Research objectives

Discuss about the Opportunities and Problems of Social Electronic Commerce.

Electronic commerce can be understood as the process of selling and purchasing of products and services through the electronic system like internet and other computer networks (Abed, Dwivedi & Williams, 2015). This can include online ordering of some paid content, financial transactions that includes money movement between bank accounts. This research will focus on valuating certain challenges and opportunities within the Australian e-commerce industry. E-commerce ca be segmented into two parts such as e-merchandise and e-finance. E-merchandise involves selling products electronically and moving items by distribution channels. E-finance involves banking, insurance, telephone and internet banking and attaining online all financial services (Huang & Benyoucef, 2015).

The objectives those are to be addressed in the research are explained under:

• To investigate the opportunities and challenges related to e-commerce in Australia
• To evaluate the intensity of buying and selling of services or products from e-commerce websites in Australia
• To evaluate the growth prospect of e-commerce industry in Australia

Advancements in the telecommunications and computer technologies in the recent era has made computer networks an important part of the economic infrastructure. In the advancing world, electronic commerce is gaining increased preference because of its capability of providing competitive advantages to the companies (Mata & Quesada, 2014). The scope of the research is to explore three opportunities and challenges that comes with social electronic commerce in Australia. Moreover, it will also provide an excellent implication on the advantages of e-commerce in providing several benefits to the customers in form of product availability at lesser cost (Turban et al., 2015).

Growth of e-commerce in Australia

According to Mata and Quesada, (2014) electronic commerce incudes business carried out through means of computer networks. Moreover, as per the recent research conducted by Forrester that is a renowned advisory and international research company, the e-commerce industry within Australia is observed to grow rapidly with CAGR of 58% in the year 2016. Mayo, (2014) also stated that consumers might acquire products conveniently from anywhere they like without visiting the stores. Moreover, it is also revealed that more than 80% of the market share of recent e-commerce sector is dominated by clothing and grocery business and the rest 20% is dominated by travel business. Growth in certain businesses of e-commerce is observed that includes digital download, paid content subscription, online classifieds and financial services. Turban et al., (2017) elaborated that most of the online users in Australia has indicated willingness to make purchases through the internet that is observed through case of increasing awareness along with advancing net e-commerce industry in Australia.

Advantages of e-commerce

E-commerce Challenges and Opportunities

According to Wu, Shen and Chang, (2015) several attempts has been made to realize the challenges and opportunities associated with Australian social electronic commerce industry. These researchers revealed that the major reason go which e-commerce attained high growth in Australia because of increased demand among these consumers. Australian venture capitalists have already invested more than $50 million in numerous e-commerce companies over the last year. Wu, Shen and Chang, (2015) stated that a current report by the mobile and internet association of Australia indicated that the e-commerce market is advancing at a rate of 70% annually. Such growth has been observed because of critical mass of internet users. With around 10o million internet users, the nation is about to attain a critical user population those are familiar with web services. Moreover, another opportunity of increasing e-commerce operations within the nation is because of increasing middle class people with disposable income. Advancement of small and medium companies, foreign direct investment and own powerful multinational organizations is generating millions of new jobs all across the country. Mata and Quesada, (2014) elucidated that Australia is observing 8-10% internet penetration that is providing large market for growth potential within a huge population accessing internet.

Mata and Quesada, (2014) evidenced that internet based e-commerce is dealing with increasing threats along with opportunities. Certain instances of ethical concerns are taking place because of electronic commerce. As per the research conducted by “Internet and Mobile Association of Australia” more than 150 million individuals in Australia rely in e-commerce recently. These researchers also elaborated that the disadvantages related with e-commerce that includes increased cash burn rate, increased inventory poor supply chain, privacy and ethical concerns (Huang & Benyoucef, 2015).

Research Questions/ Hypothesis

The primary question that is to be answered through this research is:

• What are the opportunities and challenges related to e-commerce in Australia?

Certain secondary questions those are to be addressed in the paper are addressed below:

• What is the intensity of buying and selling of services or products from e-commerce websites in Australia?
• What is the growth prospect of e-commerce industry in Australia?

Research Design and Methodology

In order to conduct the research, primary as well as secondary data will be collected on behalf of the researcher. Several government journals, reports, library books, reliable websites along with articles will be employed for secondary data collection. In addition, with support of the interview and survey, primary data will be gathered (Turban et al., 2017).  

Qualitative Research

Qualitative research includes wide methodological approach that includes distinct research techniques (Abed, Dwivedi & Williams, 2015). From the traditional perspective, qualitative techniques facilitate in attaining information just on particular cases studied. For this reason, a qualitative researcher perceives that understanding a condition, process or event that comes from investigating the completeness of the situation.

Growth of e-commerce in Australia

Sampling and Sample Size

With support of sampling, the most reliable primary data source might be employed for mixing relevant information that is aligned with the research aims and objectives. In this research, the interview sessions will be conducted with the consumers and managers of e-commerce websites residing in Australia (Abed, Dwivedi & Williams, 2015). The researcher has recognized two managers and four consumers and the researcher will communicate with them through Facebook. In such scenario, the researcher will employ non-probability sampling as a part of convenience sampling. This can facilitate the researcher to choose a subset from the total population.

Data Collection Method

The researcher will conduct interview process through employing Skype as meeting these individuals personally is not possible. 8 open-ended questions regarding opportunities and issues of social electronic commerce will be developed from the behalf of the researcher. This type of interview will be semi-structured. The gathered information will be evaluated by means of qualitative data evaluation (Abed, Dwivedi & Williams, 2015).  

Variables Specification

In such scenario, the variables employed in this particular research project will encompass opportunities and problems within social electronic commerce within Australia. In this case, the dependent variable will be social electronic commerce performance (Abed, Dwivedi & Williams, 2015). The independent variables will be opportunities in social electric commerce and problems in social electric commerce.

Reliability and Validity Approaches

The researcher will gather data from highly authentic resources as well as from human responses. The researcher will also take an initiative in maintaining data reliability obtained through employing interpretive applications for evaluating provided information (Huang & Benyoucef, 2015). Moreover, the researcher has also employed the highly important and reliable websites in choosing employees for dealing with the research issues.

Quantitative Research

Research Instrument

In this specific research, the researcher will gather primary data with support of the survey. The researcher will prepare 15 close-ended questions for gathering data associated with opportunities and problems of social electronic commerce (Hajli, 2015).  

Quantitative Data Analysis Process

The quantitative data indicates a portion of information that can be analyzed in deducing the information in consideration to the research results. Moreover, the quantitative data offers the information on the subject of human perception inclination focused on the specific study information. The researcher will develop the questions of two segments that encompass demographic and subjective category (Huang & Benyoucef, 2015). The questions will be posted within the Facebook page of an Australian community. Additionally, in carrying out the same, the researcher will also gather permission from the specific community.

Challenges and opportunities of Australian social electronic commerce industry

Sampling and Sample Size

Along with the use of sampling, the most reliable primary data source will be employed for obtaining relevant information which is aligned with research aim and objectives. There are more than 600 members within the group and the researcher will choose 140 respondents relied on probability sampling as a part of random sampling offering all the responses. Quantitative data analysis will be the data analysis process in this research (Hajli & Sims 2015). This is due to the reason that quantitative data is associated with numerical findings. Simple random sampling will be employed in carrying out survey with the professionals as it offers equal chances to the respondents being chosen in the survey. For this reason, quantitative data has been gathered through employing random sampling from a huge sample.

Surveying and Questionnaires’ Design

The researcher will collect primary data from surveying the professionals residing within the Australian society. In carrying out the research, the researcher has developed a planned questionnaire that encompass open-ended along with close-ended questionnaire (Hajli, 2014). In such context, it is stated that survey serves as the most suitable option in collecting quantitative data as it facilitates to collect significant data from a huge sample size. In the recent research, the survey questionnaire is prepared relied on research objects for collecting important information. The researcher basically invited the individuals in Facebook page associated with Australia community. Conversely, the researcher will also provide the questionnaires through e-mails to the respondents that have shown interest. The respondents will be allowed time of ten days for filling the questionnaire sent to them (Fang, 2014).  

Data Reliability and Validity

The researcher will gather data from highly reliable sources along with human responses. The researcher will also take an initiative in maintaining the data reliability collected from employing interpretive applications for evaluating the information offered (Chow & Shi 2015). Moreover, the researcher will also employ highly important and reliable websites in choosing the employees for dealing with research concerns.

Along with having numerous implications, the research imposed few limitations which encompass issues related with data validation in the literature review chapter as there can be some judgmental reviews and news (Bai, Yao & Dou, 2015). Another limitation can deal with the drawback related with analyzing of online pdf because of financial boundary. The researcher can also face the limitation of time constraint associated with reviewing relevant literature. In addition, for collecting data relied on the survey, the researcher might face the limitation related to filtering unbiased data from more than 140 respondents. The research will be cross-sectional but it primary data will just explain responses from Australian populace. Due to such reasons this might fail to take into account the global perspective (Chiu et al., 2015).

Activities	Week 1	Week 4	Week 8	Week 12	Week 16	Week 20	Week 24
Research topic choice	?
Review of the literature		?
Selection of research methods			?
Collection of primary data (Interview and Survey)				?
Gathering conclusion					?
Offering recommendations						?
Submission of report							?

Methodology

Conclusion

The research proposal has an objective to elaborate the opportunities and problems associated with social electronic commerce. Certain distortions are likely to occur at every step. The available resources in collecting information are decreased in poorer areas in comparison to weather sections of the world. In addition, there can be a situation of deviancy down effect within which such statistics are attenuated. There are more than 600 members within the group and the researcher will choose 140 respondents relied on probability sampling as a part of random sampling offering all the responses. Along with the use of sampling, the most reliable primary data source will be employed for obtaining relevant information which is aligned with research aim and objectives. Moreover, the researcher will also employ highly important and reliable websites in choosing the employees for dealing with research concerns.

References

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Bai, Y., Yao, Z., & Dou, Y. F. (2015). Effect of social commerce factors on user purchase behavior: An empirical investigation from renren. com. International Journal of Information Management, 35(5), 538-550.

Chiu, C. M., Huang, H. Y., Cheng, H. L., & Sun, P. C. (2015). Understanding online community citizenship behaviors through social support and social identity. International journal of information management, 35(4), 504-519.

Chow, W. S., & Shi, S. (2015). Investigating customers’ satisfaction with brand pages in social networking sites. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 55(2), 48-58.

Chow, W. S., & Shi, S. (2015). Investigating customers’ satisfaction with brand pages in social networking sites. Journal of Computer Information Systems, 55(2), 48-58.

Fang, Y. H. (2014). Beyond the credibility of electronic word of mouth: Exploring eWOM adoption on social networking sites from affective and curiosity perspectives. International Journal of Electronic Commerce, 18(3), 67-102.

Hajli, M. N. (2014). The role of social support on relationship quality and social commerce. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 87, 17-27.

Hajli, N. (2015). Social commerce constructs and consumer’s intention to buy. International Journal of Information Management, 35(2), 183-191.

Hajli, N., & Sims, J. (2015). Social commerce: The transfer of power from sellers to buyers. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 94, 350-358.

Huang, Z., & Benyoucef, M. (2015). User preferences of social features on social commerce websites: An empirical study. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 95, 57-72.

Mata, F. J., & Quesada, A. (2014). Web 2.0, social networks and e-commerce as marketing tools. Journal of theoretical and applied electronic commerce research, 9(1), 56-69.

Mayo, E. (2014). The social problems of an industrial civilisation. Routledge.

Turban, E., King, D., Lee, J. K., Liang, T. P., & Turban, D. C. (2015). Electronic commerce: A managerial and social networks perspective. Springer.

Turban, E., Outland, J., King, D., Lee, J. K., Liang, T. P., & Turban, D. C. (2017). Electronic Commerce 2018: A Managerial and Social Networks Perspective. Springer.

Watts, D. J. (2017). Should social science be more solution-oriented?. Nature Human Behaviour, 1(1), 0015.

Wu, Y. C. J., Shen, J. P., & Chang, C. L. (2015). Electronic service quality of Facebook social commerce and collaborative learning. Computers in human behavior, 51, 1395-1402.