Research Cartoons

Topic 1:Research Objectives

Defining the objectives is the most important consideration in designing a successful research study. Research objective describes of what is to be achieved by the study. It steers the research team to be in the right track throughout the research plan. It guides information to be collected and also helps the development of Methodology. Without clearly defined research objectives at the beginning stage of a research, a variety of problems can arise in the study. Thus, having clear research objectives is the most importance in the development of a research.

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Topic 2: Scientific Method

This is important because it relates to a real research process. Research is not something easy to conduct and it requires a lot of steps. If a step-by-step approach is well understood, the more accurate result can be obtained. Firstly, researcher must have an idea of what he wants to study. Based on that idea, research questions are prepared. When he knows the type of his participants, one of data collection methods is chosen. Then, hypotheses are formed to explain what is going to be observed in the study. As soon as the previous steps are finished, one of the data collection methods is chosen to start experiment. The collected data from participants is analyzed with hypothesis. After data analysis, researcher concludes his research process and peer review is done to be more confident on the result. All of the steps are required to follow by all researchers so that they can get good results from their study.

The Scientific Method

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Paper 1: A New Trust Model for B2C E-Commerce Based on 3D User Interfaces

Summary of the paper

In this paper, it highlights the importance of “Trust” in B2C e-commerce and defines the building of “trust” with use of 3D graphical user interfaces. Yet many prior research works have been explored in the field of trust, there is a need of research work on the role of 3D user interface in terms of enhancing trusting beliefs. So the study is pioneer in the field of exploring the functionalities of 3D user interfaces (with regards to increasing trust level) and forming a new trust model based on these factors with reference of existing trust model of McKnight and Chervaney. 

After the exploring the functionalities of 3D use interfaces, it proposed a trust model of B2C e-commerce (Fig.1.) based on 3D user interface and studied five dependent variables consisting the appeal of 3D user interfaces, interacting with 3D virtual models of products and services, 3D virtual interacting with the salesman, 3D virtual interacting with other online buyers, and presence in 3D virtual spaces in regard to increasing the trust level of B2C e-commerce customers were studied (Miremadi, A., Aminilari, M., & Hassanian-esfahani, R.)

The study is done by descriptive survey in which 35 questionnaires was designed after library and field studies were conducted. Questionnaires were reviewed by experts to eliminate the ambiguous questions. Survey considered participants within five age groups. Data gathering took two months after the survey was mailed to 300 selected experienced and professional participants (purposive sampling). A total of 367 participants involved in this study. For the analysis of statistical data, the one sample t-test was chosen for each variable.

Internal consistency reliability of the five variables used in the study is assessed by Cronbach’s alpha and through this assessment’s result, it was proved that the trust level of B2C customers are affected by these five parameters and increasing in each parameter’s performance will increase the trust level of B2C customers.

References

Miremadi, A., Aminilari, M., & Hassanian-esfahani, R. (2013). A New Trust Model for B2C E-Commerce Based on 3D User Interfaces. New Marketing Research Journal, 69-80.

doi: 10.1109/ECDC.2013.6556747

Available full research article at: http://bit.ly/1LwjeS1

Paper 2:What makes customers buy from Internet? A Longitudinal Study of Online Shopping

Summary of the paper

In this paper, different factors that effect on the customers' intention and actual customers' behavior of online shopping. The paper is explored by using theory of planned behavior(TPB) that is the extension of theory of reasoned action(TRA). Although previous researchers investigate factors concerning with online shopping, they still need to research about existing theoretical links of TPB and new links of personal innovativeness and perceived consequences shown in Figure 1.

There are two objectives of the paper. The first one is to apply behavioral theory in a model that factors impacting on online shopping and the second one is to approve the model by performing a longitudinal study. Dependent variable is internet shopping whereas six independent variables are intention on online shopping, personal innovativeness, perceived consequences, attitude, subjective norms and behavioral controls.

The study is done by experimental survey. Methodology of the paper follows three steps : belief elicitation, survey of intentions and beliefs, and survey of behavior. The first step is conducted with 177 consumers randomly selected from targeted population and another two steps are investigated for three months with 6110 consumers randomly selected from four internet directories. Both formative and reflective measures are done. The results shows the strong support to both links.

References

Limayem, M.,Khalifa, M., & Frini, A. (2000). What makes customer buy from internet? A longitudinal study of online shopping. Systems, Man and Cybernetics, Part A: Systems and Humans, IEEE Transactions on 30(4), 421-432.

Available full research article at: http://bit.ly/1k0a0HQ

Paper 3: A Computer-Assisted Instruction System With A Vision-Based Interactive Interface For Children

Summary of the paper

This paper evaluates the value of computer-assisted instruction (CAI) system built on game design in education. It highlights how it is helpful for the students in their learning environment by developing an educational game with a vision-based interface and keyboard/moues. It aims to improve the student’s learning motivation and their learning activities using CAI system with a vision-based interface.

Methodology

The study was conducted by survey research method to analyze the different perspectives of learning experience between Vision-based interactive interface (VBI) and the traditional interactive interface (TI).

It surveyed 60 third- and fourth-grade students in Taiwan after the participants experienced both VBI and TI. It measured the students’ enjoyment, motivation, and immersion by comparing the outcomes of TI and VBI from each standpoint. It also evaluated based on demographic data to show the result that girls are more interested in the VBI system than boys.

As an overall result, the study confirmed its research objective that children have higher immersion and greater attention when using the VBI system.

References:

Wang, H.-W., Wu, W.-H., Lu, S.-J., Fan, P.-L., & Lo, Y.-T. (2012). A computer-assisted instruction system with a vision-based interactive interface for children. International Journal of Humanities and Arts Computing, 6(1-2), 172-183. doi: 10.3366/ijhac.2012.0047

Available full research article at : 

Critique of the Paper

Paper 1: An online shopping behavior model integrating personality traits, perceived risk, and technology acceptance

Introduction

• The paper does not contain the heading for introduction.

• The paper does not describe the problem statement.

• The paper does not mention about the benefits gained from the study although it states its objective.

• The paper does not specify all of the methodologies used.

Literature Review

• The paper does not include literature review section separately so it is mentioned in the introduction section. 

• The paper describes about the areas in previous studies but it does not elaborate on the results of those studies.

• The paper does not cite the previous studies that researcher referred.

Method

• The paper does not specify the demographic information of the participants

• The paper also does not mention how they are recruited to become part of this study

• The paper does not use up-to-date references for Mediating Effects and Structural Equation Modeling and references are very general
• The paper integrates three models to analyze the correlation among the research constructs from the Web of Science, EBSCO, and ABI-Inform. Therefore the study's results are not representative and it is very hard for future researchers to replicate this study's result.

Findings

• The paper does not state the detail about the studies of the hypothesis

• The paper does not provide the calculation for the results of the homogeneity test

• The results and text, table and figures are not match in the paper (Refer to Table 1, Figure 1 and Figure 2)

Figure 1

Figure 2

Discussion

• The findings are well discussed but it would be better if the paper summarizes the results in a more presentable form

Conclusion

• The paper does not have separate section for “Conclusion” and ended the paper after “Discussion” section.

• There are no contributions to the research because the research has already been done by previous researchers and the results of the research are in line with the previous research results.

• Limitations and future research are generally stated in the paper.

References

• References are cited properly using APA style. They are also arranged in alphabetical order.

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Paper 2: A mobile user-interface for elderly care from the perspective of relatives

Introduction & Literature review

• Specific research problems and questions regarding with current mobile user-interface and features are not stated.
• The results of prior research related to the mobile user-interface has not been reviewed.
• The hypothesis are not described totally.
• The researcher couldn’t pinpoint what was to be investigated clearly.

Methods

• Sampling methods are not identified as random sampling in survey research.
• And thus the study didn’t obtain a representative sample to target population.
• Sample size is very small and not relatively large to judge as a quality study.
• How well the survey research was designed and constructed are not explained.
• How well the face to face interview was designed and conducted are not explained.
• The study didn’t make sure that interviewers are trained.

Findings

• The results that are not conducted in case study are included. 

Discussion

• Consideration of potential bias, threats to internal validity, other limitations and weakness are not discussed. 
• The researchers concluded to generalize directly to a population based on this study 

References

• References are cited not using APA style. 

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References

Wu, W., & Ke, C. (2015). An online shopping behavior model integrating personality traits, perceived risk, and technology acceptance. Social Behavior And Personality: An International Journal, (1), 85.
Available full research article at: http://bit.ly/1LdiYr2

Warpenius, E., et al. (2015). "A mobile user-interface for elderly care from the perspective of relatives." Inform Health Soc Care 40(2): 113-124.
Available full research article at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.3109/17538157.2013.879148?journalCode=imif20