Research Project

Organisation

Author Name

HND Business

Research Project | Author Name

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Acknowledgement................................................................................................................... 3
Abstract.................................................................................................................................. 4
Introduction............................................................................................................................. 5
Learning Outcome 1............................................................................................................. 7
Task 1.................................................................................................................................. 7
Outline and produce the research project specifications by defining the research
question/hypothesis, describe the research aims and objectives; rationale for selection
of the topic; outline of the literature and data collection methodology etc......................7
Task 2.................................................................................................................................. 9
Discuss the factors which you have considered or the factors which helped you in the
selection of this research project......................................................................................9
Task 3................................................................................................................................ 10
Select and discuss the literature relevant to your research project. Critically analyse the
suitability of your selected literature/references for your research project.....................10
Literature Review........................................................................................................... 10
Types of E-Commerce..................................................................................................... 11
The Advantages and Disadvantages of Internet Marketing............................................11
E-Commerce Success Model........................................................................................... 13
Task 4................................................................................................................................ 15
Develop a plan that indicates the procedures and estimated time to undertake the
research project activities/specification as planned.......................................................15
Learning Outcome 2........................................................................................................... 16
Task 5................................................................................................................................ 16
Identify and match the required resources to meet the defined research
questions/hypothesis for the selected research project..................................................16
Task 6................................................................................................................................ 17
Develop a plan to collect data for your research project by explaining the sources and
types of data. Also specify the questions which you have planned to use in
questionnaire/interviews (if planned).............................................................................17
Task 7................................................................................................................................ 20
Present the data in a suitable format collected from various sources for the research
project............................................................................................................................ 20

AUTHOR NAME

Research Project | Author Name

Learning Outcome 3........................................................................................................... 22
Task 8................................................................................................................................ 22
Interpret and analyze the data collected and presented in 2.3 with the help of
appropriate evaluation techniques.................................................................................22
Task 9................................................................................................................................ 25
On the basis of your analysis presented in 3.1/3.2 (Task 8) make some useful
recommendations for further improvements..................................................................25
Learning Outcome 4........................................................................................................... 26
Task 10.............................................................................................................................. 26
(a) Produce the research project report in a professional format where title page, table
of contents, clearly segregated sections and list of references. You are also expected to
use Harvard referencing style with appropriate use of language and grammar.............27
(b)
Prepare a 10-minute presentation that delivers the research outcomes to your
class peers. The best research project will feature on the Colleges website for all future
students to view............................................................................................................. 27
References............................................................................................................................ 27

AUTHOR NAME

Research Project | Author Name

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

I would like to express the inmost appreciation to my respected

supervisor Sir Azmat Ali Shah for his untiring support, assistance,
supervision and help both mentally and physically during the
entire project work. Without his guidance and persistent help this
research would not have been conceivable.
In the literature review of this research, I have cited few scholarly
publications. Some of them are from earlier research findings. I
have also utilized scholarly papers from the wider academia.
These are works without which I could not have had a scholarly
insight into this research. I thank you all.

AUTHOR NAME

Research Project | Author Name

ABSTRACT
This paper postulates around the current trends in online business which
poses immense possibilities that the Internet has to offer. The research
primarily focuses on expanding and increasing the business capacities of
superstores which have large quantities of different products to sell but
unfortunately these products due to lack of access to the people presumably
do not reach to the desired consumers and audiences thus through the
utilization of the internet and through joint ventures by different superstore
owners to combine their business and offer the products of their owned
superstores on a platform of internet and yet still be able to pocket profit and
expand business is worth while giving large opportunities to establish
themselves firm roots.
The core concept revolves around the Case Study of the famous e-commerce
site Ebay which incorporates different vendors and provides them with an
online store to conduct their respective business.
But this remains limited only to the online retailing and by incorporating this
sort of mechanism the scattered and various superstores will very well
benefit from the potentials of joining and merging their business to offer
wider variety of products which they cant seem to offer at their stores but
could possibly ship them at others.

Keywords: Online Business, Centralized Communication, Internet, Remote

Branches, Ebay, Amazon.

AUTHOR NAME

Research Project | Author Name

INTRODUCTION
In todays high-speed, always-on data economy, understanding how to best
engage with clients means understanding the statistical data and how to
transform it into actionable insights. eBay, the leading online retail and
auction site, has proven that this is now the rule rather than the exception.
The key to eBays extraordinary success is its ability to turn enormous
volumes of products offered into useful insights that customers can glean
directly from the pages they visit routinely. To accommodate this explosive
growth of products, eBays data centers perform billions of reads and writes
each day. This increasing demand to process product demands at blistering
speeds meant eBay needed a solution that did not suffer from the
bottlenecks, scalability limitations and transactional constraints associated
with common relational approaches According to the SEC filing, eBay
summarizes the core messages to define its proposition as follows:

For buyers:

Trust
Value
Selection
Convenience.

For sellers:

Access to broad global markets

Efficient marketing and distribution
Opportunity to increase sales.

The need to efficiently manage enormous volumes of products caused eBay

to explore newer forms and approaches designed for modern application
requirements.
The solution incorporates a scale out architecture that
enables eBay to conduct multiple types of businesses. The end result allows
eBay to more cost effectively process massive amounts of product demands
at very high velocities, and achieve far more than they were able to with the
higher-cost proprietary system they had been using.

AUTHOR NAME

Research Project | Author Name

It is recognized that in both developed and developing countries, the

standard of e-commerce business services is not being provided as per
public expectations. A very high proportion of the population in many
developing countries including World, do not have any access to products but
they have the mode through which they can build their own business through
utilization of internet, which can be used by anyone. In short, there is a
bright opportunity for those who wish to expand their businesses.

AUTHOR NAME

Research Project | Author Name

LEARNING OUTCOME 1
Understand how to formulate a research specification. (Learning Outcome 1)

TASK 1

OUTLINE AND PRODUCE THE RESEARCH PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS BY

DEFINING THE RESEARCH QUESTION/HYPOTHESIS, DESCRIBE THE
RESEARCH AIMS AND OBJECTIVES; RATIONALE FOR SELECTION OF
THE TOPIC; OUTLINE OF THE LITERATURE AND DATA COLLECTION
METHODOLOGY ETC.

THIS STUDY EXAMINES

The impact of putting conventional form of merchandise into e-commerce

RESEARCH QUESTION:
This research is about the impact of putting conventional form of
merchandise into e-commerce. So in our questions and studies our main
focus is how e-commerce will help the superstores join them together on an
internet platform to expand their range of products and increase business.
Our study will answer the following key aspects.

Potentials of E-commerce?

Targeted Audience, Clients, and Customers?

Changing social patterns of society and high acceptance of modern

technology?
AUTHOR NAME

Research Project | Author Name

Internet an emerging commodity in modern world?

Products offered and remote branches?

Business trends and practices?

Aftermaths and results on getting on the bandwagon?

Future implications?

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY:

To find out the role of e-commerce adoption in expanding the business
of conventional industry.

To determine the impact of e-commerce.

RATIONALE:
E-commerce is a vast area which is discussed in many lengths in numerous
articles and studies. Infect nowadays eastern hemisphere is following the
modern approaches and principles of modern technology in their
organizations and their performance is increasing day by day. In prior studies
internet of things is discussed only in the context of organizations that how
should it work and behave in organizations. Now in this paper I choose ecommerce industry as where there is a much need of improvements and
changing the notions of people and their insecurities regarding it. Because ecommerce industry is often perceived as flawed and vulnerable to losses and
damages both financially and organizational. E-commerce is a broad area
and it is studied by many authors and there are many articles on it but I will
specifically see in the context of Ebay in the E-commerce industry. Hacking
and explicit online mal-practice now days are very heinous and grave issues
to discuss and to focus on it because in much organization due to such
practices many business and vendors cant perform according to the
expectations. There have been empirical studies to discuss this topic. In
additions there are other products of these variables that have not been
examined.

AUTHOR NAME

Research Project | Author Name

SCOPE OF THE STUDY:

E-commerce has long been recognized widely and accepted as the new
model for the demands of modern life which considerably contribute in
improving the organizational performance with their practices. This study
reveals the factors of e-commerce work ethics which will present among both
elements then it will further more strengthen the relationship which will
ultimately increase the organization performance. This study is meaningful
for both the growing modern i.e. e-commerce and conventional merchandise
industry as well and also for other organizations with the perspective of
increasing performance because when they improve their performance
through inter-connected networks and accessibility they relatively increase
the reach of catering the needs of people`s demands. This study also reveals
that when there is a culture or environment present in the organization for a
healthy competition and joint ventures then it will undoubtedly increase the
perception of expansions and increasing business which ultimately results in
more productivity which again resultantly increases the performance of
organization.

TASK 2
DISCUSS THE FACTORS WHICH YOU HAVE CONSIDERED OR THE
FACTORS WHICH HELPED YOU IN THE SELECTION OF THIS RESEARCH
PROJECT.

Following Factors have been thoroughly examined and considered in the

selection of the research project topic:
1. E-commerce trends
Online sales are going to continue to nurture, and if
one wants to be part of the new trend, then one has
to prepare. Many businesses who were once limited
to certain geography are now omnipresent on
internet just a click away.

AUTHOR NAME

Research Project | Author Name

2. Social fabric of society evolving and relying more on modern

gadgets
People can advertise for their business on social
networking sites as many people use them and it will
attract responsiveness from the users of such sites.
People also connect with their friends locally and
globally on such social networking sites as they are
easily accessible via modern gadgets that are widely
used.
3. Huge potentials of doing business online
Internet has created a new economy, which by its
volatile growth and steep size already changed the
perception of traditional way of doing business.
Companies like Amazon and Ebay have successfully
created domination on areas, where just few years
ago
traditional
conventional
brick-and-mortar
companies were kings.
4. Cost effective and reliable source of doing business
E-commerce is easy to establish and with lesser
people to higher it gets even more easy to manage
and do business as the cost is less as compared to
the conventional form and yet still at the competitive
process earns huge profits.
5. The Internet of Things is no more a myth but a reality soon
to be witnessed
The Internet of Things (IoT) is the network of
physical objectsdevices, vehicles, buildings and
other itemsembedded with electronics, software,
sensors, and network connectivity that enables
these objects to collect and exchange data.
6. Efficiently utilization of resources
Internet enables businesses to utilizes their resources
efficiently which is about maximizing the supply of
money, materials, staff, and other assets that can be
AUTHOR NAME

10

Research Project | Author Name

drawn on by a person or organization in order to

function effectively.

TASK 3
SELECT AND DISCUSS THE LITERATURE RELEVANT TO YOUR
RESEARCH PROJECT. CRITICALLY ANALYSE THE SUITABILITY OF YOUR
SELECTED LITERATURE/REFERENCES FOR YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT .

The literature survey examined journals, articles, papers and notes. The
review was done to identify gaps in the prior research and to fill that gap
with a theoretical contribution.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature on web theory is scant because it is a relatively a new area and
the technologists at the forefront of Web design are typically not sufficiently
academically inclined to formulate the relevant theories (Day, 1997). While
previous research has examined Internet usage (Teo, Lim, & Lai, 1999),
commercial websites (Gonzalez and Palacios, 2004), website design (Kim,
Shaw, & Schneider, 2003), website effectiveness from the consumers
perspective (Bell & Tang, 1998), pricing paid placements on search engine
(Sen et. al., 2008), and bidding (Bernard and Simone, 2011). This form of
online advertising emerged in 1998 [Fain and Pedersen 2006], rapidly has
become the central business model of the major search engines [Jansen and
Mullen 2008], and is one of the most rapidly growing segments of the online
marketing area [SEMPO Research 2009] Search engine has become a
necessity for people to surf the web [Hsien-Tsung Chang, 2011]. It is a simple
user interface is designed. Any user simply fills in several fields and the
system makes the decision about what to find, where to search and how to
look at. The threshold of search is lowered. SEM is an internet marketing
model aiming at promoting the ranking of websites in the search engine's
search results page which can make a web site introduce into more web
users and website traffic [iProspect 2008]. Li-Hsing HO et. al., (2011)
explained about exploration of SEO technology applied in internet marketing,
Kesharwani and Tiwari (2011) studied the importance of website quality
towards the success or failure of any e-vendor. Khan and Mahapatra (2009)
AUTHOR NAME

11

Research Project | Author Name

studied that the quality of internet banking (i-banking) services in India from
customers perspective. Malhotra and Singh (2007) carried out a research to
find the i-banking adoption by the banks in India. Thus, it is high time that
India should act fast and decisively in order to use the growing electronic
trade to our advantage.
TYPES OF E-COMMERCE
Waghmare G.T. (2012) has defined the following types of e-commerce: (i)
B2B E-Commerce: Companies doing business with each other such as
manufacturers selling to distributors and wholesalers selling to retailers.
Pricing is based on quantity of order and is often negotiable. (ii) B2C ECommerce: Businesses selling to the general public typically through
catalogs utilizing shopping cart software. By dollar volume, B2B takes the
prize, however B2C is really what the average Joe has in mind with regards to
ecommerce as a whole. for example, indiatimes.com. (iii) C2C E-Commerce:
There are many sites offering free classifieds, auctions, and forums where
individuals can buy and sell thanks to online payment systems like PayPal
where people can send and receive money online with ease. eBay's auction
service is a great example of where customer-to customer transactions take
place every day. (iv) Others: G2G (Government-to-Government), G2E
(Government-to-Employee), G2B (Government-to-Business), B2G (Businessto-Government).
THE ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES OF INTERNET MARKETING
Melody and Robert (2001) remarked that the Internet can provide timely
information to customers because of its ability for instant communication,
and its availability 24 hours a day, 7 days a week [Lane, 1996]. On-line
marketing offers more choices and flexibility [Lamoureux, 1997] and, at the
same time, eliminates huge inventories, storage costs, utilities, space rental,
etc., [Avery, 1997]. People tend to associate Internet marketing with direct
marketing because companies participating in online marketing usually
shortened the supply chain [Edwards, et al., 1998] and reduced commission
and operating costs. The ability to serve as both a transaction medium and a
physical distribution medium for certain goods is a unique feature of Internet
marketing. Such advantages can be best realized by companies that provide
digital products/services such as software, music, news, consulting services,
online ticketing and reservations, telemedicine, insurance, banking, stock
brokerage, tax, and other financial service industries. Using the Internet as

AUTHOR NAME

12

Research Project | Author Name

the distribution channel can reduce not only the delivery cost substantially,
but also ensures instant delivery of products/services.
Moreover, Ruckman (2012) suggested that Internet research becomes an
increasingly important tool during the purchasing process; more marketers
are seeing the advantages too. Its a win-win situation. Marketing
departments are investing more into online marketing today because its:
Attractive to a significant segment of the demographics for
most customer profiles. It can effectively reach the target
customer.
Faster and less expensive to conduct direct marketing
campaigns Measurable, which means that successes are
identifiable and repeatable
Open 24-hours a day
Cost-effective, in the long run.
Disadvantages:
There is no actual face-to-face contact involved in the Internet
communication. For the types of products that rely heavily on building
personal relationship between buyers and sellers such as the selling of life
insurance, and the type of products that requires physical examination,
Internet marketing maybe less appropriate. While internet marketing cannot
allow prospective buyers to touch, or smell or taste or 'try on' the products,
however a survey of consumers of cosmetics products shows that email
marketing can be used to interest a consumer to visit a store to try a product
or to speak with sales representatives [Martin at el (2003)]. Some of the
disadvantages of e-Marketing are dependability on technology, Security,
privacy issues, Maintenance costs due to a constantly evolving environment,
Higher transparency of pricing and increased price competition, and
worldwide competition through globalization.
E-COMMERCE SUCCESS MODEL
A growing number of studies are discussing e-commerce success. Using the
D&M model and the communication and ecology theories that anchor the
model, there is a need to evaluate the success of e-commerce systems at
different levels -- system, individual and organizational. Likewise, some eAUTHOR NAME

13

Research Project | Author Name

commerce researchers (such as Von Dran et al, 1999; Kim, 1999; Loiacono
and Taylor, 1999) have focused on the system aspects of e-commerce
systems that establish the web presence of companies. Others (see Zhang et
al, 2000) investigated the quality of the content displayed on the web
system as distinct from the technical quality of the system. A growing
number of studies (Henneman, 1999; Nielsen, 1999) are also focusing on the
usability aspect of e-commerce systems while others (Han and Noh, 1999,
Jones & Kayworth, 1999) focus on assessing the use level and the
satisfaction of users and customers in interacting with e-commerce systems.
A few studies (Schubert and Selz, 2001, Kardaras and Karakostas, 1999)
have investigated the overall effectiveness of e-commerce systems and its
impact on organizational performance While each of the studies mentioned
above made significant contributions, little attention has been paid to
integrating the various independent variables into a comprehensive model
and in defining the dependent variable. Although Use and User Satisfaction
are the most widely used dependent variables in the e-commerce literature,
standard and systematic criteria for assessing Use and User Satisfaction of ecommerce systems do not seem to appear. For example, existing Use metrics
focus on using specialized software to calculate indices such as reach, hit,
click-through rate, conversion rate and do not extend to identifying what
really affects Use. In the same vein, there does not appear to be a
comprehensive framework and/or model that integrate the various
independent variables into User Satisfaction. In addition, despite the number
of emerging studies (Lam and Lee, 1999; Chen and Wells, 1999; Kim 1999;
Jahng et al, 1999; Meuter et al, 2000) that identify factors that affect
customer satisfaction in e-commerce, there is no comprehensive framework
and/or model that integrate the various independent variables suggested by
the studies to the satisfaction of the major group of users namely customers.
The substitution of customer satisfaction for user satisfaction as a dependent
variable to e-commerce success warrants further discussion. Using customer
satisfaction as a dependent variable might overcome the theoretical
difficulty of the relationship of user satisfaction to organizational
performance. However, it might also introduce some conceptual and
operational complexities. Businesses depend on their customers. In fact,
customers are the very livelihood of business organizations. Customer
satisfaction has always been assumed as a necessary condition for the
success of organizations. There are several studies (see for a summary Andre
and Saraiva, 2000) that bring to evidence the benefits that derive from a
high level of customer satisfaction, namely through increase of customer
AUTHOR NAME

14

Research Project | Author Name

loyalty, reduction of price elasticity, decrease of failure-related costs, easier

acquisition of new customers, increase of the products portfolio supplied to
customers, brand's and enterprise's prestige in the market and so forth. In
addition, evidence abounds from management, organization and marketing
literature that customer satisfaction is positively related to increased
profitability, larger market share, and growth (Naumann 2001, Meuter et al,
2000; McColl-Kennedy and Schneider, 2000). Hence, the substitution of user
satisfaction with customer satisfaction as a dependent variable in ecommerce success overcomes the not so obvious and often questionable link
in the D&M model between user satisfaction and organizational performance.
Customer satisfaction, however, is a much broader and more complex
concept as can be evidenced through the various national customer
satisfaction indexes (such as the American Customer Satisfaction Index
(ACSI), Swedish Customer Satisfaction Barometer (SCSB), the European
Customer Satisfaction Index (ECSI)) and the wide range of industry-specific
models suggested in the marketing and management literature (for an
overview see Bearden et al, 1996; Hayes 1992). While some models of
customer satisfaction focus on the service delivery aspect, others
incorporate issues related to features of tangible products such as durability,
reliability, structural design and so on. For example, one of the more widely
used instruments for assessing customer satisfaction is SERVQUAL
developed by Zeithaml et al (1990). SERVQUAL entails measuring the gaps
between the perceptions of customers, the level of service provided and the
potential of improvement. Naumann (1995) on the other hand proposes
another model and instrument of customer satisfaction that incorporates
attributes related to product quality, product design and value. Other models
(McColl-kennedy & Schneider, 2000) investigate influence factors such as
social, self-concept, and perceived alternatives on customer satisfaction.
Although extensive academic research can be found in management,
organizational and marketing literatures on customer satisfaction, the focus
of such research has been on the dynamics of interpersonal interaction
between service providers and customers and the value of core products and
services (Meuter et al, 2000). Much less research has investigated
customers interactions with e-commerce systems. E-commerce systems
however significantly reduce the interpersonal encounter that forms the core
of most customer satisfaction research. On the other hand, the very few
studies that investigated e-commerce customer satisfaction as a surrogate
measure to e-commerce success lack comprehensiveness in capturing the
full functionality of e-commerce systems. Therefore, the concept of customer
AUTHOR NAME

15

Research Project | Author Name

satisfaction as applied to e-commerce systems success needs to be carefully

defined in order to make the suggested model tractable. In general, existing
works related to User Information Satisfaction, Customer Satisfaction and
SERVQUAL and the few attempts that use customer satisfaction as a
surrogate measure for e-commerce success are limited in scope and
treatment to describe e-commerce success and there is a gap in the existing
research for a comprehensive e-commerce success model. The focus of this
paper is hence to use the theoretical legs of the D&M model and propose an
extended and comprehensive e-commerce success model that spans all the
phases of on-line transaction and all the purposes of ecommerce systems.
The D&M model is used here because of the relevance of the theorization
that goes behind it to e-commerce systems and its potential to allow
systematic organization of the various criteria of success in a meaningful
way. Effort is made to retain as much as possible the richness of the D&M
model while at the same time allowing ways to capture the peculiar nature of
e-commerce systems. The additional knowledge of the specific tasks ecommerce users (i.e., customers) are engaged in leads us to refine the D&M
model to reflect the marketing phases (pre, during and after sale) and ecommerce purposes (information, transaction and customer service). Figure
3 provides the resulting e-commerce success model.
Following are the encouraging and promising factors of the research which
are co-related with the researches, journals, articles and studies and surveys
both private and state sponsored:
A. Internet of things
B. Changing social fabric of society and its adoptance to the
modern gadgets and technology
C. Increasing literacy rates and improving educational standards
D. E-commerce is riding on the wheels of internet to accelerate
its pace
E. Apps and smartphones relation
F. eBay, Amazon, AliBaba etc. success stories

TASK 4
DEVELOP A PLAN THAT INDICATES THE PROCEDURES AND ESTIMATED
TIME TO UNDERTAKE THE RESEARCH PROJECT
ACTIVITIES/SPECIFICATION AS PLANNED.
AUTHOR NAME

16

Research Project | Author Name

FRAMEWORK PURPOSED:
As it has been shown in the previous section that e-commerce is the key
processes of increasing the performance of any business. As these variables
promote the value of businesses both conventional and modern which
ultimately help in gaining competitive edge. With the proposed framework
we want to give an approximate solution to these problems by establishing
the relationship between internet, conventional business doing practices and
e-commerce. We want to promote the healthy competition and working
environment like in which everybody should manage his/her work well and
should have control on his/ her conducts of doing business and to do the best
work which is the requirement of e-commerce industry. E-commerce industry
does not often have documented process for explaining how to increase
performance through adoption of internet alone it also requires keen
attention for search engine optimizations and marketing campaigns and
other tangible offers in benefits to the clients. Therefore, theoretical
framework is developing which aims to explain the relationship between one
independent and two independent variables.

Conventio
nal
Business

Internet

ECommerce

AUTHOR NAME

17

Research Project | Author Name

This frame work describes that internet and conventional businesses are
dependent variable. While e-commerce is the synthesis of these two
variables.

LEARNING OUTCOME 2
Be able to implement the research project within agreed procedures and to specification
(Learning Outcome 2)

TASK 5
IDENTIFY AND MATCH THE REQUIRED RESOURCES TO MEET THE
DEFINED RESEARCH QUESTIONS/HYPOTHESIS FOR THE SELECTED
RESEARCH PROJECT .

CONCEPTUALIZATION OF THE MODEL :

Whether organizations can achieve sustainable performance depends upon
the precondition that they must attain their defined performance/success
aim. In this respect it is obvious that adopting the E-commerce by the
conventional businesses will have positive effect on organizational
performance. E-commerce is very significant channel for gaining the
multitude of benefits from greater reach and catering of audiences.
E-commerce is characterized as the action of adopting the internet as its
platform to cater the client base for the transactions which is assurance of
good standards to a current issue (Amazon, 1992) and as an art of Selling
things (Kevin Mitnick, 1998). E-commerce is the information that deals with
the insight and the intelligence where toward the end of the course speaks to
all the scholarly activities. It is in this way a typical study into its topic in the
expectation of getting learning. The advanced overall advancement and the
extension of the worldwide business have further underlined the enthusiasm
for the themes of moral conduct and social responsibility (Jones, 1991).
What this is suggesting is that E-commerce, unlike some other traditional
concepts of conventional method and approach of doing business, is not
AUTHOR NAME

18

Research Project | Author Name

believed to be solely cognitive, but rather encompasses skills that assist one
in coping with day-to-day dealings and sell-buy in the world according to
Goleman (1996; 1997), this does not however mean that we must desire
traditional ideas of commerce, as these are also relevant to the individuals
daily dealings and work performance. Rather, we should look at both
traditional concepts of commerce as well as concepts of internet of things.

HYPOTHESIS:
H1: Internet acts as a catalyst and increases the conventional businesses
profits and extends its reach.
H2: Internet decreases the cost of doing business and maintaining it is
mostly and widely done by electronic devices.

TASK 6
DEVELOP A PLAN TO COLLECT DATA FOR YOUR RESEARCH PROJECT
BY EXPLAINING THE SOURCES AND TYPES OF DATA. ALSO SPECIFY
THE QUESTIONS WHICH YOU HAVE PLANNED TO USE IN
QUESTIONNAIRE/INTERVIEWS (IF PLANNED).

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:
The questionnaires are used as the tool in order to find the relationship
between the Internet, conventional business doing and e-commerce. Then
the Statistical software is used known as SPSS that find the different results
of the frequencies, regression and correlation among the variables.
The convenient sampling is used and the data is collected from the ecommerce industry of the world. The entrepreneurs, businessmen and
organization of commerce sectors are used as the element of the research.
RESEARCH DESIGN:
The research design of our study is causal research design because it is
appropriate according to our framework in which we are examining the
impact of internet on conventional businesses and e-commerce. Another
reason to choose this research design is that it measures the cause and
AUTHOR NAME

19

Research Project | Author Name

effect relationship among variables. This research is carried out on individual

basis: we gather the data from the entrepreneurs working in different
segments of commerce and conventional and modern businesses where
internet is used or any sort of computer aid is utilized. Time horizon of our
study was cross sectional rather than longitudinal because the nature of our
study was causal. Instrument of our research study which uses to collect the
data was questionnaire, which is a primary data. There are three variables
which have been used in this study, Internet, conventional business and ecommerce. In which Internet is independent and e-commerce and
conventional business being dependent variables.
SAMPLING PROCESS:
The subjects of this study was Ebay e-commerce site entrepreneurs of our
target population in the conventional business industry around the world.
Three hundred questionnaires 240 returned with a good response rate.
Because of ambiguity 10 questionnaires were rejected and a total 290
questionnaires were used for analysis with majority entrepreneurs of MBA
degree in which male respondents were 56.7 and female respondents were
43.3. Average age of sample was 20-20 (77.3%) and 30_39 (22.3%) and
qualification was MBA.
SAMPLING TECHNIQUE:
For our convenience of time and familiarity of location we select convenient
sampling technique which is the method of non-probability sampling. The
reason to select this technique is due to the fact that there is large number
of conventional business all around the world. It was not possible to reach all
the conventional businesses in a limited time period, hence convenient
sampling seemed to be the most appropriate form of sampling technique. To
get the data questionnaires were distributed among the entrepreneurs of the
selected cites mainly from the well established businesses which have
adopted internet as their mod of doing and conducting business affairs all
around the world.
INSTRUMENTATION
The instrument of the study was based on the theoretical literature of the
variables and it also includes number of questionnaires adopted from the
previous study. Questionnaires which used by researchers were relevant to
each variable. In this study questionnaires were used to measure the
independent and dependent variables and the effect of them on each other.
AUTHOR NAME

20

Research Project | Author Name

A survey instrument was composed of two sections: (1) demographic section

and (2) variable section which consist of Internet, conventional business and
e-commerce. Face validity of the survey instrument was gained thorough a
review by a research coordinator who is expert in research methodology.
INTERNET:
To access the Internet, we used 10 items scale which are taken from the
scale developed by the British entrepreneur Kevin Ashton (1999) from the
research article of The Internet of Things. Type of sample item is Internet
would help the organization achieve its performance objectives.
Respondents were made on the five points Likert type scale ranging from 5
(strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree).
CONVENTIONAL BUSINESS:
To assess the conventional business, we also used 10 items scale taken from
Daniel Goleman and from model by Paul Mohapel. Type of sample item is
self-awareness and wellbeing Responses were made on a five-point type
Liker type scale ranging from 5 (strongly agrees) to 1 (strongly disagrees).
E-COMMERCE:
To assess the e-commerce, we used 10 items scale taken from Cameron and
Quinn (1999) to measure the e-commerce. Type of scale is there is an
atmosphere of trust in organization.
Responses were made on a five point Likert type scale ranging from 5
(strongly agree) to 1 (strongly disagree).
RELIABILITY OF SCALE:
To check the reliability, we used Cronbachs alpha. For this purpose, we
conducted a pilot testing, with 30 questionnaires, the overall reliability was
0.8 (>0.7) so showing good reliability of instrument.

TASK 7
PRESENT THE DATA IN A SUITABLE FORMAT COLLECTED FROM
VARIOUS SOURCES FOR THE RESEARCH PROJECT.

AUTHOR NAME

21

Research Project | Author Name

RESULTS:
DEMOGRAPHICS ANALYSIS:
First of all, there is a demographic analysis on explanation of the gender, age
and qualification and all shown below:
Variables
Gender

Age

Percentages
Male

56.7

Female

43.3

20-29

77.3

30-39

22.3

As shown from the above demographic table, the number of male

respondents is more than female respondents in our research. There were
57.7% males and 43.3% females who contributed to give response. This
table also that the most of the entrepreneurs who contributed to respond our
questionnaires are MBA entrepreneurs. There were 77.3% of respondents
who lie in 20 to 29 age range and 22.3% lie in 30 to 39 age range. It is
depicted that all most all entrepreneurs who respond to our questionnaires
were MBA degree holder.

DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS:
Variables

Mini

Max

Mean

S. d

Internet

1.30

5.00

3.6662

1.12579

Conventional
business

1.30

4.90

E-commerce

1.40

4.40

AUTHOR NAME

3.4949

2.8910

1.10241

.75156

22

Research Project | Author Name

In descriptive analysis total N is 290. Mean value of Internet is 3.6662 and

standard deviation is 1.12579. Minimum value is 1.30 and maximum is 5.
Mean value of conventional business is 3.4949 and standard deviation is
1.10241 that means 47% values deviate from mean value. Minimum value is
1.30 and maximum value is 4.90. Mean value of e-commerce is 2.8910 and
standard deviation is 0.75156 that means 45% values deviates from mean
value. Minimum value is 1.40 and maximum value is 4.40.

RELIABILITY ANALYSIS: (N=50)

Reliability
Variables
Internet
Conventional business
E-commerce

No. of Items
10
10
10

1.246
1.089
.651

The alpha for Internet is 1.246.

The alpha for conventional business is 1.089.
The alpha for e-commerce is 0.651
All values of alpha are above .60 and .6 is an acceptable reliability
coefficient. (Nunnaly, 1978)

CORRELATION ANALYSIS:
Variables

Internet

Conventional
business

Job

Internet

Conventional
business

.936

E-commerce

-.685

-.720

AUTHOR NAME

burnout

23

Research Project | Author Name

Correlation is the statistical tool which tells that if there is any relationship
between the variables or not. Correlation lies within the range of -1 to+1,-1
shows that a strong negative relationship exists between the two variables
and +1 shows that a strong positive relationship exists between the two
variables. Zero shows that no relationship exists.
It is experiential that with the 1% level of significance conventional business
and Internet are positively correlated with .936 correlation coefficient. The ecommerce and Internet are showing a negative relationship with -.685
correlation coefficient. There is also a negative relationship between ecommerce and conventional business with 720 correlation coefficient

LEARNING OUTCOME 3
Be able to evaluate the research outcomes (Learning Outcome 3)

TASK 8
INTERPRET AND ANALYZE THE DATA COLLECTED AND PRESENTED IN
2.3 WITH THE HELP OF APPROPRIATE EVALUATION TECHNIQUES.

DISCUSSION
The science, technology and innovation development determines countrys
economic development and its competitiveness in the global market. The
slow transition progress of world's economy into a Knowledge-based
economy, and slow development of innovation and technology are directly
associated with slow adaptation to the new system. For the adaptation of
new systems and technologies, there are much needed voluntary human
behaviors that can increase Organization Performance. This study tests the
impact of Conventional businesses and Knowledge Sharing Behavior of
individuals in Organizational context and its impact on Organizational
Performance with a moderating role of Organizational Culture. The study
sample consisted of an unequal sample of more men than women. Generally,
gender moderates the effect of Knowledge Sharing ties (Lin, 2006). In
AUTHOR NAME

24

Research Project | Author Name

general, the entrepreneurs surveyed were quite youthful, with an average

age between 31 to 40. This argues well for telecom industry as it would seem
to suggest that there is a steady stream of young people- mostly malejoining the profession. Moreover, the answers were mostly from
entrepreneurs with master degree with a 5 to 8-year experience. Tenure also
appears to have some effect on knowledge sharing, as Bakker et al (2006)
indicate that longer team members have been together they more likely to
share Knowledge between them. It can be said that people with an
increasing experience will tend to more Share Knowledge, whereas Alotaibis
(2001) research found no significant effect of age, gender, tenure or
nationality on Organizational Citizenship Behavior. The study began with the
purpose of finding more about Knowledge Sharing impact on Organizational
Performance. The results yielded by study showed that Knowledge Sharing in
telecommunication sector of the global industries affect performance of
Organization in many ways. From past research we can also get evidence of
support for our H-1 of (Rowland, 2004), that states that Internet acts as a
catalyst and increases the conventional businesses profits and extends its
reach. As (Argote & Ingram, 2000) also state that Knowledge Sharing is the
action in which entrepreneurs Organizationally diffuse relevant ideas,
information, suggestions and expertise to others, has significant beneficial
effects on Organizational Performance Our result of H-1 were also supported
by past literature. Further we can say that whenever entrepreneurs will share
their personnel Knowledge to others that will increase Organizational
Performance by increasing learning within Organization, innovative ideas,
solutions to problems, visibility of organization's goals and mission, cohesion
in decisions, effective use of resources and increasing productivity as well.
Thus the study suggests that the organizations should enhance Knowledge
Sharing behavior in order to achieve sustainable Organizational Performance.
Moving on, our second hypothesis (H-2) checked that whether: Internet
decreases the cost of doing business and maintaining it is mostly and widely
done by electronic devices. This hypothesis is not much studied in the past,
but some work has been done on the relationship of the Internet decreasing
the cost of doing business and maintaining it is mostly and widely done by
electronic devices. (Bukowitz & Williams, 1999; Rolland & Chauvel, 2000;
Roberts, 2000) study revealed that inernet is crucial to successful ecommerce and it appears to influence conventional mod of doing business.
Creation of a favorable healthy competition environment and securing high
levels of profits and huge opportunities among entrepreneurs and employeremployee relationships are crucial factors in Knowledge Sharing that will
AUTHOR NAME

25

Research Project | Author Name

increase the reach and expand the clients base to do business (Kurtolu,
2007). When entrepreneurs are fully engaged and involved in their work a
greater amount of opportunities and business capacity increase will result
and ultimately boost effective business doing (Lin & Joe, 2012). Well, our
results support the hypothesis. As culture in interpersonal and Organizational
relations act as a moderator, because it sets the scene for social norms as
well as formulate needed processes. The results from our instruments reveal
that the industrys Culture that have more flexibility, team work
environment, individual autonomy and trust in its cultural norms that culture
will boost up conventional mod of doing business and e-commerce.
Our second independent variable was conventional business, E-commerce
industry. Our study supported the third hypothesis that was that e-commerce
will increase conventional business. As per the previous studies conducted
that indicated about the relationship. Podsakoff & Mackenzie (2000) pointed
out that conventional businesses who havent yet adopted to the internet
derives from the assumption that it will decrease or offer less marginal
profits to win or pose an edge from the rest of the competition. Ahearne
(1997) also reported positive association between conventional business and
performance quality. As our hypothesis was supported, instrument reveals
that person engaged in OCB is the one who consider its Organization as a fair
and trust worthy place. Further, that person is highly satisfied with the job
and organization and would result in low absenteeism and tardiness, less
turnover, no counter productive work behavior, increased productivity,
following code of conduct that all will enhance organizational performance.
So our H-3 was also supported.
The study of the moderating role of Culture in conventional doing of business
shows that business Culture in many ways can impact the outcome of the
profits turnover of businesses in an Organization and organizational
performance. It may be concluded that there are certain factors which relate
to the Culture practiced in a Workplace and which have got lot to do with
inculcating the Conventional businesses amongst the entrepreneurs. The
results indicated similar results for the Organizations surveyed, which
reiterates the assumption that culture if nurtured can inculcate citizenship
behaviors in entrepreneurs within the e-commerce. It can be hence
speculated that strengthening the Cultural roots of an any business can lead
to observance of Citizenship Behavior across telecommunication sector in
world. In this study, we found support for the hypothesis that the
Organizational Culture is positively related to the dimensions of Conventional
AUTHOR NAME

26

Research Project | Author Name

businesses and organizational performance. It was observed that all

dimensions of Organizational Culture were found significantly correlated to
the Organizational Citizenship Behaviors. This further strengthens the
assumption that all factors of Organizational Culture will impact the
Citizenship behaviors. Hence, these results provide support for the notion
that Organizational Culture within certain framework can potentially shape
the Citizenship Behaviors of the entrepreneurs in an Organization. It may
further be argued that individuals may bring with them a predisposition to
perform Citizenship Behaviors but a Culture not prepared to absorb the
discretionary behaviors can render individual efforts futile. Therefore, the
results presented in the current analysis suggest that the most significant
determinant of employee citizenship is the Cultural Phenomena and its
capacity to influence people and their behaviors. As we take two
independent variables, we also investigated that weather these two can be
implemented together at same time and will they complement each other?
Well our last hypothesis observed the relationship between OCB and
Knowledge Sharing behavior. The positive result shows that OCB and
Knowledge Sharing are discretionary and voluntary behaviors and both
increase Organizational Performance in some ways. Moreover, the
entrepreneurs engaged in such behaviors are also with same characteristics
and traits, so it can be concluded that both behaviors are of same nature and
one variable will support and strengthen the other.

TASK 9
ON THE BASIS OF YOUR ANALYSIS PRESENTED IN 3.1/3.2 (TASK 8)
MAKE SOME USEFUL RECOMMENDATIONS FOR FURTHER
IMPROVEMENTS.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
There are some promising directions and indications of todays study which
will help the future researcher First, as our study only covers the overall
perspective of E-commerce industry and how can a conventional business
benefit from the utilization of internet as its streamline operations for
conducting its business regulations and affairs , however, other components
of commerce operatives like transactions, order placements, stocks, cash
AUTHOR NAME

27

Research Project | Author Name

flows, and man labor can also be studied in detail in future to find out their
impacts on expanding business client bases and their relative performances.
Secondly, this study has taken internet as an independent variable, while
many other variables like conventional business, e-commerce, market trends
and competitive schemes, Quality of products and business commitment can
also be used as dependent variable. Thirdly, for the further research sample
size can also be increased for getting more strong results and the
moderation of Culture. Lastly, to further explore the nature of the study and
variables future researches can be used Knowledge Sharing as a Mediator to
see its impact on any conventional business Performance if internet is very
well utilized and made as a mod of conducting business which plays the role
of catalyst.
CONCLUSION
Performance of any e-commerce business which utilizes the internet in this
case Ebay is the commerce sector of the world which is highly influenced by
the utilization of the internet, and organizational culture. Internet can
accelerate any conventional business that ultimately can improve business
performances. Business and evolving market trends and competitive
schemes and their commitment to upgradation of any conventional business
are shown by the employees of any I.T sector have showed good effect on
the performance of any business and this should be improved in order to
further improve business performance. Business culture also has a significant
impact on its performance in the long run. Business trends and culture may
even be a more important factor in determining the success or failure of the
organization in the coming decades. Culture is essentially a foundation for an
organization. If the foundation is not made strong enough, then how well of a
building, it would not be sturdy enough to support it. Business culture will
also affect the behaviors of the market and its resents would flow the vibe of
a healthy competition in the market, Like the Ebay is committed to the
people who are willing to give something of themselves as a contribution to
the good of the organization so this extra helping hand and participation in
the industry affect performance in a positive manner with the role it plays.
Based on the above discussion, e-commerce with the pace of internet and
evolving social fabric of the society and their tremendous acceptance of the
modern technology and gadgets is a social indicator as well as an important
statistical data which foresights the opportunities the internet or the so
called world wide web has yet to offer has a significant impact on any
conventional businesses performance and success of the it to achieve its
AUTHOR NAME

28

Research Project | Author Name

objectives. So that the conventional business must and should pay more
attention on adopting the modern trends and internet just as the famous
quote cites to flow with the flow is in fact an opportunity and good omen in
disguise to better support the organization to achieve its objectives.

LEARNING OUTCOME 4
Be able to present the research outcomes (Learning Outcome 4)

TASK 10
(A)
PRODUCE THE RESEARCH PROJECT REPORT IN A PROFESSIONAL FORMAT
WHERE TITLE PAGE, TABLE OF CONTENTS, CLEARLY SEGREGATED SECTIONS AND
LIST OF REFERENCES. YOU ARE ALSO EXPECTED TO USE HARVARD REFERENCING
STYLE WITH APPROPRIATE USE OF LANGUAGE AND GRAMMAR.
(B)
PREPARE A 10-MINUTE PRESENTATION THAT DELIVERS THE RESEARCH
OUTCOMES TO YOUR CLASS PEERS. THE BEST RESEARCH PROJECT WILL FEATURE
ON THE COLLEGES WEBSITE FOR ALL FUTURE STUDENTS TO VIEW.

REFERENCES
Last name, First Initial. (Year published). Title. City: Publisher, Page(s).

o Davies, John.BTEC Level 4/5 HNC in Business. Pearson Higher

Education (UK), 2010. VitalBook file.
o Bell, J. Doing Your Research Project: A Guide for First-Time Researchers
in Education, Health and Social Science (Open Up Study Skills) (Open
University Press; 5 edition (1 May 2010)
o Gill, J and Johnson, P. Research Methods for Managers (Sage
Publications Ltd; Fourth Edition (21 Jan 2010)
o Krishnaswamy, O. R.; Satyaprasad, B. G. Mumbai [India]Business
Research Methods; Himalaya Pub. House. 2010.
o Chaffey D E-Business & E-Commerce Management: Strategy,
Implementation and Practice (Financial Times/Prentice Hall, 2009)
9780273719601
o A. Kulkarni, Product Manager: http://yourstory.in/2013/01/indian-ecommerce-what-does-the-futurelook-like/.
AUTHOR NAME

29

Research Project | Author Name

o Avery, S. Online tool removes costs from process. Purchasing, vol. 123,
no. 6, (1997), pp. 79-81.
o S. B. Boughton, Search engine Marketing, Bart Boughton was a student
in the MBA program in the
o School of Management and Business at St. Edwards University, (2005).
o H. Bell and N. K. H. Tang, The effectiveness of commercial Internet
websites: a users perspective,
o Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, vol.
8, no. 3, (1998), pp. 219-228.
o J. Bernard and S. Simone, Bidding on the buying funnel for sponsored
search and keyword
o advertising, Journal of Electronic Commerce Research, vol. 12, no. 1,
(2011), pp. 1-18.
o A. Day, A model of monitoring Web site effectiveness, Internet
Research: Electronic Networking
o Applications and Policy, vol. 7, no. 2, (1997), pp. 109-115.
o D. Agrawal, R. P. Agrawal, J. B. Singh and S. P. Tripathi, E-commerce:
True Indian Picture, Journal
o of Advances in IT, vol. 3, no. 4, (2012), pp. 250-257.
o N. Edwards, S. Handcock and J. Mullen, Electronic commerce: reality
bytes, Supply Management,
o vol. 3, no. 8, (1997), pp. 32-34.
o D. C. Fain and J. O. Pedersen, Sponsored Search: A Brief History,
Bulletin of the American Society
o for Information Science and Technology, vol. 32, no. 2, (2006), pp. 1213.
o F. J. M. Gonzalez and T. M. B. Palacios, Quantitative evaluation of
commercial websites: an empirical
o study of Spanish firms, International Journal of Information
Management, geocart.com:
o http://www/geocart.com/online-business-success.asp, vol. 24, no. 4,
(2004), pp. 313-328.
o H.-T. Chang and S. Wu, A Switching Proxy for Web Search Engines.
Advanced in Information
o Sciences and Service Sciences, Advanced Institute of Convergence
Information Technology, vol. 3, no.
o 5, (2011), pp. 52.
o IProspect, Information on http://www.iprospect.com/search-enginemarketing-university/, (2008).
o B. J. Jansen and T. Mullen, Sponsored search: An overview of the
concept, history, and technology,
AUTHOR NAME

30

Research Project | Author Name

o International Journal of Electronic Business, vol. 6, no. 2, (2008), pp.

114-131.
o S. E. Kim, T. Shaw and H. Schneider, Web site design benchmarking
within industry groups, Internet Research, vol. 13, no. 1, (2003), pp.
17-26.
o T. Lamoureux, IS goes shopping on the web, Computerworld, vol. 31,
no. 46, (1997), pp. 106.
o L.-H. Ho, M.-H. Lu, C.-P. Lee and T.-F. Peng, Exploration of Search
Engine Optimization Technology Applied in, Internet Marketing,
Advances in Information Sciences and Service Sciences, vol. 3, no.
7,2011).

AUTHOR NAME

31