Expanding Electronic Commerce into the Persian Gulf - Research Proposal Example

For example, a long book of essays might represent information, just sitting on a table. But once someone picks up the book, reads it, and integrates and uses its information, it becomes knowledge.

Most firewalls operate within this paradigm in a relatively simple way, but generally, the more expensive a firewall system is, the more sophisticated its applications are. Most common firewalls are rather generalized in their port applications, but an intelligent application-level firewall “can monitor what's happening on port 139 (where password protection occurs) and step in to completely block an offending remote computer… It can automatically ‘black list’ the originating IP address to completely prevent any and all future access from that outsider” (Gibson, 2003). E-commerce professionals will show various security preferences, so the main point of the current investigation is to survey IT professionals in the Persian Gulf so that a consensus on the best security platform can be sought.

Aims
The proposed research will examine some of the most important technology drivers referred to, including e-commerce and e-business, the global economy, knowledge asset management, collaboration, total quality management, and business process redesign, within the Persian Gulf area, with a focus on e-commerce. These technology drivers are important for today’s information systems because they determine levels of innovation and change in the business environment, and represent the establishment of industry standards that represent a new future and new challenges for companies. “When we don't like it, we call it unintended consequences… the outcomes are unplanned and thus unexpected. Such unanticipated outcomes are endemic to all planning, and Information Technology, or I.T., is no exception” (Connolly, 2002). It is important to remember that dedicated professionals are willing to change and adapt to dynamic new technology which can improve network security; therefore, a survey consensus becomes valuable.

Methodology
The proposed methodology is that of a quantitative survey of a set sample including IT professionals in the Persian Gulf area. My main rationale for this choice is that surveys can give a fairly easy-to-get sample of relevant information from a fairly large sample size, while still being very cost-effective to the researcher and giving quality results regarding questions of network security and e-commerce. Although surveys have their drawbacks, in terms of false reports, self-report bias, and other issues, such as participants putting down wrong answers on purpose, surveys can shed a lot of light on issues, particularly in a quantitative study that seeks to measure attitudes and beliefs in a given population or populations. “Surveys can be classified by their method of data collection. Mail, telephone interview, and in-person interview surveys are the most common. Extracting data from samples of medical and other records is also frequently done. In newer methods of data collection, information is entered directly into computers” (Research, 2007). A survey of IT professionals could show various network security preferences, as well as answer important questions of network security and e-commerce in the Persian Gulf.

Resources
• Survey materials
• SPSS statistical software for data analysis
• Survey kiosk
• Disposable storage for the collection of results

Expected outcomes
In terms of the opinion of outcomes, including which of the technology drivers is most important, the proposed research would expect to find that the development of e-commerce and e-business are the most important around the interstices of network security because they represent the most opportunities for business revenue generation using technology in the Persian Gulf today. “They want to feel that they are making a meaningful contribution to their employers and to society. These better-educated employees want their individual and group needs met” (Hellriegel et al., 2006). Generally, the advantages of a self-administered survey are “economy, speed, lack of interviewer bias, and the possibility of anonymity and privacy to encourage more candid responses on sensitive issues” (Babbie, 1995). Surveys can also collect a relatively large amount of information for a relatively low price: Throughout the survey/interview process, the respondents should be able to ask questions about the survey items and also interject information or clarify responses as they see fit, regarding which network security measures they view as most important. Statistics can imply consensus once data is analyzed.

Timeline
• Survey administration and data collection—2 weeks
• Correlation of results—1 week
• Presentation of the final experiment (finalization)—5 days