Invitation to Research

CASE STUDY: eBusiness Research

Roger Clarke, Xamax Consultancy, Canberra

Visiting Professor, CSIS, Uni of Hong Kong
Visiting Fellow, Australian National University

http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/...
...Res /70-eBus.ppt

ebs, 16-20 January 2003

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1995-2002
 Characteristics of e-Business
‘New and Exciting’
• Youthfulness (although no longer ‘virgin territory’ or
‘a green-fields site’)
• Rapid Change
• Hype-Quotient
• Casino-Mentality / dot.com fervour
(now given way to dot.bomb negativity?)
• Inevitable Turkey-Factor

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1995-2002
 Characteristics of e-Business
Instability of the Phenomena
• Rapid Change in:
• Technologies and Processes
• Applications
• Participant Behaviour
• Perceptions of Need
• Rates of Change still increasing
• Directions of Change multiplying
• To date, Limited Convergence, Maturation

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1995-2002
 Characteristics of e-Business
‘Additional Confounding Variables’

• Geographical Unboundedness
• Cultural Variation
• Ill-Definedness of Cultural Boundaries

All compounded by Cultural Ignorance

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1995-2002
 The Practice of e-Business Research
The Audience(s)
• Other Researchers
• Research Grants Organisations

• Technology / Process Developers

• User Organisations
• Policy Workers
• Investors

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1995-2002
 Research in e-Business
What Sponsoring Audiences Want

• New Technologies / Processes

• Understanding About Them
• Profit
• The ‘Right’ Answers
or at least not the ‘wrong’ ones
• The Right Motivation, Foci, Outcomes

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1995-2002
 Intrumentalist Research in eBusiness
Alternative Foci
• Technology / Process
What is it?
• Applications
What do I do with it?
• Adoption, Impediments
How can I make sure it gets used?
• Impact
What are/will be first-order effects?
• Implications
What are/will be its second-order effects?

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1995-2002
 e-Business Research 1993-2000
• 38 papers in the leading 'issues' journal, plus
37 in 5 selected (non-EC) research journals
• in the issues journal:
• 25 theory, 1 survey, 8 case studies, 4 field studies
• in the 5 research journals:
• 10 theory
11 surveys, 3 interviews, 14 case studies, 1 field study
• EDI as subject-matter:
• 16 / 37 in the research journals
• 0 / 38 in the issues journal

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1995-2002
 Common Problems – Methods
• Convenience Reference Theories applied unquestioningly
• Rogers’ innovation diffusion theory
• Hofstede’s cultural factors theory
• Williamson’s transaction costs theory
• Semi-structured interviews masquerade as case studies
• Lone Cases, Shallow Cases, Pseudo-Cases
• Consultancy as [Action] Research
• Surveys are used as the sole technique even when:
• in-depth information is needed as well
• in-depth information is needed instead
• Over-surveyed populations avoid responding

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1995-2002
 Common Problems – Surveys
• Unclear Survey Objectives, and Survey Design Generally
• Unclear Definition of Population, Sampling Frame, Sample
• Convenience Samples, and Proxies instead of Principals
• Principal-Agent Problem Uncontrolled (Unappreciated?)
• Respondent Diversity Enormous and Uncontrolled
• Highly Ambiguous Terminology Differentially Interpreted
• Lists of ‘Likert or not’ Data, Masquerading as Information
• Response-Rate Too Low
• Response-Count Too Low
• Non-Response Bias Inadequately Considered

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1995-2002
 Common Problems – Survey Questions (Foddy)
• Answers to factual questions are often wrong
• What Respondents say and do are often different
• Respondents’ attitudes and opinions are unstable
• Small changes in wording can produce major changes in the
distibution of responses
• Respondents commonly misinterpret questions
• The sequence of questions affects answers
• The sequence of options affects answers
• Open-ended and closed-ended ways of asking the same question
elicit different results
• Many respondents who don’t know answer anyway
• Cultural context affects answers

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1995-2002
 e-Business Research
Common Problems – Research Management
• Inadequate Relevance to attract industry funding
• Inadequate Resourcing to achieve the aims:
• Researcher Time
• Supervisor Time
• Travel Costs
• Infrastructure Costs
• Support Staffing
• Inadequate Timeframe:
• grant request, grant, candidate search, candidate prep
• time-variant phenomena demand longitudinal study

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1995-2002
 e-Business Research
Population Stratification – BUSINESS
• The Mythical ‘SME’:
• Micro-Enterprises (0-3 employees)
• Small Business Enterprises (3 - 20/100/200)
• Medium-Sized Business Enterprises (on up to 500)
• Large Business Enterprises (500 - 5,000)
• Conglomerates, Multinational Corporations (MNCs)
• Independent Business Units (µ, S, M, L)
• Virtual Business Enterprises (‘Dynamic Networks’)

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1995-2002
 e-Business Research
Population Stratification – GOVERNMENT
• By Function: • By Level:
• Service Delivery: • Supra-National
• Insourced
• Outsourced
• National

(Purchaser/Provider) • Regional / State /

• Regulatory Province / Land /
• Policy Canton / ...
• Local

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1995-2002
 e-Business Research
Population Stratification
NON-PROFIT / NOT-FOR-PROFITS
• Industry Associations (industry sector)
• Chambers of Commerce (regional)
• Labour Unions
• Charities
• Co-operatives (economic purpose)
• Community Associations (P&C, Sport, etc.)
• ...

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1995-2002
 Non-Empirical Research Techniques
A Taxonomy (8)
• Review of Existing Literature
• ‘Scholarship’
• Conceptual Research
(Contemplative, ‘Armchair’)
• Futurism, especially Delphi Rounds
• Scenario-Building
• Game-Playing or Role-Playing
• Analytical and Simulation Modelling

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1995-2002
 Scientific Research Techniques
A Taxonomy (3+5)

• Laboratory Experimentation
• Field Experimentation and Quasi-
Experimental Designs
• Forecasting
• ...

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1995-2002
 Interpretivist Research Techniques
A Taxonomy (5+5)

• Descriptive/Interpretive
• Focus Group
• Action Research
• Ethnographic Research
• Grounded Theory
• ...

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 Research Techniques at the Boundary of
Scientific and Interpretivist Research
A Taxonomy (5)

• Field Study
• Questionnaire-Based Survey
• Interview-Based Survey
• Case Study
• Secondary Research

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 Engineering Research Techniques
A Taxonomy (5)
• Construction of an Artefact
• Conception (based on a body of theory)
• Design / Creation / Prototyping / Testing
• Application

• Destruction of an Artefact
• Testing
• Application

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1995-2002
 e-Business Research
Particularly Suitable Research Techniques
• Field Study / Observation / Case Studies
complemented by Documents, Interviews, small Surveys
• Laboratory Experimentation:
• Prototype Development
• Prototype Usage
• Product Usage, but by Real People, not Proxies
• Field Experimentation:
• Metricated Trial Applications
• Surveys of tightly-defined and -segmented populations

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1995-2002
 Research in e-Business
Concluding Observations
• A Research Domain, not a Discipline
• In need of the insights of multiple disciplines
• Ill-served by existing bodies of theory
• Breadth and depth are both needed, but holism
and integration are very challenging
• A Research Method generally requires several
complementary Research Techniques
• Relevance as Objective; Rigour as Constraint
• ‘Technology’, Apps, Implications and Policy

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