dynamic page generation and business logic, as does the shopping cart, the load on the processor increases rapidly. These types of requests are CPU-intensive operations, meaning that they require a great deal of processing power. Any user interactions that require interfacing with a database, such as filling out forms, adding items to the shopping cart, making purchases, or filling out customer questionnaires, require lots of processing power. The final factor to consider on the demand side is the telecommunication link your site has to the Web. The number of hits your site can handle per second depends on the bandwidth connections between your server and the Web. The larger the available bandwidth, the more simultaneous users your site can handle. The connection to the client is also a consideration. As consumers embrace broadband connections, they will be able to make far more frequent requests and will demand richer content from your site. This increased demand will mean that additional capacity requirements may be needed.

After you have estimated the present and future demands you expect your site to have, you will have to look at the supply side considerations. First and foremost is scalability. How will your site be able to increase in size as demand warrants? You can scale your site vertically by upgrading the servers from single processor to multiple processors. The drawbacks are that this can become expensive with each growth cycle and that the site becomes overly dependent on just a small number of powerful machines. You can scale your site horizontally by adding multiple single processor servers and balancing the load among many servers.

This can be less expensive as you can use older PCs that would otherwise be discarded, but you will have to purchase special load-balancing software. The main drawbacks are that the size of the physical facility will have to increase and that there is added management complexity. Perhaps the best method for meeting the demands for service on your site is to improve the processing architecture of your site by splitting the workload up into I/O-intensive and CPU-intensive operations. Then you can fine-tune the servers to handle each type of workload. You can add RAM to servers that will store the HTML pages, reducing the load on the hard drives, and move the CPU-intensive activities to high-end multiple processor servers that are dedicated to handling a particular task such as order processing and accessing the necessary databases. These steps will enable you to reduce the number of servers required to handle your peak demand.
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
LO:  4.4: Understand the issues involved in choosing the most appropriate hardware for an e-commerce site.

63) Django is based on which of the following?

1. A) PHP
2. B) Python
3. C) Perl
4. D) Ruby on Rails

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.

64) Ruby on Rails is based on which of the following philosophies?

1. A) SLDC
2. B) CoC
3. C) LAMP
4. D) Ajax

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.
65) Which of the following is the most commonly used server-side scripting language?

1. A) Ruby on Rails
2. B) Django
3. C) PHP
4. D) Perl

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.


66) All of the following are Web site design features that annoy customers except:

1. A) slow-loading pages.
2. B) pop-under ads.
3. C) splash pages.
4. D) redundant navigation.

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.

67) All of the following are important factors in search engine optimization except:

1. A) selecting keywords and page titles.
2. B) identifying market niches for your services or products.
3. C) buying search engine ads.
4. D) adhering to accessibility guidelines.

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Easy
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.

68) ________ provides a set of standards for communicating between a browser and a program running on a server that allows for interaction between the user and server.

1. A) CGI
2. B) ColdFusion
3. C) JavaScript
4. D) VBScript

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.

69) ________ is a programming language invented by Netscape used to control the objects on an HTML page and handle interactions with the browser.

1. A) VBScript
2. B) ActiveX
3. C) ColdFusion
4. D) JavaScript

Answer:  D
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.

70) The primary way a Web site is able to personalize the content presented to a visitor is through the use of:

1. A) privacy policies.
2. B) cookies.
3. C) accessibility rules.
4. D) site management tools.

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Easy
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.

71) Which of the following is not part of the LAMP open source Web development model?

1. A) Linux
2. B) Apache
3. C) Microsoft IIS
4. D) PHP

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.

72) Django follows the ________ programming principle.

1. A) CoC
2. B) WYSIWYG
3. C) DRY
4. D) LAMP

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.

73) PHP is an open source, general purpose scripting language that is most frequently used in server-side Web applications to generate dynamic Web page content.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.


74) What are widgets and how are they used? How do they differ from mashups?
Answer:  A widget is a small, prebuilt chunk of code that executes automatically in an HTML Web page to perform a specific task. Many are free. Social networks and blogs use widgets to present users with content drawn from around the Web (news headlines from specific news sources, announcements, press releases, and other routine content), calendars, clocks, weather, live TV, games, and other functionality. Mashups are a little more complicated and involve pulling functionality and data from one program and including it in another. The most common mashup involves using Google Maps data and software and combining it with other data.
Difficulty:  Easy
AACSB:  Information technology; Written and oral communication
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.
75) List and describe the eight most important factors in successful e-commerce site design.
Answer:  The eight most important factors in successful e-commerce site design include functionality (pages that work, load quickly, and point the customer toward product offerings); being informational (including links that customers can easily find to discover more about the firm and its products); ease of use (simple foolproof navigation); providing redundant navigation (alternative navigation to the same content); ease of purchase (one or two clicks to purchase); multi-browser functionality (site works with most popular browsers); simple graphics (avoiding distracting graphics and sounds that the user cannot control); and legible text (avoiding backgrounds that distort text or make it illegible).
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology; Written and oral communication
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.

76) What tools or technologies are available for providing interactivity and active content on a Web site and what functionality do they add? Describe at least five.
Answer:  Among the tools that are available for providing interactivity on a Web site are CGI scripts, Active Server Pages and ASP.NET, Java, Java Server Pages, JavaScript, ActiveX, VBScript, Cold Fusion, PHP, Ruby on Rails, and Django, as well as widgets and mashups.

CGI or Common Gateway Interface is a set of standards for communications between a browser and a program running on a server that allows for interaction between the user and the server. CGI allows an executable program to access all of the information within incoming requests from clients. The program then generates the required output for a Web page and sends it back to the client through the Web server. For example, CGI scripts are behind the display of the contents of a shopping cart to a user. The CGI script retrieves the contents from a database and returns it to the server, which sends it as an HTML page to the user's client computer. All of the computing takes place on the server side, thus this is referred to as server-side computing.

Active Server Pages (ASP) and its successor, ASP.NET, are Microsoft's versions of server-side programming. ASP and ASP.NET enable Web developers to easily create and open records from a database and execute programs within an HTML page. They also handle all of the various forms of interactivity found on e-commerce sites.


Java is a programming language that allows programmers to create interactivity on the user's client computer. The leading browsers today have a Java Virtual Machine (VM) that enables Java applets to be downloaded to the client over the Web. Although Java can display interesting graphics and create small interactive programs such as calculators and calendars that are executed entirely on the user's computer, thus saving considerable load on the server, it is not used extensively on corporate e-commerce sites for several reasons. First, the different vendors produce different versions of Java, resulting in applets built using proprietary versions that would only work well in the vendor's own browser or that would crash or malfunction in some browsers. Second, many firms will not allow Java applets through their firewalls for security reasons.

Java Server Pages (JSP), like CGI and ASP, is a Web page coding standard. Developers use a combination of HTML, JSP scripts, and Java to dynamically generate Web pages. Java servlets (small programs) are specified in the Web page and run on the Web server to modify pages before they are sent to the user. JSP is supported by most of the popular application servers on the market today.

JavaScript is a programming language invented by Netscape that is used to control objects on HTML pages as well as the interactions with the browser. It is much more acceptable to corporations because it is more stable than Java and it is restricted to the operation of requested Web pages. It is used for many common, yet crucial functions such as verifying and validating customer input. For example, it is used to verify that a valid phone number or e-mail address has been entered.

ActiveX is Microsoft's programming language that competes with Java, while VBScript is the competitor for JavaScript. ActiveX controls are the equivalent of Java applets; however, when the browser receives a Web page containing an ActiveX control, the browser simply runs the program on the page rather than downloading it to the client's computer. ActiveX also has full access to the client's resources (printers, networks, and hard drives), unlike Java. However, neither ActiveX nor VBScript work in any browser other than Internet Explorer. Due to the proprietary nature of Java, ActiveX, and VBScript, they are generally avoided by e-commerce site developers. CGI scripts, JSP, and JavaScript are the leading tools for providing interactive content.

ColdFusion is an integrated server-side environment for developing interactive Web applications. It combines an intuitive tag-based scripting language and a tag-based server scripting language (CFML) that lowers the cost of creating interactive features. It provides visual design, debugging, and deployment tools that make it a complete Web application development platform.

PHP is an open source, general purpose scripting language that is most frequently used in server-side Web applications to generate dynamic Web page content, although it can also be used for client-side graphical user interface applications. PHP is also a part of many Web application development frameworks, such as CakePHP, CodeIgniter, and others, and is also part of the LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) open source Web development model for building dynamic Web sites and web applications (Perl and Python are sometimes substituted for PHP in some LAMP projects).

Ruby on Rails (RoR or Rails) is an open source Web application framework based on the Ruby programming language. RoR is based on a philosophy known as convention over configuration, or coding by convention (CoC), which means that the framework provides a structured layout that minimizes the number of decisions that the programmer needs to make, thereby simplifying and speeding development. JavaScript and Ajax are highly integrated into RoR, which makes it easy to handle Ajax requests for page updates. Django is also an open source Web application framework. It is based on the Python programming language. Django is optimized for the creation of complex, database-driven Web sites. It allows for fast development, focuses on automating as much as possible, emphasizes the reusability of various components, and follows the DRY (Don't Repeat Yourself) programming principle.

Widgets are small chunks of code that execute automatically in your HTML Web page. They typically present users with dynamic content such as news headlines, calendars, clocks, weather, live TV, games, and other functionality. Mashups pull functionality from one Web site and include it in another, such as a real-estate agent incorporating Google Maps data in his or her own Web site
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
LO:  4.5: Identify additional tools that can improve Web site performance.
77) All of the following are key design principles of responsive Web design except:

1. A) flexible grid-based layouts.
2. B) media queries.
3. C) coding by convention.
4. D) flexible images and media.

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a mobile Web site and building mobile applications.

78) Which of the following is a server-side technique that detects the attributes of the device making the request, and using predefined templates, loads a version of a site that is optimized for the device?

1. A) LAMP
2. B) AWD
3. C) mobile first design
4. D) RoR

Answer:  B
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a mobile Web site and building mobile applications.


79) Which of the following statements about responsive Web design (RWD) is not true?

1. A) RWD works best for sites that have complex functionality.
2. B) RWD tools include HTML5 and CSS3.
3. C) RWD makes it possible to design a Web site that automatically adjusts its layout and display according to the screen resolution of the device on which it is being viewed.
4. D) RWD can be costly.

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a mobile Web site and building mobile applications.

80) Building which of the following is the most expensive path to creating a mobile presence?

1. A) native app
2. B) mobile Web site
3. C) mobile Web app
4. D) hybrid HTTP

Answer:  A
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a mobile Web site and building mobile applications.
81) Which of the following statements about mobile Web sites is not true?

1. A) Mobile Web sites run on a firm's servers, just like a traditional Web site.
2. B) Mobile Web sites can be built using standard Web tools such as server-side HTML, Linux, PHP and SQL.
3. C) Generally, mobile Web sites operate more quickly than traditional Web sites viewed on a desktop computer connected to a broadband office network.
4. D) Most large firms today have mobile Web sites.

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Difficult
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a mobile Web site and building mobile applications.

82) Beginning the e-commerce development process with a mobile presence rather than a desktop Web site is referred to as which of the following?

1. A) RWD
2. B) AWD
3. C) mobile first design
4. D) RESS

Answer:  C
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Application of knowledge
LO:  4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a mobile Web site and building mobile applications.

83) A native app is one designed to specifically operate using a mobile device's hardware and operating system.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a mobile Web site and building mobile applications.

84) Mobile Web apps are typically built using HTML5 and Java.
Answer:  TRUE
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Information technology
LO:  4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a mobile Web site and building mobile applications.
85) Discuss some of the unique features that must be taken into account when designing a mobile Web presence.
Answer:  Designing a mobile Web presence is somewhat different from designing a Web site that will be accessed via a traditional desktop computer. For instance, mobile hardware is smaller, and there are more resource constraints on data storage and processing power. The mobile platform is also constrained by slower connection speeds than provided by traditional desktop computers. As a result, file sizes should be kept smaller, and the number of files sent to the user reduced. Mobile displays are much smaller and require simplification, and some screens are not as easily visible in sunlight. Touch screen technology also introduces new interaction routines that are different from the traditional mouse and keyboard. The mobile platform is not as easy to use as a data entry tool, and therefore choice boxes and lists should be used more frequently so that the user can easily scroll and touch-select options, rather than type them in. You will also want to determine whether to create a mobile-friendly version of your e-commerce site or implement responsive Web design or adaptive Web design, or create an entirely new mobile app. You can choose to build a mobile Web app, a native app, or a hybrid app. Building a mobile Web app that uses the mobile device's browser requires more effort and cost than developing a mobile Web site, suffers from the same limitations as any browser-based application, but does offer some advantages such as better graphics, more interactivity, and faster local calculations. Building a native app, which is programmed for specific mobile operating systems, requires much more programming; however, it will allow you much greater creative rein in making a unique customer experience. You can also choose to create a hybrid, cross-platform mobile app with various low-cost or open source app development toolkits.
Difficulty:  Moderate
AACSB:  Analytical thinking; Information technology; Written and oral communication
LO:  4.6: Understand the important considerations involved in developing a mobile Web site and building mobile applications.