Organizational Innovation - Research Proposal Example

?Business Research Methods Table of Contents 3 Aim of the Research 4 Introduction 4 Research objectives 4 Research questions 5 Literature review 5 Research method 6 Research design 7 Data collection 8 Ethical considerations 8 Reference List 9 Abstract This paper looks into the importance of organizational innovation in the context of organizational effectiveness. Innovativeness is considered an important part of every organization and it is the key to organizational success. This paper studies the importance of innovative activities made by business organizations and investigates the nature of relation existing between innovative activities and effectiveness. In order to study this topic, the researcher would make use of primary as well as secondary data and analyse them using quantitative approach as well as qualitative approach. Statistical analysis of the data would help in understanding the relationship in a robust way and also allow illustrating the results in a visually comprehensive manner. Qualitative analysis of the data would help in gaining deep insights regarding employee behaviour that leads to the concerned level of organizational effectiveness. Aim of the Research The research work would be done with the aim of analyzing the impact of innovation on the level of organizational effectiveness in terms of organizational performance and efficiency of business strategies. Introduction Innovation has become the key to success and survival in the modern business world. During the late 1970s organizations faced a spacious business field with much lesser competition than the current business scenario. In the present business scenario, companies are operating in an intricate and complex external environment and a highly volatile market place (Vuuren, 2013). This paper aims at studying the level of organizational innovation and assessing the impact it casts on organizational effectiveness. To serve this purpose a global business firm has been chosen. The chosen company is Dell Computers. This company has a strong history of innovation and it is one of the leading companies in the field of technology. Research objectives In the current business platform, companies are required to make efforts to move beyond simple modification of their operating processes and take real innovative actions in terms of product features and service quality. Dell has a proven track record of making huge investment in its research and development department that enables the company to come up with ground breaking innovations. The company competes with the global leaders in the industry and ranks third after Hewlett-Packard Company (HP) and Lenovo. Dell makes constant innovations and utilizes modern technological knowhow in order to throw steep competition for its rivals. The company also updates itself with the changing preferences of its customer base. This fine tunes the new innovations of the company with demands of the market, which in turn increases organizational effectiveness. There are three research objectives of this study. The primary research objective is mentioned below, followed by the secondary and tertiary research objectives. To critically evaluate the theories of organizational innovation and study the manner in which organizational innovation might influence organizational effectiveness To investigate the company’s decision making in the context of their plans to expand their product range, other than computers, in the field of Information Technology To identify the strategies that might help Dell to beat the position of Hewlett Packard and become the leading supplier of personal computers in the world market Research questions The central topic that is being explored in this paper is the relationship between organizational innovation and organizational effectiveness. To study this topic the researcher has framed three research questions. These have been mentioned below: What are the implications of current business strategies on Dell’s current level of research and development department? Does high technological advancement directly affect organizational effectiveness of the company? How do innovative activities associate with the customer relationship activities of the company? Literature review Since the beginning of the twenty first century, business houses have faced the surge of rapid advancement. This push has been provided by a number of factors, change in organizational structure, managerial techniques and most importantly advancement in technology (Vuuren, 2013). Competition increased as more entrepreneurs entered into the various industries and wedged a strong competition with one another for market share as well as profits. In this context, organisations faced the immediate necessity to innovate. The extent of innovation pursued by a company also depends on the innovation level of its competitors. Dell exhibits highly innovative behaviour. This allows the company to enjoy the first mover’s advantage. When a company makes a new innovation, it becomes comparatively easier for the company to take over its competitors, by attracting a greater segment of customers. Recent research results have established strongly that, in order to remain competitive, organizations need to do something more than just improving product quality at regular intervals or managing the employee for a stable organizational performance (Greenhalgh and Rogers, 2006). Organizational leaders need to formulate policies that would encompass both the business level and operational level within the company. The strategies developed by the companies should serve the purpose of enhancing productivity and cutting costs, with the view of offering to its customers something new and more advanced than the older versions of the products of the company. This clearly defines the importance of organizational innovation in determining the organization’s effectiveness (Angrist and Cook-Deegan, 2006). Research method Research method is an important part of any research paper. The research method is selected by the researcher on the basis of the individual’s understanding of the issue that is being investigated as well as the availability of necessary and relevant information for conducting analysis of the information. This section specifically describes the method adopted by the researcher for developing the research design; the research approach, strategies and choices and technique of analysing the data on a qualitative or quantitative basis. Research design Research philosophy Scholars are of the view that the philosophy of any study is the base on which the success of the research outcome depends. Depending on the research philosophy, the methodology and the research strategy can be determined. There are two main types of research philosophy; positivism and interpretivism. Positivist research pattern is allocable to social sciences. It recognises the theories that exist and helps the researcher to develop hypotheses that can be tested statistically with the help of empirical data analysis. If the hypotheses are accepted, theory is established with the help of the empirical verification (Scharff, 2002). Interpretivist approach restricts the researcher to study the research topic from the point of view of human perceptions and human behaviour. It is mostly captured by non statistical variables; qualitative research methodology is appropriate for such studies. For this particular research, the researcher would adopt the positivist approach since the researcher aims at studying the validity of the theory regarding organization innovation and its impact on organization’s effectiveness. It would involve testing of hypotheses that have been generated from the study of literature and establishment of the theorem that is being studied. Research approach Most research works are made following either of two broad lines of reasoning. These are the inductive research approach and the deductive research approach. There is a wide debate existing on the relevance and effectiveness of these two research approaches. Deductive approach allows the researchers to develop a hypothesis on the basis of the theory described in existing literature. This hypothesis is tested in order to confirm the validity of the theory. It is the top-down approach. In the inductive approach, researchers are given the scope to explore the issue of research by making direct observations and make a tentative hypothesis that would ultimately lead to the construction of theory. It is the bottom up approach (Socialresearchmethods, 2006). In this research, the researcher would follow the deductive approach since it allows the researcher to develop a hypothesis and test its validity empirically with the help of mathematical and statistical methods. Data collection Collection of data is one of the most important tasks of any research work. The quality of data collected by the researcher allows him or her to gain deep insights regarding the context of the study and sets the floor on which further researcher might be conducted (Singh and Bajpai, 2008; Somekh and Lewin, 2004; Srivastava and Rego, 2011). This study would be conducted using both primary and secondary data. Secondary data would be collected from sources, such as printed and online journal articles, books, newspapers and magazines that publish articles on the topic of research, company websites and other authentic online sources. Primary data would be collected through questionnaire survey on the employees of Dell and interview with three managers of the company. Information collected with the help of interview would be analysed using qualitative method. The questionnaire used for questionnaire survey would be pre-structured and options would be pre-coded. This would facilitate quantitative analysis. This data would be analysed using the SPSS software. Ethical considerations Every research study has to be conducted following certain ethical limitations. Ethical issues have to be considered by the researcher before the research design might be implemented. These issues require the researcher to keep all personal information of the respondents confidential. Besides, the researcher should also be careful that sensitive issues regarding the gender, caste and race or religious faiths of the respondents should not be questioned. Reference List Angrist, M. and Cook-Deegan, R., 2006. Who owns the genome? The new Atlantis: A journal of technology and society, Winter, 87–96. Greenhalgh, C. A. and Rogers, M., 2006. The value of innovation: The interaction of competition, R&D and IP. Research policy, 35, pp. 562–80. Scharff, R. C., 2002. Comte after positivism. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Singh, Y. K. and Bajpai, R. B., 2008. Research methodology: Techniques and trends. New Delhi: APH Publishing. Socialresearchmethods, 2006. Deduction & Induction. [online] Available at: < http://www.socialresearchmethods.net/kb/dedind.php> [Accessed 14 August 2013]. Somekh, B. and Lewin, C., 2004. Research methods in the social sciences. California: SAGE. Srivastava, T. N. and Rego, S., 2011. Business research methodology. New Delhi: Tata McGraw-Hill Education. Vuuren, D. V., 2013. World Recession Update – Apr 2013. [online] Available at: < http://recessionalert.com/world-recession-update-apr-2013/> [Accessed 14 August 2013]. Read More