HI6008 Business Research: Impact Of Global E-Commerce Standards

Introduction

E-commerce has been provided so many advantages in our life that it can never be eradicated from our daily chores and systems now. It has made the life more convenient. In the current business context, major corporations are processing its business in terms of internet and on its new capabilities and cultures. E-commerce can be defined as the trading or commerce of products and services using computer networks such as internet. The E-commerce today lures on the technologies such as electronic fund transfer, supply chain management, mobile operation, EDI, automated data collections systems and inventory administration systems. The E-commerce is based on the data processing that includes the text, image and sound. Thus, E-commerce is the purchasing of and selling of the goods and services, or the transaction of the data or funds, over and electronic system, mainly the Internet.    

This research proposal will outline the impact of global e-commerce standards. The researcher will analyse the push on the consumer goods to adopt the changing business environment and to adopt the global technology standards.       

Project Objective

The objective of this research proposal is to find and analyse the impact of global e-commerce standards. The study will examine the impact of these standards on the business context. The researcher has also research objective of to examine the extent that e-commerce standards encourages the new business models, changes the relationship between the vendor and buyer and brings challenges to the regulatory structures.  

Project Scope

The global reach of the Internet, interactivity and information rich context and completely redefined the business industry. The economic activity is often assumed as the modern models that entirely drives the profit maximisation behaviour (Al-eyd, Barrell and Davis, 2009). Over the last decade, there has been noteworthy change in the consumer goods industry due to the e-commerce standards. Online commerce has evolved significantly from the initial sales due to the less complex products and money transactions. Several studies have revealed that e-commerce has completely altered the views and thinking about the business transactions, and assisted chiefly in the globalisation of the business (Becker, 2008). The goal of this research proposal is to assess the meaning of e-commerce standards and to analyse the impacts of the global e-commerce standards. The study draws attention towards the changing pattern of business involvements in the commerce industry.     

Literature Review

The world has experienced a noteworthy alteration due to the explosive growth of the World Wide Web (Downing, 2006). The World Wide Web has practiced an volatile growth as a content delivery apparatus with the provision of hypertext files and static media gratified in a consistent way. It has now taken a major role in bringing customers more closely to the vendors with the implementation of e-commerce. Many studies have been already conducted on e-commerce. The studies of the authors cover huge aspects of e-commerce such as technical feasibility, reliability, privacy, customer perception, social concern and also the commercial impacts due to e-commerce (Leonard and Jones, 2010). With all the studies conducted by the researchers, there conducted seems to have one common understanding about the most important issues of e-commerce, which is security and privacy (Ramzy and Eldahan, 2016). There has been noteworthy improvement in the technology used for the security purposes starting from the simple password authentication and firewall to encryption. The importance of customer confidence and their concern over the security was important. According to the survey conducted by Rockbridge Associates Inc., it was identified that the achievement or success of the e-commerce hugely depends on the term that how e-commerce system of an organisation handles the security issue of the customers (Roebuck, 2012). IBM in its strategies of e-commerce roadmap describes how to maintain the consumer confidence in the e-commerce transactions.  The road map described by the IBM also states that it is important to build relationships, enhance the customer loyalty and to maintain the competitive advantage (Roebuck, 2012).

According to the recent context of the Web, the range of development and growth of the Internet may be approaching as support assistance; as users, buyers, technology and usability of the customers have reached over the obstacles of the bandwidth limits (Sakthivelan, 2012). The standards in the e-commerce aspects refer to the privacy, security and most importantly the data transfer. The technical concerns in the e-commerce can be easily solved but the main concern in enhancing the usage of e-commerce is about making people buy via the Internet and this can only be happen by creating confidence among the users and giving them assurance about the safety of their purchasing transactions (Samsonova-Taddei, 2013).

As with the terms of having the most number of e-commerce transactions, United Kingdom reaches the top of the nation’s list. By 2010, the United Kingdom had the major e-commerce market in the world when dignified by the amount spend per capita. It has been identified in many research that e-commerce brings the biggest influence to the enterprises of the country. By 2010, around 24% of the UK’s total turnover was produced by the e-commerce transaction. As far as the developing countries are concerned, China’s e-commerce presence has been continued to enlarge for every year (Samsonova-Taddei, 2013). The stated country online shopping rose to about $40 billion in 2009 and that was the biggest reason behind the huge growth in the China’s revenue.   

According to the study conducted by IBM, it has been theorised that e-commerce ought to lead to a much strengthened price rivalry (Shaw, Zhang and Yue, 2012). It is due to the fact that it enhances the consumer’s ability to collect info about the products and prices. With the study of the University of Chicago, it has been found that the development of online shopping has pretentious the industry arrangement. With the growth of online shopping, there has been a significant growth in the e-commerce. The business or individual involved in the e-commerce whether the buyers or sellers rely on the Internet based technology to ample their transactions (Shaw, Zhang and Yue, 2012). E-commerce also provides various benefits to its users. The benefits of the e-commerce include the speed of access, a wider selection of goods and services, world-wide reach and convenience. It also assist organisations as they get chances to expand their market from national to international markets, decrease the cost of creating, storing, distributing and also allows reduced inventories. But for getting the benefit of e-commerce, it is important to ensure the security, privacy and effectiveness of the e-commerce. E-commerce has been identified for its ability to allow the commerce and trade to connect and to develop business anytime and anyplace (Sun, 2010). Whether a person is in UK or US or any nation, business can be conducted over the Internet. The capability of the e-commerce permits the geographical walls to disappear, and thus makes all the customers and businesses on the globe as possible buyers and vendors.       

Research Questions/Hypothesis

- Primary Question

-To analyse the impact of global e-commerce standards

- Secondary Questions

- To outline the e-commerce and its impact on global trend and market

- To outline the impact of e-commerce on business performance

Research Design and Methodology

Qualitative research

The qualitative research in a research proposal aims to gather in-depth data from the previous study of the research about the topic selected for the study. The main qualitative tools that are used in this study are in-depth interviews and the focus group interview.  

Quantitative research

Quantitative research helps the researcher to outline the relationship between the dependant and independent variables in a population. The researcher for the conduction of this study analyse the data gathered from the samples of the universities and research institutes to generalise the study. Other techniques used to gather the quantitative data for the study are the self-administered survey, administered survey.    

Research Limitations

The occurrence of limitations is unavoidable in every research and it is significant to speech those limitations for the assistance of future study. One of the main limitations in the research proposal was the time frame as the research needs to be completed without taking any additional time. Fund is another issue that limits the study of the research. With the limited time and fund, the researcher was only able to collect data from a very small specimen size. The scope of the study was also limited to how the e-commerce as a business channel has its impact on the business and its related environment. The study is based on the opinions and researches of the e-commerce practitioners.   

Time Schedule (Research plan)

Time Schedule

Conclusion

It has been found in the study that the global reach of the Internet, interactivity and information rich context and completely redefined the business industry. The economic activity is often assumed as the modern models that entirely drives the profit maximisation behaviour. The research also identifies that for getting the benefit of e-commerce, it is important to ensure the security, privacy and effectiveness of the e-commerce. E-commerce has been identified for its ability to allow the commerce and trade to connect and to develop transaction anytime and anyplace. Whether a person is in UK or US or any nation, business can be accompanied over the Internet. The capability of the e-commerce permits the geographical fences to vanish, and thus makes all the customers and businesses on the globe as potential buyers and vendors.       

Reference List

AL-EYD, A., BARRELL, R. and DAVIS, E. (2009). CONSUMER CONFIDENCE INDICES AND SHORT-TERM FORECASTING OF CONSUMPTION*. The Manchester School, 77(1), pp.96-111.

Becker, S. (2008). Electronic commerce. 1st ed. Hershey, Pa.: IGI Global (701 E. Chocolate Avenue, Hershey, Pennsylvania, 17033, USA).

Downing, R. (2006). The Benefits and Obstacles of E-commerce: Toward an Understanding of Adoption. Journal of Internet Commerce, 5(2), pp.95-122.

Leonard, L. and Jones, K. (2010). Consumer-to-Consumer e-Commerce Research in Information Systems Journals. Journal of Internet Commerce, 9(3-4), pp.186-207.

Ramzy, O. and Eldahan, O. (2016). An Empirical Investigation of E-commerce in Egypt: The Impact of Culture on Online Purchasing. Global Business Review, 17(5), pp.1011-1025.

Roebuck, K. (2012). Electronic commerce. 1st ed. Dayboro: Emereo Pub.

Roebuck, K. (2012). Mobile commerce (M-Commerce). 1st ed. Dayboro: Emereo Pub.

SAKTHIVELAN, D. (2012). A Study on The Impact of Ecrm on E-Commerce. Global Journal For Research Analysis, 3(2), pp.119-123.

Samsonova-Taddei, A. (2013). Social Relations and the Differential Local Impact of Global Standards: The Case of International Standards on Auditing. Abacus, 49(4), pp.506-538.

Shaw, M., Zhang, D. and Yue, W. (2012). E-Life: Web-enabled convergence of commerce, work, and social life. 1st ed. Berlin: Springer.

Sun, T. (2010). The roles of trust and experience in consumer confidence in conducting e-commerce: a cross-cultural comparison between France and Germany. International Journal of Consumer Studies, 35(3), pp.330-337.