CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.4 D ATA COLLECTION
The research is based on the procedures outlined by Schmidit (1997) to refine and add suggested factors in an O2O project implementation. The systematic data collection procedure is illustrated in Table 9. This study conducts an interview process including three phases to conclude the resulting CSFs list and their interpretation of the results.
Table 9 The Delphi analysis procedure
Phase I
Phase I is to validate and expand the list of CSFs of O2O implementation. The initial list of CSFs is collected from previous literatures and broad case studies (Appendix 1). Although there are few literatures researching on O2O, especially the CSFs of O2O implementation, this study invited the experienced experts as panelists to compensate for lack of information. Since the purpose of first step was to concentrate on the CSFs list, the panelists were encouraged to provide feedback on the initial five CSFs of technology, six CSFs of management and five
CSFs of organization. The objectives were to validate existing lists and add new important factors, and the data were collected via face-to-face interviews (see survey of phase I in APPENDIX 2).
By the end of phase I, the list were expanded to seven CSFs of technology, eleven CSFs of management and nine CSFs of organization. You are able to find what suggested factors added into the list after phase I in Table 10. This study than analyzed the feedback from panelists who also shared their project implementation experience to interpret the result and modified the description of existing factors more specific. Then suggested factors were examined the similarity and difference with the existing lists. Similar factors were eliminated, while different factors were added into the lists. In technological dimension, "the aesthetics of website or app factor" are included into a definition of user interface design and user interface experience. "Flowing connectedness factor" is
Phase Description Outcomes
1 Validation
and expansion
Lists of technology, management and organization are presented to the panelists for validation.
Panelists are asked to add missing items.
The new items are combined and grouped.
2 Refinement
Each panelist selects his/her three less-observed items.
Items selected by majority of panelist are removed.
3 Reflection
Panelists are asked for descriptive supports to the highly
selected items based on cases experienced.
considered to be a part of "ease-of-use factor." Therefore, we added " user interface design factor" and removed "the aesthetics of website or app factor" and " Flowing connectedness factor." In management dimension, according to yahoo O2O project experience sharing, "accurate content promotion factor" and " Integral content delivered factor" were combined into "content management factor" which means the message pushed to customer must be proceeded garbage filtering, requirement analysis and the frequency of message pop-up. These activities must influence customer's satisfaction to this O2O application.
In this part, "accurate content promotion factor" and " Integral content delivered factor" were removed from the list. This research only added suggested factors in organization part via interview with a panel of experts. Definitions of some organizational factors have just been modified. Finally, the new lists include five CSFs of technology, seven CSFs of management and nine CSFs of organization. The explanatory reasons for suggested factor are presented with case study in the following chapter.
Table 10 Suggested factors provided by a panel of experts
Dimension Suggested factors Company Description Technology IT load balancing
capability
SKM, FamilyMart, Taishin Bank
A stronger back system having stable load balancing capability can sustain a great deal of traffic flow and message transmitting from both online and offline.
Integration of back-end database
SKM, FamilyMart
The seamless integration of different database storing various types of data supports business operation.
Management The quality of market research
McDonald Define the customer preferences and needs, buying habits by comprehensive market research to develop an application
O2O project with distinct feature
SKM A distinct feature will enhance the company brands.
Strategic execution capability
FamilyMart Important strategic and operational decisions are quickly translated into action between all
employees.
Project's goal is to be accepted and satisfied by end users. The project must include them to the development and testing phase.
Measure, monitor, and track
Yahoo McDonald's
Once an O2O project goes live, company must measure, monitor, and track the system’s effectiveness and user's active condition.
Organization Legislative compliance
SKM O2O project cannot regularly operate without following legislative requirement.
Employee engagement is a vital force for
productivity improvement, better patient outcomes and cost savings.
Effective horizontal communication
FamilyMart It decreases misunderstanding between
departments working on the same project, thereby increasing efficiency and productivity.
Establish a
measurable project goal
Taishin Bank Companies must define the critical project benefits that they expect their project to deliver.
In phase II, panelists were asked to select three less-observed factors from the randomized lists of factors (see survey of phase II in APPENDIX 2). Factors selected by a majority of panelists were eliminated (see the result of Phase II survey in APPENDIX 3, 4). The reduced lists changed to four CSFs of technology, five CSFs of management and four CSFs of organization. The objectives of this phase is to narrow down the lists of CSFs. The data collection was conducted via telephone and email. The results of each phase of Delphi approach in three dimensions are given in the following table (Table 11~13).
Table 11 The result of technological dimension
Table 12 The result of organization dimension
No Initial Phase I Phase II
1 Complete Staff training Complete Staff training Complete Staff training
2 Balanced team Balanced team Seamless the process of online
and offline channels 3 Seamless the process of
online and offline channels
Seamless the process of online and offline channels
Reinvent the company's future
4 Reinvent the company's future
Reinvent the company's future Establish a measurable project goal
5 Commitment to change Commitment to change
6 Legislative compliance
7 Better bottom-up employee
engagement
8 Effective horizontal communication
9 Establish a measurable project goal
6 9 4
No Initial Phase I Phase II
1 Ease-of-use application Ease-of-use application User Interface design User Interface design 2 Flowing connectedness Flowing connectedness Ease-of-use application Ease-of-use application 3 The aesthetics of website
or app
4 Stronger IT bone Stronger IT bone IT load balancing capability
IT load balancing capability 5 Accurately located
function
7 Integration of back-end
database
5 7 5 4
Table 13
The result of management dimensionNo Initial Phase I Phase II
1 Management Support Management Support Management Support Management Support 2 Promotion channel Promotion channel Effective CRM system Effective CRM system 3 Accurate content
promotion
Accurate content promotion
The quality of market research
Strategic execution capability
4 Effective CRM system Effective CRM system O2O project with distinct feature
Actively involve end users in solution design
5 Effective logistic mechanism
Effective logistic mechanism
Strategic execution capability
Measure, monitor, and track
6 Integral content delivered Integral content delivered
Actively involve end users in solution design
7 The quality of market
research
Measure, monitor, and track
8 O2O project with
distinct feature
9 Strategic execution
capability
10 Actively involve end
users in solution design
11 Measure, monitor, and
track
6 11 7 5