Macro and Micro Economic Environment of Australia - Research Paper Example

Research Proposal “How macro and micro economic environment of Australia impact the strategic marketing decisions of an organization” Table of Contents Introduction 2 Purpose and Aims 2 Literature Review 3 Research Design 4 Thesis Structure 6 Expected Outcomes 7 Conclusion 8 References 9 Introduction At the present global environment, successes and failures in business are actually the results of right or wrong decisions that are made by the management of the organizations. Decisions regarding strategic marketing are something that provides the competitive edge to a firm. However, such decisions are greatly influenced by several factors that are present in the outside and inside environment of the company. Based on the nature of these factors experts have classified them into two separate categories – macro and micro. Number of researches have been carried out to understand the role of these factors in the decision making process regarding various business related issues. However, most of these studies fail to provide a proper understanding regarding the effects of these factors in the context of a particular country. This paper includes a proposal of a research that will be conducted in order to gain insight into the role of different micro as well as macro environmental factors that are likely to impact the businesses which are operating in Australia. This research proposal is consisted of the principle aims and objectives of the research. Furthermore, it also includes the literature review, thesis structure as well as the expected outcomes of the actual research that will be carried out in near future. The research is expected to be very useful for the individuals from the both industry and academia as the focus will be on a particular country i.e. Australia. Purpose and Aims The central aim of the research is to identify the major macro and micro economic factors that are capable of influencing a particular organization in Australia. In addition to this another main objective of this research is to find out the ways in which the decision making process regarding the marketing of a particular company or its product or brand can be impacted by these factors. The main focus of the research will be on the strategic marketing decisions of a firm in a sense that how such decisions are impacted by the various environmental factors. The major research questions are properly mentioned below – 1. What are the major micro and macro environmental factors that are capable of impacting the business in Australia? 2. How the macro and micro economic environment of Australia impact the strategic marketing decisions of an organization in the particular country? Literature Review Success or failure of any research is greatly impacted by the theoretical base of it. In order to analyze the theoretical background, a review of literature is conducted. No research can be said to be a completed one without the proper review of literature. As far as this research is concerned there are several theoretical aspects that will be properly analyzed. Two of the most important aspects in the context of this research are strategic marketing and macro and micro environmental factors. Preliminary study shows that marketing decisions at the strategic level make significant difference. On the other hand there are number of macro environmental factors such as culture, politics, economy, technology, society etc. that may influence the performance of a marketing campaign. Extensive literature regarding strategic marketing as well as several of the above mentioned factors is likely to be available in different books, journals and magazines. These sources can be accessed both online as well as offline. However, investigation regarding the academic theory of these aspects should be made limited. Marketing is a vast concept and hence it is not feasible to get into all the aspects of it. In fact, the focus will be on strategic marketing while searching the literature. On the other side, only relevant literature will be searched regarding the factors like culture, politics, economy, technology, society etc. One must note here that each one of these factors in the context of Australia can be subject of a single research. However, in this research the extent of investigation and the volume of literature will be dependent on the aims and objectives of the research. Determining the degree to which the academic backgrounds of these factors are relevant in the context of strategic marketing will be a key aspect during the conduction of research. As far as the sources of information are concerned, it is already mentioned that books, journals as well as various research articles will be used. The world of internet will be thoroughly searched in order to gain insight into the literatures of the above mentioned aspects. The entire section of ‘literature review’ will follow the trend of ‘general to specific’. In other words, in the first stage, the research as well as the discussions will be more generic and over the time they will be made subject specific. Research Design Usually researches are found to be of two kinds – primary and secondary. Primary data that are accumulated from primary sources like individuals is used in primary research. On the contrary, secondary data which are generally collected from various secondary sources like books, other research articles, journal reviews is used in secondary research (Kelly, n.d.). In order to achieve the primary aims and objectives of this research it is crucial to use both primary as well as secondary data properly. In order to collect the primary data, a questionnaire will be properly designed. The questionnaire will include both close ended as well as open ended questions so that both qualitative and quantitative analysis can be done. For taking the interviews, individuals who are working in the middle management level of the marketing department in different organizations will be contacted. Data that will be collected by using this method will be made to undergo quantitative analysis. Statistical software like SPSS will be in use. In case of other kind of data i.e. secondary data secondary sources will be in use. Books may be accessed from both online as well as physical libraries. Journal reviews and research articles which are available online will also greatly used. Primary data is required to know the actual facts that are presently available on the ground. Interviews are crucial in order to gain insight into the mind of decision makers because they are the individuals who experience the impact of several micro and macro environmental factors while making any strategic decisions regarding marketing of a particular product or brand. However, there are many limitations of carrying out such a research. First of all it is likely to be very difficult to manage the appointment of the appropriate individuals for taking the interviews. Even if the appointment is managed, it will be difficult to make them answer each and every questions of the questionnaire. Furthermore, since the research is a time bound activity, it will not be possible to interact with too many ‘managers’. It is quite possible that only 2-3 individuals would be contacted for the interview. In simple words the sample size is predicted to be a small one and hence, the result of the research may not be accepted by all across the Australia. This is certainly a major limitation of this research. In case of secondary research, it is already mentioned that assistance will be taken from various journal reviews and other research articles in the process of accumulating data. However, all these sources are not accessible freely. Significant cost may be involved in the overall process of data collection and it is likely to be a major challenge for the entire research. As far as research design is concerned, this research is expected to be a ‘deductive’ in nature. According to Hussey a deductive research is “a study in which a conceptual and theoretical structure is developed which is then tested by empirical observation; thus particular instances are deducted from general influences” (University of Pretoria, n.d.). Thesis Structure This research paper will be divided into several sections and sub-sections. The first section will be ‘introduction’. This section will provide a brief overview of the research background, the main objective as well as the process in which the entire process is carried out. It will provide a generic idea about the entire research. The ‘introduction’ section is followed by the section of ‘literature review’ which is certainly one of the most crucial sections in this research. This section includes the discussion regarding the theoretical background of various key aspects that are associated with the subject. It requires extensive secondary research to gather enough relevant information to prepare the section. Literature review will be placed just after the ‘introduction’ as it is important to have sufficient theoretical knowledge prior to getting into the real facts. It is likely to assist the readers to understand the entire topic more effectively. In the ‘literature review’ section there will be number of sub-sections such as ‘strategic marketing’, ‘micro environmental factors’ and ‘macro-environmental factors’. These three aspects will be discussed separately as they are the ‘basic elements’ of this research. The next section will be ‘findings’ where all the information that will be gathered during the primary research process will be discussed. The readers will be able to relate the academic theories with the actual facts as they have to come to this section through the literature review section. The next section i.e. the ‘analysis and discussion’ section includes all the explanations and relations between the theories and the ‘ground facts’. This section helps the readers to gain insight into the subject even deeply. This section precisely include the role of various macro as well as micro environmental factors in the strategic marketing decisions of a particular firm that has been operating in Australia. Analysis of all the primary as well as secondary data will be done in this section. The paper will end with the ‘conclusion’ section where the main conclusions will be drawn from the entire paper. Expected Outcomes This research is among those few ones whose focus remains on a particular nation while finding out the role of various environmental factors on marketing related decisions. In this regard it can be considered an important one. It is expected that the research will be able to provide the actual picture of Australia in terms of several of its environmental factors. Furthermore, it is also expected that the research will be able to identify the major links between the strategic marketing and these factors. Since, the literature review will be a major section of the research it can be predicted that the readers will be able to enhance their academic knowledge regarding strategic marketing and the role of environmental factors on it. People from the industry are also expected to be benefitted from this research as they can become more aware of the subject. In fact findings of this research are likely to assist the middle level marketing managers in making more effective decisions in future. People who have already experienced the impact of various environmental factors can check whether the situation is different or similar for others. On the other side, people who are not very much aware of it can improve their understanding and knowledge. Conclusion This research proposal is made with the objective of giving a clear picture regarding what will be done in the actual research. The subject of the research is expected to be one of the most relevant subjects considering the present global business scenario. The literature review section of this proposal gives a clear picture about the possible structure of the actual literature review that will be made in the research paper. The research will include both primary as well as secondary data. Collection of second type of data is less costly and less time consuming (Kelly, n.d.). References Kelly, M. No Date, Primary and Secondary Data, McKinnon Secondary College, [Online] Available at: http://www.mckinnonsc.vic.edu.au/vceit/infodata/primarysecondary.htm [Accessed on May 23, 2011] University of Pretoria, No Date, Deductive / Inductive, Research methodology, [Online] Available at: http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-07302006-065725/unrestricted/05chapter5.pdf [Accessed on May 23, 2011] Read More