Evaluation of Issues Faced by Apple Inc - Research Proposal Example

Research Proposal: Apple Inc. Contents Introduction 3 Rational 3 Research Question 4 Research Objectives 4 Literature Review 5 Methodology 7 ResearchPhilosophy 7 Research Approach 8 Research Design 8 Research Strategy 8 Research Method 9 Qualitative Analysis 9 Quantitative Analysis 10 Data Collection and Sampling Method 10 Ethical Considerations 11 Limitations of the Research Methodology 11 Timeline 12 Reference List 13 Appendix 14 Closed-Ended Questionnaire Survey 14 Focus Group Interviews 15 Introduction Since establishment of liberal trading policies and enactment of the Free Trade Agreement, the degree of competition across all major industrial segments has greatly increased. The contemporary commercial firms are exposed to a dynamic business world, where the state of political, economic, social and technological affairs is highly volatile and uncertain in nature. At this juncture, strategic management has become an indispensible component of business management practices (Casson and Wadeson, 2012). This is a proposal for a management research work. The proposal focuses on Apple Inc, which is a popular multinational company. The company, since its inception, has adopted resourced based view of business management. Under such management, the company has expanded business branches across numerous economies, after saturation of the domestic market. Despite achieving success, Apple’s trade is threatened by potential rivals within the electronics industry. In this epoch, companies are exposed to greater competition and complication in the business world, where market influences of externalities are found to be soaring. This proposal is framed for a future management research that would analyze major strategic business issues faced by Apple Inc. and finally, the researcher would elaborate on ways whereby these problems can be minimized. Rational The research proposal for the dissertation aims to evaluate issues faced by Apple Inc. and in turn frame productive ways to eradicate the same. It is highly rational to conduct such a research work because if these problems are not resolved, then Apple Inc. can surely lose its dominant position within the industry in long run. Figure 1: Primary Strategic Issue of Apple Inc. (Source: Apple Inc., 2013) The above profit (income) and revenue graph of Apple Inc. precisely elaborates on its current primary strategic issue. The graph shows that although aggregate revenue earned by the company is increasing with time, income or profit share is falling. Rising revenue, but falling income, indirectly points out increasing operational cost experienced by Apple Inc. It is highly viable to determine the primary cause of such a problem because in long run, similar strategic issues can arise in any multinational organization. Research Question Q1. What are the current business issues of Apple Inc. and how can these be resolved? Research Objectives The primary objectives of the management research paper are: To analyze the commercial success of Apple Inc. To estimate the problems faced by Apple Inc. To analyze the causes of these problems To frame ways through which these issues can be eliminated Literature Review The publicly traded organization of Apple Inc. was founded in 1976. The firm produces computer hardware and software products as well as other electronic gadgets such as, Smartphones and tablets. Some popular products of Apple Inc. are iOperating System, iPad and iPhone (Apple Inc., 2013). The headquarters of the organization is located in Cupertino, California, U.S. The company has business branches spread across all prominent economies. Researchers claim that Apple Inc. has achieved success in business because of efficient entrepreneurial skills of its leaders such as, Steve Jobs, Steve Woznaik and Ronald Wayne (Apple Inc., 2013). At present, the company owns more than 425 retailing outlets worldwide while employing over 80000 skilled employees (Apple Inc., 2013). The commercial proficiency of the organization is largely attributed to productivity of its employees. Figure 2: Apple Inc. R&D Investments (Source: Hughes, 2013) As shown in the above graph, Apple Inc. also invests large sums of money for research and development purposes. Some researchers claim that higher investments in R&D helps to sustain the dominant position of Apple Inc. in the market. Yet, the company encounters severe rivalry at present. Figure 3: Competition of Apple Inc. (Source: Zhang, 2013) Certain research studies state that companies such as, Lenovo, Samsung and Blackberry, are encroaching upon business shares of Apple Inc. (Apple Inc., 2014). After the global financial crisis in 2008, real discretionary spending powers of the consumers have declined and they aim to purchase less expensive, good quality durable products. As a result, Apple Inc.’s premium priced electronic gadgets are less popular among several rational buyers. Furthermore, the Global Smartphones Sales Report published in 2013 has claimed that the share of Apple Inc.’s Smartphones in the global market is 12%, but that of its biggest rival Samsung is 32% (Apple Inc., 2014). The report also mentioned that the company’s annual sales are increasing at a rate of 23%, but the gross revenue of Samsung is rising at a rate of 46% annually (Apple Inc., 2014). Experts opine that Apple must modify its existing pricing strategy of business. Instead of applying premium pricing strategy, it should implement competitive pricing strategies for its electronic goods that face strong substitution effect in the market. However, it is found that the company is experiencing difficulties in lowering product prices because of two primary reasons. Firstly, Apple procures most of its semi-finished products from external market suppliers by the way of outsourcing. Some of its prominent suppliers, such as, AKM Semiconductor Inc. and Delta Group, impose high price bargaining powers over Apple Inc. (Apple Inc., 2014). Secondly, in order to sustain competitive position in the market, Apple Inc. invests large amount of money for research and innovation purposes. Higher costs of innovation are claimed to lower aggregate profit margin of Apple Inc. over time. It is also found that the company is facing problems relating to employee management across some of its marketplaces. Since the organization conducts business within the electronics industry, it faces several legal problems regarding patent and copyrights. Some researchers suggest that if these issues are not resolved, then the company will soon lose its dominant position in the industry in future. In order to eradicate such issues, Apple Inc. needs to improve the scope of its vertical integration and similarly make attempts to experience economies of scale in manufacturing process. The company can expand into emerging markets such as, China and Brazil. Moreover, it should render products offered more competitive by lowering their prices. Other than innovation, Apple Inc. should apply cost and price cut strategies so as to overcome extensive rivalry within the industry in long run. Methodology Methodology of the proposal will elaborate on the exact process through which the research work on Apple Inc. will be conducted. Research Philosophy The basic structure to be followed for conducting the research work will be framed according to the chosen research philosophy. According to the views of Saunders, research philosophy is a wide framework that explains the way in which relevant information will be collected for conducting the desired research. It is also found that method of research sampling and its analysis or interpretation process are established as per the selected philosophy. Hence, consideration of an appropriate research philosophy is the most crucial aspect of any academic or corporate research work (Coldwell and Herbst, 2004). The philosophy that the researcher chooses to follow will determine the primary motive for conducting the research. Research philosophies are primarily categorized into two major types, namely interpretive philosophy and positivist philosophy. The researcher will accomplish the research work according to the interpretive research philosophy. This type of philosophical approach is adopted when the research aims to analyze the traits of a business society or human behaviour. The researcher will assess the reasons for the consumers to consider the products of Apple Inc. as less attractive in the market and subsequently frame ways whereby consumers’ utility levels can be improved in future through services provided. Thus, the findings of such a research work will not be accrued in quantitative terms. Research Approach Any corporate or academic research work can be performed in terms of inductive or deductive research approach. These two approaches carve ways for different research paradigms. However, it should be noted that the current research will be accomplished with a deductive research approach. Under this approach, the researcher will firstly state few empirical theories and subsequently collect adequate relevant information and data for proving those theories. So, the research work will firstly summarize the problems faced by Apple Inc. in the current business market. Following that, the researcher will accumulate relevant information and data in order to prove the issues discussed earlier. Finally, useful theories of strategic management will be applied so as to analyze the ways to eliminate these issues in the near future. Research Design The research design here will be framed according to availability of relevant data and information. In general, research designs are of five major categories, namely cross-sectional design, longitudinal design, comparative design, case study and experimental design. Even so, it should be noted that the current research work will be designed as a case study. As a consequence, the researcher will analyze commercial status and competency of Apple Inc. only. Certain comparative analysis will be included for estimating relative market power of the organization in the industry. Research Strategy The strategy of the research work will be formulated after assuming exogenous. This is because; these factors can bring about significant changes in analysis of the research work, if assumed to be endogenous. Some of these factors are: Assuming that all relevant information and data required for conducting the research work are conveniently available. Claiming that the entire research work will be made on the basis of appropriate ethics and morale. The external business environment, where Apple Inc. operates, will not experience significant changes. Nevertheless, the entire research work will be accomplished in terms of two primary steps. These are: Research design and structure identification Data source verification Research Method The research method elaborates on the ways through which research questions and objectives will be resolved in the current research. However, this method will be determined as per the research design and strategy. The research work of the dissertation will be accomplished with both qualitative and quantitative analysis techniques (Donald and Schindler, 2003). Qualitative Analysis The qualitative analysis will be made on grounds of interpretive philosophy and deductive research approach. The qualitative analysis of the research paper will be accomplished with the help of a literature review and focus group interview session. For completing the literature review, the researcher will accumulate relevant information and data pertaining to the subject matter from authentic secondary scholarly resources. The researcher will naturalistically analyze the collected information with special interpretive skills while preparing the literature review. Information and data of the literature review will be collected on a longitudinal perspective. Thus, the data will include both cross-sectional and time series dimensions (Fridah, 2004). On the other hand, the focus group analysis will be done with the help of primary data sources. The researcher will conduct 9 focus group interviews, each for a period of 10 minutes. Each session of the interview will include one interviewer and one interviewee. The participants of the interview will be 3 senior officials of Apple Inc., Samsung Electronics and Nokia. The analysis and interpretation of the focus group interviews will be done on the basis of comparative analysis (Fischer, 2011). Quantitative Analysis The quantitative analysis will be performed by involving a closed-ended questionnaire survey and statistical analysis. The researcher will make use of both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. The closed-ended survey will be conducted with 30 participants. These participants will be prominent business stakeholders of Apple Inc. A company’s commercial performance can be well-estimated on grounds of perceptions of the business stakeholders (Du Plessis, 2004). The closed-ended questionnaire will be distributed through internet media and will contain 10 closed-ended questions. The answer of each question will be rated on a scale of 1 to 6, using the concept of a Likert scale. The results of the closed-ended questionnaire survey will be analyzed with descriptive statistical measures. Graphical tools will be used for conducting the descriptive statistical analysis (Denzin and Lincoln, 2011). The researcher will make inferential analysis with the help of a population regression model. The model would regress Apple Inc.’s product demand (or sales) on consumers’ brand awareness, company’s marketing expense, after sales services, prices and product accessibility. Regression Model: Quantity Demand (sold) Scale= α + β1 Brand Awareness Scale + β2 Marketing Expense Scale + β3 Average Price Scale + β4 Product Accessibility Scale + € Where: € = disturbance or stochastic term Data Collection and Sampling Method The data for the inferential and descriptive statistical analysis will be collected from results of the closed-ended questionnaire survey (Collen, 2003). The survey will be done with 30 participants; hence, it can be stated that sample size for the quantitative analysis will be 30. The researcher will select the sample based on purposive random sampling method. Under this method, the researcher will select a random sample of 30 stakeholders of Apple Inc. The results of inferential and descriptive statistical analysis will be obtained by applying statistical software tools such as, SPSS or Excel (Bryman and Bell, 2007). Ethical Considerations The current research work will be accomplished after considering the required ethical and moral norms of research. Valuable conclusions will be drawn from the literature and focus group interview reviews, but those will not directly influence results of the quantitative analysis (Bogdan and Biklen, 1998). In addition to that, all confidential information about the respondents participating in the focus group interviews and closed-ended questionnaire survey will not be disclosed, before or after completion of the research work. All the relevant information and data will be authentic and findings of the quantitative analysis will strengthen conclusions drawn from the qualitative research (Bhattacharyya, 2009). Limitations of the Research Methodology The researcher will not use a purposive sampling method for conducting the quantitative analysis. The current research paper will collect the sample based on purposive random sampling process. As a result, the sample cannot be downsized as required. In addition, information gathered from the closed-ended survey sessions is limited, given that each question provided had limited answerability scopes. The results acquired from the focus group interviews might be inaccurate. The respondents might not disclose the underlying problems in their respective organization. Also, the researcher might record the results inefficiently during the interviews and surveys. Such problems would generate faulty descriptive as well as inferential statistical results (Bernard, 2000). Timeline Activity /Months 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Submitting Proposal                         Collecting Secondary Resources and Information                         Writing Introduction, Objectives ,Rational and Literature Review                         Sample Selection                         Conducting Focus Group Interviews                         Conducting Closed Ended Surveys                         Analyzing Survey Results                         Writing Findings, Analysis and Conclusion                         Final Review                         (Source: Author’s Creation) Reference List Apple Inc., 2013. Apple. [online] Available at: < http://www.apple.com/> [Accessed 26 June 2014]. Apple Inc., 2014. Supplier list 2014. [pdf] Apple Inc. Available at: Read More