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FTC 2016 - Future Technologies Conference 2016 6-7 December 2016 | San Francisco, United States

Design of a Decision Support System Framework for Small-Business Managers: A Context of B2C ECommerce Environment Madhury Khatun

Shah J Miah

Information Systems, College of Business Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia [email protected]

Center for Applied Informatics and College of Business Victoria University, Melbourne, Australia [email protected]

Abstract—This paper describes a decision support system (DSS) design for small business owners/managers to support their strategic decision-making in particular for achieving competitive advantages in the e-commerce environment. To design the DSS framework we collected data through web-based questionnaires that cater for the concerns of owners’/managers' experiences and strategic decisions need - in such environment to adopt competitive features on their websites. We used a constructivist paradigm to capture, utilize and conceptualize problem definitions through a case study investigation to design the DSS solution framework. The findings from case studies suggest that small business owners/managers have the lack of knowledge about internal and external business environment and associated factors that are of significant to their strategic decision support in the rapidly changing B2C e-commerce environment. Keywords—B2C e-commerce; DSS; case studies; inductive analysis; strategic decision

I.

INTRODUCTION

In an organisational environment, managers are responsible for making advantageous decisions for achieving the successful business outcome. Their decision-making involves identifying and choosing among alternative solution options to address their various organisational problems. However, making an effective decision is not the easy task for small business managers in the contemporary business environments [1]. Particularly, decision making is more difficult in the B2C ecommerce environment where several millions of consumers interact directly with companies through the websites. Consumers typically evaluate products and services on many websites to choose one site for their purchase [2]. In this environment, decision-making on what types of web features would make a sale to a customer is difficult for small business owners/managers without the use of appropriate technological support. Therefore, the designing a purpose-specific decision support systems (DSS) is essential for business decisionmakers [3], especially in the complex and rapidly changing business–to–consumers (B2C) e-commerce environment. DSS is the area of information system (IS) discipline focused on systems that support and improve managerial decision-making [4]. Hence, the key motivation of this study is to develop a DSS framework that can assist small business owner/managers’ strategic decisions to select competitive

features on their websites in the B2C e-commerce environment to attract consumers. The Australian B2C small-business owners are facing significant issues in operating their successful online businesses. The Australian consumers devalue domestic websites, as many local customers purchase products from overseas websites [5], [6], [7] [8], [9] that create the potential loss of domestic online sales in Australia. Thus, the central research questions that are outlined to define a problem case in our study:  What are the internal factors that influence owners/managers’ strategic decision making?  How could we design a decision support solution for the strategic need? In this paper, under the constructivist paradigm the case study method is adopted to identify the internal factors. The outlined findings from case studies are used to design a conceptual DSS framework extending an existing DSS model [10]. The solution approach is to help small business owners/managers at different phases of online B2C environment design, - so that they can have competitive features on their websites to interact with potential customers. This paper is structured as follows. Section II describes the background that includes the literature relevant to the topic of this paper. Section III presents details of research methodology for conducting our design study. Section IV discusses data analysis approaches. Section V describes findings from case studies, and Section VI outlines the results in the conceptual DSS framework followed by discussions and conclusion in Section VII. II.

BACKGROUND

DSS research has been established as a well-recognized tradition in Information Systems (IS) research field. Its dedication is promised to improving decision-making processes and practice through the application of appropriate technologies [11]. There are many sub-classes of DSS research such as personal DSS, group DSS, business intelligence, and knowledge based DSS (see [1] for many types of classification). However, little research yet contributed to

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FTC 2016 - Future Technologies Conference 2016 6-7 December 2016 | San Francisco, United States developing a personal DSS to assist the small business ownermanager in supporting their strategic decision making. Many researchers recommended that a DSS can be a potentially valuable tool for small businesses [1], [13], [14], [15], [16]. General benefits of DSS are to assist better decisionmaking process at various phases in the business environment and to assist decision makers in making better decisions [17]. In the concept of better decisions, the simplest and most tangible benefit of a DSS is its ability to assist its users in making better decisions. The decisions are better in the sense that, once they implemented and the effect is seen as reducing company cost, using resources more efficiently, increasing revenue, reducing risks and improving customer service [17]. In our study context, the personal DSS type that we focused on, can be promising to help small business owners/managers in making the strategic decision - to select competitive features on their websites in the B2C e-commerce environment that ultimately assist small businesses in increasing their online sales. Decision-making is certainly difficult for many small businesses in the contemporary business environments [1], and the changing environment can create problems and opportunities for managers as decision-makers require to analyse problems in such environment [18]. In the environment, global products and services are produced and delivered to customers in a technologically sophisticated electronic trading environment where markets change rapidly, and consumer demands are high [19]. Thus, the business processes are getting more complex and competitive [3]. B2C e-commerce highly visible, as it directly interacts with more than several millions of consumers through the websites [2]. Therefore, appropriate decisions and actions are required by the decision makers in such environment [18] to reach potential customers. Over the past, many DSS applications have been introduced to support managers in business decision-making processes [20], [21], [22]. At the enterprise level, typical applications of a DSS tool can bring application through a cash-flow analysis, for improving product performance, and analyse resource allocation for business decision-making purposes [12]. However, it is of useful to develop DSS application in the small business B2C e-commerce environment to assist owner/managers’ strategic decision making to select competitive features on their websites. No previous research over the past so far exhibited their interests on this matter. Although, few studies in the DSS research domain have focused on technological improvements, particularly for integrating the online business process in the B2C e-commerce environment [23], [24], however, their DSS support consumers in making purchase decisions. For example, [23] study mainly concentrates on how to improve the existing consumer decision support in making purchase decisions. This study [23] employed the DSS approach in the B2C e-commerce environment to suggest web designers to support with details on displays, searching strategies and appropriate advice. This study focused on intermediary decision – maker, such as web

designer, the technical person who is not the key decisionmaker of an organisation. Even though [16] developed a DSS tool in the website development perspective in the small business sector in Australia, and the study addressed the using of the spreadsheet as a DSS tool in conjunction with the level of capital needed for the small business website development. The notion was to propose a method that can be used by small businesses to assist in determining the actual website features that they should implement on their websites in a staged approach. There will be many different costs associated with the setup and ongoing maintenance of the website. This study [16] developed the DSS tool for determining the cost of website development that can be considered as a cash-flow analysis as early researchers have employed. Above pieces of evidence suggested that there is a little research to develop a DSS framework for assisting small business owner/managers in making strategic decisions, especially in selecting competitive features on their website. In this context, a high need to develop a support system, for a possible solution. Hence, we outlined theoretical proposition for the potential solution to the research problem. Theoretical Proposition 1: There is a great necessity to develop a DSS framework with the participation of small business owners/managers as business decision makers. Thus, this DSS can support owners/managers for making the strategic decisions to select relevant features on their websites in the B2C e-commerce environment by employing the analysis of internal and external business environment and associated factors. The next section designs the research methodology for conducting the study in the B2C e-commerce environment. III.

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

A. Philosophical Assumptions The research design is the intersection of philosophical assumptions, strategies of research enquiries and specific research methods [25]. All research whether they are quantitative or qualitative depends on some underlying philosophical assumptions about what constitutes 'valid' research and which research methods are appropriate for conducting research [26]. The philosophical assumption is a “basic sets of beliefs that guide action”. Many researchers called “Philosophical assumptions” as paradigms, epistemologies, and ontology, or broadly considered research methodologies [25]. This study adopted constructivist ontology (philosophical assumption or paradigm) and the overall approach to research design for this study is qualitative and the strategy of enquiry by employing case study method with multiple cases. Constructivist research provides practical guidelines for understanding a context with multiple perspectives and diversities and generates theories. The constructivist research approach often “combines with interpretivist” and is typically seen as an approach to qualitative research [27]. For instance, in qualitative research enquiry, [28] define that the

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FTC 2016 - Future Technologies Conference 2016 6-7 December 2016 | San Francisco, United States constructivist ontology is a set of foundational principals in the form of propositional statements, and these researchers proposed 150 propositional statements based on their works, and these pioneers articulate the constructivist ontology for qualitative enquiries. In the same concept, to investigate the research problem and for a possible solution by using the constructivist ontology, an interpretive epistemology and a qualitative research methodology through multiple case studies. This study constructed theories based on empirical data from case studies. B. Case Study Method with multiple cases The purpose of the case study is to determine how managers actively engaged in the competitive B2C ecommerce environment. Interview questions have been designed to collect information concerning owners’/managers' perceptions of their experiences and strategic decisions in such environment to select competitive features on their websites to interact with consumers. It only based on information owners’/managers’ have on their experiences in the dynamic B2C e-commerce environment. Thus, this study can develop strategies to improve them through designing a DSS framework. A case study method is the valid way for our empirical enquiry that investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context [29]. As we adopted qualitative research method where a case study will be in a qualitative manner that aims to explore and explain contemporary real life situations of business. A case study method was selected also based upon the nature of our research questions. Such as, a case study design should be considered when the focus of the study is to answer “what”, “why”, “how” and “when” questions [30], [31]. Case studies also support multiple approaches in data collection and analysis processes [32], [33], [31]. Case studies with small businesses in the B2C online environment have assisted in identifying internal issues about the strategic decision-making in the selection of competitive features on their websites. Therefore, the data collected through multiple cases generated lists of internal factors and constructed series of theoretical propositions (empirical outcomes) that reinforces the development of a DSS framework in the research. C. Case study participate selection and sampling The samples are often small in qualitative research [34]. In business and management research, the focus is usually on a single organisation [31]. However, that is not a fixed rule [34]. In the same way, this study was considered to investigate twenty small business organisations in the B2C sector in Australia, which have the web presence. Our process is based on a purposive sampling. Purposive sampling selects those subjects that are the particular individuals for whom improvement is desired. It is a popular method used in qualitative research because the researcher is concerned with selecting “information-rich” subjects and often has a predetermined target population [35]. In the similar notion, this study conducted case studies and made an effort to identify how small business owners/managers are making the strategic decision in the competitive e-commerce environment.

D. Data sources The contact details of small businesses have collected from the Yellow Pages of Australia. Qualitative data can be split into two main types: text and non-text data [36]. One of the sources of text data can be interview transcripts [36], [37]. This study is not interested in non-text data (video, images, audio) for the research. The qualitative data sources of this study are interview scripts with open questionnaires with some structured demographic questions by employing case studies with small business owner/managers in the B2C e-commerce environment in Australia, and the data are in the form of texts. E. Data collection technique for the case studies This study constructed web-based questionnaires for the collection of research data. Questionnaires can be distributed face-to-face, by post and via the website [36]. However, our study created web-based semi-structured interview questionnaires for many advantages. These include: a webbased data collection and management system ensure the data integrity. It also increases the accuracy and reliability of the data by reducing the opportunities for human error. Moreover, web-based data collection and management save time in all phases of research studies. Finally, it helps to reduce research costs that are more important for conducting a study [38]. This technique is convenient for both researchers and participants. F. Limitations of data collection Although, the data were collected through web-based semistructured questionnaires from small business owners/managers. We made phone-call invitation to small businesses owners/managers after sending the email with cover letter and relevant documents linked to research information. Some companies in Melbourne were reluctant to engage in formal face-to-face or online activities [39]. We experienced such difficulties during conducting case studies with small businesses. Most respondents denied participating as they are busy and do not have enough time to complete the interview questions, particularly face-to-face interviews, and many small business owners/managers were going overseas on holidays for 2-3 months during the period of the study. For instance, one of the small business owners in Australia replied, “Thank you for thinking of us, but unfortunately not interested”. Other small business owners in Australia replied through Facebook “I did receive your email, but I will not be participating. Please remove me from your listing. It is a policy of mine that I do not contribute to any questionnaires of any sort. Good luck with your research.” Moreover, “in qualitative research, analytical insights crop up during the data collection phase and the beginning of the qualitative data analysis” [39; p. 522]. Based on the empirical experiences, new theoretical propositions (NTP) are proposed. NTP 2: The empirical pieces of evidence during conduct case studies suggest that lack of interest, responsiveness and engagement in research and development could be one of the significant internal factors of small businesses. Thus, small business owners/managers may not be able to make any strategic business decisions in the B2C e-commerce environment that are necessary for their business performance.

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FTC 2016 - Future Technologies Conference 2016 6-7 December 2016 | San Francisco, United States NTP 3: The empirical pieces of evidence during conduct case studies also suggest that web-based data collection through case studies is more efficient than face-to-face case studies in the B2C e-commerce business environment as all small business owner/managers are predominantly busy or have no time for a face-to-face interviewing. Therefore, after achieving the ethical approval for conducting the study, we sent them the URL of interview questionnaires through email and waits for their responses. At last, we received five responses, after sending 100 direct emails to small businesses in Australia and Auckland. IV.

A. Top-down and bottom-up approaches In the top-down concepts, we analysed data that are generated from the research literature and test theories. In the bottom-up approach, the qualitative project is designed to be exploratory in nature and theory building [31]. In this part of the study, the researcher adopted bottom-up qualitative research approaches. The study already developed theoretical propositions through the literature review. This process is topdown analysis and conducted case studies for evaluating the theory. Thus, the study develops new concepts and theories based on findings from case studies which are an exploratory in nature and bottom-up data analysis approach. This study also adopted content analysis approach to analyse interview scripts. B. Content Analysis Approach TABLE I. References

ADVANTAGES OF CONTENT ANALYSIS Advantages of Content Analysis Paradigm



It provides the researchers with a structured method for quantifying the contents of qualitative or interpretative texts in a simple, clear and easily repeatable format.



It searches text for and counting recurring words or themes.



It analyses texts (interview transcripts, diaries or documents), rather than observation based field notes.



Notably, it assists researchers to qualitative data reduction and sense making.



It assists condensed the volume of qualitative materials and attempts to identify core consistencies and meanings.



Content analysis is a method that may be used with either qualitative or quantitative data and in an inductive or deductive way.

[31]

[42]

C. Inductive Content Analysis Approach TABLE II.

DATA ANALYSIS APPROACHES

Data analysis typically is based on the philosophical, methodological and theoretical perspectives that researchers adopt. These foundations are gradually coherent as the aim is to continue to reflect on their research experiences while conducting research [41]. Qualitative data can be analysed and interpreted in many different ways. The basic techniques of qualitative data analysis we used are the top-down and bottomup approaches [31].

[40]

The “Content Analysis” broadly applies to text analysis by using a range of strategies. Researchers typically use the computer for large scale sample of texts for analysis and the procedure is known as “Content Analysis” [41]. Table I illustrates the main advantages of content analysis paradigm. This study used NVivo software for content analysis of participants’ interview scripts. This study adopted inductive content analysis approach.

ADVANTAGES OF INDUCTIVE CONTENT ANALYSIS PARADIGM

References

[40]

[43]

[44]

Advantages of Inductive Content Analysis Paradigm  It begins with immersion in the details and specifics of the inquiry to discover meaningful patterns, themes, and interrelationships among texts.  Data analysis is looking for themes and patterns across case studies.  It begins with immersion in the details and specifics of the inquiry to discover meaningful patterns, themes, and interrelationships among texts.  The inductive analysis is guided by the rational principle rather than by rules and ends with a creative synthesis.  Theory emerges from cases (grounded theory)  The inductive analysis is often related to qualitative analysis and discovery-based research.  An inductive content analysis is typically used for qualitative data analysis.  However, one unique characteristic of qualitative content analysis is the flexibility of using inductive or deductive approaches or a combination of both methods in data analysis.  In the inductive approach, codes, categories, or themes are directly drawn from the data.

The inductive content analysis is used in cases where no previous studies are dealing with the phenomenon [42]. Table II shows the advantages of inductive content analysis in qualitative research that motivated us to adopt inductive content analysis approach in this study. Moreover, in qualitative research, inductive analysis generates new concepts, explanations, results, and theories from the specific data [40]. Therefore, the study involves in segmenting the data and reassembling them with the aim of transforming the data into findings. Findings can be descriptions that are more or less theoretical as well as interpretative explanations of the research topic [34]. This study adopted qualitative inductive data analysis paradigm by conducting case studies with small business owners/managers that have generated many new concepts, explanations related to findings. Therefore, new theories/concepts have constructed following sections based on findings from case studies with small businesses. D. Data Reduction Techniques in Qualitative Research The first step in qualitative data analysis is a concern with data reduction. Therefore, many researchers suggested for data reduction processes [45], [34], [31], [46]. Table III illustrates the summary of suggestions provided by researchers.

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FTC 2016 - Future Technologies Conference 2016 6-7 December 2016 | San Francisco, United States TABLE III.

DATA REDUCTION TECHNIQUE IN QUALITATIVE RESEARCH

References [45] [34]

[31]

[46]

Data Reduction Techniques  Selecting, coding and categorising data  Breaking up and separating of research materials into pieces, parts, elements or units  Coding that can be word is used to describe or summarise a sentence, a paragraph, or even a whole piece of text, such as an interview script.  Coding, categorising, concept building and theories/assertions

In Table III, [45] suggested for data reduction in the qualitative analysis through selecting, coding and categorising the texts. [34] recommends the data (such as text) reduction in qualitative analysis through breaking up, separating of research data into pieces or units. The study [31] proposed ways of data reduction and analysis of qualitative data through coding where the code can be a word, short phrase that can be used for describing or summarising a sentence, a paragraph or a whole piece texts (e.g., interview script). Saldana [46] proposed not only the qualitative data reduction technique but recommended for qualitative analysis through data coding, categorising, concept building and develop theories/assertions that are illustrated in Fig. 1, known as streamlined codes-to-theory model. We adopted the streamlined codes-to-theory model [46] for data reduction and qualitative data analysis as other researchers [45], [34], [31] only focused on data reduction techniques, but they did not the emphasis on concept and theory building. There is a different understanding of the term “coding”. Coding is the process of developing codes, categories the texts and making concepts [47]. The code is also a researchergenerated construct that translates data and interprets individual data for following purposes of pattern detection, categorization, proposition development, theory building and other analytical processes [46].

business owners/managers prefer to sell their products local market although most of them have websites. B. Findings based on Small Business owner/manager Profiles There is a significant internal issue exists in the small businesses about the lack of competencies and knowledge of owners/managers to use advanced ICT in the selection of relevant features on their websites to interact with the potential consumers in the B2C e-commerce environment. C. Findings based on Owner/Manager Problem Awareness Almost all small business had known the online shopping problem in Australia. Some small businesses are offering products with higher prices due to imported goods selling to local consumers. However, overseas competitors are selling the same products direct to Australian consumers in low prices that influence consumers purchase from overseas websites. D. Findings based on Owner/Manager Understanding and Knowledge regarding Internal and External Organisational Environment There is a lack of understanding and knowledge of majority small business owners/managers regarding internal and external business environments and associated factors that are significant in making strategic decisions to select relevant competitive features on their websites to attract consumers in the B2C e-commerce environment. E. Findings Based on Small Business Internal Strengths/Available Resources and their Strategies to Increase Strengths to Making Opportunities Although the majority of small businesses have greater ranges of products as the internal strength, however, only one business has the strategy to provide relevant product information on the business website that could ultimately help to fascinate consumers. F. Findings Based on Small Business Internal Weaknesses and Strategies to Minimise them to Make Opportunities. As nearly half of the small business owner/manager, internal weakness is the lack of ICT skills. However, their strategic decisions are not relevant to address this significant issue internally in the B2C e-commerce environment.

Fig. 1. A Streamlined Codes-to-Theory Model [46] for qualitative data analysis

The data analysis typically involves explaining the findings, answering “why” questions, attaching significance to particular results, and putting patterns into an analytical framework” [40]. This study employs the “Streamlined Codes to - Theory Model” [46] by using the inductive data analysis paradigm in qualitative study. Thus, we first describe and then explain the findings, and connecting significance to particular results and finally proposing new concept or theoretical propositions. The next section describes the summary of findings from case studies. V.

FINDINGS FROM CASE STUDIES

A. Findings based on Small Business Profiles There is a significant internal issue exists in conjunction to reach the wider online market because the majority of small

G. Findings Based on Small Business External Opportunities and their Strategies to Accomplish them. Although the majority of small business owner/managers reflect their external opportunities to increase sales via websites, however, they did not mention how they have made strategies or plan to accomplish such opportunities. H. Findings based on Small Business External Threats and their Strategies to Minimising them. Findings from case studies confirm that the most of the small business owners/managers do not have practical and systematic strategies to minimise external threats, such as to compete with their competitors in the B2C e-commerce environment, although the majority of small business owners/managers have recognised their external threat as competitors.

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FTC 2016 - Future Technologies Conference 2016 6-7 December 2016 | San Francisco, United States I. Findings based on Small Business Awareness about Overseas Competitors who Sell to Australia. The findings through case studies confirm that most of the small business owners/managers do not know who are their overseas competitors as they are particularly concentrated on local competitors although the majority of small business owners/managers have recognised their external threat as competitors. J. Findings based on Small Business Awareness about levels of Adoption on Overseas Competitor website features through which who Sell to Australia The empirical study found one of the internal issues as most of the owners/managers do not have knowledge about the adoption level features of the overseas websites (competitor websites) through which they sell to Australia. Moreover, they do know how to maintain their website features. K. Findings based on Small Business Owner/manager strategy to select relevant features on their websites in the B2C e-commerce environment. There is a requirement of developing a support system, such as a practical DSS framework because the majority of the owners/managers do not have own strategies that can assist them in making strategic decisions to select competitive features on their websites in the B2C e-commerce environment. The next section outlines these findings in the conceptual DSS framework. VI.

OUTLINE FINDINGS IN THE CONCEPTUAL DSS FRAMEWORK

This study proposed a conceptual DSS framework for a possible solution to the research problem raised. This DSS framework is based on the existing model [10]. This model [10] is also known as MRT model. Some dynamic factors associated with decision processes are also part of the MRT model, and one of the factors is environmental forces [48]. This study considers the B2C e-commerce environment and associated factors (external and internal as discussed) for the design. Thus, this study extended this model by adapting [22], and user-centered DSS models, where the user-centered DSS meets the decision-makers’ contextual needs in their businesses [22]. The model [10] consists of the three phases: identification, development and selection phases (see Fig. 2).

Fig. 2. Outline the findings in a conceptual DSS framework

Throughout these decision process phases, owners/managers can use methods to identify problems and opportunities, and find alternative paths for potential solutions

to the product being purchased from overseas websites. Therefore, using the findings from case studies we outlined the conceptual DSS framework to determine how small business owners/managers can make strategic decisions at different phases to select competitive features on their websites. These phases are described as follows. A. Identification Phase This phase comprises two routines: “recognition” and “diagnosis”. 1) Recognition routine: The “recognition” routine initiates the decision process by recognising problems and opportunities. In the problem ‘recognition routine’, all owners/managers have awareness regarding online shopping problem in Australia and majority of owners/managers know external threat as their competitors. In the opportunity ‘recognition routine’, although the majority of small business owners/managers reflect their external opportunities to increase sales via websites, however, they do not know how to make strategies to accomplish such opportunities. 2) Diagnosis routine: In the “Diagnosis” routine, further information is required to define and clarify the previously recognised problem or opportunity. Therefore, information is needed for owners/managers in strategic decision-making where a strategic decision focuses on analysing both internal and external business environment and associated factors [10] and involves in qualitative judgements [49]. Typically, the internal environmental analysis includes identifying strategic factors crucial to the success of an organisation. It also determines the importance of each of these factors, identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the organisation in each of these factors, and finally, preparing a strategic advantage profile for the organisation and comparing it with profiles of successful competitors in the industry [50]. Examples of internal factors are skills and knowledge, technology use, and management strategies [51], such as, “organisations’ objectives, strengths and problems” [52, p. 236]. The external business factors are customer demands, general economic condition, regulations, new technology and competition [51], [52]. Therefore, this study considers smallbusiness external factor analyses and involves an examination of how competitors are using their websites. The internal factors are small business owner/managers’ knowledge, skills and strategies for the use of advanced technology. Also, their strategic decisions are internal factors in selecting relevant website features on their websites. Although the majority of small businesses have greater ranges of products as the internal strength, however, only one business has the strategy to provide relevant product information on the business website that will ultimately help to fascinate consumers. Even they do not recognize overseas competitors who sell to Australia although they know the online shopping problem in Australia. This study also found that nearly half of the small business internal weakness is the lack of advanced ICT skills, but their strategies are not identical to counter the weakness.

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FTC 2016 - Future Technologies Conference 2016 6-7 December 2016 | San Francisco, United States In the notion of external opportunity analysis, this study identified that the majority of small business owners/managers thought their external opportunity is to increase sales via websites, however, they did not provide any indication how to make such strategy to increase sales. In the concept of external threat analysis, this study found that the mainstream of small business owners/managers recognised their external threat as their competitors, but they do not have practical and systematic strategies to minimise external threats. Moreover, many of them were not interested about overseas competitors who sell to Australia, particularly, they concentrated on local competitors. In the concept of owner/managers’ strategic decision to select relevant features on their websites, the most of them depend on web designer and consultants. Even, they do not know how to make the strategic decision to select competitive features on their websites in the B2C e-commerce environment. B. Development Phase This phase involves a set of activities that generates one or more solutions. This phase has two routines including “search’’ and “design”. 1) Search routine: First is the “search” routine that seeks at finding ready-made solutions. 2) Design routine: Second is the “design” routine that aims to develop a new solution or modify ready-made ones. In this phase, owners/managers can formulate or develop a decision model, set the criterion for the choice, and search for alternatives. This study found during the conduct of case studies where many small business owners/managers are predominantly busy, and they do not have time to participate, response and engage in research and development activities. Therefore, the user-centered DSS model [22], will be used for developing a practical DSS solution framework with a small number of owners’/managers’ participation. C. Selection Phase In MRT Model, [10] suggested that the “Selection Phase” (see Fig. 2) is typically a multi-stage iterative process of decision making. Three routines emerged from this phase: screen, evaluation-choice and authorization. 1) Recognition routine: The selection phase starts with a “screening routine”, which is activated to eliminate any impractical alternatives. 2) Evaluation-choice routines: Through a process of analysis, next, the best alternative can be selected in the “evaluation-choice routine”. 3) Authorization routine: Finally, the decision goes through the “authorisation routine”. This routine involves an authorised decision-maker for making the strategic decision that relates to the selection of competitive website features. Competitive features for small business websites are categorised based on the business information (I), communication (C), transaction (T) and distribution (D) processes in the virtual organisation context by [53].

VII.

DISCUSSIONS AND CONCLUSION

This paper presented brief details of our DSS design study. The aim of this paper is to develop a practical DSS framework based on findings from the case studies with small business owners/managers in the B2C e-commerce environment. We have conducted case studies with small businesses and identified the internal issues related to owners’/managers’ strategic decision-making about adopting competitive features on their websites – so the consumer interactions can be maximised. New theoretical propositions (NTPs) have been constructed based on finding from case studies which represented the internal issues. The significant issues are the lack of realisation of their business objectives, lack of relevant communication skills, and lack of competency in ICT use related to the improvement of owners’/managers’ strategic decision making in their context. These issues recognise a clear need for designing a context specific practical DSS solution. We used [10] MRT Model to determine how small business owners/managers make the strategic decision in the competitive B2C e-commerce environment. Thus, this study developed strategies to improve them through designing a practical DSS framework. The findings from case studies produced the problem definitions related to internal and external business environment and associated factors that are of significant for meeting the strategic decision-making requirements in the B2C e-commerce environment. Rolling from the development Phase of MRT Model [10], next phase we will develop the practical DSS by adapting [22] practitioner-oriented DSS model for the possible solution to our research problem as discussed in the paper. Our contribution goes to the field of DSS research as our object is to enhance the current theory and practices relevant to the personal DSS design, which is defined as a small scale IS development for a manager or a small number of independent users to support their decision-making task [54] [55]. [1] [2] [3]

[4]

[5] [6]

[7] [8]

[9]

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