Analysing the Impact of Innovation and Technology Usage in the process of Business

Management within the e-commerce sector of UK: The Case of Amazon in UK

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Introduction

Over the last decade, the internet has brought dramatic changes in the way people are

engaged in buying and selling of goods and services. The growing prominence of internet has

facilitated in the development of new type of business model which is known as online retail

or e-commerce. The development of e-commerce has further viewed to be transforming the

shopping experience of the customers. Over the last few years, the e-commerce sector has

witnessed unprecedented growth and expansion globally (Qinghe et al., 2014). The adoption

of new technologies and the continuous innovation within the sector has made e-commerce

more reachable and efficient. At the same time, with the increased opportunities for the e-

commerce organisations to grow and expand, many large organisations such as Amazon and

Alibaba have entered into the market which in turn has intensified the level of competition. In

addition, these companies are engaged in fierce competition to attract and retain potential

customers. In order to attain increased competitive advantage, the various players in the e-

commerce sector are identified to involve in delivering new and innovative services to

customers by adopting advanced technologies and fostering continuous innovation. As result

of such innovation and technologies, the business process operations within the e-commerce

sector have entered into new phase of accelerated transformation (Deloitte, 2015).

Notably, Amazon is a prominent online retailer that offers assortment of products and

services through its website. The company has its present almost all continents of the world

and is recognised as leading e-commerce company in terms of innovation and adoption of

new technologies are concerned. All through the process of expansion and growth, the

company has remained focussed on adopting new technologies and innovation. Nevertheless,

only few research studies are being conducted so far to examine impact of innovation and

technology usage in the process of business management within Amazon. Correspondingly,

the proposed research study intends to analyse the effect of innovation and technology usage

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in the process of business management within the e-commerce sector in the UK with

reference to the case of Amazon (Reuters, 2017).

Problem Statement

The e-commerce sector is rapidly growing and the companies within this sector are

implementing variety of new technologies and innovation in their process of in the process of

business management. However, the major issue or problem is that since these technologies

are also rapidly changing little attention are being laid on the evaluation of their impact on the

process of business management. It is therefore, the proposed research attempts to examine

the effect of innovation and technology usage in the process of business management within

the e-commerce sector.

Research Aim and Objectives

Aim

The aim of the proposed research study is analyse the impact of innovation and technology

usage in the process of business management within the e-commerce sector in the UK.

Objectives

In order to successfully achieve the aims of the proposed research study, three objectives are

framed which will be addressed in the proposed research study. The objectives are:

 To identify the current trend within the e-commerce sector in the UK

 To acquire insight and understanding regarding the technologies and innovation that

is being currently used by Amazon

 To evaluate the effect of the innovation and technology usage in the process of

business management of Amazon

Research Question
What are the impacts of innovation and technology usage in the process of business

management of Amazon?

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Literature Review

The e-commerce market in the UK is estimated to be the third largest in the world. The total

value of e-commerce sales in the UK is further estimated to be more than £ 533 billion.

Moreover, e-commerce alone is argued to have accounted 19 per cent share of the total

business turnover in the UK. As of 2015, it was estimated that nearly 80 per cent of the UK

internet users were identified to engage in online shopping, which is claimed to be the highest

in any country within Europe (Statista, 2017).

In addition, the most common item that are purchased via e-commerce platform in the UK are

identified to be products related to electronics and digital media such as computers, phones,

video games, music downloads and e-books. At the same time, the Millennials and younger

consumers are claimed to be the major customer spending on the purchase of products from

e-commerce platform in the UK (Kitonyi, 2017). Besides, the growing sales of mobile

devices such as smartphones, and tablets are argued to quickly becoming computing devices

for the customers, which have further positively influenced the sales through e-commerce

platform in the UK (Business Insider Inc., 2017).

It is argued that the increased opportunities of the e-commerce companies and the highly

competitive landscape within the e-commerce sector, has resulted for race among the various

players within the sector to integrate new technologies and innovation in their business

process and management. In this regard, several e-commerce companies are identified to

continuously engage in innovation and determining new ways and technologies with the

objective to attain greater competitive advantage and to provide customers with increased

service experience (Ovum, 2016).

Accordingly, e-commerce companies such as Amazon over the years have adopted variety of

technologies and innovation which is believed to have favourably influenced its business

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process operation and management. In this regard, it has been noted that Amazon has

introduced 1 click ordering, personalized shopping services which has enabled customers to

order item by clicking only one button thereby eliminating the customers to fill long order

form (Imran, 2014). In addition, Amazon has also introduced review facility for the

customers wherein customers can submit written or videos review to help other customers in

making their purchase decision (Mo et al., 2015). Moreover, Amazon has also incorporated

AutoRip feature on its store. Accordingly, when customer buy music CDs from Amazon

store with AutoRip logo, customers are offered with online digital version of the audio in

MP3 format which the customers can download or stream from the Cloud Player space

(Harris, 2016).

Notwithstanding, there are variety of other innovation and technologies that Amazon has

adopted and implemented in their business process operation. The adoption of such

innovation and technologies is argued to have facilitated Amazon to provide its customers

with unique service experience as well as attain increased competitive advantage but their

usage have also immensely influenced the business management process of Amazon

(Venkata et al., 2016). In this regard, Burgess (2002) argued that the usage of technologies

and innovation has significant impact on the business management process. Notably, it has

been argued that such transformation has created greater requirement for the e-commerce

companies to engage in effective formal planning and practice control mechanism. In

addition, the needs for hiring experts to manage the business process operation have also

increased which has resulted in raising the cost associated with process of business

management.

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Research Methodology

Research methodology is a systematic approach that the researchers intend to apply to answer

the research question. The selection of suitable research methodology is vital while

conducting a research study to ensure validity and reliability of research findings. Over the

years, scholars have identified and used variety of research methodologies based on different

models. Correspondingly, the proposed research study will apply research methodology

based on the research onion model suggested by Saunder et al. (2009). Accordingly, research

onion model is chosen for the proposed research study as this model is the most commonly

used model as well as it offers comprehensive set of research methodology.

The proposed research further applies interpretivism research philosophy. The application of

interpretivism philosophy can be argued to provide in-depth understanding regarding the

impact of innovation and technology usage in the process of business management within the

e-commerce sector of UK (Saunder et al., 2009). In addition, three types of research methods

are applied by the research communities that include quantitative research method, qualitative

research method and mixed research method (Johnson & Christensen, 2008). The proposed

research will be qualitative research as the qualitative methods is argued to be more suitable

for research involving research questions while quantitative method is considered for

research involving formulation and testing of hypothesis (Bryman, 2012).

In addition, the proposed research is exploratory study. Accordingly, exploratory study is

recognised to be suitable for research examining the contemporary issues and problems that

lacks substantial literatures (Yin, 2009). Since, the e-commerce is a contemporary

phenomenon, exploratory research design is ascertained to be best suited for the proposed

research. Moreover, the proposed research study will use case study as a research strategy.

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Case study is selected as this strategy is widely claimed to be more appropriate for obtaining

specific knowledge and understanding regarding particular phenomenon (Yin, 2014).

Moreover, the data relevant to the proposed research will be gathered using both primary data

collection technique and secondary data collection technique (Hox & Boeji, 2005). The

primary data will be collected using semi-structured interview while secondary data will be

collected from lately published articles, journals and books. For the interview purposes four

managers from Amazon in UK will be randomly selected using purposive sampling technique

(Etikan et al., 2015). To analyse the data obtained from semi-structured interview, thematic

analysis will be applied (Alhojailan, 2012).

Ethical Consideration

Due attention will be laid on preserving high standard of research ethics throughput the

research process. Accordingly, informed consent from the sample participants will be duly

obtained and they will be free to withdraw from research at any point of time without

providing any reason and explanation. The interviewees will also be communicated with the

aims and objectives of the proposed research in order to motivate them to provide fair and

honest response to interview questions.

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References

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Bryman, A. (2012). Social Research Methods, 4th ed. Oxford University Press.

Burgess, S. (2002). Information Technology in Small Business: Issues and Challenges. Idea

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Business Insider Inc. (2017). Mobile sales drive unexpected UK e-commerce growth. Online

available at: http://www.businessinsider.com/mobile-sales-drive-unexpected-uk-e-commerce-

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