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

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.