Student ID: 13028985

MIN LIK LOW

Undergraduate Dissertation Proposal

Dissertation Title - To investigate Consumer Behaviour towards Online shopping of

Electronics in Malaysia

Researchable Topic Area and Objectives

The emerging of E-commerce created opportunities for ambitious entrepreneurs to start-up

their own business. While traditional sales channel remain as the biggest dominant, Ecommerce is on its way with a growth rate of 14% in Malaysia in 2013 (Euromonitor,
2014). The reason of investigating consumer behaviour is to understand how customers
view online shopping and creates a competitive advantage.The objectives of the research
are as follows:
1) To critically evaluate the concept of consumer behaviour contributing to the sales of a
business.
2) To analyse the perceptions of consumer in Malaysia towards E-shopping of Electronic
products.
3) To recommend Online Marketing strategies to be employed by Online businesses in
Malaysia to fulfil the expectation of Malaysias consumer.

Literature review

In the past decades, many researchers have conducted several studies on online
consumer behaviour such as Demangeot & Broderick (2007), Sivathanu & Sudame
(2013), Ahuja, Gupta & Raman (2003), to demonstrate the strategic position of importance
that is increasing to understanding online consumer. Nevertheless, most of the studies
were conducted outside of Malaysia, with very insignificant number focus about Asian
context (Keng, Richmond & Han, 1995), especially Malaysia which a country consists of
multicultural consumers.

Prior literature provides us with a rich foundation on which to examines the consumer
behaviour of online consumer based on theoretical framework. There are several
academic theories related to online consumer behaviour such as Innovative diffusion
theory, technology acceptance model, theory of planned behaviour, theory of reasoned
action and expectation confirmation theory (Chan, Cheung, Kwong, Limayem & Zhu,
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Student ID: 13028985

MIN LIK LOW

2003).

Fishbeins attitude model is a model which widely used in the marketing context (Lilien,
Kotler & Moorthy, 1992). It is useful as it provides the factors explaining consumer
purchasing intention and adoption. This model also insists behaviour is predominantly
determined by intention. However, Fishbeins model does not capture other important
factors and predict consumer continuance behaviour (repurchase).

On the other hand, the expectation-confirmation model focuses on the post purchase
behaviour (Oliver, 1980). This theory is useful because it explained consumer satisfaction
and repeat purchase. It is believed that Satisfaction is the key in this model as it is formed
by the gap between expectation and perceived performance. The expectation-confirmation
theory suggests that if the perceived performance meets ones expectation, confirmation is
formed and consumers are satisfied. The author believes Fieshbeins model and
expectation could be use together as they fits in each others flaw. As this may have
different implications on how Malaysian consumers behave afterwards, this study on the
online consumer behaviour will give further insight into the understanding of consumer
post purchase behaviour.

Proposed research methods

There are numerous ways to research a well picture of consumer behaviour especially
towards online shopping in Malaysia. Firstly, it would be important to establish the history
of consumer behaviour and how it came about. This can be done by collecting secondary
data from journal articles databases such as Emerald. Also, Euromonitor will be used to
collect quantitative data such as the growth rates of online sales in Malaysia. Secondly,
primary data collection will be collected through questionnaires. Online questionnaire will
be distributed to at least 30 Malaysian participant to collect their perceptions on online
shopping. The personal information of respondent will be prohibited and limited to
research purposes.

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Student ID: 13028985

MIN LIK LOW

Timetable for research

Month

Dissertation Activity (parts)

November

Introduction

December

Literature reviews

January

Literature reviews, Methodology

February

Methodology

March

Findings and discussion

April

Conclusion and Recommendation

May

Proof read and correction on error

References

Ahuja, M., Gupta, B., & Raman, P. (2003). An empirical investigation of online consumer
purchasing behavior. Communications Of The ACM, 46(12), 145--151.
Chan, G., Cheung, C., Kwong, T., Limayem, M., & Zhu, L. (2003). Online consumer
behavior: a review and agenda for future research.
Demangeot, C., & Broderick, A. (2007). Conceptualising consumer behaviour in online
shopping environments. International Journal Of Retail & Distribution Management,
35(11), 878--894.
Euromonitor,. (2014). Euromonitor International - Internet Retailing in Malaysia. Retrieved
15

October

2014,

from

http://www.portal.euromonitor.com/Portal/Pages/Search/SearchResultsList.aspx
Keng, K., Richmond, D., & Han, S. (1995). Determinants of consumer complaint
behaviour: a study of Singapore consumers. Journal Of International Consumer
Marketing, 8(2), 59--76.
Lilien, G., Kotler, P., & Moorthy, K. (1992). Marketing models. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:
Prentice-Hall.

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Student ID: 13028985

MIN LIK LOW

Oliver, R. (1980). A cognitive model of the antecedents and consequences of satisfaction

decisions. Journal Of Marketing Research, 460--469.
Sivathanu, B., & Sudame, P. (2013). Online consumer behaviour. ZENITH International
Journal Of Business Economics & Management Research, 3(6), 128--137.

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