E-Business Issues and Opportunities for Small Companies: in the Context of UK
Introduction
Research Background
At present, due to increase in globalization, the trend of e-business is at boom. The concept of e-business has revolutionized the business parameters and has enabled to effectively structurally transform the internal foundation.
E-business has supported towards developing an innovative e-business strategy while focusing towards consumer convenience, demand and satisfaction. At present, due to increase in the technological advancement, almost every person has at least a single mobile (Geissdoerfer, Bocken, & Hultink, 2016).
It has supported to increase the opportunity for e-business. In this context, this research paper will support to offer detailed understanding regarding the e-business issues and opportunities for small companies of UK while recommending the ways to overcome the challenges.
The motivational factor of this research is to identify the ways to increase the affectivity of e-business while eliminating the issues and increasing the business opportunities. E-business has greatly changed the Indian business. It is supporting to create entire new economy and unique business method to change the way in which the traditional businesses are done.
Research Aim and Objectives
Research aim of this study is to analyze the issues and opportunities of e-business for small companies while recommending the ways to overcome the challenges in the context of UK.
Research objectives of this study are as follow:
- To evaluate the issues of e-business for small companies in UK
- To analyze the opportunities of e-business for small companies in UK
- To recommend the ways to overcome the challenges of e-business for small companies in UK
Research Questions
- What are the issues of e-business for small companies in UK?
- What are the opportunities of e-business for small companies in UK?
- What are the ways to overcome from the challenges of e-business for small companies in UK?
Literature Review
This section will support to offer the detailed understanding regarding the research topic on the basis of secondary data. In this section, researcher will critically analyze the research topic on the basis of past findings and the outputs which has taken place from the research of various past researchers (Gilinsky Jr Thach, & Thompson, 2015). To increase the relevancy of the data, researcher will only refer the relevant data sources.
Issues of E-Business
In the views of Weele, & Raaij (2014), the major challenge found during the e-business is that consumers not become able to get the instant satisfaction which takes place in store shopping. Moreover, direct store shopping enables the consumers to personally get their hands on products in real time and to evaluate the product quality and many other features directly.
At the same time, due to various online frauds and unlawful activities, consumers prefer to buy from the traditional stores rather than online stores. Additionally, before starting the e-business firm needs to focus towards the legal framework.
At the same time, there is a huge competition in e-business due to which in every few days’ companies needs to change the concept of target strategies while improving efficiency and productivity (Martins, Rindova, & Greenbaum, 2015). At the same time, different firms offer different discount offers to attract the consumers due to which it creates the situation of fierce competition.
There are various small and medium-sized business owners are entering in e-business in the UK as it lowers the costs while improving the efficiency and productivity of the firm. At the same time, it increases the technology expenses too.
Opportunities of e-business for small companies in UK
According to the views of Soto-Acosta, Placer-Maruri, & Perez-Gonzalez (2016), at present consumers are showing positive and quicker than ever response towards the adoption of new technologies. In the context of UK, it is identified that nearly half of all Americans have at least one smartphone. Moreover, it is identified that UK market has still showing great potential for the growth opportunity. According to the survey, it is identified that in the current scenario approx.
86 million Americans are using smartphones for the purpose of online shopping. In support of this Yee-Loong Chong, et al. (2014) depicted that although online shopping does not offer the opportunity of get the hands on products in real time and instant satisfaction however it provides convenience and minimize the wastage of time. Due to which, UK consumers prefer online shopping.
It supports to offer the new opportunity to the American e-business firm to promote itself at a global platform.
At the same time, e-business enables the UK consumers to buy a single product while visiting hundreds of online stores which enables them to compare the product on different perspectives such as price, quality, technology and many other features. Due to which, there is an opportunity for the small companies to influence the buying behavior of the consumers while offering various captivating offers.
In like manner, Pérez, & Cambra-Fierro (2015) depicted that it decreases the firm cost as firm can showcase its product directly on the websites. It supports the small firm to increase its approachability in the global market. Additionally, social media advertising supports the firm to promote the product or services to mass population at a single point of time.
Moreover, digital marketing allows the small companies to use various affects, backgrounds, pictures, info-graphics, etc. to make the advertisement more affective and interesting (Esposito, & Evangelista, 2014).
Firm can offer digital coupon to increase sell of the product. Moreover, e-business enables the firm to take the feedback of the consumers so that small companies become able to understand the consumer perception which supports to change the product or services as per the consumer desire. In like manner, it remains highly assistive platform for handling and resolving the customer complaints.
According to the views of _, under e-business, small companies may use internet to acquire wholesale products or supplies for in-house production and allows the business to cut the costs dramatically.
Recommendation
Eid, & El-Gohary (2013) opined that firm needs to offer the facility of cash on delivery and free return facility too, which enables the consumers to check the product on delivery and if they do not find it up to the mark then they can return it. UK small companies should provide captivating offers to the target consumers to attract them.
It will enable the firm to develop competitive advantage while creating long-term sustainability in the industry. In like manner, firm should focus towards offering on-time delivery. Martins, Rindova, & Greenbaum (2015) opined less delivery time supports the firm to create competitive advantage.
In like manner, firm should offer proper and real description of the product so that even if the consumers cannot touch and feel the product but get the detailed understanding as well as it supports to increase the reliability of the brand in the mind of the consumers.
In like manner, UK small firms need to increase focus towards online publicity as at present most of the UK population spend their time on internet so digital marketing will enable the firm to increase the visibility of firm product in a global market. Moreover, it will support towards increasing the customer confidence towards the brand. Firm also needs to eliminate the chances of risks related to fraud and unlawful activities.
For this purpose firm should focus towards utilizing the means of security for the online financial transactions. In support of this, King, Breen, & Whitelaw (2014) identified that firm should also focus towards the legal framework related to regulations and payment issues as it supports towards eliminating the chances of any kind of legal hindrance.
Wynn, et al. (2016) opined that in the current scenario, online marketing is a powerful tool which supports to offer new possibilities to the firm to attract the consumers but on the other hand, it is essential to make it approachable and easy to use for the consumers.
Research Methodology
Research methodology will support the researcher to select the methods for collecting the data and to executing the research in a structural manner. This section will support to lead the study in a right direction while interpreting the research outcome in the context of the study objectives.
Data Collection Method
In this research, researcher will include primary as well as secondary data collection method. Primary data will be collected by utilizing the survey questionnaire method as this method will support to collect the first hand data directly from the respondents (Zikmund, et al., 2013).
At the same time, for the collection of secondary data, researcher will refer various blogs, articles, magazines, reports, business newsletters, etc. related to the research topic.
Sampling
For the purpose of primary data collection, the owners of UK SMEs (Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) will be taken by the researcher as these respondents will remain highly assistive to offer the information regarding the issues and opportunities of e-business in UK.
For this research, the sample size of 50 respondents will be selected by the researcher by using probability method. For this purpose, researcher will contact the SMEs through email to get their consent for participating in the survey (Babin, & Zikmund, 2015).
Data Analysis
In this research, quantitative data analysis method will be used by the researcher. In this context, primary data findings will be represented by utilizing various tables, charts and graphs (Hair, 2015). It will enable the researcher to represent the data in a statistical manner. At the same time, primary data findings will be correlated with the secondary data to increase the relevancy and reliability of the data.
Data Reliability and Validity
In this research, MS-Excel software will be used to represent the primary data in a statistical manner. For the purpose of increasing the reliability, primary data findings will be correlated with the secondary data outcome to justify the result. Moreover, researcher will only include worthy questions in the survey questionnaire. Additionally, researcher will ensure the reliability and validity of the survey questionnaire data to get the reliable outcome _.
For this purpose, researcher will include only those participants in the project, who will show the interest towards the survey. Researcher will send the consent letter to the target respondents for inviting them for the survey and will take the consensus, before undertaking the survey.
Research Ethical Issues
To execute the study in an adequate manner, it is essential to focus towards ethical issues as it supports to eliminate the chances of any kind of hindrance. So, while collecting the secondary data, researcher will give concern towards copyright, plagiarism and patent criteria.
Additionally, researcher will focus towards providing proper referencing and in-texting as it will support to provide importance and respect to the authors whose findings are used by the researcher (Panneerselvam, 2014).
On the other hand, while collecting the primary data, researcher will focus towards not to include any question which is related to casteism, gender or any other parameter which can hurt the feelings of the respondents. Additionally, researcher will take care of confidentiality of the data which is collected by the respondent and will not disclose anyone without taking prior consensus from them.
This research will start at July 20, 2017 and will accomplish on January 25, 2018, so the research will take approx. 189 days (approx. 6 months) to accomplish the overall task of the project which will include writing to concluding the research (Choy, 2014). However, the exact dates can be slightly vary according to the circumstances, situational need and due to any kind of hindrance.
| Task Name | Start Day | End Day | Duration (Days) |
| Project Proposal | 20/07/2017 | 3/08/2017 | 15 |
| Literature Review | 04/08/2017 | 3/10/2017 | 60 |
| Data Collection | 4/10/2017 | 30/11/2017 | 58 |
| Data Analysis | 1/12/2017 | 31/12/2017 | 31 |
| Conclusion & Recommendations Recommendations | 1/1/2018 | 20/1/2018 | 20 |
| Final Report Submission | 21/1/2018 | 25/1/2018 | 5 |
References
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