The Impact of Internet Technology on Consumer Behaviour

Question: Write an essay about the impact of internet technology on consumer behaviour. Answer: Introduction It is evident that business technique is under the revolution of Information Technology that is further transforming the way people do the business. The core business operation like decision-making, customer service, making strategies and HR management are being re-built with the use of Information Technology. In addition, the Information Technology plays a major role in the lives of people. It is also observed that the internet banking and e-commerce are also associated with the concept of Information Technology. With the help of user-friendly technology like the internet has changed the ways of living the daily life. People receive tremendous opportunities for communication, work as well as commercial activities. The current research proposal focuses on the factors associated with Information Technology that influences people to a greater extent. Literature Review The current scenario indicates that the new consumer is characterized by cynical attitude, which is manifested for traditional advertising as well as intent addiction. In addition, with the help of information technology, the media gains an increasing confidence on the part of consumers. Through information technology, the organizations receive information that IT influences the purchasing decision. There have been certain factors such as emotional responses to a particular website, the benefits of the shopping experience and the effectiveness of the websites that could influence the intention of people to go through the websites frequently (Venkatesh, Thong and Xu 2012). According to the outcome of the previous research, the consumers have increasingly higher self-confidence in the contents associated with the Internet that is generated by their peers. Thus, it can be mentioned that the most used internet tools to make the best purchase. As opined by Solomon, Russell-Bennett and Previte (2012), the more time spent by the users on the internet, more information they gathered that influence the buying decision. With the help of developed technology and innovation, the people find best ways to collect required information for their purchases. Furthermore, Cheung and Thadani (2012) stated that the internet is being increasingly developed since last two decades and with significant digital technology, the digital economy that is driven by the Information Technology being enhanced globally. After a long-term development of internet and the invention of highly developed technology, some advanced intent tools have been developed and implemented. These developed tools further help the organizations to endorse as well as improve the image of products and services through web pages. Through the development of internet technology, the organizations provide in-depth information regarding the products and services that attract more people and alter their behaviour from the traditional mode. On the contrary, a large number of organizations have been concerned with the fact that consumer behaviour transformation is unavoidable. As a result, the organizations have changed their marketing strategies. In addition, the recent research shows that the internet shopping specially in business to the consumer has increased as well as the online shopping has become popular. There have been some particular reasons behind the rapid development of online shopping that are considered as the benefits provided by Information Technology. However, Kesharwani and Singh Bisht (2012) stressed on gender, education, age and internet experience that largely influence the amount of time that users spend in searching for the information about the particular products and services. In the light of the age of consumers, Lee, Xiong and Hu (2012) stated that in comparison with the older customers, the young people especially those who fall under the age of 25, are more concerned with new technology like internet to search the information of the queries. The reason behind this implies that older customers could perceive the advantages of Internet shopping to be less than the expense of investing in the skilled required implementing effectively; thus, people may avoid shopping on internet. By considering the ratio of gender, Belanche, Casal and Guinalu (2012) opined that men tend to show more interest in using multiple types of technology while shopping or making purchases online. Nevertheless, the female customers prefer to shop on line more frequently than the men consumers do. As argued by Benlian, Titah and Hess (2012), the level of education could influence e-shopping; this means the higher educated people are more concerned and comfortable with non-store channels like the internet for making purchases because education is correlated with the level of internet knowledge gained by an individual. On the other side, Delmas, Fischlein and Asensio (2013) argued that the people with higher disposable income prefer to shop more on internet in comparison with the lower disposable income people. This is because people with higher disposable income are often seen to be correlated with the possession of technology such as computer device. In addition, Krishnamurti et al. (2012) opined that convenience and the accessibility are related to online shopping as they could shop online. It certainly saves time and cost; they gain the ability to shop any time. Conversely, Lee and Ma (2012) added that the customers who do not have the ability to shop in conventional store due to some immobilizing factors. Further, for the customers who tend to go the wide distance to go to the stores, hence, techniques of internet shopping play an important role. It is also observed that in the online shopping context, the customers evaluate the experience of online shopping with respect to the perceptions of about product information. Thus, it can be mentioned that with the advancement of information technology, multiple options of trading have been developed that also provide the opportunities to the people to gain benefits spending less time on internet. Research Questions for the identified problems What is the influence of Information Technology on consumer buying behaviour? What is the basic demographic comparison between the impact of IT on consumer behaviour and traditional ways of marketing on consumer behaviour? Research methodologies Research methodology is one of the significant aspects of research as the majority of success depends on the selection of research methodology (Creswell, 2013). For the proposed research, some particular research techniques will be selected that meet the criteria of research. Thus, to collect the information regarding the impact of IT on consumer buying behaviour, the research will include both primary as well as secondary analysis. Apart from the types of analysis, particular approaches, philosophies and designs will be applied to lead the research towards the desired direction. Among different philosophies of research, positive ism philosophy will be selected as it helps to analyze the data with factual knowledge and observations. In addition, the positivism research philosophy helps to measure the outcome gained from the research. Besides, between two approaches, the deductive approach has been chosen for the proposed research as this particular approach could help to form the con clusion through the stage of analysis. In addition, the deductive approach is concerned with developing the hypothesis of the proposed research that are usually based on the existing theory. The selection of deductive approach also helps to design the research strategies while testing the hypothesis (Witwer et al. 2013). Like the philosophy and approach of research, appropriate research design will also be selected. In order to perform the research considering the research questions, descriptive research design will be selected. The descriptive research could help to identify the ways in which the research can be done with fewer flaws. In addition, as the research includes both primary as well as secondary data analysis descriptive research will contain the elements of quantitative and quantitative data collection techniques. As mentioned by Jensen (2013), in descriptive researches, the data collection is usually facilitated without altering the environment. Moreover, there have been three different purposes of performing the research such as describing, planning and validating the research outcome that can be done through descriptive research. Project plan (Gantt chart) Research Activities 1-4 4-8 8-12 12-16 16-20 20-24 24-28 Research Topic Secondary data collection Phases of investigation Existing literature and hypothesis forming Research plans Selecting Research Techniques Secondary data Analysis Interpretation of the collected data Findings and Analysis Conclusion Formation of Draft Final Submission of the thesis paper Table 1: Research Time Table Description of the process The proposed research is consisting of a number of stages that will be considered while performing the research. The research will start with introducing the variable of the topic such as the impact of Information Technology and the consumer buying behaviour. While comparing the previous research with the proposed research, some significant gaps will be identified and based on the gaps the proposed techniques will be applied for gaining desired research outcomes. Based on the research questions, a critical analysis will be conducted considering the variable of the topic. Likewise, the research carries forward with an in-depth literature review. The next phase of the research comes with the research methodology that will be selected to analyze the dependent variable of the topic. The research selects appropriate research methods that include both primary and secondary analysis. Likewise, the researcher will collect both primary as well as secondary data through different data collecti on techniques. In order to collect primary data, survey method will be conducted considering a broad population. The respondents will be selected through particular sampling. The random sampling will be selected for choosing the respondents for the survey. On the contrary, the secondary data will be gathered from different secondary sources. Descriptions of data collection and analysis techniques For collecting the information for the research, it is necessary to apply relevant data collection techniques. Thus, for the proposed research the secondary data will be collected from books, journals, newspapers, magazines and other online portals. There is plenty of data available in these particular sources. Thus, the application of a set of criteria to choose the secondary data needs to be used in the research. The selection criteria play a major role in maximizing the level of research reliability as well as validity. On the contrary, while collecting the primary data, the process will be divided into two different groups namely qualitative as well as quantitative. The techniques for collecting quantitative data includes questionnaire with close-ended questions. Thus, to gather the secondary information, the survey will be among the participants. The questionnaire will be among the participants. For making the analysis of the data, responses given by the respondents will be compared with the data collected from the existing literature. The collected data will be into the numerical forms to perform the statistical calculation. The gathered information will be linked literature review. Expected outcome of the proposed research By conducting this particular research, the certain outcome can be gained. However, in the previous research, it is observed that most of the organizations around the world have been using information technology to meet and satisfy the needs of customers. This has become the motto of the organization. The outcome, which is supposed to be gained from the proposed research, will be compared with the previous research. 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