Key Aspects of Eurostar Company - Research Paper Example

1. Introduction 1 Background More than a decade ago Eurostar changed the way people traveled between London, Paris and Brussels and now once again Eurostar is set to make further changes in November 2007. Despite the low-fare airlines that have come in, Eurostar carries more passengers than all the airlines put together on both routes out of London (RailEurope, 2007). From November 14 2007, all Eurostar trains will be routed via the newly redeveloped London Terminal St. Pancras International which is being extensively rebuilt and extended in length (Wikipedia). It had originally intended to retain some of the services from Waterloo International Terminal but due to cost factors that idea has been abandoned. The travel time is going to be reduced by about 20 minutes in both the sectors. Eurostar offers the ultimate in comfort and service. With the journey time being reduced the low cost airlines are still not an option given the time taken to reach the airport, the flight time, and then to reach the destination at the other end. Eurostar stations are situated downtown and hence the ease of getting to them easily is an added advantage. Nevertheless, Eurostar has been facing commercial pressures and now intends to target the business travelers. The business travelers are not concerned with the distances but with the travel time. To lure them into using Eurostar, facilities have been upgraded and the company would like to explore further requirements to meet the expectations of the discerning business travelers. The departure lounge is equipped with bars, coffee shops, currency exchange facility, shops and rest rooms. Internet access is also available at the terminals and departure timings and track numbers appear on the screen in the airport style. The new terminal will have shopping and dining experiences, stores and boutique and Farmer’s market and pub apart from Champagne-bar. There is a dedicated Business Ticket Desk for the business traveler, executive lounge and access to internet at these lounges. On board special facilities include spacious reclining seats with generous legroom, lap top power sockets, side table and newspaper and magazines. Meals are served at the comfort of their own seat and special meal requests are entertained 48 hours in advance of the departure. 1.2 Rationale for research Despite the above services already available, Eurostar would like to know what other services could attract the business travelers. This requires collecting data from the past and prospective travelers and hence a research has been considered necessary. The time allotted for the research is three and half months; the research is expected to be submitted by the 1st March 2008 and the budget allotted for this research is £20,000. Keeping the parameters in mind, the following research proposal is being submitted. Based on the tremendous growth potential in the business travelers segment, the objective of the research is to determine: a. The determinants that influence the choice of air travel by the business sector b. The facilities that the business traveler expects c. The gap in the services currently offered and the expectations of the business traveler. d. The possibility of meeting customer expectations. 2. Research Philosophy Any decision is based on a body of knowledge. This body of knowledge is produced through research. By applying the appropriate methodologies and the research method, the body of knowledge can be established and advanced with confidence. While research is considered important there is no consensus on how it should be defined because research means differently to different people. Research is basically a systematic method of investigation which increases knowledge. Research relies on facts and experience, data, concepts and constructs, hypotheses and conjectures, and principles and laws (Amaratunga, Baldry, Sarshar, & Newton, 2002). Research methodology is the procedural framework within which the research is conducted. While positivism (quantitative with hypothesis testing) and interpretivism (qualitative with hypothesis generalizations) are the two types of research philosophies generally adopted, each has its own purposes and advantages. Research philosophy highlights two different schools of thought on the how to conduct research. Arguments should be evaluated in different ways because primarily arguments have different roles and purposes and people assess according to the purpose in their mind. At times arguments provide useful information depending on one’s knowledge of how the world works. In a different setting, one can take an abstract approach and ask what follows from a given set of information and then decide on the outcome. Arguments can be evaluated in two qualitatively different ways – in terms of their deductive correctness or in terms of inductive strength (Rips, 2001). According to Taylor et al., (1995) quantitative data is numerical in form. Questionnaires and interviews are the usual research methods used under this paradigm. Some researchers claim that unless human behavior can be expressed in numerical terms, it cannot be accurately measured (cited by Jones, 2004). Qualitative data covers a range of material collected from previous research, literature review, case studies and unstructured interviews. Some researchers argue that the qualitative approach is better as it provides greater depth. The relationship between research philosophy and research method is important as it allows one to take an informed decision about the research approach, decide which methods are appropriate for the research, and also determine the constraints that may affect the research (Knox, n.d.). 2.1 Research Approach Quantitative methodology is a positivist approach which is characterized by operational definitions, objectivity, replicability and causality (Bryman, 1984). Through questionnaire items the concepts can be operationalized; objectivity can be obtained by maintaining distance between the observer and the observed. By applying the same research instrument in another context replication can be maintained and causality is handled through path analysis and related regression techniques. Quantitative investigations look for “distinguishing characteristics, elemental properties and empirical boundaries’ and tend to measure “how much” or “how often” (Nau, 1995 cited by Amaratunga et al.,). Quantitative research designs determine the truth value of propositions and allow flexibility in the treatment of data in terms of comparative analysis, statistical analysis and repeatability of data collection in order to verify reliability. Degree of confidence can be ascertained through the deductive method as participants’ opinion or judgment could be either ‘valid’ or ‘not valid’. Research of this kind is underpinned by a distinctive theory. Qualitative methodology on the other hand is seeing the world from the point of an actor and this implies close involvement. In this case the contextual understanding has to be perfect so that the behavior is understood in the context of meaning systems employed by a particular group or society. The inductive method concentrates on words and observations to describe people in natural situations (Amaratunga et al.,). Qualitative research is more fluid and flexible as the plans can be altered if the situation so demands. In qualitative research the chances of discovering novel or unexpected findings are high. Qualitative method alone would not bring to light the deeper, underlying meanings and explanations of the data collected even though they focus on natural occurring and ordinary events in natural settings. The qualitative data is rich and holistic and has the potential for revealing complexity. They are nestled in real life context and have an element of truth. In quantitative research the findings are descriptive and empirical and lend themselves to sophisticated statistical analysis (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2004), ensuring reliable and valid results. Thus qualitative research would be collected to support the quantitative data. 2.2 Research Design Amaratunga et al., suggest that research strategy should be chosen as a function of the research situation. Each strategy has its own approach to collect and interpret data and hence its strategy has its own advantages and disadvantages. Some even suggest a mixed or balanced approach. At the same time, there are certain overlapping parameters which make the strategy selection a difficult task. The strategy selection should depend upon the behavioral elements, the degree of focus on past events and the conditions or setting. For this research a combination of qualitative method and quantitative method would be adopted as Wynekoop and Russo (1997) contend that use of multiple research method is necessary to adequately understand and evaluate an activity, process or project. Relying on one method would make the results immune to variations in the way the different groups of participants use the ratings scale (Amaratunga et al.,). In reality qualitative and quantitative methods provide different kinds of information. They have different descriptive strengths. The quantitative study demonstrates the magnitude of relationships while qualitative study makes ambiguous statements. 2.3 Data Collection Method The purpose of the study is to determine the potential of attracting the business travelers for Eurostar. This study would also highlight any gaps between the services offered and the services expected by the business travelers. As such this research will be based on two types of data. In quantitative analysis data is collected through mail questionnaires, interviews and published statistics (Gable, 1994). Self-completion questionnaires (Appendix A) would help to determine the individual’s view over using Eurostar for business traveling. This method of data collection allows the ability for unambiguous quantitative data to be collected (Redmond & Griffith, 2003). The format will be kept relatively simple and straightforward as there is little control over the respondents’ interpretation of questions. Questionnaires will not be sent through postal mail as those not having access to internet are not the travelers that Eurostar is looking at. Online surveys will be conducted as internet has become a very popular means of gathering data. It permits quicker answers because respondents can fill and send the questionnaire easily. The response rate is quite high. It also allows an easy territorial and geographical coverage. This method of administrating questionnaires not only avoids any influence of the interviewer on the interviewee’s responses, but also saves costs in relation to sending the questionnaire by post. There is a tendency of over-reporting hence surveys would be designed that they report the attitude of the respondents (Redmond & Griffith, 2003). Eurostar already has a database of the people who have used this service in the past three years. Five hundred names would be randomly generated from the computer using the random sampling technique from those who have used the service in the past one year and the questionnaires emailed to them. Quantitative data would further be collected through face-to-face interviews as it is a highly flexible method, can be used almost anywhere and has the potential to produce data of great depth. Interviewing is a mode of inquiry aimed at understanding an experience and meaning that person make of that experience (Seidman, 1998 cited by Eggenberger & Nelms, 2006). Interviews are more than a data gathering technique. It is a social encounter where knowledge is constructed. The research topic has to be seen from the perspective of the interviewee. To determine the attitude and expectations on using Eurostar for business visits to Paris and Brussels, interviews would be an effective way to achieve these objectives. Face to face interviews of 200 people would be conducted on the streets. Systematic sampling technique (ABS, 2004) would be followed where every 20th person who enters the tube station is interviewed. This would be taken over a period of 20 days at the rate of 10 per day. Five different people would be interviewed at two different locations on each of these 20 days. The locations would include places like the tube station, outside the Eurostar terminal, airport terminals. Quantitative data would be supported by qualitative research. Open-ended in-depth interviews and focus group interviews would be used for qualitative data collection. The individual in-depth interview allows the interviewer to delve deeply into social and personal matters (DiCicco-Bloom & Crabtree, 2006) and it unveils a person’s emotions, beliefs, problems, experience and actions (Eggenberger & Nelms). This would particularly help with this research as the objective is to determine how the corporate executives feel about using Eurostar for their personnel. It would also give an insight into the expectations that companies have in mind. Interviews can be close-ended or fixed-alternate answers, or open-ended interviews. For this research, the open-ended interviews have been conducted in which the prepared questions have been reformulated depending upon the responses received. Open-ended interviews tend to be more spontaneous, offering a two-way interaction not generally permitted by the standardized approach (Herod, 1993). Such interviews allow interviewees to introduce topics and speak in their own words rather than in categories dictated by the researcher. This would be particularly helpful for this research because generalizing the attitude would not suffice. It is essential to get an accurate idea of the services they expect and what could potentially increase business for Eurostar. For in-depth interviews cluster sampling would be done where first the area would be identified and then the respondents within that area would be identified. The area would include international consulates, foreign parliamentarians and dignitaries apart from business house with decent turnovers. This is important because French parliamentarian found offence in the international services running out of Waterloo terminal (Wikipedia). It is targeted to conduct at least 250 interviews so email would be sent out to over 300 people in this category as refusals are expected. Five different researchers would interview two people every day which requires a total of 25 days. Focus-groups are effective in providing information on why people think the way they do. This has certain advantages even over the personal interviews as participants tend to be more comfortable and natural. Besides, they influence and are influenced by others just as they are in real life (Redmond & Griffith, 2003). Focus groups are open yet guided and hence it would help to collect data on how people conceive of the idea of using Eurostar, what problems they have faced in the past which may have discouraged them from using it for business. Four different focus group interviews would be conducted again using the cluster sampling technique and this would be at the office canteen of four prestigious and potential business houses. The qualitative data would supplement the quantitative data collected. According to Taylor et al., (1995) quantitative data is numerical in form. Questionnaires and interviews are the usual research methods used under this paradigm. Some researchers claim that unless human behavior can be expressed in numerical terms, it cannot be accurately measured (cited by Jones, 2004). Qualitative data covers a range of material collected from previous research, literature review, case studies and unstructured interviews. Qualitative research would present facts in common everyday language while quantitative research re-presents events in other terms. Qualitative description is more interpretive while quantitative description uses surveys or other means to obtain a common data set on pre-selected variables (Sandelowski, 2000). 2.4 Data analysis To be useful, primary data needs to be analysed (Saunders, 2003, p.327). Sphinx software which is a personal computer based analysis software will be useful to establish relationship between variables. Apart from this, data thus collected from different forms of interviews and questionnaires would be analysed by the use of scales like Likert scales and Semantic Differential scales. These will permit to measure the attitude of people towards Eurostar. 2.5 Timetable for research Online surveys Generating list from database, mailing the questionnaires, allowing 7 days for the responses – hence a total of 15 days Face-to-face interviews Twenty days In-depth interviews Twenty five days Focus group interviews Four days Since many of these can be done simultaneously, the data collection would take a maximum of 30 days. Entering raw data One month Analysis One month Contingencies 15 days 2.6 Costs for the research Online surveys @ £5 for 500 surveys 2500 Face-to-face Interviews @ £10 for 200 interviews 2000 In-depth interviews @ £20 for 250 interviews 5000 Focus group interviews @£1000 for four such groups 6000 Provision for VAT and 40% overheads 4500 3. Validity, reliability and limitations A positivist conception of the approach has been adopted wherein the social interaction between the interviewer and the interviewee is kept to the minimum. It is important for the researcher to maintain the necessary social distance so that she does not bias the outcome of the interview by injecting personal opinion or values. This method ensures objectivity, detachment and hierarchy which are more important than individualized concerns. There is no unique research method and each method has its own difficulties. The categories listed for research may not be comprehensive or may require further sub-categories. Besides, it is difficult to predict how many participants would be willing to respond in the first place, and then how many would register true opinions. Attempts have been made to ensure the reliability and validity of the data collected. Validity is an important part of the research. “A valid measure is one which measures what it is intended to measure” says De Vaus (1991 cited by Amaratunga et al,). A measurement procedure is considered reliable if it comes up with the same results in the same circumstances repeatedly and even if measured by different people. It is expected that that data analyzed and the outcome would contribute to the decision-making process and potential growth in the business of Eurostar. References: ABS (2004), Sampling Methods, 30 Oct 2007 Amaratunga, D., Baldry, D., Sarshar, M., & Newton, R., (2002), Quantitative and Qualitative Research in the built environment: application of mixed research approach, Work Study, Vol. 15 No. 1 2002, pp. 17-31 Bryman, A., (1984), The Debate about Quantitative and Qualitative Research: A Question of Method or Epistemology? The British Journal of Sociology, Vol. 35, No. 1. (Mar., 1984), pp. 75-92 DiCicco-Bloom, B., & Crabtree, B. F., (2006), The qualitative research interview, Medical Education 2006; 40: 314–321 doi:10.1111/j.1365-2929.2006.02418.x EGGENBERGER S.K. & NELMS T.P. (2007) Family interviews as a method for family research, Journal of Advanced Nursing 58(3), 282–292 doi: 10.1111/j.1365-2648.2007.04238.x Gable, G. G., (1994) Integrating case study and survey research methods: an example in information systems. European Journal of Information Systems 3(2):pp. 112-126. Heord, A., (1993), Gender Issues in the Use of Interviewing as a Research Method, Professional Geographer, 45(3) 1993, pages 305-3 17 Jones, C., (2004), Quantitative and Qualitative Research: Conflicting Paradigms or Perfect Partners? 19 Oct 2007 Knox, K., (n.d.), A Researcher’s Dilemma - Philosophical and Methodological Pluralism, 30 Oct 2007 RailEurope (2007), The Eurostar Train, 30 Oct 2007 Redmond, E. C., & Griffith, C. J., (2003), A comparison and evaluation of research methods used in consumer food safety studies, International Journal of Consumer Studies, 27, 1, January 2003, pp17–33 Rips, L. J., (2001), Two Kinds of Reasoning, American Psychological Society, Vol. 12 No . 2 pp. 129-134 Sandelowski, M., (2000), Whatever Happened to Qualitative Description? Research in Nursing & Health, 2000, 23, 334-340 Saunders, M., Lewis, P., Thorhill, A. (3rd Eds.) (2003) Research Methods for Business Students, Prentice Hall Schiffman, L.G., Kanuk, L.L. (2004), Consumer Behavior, Pearson Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, NJ, . Wikipedia, Eurostar, 30 Oct 2007 Wynekoop, J., & Russo, N. L., (1997), Studying System Development Methodologies: an examination of research methods, Info Systems J (!997) 7, 47-65 Appendix A Questionnaire (This can be used for online surveys, face-to-face interviews, in-depth interviews and focus group surveys). 1. How often do you travel on work? 2. Which are the destinations you cover? 3. How often do you travel to Paris and Brussels? 4. Have you used Eurostar for leisure travel before? 5. Did you face any difficulties or would you like to highlight any shortcomings? 6. Do you go for an overnight trip or do you usually get back the same day? 7. We already supply magazines and daily newspapers. Do you think some business journals would be a good idea during travel or would you like to relax with lighter magazines ahead of your work schedule? 8. Do you think music is a good idea with individual headphones? 9. What additional facilities would you like at St. Pancras International? 10. Do you think a lounge on board would be a good idea where business travelers from different organizations could get together over drinks and exchange views? 11. How about a conference area where on-board meetings could take place ahead of the meeting with clients at the other end? Do you think this would save time? 12. Do you think valet service would add value to the services? 13. How about on-board entertainment – like an hour’s video show or documentaries which the executives generally do not get time to watch? 14. Do you think St. Pancras is a better location than the previous one? 15. If we are assured of a certain number of passengers per month we are willing to allow you some seats per journey on a confirmed basis. This would save you the time in going ahead to book seats. Do you think you would avail of this service? 16. We are considering corporate discounts on a minimum guarantee of business. Do you think this would attract your organization to use Eurostar? 17. Any other suggestions which would help us to serve you better? Read More