Final Project (Total of 90 points):
a. Title Page (2 point)
b. Table of Contents (2 points): Include page numbers in report
c. Research Question (2 points):Create and state your research question in the
context of this assignment. Submit you research question under the Final Project
Module on Brightspace for approval by the professor.
d. Executive Summary (4 points): Provide an overview of your report and a preview
of how the paper is structured. Be sure to include key findings and highlights from
the report. For example: What did you discover? Any recommendations? This
section should be approximately 2-3 paragraphs.
e. Current State of the Industry: (15 points): Analyze the current state of the
industry. Incorporate Porter’s 5 forces and any IS/IT involvement, influence or
interaction with the state of the industry. How has the industry developed or
changed with the ever evolving IS/IT? (Suggestion: Include the influence of the
Internet of Things, Big Data, Going Mobile, Digital Reality Devices, 3D Printing,
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Self-Driving Vehicles, 5G, Artificial Intelligence, etc.). **Creating a
diagram/picture of Porter’s 5 forces related to your industry is required in this
section. This section should be 1.5-2 pages.
f. Company Analysis:Select one company from the industry selected (must have an
online presence).
i. Company Introduction: (5 points): This section should be approximately 2
paragraphs.Introduce your company. Give a synapsis of your company
and what they are doing today.
ii. Competitive Strategy and Revenue Model: (20 points): This section
should be approximately 2 pages. Use Porter’s Generic (Competitive)
Strategies to identify and analyze the compeititive strategy of your
company. *Creating a diagram/picture of the competitive forces related
to your company is required in this section. Identify the type (or types) of
revenue model(s) the company uses to generate profit and explain why
you made that selection. Choices include but not limited to: Traditional
Sales, Affiliate Marketing, Licensing, On Demand, Membership,
Subscription, Freemium, Group Buying, Platform-Based, Service-Based,
etc. In addition, include the type of e-commerce (B2B, B2C, C2B, C2C) and
the structure (Brick and Mortar, Click and Mortar, Pure-Play (Click Only)).
In addition, conduct SWOT analysis of your company with a focus on IT/IS
and how IT/IS plays a role in the competitive strategy, revenue model(s),
and structure of your company? Explain.
iii. Cybersecurity and Privacy: (10 points): This section should be
approximately 1 page. Evaluate the company’s website with regards to
cybersecurity and privacy. Is the privacy policy published? When was it
updated? Read the policies. What accommodations does the company use
to prevent and/or educate the customer with regards to privacy? (Be sure
to incorporate the FTC Fair Information Practice Principles) Assess your
company in regards to cybersecurity issues-Has either company
encountered any cybersecurity issues? If so, what and how did they
address the issue?
iv. Financial Data Analysis: (15 points): This section should be approximately
2 pages. Using the financial data available on Morningstar, conduct a data
analysis for the company using the past 10 years of data. Use Microsoft
Excel and the tools we learned in the course. Provide 4 graphs that
analyze the company. **Include the visualizations (graphs) in the
business report. In addition, provide an analysis and a recommendation
for each graph.
g. Conclusion and Research Question Reflection: (7.5 points): As you have finished
the research and the assessment, did you need to change or modify your
research question? Explain. This section should be approximately 1/2 page.
h. References: (5 points): Minimum of 10 references. Format references in the
same format. I do not have a preference as to type of format
