Challenges And Opportunities Of E-Business: A Case Of EBay, Australia

Aim and Objectives of the Study

The e-business refers electronic businesses which deals with the use of technologies and all the commercial transaction are completed on the basis of internet (Baršauskas, Šarapovas and Cvilikas, 2008; Breitsohl, Khammash and Griffiths, 2010). It involves the sharing of business information and exchange of products and services among groups of business or individuals by electronic means (Ifinedo, 2011; Penbera, 1999). In this context, the current study includes the analysis of challenges and opportunities of e-business with respect to eBay, Australia. For the purpose of the study, a business research proposal has been prepared by setting up the aim and objectives of the firm. A literature review has been done to estimate the challenges, opportunities along with different strategies to leverage the available opportunities. At the end, an effective time schedule has also been prepared to estimate the completion time of the study.

The aim and objectives of the current study are explained as follows-

Aim

To critically analyze challenges and opportunities for electronic business. A case of eBay, Australia

The objectives of the study can be as follows-

• To assess the role of eBusiness in the contemporary business environment
• To critically evaluate the challenges faced by eBay
• To analyze different strategies to leverage the opportunities available for eBusiness
• To evaluate different ways to deal with challenges of eBay and obtain the competitive edge in the marketplace

The study is based on the e-business which is the crucial element of the current business era because every sector of commerce is attached with online business. The online business creates chances of cost-effective products and services to the customers. Further, it also saves the time and efforts for the businesses as well as consumers because the availability of wide variety of item. Owing to this, the findings extracted from the current study are helpful for eBay itself and other businesses operating in the eBusiness context. Also, the outcomes of the study can be useful for those working in the field of research. By considering this, e-businesses would be able to easily identify the challenges and opportunities so that business can grow and can create the contacts with external parties to attain the competitive advantage.

E-business is the critical aspect for the current businesses because all the activities and business transactions are based on the internet by involving intranets and extranets to e-services (Jyothi, Gousia and Arunakumari, 2015; Murtaza, Gupta and Carroll, 2004). E-business can be in various form such as business to business, business to consumers, business to consumers, consumer to consumer and mobile commerce (Mahadevan, 2000). In this regard, e-business has several roles in different ways in the current business environment because the success and failure of the business depend on the online businesses. Gupta (2014) stated that the difference between traditional market and global market has been narrow down with the help of the developments in the internet and other web-based technologies. Moreover, it has been done by minimizing the business space, size and capital etc. On the other hand, Schaltegger, Lüdeke-Freund and Hansen (2012) asserted that growth of the e-business is improving due low cost of the computers, PC and cost-effective rate of internets. In this regard, the most of the organizations are preferring the online business due to excessive availability of the online customers and huge use of the online shopping. Further, it also saves the time and efforts for the consumers due to wide variety of alternatives. Therefore, the use of e-business has been increased in wide range because all the business transactions of contemporary environment are affected by the electronic means which are operated by internet. It provides a facility of cost effectiveness as well as major attraction to increase number of customers.

Overview of E-business

The e-businesses are operated through wireless and wired based internets which leads plenty of challenges and issues for the growth of the business (Schuler, Jackson and Tarique, 2011; Shukla, 2016). stated that it is crucial task for the online businesses to attract and retaining customers because they always rely on the brand and user experiences. However, Shukla (2016) argued that in current online business environment, consumers have more attraction point is innovative products and rapid implementation of new services instead of brand because of the perception of just use and throw. On the contrary, Laudon and Traver (2013) asserted that logistics, taxation and data warehousing is the major challenge for the e-businesses in contemporary environment because there are huge number of online buyers. In this context, data management deal with the issues of compiling the data and provide the correct invoice to the head of the department but it is affected due to backend integration systems. Apart from this, Anand (2015) mentioned that quality of service is one of the single biggest problem for the e-businesses because the customers prefers the online shopping due to better quality and it depends on the process of delivery and performance of the products. Thus, it reveals that e-businesses deal with the varied challenges in the form of quality issues, availability of material and demands for innovative products etc. and all these are affects scope, productivity and competitiveness of the business.

There are several strategies which can be used to leverage the available opportunities for e-business such as timely market research, personalize, micro target an online audience, integrate across channels, invest into mobile etc. (Turban, Bolloju and Liang, 2011; Meyer, Mudambi and Narula, 2011; Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010; Baršauskas, Šarapovas and Cvilikas, 2008). In this regard, West and Bogers (2014) stated that market research is one of the important aspects to know about the available opportunities of the e-business because timely market identification provides the new insights about the trends and demands of customers. On the other hand, Ferraresi, Quandt, dos Santos and Frega (2012) argued that personalization is more important and exact technique for the identification of available opportunities in competitive market place. Moreover, with the help of the individualized promotions, e-businesses can gather the information regarding available technology, preferences of the individual shoppers and can implement in the current business for the growth and upgradation. Apart from this, Kaplan and Haenlein (2010) asserted that integrated channels are the main approach to get data regarding consumer experience, brand consistency and shopping methods of the customers. Moreover, by knowing all about these aspects, e-business can easily come to know the opportunities and focuses on to deal with the competitors. It indicates that all approaches are equally important for the e-business to realize the available opportunities but out of them timely market research is preferred to grab chances for the growth of the business.

• What are challenges and opportunities for electronic business of eBay Australia?

• What is the role of eBusiness in the contemporary business environment
• What are the challenges faced by eBay?
• What are different strategies to leverage the opportunities available for eBusiness?
• What are different ways to deal with challenges of eBay and obtain the competitive edge in the marketplace?

Challenges of E-business

The research methodology is used to analyze the particular study. It involves several methods and approaches for the collection of data and analysis. In this regard, the following approaches will be applied-

There are two types of research studies such as qualitative and quantitative which is carried out by the researchers to collect the data. The qualitative study is used to do in-depth study about the research problem and provide the relative results (Bruschi, Morganti, Mancini and Signorini, 2011). Nonetheless, quantitative study is helpful to apply the statistical techniques to collect and analyze the data with the involvement of dependent and independent variables (Morgan, 2013). By examining the significance of the both types of the study, the current study will be based on the qualitative study so that researcher can derive the realistic outcomes for the research because it includes the in-depth analysis of data. Hence, the application of qualitative method would be beneficial to carry out the in-depth analysis with direct and indirect interaction with respondents.

There are two types of research philosophies like interpretivism and positivism which are based on the beliefs, assumptions, norms and regulations which are used as per the demand of the study (Morgan, 2013; Goldkuhl, 2012).  In this regard, researcher will use the interpretivism research approach because the study involves the own knowledge of the researcher along with specific information and they can assess the outcomes on the basis of social environment. On the other hand, positivism approach is based on the figures and facts which are actually collected by the research through statistical tools.  At this point, by keeping the importance of the both types of the philosophies, the current study will be based on the interpretivism philosophy because it provides the in-depth knowledge by involvement of social environment.

Research design is the blueprint of the research study which provides a brief information about research. Basically, there are three types of research designs such as exploratory, explanatory and descriptive (Malhotra and Malhotra, 2012). Explanatory research designs provide a cause and effects relationship between two variables of the study and more than two whereas exploratory design is used by the researcher to generate new insights for the research (Hakim, 2012). On the other hand, researcher adopts the descriptive design in the case of interaction with social environment through direct connectivity. Hence, it reveals that the current study will use descriptive design which is significant for the study.

Opportunities and Strategies for E-business

The research approaches can be two types such as inductive and deductive which are used to carried out research. Inductive approach is used in qualitative study whereas deductive is adopted in quantitative study (Soiferman, 2010). Inductive approach starts from the specific point and goes to general and on the basis of it, new insights can be generated through collected outcomes. Nonetheless, deductive approach begins from general to specific point because it provides the general investigation which is used to develop specific data. Thus, in the current study, inductive research approach will be used by researcher by giving special emphasis on analysis of challenges and opportunities of e-business in context of eBay, Australia

The primary data collection method will be used by the researcher in the current study to derive the realistic information. Primary data will be collected by questionnaire method (Bohl et al., 2014). In this regard, questionnaire will be prepared in easy language so that relative participants can provide the exact and quick information related to study. Nonetheless, other methods can also be used by the researchers for the collection of primary data such as interview, observation, survey etc. However, these methods are costly in comparison to questionnaire so it would be beneficial for the current study. On the other hand, interview method is costly and time consuming which requires extra efforts and time for the data collection so for the objective of current study questionnaire approach will be appropriate. Apart from this, secondary data can also be collected by using the journals, books, publications and newspapers etc.

Sampling is the individual element which is selected from the whole population to predict the characteristics of entire data (Guentsch et al., 2011). There are two types of sampling techniques such as probabilistic and non-probabilistic, out of these purposive sampling as one of the methods of non-probabilistic will be used by the researcher with the involvement of managers of the business as participants for the current study. The managers will be selected for the purpose of study because they have knowledge and experience about challenges and opportunities of e-business. According to this, 10 managers of eBay, Australia would be selected with involvement of questionnaire for the data collection and to find out the close relations with variables such as research problem and outcomes. Hence, the selection of non-probabilistic sampling technique is appropriate for the study because it is based on the convenience of the researcher and requirements of the study.

Research Methodology

Data analysis is used to analyze the collected data of the study which are beneficial to attain the objectives along with main aim of the research. There are two types of data analysis methods involving qualitative and quantitative. In this regard, qualitative approach includes the thematic analysis whereas quantitative includes the statistical tools and techniques (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). However, the current study will use the qualitative method for the analysis of collected data for the effectiveness of results. For the purpose of the study, thematic analysis technique would be applied on the basis of qualitative analysis. Further, themes would be prepared with respect to research objectives and frequency table would be presented. These themes would be helpful to achieve the objectives of the study and to derive the valid outcomes with the help of primary data.   

The research deals with the various challenges and issues because the participants do not show the keen interest in providing the real information. In this way, the collected data may lead to opposite direction and hamper the output of the research. Further, scarcity of the time is one of the major drawbacks for the researchers which limits the scope of the study. Moreover, respondents may not focus on the long studies because it consumes more time to provide the answers. On the other hand, in quantitative study, non-availability of resources is critical issue for the researchers because it requires the tools and techniques to analyze the collected data. However, researchers are not limited to time constraint because other several methods can also be used such as because they adopted they adopted questionnaire methods to gather the data which requires the minimum time to fill the answers. Furthermore, it also provides the real information. At this juncture, secondary sources arise the problem of reliability for the researchers because these data were already collected in prior research. In this context, researcher do the further study for the completion of the project but it requires the extra time, efforts and money.

Time structure is used to show the completion time for the final execution of the proposed project plan for the achievement of particular objectives (Mucha et al., 2010). In this regard, eBay, Australia would be able to estimate the expected time period for the analysis of challenges and opportunities of e-business (refer table 1).

Table 1: Time structure for the proposal

Task/Weeks	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Framing the research objectives
Developing proposal
Preparing introduction
Developing research methodology
Preparing a plan for collecting data
Collecting primary data
Collecting secondary data
Reviewing the collected data
Analyzing the reviewed data
Framing the conclusion
Finalization of project

Conclusion

Primary Data Collection Method

On the basis of proposal, it has been found that the research study is based on the analysis of challenges and opportunities of e-business. It has been concluded that the if the eBay, Australia would focus on strategies to deal with the challenges then the company would be able to know about the available opportunities or may create the new chances for the growth of the company. Further, it has also been summarized that for this proposal qualitative study would be used for the analysis of data which will be collected by primary methods. Moreover, descriptive research design will be used by the company for the in-depth analysis of collected data. At this juncture, inductive research approach will be applied to derive the specific outcomes. At the end, 10 managers would be selected for the analysis of data regarding challenges and opportunities of e-business of eBay, Australia.

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