E-commerce and its Importance in Business - Research Proposal Example

E-commerce and its Importance in Business Introduction The dissertation will be about the detailed study of importance of e-commerce in the present business environment. The study proposes to offer examine and present how e-commerce has succeeded to change an organization’s system of operation. Furthermore the study will also investigate about the way by which e-commerce helps the customers and whether e-commerce is more advantageous or it acts as a cause of concern. The study is therefore significant as it will uncover the pros and cons of e-commerce. Hence the primary aim of this dissertation is provide answer to the question does e-commerce really changed the system of doing business towards betterment or it was just a routine change. The next sections of the project will clearly describe the literature to be reviewed and the research methodology to be adopted for the purpose of accomplishing the task. At the end of the entire study and based on the conclusion, few recommendations will be also provided to further improve the process or how organizations as well as consumers can make effective use of it. Background of E-Commerce With rapid development of networking technologies during the early 1990’s human being witnessed the commercialization of internet services (Kalakota and Whinston, 1996, p.147). From that era organizations across the globe started to incorporate internet into their system of operations in order to gain competitive advantage and to create a core competency for themselves (Reynolds, 2004, p.5). At the same time that is in the early 1990s the concept of e-commerce was also introduced (Kurth, 2011, p.6). Earlier E-commerce was considered to be a core competency for the organizations, however at present it has become a necessity to survive in the market place (Ardisana, 2000). Electronic commerce or what is commonly known as e-commerce is an application which facilitates online selling and buying of goods and services (Zhou, 2004, p.56). It offers facilities such as online fund transfer, electronic data exchange (EDI), and online marketing among others. The major advantages of using e-commerce are maximization of speed in the context of service delivery, reduction in the overall cost and also quicker response to the customers (Rajaraman, 2010, p.12). Electronic commerce also plays crucial role in the online payment process. Online payment method refers to the process of directly transferring funds to the seller’s bank account (Radu, 2003, p.2). The biggest advantage of an online payment option is that it instantly completes the entire process of payment. The electronic payment options which are accepted in e-commerce include credit cards, debit cards, cash cards and internet banking (Oecd, 2006). Furthermore in order to conduct international money transfers there are several online platforms such as Pay pal, alert pay and Google checkout among other which assists in the process of transferring money (Tilborg and Jajodia, 2011, p.788). Literature Review E-commerce is simply a tool which enables companies and individuals to sell or buy their goods or services with the help of internet or some other electronic network (Korper and Ellis, 2000, p.12-13). It includes the entire process of marketing, order taking and selling the products or services. However according to Bhusry (2005) E-commence is an emerging area of networking technology that facilitates online buying and selling process. The process is accomplished by the help of computer network and telecommunication services. The author also emphasized on the fact that such type of technologies will support large number of companies in their operational fields. Some of the organizations that are getting highly benefitted by this technology are amazon.com, ebay.com, FedEx and Microsoft among others. On the other hand Goel (2007) highlighted that e-commerce is a contemporary business methodology that satisfies the needs of organizations and consumers. It helps in cutting the cost and improving the quality of the products and services (Talloo, 2007, p.73). Furthermore e-commerce enhances the service delivery speed to a large extant. Therefore it can be clearly stated that e-commerce has changed the way of doing business. Hence this study will uncover the ways and the areas where e-commerce has actually plays its part. Goel (2007) in his book again portrayed that there are four principal areas where e-commerce has substantial importance in the present business environment. The areas are direct selling & marketing, online billing and banking, securely transmitting information, and corporate purchasing (Loshin and Vacca, 2006, p.4). Again according to Satterlee (2001) e-commerce is one of the important aspects of business. It facilitates the exchange of goods and service without any barriers of distance and time. Research Question and Objectives The research will attempt to explore the importance of e-commerce in the present business environment. In this context the study will try to uncover the advantages of using e-commerce in a business venture. The research also proposes to shed light on the benefits of e-commerce from the perspectives of both organization as well as the consumers. The research however also intends to emphasize on the drawbacks of e-commerce and how it impacts the society. Therefore in order accomplish the objective the study will have three research questions. The research questions are formulated below:- Q1. How e-commerce has changed the system of operations for organizations around the world? Q2. What benefits does e-commerce offered to the customers? Q3. What are the drawbacks of having e-commerce? Research Methodology The primary objective of this study is to uncover the importance of e commerce in the present business environment. The study will be accomplished by the help of both primary as well as secondary data. The secondary data will be collected from various sources such as books, articles, journals and also from authentic electronic sources. The study will also hold substantial amount of primary research. In this context methods such as interview and questionnaire survey will be employed. The interview session will be conducted for a period of 1 hour, where the respondents will be executives from various organizations. Furthermore IT personnel from those organizations will be also invited to take part in the interview. Now regarding the questionnaire survey, it is meant for the customers. The sample size for the customers will be 50. The sampling will be done on the basis of stratified sampling method. Once the data gets recorded the analysis will be made to find how exactly e-commerce helps in doing business. Moreover the way by which customers gets benefitted will be also analyzed based on the findings from the questionnaire survey. Also in the process of collecting the data there will be questions that will reveal the drawback of e-commerce. Once the data collection stage gets over it is important to verify the authenticity of data (Preneel, 1999, p.121). Hence the study will try to validate the data or it will adopt various methods to determine the authenticity. The entire study will run for a period of 6 months. Most importantly a strict ethical guideline will be followed. In this perspective, the survey questions and the questionnaire will be formulated in such a way that it does not interfere in the respondents personal matters. Furthermore there will be also provisions, where the respondent will hold the authority of not answering any particular question, if he/she feels so. References Ardisana, B., 2000. Hispanic Engineer, [online] Available at: [Accessed 01 October 2012]. Bhusry, M., 2005. E-Commerce. New Delhi: Firewall Media. Goel, R., 2007. E-Commerce. New Delhi: New Age International. Kalakota, R., and Whinston, A. B., 1996. Frontiers of Electronic Commerce. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc. Korper, S., and Ellis, J., 2000. The E-Commerce Book: Building the E-Empire. 2nd ed. Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann. Kurth, S., 2011. Investing in E-commerce for Jewellery Retailers: Guideline. Munich: GRIN Verlag. Loshin, P., and Vacca, J., 2006. Electronic Commerce. 4th ed. New Delhi: Firewall Media. Oecd, 2006. Online Payment Systems for E-commerce. [pdf] Available at: [Accessed 29 September 2012]. Preneel, B., 1999. Secure Information Networks: Communication and Multimedia Security. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers. Radu, C., 2003. Implementing Electronic Card Payment Systems. London: Artech House. Rajaraman, V., 2010. Essentials of E-Commerce Technology. New Delhi: PHI Learning Pvt. Ltd. Reynolds, J., 2004. The Complete E-Commerce Book: Design, Build & Maintain a Successful Web-Based Business. Massachusetts: Focal Press. Satterlee, B. C., 2001. E-Commerce: A Knowledge Base. Lincoln: iUniverse. Talloo, T. J., 2007. Business Organisation and Management. New York: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Tilborg, H. C. A. V., & Jajodia, S., 2011. Encyclopedia of Cryptography and Security. 2nd ed. New York: Springer. Zhou, Z., 2004. E-Commerce and Information Technology in Hospitality and Tourism. Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Appendix Timeline Activities Month 1 Month 2 Month 3 Month 4 Month 5 Month 6 Defining objective of the study             Secondary data collection             Data Collection             Data Analysis             Data Interpretation             Formulation of Report             Read More