Methodology ( Write 5 pages) Research Topic: “Information Technology Issues Facing Retailer Business” Watch the video “Exploratory, Descriptive and Explanatory Nature of Research” Optionally, watch the video “What is Descriptive Research?” Optionally, w

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Methodology ( Write 5 pages)

Research Topic: “Information Technology Issues Facing Retailer Business”

• Watch the video “Exploratory, Descriptive and Explanatory Nature of Research”
• Optionally, watch the video “What is Descriptive Research?”
• Optionally, watch the video “What is Exploratory Research?”
• Choose one or more of the three recommended research methodologies and write a methodology paper on your selected topic

  The paper must include the reasons and justification for your selected approach using a minimum of five (5) peer-reviewed references,

Your paper should be 5 pages maximum and include:

• Research Design: Describe and define the anticipated research approach or strategy to be used and how this approach is appropriate for this research
• Participants: Describe the anticipated sample population (number, gender, age, socio-economics, etc.) including how you will obtain permission and consent
• Instrumentation: Describe any instruments you anticipate using to collect data
• Procedure: Provide the detail about how you anticipate conducting the research
• Data Processing and Analysis: Explain, in detail, how you anticipate processing and analyzing collected data
• Summary

The paper must following the formatting guidelines in The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (2010), (6th ed., 7th printing), and contain scholarly references. In addition, the paper will be submitted through the SafeAssign originality-checking tool.

Note 1: Research Topic: “Information Technology Issues Facing Retailer Business”

Note 2: Short tutorial on qualitative versus quantitative research. USE THIS LINK

attached is the previous assignment 

 

RunningHead: LITERATURE REVIEW 1

LITERATURE REVIEW 8

Literature Review

Name

Course

Tutor

Date

Information Technology Issues Facing Retailer Business

Introduction

In essence, information technology is crucially critical to operations in many companies and a power to accelerate growth when used effectively. However, if things are not going well with the information technology retailer business tools can become expensive and frustrating roadblocks to realizing the business goals. Today’s tech-savvy consumers expect retailer business to provide the best and improved shopping experience possible. Customers want seamless channel functionalities, comparison-shopping, personalized shopping recommendations, and privacy. In order to accommodate these increasing demands, retailers are forced to come up with new tactics and employ new technological features, many of which continued trials and errors testing.

Information technology issues facing retailer businesses

In their scholarly article, Weill & Clair (2010) note that according to a report by the Forrester Consulting, 90 percent of the 250 manufacturing and retailer decision-makers surveyed suggested that they are facing significant barriers when making initialization of Omnichannel capabilities. The discrepancy between what consumers need and what retailers provide is considerably bigger in comparison to the issues with inventories. The authors suggest that about half of consumers make their purchases online and pick them in-stores in order to eliminate shipping-related costs. However, only 30 percent of retailers meet this demand.

The authors opine that implementation of Omni channel commerce can greatly help in maintaining a real-time inventory management. Omni-channel marketing provides the retail businesses with an ability to track the engagement they have with the buying through multiple channels. The retailer can be able to track what their customers click on, websites they visit, and items they like or dislike and their overall buying habits.

Overdependence on smartphones

Dhar & Sundararajan note that the power of data is not based on the quantity but is dependent on how retailers use it. Therefore, it is important for buyers to adopt tactical approaches in order to pull insights from the information and hence offer a personalized experience to their customers.

The authors argue that dependability on the smartphone is rapidly increasing and for the lack of mobile-friendly sites, retailers will lose out. For instance, in the United States alone, about 60 percent of adults own the smartphone, and 15 percent of these people rely solely on it for internet accessibility.

Unorganized and bulky sites

Weill makes an assertion that design of mobile websites plays a significant role in engaging customers. For instance, note Weill & Clair (2010), unorganized, bulky mobile sites can affect the users’ experience and brand perception. In consideration of Omnichannel, it is important for your mobile websites to be well designed in order mirror the feel, look, and functionality of both your store locations and the main website. It is important for the retailers, note Weill & Clair (2010), to consider evaluating how their customers use their mobile sites and adjust them accordingly to fitting their buying habits.

In addition to making an assessment of how buyers user mobile websites, it is crucial for retailers to make informed decisions about what marketing techniques can attract the buyers’ attention.

Limited utilization

In their article, Harrison & Mykytyn (2014) note that mobile shopping applications are gaining popularity among the retailers. This allowed consumers to download business apps and hence eliminate search engine, and offer customers a direct channel to your business store. However, this comes with its downside too, suggest Harrison & Mykytyn (2014). The reason behind this is that seeking out customer support help is not easy; sending an email to the support team or engaging them directly via a live chat is practically difficult via mobile. The limited utilization of rich media is another serious challenge. Viewing of product videos, 360-degree zooming in on an image is a big challenge, of which most consumers try to avoid. Many retail businesses have started providing mobile loyalty programs, which encompass, for instance, mobile coupons, a mobile ‘punch card” and text message.

Double entry

Brynjolfsson & Hitt suggest that most of the new technologies that are released daily do not play with older applications or systems. Therefore, this can result in double-entry of data in having to consider multiple places for gainful information and many other such inefficiencies. In addition, retailer businesses are forced to have a reliable backup and disaster recovery plans in order to recover and safely deleted files in case of server crash or power outage. When the IT providers and departments have a better process for tracking issues, they can be able to make an analysis of data and hence identify involved trends. However, note Brynjolfsson & Hitt, when they dig into the issue they find the issues are a symptom of a higher magnitude.

Exploiters

Liftman & Lewis argue that hackers and exploiters are becoming more sophisticated and hence retailer businesses are in grave danger. Most of the retail businesses have their trade secrets, customer information, and confidential communication and HR records stored on their company’s computer systems. According to Liftman & Lewis, businesses incur excessive cost in ensuring security and safety of their business data.

Warrington & Abgrab suggest that there is a notable disconnection between IT and business leaders. Even though the leaders may see the bigger picture, they sometimes fail to work with the IT experts to make sure that they can accomplish their objectives without the interference of technology. Organizations would be much different, note Warrington & Abgrab if the technology and business were aligned with the organization without any form of constraint.

Lack of continuous maintenance

According to Doms and Jarmin (2004), it is important for the retailer businesses to ensure that there is continued maintenance of their computer systems in ensuring that they run securely and properly. They note that with a right IT process, challenges may be predicted early in advance, planned for and even resolved before they become urgent. They express a view that many retailers struggle with unnecessary data overload since it is a requirement for them to collect and sift through the mass amount of data and hence convert the data into useful information. For this reason, Kleindl (2010) notes that business retailers need to increase transparency between computer systems and obtain improved tracking devices as a way of integrating systems from the manufacturers through to their consumers when obtaining sales and customers information.

Summary

Due to radio frequency electronic/identification product coding, the process of the supply chain is becoming more intelligent. Therefore, it is important for the retailers to enable the use of real-time data to watching inventory levels. Additionally, identification of radio frequency allows companies to be able to safeguard their shipments and hence allow for the tracking of the products by the manufacturers. The government requires every retailer business involved in credit payment processing to complying with PCI Security Standards. If a store or retailer collects card information that is compromised, they may end up losing the ability to accept credit card payment. Other such consequences include insurance claims, lawsuits, government fines and canceled accounts, suggests Kleindl (2010).

References

Broadbent, M., Weill, P., & St. Clair, D. (2010). The implications of information technology infrastructure for business process redesign. MIS Quarterly, 159-182. Retrieved from:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/249750

Kleindl, B. (2010). Competitive dynamics and new business models for SMEs in the virtual marketplace. Journal of Developmental Entrepreneurship, 5(1), 73. Retrieved from:

https://search.proquest.com/openview/28fe5dda01f64086c94f486981b8cf88/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=32118

Doms, M. E., Jarmin, R. S., & Klimek, S. D. (2004). Information technology investment and firm performance in US retail trade. Economics of Innovation and New Technology, 13(7), 595-613. Retrieved from:

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1043859042000201911

Warrington, T. B., Abgrab, N. J., & Caldwell, H. M. (2014). Building trust to develop competitive advantage in e-business relationships. Competitiveness Review: An International Business Journal, 10(2), 160-168. Retrieved from:

http://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/eb046409

Luftman, J. N., Lewis, P. R., & Oldach, S. H. (2015). Transforming the enterprise: The alignment of business and information technology strategies. IBM systems journal, 32(1), 198-221. Retrieved from:

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/5387402/?reload=true

Brynjolfsson, E., & Hitt, L. M. (2013). Beyond computation: Information technology, organizational transformation, and business performance. Journal of Economic Perspectives, 14(4), 23-48. Retrieved from:

https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/jep.14.4.23

Harrison, D. A., Mykytyn Jr, P. P., & Riemenschneider, C. K. (2014). Executive decisions about adoption of information technology in small business: Theory and empirical tests. Information systems research, 8(2), 171-195. Retrieved from:

https://pubsonline.informs.org/doi/abs/10.1287/isre.8.2.171

Dhar, V., & Sundararajan, A. (2007). Issues and Opinions—Information technologies in business: A blueprint for education and research. Information Systems Research, 18(2), 125-141. Retrieved from: https://search.proquest.com/openview/28fe5dda01f64086c94f486981b8cf88/1?pq-origsite=gscholar&cbl=32118

Running Head: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 1

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 2

Research Methodology

Name

Course

Tutor

Date

Research topic: “Information Technology Issues Facing Retailer Business”

Research design

We use exploratory research design in this research. As the name implies, exploratory research is meant to exploring the research question and in offering final and conclusive solutions to the existing issue. Exploratory research is mainly aimed at a conducting study in order to explore an issue that is not clearly defined (Creswell, 2014).

We will use the exploratory research in order to determining the nature of information technology challenges facing the retailer businesses. The exploratory research will help us to understand the important of information technology in retailer business. However, when conducting the exploratory research, we will be willing to change our direction as result of new insights and new data. We will explore the IT challenges in retailer businesses with varying levels of depth. In other words, the exploratory research will form basis of our research on the issue. Furthermore, the exploratory research design will help us to determine the research sampling, design and methodology and in our data collection process. Using the exploratory research, we will involve in tackling the new problems on which little or no previous research has been done on the information technology challenge facing the retailer businesses (Creswell, 2014).

The reason on why we use the exploratory research is because is flexible and adaptable to changes. It is also effective in laying groundwork that can help in our future studies. In addition, exploratory studies help to save time and other research resources by determining the stages of the research that are worth pursuing.

Participants

In essence, acquiring information from every individual in a given population is practically impossible. Therefore, in our research we will involve in collecting sample of population of the farmers who understand the information technology and its implications on retailer business (Creswell, 2014). Consent is considered as the key aspect in research ethics as enshrined in the Nuremberg Code. In accordance to the 1965 Helsinki Declaration valid consent is freely given and properly informed without pressures such as threats, coercion or persuasion (Creswell, 2014). Both the Helsinki Declaration and Nuremberg Code are the key foundation of precepts of consent in research.

In this research, we will make sure that the participants are duly informed about methods, purposes and intended possible use of the research, what risks, and their role in the research. We will ensure that the participants are voluntary and freely chosen and no any form of force is used. We will respect the participants’ consent or refusal in order to prevent abuse and harm such as feeling exploited, deceived, shamed or otherwise threatened by one our researchers. The consent process will be conducted in time in order to allow for clarification of any difference. This will help us to gain insights into involved risks and how to prevent them (Kazdin, 2013).

It is important to note that consent is a strenuous process. It is process by which the participants have to make informed decisions if it will be worth to take part in the research despite any involved risk or cost. The respect for the participants’ consent helps to set standards for the relationship between the participants and researchers (Kazdin, 2013). Further, the research will depend on the participants’ active cooperation such as question answering. This can be described as implied consent. However, we understand that the interviewed people may be too embarrassed, be afraid to say no unless they are offered a respectful chances to withdraw, refuse or agree to take part in the study (Kazdin, 2013). Therefore, in my research, we will give the participants ample time to decide whether they wish to take part in the research. Our consent will either be in form of written, spoken or implied. We will make sure that the participants have a copy of consent forms and a leaflet to keep (Kazdin, 2013).

Instrumentation

Questionnaire method

We will use the questionnaire method to ask questions to the research participants about the information technology challenges facing the retailer businesses. We will involve in compiling a set of written questions on a sheet of paper with indicated spaces specifically provided for the research participants to replying to the questions. The queries will be self-administered or we may choose to use them during interviewing the research participants. Nevertheless, the questions will be most useful when we will be colleting a small amount of well-defined facts from huge number of participants. With the use of the questionnaire method, the participants will be able to read and write answers with having to provide explanation for anything (Kazdin, 2013).

Interviews

Interview is one of the commonest methods purposely used for collection of relevant information from the research participants. In our research, the interviewing process will take several forms:

Structured interviews – this is a process whereby the sequence and wording of the questions is the same from one interview. In this case, the respondents will have to choose from limited number of answers that outlined in advance (Kazdin, 2013).

Semi-structured interview – in this case, the interviewer will involve in asking a number of key questions in a same way but he or she will be free to altering the sequences of the questions and to probing for more information from the participants. In other words, the participants will be free to respond to our questions in any way they choose (Kazdin, 2013).

Unstructured interview – the interviewers will have a list of topics that will be distributed to the research participants to discuss about but they will be free to phrasing the quizzes as they wish. The respondents will be free to answering in any way they desire.

Focus group

We will use this method to exploring new issues and as a way of evaluating and monitoring studies and to discovering what a group of participants feel or think about the IT challenges in retailer businesses. In this case, the research participants will be able to discuss about the IT challenges in retailer businesses. Therefore, the purpose of the facilitator of focus group will be to guide the discussion but he or she will not intervene in such discussions (Blackburn, 2015).

Observation method

This is one of the most techniques that relate to everyday life. The method usually involves recording the behavior of groups or individuals or any event that occur in a given place. The method is advantageous since the researcher may choose where and when to carry out the observation procedure and hence ensure that he or she has a good chance of seeing the behavior they wish to observe (Blackburn, 2015).

Document analysis

The method is considered advantageous since a huge amount of reliable and consistent information can be obtained without questioning many people.

Procedure

In essence, the need to carry out an exploratory research starts with a well grounded prerequisite to better understanding an internal business issue (IT challenges facing retailer businesses). In order to ensure we have conducted a well detailed research, we will involve in defining the hypothesis and increase our knowledge base about potential customers (Johnson, 2012).

Exploratory research will help in providing critical answers to such needs. It will also help to gaining comprehensive insights, narrowing insights and providing fundamentals that are considerably important for impending growth (Kodish, 2012). Syndicated research, case studies, focus groups, and expert interviews are some of the techniques we will use to conduct our exploratory research on IT challenges facing the retailer businesses.

However, we will mostly use focus groups in our exploratory research on the issue. Open discussion will help us to allowing the researchers to building a great understanding from variety of perspectives in short-time frame. With the use of focus groups method, only 9-14 individuals who fit within a given target will be brought together to discuss and answer key questions on the IT challenges to retailer business.

Our exploratory case study will be accompanied by additional data collection methods such as questionnaires and interviews (Kodish, 2012). The aim of case study will understand if a larger investigation of business problem, idea or opportunity is fundamentally necessary. We will also conduct a syndicated research in order to providing a wide overview of the issue (IT challenges to retailer businesses) rather than reporting on other research insights.

In addition, conducting an expert interview will help us to develop more detailed evidence about the challenges of information technology to retailer business (Kodish, 2012). In this case, the most critical part of the expert interview will be to establish who in the area of information technology is considered an expert. However, we will ensure that the experts have an extensive amount of experience, knowledge and ability in information technology.

Data Processing and Analysis

After we have collected the data, we will thoroughly process it before making a final presentation (Kodish, 2012). We will establish solid identifications, statistical and abundance analysis to identifying differences between study groups. Finally, we will write a report that details the key findings, methods and suggestions for purposes of visual presentations.

References

Blackburn, J. K. (2015). Ftools: A fits data processing and analysis software package. In Astronomical Data Analysis Software and Systems IV (Vol. 77, p. 367).

Creswell, J. W. (2014). Research design: Qualitative & quantitative approaches. Sage Publications, Inc.

Johnson, B., & Turner, L. A. (2013). Data collection strategies in mixed methods research. Handbook of mixed methods in social and behavioral research, 297-319.

Kazdin, A. E. (2013). Research design in clinical psychology.

Kodish, E. (2012). Informed consent for pediatric research: is it really possible?. The Journal of pediatrics, 142(2), 89-90.

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