Research Topics: Dissertation Search

Technological advancement in the society

Chapter 1: Introduction 1.0 Background Outline    The rapid growth of technological advancement in the society has brought people so much ease in all the things they do. Part of this technological advancement is the emergence of the Information Technology. Information Technology (IT) management along with the internet context is often regarded as the unquestioned cornerstone towards competitiveness in the 21st century. These technological advancements have brought people especially those in the business world to utilize a strategy that would be helpful in enhancing the business value of any organisation (1999). Furthermore, this development has made changes and development of the plans and strategies of the management of any organisation especially those in the marketing environment.  Within the market place, one of the most important things to consider is to establish a strategy that will be useful for different activities of the organisation and enhance the value of the business as a whole with the use of the information technology. With the emergence of the World Wide Web and information technology, more and more businesses are trying to adopt a new marketing approach attached or aligned with the internet. For instance, those retailing industries, attempted to gain competitive advantage thought the use of internet. Internet businesses or e-businesses have emerged leaving behind non e–business companies.  Accordingly, business model is an integrated and coordinated set of commitments and actions the firm uses to gain a competitive advantage by exploiting core competencies in specific product markets ( 1999).  Only firms that continuously upgrade their competitive advantages over time are able to achieve long-term success with their strategy and implementation.  Choosing the appropriate business model is intended to create differences between the industry’s positions relative to those of its rivals (1996). To position itself a firm must decide to whether it intends to perform activities differently or to perform the different activities as compared to its rivals.  Thus, the firm’s business model is a deliberate choice about how it will perform the value chain’s primary and support activities in ways to create unique value. Over the years, different companies and organization are trying to utilize the business model in which they think should bring success to the over-all performance of a business.  In addition, business model is also referred as the mechanism or system by which any firm or business aims to produce profit or revenue.  It is the totality of how the industry intends to serve its target market.  It involves both the marketing strategy and its strategic implementation.   Throughout the years, the uses of business model are regarded as complicated and sophisticated.  Business models have different kinds.  Prior to the use of Internet, business industries competition depend largely on how they locked their consumers.  This means that the business industries are in control of their consumers by means of the kind of products or services that the business industries will offer.  The relationship between the organization and the consumers are being embedded to consumer as a buyer and the organization as the producer.  In this manner, the consumer would tend to buy the products from the store just to avail what they want. However, because of the globalization and information technology, different models of business have emerged. Primarily, the main goal of this dissertation is to analyse the latest techniques in Internet presence and study how these techniques impact/compliments existing brick-and-mortar businesses from marketing, cost effectiveness, customer relationship management and international reach.   1.1 Problem Theme As mentioned, the existence of internet has been able to transform the business environment. The use of the internet as part of business marketing and retailing is changing rapidly. It is said that the internet provides the retail market a new market model which cater not just for cloths, books and music but almost every products or service buyable and sellable. Among the most recognized brands and products sold in the internet retail are books, drugs, apparel, and electronic and technological gadgets.  Accordingly, the use of internet retailing has been able to create virtual communities which assure better communication and larger profits for the company. The latest techniques associated with internet retailing enables the company to gain competitive advantage as internet served as a platform for advanced technology and applications which allows the retailers by having better recognition both in the national and international level. In addition, internet retailing marketing techniques also has the ability to gain competitive advantage because of its availability in the internet market 24/7 with fewer or most of the time unlimited geographic boundaries. The internet approach also has interactive two-way communication, automation, personalization or customization, search facilitation and most of all knowledge or information sharing (2004). Such abilities are known to create advantage, attract, and satisfy consumers from any walks of life globally as well as increase profits.  As customers’ convenience is indulged by a wealth of personalized information services and availability, they can enjoy shopping (2001).The Internet also brings an easier integration of past business models and functions such as data collection and sharing.  Wang and his colleagues put the idea simply that the Internet is combined communication medium and distribution/transaction channel, which is quite different from traditional marketplaces allowing simple to multiple tasks to be performed at the same time and at the same environment. In addition, the internet retailing also allows the company to gain good customer relationship easily because of their ability to create customer participation and customization among other wide-ranged access to services.  Consumers are granted powers that traditional markets limit (primarily due to the presence of intermediaries, the lack of speedy processes, cost-effectiveness, integration, and combination the Internet medium can provide).  With capabilities such as this, it is inevitable for retail markets adapt to the Internet set-up, as a new marketplace and a new marketing tool, quickly.  Customer value has become the centre of all business models online.  Wang et al recognize however that not all e-businesses survive due to the turbulent and competitive nature of the Internet and the fact that studies regarding consumer behaviour must continue to be conducted. In such a turbulent and competitive arena, it has been a common goal for all firms and organizations into internet retailing for this matter to create and above all, maintain value for its customers, suppliers, and manufacturers.  The assurance of returning customers is what keeps internet retaining sites alive.  This is performed through shopping deals created through customer loyalty. The key for internet retailing to sustain itself in the market is to be convenient in the best of its ability and this will be performed once a firm is able to adapt to the customer’s many selective tastes best.  Not only will this allow them keep a competitive edge, this will allow its brand to emerge as a dominant web presence.  What’s unique with Internet retailing is how it does not limit itself to a certain industry.  Traditional retail stores, or the so-called brick and mortar type stores, are greatly limited by shelf spaces and cannot thus; attempt to cross sell newly released or related products (that would win consumers). Brick-and-mortar stores put the baby products in one place, health care in another, and vitamins for pregnancy in another area.  Therefore, everything is split up in the brick-and-mortar store, whereas with online solution retailing, all these items can be bundled together as a ‘new mother’ shelf (Harrington & Reed, 1996). The web’s flexibility allows it to cater to various other opportunities that will truly boost sales, serve to the customer’s further appeal, value and not to mention, loyalty, by giving them a wide variety of products to choose from in a one-stop shopping manner.  The customer’s preferences are thus even more customized to his/her personal liking.  Internet retailing brings cross-category selling opportunities, not just in grocery, but in sporting goods and everything else. In this regard, internet retailing can really be considered as one of the most powerful business approach to be considered if the company would want to be known in the global market. Given that internet has been a major and efficient tool for retailing, it is still important to determine how internet retailing impact non e-business industries in different aspects and determine what implications of internet to retailing are.    1.2 Research Question The key question that this dissertation will find to address is to know the impact of internet retailing to brick and mortar companies. Specifically, this paper attempts to answer the following queries: 1. What are the internet models available for industries? 1)     What is the impact of internet retailing in terms of providing value to the consumers or customer relationship management? 2)     What is the impact of internet retailing in line with the marketing contexts? 3)     What is the impact of internet retailing in terms of cost effectiveness? 4)     What is the impact of internet retailing in terms of international reach of the industry?     1.3 Aims and Objectives   In addressing the research questions, the researcher will be guide by the general aim to conduct a comprehensive analysis of internet retailing and how its presence impacts brick and mortar companies. The following specific objectives will be accomplished. <ul style="margin-top: 0in; margin-bottom: 0in" type="square"> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To evaluate the techniques of internet retailing in the market environment?</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To analyze internet retailing in terms of its effect on customer relationship management. </li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To assess internet retailing impact to business industries in terms of cost effectiveness.</li> <li class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify; line-height: 200%"> To determine the impact of internet retailing in line with international reach of businesses. </li> </ul>   1.4 Significance of the Study                   This research will provide a big help to the students and researchers that is engaged to business and information technology sector. The possible findings of this paper will provide a significant impact when it comes to education, politics, business, and to the modern society since attempts to identify how the emergence of internet retailing affects business industries.  Basically, the partial gathering of information reveals that the use of internet retailing in business, particularly for the brick and mortar companies provides a significant role since IT is one of the great factor or tool to use for business promotions or advertisement. 1.5  Scope and Limitations This dissertation focused primarily in the investigation of the impact of internet retailing to brick and mortar industries. The study examined how the emergence of internet affects the retailing industries in terms of marketing, customer relationship management, cost effectiveness, and international reach. This research will cover the topics on the intensive differences among the business strategies or approach of these kinds of industries.  The discussion of this study will mainly focus on the analysis internet retailing. The information that will be gathered for this study will be derived from secondary resources since this will consider solely the qualitative approach of research.  The secondary sources of data will come from published articles from social science journals, theses, and related studies on internet retailing, internet retailing or e-marketing, information communication technology and business journals. Time will be the greatest limitation to this research, which may hinder long-term outcome objectives. Environmental factors, such as socioeconomic factors, are beyond the control of the researcher and can create many variables within the research. As this study will be utilizing a small sample of participants, the results may not effectively represent the general population.       1.6  Research Outline This study is divided into five chapters in order to provide clarity and coherence on determining the impact of internet retailing to brick and mortar industries. The first part of the dissertation will be discussing the problem uncovered by the researcher and provide ample background of the topic. The chapter shall constitute an introduction to the whole dissertation, and the statement of the problem in order to present the basis of the study. Moreover, the chapter shall also have a discussion on the scope of its study as well as the significance of the study to society in general. The second chapter shall be discussing the relevance of the study in the existing literature. It shall provide studies internet retailing, its advantages and disadvantages and also the companies that use internet retailing. After the presentation of the existing related literature, the researcher shall provide a synthesis of the whole chapter in relation to the study. The third part of the study shall be discussing the methods and procedures used in the study. The chapter shall comprise of the presentation of the utilized techniques for data collection and research methodology. Similarly, it shall also contain a discussion on the used techniques in data analysis as well as the tools used to acquire the said data. The fourth chapter shall be an analysis on the contents gathered through secondary research and qualitative research approach. This part will discuss the answers based on analysis, to the questions provided in Chapter 1. The last chapter shall comprise of three sections, the summary of the findings, the conclusions of the study, and the recommendations. With the three portions, the chapter shall be able to address the problem stated in the initial chapters of the study. Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1   The concept of Internet The world today has long been characterized by modernization and technological advances. But before these comforts that we enjoy today, the world has first undergone multi-level changes. The society we are living in at present is very different three decades ago when the Internet is yet experienced. The introduction of the Internet has changed not just the lives of the people in their respective professions but also of the lives of the ordinary people. The history of the Internet is composed of gradual advances in the demands of the military intelligence in the United States. The Internet with the advent of internet retailing has provided major changes on the way business is done. Without the need for physical presence and sometimes only at the touch of a button, business transactions, financial trading and even customer service is being carried on (1998). The Internet has proven to provide efficient communication links between companies and their clients cutting down the resources spent on public relations. The use of internet in business industry has emerged for at least two crucial reasons. Firstly, it serves as a new alternative channel pf communication other than traditional branch network for customers to contact and communicate with the firms. Nowadays, more and more customers, especially younger ones who are quicker to accept new technology, are accessing remote channels-telephone marketing; computer transactions and other virtual transactions-to transact their business affairs. These on-line customers demand even more control over their personal finances and value “anytime, anyplace, any where” customized access to financial services ( 2001). There are varied definitions of internet but they all suggest in some way of the usage of electronic means to conduct business. Perhaps one of the most concrete definitions is given by   (2003) which states that internet retailing is either a free or paid exchange of information translated into goods and services using electronic means in any stage of the supply chain, be it within the organisation, between businesses, between businesses and consumers or even between the government and private sectors. Moreover,  (2003) specifically noted examples of the means of conducting internet retailing as the Internet, networks and other digital technologies. The word retailing in the term strengthens the definition that the concept is part of a range of activities wherein no direct payment involved within the supply chain. The supply chain expresses the distribution of goods, services and information flows between the players within or among the industries ( 2003). An example of this is a furniture manufacturer where the supply chain involves parts, raw materials, or services supplied by other companies. If the manufacturer exercises total control and optimizes its supply chain, then it will reduce all transaction costs which will then turn into a competitive advantage for the company because it is at the core of the chain. Since internet retailing is a growing phenomenon in the business, many companies now feel that there is a need to have Internet presence even if not as a business format (1998). This can be attributed to the increase in customer perception that a lack of Internet presence represents obsolete business methods and this can lead the consumer to choose other products instead ( 2002). In addition to this, most purchasing decision may be based on the information provided by the websites whether or not the actual final transaction was done online. This trend has changed the way businesses considered the Internet. It wasn’t just an inexpensive way to reach new target markets because to complete the buying process, there is still the need for traditional advertising and promotions. Thus, the practice is to include the websites to give consumers the chance to access additional information for the product. In this perspective, the Internet gave new meaning to companies as a useful and effective method of disseminating information to aid in the buying process. However, internet retailing does not guarantee profit because despite its popularity, there are still others who do not buy into shopping online. An example of this is the decline of online purchases in 2000 because of the widely publicized Christmas delivery failures in 1999 (2001). With the uncertain dynamics of internet retailing, companies then need to formulate a business strategy which can easily adapt to these changes. There are many studies that have been conducted on the new innovation of online shopping. Because of the many researches and studies made on the growing number of online shoppers, companies are improving their online marketing strategies. There are reports that there are three reasons why this is happening. First is that the size of the market is growing from US 6 billion in 2000 to .2 trillion in 2004 (2000). This market will be dominated by consumers outside North America. Second, because there are only a few dominant online players, the marketplace is still an area for a big business opportunity. Lastly, the cost and maintenance of brick and mortar facilities are lower than the cost and maintenance of globalization costs of international web presence. 2.2   Advantages of Internet retailing 2.3   Disadvantages of Internet retailing 2.4   Companies that Use Internet retailing       Every organisation wants to initiate a management system and strategy that could maintain the organization’s capability, strength and competitiveness. It is important that the management team and the organisation per se should always open their mind for changes that they might encounter in order to cope and adapt to the latest development that are happening within and outside their environment. Retail marketing works on the premise that direct sales is a potent force in attracting consumers because of personal interaction and negotiation. Further, the product is readily seen by the consumers thus, the urge to purchase a good and the probability that it will meet expectation of the customer are higher. However, retailing is not an easy process. Inherent are problems, issues and challenges that must be faced and solved in order to succeed in the competitive retailing world (1994). The concept of retailing is simply defined as the direct sale of commodities to consumers. However, to be able to succeed in this kind of venture, a considerable number of considerations must be identified. The tool that one uses to measure its success often defines the vision and strategy in retailing (2002). It is said that the net present value of the customer base should be at the top of the measurement hierarchy. Lifetime value is the net present value of the profit to be realized on the average new customer during a given number of years.  (2002) suggested that one should get customers to give data, and build it into a database complete with purchase history. For a retailer, that means that one have to keep track of their spending. Moreover, he asserted that building a relationship with customers only works if the customer benefits from the relationship. The trick in retailing, therefore, is to find things that one can do for customers that will modify their behaviour in profitable ways. What the retailer provides to customers has to be something that they will appreciate and value, but which do not cost you too much. In retailing, the margins are often thin ( 2002).                The problem arises when retailers can’t adapt to the rapid changes of their environment. There is pressure in competition.  While it is being said that advancement on marketing operations and adapting to the current forms of retailing methods will drive you to ultimate success, however there are other factors that will block your way. It has been noted that the most ambiguous, accommodating and changeable, yet the most persistent and potent forces that control retail competition are custom, consumer expectations, and social pressure (Greco & Michman, 1995). The market in a lot of ways limits what retailers can do.  There is a constant adjustment to customer needs and tastes.  The relationship between retailing and its environment is complex.  The ability of the small firms to successfully operate and compete its environment, could hinder their success against the market competitors in all areas. The importance of high quality services and products is consistently taken as a component of successful firms (Hofer & Sandberg, 1987).                The proper use of technology is really an advantage for every business, like in the case of Wal-Mart, known to be the world’s largest retailer.  Their techniques lie in their strategies to adapt new ways in order to sustain their growth.  Their use of modern technology is a big factor. Wal-Mart is the first one to utilize computer-based information systems.  This situation gives them the edge towards their competitors. They are one of the models who made it through the top because of their constant innovations (Donthu & Garcia, 1999).             Competitors who are not apt to seek new ways are most likely being left behind. Another significant factor of technology integration consists of the development and use of database. A database proposes merchants a technique of maintaining clients with regular communications while working to congeal image and personality. It is stated by the Centre for Retailing Studies at that the average business loses 20 – 40% of their consumer base each year ( 2004)             Chapter 3: Research Design 3.1 Research Methodology                                                     3.2 Data Collection 3.3  Data Processing                                                                             Chapter 4: Results Discussion and Presentation 4.1  Data presentation and analysis 4.2  Analysis and Discussion Chapter 5: Conclusion 5.1 Summary 5.2  Conclusion and Implication of the Study 5.3  Future Development and Recommendations                                                           Appendix: Questionnaire (1996). What is strategy? Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

Technological advancement in the society

Chapter 1: Introduction 1.0 Background Outline The rapid growth of technological advancement in the society has brought people so mu...

MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT QUESTION AND ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS

ASSIGNMENT QUESTION INSTRUCTIONS                 ●    Answer ALL questions.   PURPOSE   The purpose of this assignment is to assess and enhance students’ learning and ability in the organisational behaviour concepts and applications such as values, attitudes, motivation, group behaviour, group and teams as well as leadership.   QUESTION 1   “Job satisfaction and organisational commitment of employees are TWO important factors in preventing “brain drain” from an organisation.”   REQUIREMENT:   Justify your answer whether you agree .                                                                                                                                (15 marks) QUESTION 2   Mr. Ricky made a tour at 8.30 am and noticed the following phenomena on his first day to assume the post of General Manager of ABX Company, glass wares manufacturer in Shah Alam, Selangor:   Ø  A total of 20 percent of the workforce at the production department had not turned up yet; Ø  At the marketing department, not only the lights had not been switched on but there was no one there; Ø  Almost 10 percent of the HR personnel at the human resource department had not turned up yet and the worse thing is their ’attendant cards” had already been punched even earlier than 8.00 am on the same day; Ø  The security guard who are supposed to be on duty was seen sitting on a chair talking to someone on his hand phone and keep on laughing and yelling in spite of the General Manager standing in front of him and watching him.   On further inquiry, the answer obtained by Mr. Ricky had almost made him fainted: “ This has been going on for years and so far nothing has happened to us (the employees). So what is the problem now?”   REQUIREMENT   You are required to prepare a detailed write-up by giving suitable advice to Mr. Ricky from the perspective of organisational behaviour to assist him in rectifying the “unhealthy” phenomena in the organisation.                                                                                                                             (20 marks)                                                                                                                  [Total: 35 marks]   GUIDES TO ANSWER ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS   i)          Guides   QUESTION 1              Introduction Students should start by clarifying TWO important terms, firstly “job satisfaction’ and secondly “organisational commitment”.           Assignment Content            Try to focus your discussion by bearing in mind that both of these two factors have significant bearings with high labour turnover. Of course, each individual could have different perceptions regarding job satisfactions and they could make their own judgement differently.   Regarding organisational commitment which can be interprets as “an attitude towards the organisation as a whole, reflecting the individual’s acceptance of its goals and values, his/her willingness to expend effort on its behalf and an intention to remain in an organisation.   Besides these, they are also other factors such as good remunerations/treatments and favourable working environments and appreciations can also be considered by the organisation in the efforts to retain talented and good quality staff in the organisation. Students are free to list out these factors or other relevant factors by giving appropriate examples to support their answers.   Conclusion   Students should make a conclusion based on their above discussions and list all references quoted in the assignment.       QUESTION 2   Students should examine critically why such unhealthy phenomena existed in the organisation and find out what actually went wrong.             Suggest ways and means to Mr. Ricky how to rectify these unhealthy situations as he is taking over the helm of the organisation now. Not only that, he must have courage but he must also using good tactic in order to implement change in the organisation.   As it involved the problem of attitude; his imminent and “an uphill task” is to change the attitudes as well as the mindset of those “rotten woods” for the benefits of the entire organisation.   In student’s discussions, they can also involve popular topics in organisational behaviour such as values, attitudes, motivation, group behaviour, group and teams as well as leadership.   Students are encouraged to propose the rational and proper ways to overcome the problem as mentioned in this second assignment question.   All references quoted should be listed out accordingly.   ii)            Important topics:   Chapter 1        Introduction to Organisational Behaviour Chapter 2        Individual Differences Chapter 3        Vales, Attitude and Job Satisfaction Chapter 4        Motivation Chapter 6        Foundations of Group Behaviour Chapter 7        Group and teams Chapter 8        Leadership                   iii)        References   ·         Jennifer M. George & Gareth R. Jones (2002) , Organisational Behaviour (3rd ed) Prentice Hall  International, Inc. ·         Derek Rollinson (2005), Organisational behaviour and Analysis (3rd ed), Prentice Hall         Financial Hall. ·         Steven L. McShane & Mary Ann Von Glinow (2001) Organizational Behaviour, Irwin McGraw-Hill.                                                                             Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

MANAGEMENT ASSIGNMENT QUESTION AND ESSAY INSTRUCTIONS

ASSIGNMENT QUESTION INSTRUCTIONS ● Answer ALL questions. PURPOSE The purpose of this assignment is...

A Comparative Study of Consumers’ Attitude and Behaviour towards Online Fashion Shopping: Cross-Cultural Study of Malaysia and United Kingdom.

Chapter 1 Introduction to the Study   Project Background             In order to understand consumer behaviour, it is a precursor to understand the consumer expectations, consumer requirements and purchasing trend as well as what encompasses such trend. Considerably, the consumer buying process is multifaceted because of the fact that there are several internal and external factors impacting the consumer buyer decision. Such elements that influence a consumer’s purchasing decision manifest themselves in the stages of consumer purchase decision-making, and also the type of buying behaviour such consumer possess. Since the consumer evaluates a product or a service, the necessity to recognize their motivations influencing customers is apparent. Either intrinsic or extrinsic, motivations to purchase fashion garments and accessories via virtual retailing stores. Because it is a highly individualized undertaking, the interest of the academia as well as the retailers is increasing, emphasizing the importance to explain and/or find the existing reality behind online fashion retailing and the drivers of such a process.   Online fashion shopping is now a living phenomenon, being the focus of academic researches. This study will look at the differences between Malaysia and United Kingdom with respect to the consumers’ attitude and behaviour towards online fashion shopping.  In this proposal, how culture makes differences on the behaviour and attitude of a customer given the same channel which is the internet will be examined. Moreover, how the online buyers’ attitude and behaviour are influencing the e-retailing industries in both selected countries will be investigated. The impact of studying the consumer attitudes and behaviours of two diverse states might to online retailing industry or how online fashion retailing could lead to new schools of thought about fashion e-tailing.   Review of Past Research Works and Identification of Gaps There are studies which focus on fashion innovativeness, understanding online buying tendencies of the people, psychological and behavioural drivers of online clothing purchasing and why consumers hesitate to shop online. However, there are limited studies on the interplay of culture with fashion innovativeness, online buying tendencies, behavioural drivers and consumer stigmatism on online fashion retailing. Previous studies show that the purchasing behaviour has direct effect to consumer decision-making and that consumer are always particular with price, confidence in brand name and company reputation with advertising as the most influential factor in consumerism. The gap in research, on the other hand, lies in the application in the fashion retailing industry. Culture, beliefs and traditions could affect the consumerism have also been the center of studies. Specifically, there are conducted studies focusing on Korea, Japan and UK. Even so, comparative studies are limited particularly on Asian countries which are receptive on online retailing and UK which is known on its high streets and as pioneer in online fashion shopping. As such, the adaption of these issues in the case of Malaysia and UK consumerism in online fashion shopping remains unexplored. Fashion online shopping was perceived to be the most acceptable ground to explore the benefits of technology to global retailing industry.   Research problems and questions             The key problem that the research will address is the fundamental differences of consumer attitudes and behaviours of the people on online fashion shopping. The questions that will be addressed are:  1)      What are the prevailing consumer attitudes and behaviours do a consumer possess? What are their needs and motivations? 2)      In lieu with the differences in culture, what are the distinct cultural behaviours possess as manifested in online fashion purchasing? 3)      What are the cultural and social attributes we can get in a Malaysian or English attitude and behaviour during their access to online fashion shopping?   Aims and Objectives The main purpose of this study is to investigate the consumers’ cross-cultural attitude and behaviour towards online fashion shopping in two selected countries, Malaysia and United Kingdom. In lieu with this, the study will address the following specific objectives:   §     To evaluate how the online fashion shoppers in Malaysia and United Kingdom differ in internet fashion and sites choices §     To investigate the perceptions of consumers’ in buying the online apparels in Malaysia and United Kingdom §     To identify the consumers’ motivational factors and concern factors towards online fashion shopping in Malaysia and United Kingdom §     To differentiate the behavioural outcomes of online fashion buyers’ in Malaysia and United Kingdom   Justification for the Research             The study will be a significant endeavour in gaining in-depth understanding of the behaviour and attitude of consumers as embedded in cultural differences. This study will be helpful to online fashion retailers as new recommendation of strategies could emerge from this research. This research will be also significant to the field of international and domestic and online retailing research as it may unravel useful strategies for companies that belong in the online retailing and fashion industries. Moreover, this study will be an important contribution to a body of research online fashion shopping and fashion e-tailing. The study is also significant to MBA students as it may serve as useful reference for future researchers and those who will seek information about consumer attitudes and behaviour and online fashion shopping. Overall, it may help boosts the growth of online consumerism research.   Methodology After gathering empirical data, thematic content analysis of the literature will be adopted. Thematic content analysis refers to the method of comparative research whereby contextual analysis of similarities and differences is possible. Further, the researcher will integrate concepts of specific theories and models. Examples of these are model of buying behaviour, consumer environmental analysis, model of culture’s influence on behaviour, relationship model between culture and subculture, structural model of attitudes, motivation links needs and objectives, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, behavioural learning theories and consumer decision process model.   Conclusion The requisites in understanding consumer behaviour are expectations, requirements and purchasing trend. Entailing consumer buying process, several factors affecting consumer decision-making must be consider. There are also intrinsic and extrinsic motivations in purchase decisions of these consumers. Given that consumers are affected by particular factors, it would be necessary to look at what drives and motivates consumer to purchase online.   Chapter 2 – Literature Review Introduction             Perceived as the reflection of changes in a given society, fashion relates how such social structures conform to changes. Either as a medium of art or craftsmanship, the decline in the global fashion sales in the past few years requires that the industry should resort into new possibilities to satisfy the ever-changing of the customers. Online fashion shopping was seen to be the most plausible avenue to leverage profitability while also optimizing the dynamics of responding to customer requirements. However, online fashion shopping embraces new facets of customer behaviour, attitudes, motivations and learning. This paper discusses in detail the literatures relating to the subject of consumerism specifically the types of consumer behaviour, the factors affecting such and the consumer buying process. The role of intrinsic and extrinsic motivations and needs are also discussed. Consumer learning and measures of consumer learning as well as the theories that govern the process are also conferred about.   Global retail industry             Moody’s report (2006) defines retailers as the companies whose foremost business is to act as the final sales point to end-consumers for wholesalers and manufacturers of both food and non-food products. Such a definition provides that a retail company must be a purchaser of the retailer’s goods as a private individual or small trader; that the goods being purchased are mainly physical goods, and possibly with retail services which serves as secondary component of their offer; and that purchasing frequency of goods can vary significantly. The key characteristics of the global retail industry include significant diversity in business risk; tight logistics and high standards of execution; capital-intensive; growth strategy and relevant markets that could be local or regional in nature.             As Moody argued, business risk is ultimately a function of a segment in which the retailer operates within a competitive environment, affecting the retailer’s positioning within the given segment. There are specialty retailers that are more exposed to cyclical and seasonal volatility including product obsolescence and fashion risk, and as exacerbated by the regulatory environment. Nonetheless, business risks are diminished through appropriate positioning and securing a niche within a given segment. The ‘right product at the right time at the right place’ concept is also inherent to the global retailers as a source to combat fierce competition. Value propositions of the products and services are also a priority. Capital intensiveness manifest itself in investing in fixed assets such as retail outlets, warehouses and distribution networks, which must be rigorously managed for optimal returns. Organic growth and global expansions model are inexistence in the global retailer industry, putting pressures on sustainability despite organizational changes. Although there are retailers who chose to concentrate on geographical diversification, there are who stick to local or regional operations as a precursor to eventual global integration (pp. 3-4).          Retail industry in Malaysia             In 2007, the Malaysian retailing industry posited a significant growth, as Euromonitor International’s (2008) report disclosed. The growth in the said industry is boosted by the higher private demand, pay hike for civil servants resulting to higher percentage of income to be disposed, successful marketing campaign and strong expansion of new retail outlets. The strengthened local retailing industry is also because of the development of new shopping malls and the extension of shopping centers which entails the housing of more number of retail outlets. The Visit Malaysia Campaign 2007 was perceived to be the leader in putting value growth to the industry. Launched by the Malaysian government, the campaign targeted 20 million tourists into Malaysia, contributing to a more alive retailing environment. Although the Malaysian retailing industry conforms to a fragmented setting with more entrants crowding environment, a more competitive retailing industry that is because of increasing number of local and international retailers. Store-based retailing is still in dominance since the concept of non-store retailing is less established. However, non-store retailing has witnessed a faster value growth in 2007 via direct selling which has an easier acceptance of the concept to all Malaysian income groups. Moreover, the continued growth of the retailing industry is being supported by the government by means of attracting more players who are willing to invest in new outlets, larger selling space and allocating greater budgets to marketing activities because of the rising consumer confidence (Euromonitor International 2008).            Retail industry in United Kingdom             Contrary to that of Malaysian’s retailing industry outcomes, the UK retailing industry has experienced a slow down in 2007. The Euromonitor report states that the downsurge is because of the fear of a slowing housing market industry as coupled with the rising utility bills, interest rates and mortgage payments in the UK, all of which imposed a direct hit on the disposable income of consumers. Supermarkets are dominant in the retailing scene especially the non-food and other specialized retailers. In addition, the Big Four reaches a new record of market share although it faced a close scrutiny while independent retailers closed down on the high streets. As for the discounters, the expansion of outlets and moving offer to upmarket were perceived to strengthen market presence.             Such discounter movement in the UK was supported by the ‘schizophrenic’ shopping behaviour wherein consumers mixed bargains with purchases of indulgent products or luxuries, underempowering the traditional shopping structure. Aside, ethical or environmental shopping is even more reflected in consumer behaviour, to which the retailers responded with equal gusto. This endeavour made possible the emergence of whole new dimension to which retailers could define themselves. Internet retailing, further, insofar, has been the most dynamic where UK consumers increasingly becoming more comfortable with online shopping. This was fuelled by the increased household access to broadband services and improved web designing efforts.   Global fashion industry Azuma and Fernie (2003) claim that fashion is perceived to be one of the most essential parts of civilization as it reflects the great culture of the past. Likewise, fashion exemplifies the changes within a given society over time. The authors also maintained that the materialization of global fashion transformed the way fashion was perceived in the modern world, changing the focus on standardization and low-cost advantage. Through fashion globalization also, the migration of fashion production offshore as well as the resultant dependence on non-traditional ethos of fashion designing imposed threat to domestic small fashion players. While also, the condition impedes them from ‘creating intrinsic fashion on a small but sustainable scale. As said by Yarwood (1992), fashion is a more accurate barometer because of its inherent universality attribute whereby fashion affects everyone. Fashion too characterizes the personal expressionism of life at a given time and place.               For the purpose of satisfying the ever-changing demands of the consumer, the global fashion industry must find resources and avenues to continuously do such. Fiore, Lee and Kunz (2004) affirm that a new industry must emerge, one which basically draws from the opportunities technologies could provide. Online fashion retailing, as Tseng and Piller (2003) figured, possesses special requirements compared to that of other online retailing sectors. Fashion visualization necessitates the existence of virtual catwalk, user interface and client/server architecture (p. 482). In order to respond to the dilemmas on online fashion retailing such as the lack of customer consulting and the accuracy of high three-dimensional display quality, online retailing for fashion products need to realized at a high level so as to achieve broad customer acceptance (p. 477).    Consumer behaviour Consumer behaviour refers to the decision processes and acts involved in purchasing using a product. In order that firms could understand the consumer behaviour, there is the requirement to create the marketing mix which will give optimum utility to customers, therefore analyzing the what, where, when and how consumers buy (Haugtvedt, Machleit and Yalch 2005; Parcon 2007, pp. 89-90). The types of consumer behaviour are determined by level of involvement in purchase decision and buyers’ level of involvement based on motivation. The first determinant focuses on the importance and intensity of interest in a product on a given situation while the second determinant deals with the information about a certain product and brand. There are personal, social and economic risks and that the higher the risks, the higher the involvement for a consumer. Types of consumer behaviour             Even so, consumer behaviour could be categorized as routine response or programmed behaviour, limited decision-making, extensive decision-making and impulse buying. Programmed behaviours are inclined for low involvement frequently to purchase low cost items. These automatic consumptions need no researching and rigorous decision-making. The second behaviour is the occasional purchasing of product which requires information about unfamiliar brand hence a significant amount of time in gathering information. In the third behaviour, high degree of economic, performance and psychological risks assessments is considered while for the last behaviour, it necessitates no conscious planning at all. Factors that affect consumer behaviour While at it, it would be plausible to take note of the factors that affect the consumer buying process: personal, psychological and social. Personal are unique to an individual consumer including the demographic factors like gender, race and age. Personal factors greatly affect the decision-making especially because risks and utility are also very individualistic (Parcon 2007, pp. 91-93). Consequently, the psychological factors include motives, perception, ability and knowledge, attitudes, personality and lifestyles. Motives are the energizing force onward satisfying a goal or a need. Perception refers to the process of selecting, organizing and interpreting information inputs in order to produce meaning. Changes in consumer attitude are based on information and experience and the capacity to learn these, same with attitude which are also learn from interaction with other people. Knowledge, on the other hand, is the familiarity with the product and expertise. Internal traits and behaviours; consistency with self-concept affects consumerism as well as the consistent patterns of living of our lifestyles (pp. 93-94). Consumer attitudes impact consumer behaviour more compared to other factors. Our attitude represents our likes and dislikes, thus preferences and decisions. As a lasting general evaluation of a thing, attitudes could serve a multiple purpose such as utilitarian, value-expression, ego-expression and knowledge. The variety of consumer attitudes suggest that there is a very different set of attitude concerning a product, the brand name and association, the retailer, the company and the channels of distribution as well as the means of communication. There are three elements which govern consumer attitude as: belief – the psychological association based on knowledge between the product and an attribute of such product; affect – as influenced by affective response or emotive association in products; and intention – the behaviour component of consumer attitude based on the motives of the person (Baker 2002, p. 123). Social factors, finally, affect the consumer cognition via opinion leaders, roles and family influences, reference groups, social class and culture and sub-culture. Opinion leaders serve as the spokespeople wherein consumers draw from their familiarity with the person himself/herself. The roles of the people consider the expectations of you from your position within a given group. Family, where majority of behaviours are patterned, has its own life cycle which characterizes unique consumer demands. As such, consumer behaviour begins inside the family with a mixture of family and individual consumer decision-making. As an individual identifies with a group, s/he acquires many of the values, attitudes and behaviours of the group members. Social class, which also operates in a larger cultural schema, distinguishes the preferences as well as the buying capacity of the people, affecting their decision-making and actual purchasing. Finally, culture or the set of values, ideas and attitudes dictates the level of conformity among its members. Given the fact that these are transmitted to posterity and other culture as well through acculturation, there is the emergence of changing trends and patterns of behaviour regarding consumption and consumer behaviour (Parcon 2007, pp. 94).   Consumer buying process The consumer buying process is set in six stages: problem recognition, information search, alternatives evaluation, purchase decision, purchase and post-purchase evaluation. The first stage points to determining the difference between desired state and actual condition. Product information could stimulate this stage onward to gathering information. Searching happens internally and externally, the first through memory and the second through marketer dominated sources or comparison shopping aside from word of mouth. The success in this stage could lead to having an evoked set of alternatives whereby the consumer establishes criteria prior to weighing them. After the choice has been made, actual purchasing based on product availability will be considered. Whether the consumer makes the right decision or not in purchasing will be contemplated on the last stage (pp. 95-96). This last stage is best explained by the cognitive dissonance theory.   Cognitive dissonance theory             Proposed by Leon Festinger in 1957, the theory of cognitive dissonance refers to the motivational state, impelling individuals to attempt to reduce and eliminate it. Festinger (1962) hypothesized that the existence of dissonance motivates the person to try to reduce the dissonance and achieve consonance and that when dissonance is present the tendency for the person is to dynamically avoid situations and information that would likely increase the dissonance. Festinger preferred to use the term dissonance because it has a less logical connotation than inconsistency. As argued, dissonance could mean the ‘existence of nonfitting relations among cognitions which makes it a motivating factor in its own right. He continued that cognitive dissonance could be perceived as the precursor condition which leads to any activity purporting the reduction of dissonance (pp. 2-3).  Notably, any knowledge that a person possess about himself or the environment is a cognition or cognitive element. As Wicklund and Brehm (1976) put it, cognitions could be specific or general and firm or vague or the combination of these elements. The correlation between cognitive elements is known as consonance, and such elements have psychological implications which could be based on cultural mores, demands of logicality, behavioural commitment and past experience among others. After which, cognitive conflict or cognitive imbalance could arise when two cognitions have dissonant relationship. Dissonant relations of cognitions are dependent on the degree of importance we give to such cognitions, making possible the irrelevance of such cognitions. In sum, cognitive dissonance refers to our motivational state produced when an individual has cognitive elements which imply the opposite of one another. Such a state, unless cognitive work lessens the relative importance of relevant cognitions in lieu with the elements that are resistant to changes, cognitive dissonance will persist (pp. 2-10).  Aronson (1969), and as reiterated by Lord (1992), cognitive dissonance is flawed especially when taken from the perspective of self-concept. Aronson believed that the cognitive dissonance happens when an individual see his actions that conflicts with his self-concept, as opposed to what Festinger advocated that people experience dissonance because of conflicting cognitions. Lord states that Aronson’s arguments are central on attitude polarization effects. Both authors consider that the theory could best explain the biased evolutions, but balance and consistency theories do not bring about aversive arousal (p. 340).                Consumer motivation Mowen and Minor (1997) state that motivation commenced with a presence of a stimulus, spurring the recognition of a need. Eventually, need recognition occurs when a perceived discrepancy exists between the actual and desired states of being. Needs could be innate or learned and are never fully satisfied. Expressive needs and utilitarian needs are the two basic consumer needs where the former involve desires by consumers to fulfil social or aesthetic requirements and the latter involve desires by consumers to solve basic problems. Further, feeling and emotions often accompany the needs, comprising of the fundamental emotions people experience like interest, joy, disgust, guilt, contempt, etc. According to Assael (1987), motives or consumer motivations act a central role in consumer behavioural processes. Defined as the enduring propositions which direct behaviour towards the attainment of specific goals and objectives, motives are both arouse behaviour and a director to certain ends. Abraham Maslow presented the best known classification of motives from physiological to self-actualization needs. The hierarchy suggests that consumers will satisfy the basic motivational level first prior to satisfying higher levels of motives. Important to note are motive is caused by a deficit or a dearth and differs from each other in type and amount; however, motives are based on needs and propel people to perceive, think and act in ways to satisfy a need. Implicit motivation refers to people’s unconscious desires, aspirations and needs while the explicit motives better predict responses to immediate, specific situations and to choice behaviours and attitudes (Larsen and Buss 2005). Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations Suki, Ramayah and Suki (2008) contend that there is a significant correlation among cognitive absorption, perceived access, perceived usefulness and fashion involvement. They have studied that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations influences acceptance of Internet shopping. Such an act to given an individual the incentive to do something, motivation is the biological, emotional, cognitive or social forces which activate and direct behaviour. Intrinsic motivations are internal, focusing on specific activities that will give them pleasure whereas extrinsic behaviours are the factors external to the individual which are unrelated to the specific activities that an individual engages into. Weiner (1980) stresses that the combination of behaviour and reward increases the likelihood that such behaviour will be subsequently repeated. The interplay between these two motivations determines the total amount of motivation to undertake an activity. In considering the determinants of actions, the influences of fundamental motivations with extrinsic rewards and vice versa must be taken into contemplation (pp. 257 and 260).                  Holbrook (1999) observes that intrinsic and extrinsic values are basic to consumer value, by which instrumental or terminal values are at the center. The author argued that the major characteristic between intrinsic and extrinsic value involves the differences between a means to an end and an end in itself. As such, objects with extrinsic value met with instrumental needs as these are used for practical purposes to increase convenience, improve quality and cultivate status. Terminal needs, on the other hand, are met by intrinsic value, which are consumed only for the gratification derived from having fun, feeling virtuous or rejoicing (p. 135). Nonetheless, consumer value could be intrinsically or extrinsically motivated through satisfying first more basic human needs. Such needs will be the foundation of the extent of motivation and the willingness to partake in an activity.        Maslow’s hierarchy of needs             Maslow’s work is central to the development of hierarchy of needs through which he believed that human beings aspire to become self-actualizing. Its core thesis is that human needs are organized in a hierarchy, with survival needs at its base. The needs for security and social interaction are at a progressively higher level in the hierarchy, with the need to learn, grow and reach one’s potential as the highest level. Maslow and Stephens (2000) see it as “as lower level needs are satisfied, successively higher needs become more influential in motivating human behaviour.” As such, when the needs in the lowest level of the hierarchy remain unsatisfied, other needs such as learning, creativity, innovation or self-esteem will remain stagnant as it will never arise in the surface (p. 2).             The psychology of consumer behaviour is best explained by this hierarchy of needs. Mullen and Johnson (1990) aver that many commercial advertisements can be considered in terms of attempts to appeal to one or more of these needs, especially on the lower level needs (p. 96). The actual purchasing of a product is usually intended to fill some sort of need or desire. However, there is some discrepancy between the consumer’s actual state and their desired state. So, in responding to a need, consumers are motivated to make purchases. In the case of shopping, the consumer is motivated to satisfy the want or need. Understanding these motives are then critical in creating effective marketing programs. Marketers believe that it is an imperative to understand where in the hierarchy the consumer is before designing the marketing program (Hutchison, Macy and Allen 2005, p. 32).   Consumer learning Consumer learning refers to the process by which an individual acquire the purchase and consumption knowledge and experience they apply to future related behaviour. Learning could be intentional or incidental, but could be made more understandable through motives, cues, response and reinforcement.   Mullen and Johnson (1990) recommend that there are at least two ways that a consumer takes learning into account. First is through a type of vicarious instrumental conditioning and second, through some variants of classical conditioning which involves vicarious learning. Examples of these are vicarious classical conditioning of emotional responses and classical conditioning of vicarious emotional responses. The individual indirectly acquires an association by observing a model who is directly acquiring the association. Deliberate educational efforts also affect the consumer learning. For instance, an individual engages in informative family discussion of television commercials or home economics class discussion of good buying practices. Nonetheless, such individuals could also engage in purposive and systematic training of consumer knowledge and skills (p. 126).There are two major schools of thought which explains how individuals learn: behavioural theories which view learning as an observable response to stimuli and cognitive theories the believes learning is a functional or mental processing. Behavioural theories             Behavioural theories underpin marketing applications such as repetition, stimulus generalization and stimulus discrimination. Classical conditioning and operant conditioning are two of the basic consumer motivations. Classical conditioning, a neutral stimulus, is combined with a stimulus which elicits a response. For effective conditioning to take place, the neutral stimulus like the brand name should precede in time the appearance of the unconditioned stimulus, making the pairing highly salient to the consumer. This conditioning applies in advertising and direct selling which identifies powerful positive stimulus and associate brand with it.             Operant conditioning is the process of modifying the consequences of the behaviour based on the frequency of the behaviour occurrence. As such, of positively reinforced, the likelihood of the behaviour being repeated is increased and decreases when the behaviour is ‘punished’. Reinforcer refers to anything that occurs after a behaviour and changes the likelihood that an action will be emitted again whereby the punisher is the stimulus that has the opposite effect of the reinforcer.  Discriminative stimuli occurs in the presence of the reinforcer and do not occur in its absence.             The third behavioural theory is vicarious learning. Vicarious learning is the phenomenon wherein people observe actions of others to develop ‘patterns of behaviour’ (Mowen and Minor 1997). The authors also noted that there are three important ideas when it comes to consumer learning. The first is that people are viewed as symbolic beings hence they anticipate the probable consequences of their behaviour. Second, people learn by watching the actions of others as well as the consequences of these actions. Third is central on the idea that people have the ability to regulate their own behaviour.   Attribution theory People also strive to being learned because of the perceived risks in consumerism. These risks are the perceptions of the consumers regarding the overall negativity of a course of action. The basis is the evaluation of the possible negative outcomes and the likelihood of the occurrence of these outcomes. The seven types of consumer risks according to Mowen and Minor (1997) are: financial, performance, physical, psychological, social, time and opportunity loss. Characteristics of the individual, nature of the task, characteristics of the product and salience of negative outcomes are the factors that influence risk perception. The causality leading to perceptions of risks is elucidated by the attribution theory.              Attribution theory was developed by Fritz Heider, Harold Kelley, Edward Jones and Lee Ross. Such theory suggests that there are several ways that an individual explain his or her behaviour as well as of others. Attribution could be situational or dispositional wherein the former are the causality to outside factors while the latter are causality to factors inherent to the individual. According to Duval, Mayer and Duval (1983), our consciousness prefers simplicity and this condition is a clear implication that consciousness is a dynamic process, moving to maximize simplicity within its boundaries. The authors referred to simplicity as the inverse function of separate and unconnected elements in consciousness. Causal attribution then is the manifestation of such movement which maximizes simplicity within consciousness (p. 1).             Simply the perceived causes of outcomes, Alexander and Winne (2006) assert that attribution theory explains how people perceive the causes of their and others actions. That people are motivated to seek information to form attributions is the assumption behind the theory, stressing that attributions possess motivational consequences. Essentially, the process of assigning attributions is governed by principles such as locus of control and analysis of action. Other proponents proposed that people attribute based on effective personal force and effective environmental force. Power and abilities make up the personal force, and how these two elements combined with the elements of environmental force influences outcomes (pp. 354-355).             Cognitive theories             Cognitive learning theories, nevertheless, embrace the ideology that the kind of learning most characteristic of human is problem solving. Theorists concern how information is being processed by the human mind and how is it stored, retained and retrieved. Memory is one among the examples of how our mind processes and stores information on the sensory store, short-term store and long-term store. Rehearsal, encoding, storage and retrieval are the processes of memory.             The involvement of the individual, as well, determines the degree to which the information will be processed. Basically, because there are specific situations that an individual give low importance to or relevance while extensive information processing in specific situations of high relevance will have the greater impact. Apart from the involvement theory, the hemispheral lateralization theory proposes that low-involvement medium could result in passive learning whereas interactive medium encourage cognitive information processing more.   Measures of consumer learning             The measure of consumer learning are recall and recognition tests, cognitive responses to advertising and attitudinal and behavioural measures of brand loyalty especially in terms of consumer’s behaviour or attitude toward the brand. Mowen and Minor (1997) highlight that understanding how consumers learn are central in teaching them their brand is the best and to develop brand loyalty. Brand loyalty is defined as the consumer’s consistent preference for and purchase for a specific brand. Reducing risks, facilitating selection and saving time and effort are the main reasons behind brand loyalty, with respect to levels of consumer involvement. Hallberg (1995) maintain that customer involvement is the key to greater loyalty as it produces measurably higher levels of brand equity and profitable volume for the brand (p. 8).             The development of consumer brand loyalty in online stores is rather difficult compared to traditional stores. Yun and Good (2007) conducted a study that purports on investigating electronic store – e-store – attributes which develop the customers’ positive perceptions on the image of e-stores, acknowledging the importance of developing the sense of loyalty and customer retention. They have discovered that for online stores to hone brand loyalty the e-store image must be embedded on effective e-merchandising, e-servicing and e-shopping atmosphere attribute, leading to e-patronage intentions thereby e-loyalty.     Conclusion             The global retail industry connects the point of origin and the point of distribution. There are risks along the process, and these business and economic risks must be combated upon in order that the contemporary retailers continuously survive, exist and function in a competitive environment. The global fashion industry entails that the shift towards online retailing is the most conceivable venue. Nonetheless, there are countries that do not find online retailing as acceptable while also there are countries which embrace online retailing but are now experiencing meltdown. Malaysia and UK are two among the examples of these countries, respectively. To effectively conduct the study, this literature review was conducted. In sum, the key points are as follows. There are two determinants of consumer behaviour: importance and intensity of interest and information. The types of consumer behaviour are: routine response or programmed behaviour, limited decision-making, extensive decision-making and impulse buying. While the factors that affect this behaviour are personal, psychological and social. Towards actual purchasing, the consumer ponders on the problem, information, alternatives and decision-making. Evaluation comes after. Intrinsic and extrinsic motivations guide consumers as well as their perceived instrumental and terminal needs in making a purchase. Motives and needs are innate to human thereby the necessity to satisfy these are imperative. Nonetheless, survival needs must be satisfy first prior to satisfying higher level needs. Consumer learning, moreover, happens through conditioning and observation which happens inside and outside the house of an individual, taking the whole social context. There are specific ways to measure consumer learning such as recall and recognition tests, cognitive responses to advertising and attitudinal and behavioural measures. Brand loyalty is the most fundamental measure of the effectiveness of consumer learning.   Chapter 3 Research Methodology Introduction             Inevitable for every researcher to think of the research undertaking by considering the most appropriate research approaches. In order to come up in the central issue of the research and answer the research questions and objectives, pertinent data must be accomplished. In this chapter, necessary research methodologies will be discussed. Primary research strategies and ethical considerations applied are also discussed. Research Approach             Interpretivism is the research philosophy that the researcher will going to use. Such philosophy, according to Remenyi, Williams and Swartz (1998), will allow the search of the details of the situation to understand the reality or perhaps a reality working behind them. In lieu, induction research will be applied where the research will build theories based on the responses and findings. The inductive approach could emphasize the understanding of the meanings that human attach to events. In this study, we are considering how consumers in Malaysia and the UK give meanings to their attitude and behaviour when it comes to virtual fashion retailing. Moreover, through the inductive approach, a more flexible structure to facilitate changes in the research could be achieved as the research progresses. In the later part of the research, comparative design will be utilized.   Primary Research             The research will particularly focus on selected consumers in Malaysia and UK As they will be the respondents of the research, necessary is to access dominant online fashion shopping websites. The selected customers must be from UK and/or Malaysia and must be a permanent subscriber for at least one year. The primary research will be conducted using semi-structured questionnaires which will be sent via email. From the accessed list of consumers the researcher will choose the 3rd listed name with the hope to survey 50 Malaysian and 50 UK consumers. Since the primary aim of using questionnaire is to identify the demography of the consumers and distinguish among them the apparent customer attitudes and behaviour, the research will use a combination of closed and more open comment questionnaires. From this set, every 4th consumer will be contacted for telephone interview. The semi-structured interview will be conducted to fill the gap in the existing knowledge and investigate relationships of the variables under researched (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill 2003).  Ethical Considerations             Access to commercial information as well as access to target respondents would be a challenge. For online fashion websites to entrust me with their documents and to allow me to conduct survey and interview to their customers, I will ensure them that information will be subjected to high commercial confidentiality. Likewise, negotiating skills will be thoroughly applied. Written consent that outlines the obligations and liabilities of the researcher will be secured. For the respondents, participation consent forms and interview consent forms will be accomplished first. They will have the autonomy to choose whether to identify them or stay anonymous. Because personal information will be obtained, Data Protection Act will be employed. When publishing, I will their permission first both the target respondents and website owners/managers. Conclusion             Interpretivism philosophy, inductive approach and comparative design are the three primary research methodologies to be used in order to dig deeper to the phenomenon of online fashion retailing and the customer attitudes and behaviours. Primary data will come from online fashion websites and will access from them lists of Malaysian and UK consumers. Survey method and interview will be conducted. Nonetheless, the informations to be collected will be subjected to high ethical processes.            Reference   Alexander, P A and Winne, P H 2006, Handbook of Educational Psychology, Routledge, London.   Aronson, E 1969, The theory of cognitive dissonance: A current perspective, in L Berkowitz (ed.), Advances in Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 4, pp. 1-34, Academic Press, New York.     Assael, H 1987, Consumer behaviour and marketing action, Kent Publishing Company, Boston.   Azuma, N and Fernie, J 2003, Fashion in globalized world and the role of virtual networks in intrinsic fashion design, Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management, vol. 4, no. 4, pp. 413-427.   Baker, M J 2002, The Marketing Handbook, Butterworth-Heinemann.   Duval, V H, Mayer, S F and Duval, S 1983, Consistency and Cognition: A Theory of Causal Attribution, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.   Festinger, L 1962, A Theory of Cognitive Dissonance, Stanford University Press.   Global Retain Industry – A report by Moody 2006, retrieved on 27 October 2008, from http://www.moodys.com.br/brasil/pdf/Global_Retail_Industry.pdf.   Hallberg, G 1995, All Consumers are Not Created Equal: The Differential Marketing Strategy for Brand Loyalty and Profits, John Wiley and Sons, New York.   Haugtvedt, C P, Machleit, K A and Yalch, R 2005, Online Consumer Psychology: Understanding and Influencing Consumer in the Virtual World, Routledge, London.     Holbrook, M B 1999, Consumer Value: A Framework for Analysis and Research, Routledge, London.   Hutchison, T W, Macy, A and Allen P 2005, Marketing, Focal Press.   Larsen, R J and Buss, D M 2005, Motives and Personality, in Personality Psychology: Domains of knowledge about human nature, McGraw Hill, Boston.   Lord, C G 1992, Was Cognitive Dissonance Theory a Mistake?, Psychological Inquiry, vol. 4, issue 4, pp. 339-342.   Maslow, A H and Stephens, D C 2000, The Maslow Business Reader, John Wiley and Sons, New York.   Mowen, J C and Minor, M 1997, Consumer Behaviour, Prentice Hall.   Mullen, B and Johnson, C 1990, The Psychology of Human Behavior, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.   Parcon, P 2007, Develop Your Decision Making Skills, Lotus Press.   Remenyi, D, Williams, B, and Swartz, E 1998, Doing Research in Business            Management: An Introduction to Process and Method, Sage, London.   Retailing in Malaysia 2008, Euromonitor International, retrieved on 27 October 2008, from http://www.euromonitor.com/Retailing_in_Malaysia.   Retailing in the United Kingdom 2008, Euromonitor International, retrieved on 27 October 2008, from http://www.euromonitor.com/Retailing_in_the_United_Kingdom.   Saunders, M, Lewis, P and Thornhill, A 2003, Research Methods for Business Students, 3rd edn., Prentice Hall.   Suki, N M, Ramayah, T and Suki, N M 2008, Internet shopping acceptance: Examining the influence of intrinsic versus extrinsic motivations, Direct Marketing: An International Journal, vol. 2, no. 2, pp. 97-110.   Tseng, M M and Piller, F M 2003, The Customer Centric Enterprise: Advances in Mass Customization and Personalization, Springer.     Wicklund, R A and Brehm, J W 1976, Perspectives on Cognitive Dissonance, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.   Wiener, B 1980, Human Motivation, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, NJ.   Yun, Z S and Good, L K 2007, Developing customer loyalty from e-tail store image attributes, Managing Service Quality, vol. 17, no. 1, pp. 4-22.     Credit:ivythesis.typepad.com

A Comparative Study of Consumers’ Attitude and Behaviour towards Online Fashion Shopping: Cross-Cultural Study of Malaysia and United Kingdom.

Chapter 1 Introduction to the Study Project Background In order to understand consumer behaviour, it is a precursor to und...