chapter4

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

This research project was conducted with an explanatory research approach as the focus was in discovering ideas and insights into consumer motivations and emerging trends on online shopping (Mariampolski 2001). The research methodology also followed the framework of analysis defined in the previous section which resulted from the literature review.
 

As the research work was largely qualitative, the exploratory approach and the analysis and results from the primary research provides a good understanding of the consumer motivations for online shopping, and also provides a framework for further analysis if needed by other researchers focusing on greater depth in some areas or expansion of issues not covered in this research project.
 

The focus of the research project is on consumer motivations on online shopping and will not touch on specific online sites unless these are discussed in the context of increasing online shopping activities and consumer motivations.
 

4.1 Primary research
 

The key primary research activities for this project included surveys and in-depth interviews to understand the key consumer motivations for online shopping.
 

4.1.1 Surveys
 

The surveys gave a preview of the various factors which were impacting on online shopping. An open-ended survey was conducted to give consumers the opportunity to give factors which they truly feel were their key motivating considerations. The survey was divided into two main sections:
 

* Open-ended and unprompted - This section was designed to allow the respondents to give answers freely without any prompts. This was to ensure that the consumers' thoughts were captured properly, and that their ideas and key motivations were the ones that were included in their responses.
 

* Prompted with specific factors - After the unprompted section, the survey had a section which had some of the preliminary findings from the literature review. This was designed to test the literature review findings, and also provide the respondents an opportunity to highlight some factors which may be important but were not mentioned by the respondent during the first part of the survey.
 

4.1.2 In-depth Interviews
 

The in-depth interviews were used to get further insight from the consumers on their motivating factors. The surveys and the interviews were designed to complement the overall approach, and provide increased insight from the analysis of the results (Hester 1996). The in-depth interviews followed the survey with two main sections:
 

* Open-ended - The questions in this section were designed to elicit the unprompted replies from the respondent. Similar to the survey, this was included to give the interviewees the opportunity to give their unbiased and unprompted replies to the consumer motivating factors.#p#分頁標題#e##p#分頁標題#e#
 

* Prompted and specific - This section of the in-depth interviews was designed to understand in greater depth the key factors highlighted by the interviewees. In addition, this section was also included to capture the replies of the interviewees on some of the factors highlighted in the literature review section, and also the replies from the surveys which were not captured from the literature review.
 

4.2 Secondary research
 

Secondary research was conducted to get a good understanding of the current knowledge on consumer motivations and preliminary thoughts on the emerging trends of online shopping. A number of preliminary factors had been identified from the literature review, and these were used as a starting point in understanding the key consumer motivation factors.
 

Academic journals, industry reports, and other research articles will form the bulk of secondary research.
 

4.3 Research approach and strategy
 

A problem-solving approach was used in analysing the outcomes from the primary and secondary research. This was meant to ensure that the results were analysed in depth, and to result in strong insights from the interactions with consumers, i.e. detailed recommendations on actions to pursue to address the research questions for the project (Hester 1996).
 

The research analysis was based largely on the surveys and interviews of consumers. The secondary research was a complement to the primary research analysis. Various research methods were considered for this project and the described approach in this section was considered the best possible approach in developing a good understanding of consumer motivation on online shopping.
 

The research project pursued a good mix of desk research and practical, real-life experience based on the input of the online shopping consumers. The respondents to the surveys and in-depth interviews provided good depth and breadth of factors for the consumer motivation considerations. These gave a good understanding of the emerging trends in online shopping activities.
 

4.4 Sampling strategy
 

The sampling strategy followed the general steps in determining a sample:
 

* Define the target population - Given the scope of the research project, the target population actually encompassed everyone in the population as the focus was on online shopping, with an online shopper being just about anyone. I know of some kids as young as six years who are able to browse through the Internet and identify items they are interested in, and point these to their parents. For this exercise, the target population was considered to be anyone that has the capacity to pay for possible online shopping purchases.
 

* Define the accessible group - The accessible group for this research project comprised of the target population that were ‘free' to participate in the surveys and interviews.#p#分頁標題#e##p#分頁標題#e#
 

* Define the steps for participation in the primary research methods - The key method utilised in this research project for the survey respondents and interviewees were the referral or ‘snowball' recruitment, and the intercept recruitment. The referral recruitment entailed having people recommend acquaintances and the intercept recruitment involved intercepting potential respondents in public places, e.g. streets, shopping areas, coffee shops (Mariampolski 2001).
 

4.5 Research review
 

The last step in the research methodology was to review the results and analysis, and ensure that the conclusions and recommendations were logical and practical. The review was based on input from various people including online shopping consumers. The review was also helpful in determining the additional knowledge that will be considered as research contribution resulting from this project.
 

4.6 Research limitations
 

The two key limitations to the research project were time constraint and knowledge constraint. Managing the schedule to keep to the deadlines and finish the project on time ensured good management of the time constraint. For the knowledge constraint, conducting a robust secondary research provided a good foundation for the knowledge required to conduct the research project properly, including the primary research requirements.
 

4.7 Timetable
 

Some time upfront were spent in developing the research approach and methodology to ensure that these conformed to the requirements needed to answer the research questions. Work upfront was also done in understanding the existing literature discussing the key issues identified for the research project. The secondary research activities were conducted in the initial few weeks of the research project to provide the preliminary thoughts into the key consumer motivations. Primary research was then conducted over a period of several weeks with survey respondents and interviewees being identified for participation in the surveys and interviews.
 

4.8 Research resources
 

The main resources used for the research project were people and research publications. The people who were involved in the project included not only the respondents to the surveys and interviews, but also my adviser and other instructors, and friends (including classmates) and relatives who helped in providing support and guidance throughout the research project. The primary research respondents were particularly helpful in giving their time to provide their thoughts and ideas which formed the key results and analysis of the research project.
 

The research publications including academic journals, industry reports and press articles were very useful in providing a preliminary understanding of the questions and issues involved in the research project, and also provided excellent guidance in potential areas to pursue and research methods to consider.#p#分頁標題#e##p#分頁標題#e#
 

4.9 Ethical considerations
 

Several ethical considerations were adhered to particularly as the research project pursued a qualitative research approach:
 

* Respect: All respondents were treated and given respect, and I am fully appreciative of the time and effort they gave for the research project.
 

* Confidentiality and privacy: I did not take the names of the respondents to ensure that their names would not end up with other parties. I did take some information (e.g. age, gender) from the survey respondents and interviewees as this was needed for the analysis of the results but these were taken with their consent.
 

* Transparency and disclosure: I gave the survey respondents and the interviewees a detailed overview of the research project, and also gave them the opportunity to pose questions before starting the survey and interviews processes. They were also given the opportunity to not proceed with the survey and interview if they felt that they did not want to take part in these.
 

· Right of refusal: All the respondents were given the option of refusing to provide any answers that they did not wish to provide an answer to.
 

The ethical considerations mentioned above are not comprehensive but these were the key ones which affected the research, and which I adhered to in order to have a robust and ethically acceptable research approach and methodology.
 

4.10 Framework of Analysis
 

As mentioned, literature review was used for building a preliminary understanding of the key motivations of consumers in online shopping activity and also in determining the emerging trends in the online channel. From the literature review in this section, the following framework of analysis was utilised in the surveys and interviews.
 

4.10.1 Consumer Motivations
 

The consumer motivating factors mentioned in the literature review was utilised in both the surveys and interviews to prompt respondents and to test the factors. The structure of the factors in the ‘for prompt' section of the surveys and the interviews followed this listing:
 

* 24-hour access - Respondents were asked if this was one of the factors they considered as a key motivation for online shopping.
 

* Shopping convenience - While this was included as a factor in the ‘for prompt' section of the surveys and interviews, greater depth was pursued in understanding what the consumer may consider as shopping convenience in relation to online shopping.
 

* Greater bargains - This was tested to determine if consumers truly saw this factor as an expectation already, and if not having this factor would impact on their use of the online channel for shopping.
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* Overall online shopping site experience - This factor was analysed in the context of the overall consumer experience, and was assessed of the importance versus the other factors mentioned by consumers as their key motivating factors for online shopping.
 

4.10.2 Emerging Trends
 

For emerging trends, not all the possible trends were included in the framework of analysis. The analysis of the emerging trends was particularly useful in determining the possible increase in online shopping activity of consumers. Thus, with this in mind, only the following factors were included in the ‘for prompt' section of the surveys and interviews:
 

* Increased efforts in improving online security - A key concern for a large number of consumers and hence was tested on current non-users of online shopping to determine if this would help them in making decisions and eventually make purchases online.
 

* Potential for an expanded product range and ancillary businesses - Another trend which could possibly entice non-users of online shopping is the potential for a greater product offering online which may not all be seen in retail stores.
 

* Usability of an online site as an increasing differentiator - This is almost a given but is presented nonetheless to non-users of online shopping to determine if it will impact on their decision to do online shopping.
 

* Management of Internet product returns - With some consumers wondering about Internet product returns and how these are done, this factor was included to determine if non-users would be affected by resolving the question on Internet product returns.
 

* Increasing opportunity for organisations to develop consumer relationships - Finally, the factor of potentially having increased consumer relationship with organisations through the online channel was presented for feedback by the non-users to determine if this factor will impact on their online shopping activity.