Resource Tyre Company - Research Proposal Example

Research and analysis University Student Id Course Date Research problem The Resource Tyre Company is looking for the best ways that it can employ in the process of ensuring that it can achieve the expected future growth the company. The company is aiming at improving the utilization of its capacity in the tyre industry by approximately 50%. The utilization of the production capacity of the company has been a problem in the operations of the company in the industry where the current production capacity is around 20,000 machine hours. Therefore, Jerry Bowman, who is the senior marketing manager in Resource Tyre Company is looking for the necessary data that can assist in coming up with the budget related to production and marketing. The industry is expected to grow in future due to the increase in the tourism industry. The number of the tourists in Australian market has been increasing leading to an increase in the market demand. As a result, the Resource Tyre Company is looking for the ways it can employ in the process of utilizing the expected increase in demand in the market. In the process of achieving the planned growth, the company is trying to enter the new product segment by offering various options to the customers that can meet the needs of the customers in the market better (Vaske, 2008). The problem facing the company is the necessary data needed to make the decision concerning master budget in entering the new segment. Therefore, the research is seeking to come up with the bets approaches that can be utilized the advantages associated with the growing market by entering the new segment. Theoretical framework Growth in market shares and sales volume A company can realize growth in the market share through ensuring that the quality of the products is high and that the needs of the customers are met. According to Maslow theory needs exists in a hierarchy form where it is considered crucial to ensure that the needs of the customers that need to be met are assessed. The knowledge concerning the market needs can be crucial in ensuring that the products developed are relevant and can meet the customer needs. A company needs to ensure that the product features can offer a solution to the needs of the customers (Singleton, Straits, and Straits, 2003). As a result, it is crucial to ensure that the market gap is identified and the necessary products provided to the consumers. The sales volume is likely to increase with the increase in the market share leading to the realization of high profits. Customer satisfaction and reputation of company Customer satisfaction can be guaranteed through ensuring that the interests of the customers are considered in the product development process. It is even considered important to ensure that the customers are involved in the process of product development as the company can be able to come up with the necessary features that meet the expectations of the customers (Pettersen, et al. 2004). Besides, the customers can be satisfied if the customers can be able to realize the value of their money. The reputation of a company can be improved by ensuring that the products and service offered can meet the customer needs in a unique way. The reputation of a company if the solutions offered to the consumers in the market are unique and able to meet the diverse needs of the customers. Improving the reputation of the company can be achieved through ensuring that the tyres manufactured can ensure ease of driving, quality, and brand with adventure. Independent variables dependent variables Relevant hypothesis Resource Tyre Company is perceived as a company that tries to ear that the consumers in the market can realize the value of their money. The company is considered to be a professional manufacturer of tyres that can be dependable leading to increasing in the demand in the market. However, Resource Tyre Company need to market itself in a unique way in the process of entering the new segment. For instance, the company needs to market itself as a stylish supplier of four-wheel drive tyre in the industry. This can assist the company in building its image in the new segment hence playing a crucial role in improving the growth of Resource Tyre Company in the tyre industry. There are various factors that the company needs to consider in the process of improving its reputation in the new segment. Addressing these factors is likely to make the Resource Tyre Company improve its market share in the industry. These factors that need to be considered by the company can include the durability of its products, the quality of the services offered, ease of driving using the tyre manufactured by the company and branding the tyres with adventure. These factors are crucial as most tourists coming into Australia are looking for was hat can ensure that the service encounter is excellent and full of fun. The company will then be able to assure the tourists an excellent experience in their tour by offering products that are of high quality, durable and able to ensure that the driving experience is made easier. Resource Tyre Company has to ensure that the necessary information concerning the new segment is collected and analyzed to assist in making a decision concerning how the company can enter the new market. As a result, the company will be in a better position to ensure that the company can achieve growth in the market by coming up with products that can meet the needs of the consumers in the new segment. The variables The independent variables can include the ease of driving, adventure branding and quality of the tyres. The dependent variable can include market share, customer satisfaction, reputation, and sales volume. The other control factors can include the closeness of the operators in the field. The independent variables are the ones that do determine the changes taking place in the dependent variables as they control the dependent variables. For instance, an increase in quality of the products and improved ease of driving is likely to guarantee customer satisfaction and increase the sales volume of the company in the new segment. Measures for the variables Measuring the independent variables The ease of driving: it will be measured using the time taken when using the tyres of the company. The shorter the time taken when using the company tyres will determine the ease of driving as the ease will be identified using the time taken. Adventure branding: the adventure branding will be measured using a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 will represent strongly disagree while 5 strong agree. The respondents will be given the chance to rate whether the tyres of the company are associated with adventure. According to their perception concerning the brand of the company regarding adventure where the respondents can choose 1 to 5 (1=strongly disagree, 2=disagree, 3=neutral, 4=agree and 5=strongly agree). The quality of the tyres: the quality of the products of the company will be measured regarding its ability to meet the expectations of the customers. The products of the company will be compared with those of the competitors in the industry to assess the quality aspects of the products. The response of the respondents will be measured using two responses that include “Yes” or “No” indicating the view of the respondents concerning the quality of the company products. Measuring the dependent variable Market share: the measuring of the market share will involve assessing the changes that have been taking place in the size of the market share. The changes can involve increase or decrease in the market share where increasing market share will be a positive measure while a decrease in the market share of the company will be a negative measure. Therefore, the market share will be measured using the size of the market that will determine the decrease of increase depending on the current size of the market share of the company. Customer satisfaction: the measuring of the level of the customer satisfaction will be measured using the number of customer complaints. An increase in complaints from the customers will be an indication that the employees are not satisfied. A decrease in the customer complaints will be taken to communicate the customer satisfaction. Reputation: the measuring of the reputation variable will involve considering the perception of the respondents concerning the company brand. This will involve considering the improvement in the reputation or decrease in the reputation of the company brand. The change in reputation can be associated with the ability to meet the needs off the customers leading to customer satisfaction through provision of high quality products. Sales volume: the changes in sales volume can be used as the measure where the changes can include increase or decrease in the sales volume. The changes in the sales volume will be compared with the current sales volume to assess whether the change is an increase or a decrease. Measuring the other control factors The closeness of the operators in the field: measuring the closeness will involve assessing the number of the operators in the field and the number of visits made by the operators to the firm. The number of the visits and the field operators will then be used as the measures of the closeness of the operators in the field. Types of data The types of data required in the research include primary data and secondary data. The primary data can be collected using questionnaires where they can be issued to the field operators. The field operators are the respondents in the research. The questionnaires do contain the questions that can assist the researcher in collecting the necessary data that can help in coming up with the research findings. The questions will be framed in a way that can make the respondents respond to the questions easily as they are easy to understand. The questions can be either open or closed to give the respondents a chance to give a more detailed response concerning the issue of the new segment. The open-ended questions can assist the respondents to give his or her opinions concerning the new segment using further detailed responses. Secondary data can include the other sources of data concerning the market information. This data can be obtained from magazines, articles, books and journals among other sources. The secondary data sources are said to be crucial in comparing the data obtained with the primary data collected. This type o data can include the trends that have been taking place in the new segment. The statistical information concerning the demand can be obtained through the use of the secondary data sources. The secondary data sources can sometimes form the basis for conducting research as the researcher can have some information concerning the demand in the market using sources such as articles, journals, and magazines where the expected current and future trends can be obtained. This information can be imported in writing the conclusion concerning the market. However, the primary data sources have been considered to be the most reliable source of data as the primary sources of data are said to free from any bias. On the other hand, the secondary data sources can be distorted as it second-hand information from other researchers. The researcher can then use the secondary data compare with the information obtained using the primary data hence forming the basis for making conclusion concerning the research findings. Data collection I will collect the data using questionnaires as the tools for collecting data. The questionnaires will be then administered to the selected field operators who will be the research respondents. The respondents will then be tried on how to respond to the questions where a research assistant will be available to assist the respondents in filling the questionnaires. First, the respondents will be informed concerning the objectives that the researcher is seeking to address. This will ensure that the respondents are willing and ready to provide their information. The researcher will then issue the field operators with the questionnaires that contains the questions that need to be answered. The research assistant will make sure each respondent is able to understand the questions contained to assist in giving their responses. The questions will be easy to read and understand, but the researcher will ensure that the respondents have the necessary understanding that can assist in giving the accurate opinions. The questionnaires will be 600 as the sample size will include 600 field operators. The respondents will be randomly selected from all the states of northern territory where they will be expected to provide their opinions concerning the new segment. The assumption will be that the selected respondents to form the sample will have enough knowledge concerning the demand in the new segment and the customer profiles. Drop and peak method will be used in the process of collecting data to ensure that the respondents have enough time to respond to the questions (Harwood, 2009). However, despite the fact that the researcher will assist the respondents in understanding the questions, their independence in the process of giving their opinions will be guaranteed. The researcher will then ensure all the questionnaires are filled during the collection time as all the respondents will have been given the necessary guidelines concerning how to provide their responses. Sample selection process Random sampling is the technique that will be used in the process of obtaining the necessary sample that will be used in the research. The 600 respondents that will be used to represent the whole population will be selected in a way that can make all the members of the population have an equal chance of being part of the sample. As a result, a process will be used to come up with the necessary sample without any biases. The first step in the process will involve listing the population of the field operators in a spreadsheet or a statistical data set. All the field operators will be listed using their names where representatives will be involved in the process of listing the names and ascertain all the population of the research is on the list. This will be important in assuring them that the selection process is fair (Wortham, 2001). Second, the field operators in the list will be assigned a random number that will be used to select the field operators to be included in the sample size. Third, the listed names contain the random numbers will then be sorted by the random numbers where the sorted list will represent the field operators that will form the research sample. Lastly, the sorted list will be printed to show the whole population of the field operators the ones who have been chosen to form the research sample. This approach can be important in coming up with the needed sample size as the size can be adjusted easily. For instance, to add the sample size researcher can add a couple off the sample or decrease by dropping the last couple of samples. How to organize data The data will be organized using codes where different code organization can be used in the process doing data analysis. Coding entails a systematic way used in condensing extensive data into analyzable units through creating concepts and categories obtained from the data. The data can be converted into the categories and variables by making use of numbers to be used in entering the data into computer for analysis purpose (Freeman, 2002). The understanding of the concepts for organizing patterns of codes needs to be considered before starting organizing the code patterns. Some of the concepts that need to be understood before organizing the patterns of the code can include: The code needs to be divided into functional units that include services and modules among others. However, there is the need to ensure that the code used is not huge. The second concept involves ensuring that the codes are not repeated where similarities need to be identified among the functionalities. Inheritance techniques can be used in the process of avoiding repetition of the codes. Third, the functionality pieces need to make use of the DOM representation (Tatsuoka and Lohnes, 2008). Lastly, there is the need to ensure that the functional units are loosely coupled where a unit of functionality need to be existing on its own. Besides, the communication existing between the functional units need to be handled using a messaging system like custom events. As a result, direct communication should be avoided among the functional units. Coding can be important in data analysis in various ways. First, through the use of coding the data analysis can be made easy by condensing the data to reduce the large volumes of data by assigning unique codes to the variables used in the research. Secondly, the analysis process can be made understandable as the coding system can be easily understood. Analysis of data I am planning to make use of excel in the process of analysis the collected data. The data collected can be analyzed using Excel where the researcher can be in a position to ensure better representation of the information obtained. The researcher will conduct some analysis tests that can include a content test of the questionnaires. The content testing of the questionnaires will be used in the process of ensuring that the data collected is relevant in research (Ketchen and Shook, 2006). This can involve comparing the collected data with the existing literature concerning the new segment. Concept testing is important as it ensures that the data obtained through the use of the primary data collection tools can assist in making accurate research findings. Excel software has the necessary features that can assist in obtaining graphs that can assists in making the research findings more meaningful. The findings of the research can be represented using the graphs obtained using excel making illustrations of the results of the research easy (Hair, 2009). Conclusion From this project, I expect to learn the various factors that do affect organizations venturing in new segments. I will learn the best approach that can be used in the process of entering a new segment where I will be in a position to assess the different business environments that can affect operations in the new markets. I will also be in a position to learn the contributions of market research in product development and how the research findings can be used in the process of ensuring that the organizational objectives of a company are achieved. References Freeman, C., 2002. The economics of industrial innovation. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign's Academy for Entrepreneurial Leadership Historical Research Reference in Entrepreneurship. Hair, J.F., 2009. Multivariate data analysis. Harwood, J.L. ed., 2009. Managing risk in farming: concepts, research, and analysis. US Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service. Ketchen, D.J. and Shook, C.L., 2006. The application of cluster analysis in strategic management research: an analysis and critique. Strategic management journal, 17(6), pp.441-458. Pettersen, E.F., Goddard, T.D., Huang, C.C., Couch, G.S., Greenblatt, D.M., Meng, E.C. and Ferrin, T.E., 2004. UCSF Chimera—a visualization system for exploratory research and analysis. Journal of computational chemistry,25(13), pp.1605-1612. Singleton Jr, R.A., Straits, B.C. and Straits, M.M., 2003. Approaches to social research . Oxford University Press. Tatsuoka, M.M. and Lohnes, P.R., 2008. Multivariate analysis: Techniques for educational and psychological research . Macmillan Publishing Co, Inc. Vaske, J.J., 2008. Survey research and analysis: Applications in parks, recreation and human dimensions. State College, PA: Venture Publishing. Wortham, S.E.F., 2001. Narratives in action: A strategy for research and analysis. Teachers College Press. Read More