Critical investigation on the suitability of the market of ethical consumerism for ShopHere

This research aims to investigate the suitability of ethical consumerism in the present market and the role of sustainability measures in retaining existing consumers and acquiring new consumers for ShopHere. The research will use mixed method analysis to collect data from consumers and provide recommendations to improve sales and profitability.

Mixed method research
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author note

1.0 Working Title
Critical investigation on the suitability of the market of ethical consumerism for ShopHere.
1.1 Research Aim
The aim of the research is to use mixed method analysis to collect data from the
consumers of ShopHere to understand whether the sustainability measures will be able to
attract more consumers or not.
1.2 Research objective
The objective of the research are as follows:
 To examine the suitability of ethical consumerism in the present market of consumers
 To investigate the role of sustainability measures in retaining existing consumers and
acquiring new consumers
 To recommend suitable strategies to improve the organizational sales volumes and
profitability
1.3 Research question
What is the feasibility of the target market of ethical consumerism?
How does the sustainability measures impact the consumer retention?
2.0 Research Methodology
2.1 Introduction
Research methodology is an organised way of selecting and evaluating data to
develop relevant findings. Research methodology comprises of frameworks, instruments and
methods necessary for developing knowledge throughout the study. It provides valid
justification for choosing a particular method along with the positives and negatives for
choosing each method. The different research methods are selected from the goal of the
research (Kumar 2019). The major objective in a research are description of phenomenon,
explanation of the underlying relationship between two variables and estimation from one
variable to another. In this research, the foremost objective of the research is behaviour
description of phenomenon and estimation from element to element, so quasi experimental
research design will be chosen for the paper (Taylor, Bogdan and DeVault, 2015). The

research has followed the Saunders research onion to uncover all the methods required in
every step of the study which describes the design, approach, data collection, philosophy and
analysis method, reliability, ethical consideration, sampling and validity.
2.2 Research Philosophy
Research philosophy comprises of groups of views and assumptions necessary for
developing knowledge in the research. Research philosophy is used to generate a better
understanding of the research question. Assumptions are made throughout the study and
these assumptions are used to shape the research question in a better way. There are
primarily three types of assumptions in research, epistemological, ontological and axiological
(Saunders et al. 2015). These approaches focus on different types of assumptions such as
epistemological assumptions deal with knowledge development, axiological assumptions deal
with role of beliefs and values and ontological assumptions deal with the nature of reality.
There are primarily four types of research philosophies, pragmatism, interpretivism,
positivism and realism. In this research, pragmatism has been selected as the research
philosophy as it assists in performing mixed method analysis (Padilla-Díaz 2015).
Pragmatism develops methods based on the needs of the research question. It believes in the
existence of multiple realities where there are different ways of interpreting and solving an
issue. Pragmatism accepts theories and concepts that have valid actions to support them.
Therefore, in this pragmatism can be used to perform both qualitative and quantitative data
analysis.
2.3 Research Approach
Research approach consists of two parts, data collection and reasoning. There are
primarily two types of research, inductive and deductive approaches. The differentiation
between the inductive and the deductive approach depends on the application of hypothesis.
Deductive approach is used for testing existing theories discussed in the literature review
section (Sekaran and Bougie 2016). On the other hand, inductive approach is used for
developing new theories and generalisations. The inductive approach provides tentative
hypotheses which needs to be tested using further conclusive research in the study (Teherani
et al. 2015). In this study, both types of approaches xwill be used to collect quantitative and
qualitative data. The deductive approach will facilitate in performing quantitative data
analysis and the inductive approach will facilitate in conducting qualitative analysis of data.

2.4 Research design
Research design has been defined differently by different authors where some
consider it as the method of choosing between qualitative and quantitative methods. On the
other hand, it has been defined the process of collecting and evaluating data. Some defined
research design as the general plan for conducting the overall research (Creswell and Poth
2017). There are mainly three types of research designs, explanatory, exploratory and
descriptive research design. Exploratory research design is used for exploring data in topics
where there is minimum research. Exploration facilities in defining the research problem in
more effective way and can change the direction of the research as there are no fixed
conclusion to the research. Exploratory study does not aim to provide significant conclusion
but provides ground work for conducting further conclusive research (Meyers, Gamst and
Guarino 2016). Descriptive research design is used for describing the phenomenon and
estimation from one to another variable. Descriptive research design focuses on casting light
on the business problems by collecting data and evaluating it effectively. This provides a
vivid description of the situation. On the contrary, explanatory research design is used for
measuring the causal relationship between the variables and also for prediction
(Abdulkadiroğlu et al. 2017). Explanatory research design is highly structured and has a
specific outcome to it. In this study, sequential explanatory research design has been used as
the method where both quantitative and qualitative data analysis will be used. Initially, the
quantitative data will be collected and analysed to develop significant results using statistical
tools and techniques and qualitative data will analysis will be conducted to validate the
results collected from the quantitative analysis.
2.5 Data collection and analysis
There are mainly two types of data collection processes, secondary and primary data
collection. In this research, primary data will be collected by developing an interview and
survey questionnaire. The survey questionnaire will comprise of close ended questions which
will be developed on five-point Likert scale and some of the questions are based on multiple
choices. These questions will use ratio scale and nominal scale for the measurement
respectively (Palinkas et al. 2015). The survey questionnaire will collect data from limited
respondents to define the problem and identify the visibility for the ethical consumer market.
On the other hand, the interview questionnaire will consist of semi structured questionnaire
consisting of open ended questions. These questions will facilitate in gaining in depth
answers on the research questions.

The quantitative data will be analysed using statistical techniques where SPSS will be
used as a statistical tool for analysis. The research will use inferential statistics where the data
collected has been represented in form of tables and graphs. Inferential statistics will be used
to generate findings (Sutton and Austin 2015). The study uses Pearson’s correlation to
examine the relationship within the variables and the regression will be used to develop a
predictive model. Descriptive statistics will be used to calculate the median, mean, mode and
standard deviation. On the other hand, the qualitative data will be evaluated using coding
where axial coding and open coding will be used. Open coding will be used to generate codes
from the data collected and axial coding will be performed to link the data to the existing
paradigms. The comparison of the both the results will validate the overall findings.
2.6 Sampling design
Sampling is the procedure of choosing elements from the total target population.
Sampling is performed in instances when the target population is huge and sampling is
required to reduce the complexity, cost and time of the study (Farr et al. 2017). The sampling
process commences with selecting the target population in the research and in this report, the
consumers of ShopHere will be chosen. The sampling consists of the population that effective
contribute to the research and in this research, the consumers of ShopHere within the known
group has been chosen as the respondents. The next step is choosing the sample size and in
this research, the sample size for the qualitative analysis will be 5 and for the quantitative
analysis will be 20. There are two sampling methods, probabilistic and non-probabilistic
sampling method. Probabilistic sampling can be divided into simple random sampling,
systematic random sampling, stratified random sampling and cluster sampling. On the other
hand, non-probabilistic sampling consist of haphazard sampling, purposive sampling, quota
sampling and convenience sampling (Boschetti, Stehman and Roy 2016). The major
difference between the sampling techniques are that one uses randomization. However, the
most significant aspect is choosing the appropriate sampling technique where convenience
sampling will be used to choose respondents from friends and family. However, as the
sampling size in the research will be less, the margin of error will be high.
2.7 Reliability and validity
Reliability is the ability of the research methods to replicate the results using different
data sets. This shows the precision of the methods developed by evaluating the results from
different data sets (Heale and Twycross 2015). In this research, the reliability of the data set

will be measured by using Cronbach’s alpha test which measure the scale reliability and
internal consistency of the data collected (Bonett and Wright 2015). Cronbach alpha will
determine whether the data collected is significant for performing the research or not. On the
other hand, test rated reliability will be used to check the reliability of the methods and
instruments. Validity determines the suitability of the instruments used in the paper. Pilot
testing will be used to send the questionnaire to 10 respondents to gather their opinion on the
construction of the questionnaire. On the other hand, the validity of the data will be analysed
using Kaiser Meyer Olkin measure of sampling adequacy and Bartlett test of Sphericity
which measures the relatedness of the data and proportion of variance within the data set
(Godsey et al. 2018).
2.8 Research ethics
This research will adhere to the ethical guidelines by maintaining the privacy of the
respondents. The research will protect the anonymity of the respondents and none of the
personal data of the researcher will be shared. The research will not force the respondents to
take part in the research and voluntary participation is necessary (Quinlan et al. 2019).
Informed consent will be developed which will consist of information regarding the purpose
of the study. Moreover, the questionnaire will not consist of any discriminatory languages
that may offend the participants.

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