Quantitative
Study of Privacy Protection Overseas as Perceived by USA based IT professional
Ekta
Gupta
The College
of St. Scholastica
May
7, 2013
The Internet has
promoted direct interactions between businesses and their customers,
irrespective of their locations around the world. Existing privacy laws do not
seem to adequately address the privacy issues across geographical boundaries. Due
to differences in culture, values and, government types it may not be possible
establishing global standards to ensure privacy. Transmitting data around the
world has become necessary for international business (Oz, 1994).In their paper,
Privacy Protection Overseas as Perceived
by USA – based IT Professionals, Shah, White and Cook (2007) study how USA
based multi-national companies (MNC) and domestic companies respond to privacy
laws, and what is the perception of MNC to deal with internet privacy at global
level. The primary purpose of this research is to answer how multinational
companies deal with and perceive the patchwork of privacy laws that exist
across the various countries of their operations.
Literature
The literature
review begins with explaining threats to privacy from the increased use of the
Internet and e-commerce. A major issue for global e-traders is privacy
(Chandran, Phatak, & Sambharya, 1987; Zuckerman, 2001). Authors apprehend
such issue can threaten the growth of e-commerce. As data flows across
international boundaries, the use and collection of personal data may have
different restrictions in different countries along the path of the data flow. The
authors conclude by proposing two possible alternatives for developing and
implementing a corporate privacy policy: First, develop and implement different
privacy policies based on the privacy laws in the various countries of
operations. Second, develop and implement a single privacy policy by adopting
the strictest elements of privacy laws across the countries of operations as
the company’s corporate privacy policy.
Authors then have explained
how different kinds of governments in different countries pose a challenge in
creating a global privacy legislations. They make a point, lack of uniformity
among various countries’ privacy and data protection laws have created a legal
and regulatory challenge for companies operating across multiple countries, which
is the crux of the issue. They conclude that privacy policies should comply
with the privacy laws of the countries in which they operate, as any violation
of a country’s privacy laws could result in financial and/or criminal penalties.
Sample
3,772 professional
members of Association of Information technology professionals (AICTP)
organization are selected for the survey. It seems AICTPA used a purposive
sampling method and provided a reasonable cross section of IT professionals. Response
rate was 9.6 % (365 valid responses). This indicates high numbers in drop outs which
raises immediate concern on the survey result. Quantitative study with such a
small response seems to less effective and reliable. Authors have well defined
the composition of the proportion. Reason of selection of AICTPA and legality
and authentication of this organization should have been mentioned to add
robustness in the source of the data.
Data collection method
Self-Administering computer assisted data
collection (CADAC) survey with closed-ended questions is used as data
collection instrument to supply data for the study. Yes, No or ‘Don’t Know’
were the available options for close ended questionnaires. CADAC considered to
be a powerful tool that gives access to many more people with less cost, survey
questions can be well structured and responses can be easily collected and
survey can be easily anonymous. Authors describe the data collection
procedure in great detail which strengthens the transparency of the processes
undertaken. Emails sent to respondents, seems to be designed with great care and
contained brief message explaining the purpose of the study and a hyperlink to
access the Web-based electronic survey instrument. They designed the electronic
survey instrument with the intention of ensuring that it was easy to access,
contained clearly stated questions, and required a minimal amount of time to
complete. Authors’ keen attention in addressing the challenges of CADAC is really
appreciable which also enhances the validity and reliability of the result of
survey. The Web site survey was made available to the respondents for ten days.
There is no information whether any reminders were sent to respondents which
could had been used to get a higher response rate. The survey instrument
consisted of eleven survey questions and two demographic questions. Five
special set of questions were prepared to get specific data from the
respondents who were involved in business with foreign firms. Some demographic information
are also captured. Authors maintained the confidentiality by making the survey anonymous
that might had helped them in getting honest responses.
Data Analysis
Data collected
from this survey were analyzed for frequencies using SPSS statistical software. Data were very well represented as
frequency/percent in tables. National and international modes are represented
in bold which enhances the readability of data. For responses of few questions Chi-Square
analyses were performed. Chi Square which is a non-parametric test seems to be
well suited here as research carries the nominal data. Degree of freedom is two
and with different probability values, values of chi-square which is a strength
of the relationship in the variables, are calculated.
Results
Result of each of
the survey-question is discussed in detail. The results of the survey
illustrate the attitude of the USA IT professionals toward privacy laws,
national and international. A large proportion of IT professionals selected
‘Don’t know” for knowing the privacy policies of the company. The study conclude
by noting that majority of the international companies develop and implement
uniform corporate privacy policies across all countries in which they operate.
These privacy policies are usually based on the most restrictive privacy laws
of the countries in which they operate. This is a better suggestive alternative
than implementing different privacy policies in different countries, due to it
its efficacy and cost-effectiveness. International companies also tend to adopt
the most restrictive policy, a “one size fits all” approach.
Personal Analytic
Statement
As a whole the study is really enjoyable and
current. The tone of documents is unbiased and it has stated privacy policies
of different countries with all due respect. A good description about sampling
and survey process was mentioned which evident the directness of the research.
Sometime email survey suffers with participant error where for some reason
correct responses are not selected. Giving a neutral option like ‘don’t know’,
considers to be part of good design but as authors reported that maximum
participants responded with ‘don’t know’, it gives a concern to me whether
respondents really selected a good answer or opted a convenient option where
they didn’t have to introspect a lot. Unfortunately, there are also some gaps
and deficiencies in the study that undermine its results and validity. The small response rate is a problem and is further
compounded by narrowness of demography. It is not specified why only some
specific questions were analyzed with chi square. Moreover the result of chi
square is only shown and were not discussed anywhere in their study which give
a pause of concern on the transparency of the paper. Overall, the survey was
interesting and seeks to answer a very important question in the study of internet
privacy, but the results need to be viewed cautiously given the concerns raised
in the critique.
References
Chandran, R.,
Phatak, A., & Sambharya, R. (1987). Transborder data flows: Implications
for
multinational corporations. Business Horizons, 30(6), 74-83.
Oz, E. (1994).
Barriers to international data transfer. Journal of Global Information
Management, 2(2), 22-29.
Shah, J. R.,
White, G. L., & Cook, J. R. (2007, January). Privacy Protection Overseas as
Perceived by
USA-Based IT Professionals. Journal of Global Information Management (JGIM),
15(1), 68-81. doi:10.4018/jgim.2007010104
Value Creation Process: A
Managerial Perspective
The College of St. Scholastica
Ekta Gupta
Aron
O’Cass and Mgo ( 2011), in their paper “Examining the Firm’s Value Creation
Process: A Managerial Perspective of the Firm’s Value Offering Strategy and Performance”
talked on the importance of value creation and how to create them keeping
customers in mind. The authors stated, “The primary pursuit of any business is to understand what
customers value and to create that value for them”. In context of firm’s perspective on value creations, authors
adopted two issues from Bowman and Ambrosini’s
theoretical framework and the work of DeSarbo, Jedidi and Sinha, The first is
the strategic emphasis firms place on the design and delivery of their value offering. The second is the extent the firm’s value offering explains performance differentials at the
customer-centric performance level. Value
creation is exogenously determined via perceived use value or
customer-perceived value (Christopher, 1996; Zeithaml, 1988), exchange value
(Bowman and Ambrosini, 2000) and relationship value (Payne and Holt, 2001;
Ravald and Gronroos, 1996; Ulaga and Eggert, 2006). From the firm’s perspective,
value creation begins by identifying what value to provide to customers (Payne
and Frow, 2005; Sirmon, Hitt and Ireland, 2007). DeSarbo, Jedidi and Sinha
(2001) state that creating superior value for the customer is a strategic issue
that ‘should be of interest to strategy researchers and practitioners’. Payne
and Holt (2001) indicated that value creation is part of the strategic process.
Customer value analysis should be
incorporated in devising firm strategy because the success of a firm’s differentiation strategy depends on
the extent to which firms identify what value customers are looking for in their
value offerings (DeSarbo,
Jedidi and Sinha, 2001). From a managerial perspective, the strategic role of
value creation at the point of proposition becomes essential in achieving
superior positional advantage. This is because, when viewed through a managerial
lens, understanding what constitutes the value offering provides managers with guidelines to developing, delivering
and managing what is of value to customers which, as Bowman and Ambrosini
(2000) identify, will manifest perceived use value and eventually help realize
exchange value. The continued success of companies such as Google, Sony, Intel,
3M, FedEx, Merck, Caterpillar, UPS, SYSCO, and Samsung is based on their
ability to create superior value offerings for the customer (Gourville, 2006; Kumar, Scheer and
Kotler, 2000; Mittal and Sheth, 2001).
Understanding the extent to which
the value offering contributes
to firm performance, specifically customer-centric performance outcomes, is
essential. While much of the strategic
management literature has emphasized financial performance in the form of profit,
sales and the like, authors contend that customer-associated performance should
be given a greater priority. Indeed, customers are one of the most important
stakeholder groups and intangible assets for firms as they create revenue
streams (Walsh et al., 2009). Focus on
customer-centric performance reflects the fact that managers are increasingly
turning their attention to linking their actions to the realizations of various
non- financial performance indicators such as employee satisfaction, customer
satisfaction, customer loyalty and the like (Dye, 2004; Ittner and Larcker,
2003; Kaplan and Norton, 2006; Nagar and Rajan, 2005).
Authors propose that the value offering is a composite construct
that captures a firm’s efforts (1) to deliver superior performance that customers are
seeking in the offering, (2) to exercise pricing practices that customers are
willing and happy to pay for the offering, (3) to provide customers with hassle-free purchase
experience and beneficial relationships, and (4) to interact with customers to
co-create the consumption experience.
- Performance value. Customers look for products and services
that deliver performance superiority to meet their explicit and latent
requirements (Afuah, 2002; Day and Wensley, 1988).
Performance value, however, is more than just product quality, as
customers also look for offerings which possess
innovative features and well-matched personal preferences that contribute
to their utility or pleasure (Afuah, 2002; Mittal and Sheth, 2001).
- Pricing value. Customers not only look for performance
superiority in offerings, but also affordable
and reasonable prices (Mittal and Sheth, 2001). Surprisingly, pricing has
largely been neglected by managers and received little attention by
academics although the impact of price on business success is substantial
(Hinter- huber, 2004). Indeed, pricing is an important means by which firms
appropriate value through market-based exchange (Dutta, Zbaracki and
Bergen, 2003; Hinterhuber, 2004). Customers
with a reference price in mind look for offerings they are willing to
pay (fair price and value price). Fair price is a price that customers
believe is fair and reasonable, while value price is the price that
customers consider more than justified by the total benefits received
(Hinterhuber, 2004; Mittal and Sheth, 2001).
- Relationship building value. Customers also look for benefits
beyond those associated with features, functions and pricing. They
increasingly demand a much more holistic offering including everything
from easy access to the business at any time, to rapid response with any
enquiry (Mittal and Sheth, 2001). Relationship
building value could be conceptualize as a firm’s efforts
to create and deliver to customers a hassle-free purchase experience and
beneficial relationships.
- Co-creation value Strong relationships are not the sole aspect
of value creation within the context of positional advantage theory. Customers
may seek and find it beneficial to exercise their influence in various parts
of the business system to co-create their own unique personalized purchase
and consumption experiences (Prahalad and Ramaswamy, 2004). Value is not
added into the offering by the firm in
isolation, but can also be mutually co-created among firms and customers
via working together. Co-creation is increasingly seen as a firm’s response
to customers’ changing needs (Ramirez, 1999). The customer is a
co-producer of value according to DeSarbo, Jedidi and Sinha (2001) and
Ramirez (1999) and ‘the goal is not to create value for customers but to
mobilize customers to create their own value from the firm’s various offerings’
(Normann and Ramirez, 1993, p. 69) in conjunction with the firm. That is,
co-creation value rests on the premise of firm–customer working together to
create a consumption experience. There is no value created until the
proposed value offering is consumed. Although
customers produce value themselves independently, firms decide how they
will engage with the customer and can provide support and assist the
co-creation of value (Prahalad, 2004; Storbacka
and Lehtinen, 2001).
Overall, this study provides new insights into a theory of
value creation set within the domain of the firm value offering and customer-centric
performance. In the pursuit of opening up opportunities for the firm we contend
here that potential opportunities revolve around creating and delivering value
at superior levels to competitors. On this point, Teece (2007) argues that to
identify and shape opportunities firms must constantly scan, search and explore.
This activity not only involves investment in research activity and the probing
and re-probing of customer needs; it also involves understanding latent demand,
the structural evolution of industries and markets, and likely supplier and
competitor responses.
References
O'Cass, A., & Ngo, L. (2011). Examining the Firm's
Value Creation Process: A Managerial
Perspective
of the Firm's Value Offering Strategy and Performance. British Journal Of
Management,
22(4), 646-671. doi:10.1111/j.1467-8551.2010.00694.x
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Qualitative
Critique: Women Smoking Habits
Ekta
Gupta
Research
Methods
The
college of St. Scholastica
Qualitative Research Article Critique
In their article Smoking cessation in college-aged women: A
qualitative analysis of factors important to this population, Nademin, Napolitano,
Xanthopoulos, Fava, Richardson and Marcus (2010) outline an exploratory study
undertaken during the course of the November 2006 to April 2007. This study is
a qualitative examination of college-aged women’s views on smoking. Authors
described the reasons for choosing such subject and populations as: Scarcity of
research on successful smoking cessation among younger populations, and the need
for effective cessation interventions among women who tend to be near child- bearing
years during young adulthood. Research focused on women from age 18 – 21 to
extend the existing researches. This study provided the reasons for which
college females’ smoke and preferences for smoking cessation interventions for
this population. The purpose of research was providing a more comprehensive
review of women’s reasons for smoking and exploring a group-based
cognitive-behavioral smoking cessation intervention. On the basis of previous
studies, researchers inductively generated following hypotheses to be examined
in this qualitative research:
1) Population
of young women would report stress management, appetite suppression and weight,
interaction effects with substance use, and peer influences as reasons for
smoking
2) Exercise
was expected to emerge as a beneficial aid in smoking cessation efforts,
particularly given its comparable benefits for mood and stress management
3) Young
women would prefer the social nature of a group-based treatment as well as the
integration of technology into any treatment approach
Literature
In qualitative research it is
important to review pertinent literature on the subject of study in an effort
to provide a logical background for the efforts undertaken by the researcher in
a given context. Researches indeed draw on some relevant literature to
contextualize her research, as background to her research, this is particularly
useful in that it provides evidence which suggests that an analysis of how such
testing affects some participants and their colleagues reminding the need to
quitting smoking. Researches have
mentioned relevant theme related to the abstract of research. They discussed
few findings such as reasons for young adults smoke, patterns of smoking by age
and gender, reasons for quitting smoking.
Methodology
Sampling
Sample included 43
women, recruited from a campus of 26,294 undergraduate students, ranging in age
from 18 to 21 (M 19.2). Though sample seems to be low but it’s hard to conclude
anything unless we know the target population in the college. The race/ethnicity
of the sample was predominately Caucasian (77%), African-American (16%), Asian
(2%), mixed race/ethnicity (2%) students, and no Racial Designation (3%) which is
comparative to the campus student body, which is composed of 58% Caucasian, 17%
African-American, 10% Asian/Pacific Islander, and 15% Other. Researchers did
not mention whether this composition of ethnicity of sample were planned or random.
Ethnicity could had added a different angle to look out the things and
questions might had been framed differently per se. Authors indicate that,
while the school as a whole is somewhat ideal for this research, a smaller than
ideal number of participants agreed to take part. This could introduce an element of invalidity
into the research as the sample which volunteered may not be representative of
those who declined participation. All
participants endorsed having smoked in the past month but frequency of tobacco
use was not recorded. Fewer than three of the focus group members endorsed only
monthly smoking behavior. Its questions the reliability of survey. Frequency of
smoking could have made a specific case for particular group. Each participant attended one of five initial
survey completion and engaged in audio-taped discussions that lasted between 45
and 60min. All data pertinent to interview were kept confidential which seems
to be ethically fair and must had increased the confidence level of
participants.
Procedures
While it is comparatively enjoyable
to read a narrative approach to research reporting, researchers went into real
detail about the procedures that they followed during the course of the case
study. Focus group were formed after
putting various efforts in advertisement included publication of advertisements
placed in various venues, including Craigslist.com and the university newspaper,
Information booths on campus, direct face-to-face recruitment, and ‘‘word of
mouth’’ referrals. The fact that all clinical investigators and key personnel
involved in this study underwent education in human research subjects’
protection, confirms that participants were handled with care and with high emotional
intelligence. Participants were well guided for the purpose of the study before
signing consent form, this enhances the validity of the responses and feedback
from participants. For research subjects
such as smoking which doesn’t bring any pride with it, it is important to make
participants comfortable with the kind of question might be coming to them, is
important. And Researchers did prepare women for the questions to be asked,
such as what they think about smoking, exercise, weight, preferred physical
activities, and reasons young women smoke or do not smoke as well as variables
that might motivate them to quit smoking and/or to start exercising. Interview
was semi – structured and open-ended questions were emphasized. No evidence of semi
- structured interview questions or checklists/check sheets is offered in the
report. For all intents and purposes,
the reader is expected to assume that proper procedures are undertaken.
To make sure benefits were not
overstated, participants were clearly informed, what this research is not about.
They have been clearly told that this research is not being conducted in an
effort to influence their respective smoking behaviors. Any overstatement or
misunderstanding about the research may cause cognitive dissonance in
participants, which could diminish the probability of proper responses. Participants
got the reward of $20 for participating in the research with luxury of leaving
it any point of research. I think participants tend to give more trustworthy
information if they get some return benefits. This does not at all mean that
survey without benefits are not reliable. Consent form were signed off and participants
completed a set of four questionnaires, followed by group discussion. Details
regarding questionnaires were also given.
It seems to be good approach recording some quantitative data to
supplement the qualitative data. Follow-up questions in interviews were asked
based on the responses of participants and themes that surfaced in each group.
Readers has to trust on the competency level of the interviewers as follow up
questions were not planned, however as mentioned earlier that all clinical
investigators and key personnel involved in this study underwent education in
human research subjects’ protection, increases the trust worthiness of these
interviews. Procedure seems to be in the boundaries of business ethics and fine
details of the research are mentioned which make the reading pleasurable.
Analysis
As the procedures where well
described, analysis of the data collected seems to be clear and explicit. The themes are emergent throughout the report
and arise directly out of excerpted commentary on the part of the participants
themselves. Audio- taped sessions got reviewed and transcript. Overt keywords
and phrases relevant to themes of interest, were reviewed. Open coding and
axial coding (Vaughn et al. 1996; Strauss and Corbin 1998b) were also used to
analyze the students’ interview data .Open coding served to identify concepts
and categories from the data, and axial coding aided in the determination of
any relationships among the categories. Initial coding of transcripts was
conducted by experts i.e. a PhD candidate in clinical psychology with an
extensive background and training in management of qualitative data.
Reliability and validity of the coding scheme were assessed through review by
several content experts.
Validity
Researchers had involved highly
qualified personnel in analysis of the initial coding which lays out the base
for manipulations of interview and hence add high level of validity in the
result. Content experts reviewed the reliability and validity of coding scheme,
adds strength in the research, however competency of content expert can be
challenged due to missing detail info about them.
By mentioning openly, how discrepancies
of opinion with regard to categorical distinctions and coding procedures were handled
and corrected to reflect mutual agreement of all parties, proves keen attention
pursued for the study. Most of the emergent themes were straightforward though.
Additionally, by providing
continuous excerpts from interviews, allowing the participants to speak for
themselves, the researcher reduces the possibility that the reader may perceive
that researchers have become too subjective in their efforts to understand
participants’ situations… thus introducing a level of conformability into their
work. Beyond this, as noted above, through reference to other literature
composed on similar topics and in similar contexts, researchers suggest a level
of transferability in her research.
Results
Summary of the
themes that emerged from this study seems to be both complete and actually
based on the contexts of participants. That is, the themes emerged from the
participants and are not super-imposed on their situation by the researchers. A number of themes emerged, including reasons
for smoking, smoking initiation, triggers related to smoking, maintaining
aspects of smoking, costs and benefits of smoking, image and weight related
issues relevant to smoking, thoughts on quitting, and successful cessation
intervention strategies. Major emergent themes were described with the excerpts
of interviews which totally supported it.
Personal Analytic
Statement
Generally
speaking, I found that this particular case study was a satisfactory example of
what I understand to be acceptable for qualitative case study research. A very
few elements of the study were disappointing, such as the lack of description
regarding data collection procedures, samples of questions asked during group
discussion, but on the whole, I enjoyed reading this article and the subject
matter.
What perhaps
struck me the most was the fact women even being well aware of the all the
negative impacts of smoking, are less willing to quit it. Use of tobacco is a
major preventable cause in mortality among US adults. Though tobacco
consumption is reduced, it is surprising to know that average smoking prevalence
among 18–24-year-olds has remained stable since 1993, with approximately 22% of
adolescents smoking (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 2000b, 2002a).
Some women mentioned smoking as a substitute for diet to save money which seems
to be a matter of concern. This study has taken a small but important step to
address the addiction problem of adolescent which is harder to quit. Small
sample size make it difficult to generalize the result, hence a larger and
longitudinal study is recommended.
References
Strauss AL. 1987. Qualitative
analysis for social scientists. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Strauss AL, Corbin J. 1998a. Basics
of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Strauss AL, Corbin J. 1998b.
Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In: Denzin NK, Lincoln YS, editors. Strategies of
qualitative inquiry. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
pp
158–183.
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Perceived
Risk as Barrier to Internet and E-commerce Usage
Ekta
Gupta
April
7, 2013
The
College of St. Scholastica
This paper is an
academic critique of a research article written by Liebermann and Stashevsky
(2002): Perceived risks as barriers to
Internet and e-commerce usage. Authors are MBA directors at Graduate School
of Business Administration, Bar-Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel. The
conceptual framework of this thesis is: Perceived risk is a long rooted central
concept in consumer behavior Literature. Authors state that earlier studies
considered a limited scope of perceived risk elements, especially only security
and privacy and they did not suggest any model to understand the influencing
factors. In this study a detailed nine elements perceived risks map are
researched. Furthermore, a model is suggested with the factors affecting the
perceived risk elements. The purpose of the present study is to investigate the
role of perceived risks as potential barriers to Internet and e-commerce usage.
A research design of three stages has been applied.
1) First,
using a qualitative research approach a detailed map of perceived risks has
been produced. 465 employed adult Israelis from a variety of organizations have
been interviewed.
2) Second,
a model describing factors affecting perceived risks has been constructed,
using a qualitative scheme of analyzing inter-relationships between given
variables.
3) Finally,
the model has been tested empirically against field data. T- Test is adopted
for the data analysis.
Liebermann
and Samuel Stashevsky (2002) outline a non-participatory case study. They have
identified nine different risk components, which have been empirically tested
in this research. Authors suggest in order to expand Internet usage, suppliers should
first learn what are the potential obstacles faced by potential users and
non-users and only then attempt to design creative marketing suggestions.
Literature
Authors have reviewed pertinent
literature on the subject of study in an effort to provide a logical background
for the efforts undertaken by the researcher in a given context. They indeed
draw on some relevant literature to contextualize their research, as background
to her research. Literature begins with exploring long rooted concept of risk. Batman
(1973) had divided all traditional risk into different species as financial,
physical, psychological (or mental) and social. Dekimpe, Parker and Sarvary (
2000) suggested adding technological risk in this group now. Authors have made
a point that accurate identification of these perceived risks will enable
suppliers to design creative solutions and those solutions will enable
potential customers to handle perceived risk more effectively and ultimately
reduce it to acceptable levels. The referenced data of other researches clearly
indicates that privacy and security are one of those concerns impacting the
revenue of E-commerce. Implication of the literature directly pushes the need
of exploring different internet risks perceived by consumers.
Methodology
Authors have used mixed method to identify
and understand the risk factors. Under Qualitative research method, they
reviewed scientific literature and interviewed Internet experts and consumers
to identify following nine different risk components.
(1) Internet credit card stealing
(2) Supplying personal information
(3) Pornography and violence
(4) Vast Internet advertising
(5) Information reliability
(6) Lack of physical contact
(7) Not supplying Internet products
purchased
(8) Missing the human side in Internet
purchases
(9) Internet usage addiction.
Depending on degree
of usage of Internet, distinction is made between users and non – users of
Internet and data is captured how usage activity volume effects the perceived
risk elements. I believe capturing and analyzing this attribute (usage activity
volume) suggests that researchers paid keen attention to details.
Absence of any
information regarding who these experts are, how researchers got access to them
and what qualified interviewees for this interview, puts the validity and
reliability of these risk components at stake. Moreover, no information is uncovered
about what type of interview was taken, what questions were asked in the
interview. Interview is the primary data collection technique for gathering the
data in qualitative methodologies and this paper mentioned so vaguely about this
which reduces the overall reliance of this research paper. This demerit could
have been compensated if paper would have talked on if interview was individual, in depth or conducted in
group, whether interview was semi- structured, unstructured or a structured and
if interviewer was trained enough for the job, whether any interview or
discussion guide was there for the interviewees? I think a trained interviewer
can better extract information from the participants who sometime are not
consciously aware that they possesses the information desired. Trained
interviewer would have strengthened the interview process.
Few measurements are used to
establish connection between empirical observation and mathematical expression.
Mean, which is considered to be most powerful measure of center tendency, has
been used. Standard deviation is calculated to measure the variability in those
risks.
Following descriptive model was
used to analyze the variables that effect perceived risk elements.
Figure 1
As shown in above
figure 1, this study explores the effect of independent variables on the
dependent variable of Perceived risk elements.
Hypotheses
A Hypothesis is a researcher’s prediction,
derived from theory or speculation about how two or more measured variables
will be related to each other. Following nine hypotheses are made and which empirically
supported by the data of the study also.
- H1. The
two main perceived risk elements are Internet credit card stealing and
supplying
personal information.
- H2. Internet
users are likely to perceive higher risks in the Internet than non-users
concerning technical elements.
- H3. Females are likely to perceive higher
risks in the Internet than males.
- H4. Older
people are likely to perceive higher risks in the Internet than younger
ones.
- H5. Married people are likely to perceive
higher risks in the Internet than unmarried
people.
- H6. People
with low education level are likely to perceive higher risks in the
Internet than
high-educated people.
- H7.Internet
users that never bought online are likely to perceive higher risks in the
Internet than Internet
users that actually bought online.
- H8. Light
Internet users are likely to perceive higher risks in the Internet than
heavy
Internet users.
Sampling
Sampling design
method is not mentioned. Authors should have specified if it was probability
sampling or non-probability sample. Unavailability of the sample selection
process makes reader skeptical about precision and accuracy of the sample. The
respondents were 465 employed adult Israelis from a variety of organizations,
chosen for the survey. Response rate was quiet high, 85 percent. A total of 372
Internet users (80 per cent) were distinguished from 93 non-users (20 per
cent).
Authors further explained the make-up
of the sample as 58 per cent were male and 42 per cent female. The majority of
the sample (68 per cent) was married, 25 percent was single, 6 percent divorced
and 1 per cent widowed. Mean age is 37. Education: elementary school: 1 percent,
high school: 22 percent, partial higher education: 17 per cent, BA degree: 36
per cent, MA or PhD degree: 24 percent. The majority of the sample (87 per
cent) has a computer at home. The majority of the sample (80 per cent) consists
of Internet users. Out of the Internet users 80 percent use the Internet at
home, 79 per cent use the Internet at work, and 13 per cent use the Internet at
an educational institute. Sample seems to have a good variation of
participants. It appears method of random sampling were chosen.
Measures
Authors have mentioned respondents
were interviewed by written questionnaires consisting of 76 questions covering
different aspects of Internet. Sufficient information regarding interview is
again missing from the paper. Noticeably missing is any description of how
interviewees were approached for interview. Users were asked to document their usage behavior then their
level of satisfaction of various service attributes and finally their various
usage channels. Non-users were asked as to the reasons for their refraining
from use. Both users and non-users were asked jointly two sets of questions
regarding their general attitudes to Internet and their socio-demographic
traits. Except for the usage behavior and demographic parts all answers were closed
form measured on a six-point Likert scale. The main variables that were
analyzed in this study are these nine perceived risk elements: Internet credit
card stealing, supplying personal information, pornography and violence, vast
Internet advertising, information reliability, lack of physical contact, not+
supplying Internet products purchased, missing the human side in Internet purchases,
Internet usage addiction. The answer scale for the perceived risk elements was:
1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=slightly disagree, 4=slightly agree,
5=agree, 6=strongly agree. The four demographic traits that were analyzed in
this study and their scales are: (1) Gender: 1=male, 2=female. (2)
Younger/older age: 1=age up to 35, 2=age above 35. (3) Married/unmarried:
1=married, 2=unmarried. (4) High/low education: 1=high education (at least BA
degree), 2=low education. The three usage behavior variables that were analyzed
in this study and their scales are: (1) Internet user/non-user: 1=Internet
user, 2=Internet non-user. (2) Bought online: 1=Internet user who bought online
at least once, 2=Internet user who never bought online. (3) Heavy/light
Internet user: 1=heavy user (above mean Internet usage hours), 2=light user. It
has been mentioned that Internet service providers (ISP) might have made operational
decisions based on partial information only which cause the deterioration of the reliability of data. Descriptive
statistics and correlation coefficients are given. SPSS Statistics is a software package used for statistical
analysis.
Data analysis
The mean of different perceived
risk elements are analyzed using independent samples T-test . The t-test is a
probability test and is an excellent choice for this type of analysis where
standard deviation is not known and sample size is low, it is used to assess
whether the means of two groups are statistically different from each other. Two-
tailed T test is performed with confidence level of 95 percent. Those data are
marked separately which came out as statically significantly difference. SPSS
tool is used to calculate all the mathematical values and analyzing them. As
number of sample is greater than 120, Z-test could also have been an alternate
choice.
Result
Results are well presented in
tabular and graphical form which is precise and clear. Hypothesis is well
supported by the data and stealing of credit card and personal information,
emerged as two most concerned risk elements of customers. Authors have clearly
stated that hypothesis three (H3) is partially supported with the data which
reveals the transparency of the research. The study concludes by noting that
perceived risk are key elements in customers purchasing behavior. Hence these
multi-attribute findings can be used by marketers along the personalization
process. Thereby each individual can be approached more efficiently according
to his or her expected specific perceived risk structure. This way,
personalized advertising messages and promotional offers can be adopted to
reduce perceived risk by Internet users. More study with different cultural
study is recommended before generalizing the findings. Authors suggested more research
is needed to identify additional influencing factors, such as personality
traits. Another aspect that is recommended for future research, is
investigating, in a longitudinal study, the effects of perceived risk elements
on actual buying behavior of the online consumers in the time to come.
Personal Analytic Statement
Generally speaking, I found this
article interesting with satisfactory data. Authors described the population
well and include a number of charts to help the reader visualize the data. Their
analysis of the data is well reasoned and complete. Variation in respondents is
noteworthy and adds value in the research and its usability in competitive marketing.
With interval scale and independent sample, T- test seems to be appropriate
choice. Likert scale had even number of options which force the respondents not
to be neutral about the situations asked. I consider this to be acceptable to
get some useful data out of respondents’ minds rather, otherwise neutral could have
been more comfortable choice which certainly might not been true all the time. Gender
should have included more liberal options (other than male, female). Unfortunately,
there are also some gaps and deficiencies in the study that undermine its
results and validity. The small sample
size along with missing details of sampling moots transparency and biasness of
research. Sufficient information about Qualitative methodology is not provided.
Moreover, no details were given how interviewees were selected and approached
and how documents prepared by respondents were used and analyzed. This make reader
skeptical about their data collection processes. Overall, the survey was
interesting and seeks to answer a very important question in the study of
perceived risk factors for e-commerce, but the results need to be viewed
cautiously given the concerns raised in the critique.
References
Bettman, J. (1973). Percieved Risk and its components- a
model and empirical test. Journal
Of Marketing
Research, 10, 90-184.
Dekimpe, M. G., Parker, P. M., & Sarvary, M. (2000).
Global diffusion of technological
innovations
- a couple-hazard approach. Journal of Marketing Research, 37,
47-59.
Liebermann, Y., & Stashevsky, S. (2002, November 4).
Perceived risks as barriers to Internet
and e-commerce usage. Qualitative
Market Research: An International Journal, 5(4), 291-300.
doi:10.1108/13522750210443245
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Critique
of Business Ethics in China
Ekta
Gupta
Research
Methods
The
college of St. Scholastica
Qualitative Research Article Critique
This paper is an academic critique
of a qualitative research article written by Nademin, Brand and Slater (2003)
entitled: Gain Insights into the Business
Ethics Experiences of Australian managers in China. This study is a qualitative
examination of 31 Australian managers who spent average of 8.7 years working in
business connected to china. Managers participated in in- depth interviews. Cultural
differences and different level of corruption in countries involved in business,
attributes to research in this area. Researches stated that qualitative study
of business ethics has been a recently adopted concept. Scarcity of study around
the problem faces by Australian or any western manager operating in china or
how these managers responds to such situations, aspired author to pick this
issue of understanding the impact on a foreign manager of working in a very
different business ethics culture. Authors preference to qualitative
methodology over quantitative for such topics seems reasonable as it records
more detailed experiences. As a qualitative study, generally researches
involves a certain level of subjectivity and reflexivity, but nothing has been
mentioned regarding any predisposed notions, shows the ignorance of the matter.
Literature
In qualitative research it is
important to review pertinent literature on the subject of study in an effort
to provide a logical background for the efforts undertaken by the researchers
in a given context. Researches indeed
draw on some relevant literature to contextualize her research. Researches mentioned
that previous quantitative researches focused upon the prevalence of business issues
in Eastern cultures compare to western but not equivalent attention was given
on identifying the type of issues which come up for business practitioners in
foreign environment. A particular important aspect of this research was its
consideration of the ways in which Chinese culture may define the acceptable
business practices differently from the western models and what the convergent
ways between western and Chinese models are.
Methodology
In depth interviews were taken
which addressed a range of issues related to the managers’ experiences of
living and working in china: frequency
and importance of business ethics problems, examples of issues and the response
of managers. Interviews were held in 1999 with 31 Australian managers located
predominately in Australia with the exception of one manager who was
interviewed by telephone in china). It has not been mentioned whether these
managers were gone through some training to handle cultural differences or not,
which could have added a detailed insight in the study. In absence of this data
it is highly skeptical to generalize the different problems stated by managers.
Method
Participants
Managers were located through
government directories dealing with Australian companies operating in China and
snowball sampling technique is used with the help of managers working in the
same field. Authors confirmed that direct approach to contact managers has
increased the likelihood of participants agreeing to be involved and get more
informal introduction of interviewer. Out of 59 approached mangers, 31 agreed
to participate, hence response rate is 52 percent which though is not as
exciting. Some managers requested to make them anonymous and mention that
disclosing their name could lead to career threat. 27 respondents were male and
four were female. Male to female ratio is pretty acceptable thinking that not
much female designates at such higher executive level. Average year of
experience of managers is 8.7. Managers are picked from various firms of
different industries which means researchers tried to bring great variation in
the experience of participants. Mentioned turnovers of the firms suggested,
they are pretty big in size. I am sure business ethics and practices followed
in smaller size industries would add a similar but more intense findings.
Data Collection
Data collection process was
described with the details. In – Depth interview appears to a good choice for
sensitive issues like ethics. Authors followed an appropriate process of
developing and distributing statement of confidentiality and interview guide
containing open ended questions together with some general background data questions,
before the interviews. Researchers planned his best to make the interview much
effective by providing the copy of guide ahead of time so that busy managers
could get time to prepare for the best inputs for the interviews. Meeting
managers before the interviews would have helped both the parties establish a
good connection between them which is an important factor to a qualitative data
collection methods such as in depth interviews. Five Key questions outlined in
the guide were mentioned in the paper. Some clarifying and probing questions also
were asked to gather more detailed and accurate responses. Researchers took good
alternative approach of taking contemporaneous notes of the interviews where
managers requested not to audio taped their interviews. All other interviews
were audio taped. All interviews were taken by Mr. Brand and transcribed by an
independent party.
Analysis
Slater reviewed and transcript audio-
taped sessions and assigned axial codes to particular idea or reactions.
Subcategories of particular themes were also assigned a code. Mr. Slater
education in phycology extends the reliability of axial coding. Coding was then
cross checked and verified with Mr. Brand. The mentioned qualification of Mr.
Brand doesn’t add much power in the review process of axial coding. Paper
didn’t elaborate enough on transcript and neither axial coding is reviewed by experts,
which reduces the reliability and validity of the coding scheme.
Validity
In absence of qualified personnel, analysis
of the initial coding doesn’t seems to be very reliable. Authors mentioned that
true random sampling was not possible due to the fact managers don’t get ready
for interview unless it is through any contact which could have reduced the
validity and reliability. I think with less random sample, reliability could be
questioned but validity should remain intact if best effort is made to get most
out of interviewees. Authors stated that like all other qualitative studies,
this study also suffers from the assumption about accuracy of the respondent’
recollections, introspection and candor. Social desirability bias could had
made managers to give such statement which were more acceptable in society than
what their true perception was. The sensitive nature of the ethics, may bring
some social desirability bias to reduce the validity of this research. I agree with
author that quantitative study is more prone to such biases than qualitative
study. In depth interview probing questionnaires hold an opportunity to make
study free from some cognitive dissonance behavior of interviewees and can
attempt to elicit more details in responses. Authors claimed that audio recording
and transcript conversion might cause loss of some validity in this sensitive
issue of ethics and this is due to incapability of registering feelings, facial
expression, physical movement, pauses and other emotions indicators. I agree
that these nonverbal communicators which convey crucial information could not
be registered but author could have adopted some way to register them in manual
notes. Body language expert should have been included in the team taking
contemporaneous notes.
I see scarcity of references to other literature composed on
similar topics and in similar contexts, which may questions the level of
transferability in this research; But the fact that qualitative research on
business ethics is a lately developed concept, could be a reason for less
references.
Results
Summary of the
themes that emerge from this study seems to be both complete and actually based
on the contexts of participants. That
is, the themes emerge from the participants and are not super-imposed on their
situation by the researcher. Two overall
themes emerged from analysis is : First , Despite of variations in experiences
of different managers, certain type of business ethics issues like visa issues,
bribery spectrum etc. predominates in their discussion and were discussed in
the paper. Second, four major forms of reaction to business ethics issues were
identified. Authors mentioned that there was inconsistencies in managers
declining the value of business ethics in china but wide range of issues
emerged during the course of interviews. Authors think positioning of questions
had made a difference in the answers from managers. I think, more sensitive
questions should be asked later in the interview, after establishing some
relation with interviewee. Author also stated that respondents might hold
different definition of business ethics than interviewer’s definition and that
bring certain level of invalidity in the results. Authors concluded with suggesting
four coping strategies which are : First, insistence of not compromising one’s
own moral; Second, understanding the motivation of Chinese counterparts and
making allowances accordingly, this includes cross cultural training to
managers. Third, mentoring by more experience offshore managers; fourth,
sticking to company policy which should have clear code of conducts. I think
authors made a strong conclusions which will help any cross cultural business
dealings. A large number of interviews are suggested to test the themes
emergent from this qualitative research.
Personal Analytic
Statement
Generally
speaking, I found that this particular case study was a satisfactory example of
what I understand to be acceptable for qualitative case study research. Some
elements of the study were disappointing, such as the lack of description
regarding data collection procedures, samples of questions asked during interview,
transcript were not coded and reviewed by experts, whether moderator was well
trained in taking interviews, but on the whole, I enjoyed reading this article
and the subject matter. The coping strategies seems to be helpful in dealing
with cross cultural aspects. Small sample size make it difficult to generalize
the result. I think people at such higher level knows manipulating the data
very well and I personally would recommend a longitudinal study for such survey
to confirm the validity. Paper didn’t not talk about how content analysis of
the transcripts had been performed. Study could have been more transferable
with inclusion on more details in interview and data analysis process.
References
Strauss AL. 1987. Qualitative
analysis for social scientists. New York: Cambridge University
Press.
Strauss AL, Corbin J. 1998a. Basics
of qualitative research: Techniques and procedures for developing grounded theory. 2nd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Strauss AL, Corbin J. 1998b.
Grounded theory methodology: An overview. In: Denzin NK, Lincoln YS, editors. Strategies of
qualitative inquiry. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
pp
158–183.
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