Business Research Essentials

This assignment focuses on the essentials of business research, drawing from key sources such as Hair (2015), Wilson (2014), and Wu et al. (2016). It covers topics including research design, data collection methods, and data analysis techniques. Students are expected to understand and apply these principles to a hypothetical business scenario.

Business Essential Study Case

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Q1. Conduct research within European nation regarding choice of country, ethical and
logistical considerations and how organisation may expand in that country.........................1
Q2 Marketing mix..................................................................................................................2
Q3 Outline impact and issues which are faced by coffee shop in geographical context........3
Q4 Compute profitability and liquidity ratios .......................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The organisation may be perfectly viable only when it channelises its resources in
effective manner (Hair, 2015). This report deals with Marvin and Smith's coffee shop which is
planning to set up its new branch of coffee shop in Austria. It is required that firm should have
strong liquidity and profitability position so that it may satisfy consumers at large. Besides this,
effective and efficient management of investments and resources at the company is also a vital
factor that is needed to be taken into consideration for running the business. Apart from this, the
geographical & economic conditions are also important for smooth functioning of the business
for Marvin and Smith's coffee shop.
Q1. Conduct research within European nation regarding choice of country, ethical and logistical
considerations and how organisation may expand in that country.
The research of country is important for an organisation to grow and build its market in
that country. The lifestyle and culture of the country plays vital role in conducting research for
organisation (Hair, 2015.). Firm may be able to make enhanced decisions regarding the
expansion or not. It gives them clear idea that its product will be sold in that market or not. As
such, wastage of resources is minimised too much extent.
Marvin and Smith's coffee shop is conducting research in European country so that they
may earn good market share and increase its consumer base. The selected European nation is
Austria. It has selected this nation with regard to the highest coffee consumption in this country.
People of Austria enjoys drinking coffee and as such it is the fifth largest coffee consuming
nation. This advantage makes Marvin and Smith's coffee shop to expand its reach to the country.
As they may earn good revenue and satisfy consumers and earn respect indeed.
The culture and lifestyle of people of Austria is also concern of Marvin and Smith's
coffee shop. In addition, consumers in the nation regularly visits coffee shop and they also prefer
coffee over tea. This makes Marvin and Smith's coffee to expand its reach so that they may take
advantage of culture of nation (Wilson, 2014). Also, climate conditions are also neutral or one
can say that weather remains good throughout the year which is helpful as consumers prefer hot
as well as cold coffee.
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Ethical consideration regarding fair trade is also needed to be taken into account so that
coffee is traded within developed countries and progression may be initiated. Staff welfare
includes facilities which needs to be provided to employees such as toilets and clean drinking
water at workplace. Coffee shop should take initiative to impart such facilities to employees.
The Austrian transport and logistics is highly developed as a result, suppliers may
provide effective deliveries of coffee beans at fast basis. The transport facilities consist of cable
cars, rolling stock which are highly specialised and as a result, produce of coffee beans is fairly
managed by coffee shop (Uhl and Gollenia, 2016). As such, Marvin and Smith's coffee shop may
take advantage of logistical aspects in Austria to have effective growth and expansion in country.
And in this way, consumers are provided services within stipulated time. It increases their
satisfaction.
The location of coffee shop plays an important role in targeting and expanding customer
base. Location should be acquired in such way so that maximum consumers may reach out to
cafe. Layout and location plays essential role so that company may make enough of consumers
to attract to its cafe (Douglas,and et.al., 2015). It is must for Marvin and Smith's coffee shop so
that they may open up their shop in exact location where consumers may come regularly to enjoy
coffee with family and friends. The layout should be attractive and effective so that customers
may be lured and this way it may be able to expand in Austria by analysing structural, logistical,
ethical considerations.
Q2 Marketing mix
Marketing mix plays an important role in promoting the products of organisation in
effective way which consist of product, place, price and promotion mix. A perfect blend of all
these is required so that products of firm may flourish in the market. In this case study, Marvin
and Smith's coffee shop needs to make effective marketing mix so that it may satisfy consumers
of Austria.
 Product-
The services which will be provided by aforesaid cafe are hot coffee as well as cold
coffee (Wu, Kirkole and Huang, 2016). As in Austria, climate conditions are well and so
consumers prefer all type of coffees. This is perfect advantage for cafe as its products will be
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sold at full extent. Along with this, snacks, tapestries as well as cold drinks are also required so
that it may provide ancillary services are to be provided so that customers may be attracted
towards it. Also, cafe uses high quality coffee beans from suppliers and as such it is healthy for
consumes to intake as no harm is made to health. Moreover, it is required that sockets for
charging mobile and laptops may be provided by cafe so that customers may be satisfied.
 Place-
It is required that in order to capture Austrian market, Marvin and Smith's coffee will
open its cafe in exact location where it may conquer its objectives by satisfying customers. This
is required because they will help in Landon with support of information system stretcher. The
place of cafe will be located at that place where consumers may easily visit at shop and enjoy
with friends and families. The services will be offered by them to attract international tourists
who visit Austria. In that way, Marvin and Smith's coffee will be able to lure international
consumers as well with much ease (Douglas, Aroh, Colella and Quadri, 2016). It is required that
location of coffee shop will be in heart of city so that major population may be attracted towards
it and firm's profit will be maximised by marketing mix.
 Price-
The price system is also an important part of coffee shop as consumers look at price
before purchasing products and services. The coffee shop is providing so many ancillary services
such as charging facilities for phones and laptops and many other facilities. These services will
be used by Marvin and Smith's coffee so that it may attract more of consumers. As such, price of
coffee is hiked because of these extra services (Caragher, 2016). It is an advantage for it as rivals
do not provide such extra services to consumers. As a result, objectives of coffee shop related to
price is achieved as consumers are willing to pay extra price by taking ancillaries services. This
way, cafe will be able to generate better sales and good quantum of profits in hand effectively.
 Promotion-
The coffee will be able to use tactics such as providing free Wi-Fi facilities to customers
to promote its cafe (Hansen, 2016). It will also use certain mediums such as providing
advertisements in newspapers, television etc. so that people may come to know about the coffee
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shop. It will also provide sockets for charging laptops and mobiles so that customers are lured
with such facilities. It will ease its promotion mix and will be able to enhance its consumers by
providing ancillary services so that they may be captured.
Q3 Outline impact and issues which are faced by coffee shop in geographical context
The impact are discussed below:
1. Organisation culture-
It is the culture regarding all the stakeholders that will affect the organisation. Customers,
employees and other stakeholders are comprised of organisation culture. As, Marvin and Smith's
coffee shop is expanding its reach to Austria, it will require complete analysis of culture, values
and beliefs of stakeholders so that it may impact adversely on organisation in negative way.
Coming to customer's beliefs and culture of Austria, it needs to be carefully identified. It is
required that customers are to be given quality services. It is achieved by analysing culture and
values of customers pertaining to that nation. Also, coffee shop will provide certain ancillary
services to customers so that they may be satisfied. Also, another impact will be of employees
who come from different geographical area (Maurer, 2016). They might engage in conflicts
among other employees. As such, organisation culture is interacted with different employees. It
is needed that healthy environment will be inculcated by organisation so that employees may not
get into conflicts and they are motivated and become loyal to organisation.
The organisation culture creates brand image of coffee shop so that customer's
satisfaction may be enhanced in the best possible way (Wilson, 2014). Organisation culture
unites employees who come from different backgrounds and are entirely from different culture.
Organisation gives an equal and familiar policies to staff so that they accomplish tasks without
indulging in conflicts. Marvin and Smith's coffee will be able to give opportunities to employees
who want to get work in the cafe.
2. Personal and managing staff issue-
This issue on of the main issue as employees come from different backgrounds. They
might face personal problems which ultimately hampers the organisational work. For managing
staff issue, it is required that personal problems may not become hurdle for organisation in
achieving its objectives and goals (Caragher, 2016). The organisation may not indulge in asking
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of employee's personal life else he will become more tensed. It is required that employees may
be council by team members so that they may be able to solve issues. This will be beneficial for
coffee shop as it will accomplish its goals with much ease.
Another factor which will impact Marvin and Smith's coffee shop is that its employees
might indulge in conflicts which automatically hinders firm's atmosphere in negative way.
Employees conflicts might be solved by management team so that these conflicts will not
provide any harm to firm's dignity and reputation in the market. It is required that employees
disputes may be solved as soon as possible by organisation. Another factor which will influence
coffee shop is barrier of culture of employees. As workers come from different backgrounds, it is
needed by organisation that language barrier that will come in communication with employees
will be resolved so that this may hinder in performance of employees and as such, coffee shop
will be able to achieve its goals in effective way (Kazmi, 2017). As such, communication
barriers will be resolved by manager by providing guidelines to employees as they come from
different cultures and backgrounds. As a result, conflicts and communication barriers are
important part of management to successfully manage personal and staff issue.
Q4 Compute profitability and liquidity ratios
1. Profitability Ratio-
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As per the profitability ratio, it can be said that Marvin and Smith's coffee shop will be
able to expand its business of coffee in Austria to undertake European market effectively (Weiss,
2016). It will be able to maximise its profits which will eventually meet its goals in effectual
manner. Profitability ratios are the financial metrics that are used for purpose of assessing and
identifying organisation's ability to generate sales and profits in relation to various costs and
expenses which are incurred for the current accounting period. The gross profit ratio is 57.78 %
which is exceptionally well for coffee shop (Pitis, 2016). It will be able to expand its reach to
Austria.
Profitability ratios are vital for firm as it clearly assesses the profits and will be able to
control the expenses so that wastage of valuable resources might not be incurred by coffee shop.
As a result, it will be profitable for Marvin and Smith's coffee shop to locate its shop to Austria
location as it will be able to satisfy customers with its quality services and customers will be
delighted by the coffee experience. Higher the ratio, it will be better for the shop. Also, net profit
after excluding all expenses stands out to be 7.44 % which is also good for the company. Net
profit is computed after gross profit is deducted from it.
Return On Capital Employed (ROCE) is used to assess that how much capital has been
taken by company or utilised in order to produce sufficient profits. Revenue is the return which
is employed on capital. It means how much capital organisation is using to generate profits in
effectual manner (Chen, 2016). As per the profitability ratio, ROCE is 25.09 % which is fair
enough as shop is generating more revenue from the capital employed.
2. Liquidity Ratio-
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The liquidity ratios are another important part of firm's liquidity position (Nagel, 2016). It is the
ratio which shows the liquid position of the organisation as it will be able to pay its current
obligations or not. It is much concern for the firm as it gives them clear idea regarding the
payment obligations. Liquidity ratios are divided further into two ratios. They are current ratio
and acid test ratio. These are listed below:
 Current Ratio-
It is the ratio that assess the firm's ability to pay its liabilities or obligations for a short term basis.
In simple words, it measures organisation's ability to pay short term obligations in effectual
manner. The current ratio gives idea of financial strength of organisation (Hansen, 2016). It
consists of dividing current assets with current liabilities of firm. The coffee shop will be able to
pay its obligations as it has excellent current ratio which is 5.71:1 which shows its high liquidity
position. The ideal current ratio is 2:1. But in this case, Marvin and Smith's coffee shop has
better liquidity position.
 Acid Test Ratio-
It is also called quick ratio assess firm's ability to pay extremely short term obligation with its
most liquid assets (Business Essentials). It excludes stock and prepaid expenses while
computing. As per the table, it can be analysed that acid test ratio is 4.42:1 which is not good.
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Coffee shop will face difficulties while making short term payments. The ideal ratio is 1:1 which
is not good for the cafe. Therefore, it should improve its liquidity position to achieve goals.
CONCLUSION
Hereby it can be concluded that Marvin and Smith's coffee shop will have to consider the
ethical and logistical considerations while;e making an expansion to Austria. It will be able to
satisfy customers by providing quality of coffee services to them so that revenue may be earned
effectively by it. Moreover, it is required that it should carefully analyse the tastes and
preferences of consumers so that it may give them delightful experience. It is therefore vital for
them to make effective marketing mix regarding place, promotion, price as well as product. Also,
liquidity position should be much viable so that it may pay out its payments quite easily. Strong
liquidity position makes organisation to achieve its objectives by making payments easily. This
helps it to be effective in working. The coffee shop will be able to make good profits in new
location. The outcome may be analysed from this report that coffee shop has a good profitability
position and it will be able to maximise profits from the new location as well.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Hair, J.F., 2015. Essentials of business research methods. ME Sharpe.
Wilson, J., 2014. Essentials of business research: A guide to doing your research project. Sage.
Uhl, A. and Gollenia, L. A., 2016. Business Transformation Essentials: Case Studies and
Articles. Routledge.
Wu, C., Kirkole, S. and Huang, Y., 2016. Environmental Protection: Essentials/Antecedents of
Digital Book Adoption.Theoretical Economics Letters. 6(05). p .1115.
Douglas, C., Aroh, D., Colella, J. and Quadri, M., 2016. The HackensackUMC Value-Based
Care Model: building essentials for value-based purchasing. Nursing administration
quarterly. 40(1). pp .51-59.
Hansen, M. D., 2016, January. Business Lessons: Keeping SH&E in the Boardroom. In ASSE
Professional Development Conference and Exposition. American Society of Safety
Engineers.
Maurer, C., 2016. Human Resources Strategy and Change: Essentials of Labor Cost Reductions
and Crisis Management.Handbook of Human Resources Management. p.1329.
Caragher, J. M., 2016. 7 Essentials for a CPA Firm Marketing Program. The CPA Journa.
86(12). p. 11.
Kazmi, S. Q., 2017. Bricks in the Wall; Determining brand equity and its essentials in
educational sector. RADS Journal of Social Sciencess & Business Management. 4(1).
pp .64-78.
Weiss, C., 2016. Human Resources Strategy and Change: Essentials of Human Resources
Transformation. Handbook of Human Resources Management. 1299.
Pitis, C., 2016, October. The impact of essentials of application engineering on conservation and
energy efficiency projects. In Electrical Power and Energy Conference (EPEC),
2016 IEEE (pp. 1-6). IEEE.
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Chen, S., 2016. Training and qualification: essentials of skill management. Handbook of Human
Resources Management. pp .213-224.
Nagel, R., 2016. Human Resources Strategy and Change: Essentials of Organizational
Development 73. Handbook of Human Resources Management. p .1263.
Online
Business Essentials, 2016 [Online] Avaialable Through:
<https://www.be1sourceplus.com/be1secure>
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