The Influence of E-commerce Reflection - Report Example

Lecture Dissertation Reflection Introduction Reflection on the various stages of my research significantly expanded my learning skills and provided me with better understanding of human behavior and academic subject. My reflections on different stages of research are as follows: 1.1 Selecting the topic and writing of proposal My reason for selecting the topic on the influence of e-commerce on customer loyalty was largely due to my interest in the topic. As a business student I have been interested in knowing the factors that influence the loyalty of consumers. Having conducted a background study in the phenomenon of customer loyalty and consumer behavior, I knew e-commerce was having a great impact on the way businesses understand consumer loyalty. As e-commerce is an emerging concept in business, there was a gap in this area of knowledge which had to be identified by analyzing existing knowledge. The process of identifying a knowledge gap makes sure a person is not duplicating research that has been conducted by other people (Babbie, 2007). After conducting my literature review I identified that there were few studies that linked e-commerce to the aspect of customer loyalty. Such question as whether customers were more satisfied when dealing with companies through e-commerce had not been yet tackled in any research. My personal interest in finding out if companies would be able to retain customers if they migrated to e-commerce trading platform also played a significant role in my decision to pick this topic for my dissertation. 1.2 Writing proposal The dissertation proposal set out what I was going to do in my research project. The proposal is a kind of contract that set out to my professor what he expects of me in the dissertation (Creswell and Plano Clark, 2007). My proposal explicitly showed my understanding consumer behavior and e-commerce. The proposal as contract suggests a trajectory through which theory and methodology will be combined (Bryman 2007). It set out the path that I would use to get to the desired scientific position set out in the paper. The theoretical discussions underpin the research hypotheses which guide the selection of the methodology for the research, leading to findings and conclusion. Writing research showed me that the process of conducting research is not negotiable. According to Bryman (2007), the structure of the dissertation proposal is subject to the paradigm of quantitative or positivist research that it is conducted. In the proposal, the researcher sets out the hypothesis to be tested and positions them in the theory or research tradition they arise from (Granello and Wheaton 2004). The methods to be used to test the hypothesis are also set out in the proposal. While preparing my dissertation proposal these were aspects that I considered as guidelines 1.2 Reflection of literature review My literature review was geared towards improving my understanding of the consumer behavior/loyalty and ecommerce field of knowledge. As described by Babbie (2007), a literature review summarizes and explains the complete and current state of knowledge in an area of research. I tried to develop my literature review to reflect this definition as much as possible. The articles by Westland and Clark (1999), Ferrette (2000), Laudon and Traver (2002) greatly improved my understanding of the concept of e-commerce. The importance of customer satisfaction in the effort to retain customers was emphasized by most of the studies that I sampled for this literature review. Timm (2001), Oliver (1997), Fernie (2005), Day and Landon (1997) and Cakim (2010) were some of the sources that I used to present a general outline of what customer satisfaction is and why it is important for businesses to keep customers satisfied. From Saunders et al (2011) I learnt that customer loyalty reflects the preference of customer to purchase from the same producer or seller again. 1.4 Data collection and analysis After completing the theoretical part of my dissertation I proceeded to data collection. I collected primary data from customers and company representative using semi structured interviews (Bryman 2007; Patton 2005)). The primary data was complimented by secondary data that I collected from online sources including journal, reports and news articles. Using SPSS software to analyze the qualitative data that I had collected in the research was hugely enlightening as it helped to give credence to the research hypothesis. The experience of preparing the dissertation enabled me discover more knowledge about the e-commerce and customer loyalty. I was surprised to discover the immensity of information on any area of knowledge that exists. To prepare my literature review I had to go over 200 abstracts and consider them carefully and then choose those sources that fit my research topic. 2. Personal experience during research During various phases of research, I came across different real life situations that gave me important insight into human psychology and also tested my accrued knowledge regarding the subject as well as what I had studied before. During the course of collecting data I experienced a disturbing incident with a potential respondent. I approached the particular respondent at the local convenient store to request an interview with him. However he rudely told me to stick to the knowledge I got in school! Other than this disturbing experience I had some noted some really good things during my dissertation preparation. My interview with the Sainsbury Store manager was very informative and enhanced my understanding of customer loyalty greatly. Secondly, an interview with a 60-year respondent who confessed how online shopping had a great impact on his life as he no longer had to make costly trips to the grocery is also very notable. My interview with Sainsbury IT assistant was also notable as he expressed gratitude that somebody was finally taking interest in the work they were doing to enhance customer satisfaction. 3. The best and the worst experience during research The three best things about the experience of preparing dissertation were: one learns to set priorities in life and the value of time because field work required stringent time schedule as people were busy and each minute was precious; one tends to acquire wider perspectives on various issues and develops deeper understanding of the subject; thirdly, one learns to be patient with people and learns to listen. Participants often used to get diverted during interviews so I had to listen to them patiently before bringing them back to the interview question. The three worst things were: collating information was a tedious job that left one very exhausted at the end of the day; one needed to be totally honest with oneself which was difficult as accepting faults needed courage which initially I lacked because I would not accept that I did not have enough stamina to work long hours; and lastly, I believed that people would always be cooperative in giving interviews for academic research. During field work, I encountered people who would be rude or outright abusive. I felt saddened by this incident as I feel that knowledge gained in research is for the benefit of the whole society. According to Easterby-Smith and Lowe (2002), knowledge gained through research is critical in uplifting the wellbeing of a nation’s citizen. In my mind I could not comprehend why a person would become aggressive at the request for a simple interview. Moreover, preparing a dissertation is an entailing task that leaves one exhausted every day (Bryman 2007). Every day, I had to work very late and I used to be very tired and irritable. Worst, some of my work that I had completed got lost when my hard disk crashed (Sapsford and Jupp 2006). The experience of reconstructing was extremely frustrating. 4. Lessons learnt Overall, the process of preparing the dissertation provided a rich learning experience for me. While conducting the literature review I discovered several research strategies that I will use to ease any research work I will do in the future (Granello and Wheaton 2004). The dissertation also provided me with an opportunity to apply the research methods we have learnt in class. I have always wondered how researchers arrive at the conclusions they make. In this case, I learnt to prepare research questions a skill that I am going to need in my working career (Bryman 2007). Going out to the field to correct data was very exciting for me. I found that interviewing people is not just a matter of presenting questions to them and recording answers. I learnt that it was important to build rapport with your respondent as it makes the data collection more positive (Sapsford and Jupp 2006). At the same time, I also learnt that one needs to be prepared to contingencies. Once I had wasted lot of time when a respondent had failed to notify me on the cancellation. The reflection also emphasized the need to keep backups of the work so that repetition and re-writing could be avoided if the data was lost as had happened when the hard-disk had crashed. It was important lesson that taught me the value of time. Most importantly, I learnt that reflective practices were important tool to develop skills for critical thinking that promote personal and professional growth. (1516) References Babbie, F 2007, Adventures in Social Research: Data Analysis Using Spss 14.0 and 15.0 for Windows. Pine Forge Press Bryman, A. B 2007, Second edn. Business Research Methods. New York: Oxford University Press Cakim, I. 2010, Implementing word of mouth marketing. Hoboken, N.J.: Wiley. Creswell, J. and Plano Clark, V. 2007, Designing and conducting mixed methods research. Thousand Oaks, Calif.: SAGE Publications. Easterby-Smith, M. T., R. and Lowe, A 2002, 2 edn. Management Research: An Introduction. London: Sage Fernie, J. 2005, Online shopping. Bradford, England: Emerald Group Pub.. Ferrette, P 2000, E commerce and International Political Economics, IILSA journal of and Competitive Law, 3(2), p.p15. Granello, D. H., & Wheaton, JE 2004, Online data collection: Strategies for research. Journal of Counseling & Development, 82(4), 387-393. Griffin, J. 1999, Customer loyalty. New York: Lexington Books. Laudon, K. and Traver, C. 2002. E-commerce. Boston: Addison Wesley. Oliver, R. 2010, Satisfaction. Armonk, N.Y.: M.E. Sharpe. Patton, MQ 2005, Qualitative research, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Sapsford, R., & Jupp, V. (Eds.) 2006, Data collection and analysis. Sage Saunders, M. N., Saunders, M, Lewis, P, & Thornhill, A 2011, Research methods for business students, 5/e. Pearson Education India. Timm, P. 2001, Customer service. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Westland, J. and Clark, T 1999,Global electronic commerce. Cambridge, Mass.: MIT Press. Read More