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Business Research Methodologies

Abstract:

Internet shopping across the globe is effected by two cultural dimensions occurring nationally, individualism-collectivism and uncertainty avoidance according to the publically available data along with their interaction that influences the internet shopping behavior. We are going to analyze these two factors and their interrelations with each other along with national income level, educational level, economic growth rate, unemployment rate and crime rate for depicting internet shopping patterns. The countries that have lower levels of uncertainty avoidance and individualist cultures, would exhibit greater internet shopping rates than the countries of collectivist cultures. The future research perspectives would also be discussed in this research paper for further research on internet shopping.

Problem Statement:

The 21st century was termed as the century of the internet. Like all the other people the businessmen were also thinking that internet would greatly effect the buying behavior of the customers but this dream never materialized in its full context at least in the developed countries of the east. With the advent of the internet the pattern of shopping started to change in the world, but the pattern was different over the continents. The dream of creating a global village for online shopping with the exploding adoption rate of the internet in the world remained a dream. The rate of shopping over internet is increasing every year in western hemisphere and is much higher as compared to the eastern hemisphere where it is still in its infancy stage. The various factors that are hampering the growth of online shopping the most important of these factors are the educational level, uncertainty avoidance, and individualism-collectivism, GDP, infrastructure , strong regulating authorities and governmental institutions.

Research Objective:

The management wants to study the effects of the individualism-collectivism and uncertainty avoidance on internet shopping. Management wants to know how these problems can be addressed and online shopping can be promoted among masses. Management wants to find out the factors that hinder the development of the online shopping in the eastern block of the world, the intensity or degree of influence on the internet shopping. The management also is interested to find out the ways and means through which these factors affect the internet shopping in negative manner. They also desire to study the interrelation of these factors with each other and the combined effect of these factors on internet shopping. The management also intends to isolate the common factors that are not having any significant effect and to find the reasons for the deviation in people’s behavior with the same factors. The management also wants to gather the data and analyze the trends in the internet shopping thus providing the base for future research

The objectives of the research are as follows

Hypothesis1:Internet shopping adoption rates are higher for countries with rlatively lower uncertanity avoidance levels.

Hypothesis2: Internet shopping adoption rates are higher for individualists than for collectivist countries.

Hypothesis3a: For countries with relatively high uncertanity avoidance levels, individualism-collectivism shows little impact on internet shopping rates.

Hypothesis3b: For countries with relatively low uncertanity avoidance levels, the individualist’s countries show higher internet shopping adoption rates than the collectivist countries.

Benefits of Study:

This study would help in the identification of the factors that are playing a significant role in the promotion of the internet shopping and the factors that were hindering the adoption and growth of internet shopping in the world. It would help in solving the management dilemma as it would identify the factors which once solved by the management would not only increase the sales in the eastern world but would also boost the e-commerce activities in the Asian region thus indirectly raising the standard of living and promoting the online shopping by decreasing the influence of factors that negatively effect the internet shopping.

The publication of this case study would not only benefit the academicians but would also help the corporate sector in cashing on the boom in the e-commerce and the online trade after the factors identified in this case study has been published and the flaws had been removed. By utilizing the finding’s presented in this case study the companies can find the ways to adapt to these cultural dimensions and find a suitable mix for the internet shopping for the target audience keeping in mind their tastes and behaviors.

Research Design:

In the research process we will not be using any primary data as there is no special need for doing so and would be doing all the research using secondary data available publically of some 30-35 countries. The data would be gathered for all the factors that influence the internet shopping but the major emphasis would be on the cultural dimensions that are the basis of this research.

The cultural dimension ratings of the countries would be used form the Hofstede, G.H (2001), while the data on the cyber crime would be collected from the Interpol (2003), information about GDP, per capita income, education level and unemployment rate would be gathered from World Fact Book. Along with this the data about the internet shopping would be taken from the global e-commerce report of Taylor nelson sores (2001). The reliability of this data can be judged by the fact that results from this report correlated with a similar study by AC Nelson in 2001.

Data Analysis:

In order to analyze and interpret the data we would be using the quantitative data. There are total of 8 variables divided into three broad categories that is independent variables, depended variable and control variables. The independent variables are uncertanity avoidance and individualism-collectivism the dependent variable is internet shopping and the five control variables are GDP, cyber crime level, per capita income, education level and unemployment rate. The method that would be employed would be the four step hierarchical linear regression model. At each step, additional independent variables would be included. The first step would consist of income alone: the second step would consist of educational level, economic growth rate, unemployment rate and crime rate: in the third phase cultural dimensions of individualism-collectivism and uncertanity avoidance would be added the forth step would add the additional interaction term individualism-collectivism+uncertanity avoidance. The qualitative data would be the one taken from the Hofstede, G.H (2001).

Nature and form of results:

After all the research has been conducted and conclusion deduced by the researcher the findings of the research would be presented to the readers in the form of graphs, tables and figures for the convenience of the readers to understand the findings and comprehend the results of the study.

Schedule:

The research is planned to be completed in two weeks. The time required for the gathering of the information would be 7 days. While the time required for the analysis of the data (qualitative+ quantitative) would take 5 days. While the time required for the compilation and publication of the research paper would take 3 days.

Budget:

The total budget to carry out this research is $25,000. Out of which the $5,000 would be used for the collection of the data, $10,000 for data analysis, $ 8,000 for data interpretation and publishing and $2,000 for miscellaneous expenses.

Facilities and Resources:

The facilities and resources required would be computer, internet services and financial journals.

Bibliography:

• Hofstede, G.H. (2001) Culture’s, Consequences, Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions and Organizations across Nations, Sage Publications: Thousand Oaks, C.A.
• Nielsen/Net ratings (2001) Global Internet trends: Europe/ Middle East/ Africa/ Latin America.
• Taylor Nelson Sofres (2001) ‘TNS interactive global E-commerce report 2001’ http:/www.tnsinfo.com
• The international monetary fund (2001), ‘World economic outlook data base’
• The international Police organization (Interpol 2003) Online data, http:/www.interpol.com
• The United Nations Organization for education science and culture (UNESCO 2002), institute for statistics online database
• Lynch, P.D. and Beck, J.C (2001) ‘Profiles of internet buyers in 20 countries: evidence for region specific strategies’, Journal of International business studies 32(4):725-748

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