I have attached the assignment question, and also the critical literature review which is to be used for this RESEARCH PROPOSAL ASSIGNMENT. I have also attached the assignment example which would help and make it easy for you to follow the format and structure . (NOTE- USE THE CRITICAL LITERATURE REVIEW ATTACHED AND DESIGN THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL ACCORDINGLY)
Research Proposal (40%) (Individual Assessment) Assessment Brief Assessment brief: Based on a research gap identified in your literature review, you are to develop a research proposal that addresses this gap. The main objective of a proposal is to present and justify a research idea and explain a suitable practical approach to your study. Structure: 1.Title and abstract •Develop a title that is suitable to your proposal. The title needs to be consistent with the proposed research methods and topic. •Abstract 2.Introduction •Discuss your chosen’s topic relevance to a current issue/industry context. •Briefly introduce the reader to key issues/topic •Explain how your proposed research addresses one or more research gaps. 3.Research question •State your research question. 4.Research objectives •State your research objectives. 5.Development of research model and hypotheses/propositions •Describe and justify the relationships between the different variables/constructs that need to be examined to solve the research problem. •Develop adequate research hypotheses or propositions. •Illustrate your hypotheses or propositions in a research model. 6.Research methodology •Justify your overall research strategy to the problem you have identified. •Provide a detailed description and justification of your proposed research methods •Describe and justify your data collection methods. •Justify the proposed data analysis. •Address ethical issues relevant to your proposed research. 7.Timescale and resources •Propose a realistic timescale to your study (use a table format). •Outline required resources for the completion of your studies. 8.References: MINIMUM OF 10 ACADEMIC REFERENCES Mandatory: •Word Count: 2500 +/- 10% (excluding appendices and references) •Formatting: Times New Roman/Calibri/Arial, 12pt, 1.5 spacing, Justified •References: Chicago reference style An empirical investigation of the factors influencing users’ participation in sharing economy – Case of ride-sharing services in China EXAMPLE OF THE RESEARCH PROPOSAL 1. Introduction Within the next four years, the ride-sharing marketing is projected to reach a significant market size of US$218 billion (Marketsandmarkets.com. 2018). The potential benefits to the society includes improved personal mobility (Martínez-Díaz et al., 2018 Novikova, 2017) following increasing urbanization and declining car ownership, reduced traffic congestion and reduced pollutions while the major drivers include rise in the number of internet and smart phone users and government interventions to reduce CO2 levels in the air. The main purpose of ride sharing services is to enhance the efficiency of resource allocation by putting in use the underused resources and allow economies to have a sustainable growth. The ride sharing services, clearly, provide commuters with several benefits which has given rise to the research area of examining the willingness of users to accept new technologies including their perceptions, expectations, intentions to use and actual behaviour (Agag and Ahmad, 2016; Ballús-Armet et al., 2014; Min, So and Jeong, 2019). These ride-sharing services have evolved differently in countries, especially in China. Internet and Mobile penetration in China has been significant following the government’s effort to support development of information and communications technologies and related infrastructure resulting in quick adoption of the advancements. This rise in mobile economy has given rise to highly competitive sharing economy firms who are willing to gain market share through subsidized money and venture capitalists. China has, thus, attracted several multinational giants in the ride-sharing industry such as Uber, which however, failed to create its market share and lost the war to local competitor DiDi. The struggle of Uber for succeeding in China is a significant example highlighting the importance of understanding user-acceptance in ride-sharing services. The existing research studies have limited information on the individual level willingness to take part in ride-sharing economy in China. The preceding literature has provided evidence that different technologies would have different factors influencing user-acceptance implying that the user-acceptance factors investigated in the context of mobile (e.g. Chen et al., 2013; Palau-Saumell et al., 2019) or e-commerce (e.g. Ardiansah et al., 2020l Fayad and Paper, 2015) may not be able to explain the behaviour of users towards ride-sharing services. Moreover, since sharing economy is China is a novel and recent phenomenon, there are barely scholars and researchers who have studied user-accepted in the particular context of this country. In fact, even specific studies made in the context of ride-sharing economies may not be in line with the Chinese consumer behaviour, because of the potentially dynamic nature of consumer which is influenced by its personal, social and cultural factors, suggesting research gap in the context of Chinese users’ acceptance of ride- sharing services. Thus, this study aims to fill the gap of research in the user-acceptance of ride- sharing business models in China. In addition, the wide acceptance of technologies and a growing disruption economy makes the research area interesting for investigation. 2. Research question What are the motivating factors and constraints influencing user-acceptance of ride- sharing services in China? 3. Research objectives • To investigate the motivations for user user-acceptance of ride-sharing services by obtaining data from Chinese users through online questionnaire • To investigate the potential constraints in user user-acceptance of ride-sharing services by obtaining data from Chinese users through online questionnaire 4. Development of research model and hypotheses/propositions The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) (Davis 1989) and the Diffusion of Innovation Theory (DIT) are well-accepted among the researcher fraternity (e.g. Liu and Yang 2018; Min, So and Jeong, 2019; Zhu, So and Hudson, 2017) as the models enabling the understanding of the perceptions, opinions, attitudes and behaviour of consumers towards the use of technology- enabled products, services and innovations including the current area of research, ride-sharing businesses. Therefore, it is feasible to test hypothesis which effectively demonstrate relationships in the variables in the current research settings. Accordingly, the framework for this research will be based on “Hypothesis” rather than “Proposition” as though consumer behaviour is dynamic in nature it can be explained within a specific framework and only the relationship in the variables will tend to different across different contexts. Drawing upon these two theories and past observations, it is identified that perceived affordability could be considered as a motivation for the users since they tend to offer low cost because of their sharing nature from which it can be inferred that they save monetary cost for the users. Therefore, in light of Ballus-Armet et al. (2014) and Zhu et al., (2017), H1: Perceived affordability positively influence the Chinese users’ acceptance of ride- sharing services. Perceived convenience is yet another variable that could be considered as a motivator for user acceptance as individuals can book low cost rides quickly using their smart phones and an internet connection while they may be at within their houses or in the offices without worrying about parking space and extra time and efforts. Moreover, with shared location with the partner, it is easier to locate the ride and there is also payment flexibility. Therefore, in light of Zhu et al., (2017), H2: Perceived convenience positively influence the Chinese users’ acceptance of ride- sharing services. There are a growing number of people who are turning towards sustainable consumption because of their internal environmental awareness and conscientious and/or through social influence which are the reference groups such as parents, friends, relatives and colleagues. Given the collectivism society with a culture of guanxi Chinese users are more likely to regard the opinions of their superiors. Either of the ways, these factors could be considered as encouraging users to become a part of sharing economy and contribute towards environmental protection. Therefore, in light of Hwang and Griffiths (2017), Mao and Lyu (2017), Wang et al (2017) and Fishman, Washington and Haworth (2013), H3: Sustainability concerns positively influence the Chinese users’ acceptance of ride- sharing services. H4: Social pressure positively influences the Chinese users’ acceptance of ride-sharing services. Furthermore, identifying the constraints from the literature review, it is identified that the most common risk which technology-based products and services offer to its users is the risk of loss or mishandling of their financial and personal information which can discourage the willingness to use these new innovations. Accordingly, in light of Lee, Rahafrooz and Lee (2017) and Zhu et al., (2017), H5: Perceived risk to financial and personal information negatively influences the Chinese users’ acceptance of ride-sharing services. In addition, sharing products and services may be perceived to be unhygienic and unsafe because of the use and interaction with strangers and can discourage users to use them. Therefore, in light of Cherry and Pidegeon (2018), H6: Perceived concerns towards physical safety and hygiene negatively influence the Chinese users’ acceptance of ride-sharing services. Among the personal factors, it is identified that the confidence or perceived ability of individuals to comfortably use technology for booking rides also encourage them to be a part of sharing economy. In this context, it can be argued that individuals with a habit of using smart phones for making online purchases or ordering food online will be more comfortable from the use of ride- sharing apps, Accordingly, in light of Palau-Saumell et al., (2019), H7: Habit positively influences the Chinese users’ acceptance of ride-sharing services. 5. Research methodology 5.1 Research Strategy A quantitative research strategy will be employed in this proposed study as the research seeks to investigate consumer behaviour expressed through attitudes, opinions and perceptions towards the rise-sharing apps in China. According to Chrysochou (2017) research methods explaining consumer behaviour (or user acceptance in this instance) frequently use quantitative research strategies such as questionnaires. It is because the main aim of such studies is to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of ongoing practices in particular field. Hence, the choice of quantitative strategy in this instance is based on the ability of the study to produce outcomes that can be generalised on a sizeable population in order to improve the existing industry practices and encourage more user-participation. With the choice of quantitative strategy, the research will be able to obtain data using a larger numerical population as against the qualitative strategies that, although allow uncovering of new themes and opinions in the industry, utilises small sample population which does not meet the purpose of this study. Limited experience of researcher in the specific field also makes the choice of empirical strategy over qualitative one more suitable (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2003). The quantitative research work in this instance represents positivism philosophical assumptions made by the researcher and aspects of deductive approach to data collection (Saunders et al., 2003). 5.2 Sampling and Recruitment Since, collecting data from entire population of China will be problematic to perform; a small selection from the target population will be made to test the hypothesis. Sampling facilitates reduced time and efforts and increases data accuracy while allowing management of the target population (Dennis, et al., 2019). Accordingly, the sampling criteria or the target population is defined as below: (i) Chinese Graduates studying in university in large cities Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen as they are believed to be more familiar with smart-phones, internet and ride-sharing apps (ii) Having age 18 years and above In order to be respondent, the target population should meet all of the above criteria. Further, to reduce sampling errors non-probability self-selection sampling method will be used implying the participants who meet the requirements of target population will become respondents. This method is convenient and can attract relevant respondents. To improve response rate, another important aspect for reducing sampling errors; the researcher will also use personal contacts and network to approach individuals who will be then requested to further forward the data collection tool to their personal network (Valerio, et al, 2016). This is called convenience snowballing to recruit participants. In this manner, the study intends to obtain data from 200 participants. 5.3 Data collection methods and procedure The proposed study will perform obtain primary data from the identified sample population (discussed above) using online questionnaire technique. Questionnaires are used in descriptive research and allow obtaining data for executing a quantitative analysis (Saunders et al., 2003). The questionnaire, containing close-end self-administered questions, will take approximately 3 minutes to complete. The questionnaire will be administered using Qualtrics and the data will be downloaded in MS Excel format for testing hypothesis and inferring conclusion. The questionnaire will be structured so that deviation from the themes or identified hypothesis is avoided, thus, maintaining the empirical nature of the investigation. The questionnaire will be adapted from past studies and will aim explicitly to answer research question and achieve objectives as formulated in this study. Ordinal five- point Likert scale (Strongly disagree-agree) will be used to measure the responses. The process of data collection will start with posting of Qualtrics questionnaire link on WeChat and Sina Weibo. This link will include participant information sheet and consent form and a written informed consent will be necessary for starting answering questionnaire questions. One of the key advantages of using online questionnaire is that participants are able to take part in the study as per their own convenience and availability without any