E-Commerce and Information Systems - Research Proposal Example

E-commerce and Information Systems Research problem E-commerce unlike the traditional type of commerce involves transaction of goods and services over a virtual interface. E-commerce relies on the internet capability to drive business, where various businesses conduct their transactions through the web-based systems. Thus, E-commerce is a virtual trade that occurs across the internet. Organizations rely on the internet to advertise, display their products and services, meet with the customers, conduct other transactions, receive payments and dispatch the products. Thus, the internet and its enabling systems are the determinants of E-commerce and influence the way business is done. The reliance on the ability of the internet to perform all business related transactions forms a major problem of this research study. In particular is the use of information systems that are so invaluable to E-commerce that its success relies on them. While E-commerce is important to the world, the use of information systems like Transaction System remains important and the subject of the research study. It is a common knowledge that E-commerce relies on different information systems to drive business and the utility of the systems enhance the competitive ability of companies which are in the industry. Literature Review Scarle, et.al, (2012, p.382) defines transaction as methods of economic agents to initiate and execute business related transactions that involves orders and payments. The need to include transaction systems in E-commerce is due to the nature of extension in the range and scale of economic activities that E-commerce and use of internet has incorporated. Virtual transactions are a major part of e-commerce that enables consumers to experience products before they initiate purchases. Devoid of social interaction that characterizes traditional type of trade; virtual transactions have their own advantages and disadvantages. Thus, virtual transactions attract a wide range of issues that may require regulations (Scarle, et.al, 2012, p.382). Virtual transactions entail a lot of transactions that involve ordering, processing and payment. In many occasions, transactions processing systems should enable a customer to select their preferences without any hitches. Li, Tu, Yen and Xia (2010, p. 19) suggests that a transactions processing systems should allow a company to process the orders of the customers in a fast and an optimal manner. Transactions may fail due to the system that is used for ordering and processing the orders. Li, et.al, (2010, p.28) suggests that a new SQL model that caters for preferences of customers may solve failures in transactions. It is important that transactions processing be done concurrently with ordering to reduce delays. Transactions processing systems have become widely used due to increase in the volume of trade over the internet. In UK, 54% of consumers opt to do online shopping with more than 90% of transactions being virtual transactions in North America, which shows the need to have transaction processing system in place (Scarle, et.al, 2012, p.386). Security is a major concern for virtual transactions and most transaction systems have security measures. E-commerce and virtual transactions attract concerns in terms of use of third parties. Further, legal status of transactions where income tax should be said stands. However, the internet has no established legal measures to enforce regulations. In addition, the internet lacks social standards which make it distrustful. An efficient transactions processing system needs to incorporate both virtual and traditional transactions in a way that online orders can be passed on to producers for customized products. Fast processing systems increases efficiency of business. However, there are certain problems that still make people not trust the transaction systems in e-commerce (Li, et.al, 2010, p.17). Adiele and Ehikioya (2007) suggest that transactions over the internet has created information overload, which hinders B2B transactions. Integration of data while maintaining confidentiality is useful in enhancing e-commerce transactions. E-commerce has a lot of potential that needs to be exploited. Both B2B transactions and transactions between customers and a company require a type of heterogeneous transactions system that can amalgamate identical and different data. This kind of a transaction system will enhance transactions between business and between businesses and customers (Adiele and Ehikioya, 2007). Luo, Naughton, Ellman and Watzke (2010) argue that workload management using the traditional methods limit the number of transactions that can run concurrently. The authors propose RDBMS systems, which reorder transactions enabling them to run concurrently. Luo, et.al, (2010) suggest that high workload of transactions in traditional systems lead to decline in production. In e-commerce, this implies slow processing of orders and thus failure. Current transactions require a high performing system that can be realized by improving current RDBMS. The process requires reordering of transactions before they released for processing. The scientific interaction between “queued and running transactions is essential” in enhancing transactions processing (Luo, et.al, 2010). The authors propose a reordering framework that uses both new and traditional systems, to enhance the speed of transactions processing. It is important to maintain the importance of each transaction and ensure that they are serialized to limit overpopulation. The new system allows continuous data loading through ordering transactions (Luo, et.al, 2010). E-commerce relies on a virtual framework to conduct business. E-commerce relies on the internet framework for business. The essential factor in e-commerce is trust, which has been ignored by many research studies. Mahmoud, et.al, (2011, p.775) argue that the concept of trust in business management in developing countries is crucial to e-commerce. To enhance fast trading, it is essential that several issues relating to trust and e-commerce be analyzed. The authors argue that e-commerce has a lot of potential based on how they can build trust. Trust is a subject of security issues and behaviours that relate to willingness to do business with a company (Mahmoud, et.al, 2011, p. 776). The aspect of trust relates to how transactions are done on the internet. It is important to note that the completeness of a transaction is based on the trust the consumer has on each stage of the transaction. Trust and credibility go together. The websites that are used in e-commerce play a huge role in creating trust. In e-commerce building trust is important than any other activity as it determines the success of transactions. Information systems used in transactions must guarantee the consumers privacy and security. In many instances, the legal framework provided for in the transactions enhances building of trust. Security also involves the ability of systems to allow all transactions. Information systems in e-commerce must ensure that they can support complete transactions, while at the same time being private and confidential. E-commerce systems must always be attentive to threats of security, transactions incompleteness and processing. It is imperative to take note of the possibility that users could be legally responsible for some security breaches (Carl, Andy and Windsor, 2011, p.4). Purpose of the research The rationale of the research is to assess e-commerce, as a web-based type of trade and the use of information systems. E-commerce uses different types of information systems like transactions processing system to enhance customer expereince and enable transactions to take place successfully. Transactions in e-commerce involves ordering, processing of the orders by the company, online payment, and delivery of the products. The research study will endeavour to study information systems and how they relate and are used in e-commerce. Research questions For the research study to address the above issue, the subsequent research questions will be taken into account; What is e-commerce, its relationship with information systems and which is one commonly used information system in e-commerce today? Why the information system is considered important in e-commerce? How is the information system relevant in e-commerce? What are the professional, ethical and legal aspects relating to the use of the information system and related strategies? What are the safety concerns, risks and vulnerabilities of the information system to e-commerce? Data Collection The research study will rely on secondary sources of data. The secondary sources will be journals that are less than five years old. The journals will be sorted based on the topics they have addressed. Particular journals will be picked based on how well they have articulated the problem in question. The journals will be sourced from credible sources like online libraries. Qualitative data will be gathered from the journals and analyzed for results. Qualitative data is useful in assessing the level of use of information systems in e-commerce. In particular, a certain information system will be researched on and various attributes about it analyzed. The range of information given by the journals will help in assessing how different scholars view the interaction of e-commerce and information systems. Analyses and interpretation of the data Data will be analyzed qualitatively. Collected data will be sorted and arranged as per the research questions. Each selected journal will be summarized and information about e-commerce and its relationship to information systems retrieved. The type of data obtained will be qualitative. After the data is sorted and grouped according to the research questions, it will be analyzed. The analysis will aim at evaluating whether different sources view the interaction between e-commerce and information systems similarly. The analysis will also point out the major differing points in the arguments by different scholars. Data interpretation will largely depend on the results of the analysis. Data analyzed will either confirm or refute the assumptions that e-commerce and information systems maintain a tight relationship, with e-commerce relying on information systems. Further, the analysis will either confirm or refute the assumption that information systems used in e-commerce are advanced and despite their advancement they are vulnerable to digital changes and security problems. Reporting and evaluation of the research Reporting the research results will be based on the analysis and interpretation of the data. The results will be presented in form of a report that outlines the research problems and findings of the research. Each research questions will be addressed separately in accordance to the findings from the selected sources of data. The research will be evaluated based on whether the data collected conforms to the research problem and answers the research questions. Further, the research will be evaluated based on whether it refutes or confirms the assumptions drawn by the proposed questions. The research findings will be used to lay the foundation for further research in the future. Bibliography Li, P., Tu, M., Yen, I. and Xia, Z. 2010. Preference update for e-commerce applications: Model, language and processing. Electronic Commerce Research, 7:17-44. Scarle, S. et al. 2012. E-commerce transactions in a virtual environment: Virtual transactions, 12:379-407. Luo, G., Naughton, J., Ellman, C. and Watzke, M. 2010. Transaction reordering. Data and Knowledge Engineering, 69(1): 29-49. Adiele, C. and Ehikioya, S. 2007. Evolving a WISE integration system for e-commerce transactions. Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 6(2): 219-232. Mahmoud, M., et.al. 2011. Trust in E-commerce. Interdisciplinary Journal of Contemporary Research in Business, 3(6): 774-788. Carl, G., Andy, W. and Windsor, J. 2011. E-Commerce network security considerations. International Journal of Management and Information Systems, 15(2): 1-7. Read More