Question:
Task
What are the possible research questions and objectives that could be used to address the problem?
What is the significance of your chosen project both theoretically as well as practically?
What are the possible outputs and results of your research?
A literature review that is relevant to your research topic. This will provide you with the theoretical basis for the research.
Methodology: Based upon the research goal(s), objectives and conceptual framework, you must provide a detailed description of data collection methods and tools, data source and methods/tools you will use for analysing the data.
Briefly discuss the names of the sections of your research report. Next, write a description of the budget and the project schedule.
Answer:
Introduction
Information technology is an important issue in today’s business environment for retailers who still use manual technology.
These issues affect effectiveness, efficiency and profitability as well as the company’s ability to reap the benefits.
Information technology is essential for optimal utilization of resources. The manual process can take longer to access information.
Information technology is now cheaper and more easily accessible in the Australian retail industry.
It can also be used to gain more competitive advantages.
Effective implementation of IT within Woolworths depends on the capabilities of its workforce in technology.
Different factors, such as the size of the business and human resources, affect how IT impacts the business (Dos Santos et al. 2013, 2013).
This is why the Woolworths Ltd business is chosen as the research topic for this report.
Research Goals, Objectives and
These are the main goals of this research.
To analyze Woolworths’s IT system
To analyse the Woolworths business system
It is important to understand the impact of IT on the Woolworths business system.
For more information on how Woolworths implemented IT policies that improved the performance of their operations, click here
Ask Questions
What is Woolworths’ current IT system?
What business systems are Woolworths currently using?
How does the introduction of IT replace manual management affect the Woolworths business system?
What have Woolworths done to improve IT performance?
This report can be used by store managers to help customers.
The report also assesses the existing IT and business systems at Woolworths, which helps managers make a sound decision.
The company must also assess the impact of IT on Woolworths’ current business system.
It will allow Woolworths to increase their output and effectiveness by taking corrective actions to mitigate the issue (Klettner et al. 2014).
Potential Output of the Research Project
This research will provide a detailed understanding of the current IT system and a business system at Woolworths.
This research will reveal how the introduction of IT rather than manual management has affected Woolworths’ existing business system.
This research will also reveal that Woolworths has implemented various policies to improve IT performance within the company.
Research Structure
Researchers will use the following structure to carry out their research:
Introduction Chapter 1.
This chapter will provide the beginning point of research.
The researcher will discuss the research title and background, as well as the objectives and research question.
Chapter 2: Literature Review
This chapter will provide a critical analysis of IT’s impact on Woolworths Ltd.’s business.
This chapter is useful to provide detailed information about the research topic and to establish a conceptual framework.
This section provides the researcher with the information needed to create the right primary research questionnaire. It also identifies the gaps in existing information.
Chapter 3: Research Methodology
This is the third chapter of the research. It will help to understand the research process.
This chapter will provide an overview of the different methods, philosophy and techniques that will be used to support research.
It will also be able to evaluate and gather information about research issues.
Chapter 4: Data Analysis and Findings
This chapter will provide the information using various graphs, tables, and charts.
The chapter will support the interpretation with literature reviews.
It will also facilitate research objectives-related findings.
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendations
The final chapter will contain the summary of the concluding results.
This chapter will include the final outcome of research objectives.
It will also include a recommendation for future implications.
Literature Review
Woolworths has an existing IT system
According to Padin and Svensson (2015) Woolworths uses an IT system to increase its sales and profit.
Information technology is becoming more effective at both the point of sale and the point of supply due to globalization.
It plays an important role in complex retail operations management.
Woolworth uses IT systems to gain market information and manage data in its retail stores.
It is therefore key to competitive advantages.
As long as the company follows a simple retailing process, such as implementing an innovative IT system to their retailing business, the market will continue to grow.
To provide customers with added value, it also includes the IT system in their transactions process.
Morioka et.al.
According to Morioka et al. (2016), Woolworth has effective IT competencies for a variety of reasons. This includes it enabling the retail stores to increase their ability to respond to the market with high speed and resilience.
It helps to collect and evaluate customer information and allows for differentiation between them.
It makes use of an inventory management IT system to efficiently manage inventory and improve their business processes.
IT is crucial for retailers in order to increase their revenue.
It speeds up business processes and offers cost-effective benefits for the company.
Woolworths Existing Business System
Bailey (2017) believes that Woolworths has an effective business system in order to manage its business.
To increase its profits, Woolworths focuses primarily on the customer.
It has also built a solid business foundation to provide customers with easy customer service.
Customers can also be influenced by the attractive prices and wide variety of products and services it offers.
To provide added value, it also delivers fresh products to customers.
To gain competitive advantages in retail, it organizes a store renewal program.
Woolworths places emphasis on customer culture and gives priority to customers for loyalty.
Chart 1: The business system of Woolworths
Sources: Kang & Gray, 2013.
Chart 2: Strategy in Woolworths’ existing business system
Scott and Walker (2017) support this assertion by stating that an organization should have one team that deals with customers to create a positive image of the company in the customer’s eyes.
This strategy helps to reduce conflicts between team members, as they can solve problems together.
This strategy also creates a refresh store for customers and employees. It is an effective way to increase customer demand and keep employees on the job for the long-term.
They also regularly update their products to attract a wide range of customers.
Woolworths also builds a cohesive brand by attracting skilled employees to its company.
This strategy helps increase profitability by reducing costs and improving the process through the use of IT.
Current Woolworths Business System Is Affected Either Positively Or Negatively By The Introduction of IT in Place Of Manual Management
Muthoka & Oduor (2014) state that IT is an important part of the retail industry as it has a positive effect on the company.
The introduction of IT to replace manual management has had a positive impact on Woolworth’s business system.
It allows retailers to gather customer information in a more efficient and effective manner than manual processes.
Ferro et al.
Ferro et al. (2017) concluded that IT can increase transparency and track business processes.
IT can have a positive effect on Woolworth as it allows for transparency between systems and creates efficient and effective tracking to track the system from production to customer.
It also collects information about sales and customers.
Pantano (2014) believes that IT is beneficial to global data synchronization, which has a positive effect on business position.
It allows Woolworths to use radio frequency identification and electronic product coding, which has a positive effect on the organization’s supply chain.
It allows Woolworths to access real-time data for inventory assessment.
Radio frequency recognition also improves the company’s safety shipping position because IT allows it to track products from the producers through to the entire supply chain.
How Woolworths has implemented policies to improve IT performance in its operations
Lueg and colleagues.
The company can adopt an effective policy to improve its IT performance.
Woolworths can now use the inventory control software as a basic IT tool to manage its retail stores.
The corporation can also access the order list and merchandise that has been received by retailers.
After the system is set up, it will automatically update the database.
It will also allow the company access to the locations where products or services are delivered, such as warehouses and stores.
This strategy will allow the company to keep track of its business and reduce inventory wastage.
It will also allow the company view and select the product based on its cost, margins, manufacturing expiry dates, price, and UPC codes.
It will take less time for new products and services to be created, such as style, size and color.
Schneider and Spieth (2013) argued that electronic inventory systems should be used by companies to increase customer satisfaction.
It will allow customers to view stock levels and orders, which will decrease customer waiting times.
This will allow the company to quickly respond to customer questions.
The company can also assess inventory in multiple stores.
Research Methodology
Introduction
This section covers research strategies and methods such as research, philosophy, approach and design. These are used to help solve the research problem.
This chapter will examine the impact of IT on Woolworths Ltd’s business. Different journal articles will be used to ensure that there is a balance between the research topic and the associated information.
This comprehensive approach will increase research quality, reliability, and validity by using different sources of facts or figures.
Research Philosophy
Interpretivism philosophy will be used for this research due to the subjective nature of the topic.
This research philosophy is used because it is compatible with the philosophical position of idealism.
Researchers might consider other realism approaches to solve the research problem.
Interpretivism research philosophy is used to interpret this information.
Research Approach
Research will use the inductive approach because it is compatible with interpretivism philosophy.
The research topic is subjective and therefore there is no need for a hypothesis.
Researchers will use the inductive approach to gather the vast data about the impact of IT on Woolworths Ltd’s business.
This research can be used to identify different opinions and the ideals for concluding these findings.
The deductive approach, on the other hand, would not be used because it does not need to prove the hypothesis or data.
Research Design
Mix research design is used to improve the quality of this research.
This research design incorporates both qualitative and quantitative characteristics.
Qualitative research will allow the researcher to gauge the participants’ beliefs about the impact of IT on Woolworths Ltd’s business. Quantitative research will also enable the researcher measure the response rate.
This research design will allow the researcher to achieve the research goals and objectives within a defined time frame.
Research Strategy
A survey via questionnaire will be used to evaluate the impact of IT on Woolworths Ltd’s business.
Because the participants are directly contacted, this research design will allow the researcher to gather first-hand and new information.
Research will email the consent email from participants to Woolworth Ltd. in order to conduct the survey via a questionnaire.
The researcher will include details about the research, including the participation of participants and the time period.
The researcher will then create the questionnaire for the research topic using MS-office, and send it to the participant via e-mails.
A literature review is also used by researchers to achieve the goals of their research.
To gain more information on the topic, the literature review will include secondary sources such as an annual report, journal articles, books, and other online and offline sources.
This will allow the researcher to develop theoretical knowledge about how IT affects Woolworths Ltd’s business.
This strategy allows the researcher to get a reliable and valid result.
Data collection method
Because it allows researchers to efficiently and effectively gather data, data gathering is crucial to achieve the research goals.
A researcher will collect two types of data: primary and secondary.
Primary data will be collected using a questionnaire. Secondary data will come from different sources such as a journal article or textbook, online sources, company websites, and offline sources.
This data collection method provides authentic information in a shorter time and at a lower cost.
Sampling Procedure
Because of the subjective nature and scope of this topic, probability sampling will be used in this research.
Random sampling will be used in this research because it eliminates biases when selecting the respondents.
Non-probability sampling is not recommended as it can cause biases when selecting participants.
This research will involve 40 Woolworth Ltd store managers. These are selected from 800 stores.
The research team will select these stores from different geographic areas to collect relevant data and figures.
This will allow the researcher to improve the reliability and validity of the research outcome, as well as support the achievement of the research goals and objectives.
Data Analysis
Because it gives consistent and reliable results, data analysis is a significant part of research methodology chapter.
This is a technique used to interpret and evaluate the data with the intent of obtaining relevant information.
The researcher can use a variety of methods to evaluate the data, including conversational analysis and disclosure analysis statistical analysis.
Researchers will use statistical analysis in this research to evaluate the data.
Researchers will use Ms Excel software to achieve a reliable and valid result.
The software allows the researcher to present information using different charts, graphs, and tables.
This software would make it easy for readers to comprehend the information.
Schedule and Budget for Projects
Research takes longer to complete all tasks efficiently and effectively.
Researchers use the project budget and schedule to complete the task.
To achieve the research goal within a given time frame, the researcher will use the following budget and schedule:
Activities/Weeks that will be done
Identification of the research problem
Find the background research
Literature review evaluation
Identify gaps and complete a questionnaire to get survey
Participants’ feedback via e-mail
Analysis of data and writing reports
If necessary, proof-reading and making changes
Final submission
Researchers would find it beneficial to have a time frame that allows them to achieve their research goals within a given timeframe.
It will allow the researcher to determine the time it takes to complete each activity.
The researcher can finish the entire research within the timeframe given.
Budget for Project
Activities
Cost in PS
To identify the research topic, market research is used
To find out the background of your research, conduct market surveys in the IT industry
Read reviews from other authors before purchasing articles
Identify gaps and complete a questionnaire to get survey
Participants’ feedback
Different techniques can be used to analyze the data
Final submission
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