Business Decision Making - Research Proposal Example

Business Decision Making Contents Business Decision Making Introduction 3 Research Methodology 3 Primary research methodology 4 Analysis 5 Recommendations 6 Conclusion 7 Appendix 7 References 12 Introduction The assignment deals with the working of a restaurant in a certain university. The scope of the research is to provide recommendation on how the concerned authorities can improve the working conditions of the restaurant. Primary data has been collected from the students as well as the staffs of the restaurant so as to reflect the clear picture of the current scenario. The recommendations made by the respondents will also be considered along with the recommendations of the final report. Research Methodology The research methodology to be incorporated in the report is primary research. Secondary research methodology refers to the methodology that focuses on collecting data from already existing resources. Secondary data can be collected from online sources or from published sources. Secondary data can also be collected from government or organization sources. Now a day’s secondary research methodology is popular among the researchers because the internet provides data from all parts of the world on the desktop (Driscoll, 2011, p. 3). The researchers can gain large amount of data from reliable sources of the internet and thus can gain data in much less time than compared to gathering data from physical libraries. The researchers can use the cost cutting to enhance the scope of the research in future. The data collected from the peer reviewed journals provide authenticated data. The researchers do not need to appoint external associate to collect data as theses are readily available over the net. Therefore secondary research is extremely popular among researchers as it has got some advantages over the primary method of data collection in terms of cost or time (Hox and Boeije, 2007). Primary research methodology In order to form current information to be the basis of research, it is important to incorporate methodologies like primary research. Primary research is created through the development of questionnaires that can be both structured as well as unstructured. The structured questionnaire is closed ended questions. The structured questionnaire is based on interviews on an existing set of alternatives. The open ended questions like to gather data through open views of the respondents (Reja, U. Et. Al.,2003). Both types of questions can be sent through mail to the respondents. The researchers can also appoint external authorities to conduct direct interviews. The respondents are selected in the form of framing the target population into groups and then selecting the respondents from that group with the probabilistic or the non probabilistic methods. In this assignment two groups are selected namely the staffs of the restaurant and the students of the university. They have further been categorised into different age groups namely 18-24, 25-30 and 30+. On the basis of two categories the respondent groups the sampling method into Stratified Sampling method where 25 of the respondents have been selected from many respondents (University of Alberta, n.d). Herein for conducting the research, 25 respondents have been chosen from the categories in order to provide recommendation to the restaurant authority. Further types of questions that can be constructed for the purpose are qualitative as well as quantitative sets. The qualitative research tries to infer the impact of the behavioural parameters. Quantitative research focuses in gaining inferences with the help of graphs and charts which can further be used for statistical modelling. Interviews conducted relating to the niche group of respondents contains both the students and the staffs. This is needful for the authorities to have a proper inference of the behaviour of the respondents from both perspectives. The researchers need to conduct the interview in unbiased fashion as biased data will lead to false information (Geer, n.d.). This is expected to nullify the scope of the research. The researcher should focus on the ethical parameters in the interview process as feedbacks gained from them are not against their will and they have got a clear idea about the necessity of the research. The narrower the questions are the more is the probability of launching to the right information. The interview process can be constructed on closed or structured questionnaires such that the data received are on the five point scale. The use of the scale helps to choose the respondents the effective answer among the alternatives from a large number of alternatives. The data received from the respondents can be presented in the form of pie charts or nay other effective mode of representation. Analysis 16 students in the age group of 18-24 were selected for the interview. Of them 7 visited the canteen only once a week. Only 1 student visited the canteen on all 5 days. Most of them were not aware of the knowledge of food nutrition while more than half of the remaining students opined the food nutrition to be unhealthy. More than 70% of them considered the price of the foods to be at par with the value of meals while others were good with the range. Only 1 student rated it as poor and 1 rated awful. Most of the respondents under this category were happy with the quality of food and the service. In fact more respondents were happier with the service of foods than the quality. The staffs of the canteen fared well on the mark sheet of the respondents as all of them rated them as either excellent or fair. 12 students accepted the fact that they did not had to wait much to get their foods while most expressed their opinions to increase the size of the canteen. 5 students were interviewed over the age of 30. 4 of them visit the canteen twice a week while they were not happy with the nutrients in food. All were certain about the price of the food as well as quality of service. According to them the attitudes of staffs were great but they had to wait long to get their food. They were certain that there is no need to increase the size of the canteen. 3 students were considered for interview in the age group of 25-30. This category provided slightly different views. 50% of the respondents visited the canteen once in a week and nothing can be inferred about the food nutrition as all provided different perspectives. The difference in perspectives continued in the answers of the other questions as well but all opined in similar fashion on extending the size of the canteen. Only 1 30+ aged staff was interviewed who visited the canteen 5 days a week. He opined the food nutrition as not healthy and was unhappy with neither the quality of food served nor the services offered. He had to wait for long to get his food and opined to extend the size of the canteen. Recommendations It can be inferred that the visitors or the respondents were happy with the price of the foods but the thing that haunts them is food nutrition. They are not sure about the food nutrition and therefore it is the time for the authorities to provide better food nutrients. The food quality will automatically increase but they should keep in mind that the price is at par with others and according to quality. The staffs are doing a really job for all categories of respondents and deserves praise. The opinions differ on the time taken by the staffs to offer food to the respondents but a major portion of the respondents opined to increase the size of the canteen. Actually it can be inferred that the answers vary according to the age group of the respondents. In order to operate the canteen in efficient fashion it is necessary for the authorities to target the customer base first and then the appropriate measures to increase the efficiency of the canteen. Conclusion The scope of the research lies in the operation of the canteen. The respondents have provided clear opinions in their answers. It is necessary for the authorities to take the recommendations or the answers into consideration and take the appropriate measures. Most of the measures should be directed towards increasing the nutrients content on the food. The canteen is blessed to have many efficient staffs that have the capability to satisfy all customers of different age groups. A more detailed report could have been obtained if equal number of respondents would have been selected from the categories. It would have easier to reach to a valid conclusion under such a scenario. The time calls for more tactical decisions that will force more people within the boundaries of the canteen more frequently. Appendix The following graphs will present the different opinions of the respondents belonging to different age groups. The first pie chart shows the percentage of students in the age group of 18-24 who visits the canteen. The next diagram shows the frequency of those students of visiting the canteen per week. The next pie chart shows the ratings of food nutrients. The next graph shows the opinions of the respondents on price comparison with other availabilities. The next graph represents the opinions on quality. The next graph represents the opinions on service. The next graph represents the opinions on aatitudes of staff. The next graph represents the opinions on the time required to get their foods. The next graph represents the opinions on increasing the size of the canteen. References Driscoll, D. 2011. “Introduction to Primary Research: Observations, Surveys, and Interviews”. [pdf]. Available at: http://wac.colostate.edu/books/writingspaces2/driscoll--introduction-to-primary-research.pdf. [Accessed: 18th December, 2012]. Hox, J. and Boeije, H. 2007. “Data Collection Primary vs Secondary”. [pdf]. Available at: http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/fss/2007-1113-200953/hox_05_data%20collection,primary%20versus%20secondary.pdf. [Accessed: 18th December, 2012]. University of Alberta, (n.d.). “STRATIFIED RANDOM SAMPLING”. [pdf]. Available at: http://www.stat.ualberta.ca/~prasad/361/STRATIFIED%20RANDOM%20SAMPLING.pdf. [Accessed: 18th December, 2012]. Reja, U. Et. Al. (2003). “Open-ended vs. Close-ended Questions in Web Questionnaires”. [pdf]. Available at: http://www.stat-d.si/mz/mz19/reja.pdf. [Accessed: 18th December, 2012]. Geer, J. (n.d.). “WHAT DO OPEN-ENDED QUESTIONS MEASURE”. [pdf]. Available at: http://discoverarchive.vanderbilt.edu/jspui/bitstream/1803/4055/1/What%20Do%20Open-Ended%20Questions%20Measure.pdf. [Accessed: 18th December, 2012]. Read More