Marginal Revenues in Business and Management On E-commerce Purchase Behavior - Essay Example

 Research Design and Data Collection MRes in Business and Management On Ecommerce purchase behaviour The completion of the MRes in Business and management and particularly the module on Ecommerce and purchase behaviours has been an enormous opportunity for me in several ways. The MRes course is a specialised degree whose objective is to develop the indispensable skills to carry out high-quality research in business, administration, organisations and operations. Thanks to this training, the Mres program gave me a chance to extend my experience due to the active team of colleagues that I worked with. As with online marketing and management I have learnt some customer behaviours which include: buyers often take the shopping cart as a hyped wish list. This means that most online shoppers will submit various products to cart not that they want to buy but as what they wish to buy. Additionally, online shoppers are sometimes distracted by multiple links on the site, making them opt for others rather than the Ecommerce. Overall, the stuffing of this module together with the professor’s effectual teaching style have been instrumental in assisting me to comprehend the success factors of an online business and web visitors degree of regard to data on e-commerce sites. Consequently, I have come to realise some of the features that keep the continual visitation to the site. Throughout the module, my primary approach to research is using quantitative and observation strategies, and I intend to include the methods in my doctoral research together with other research designs. In my doctoral research training, I intend to continue employing quantitative and observational approaches together with descriptive design. As with the quantitative approach, the style has been useful in the MRes preparation course for the doctoral research especially on web analytics on subjects such as how many unique visitors on an e-commerce site, page views, and hits and so forth. This statistical information is significant in the analysis of customers and their expectations and is thus vital data for decision making. Together with the quantitative strategies, I will invoke observations as a tool to see the client behaviours. These two approaches are crucial in line with my study in the doctoral programme. The objective of the doctoral study is to produce researchers who are reflective and conscious of the hypotheses, strengths, and confines of their research; who are top-notch skilled with a whole host of organisational study techniques; and who are excitedly able to pertain this knowledge in fresh and diverse spheres. Additionally, my doctoral research will also involve a descriptive design style. A descriptive design is significant as it will offer answers or responses as to who, when, and where what, how linked with a particular subject. Such queries are supportive in understanding the Ecommerce customer behaviours. Consequently, descriptive design will aid me in obtaining information regarding the existing status of the Ecommerce business and to describe with respect to variables or state of affairs in a situation. The descriptive design is a useful tool primarily due to its use as a precursor to a more elaborate Quantitative research. It gives a general synopsis providing various valuable indicators as to what variables are merit testing quantitatively (Labaree, n.d.). For instance, a descriptive data about the number of hits on an Ecommerce site could form the basis for quantifying the sites visitation expectancy rate. Such data is also can be used in defining the level of site’s navigation capabilities because the absence of an adaptable navigation likely has an adverse impact on the Ecommerce sites brand image. Change of perception on research design. The designs that I invoked in my master training have changed my perception about some research designs greatly. For instance, at the start of the MRes course, I was sceptical and had different perceptions about the quantitative methodology of research. I had held the opinion that quantitative style is a hard concept that required only the A grade students only. Towards the termination of the master’s course, together with the knowledge in research design and data collection, I realised that there are alternative ways of employing quantitative. For instance, one can carry out a quantitative research by the use of Minitab and use survey and questionnaires (Labaree, n.d.). Such understanding of the research design has completely transformed my wrong perception positively. Even though qualitative research is often cited as the most comprehensive method in the management studies, I have established that Quantitative style provides an instant image, preferably since it is less prone to errors. Unlike the quality research, where the original description can be altered, it is hard for one to manipulate a well-secured quantitative figure. Least preferable design to implement Despite that Qualitative designs being able to depict a picture of a study on micro-level topics holistically since it pulls all the necessary structures, and textures into the whole study, the design is often difficult to implement. The constraints on implementation are either in terms of time, procedures and the relativity of the outcome. Qualitative design has limited participation because the process necessitates a high degree of inter-personal skills and innovativeness. It is not a study that can be conducted by anybody because the opportunities available for accessing information sometimes often come with emotional stress and thus limiting of a researcher’s opportunities. The work of a qualitative researcher entails direct data collection from individuals, through observation, one-on-one interaction, or having a chat with them. Such scenario poses an enormous challenge because the qualitative researcher then is challenged to establish an ambient reputation or rapport with people. This is the reason I don’t intend to invoke it so much in my doctoral research. Data collection techniques In line with the subject of study in my doctoral research, the combination data collection method is crucial to establish an absolute picture of the behaviours of people. In this regard, I intend to continue employing some of the methods that I had started to use early in the study of the MRes course, but now in a deeper extent. The data collection techniques include face-to-face interviews, observations and semi-structured interviews to be conducted throughout my doctoral study period. The interviews will be very crucial to knowing what people feel or their regards to E-commerce sites; are they easy to navigate; are the products well placed; or are the products well described. I intend to divide interviewing process further into three phases: the pre-interview, d-day interview, and post-interview phase (Passi & Mishra). Challenges in selecting research design The quality of any doctoral research is reliant upon the nature of the study undertaken by the researcher, supportive style and the research design chosen to probe the problem. Unfortunately, such research is likely to cause challenges ranging from the selection of research design, and to finding the research contributors who will stay reasonable throughout the research process. Since I already have the subject of study, an enormous challenge is on selecting the appropriate research design. But over time I learnt that before deciding on the research design, I ought to understand what the problem is, and the purpose of the study, for the answers to this questions are helpful in arriving at an appropriate research design (Schwiesow, 2010). Ultimately, through the undertaking of a preliminary course in MRes in management, I am a better position now that before and ready to venture into my doctoral research. References Labaree, R. Types of Research Designs - Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper - LibGuides at University of Southern California. Libguides.usc.edu. Retrieved 22 December 2014, from http://libguides.usc.edu/content.php?pid=83009&sid=818072 Passi, B. K., & Mishra, S. (2004). Selecting research areas and research design approaches in distance education: Process issues. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 5(3). Schwiesow, D. (2010). 7 Research Challenges (And how to overcome them) | Articles | Walden University. Waldenu.edu. Retrieved 22 December 2014, from http://www.waldenu.edu/about/newsroom/publications/articles/2010/01-research-challenges Read More