Introduction
Managers and business owners in the modern era engage with complex business environments, requiring unique skills to advance towards goals and objectives. Fortunately, evidence-based management techniques allow managers to apply scientifically proven solutions to managing people and processes. However, the wealth of information in journal databases and libraries makes the process of finding reliable data cumbersome and time-consuming. Thus, experts recommend analyzing the reliability of evidence-based management solutions by distinguishing the relevant PICOC elements to determine whether the information is relevant to theoretical problems or issues in question. Therefore, the following passages critically appraise the PICOC elements of an article that investigates the factors that enhance business superiority for women in the online industry in Indonesia.
Overview of Article and Rationale for Choosing It
The main discussion topics focused on the need to apply evidence-based management strategies to enhance business outcomes and assure goal achievement. Subsequently, managing personnel and individual skills is critical for positive development and realizing business objectives over time. As a result, it is vital to occasionally investigate the latest solutions adapted by professionals and experts in various fields of business management in their processes to single out interventions that will bear the most fruits. A critical skill for managers is self-development, to allow them to guide their staff towards the outcomes they desire for their businesses or institutions. Therefore, the peer-reviewed article by Sihotang et al. (2020), “Core competencies of women entrepreneur in building superior online business performance in Indonesia” is relevant for the PICOT analysis because it addresses the recommended solutions to advance online business practice among professionals in the E-commerce field.
Content Analysis Using the PICOT Elements
PICOT is an acronym that describes the population of the study, interventions applied to achieve results, the comparisons made, the outcomes of the study, and the context where the research is conducted. A PICOT analysis assumes that all elements of the research are critical to its success. Therefore, a PICOT appraisal provides detailed information about these elements as presented in a study, their accuracy, reliability, and relevance to the research.
Population
A population in a picot study refers to the programs of interest, groups of people, or the businesses used for the research study or the review. The study by Sihotang et al. (2020) sampled 500 online sellers from five of the most established eCommerce service providers in Indonesia. However, their pre-research showed that most entrepreneurs were women, constituting about 55% of the sample size, allowing them to select a group of 50 successful women, who exhibited superior business performance to determine the key competencies of success. Following the identification of the core competencies, the researchers selected a sample of 300 store owners and managers out of which 124 or 41.3% of the women entrepreneurs responded.
Interventions Applied in the Study
The study adopted both qualitative and quantitative research methods to obtain results. First, the researchers conducted a qualitative pre-research by contacting women identified as the most successful online entrepreneurs in the area using phone interviews. The pre-research established that partnership and digital development skills were the most critical to success (Sihotang et al., 2020). Subsequently, the researchers adopted qualitative techniques to verify the influences of these abilities in online business performance in Indonesia. Thus, they investigated whether these factors impact success separately and simultaneously.
Comparisons to Which the Interventions Are Compared
The eCommerce business in Indonesia is relevant for the study since it has grown rapidly over the past five years. However, it still lags when compared to nations like China and the US (Sihotang et al., 2020). Therefore, the researchers aimed to establish the phenomena behind online business performance in Indonesia. Nevertheless, the researchers based their study comparisons on results obtained from their pre-research, which suggested that online business performance sustainability in Indonesia was diverse since only 8% of women in the business exhibited superior performance, with steadily increasing sales (Sihotang et al., 2020). As a result, the researchers compared the qualities of these women to the women entrepreneurs whose sales slightly increased over a period (12%), occasionally fluctuated (35%), and underperformed (45%) over a specific timeline.
Outcomes of the Experiment
The pre-research established that the core competencies that impact women’s performance in the Indonesian online industry are partnership skills and digital marketing abilities. Therefore, the research sought to test whether these factors determine the success rates of women entrepreneurs. The research established that partnership development capabilities and digital marketing capabilities had a significant impact on online business development when applied separately. Nevertheless, they have a more significant impact on online business performance when applied simultaneously to advance a business. Therefore, the researchers established that women and other entrepreneurs can reach greater heights by familiarizing themselves with these skills for continuous development.
The Study Context
Although the researchers sampled a group of 500 online sellers from the highest performing eCommerce regions in Indonesia, they generally focused on the performance of women entrepreneurs in the eCommerce industry of Indonesia. However, their study sample reflects on the performance of women entrepreneurs in developing countries on other parts of the globe (Sihotang et al., 2020). However, the concepts in the study can be adopted on a wider scale to inform underperforming online businesses in developed nations since the theories are relevant to spearhead evidence-based practice.
Managers are responsible for directing individuals and assigning roles to enable staff to attain objectives more efficiently. As a result, managers and business owners should always be in the best position to offer reliable information to their subordinates using evidence-based management techniques to make decisions. On that account, the article by Sihotang et al. (2020) is vital to the development of management skills as it informs business owners of the qualities required to realize continuous improvement and good performance in the online or eCommerce industry. Moreover, it can guide managers and business owners on the factors that limit goal achievement and influence change. Therefore, the study is essential since it contributes to a wealth of knowledge about the best management practices to assure positive results.
Conclusion
Business organizations and industries are constantly changing due to a shift in market dynamics and various factors in the environment. Hence, managers should always find solutions to advance their knowledge, test relevant theoretical concepts in their fields, and empower their staff towards developing and advancing their skills. Thus, applying evidence-based management approaches by identifying relevant studies using PICOT approaches can help managers and business owners ensure continuous improvements. The highlighted research reinforces the need to develop digital capability and partnership skills for women in the online industry. However, the information is reliable and applicable in several other areas of the business industry.
Reference
Sihotang, J., Puspokusumo, R. A. A. W., Sun, Y., & Munandar, D. (2020). Core competencies of women entrepreneurs in building superior online business performance in Indonesia. Management Science Letters, 10(7), 1607-1612.