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Research Proposal
The diffusion of GIS for (UK and) China: organisational,
political and technological implications for development
in business area
Focus on :
Aims and Methodology
Zunqiu Chen
23rd of June 2000
1. Title:
The diffusion of GIS for (UK and) China: organisational, political and technological
implications for development in business area
2. Why do I need do this research:
2.1 Background:
A number of organisations have successfully applied GIS to their marketing
intelligence and analysis needs. For example: Arby’s, Burger King, The Olive
Garden, Macdonald’s used GIS for market analysis, franchisee selection and
placement, sit location analysis, and demographic profiling (Battista, 1995)
2.2 Problems:
Despite some significant success stories, there has been only a slow diffusion of
awareness of the benefit and application of site evaluation techniques in retailing
generally, and the application of GIS in particular (Clarke, 1995)
2.3 Reasons:
The lack of integration for GIS into business planning process has impeded the
diffusion of geographic information system in business area of developed country as
well as developing country.
At the same time, yet many members of the business research community have
actively examined this technology to date (Mennecke, 1999).
To date, no systematic, theoretically grounded study of GIS implementation across
multiple private-sector organisations has been published (Mennecke, 1999).
Then, there is the issue of How to stimulate and accelerate the diffusion of geographic
information system in business marketing area.
1
Clarke (1995) states that four types of factors that have hindered the development of
the use of GIS:
The balance between costs and benefits
The historical development of location and locational marketing strategy within
retail businesses
Establishment of the role of GIS
An appreciation of the competitive advantage to by gained by appropriate use of
GISs
Briefly, the elements affect the integration of GIS into business marketing can be
divided into 3 categories: Technological Determinism, Organisational Determinism,
and Social Interactionism.
3. Aims and Objectives:
Bearing these three principles in mind, the research will use GIS through which to
explore experiences of business geographic information systems development in (UK
and) China:
A number of firms and agencies, in (UK and) China, will be investigated to provide
the necessary information in understanding the business private-sectors in the
undertaking of geographic information systems for their marketing location strategy
decision. The main aims of this thesis are:
To evaluate the process of geographic information technology adoption in the
organisational context and to explore the strategy (if any) of making geographical
information technology choices
To identify in detail where significant GIS adoption has taken place such as site
location analysis, trade area analysis, competitive analysis, etc.
To explore the broader contextual factors, external and internal to agencies, that
may have affected GIS development
To assess how GIS has improved marketing strategy decision making within (UK)
and China
To outline the factors which are necessary for successful implementation of GIS
in developing countries based on implementation experiences of China.
2
With these aims in mind this study explores the following, more specific issues,
involved in the implementation of geographic information systems in those private-
sector of China:
The role of government has been considered as critical for influencing the
diffusion of geographic information systems in organisations and societies, and in
the development of supportive geographic information systems infrastructures and
capabilities. This research, therefore, finds it is necessary to explore issues at
national policy level as well as issues at the levels of individual behaviour and
organisational factors including political systems, cultural difference, data
accessibility, user education, etc. Information from these levels provides a picture
of the elements that creates (UK or ) China’s GIS environment.
A survey conducted by Oxford Institute for Retail Management suggested the
relative balance between the costs and benefits of GIS and the historical
development of location and marketing strategy within retail managers slow the
adoption of GIS. The research will seek to evaluate how far this issue is true in the
case of UK/China’s GIS initiatives.
In addition, some (Bawden, 1989, Masser and Campbell, 1991; Goodman, 1993;
Campbell and Masser, 1995) have argued that in the implementation of
information technology, many organisations have failed to draw management
information strategies to identify, for example, user requirements, because of the
lack of the types of information available and ways of sharing data. This has often
resulted in a mismatch between user needs and what they receive. This problem is
views as the reason for GIS data management, decision making (such as decision-
making effectiveness) and collaboration. The researches will evaluate how far
these issues are relevant to China’s organisations.
4. How to carry out the research
3
Firstly, I will do literature review. What relevant researches have been done? How
have they been done? What kind of methodology they adopted? What is the
shortcoming? Etc.
Then, theory in organisation and marketing strategy will be reviewed and theoretical
framework will be developed as to guide the empirical and analytical aspects of the
research. At the same time, I will undertake the study of business geographic
information systems to examine the criteria of evaluating business geographic
information systems that will contribute to the research of managing and using GIS
related to technical issues.
For example, in marketing location strategy decision, firstly, I should understand what
retailers need in a more aggressive market environment, e.g.
Monitor their external environment with greater rigour
Manage the information flows within the organisation more effectively and major
decisions with greater certainty
Regarding to Business GIS functions and applications, I have known as the follows:
4
Presently, I reviewed the following models:
1. Mennecke’s model.
Research framework for business and management application
This model, to some extent, illustrates the whole procedure of GIS application in a
certain environment. It reflects what kind of information and elements should be
considered and collected in the management & use of GIS. For example, what kinds
of data need to be considered in the data management and the relationship with other
elements showing well in the following framework:
5
A Conceptual Model of a Geographic Information System Used For Decision Support
But this model did not explore and illustrate the relationship among GIS
implementation, organisation as well as society. Further theoretical perspectives need
to be explored.
2. The level of organisational information system model
Source: Adapted from Sauer,C. (1983, p;75)
6
The objective of web approaches in this sense is to ensure that all possible factors are
investigated in order to understand the organisational context in which GIS is being
implemented.
From that, we can see theoretical framework will lead to guide what kind of
information should be collect as well as the information collection methodology.
4.1 Research focus and methodology
In this step, first, I will focus on how to choose the firms/agencies, which I want to
investigate. Firstly, They should use GIS in their business planning. They should
concentrate more on marketing-strategy as well as general information needs
distinguished from other different types of agencies across (UK and) China. The
firms/agencies also need to be characterised by other distinctive organisational issues.
These relate mainly to technology, human support, and actors that are responsible for
handling, maintaining, and storing, analysing information. These key differences
make it useful to develop a guiding framework to ensure that information from these
firms/agencies was assessed usefully. This framework comprised:
Identification of the firms/agencies for business GIS
Development of guide questions for GIS-related information
4.1.1 Fieldwork Planning and Development
A major objective of the fieldwork was to gather information that could provide
descriptions of firms organisational behaviour in administering and implementing
business GIS, and consequently to observe efforts toward meeting their business
planning goals. At this level, the study of processes and actions and how these are
conditioned by and in turn condition contexts are at the very heart of this research.
‘process’ or ‘action’ is both historical and idiosyncratic.
The theoretical framework was used as a general guide to direct the fieldwork, and in
attempting to explain what was found in the empirical work.
7
4.1.2 Approach to information collection
In order to obtain a better understanding of the interaction of different levels, equal
attention was devoted to policy and business Geographic information systems in the
empirical work. A multi-method approach to information collection including direct
observation, interviews, both structured and semi-structured, and extensive use of
archive and other secondary information was adopted. Information will be derived
from multiple levels within firms/agencies and between firms/agencies extending
across regions and the types of organisational actors will be assumed to involve in
contribution. Information will also come from several different levels of professional
and administrative hierarchies.
4.1.3 Pilot Study
Before to carry out the real fieldwork, a pilot study is necessary to be undertaken.
The main aims of the pilot study are:
1. To identify new contact persons and agencies related to business GIS and
marketing location strategy decision
Firstly, use letter to contact firms. Confirmation of appointments can be made by
telephone or email.
2. To develop and improve questions design and format (ability to be understood by
the interviewee answers) and to highlight new issues which may be not initially
included in the interview questions.
3. To highlight problems with practicalities: access, estimation of time required per
firm and area, time of travel between areas, use of tape recorder, expenses
required, etc.
The initial views will greatly help to strengthen the research scope and to identify
relevant issues for further exploration.
8
For example: the pilot study might show that the researcher’s initial assumption and
knowledge of each firm’s IS facilities are too simplistic. Different approaches are
required to gain access to each firm.
In addition to understanding the situational issues, many additional names and officers
might be suggested by interviewees. At the end of the pilot study the shortlist of firms
will be finally selected based on a criteria for selection.
4.1.4 Main fieldwork programme
4.1.4.1 Target selection
Following the pilot study firms to be interviewed in the main fieldwork programme
were grouped into several categories:
First, firms actively involved in marketing location strategies decision and need
GIS consultant to help them undertake marketing location strategies decision.
Second, consultant agencies actively involved in business geographic information
systems
Third, firms involved both with marketing location decision strategies and
business GIS evaluating.
4.1.4.2 Information collection techniques
The key methods employed to collect information for this study were first, structured
and semi-structured interviews, guided by set of pre-established questions. Responses
for both types of interview will be tape-recorded (if possible) and, additional notes
were taken. Second, direct observation will be carried out at several firms/agencies.
Third, secondary information collection will be undertaken involving archive
searches, internal and external departmental publications, memos, and letters. More
detailed discussion of these methods follows:
interviews
9
Names of firms that will be planned to be interviewed are divided into several
convenient sectors according different geographic areas.
Structured and semi-structured interviews will be used to capture two levels of
information. Structured interviews will be used to obtain, first, an inventory of
computerised facilities in each organisation; and second, to seek clarification and
elaboration of issues particularly related to technical matters. The following guideline
questions might be devised as a basis for the interviews carried out in this structured
format:
1. level of office automation
availability of personal computers
availability of office automation software
2. level of computerisation and availability of Management Information Systems
(MIS)
computerisation in the organisation
availability of MIS
3. Availability of business GIS
Business GIS application
Business GIS database & data structures
Data administration and management procedures
- Database design, data acquisition, data communication, data visualisation,
and multimedia systems.
Business GIS task definition
Business GIS implementation and integration
Planned Business GIS operation
- the layout of the feature on the screen
- the colour and saturation of display objects
- the number and type of display objects used
- the nature of the input and output devices
4. Area of coverage
Relevant digitised database coverage
Coverage level of administration area
5. Classification as information provider or user
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(Depend on type of information available and provided to or required by other
organisation)
6. Information transfer
7. Information sharing and confidentiality
Structured interviews might be carried out with technical staff and such as system
analysts, systems engineers and marketing location strategy planners.
Semi-structured interviews might be used to provide qualitative depth by allowing
interviewees to talk about a subject in terms of their own frames of reference. In other
words the researcher won’t apply a rigid set of questions beforehand because the
purpose is to “understand the issues in the interviewee’s own terms”. The following
themes for example, will be used to guide the discussion with the technical
committee:
The key issues and challenges in launching Business GIS
How business GIS is different to previous traditional GIS
The role of business GIS in helping to firm to develop an integrated marketing
location strategies decision
Direct observation
The main aim of using a direct observational method was to support and cross-check
against information gathered from interviews and secondary source. Webb et al.
(1966) argued that one great strength of observational methods lies in the ease through
which the researcher can gain entrée to the setting, because it is unobtrusive and does
not require direct interaction with participants.
Secondary sources
Secondary information collection will be carried out to understand events and
relationships of past and present situations. For example, before carrying out
interviews searches will be made to develop appropriate questions for selected issues.
After the interviews were conducted, further documentary searches were required to
compare the interviewee’s interpretation and those recorded in documents relating to
11
those events such as firms annual reports including statistical reports from educational
departments, statistics departments and human resource departments; economic and
financial reviews; legal documents; and historical literature on business marketing
development.
The final phase of fieldwork involved gathering comparative information on business
GIS in the context of UK/China. Documented material on development and
geographic information technology (in particular on business geographic information
technology) will be searched as further secondary sources.
4.1.2 Information analysis
Information analysis will be divided into four main stages
Organising structured interview material;
Translating and transcribing structured and semi-structured interviews;
Classifying and analysing transcribed information
Coding the transcribed information
4.1.2.1 organising interview material
Structured information consisted of written notes relating to quantitative and semi-
quantitative information, such as existing and planned computerised facilities, and
taped-recorded answers which were generally used to clarify the written notes. The
products from these interviews will be organised into tables, and recorded material
will be translated and transcribed for subsequent interpretation alongside the tabular
information. Problems and issues highlighted by the officer, such as data and
communication for example, are also included in this analysis.
4.1.2.2 translating and transcribing
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Translation will be required because part of interviews will be conducted in the
Chinese language. As each recording will be transcribed it will be also translated into
English.
4.1.2.3 classifying and analysing information using qualitative software
To help make sense of the information collected, the qualitative data software package
: Minitab/SPSS/HyperRESEARCH might be used. As Crang (1997) notes, the time
needed for learning a software package should not be underestimated, although this
can sometimes form a barrier rather than helping the analysis to progress. In addition,
different software packages have their own strengths and weaknesses.
HyperRESEARCH provide more sophisticated ways of storing and accessing,
exploring and constructing knowledge from the data. HyperRESEARCH takes a
specific approach to hypothesis testing. However, in general these packages maintain
similar basic capabilities and, they offer assistance in the management of complex
data. Crang (1997) argued that “ they help speed up sorting through your materials, so
instead of piles of paper or coloured pens the computer keeps codes assigned to
different sections of text… the allow very quick retrieval of all sections labelled with
a certain code” (p.187)
In this study the software will be used to help analyse information within
organisations to make comparison between firms/agencies, (and to compare China
organisations with those in UK.)
For this research enormous files will be created containing interviews and secondary
sources, with each file comprising, on average, several pages of text. Each case will
be allocated on folder which contains files (documents) from related interviews. The
next stage is to identify key common factors within each folder, through the process
of ‘coding’.
4.1.2.4 coding
13
The process of coding might take many forms (This is based on the software of
HyperRESEARCH). For this study auto-coding might be used as a start to scan
phrases and words most commonly appeared in documents such as training, skills,
education, etc. The purpose of auto-coding, then, is to carry out a quick preliminary
coding of each document. Many levels of re-coding are necessary to create a better
understanding of the codes thus generated. When these auto-codes are reviewed the
package allows one to read the coded passage ad to refine descriptions. This process is
repeated several times so that meanings of themes raised in interviews became clearer.
An example of the coding process:
4.1.2.5 Analysing and Reporting
HyperRESEARCH will be used to explore relationships between codes for the
different cases and to identify which cases contain certain combinations of codes,
helping to draw out themes that are embedded in the information. Using these
information, issues related to organisational, technical and institutional factors from
both focal and broader contexts into several perspectives will be evaluated; some
understanding of the relationships within the business GIS’s social contexts-
participants, the infrastructure and previous commitments to the broader environment,
such as social and political elements will also be produced.
14
5 Contribution
The finding will provide more information about managing GIS through the
implementation and operational phases of its life cycle. This research will reveal the
problem in depth related to organisational impacts of GIS, collaborative issues,
decision-making effectiveness, and factors affecting human perception. It will
generate a better understanding this technology and its role in managing and operating
business organisations in marketing location strategy decision. Therefore, the
information from this research will contribute to the development of a strategy for
enforcing the application of business GIS.
6 Reference
Battista, C. (1994) Billboard Companies Drop Pushpins for Geographic
Technologies. Business Geographies, Vol.2, No.3, pp: 34-35
Campbell, H. and Masser, I. (1995) GIS and Organisations: How effective are GIS
in practice? Taylor and Francis, London
Crang, M. (1997) Analysing Qualitative Materials, In: Flowerdew, R. and Martin, D.
(eds.) Methods in Human Geography: a guide for students doing a research project,
pp: 183-196, Longman, Essex
Clarke, I. And Rowley, J. (1995) A Case for Spatial Decision-support Systems In
Retail Location Planning. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management
Vol.23, No.3, pp: 47-54
Mennecke, B.E. (1997) Understanding the Role of Geographic Information
Technologies in Business: Application and Research Directions. Journal of
Geographic Information and Decision Analysis. Vol.1, No.1, pp: 44-68
Bawden, D. (1989) The Evaluation of Information Systems, Aldershot, Gower
15
Goodman, P.S. (1993) Implementation of New Information Technology, In: Masser,
I. And Onsrud, H.J. (eds.) Diffusion and Use of Geographic Information
Technologies, pp: 45-57, Kluwer Academic, The Netherlands
Masser, I. And Campell, H. (1991) Conditions for The Effective Utilisation of
Computers in Urban Planning in Developing Countries. Computers, Environment and
Urban Systems, 15, pp: 55-67
Webb, E.J., Campbell, D.T., Schwartz, R.D. and Sechrest, L. (1966) Unobtrusive
Measures: non-reactive research in the social sciences, Rand McNally, Chicago
16