Evaluation of Joint Venture as an International Expansion Option: A Case Study on Morrison's

This research evaluates the joint venture strategy as an international expansion option for Morrison's, analyzing its effectiveness and identifying challenges. The research aims to identify different strategies for international expansion, analyze the effectiveness of joint venture as an expansion strategy, identify challenges faced by Morrison's in international expansion through joint venture, and provide recommendations based on the identified challenges. The research includes a literature review on global expansion strategies and joint ventures, and follows a qualitative research methodology with purposive sampling. The findings will be accessible in the university library and online.

BUSINESS RESEARCH
PLAN

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Background..................................................................................................................................3
Research Aim and Objectives......................................................................................................3
Literature review..........................................................................................................................4
Research Methodology................................................................................................................6
Sampling......................................................................................................................................8
Accessibility................................................................................................................................8
Ethical Issues...............................................................................................................................9
Significance.................................................................................................................................9
Deliverables.................................................................................................................................9
Required Resources...................................................................................................................10
Implementation of Time Table..................................................................................................10
Evaluation of individual research plan......................................................................................12
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................14

INTRODUCTION
International expansion and collaboration is the need of the hour in the constantly changing
global environment where the organisations strive to increase their accessibility for their
customers as wide as possible. In the proposed research, international expansions options
available for a company have been evaluated especially in context of the joint venture option
which is hugely favoured option but has its own risks and challenges that need to be met (Xu and
Hitt, 2018). The research will be undertaken on Morrison which is a hugely popular retail
organisation in UK but is yet to expand on international grounds. The aim and objectives will be
developed followed by appropriate literature review and research methodology identification.
Following this, the primary research will be conducted in the dissertation and then lastly, the
research surrounded around the joint venture strategy as an international expansion option will
then end up with proper recommendations that can be adopted by the company effectively.
MAIN BODY
Background
The Morrison’s is a huge and widely established retail brand in the entire UK where the retail
organisation has been operating throughout UK with its numerous branches. The retail
organisation is very wide spread and the brand is accepted widely amongst the local residents all
over UK where the products and services provided by the company are trusted and appreciated
very much. In the research that is being undertaken, the international expansion of Morrison’s
will be discussed and the manner in which such expansion can be done. The research will
identify the benefits of using Joint venture as an expansion strategy in particular and additionally
the potential challenges that the company can face while using this strategy of expansion can be
ascertained through the completion of the research (Murshed and Zhang, 2016). The reason that
joint venture has been selected in particular as a strategy is because it is the safest expansion
strategy and if implemented correctly after through research, the risks can reduce significantly
but profit can rise enormously. Further, the joint venture is the best expansion strategies for
companies who are well established in their home countries and can venture safely into the
international markets as well. Therefore, the research is mainly focused on Joint venture
available as an expansion strategy to Morrison’s
Research Aim and Objectives
Aim:
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To evaluate the joint venture strategy as an international expansion option and analyse its
effectiveness. A case study on Morrison’s.
Objectives:
 To identify the different strategies available for international expansion.
 To analyse the effectiveness of Joint Venture as an expansion strategy.
 To identify the challenges that Morrison’s might face while expanding internationally
through joint venture.
 To provide appropriate recommendations based on the challenges identified.
Research questions:
 What are the different mechanisms that are available to a company while choosing to
expand operations on an international basis?
 How effective the joint venture technique is in the expansion of the business?
 What are the challenges that Morrison’s can face while choosing joint venture as an
international expansion strategy?
 What recommendations can be made for the company on the basis of challenges identified?
Literature review
Literature review is the technique of assembling and critically analysing all the research
papers that have been published before on the relevant topic and will contribute significantly in
the research to be undertaken (Panhans and Kaufmann, 2017). For the proposed research,
Literature review can be conducted in a following manner:
Identification of strategies of global expansion
According to (Simón-Moya and Revuelto-Taboada, 2016) it is very essential for business
to increase its potential in gathering information to develop effective strategy. This also helps
business organization to determine current market trends to attract more customers. There are
different factors in external and internal business environment which influence activities of retail
organization. Due to increase in the demand of customers globally retail industry is having
opportunity to grow in different market to increase profit margins effectively. Author also states
that evaluation of market competitiveness helps business to develop effective product and
services to increase market share and customer satisfaction effectively. This also helps business
firm to collect data about all the competition to compete and become leader of the market. It
provides business to survive in market for long term and improve its brand value. Product
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differentiation improves customer engagement to increase sales in the market increase size of
company effectively.
However, (Hopp and et.al., 2018) states that global expansion increases the risk of failure
of business due to high fluctuations in economies and market forces. This also impact business
growth in new market and discourage to provide high quality products at low price. As different
nations have different culture, beliefs, tradition which changes the buying process of customers
and decrease the efficiency of similar products in different market. Do it is very important for
retail business to analyse market to innovate and create products according to needs and wants or
market customers to increase success rate of company effectively. There are many factors which
also helps company to improve its potential by analysing its internal resources to formulate
strategic planning to reduce cost of production and operations of company. This improves profit
margin opportunity of the business to attain core competency in global market effectively.
Joint venture in expanding business
As per the view of (Ghauri, Grønhaug and Strange, 2020) joint venture are the type of
business which are operated by two or more than two business in collaboration to increase the
efficiency to reach its objectives and gain more profitability. Joint venture helps to reduce the
risk by sharing of capital investment and provides proper information about new market design
better market model effectively. Retail industry also needs to collaborate with different business
to increase the product range as well as attract more customers to gain higher sales and stability
in new market to corporate with competitor effectively. There are also some types of ventures
which are of short duration and businesses terminate the venture as soon as the objectives are
achieved. Joint ventures are also beneficial to business organisations as they carry less risks due
to the fact that business can make use of the market knowledge of their partners while entering
into new international markets in an attempt to increase their productivity and profitability in the
markets. As the strategic agreement is formed by both the parties on mutual agreement as to the
details of their venture, joint ventures are an effective method for business organisations to enter
into new global markets while taking considerably less risks, compared to other market entry
methods.
Contrastingly, as per the view of Killing, 2017, joint ventures also present business
organisations with some disadvantages should they choose to enter new global markets by
making use of the joint venture market entry method. The most prominent of these is that both
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businesses need to share all the profits generated amongst themselves, which effectively
decreases the profit potential for both the organisations. Another major disadvantage of joint
ventures is that one business organisation has to perform most of the operational work as
dividing the work equally amongst 2 business organisation never works out, thus affecting their
profitability further, while their partner does less work and demands equal amount of profits.
Challenges in expanding operations within international market
According to Wilson, Kenny and Dickson-Swift (2018) an organisation always faces
different challenges while expanding its existing operation within the international market
through joint venture. In this situation, top-level management of that organisation has required to
prepare a pre-plan before entering the new international market segment through joint venture. In
this plan, management should include those factors which can negatively affect its operation
within new market segment. By conducting this action, the management will be able to
systematically dealing with those all challenges which it can faces while enter in the international
market through joint venture. Existing management within each organisation is responsible to
create some innovative strategies for properly facing, dealing and removing different challenges
while entering internationally through joint venture.
Research Methodology
Research methodology is a critical part of the research where the different tools and
techniques that are relevant in assisting the process of identifying the relevant tools and
techniques that will assist in the completion of the research (Cuervo‐Cazurra and et.al., 2017).
These tools and techniques can be discussed in following manner:
Research Philosophy: The research philosophy is the beliefs about the manner in which the
research should be performed. These are broadly of two categories, interpretivism and
positivism. Interpretivism is commonly adopted in case of qualitative research where the
different facts are tested to draw theoretical conclusions and positivism is adopted in case of
quantitative research. Under positivism, the different numerical figures etc. are testing by the
formulation of hypothesis which is then tested to be true or not (Daniel and Harland, 2017). In
the research proposed however, the scholar will select the interpretivism philosophy out of the
two because the proposed research will include the analysis of the aspects such as manager’s
point of view etc. and this will require the consideration of human aspect.
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Research Approach: The research approach is the base on which the entire research structure is
based. There are mainly two kinds of approaches that the researchers can select from i.e.
inductive approach and deductive approach. The deductive approach is used in quantitative
research where the researcher moves from generalise theory towards the analysis of the relevant
facts that prove that theory and in inductive approach on the other hand, the different facts are
analysed to ascertain whether the theory gets proven or not (Goldberg and et.al., 2017). The
researcher here will select the inductive approach for the research to be undertaken because it is
flexible in the qualitative research and will help in the analysis of different theories and facts that
will be used in the research.
Data Collection: The data collection involves gathering of all the relevant data that will
contribute in the research analysis and interpretation part. There is primary as well as secondary
data collection methods and under both of them the data collection techniques are different. In
the primary research, the data is collected on an individual basis where techniques like
observation, interview, questionnaire etc. are used on a group of selected respondents i.e. sample.
Secondary research however includes evaluation of different research papers that are relevant
and have already been published by other authors in the field. Both primary and secondary data
collection techniques will be used in the secondary research that is proposed to be undertaken.
Data Analysis: The data analysis part involves analysis of different techniques that can be used
for the collection and interpretation of data that has been collected accordingly. The quantitative
data collected can be analysed using the tools such as SPSS software, MS- Excel etc. which
helps in the analysis of different figures (Mohajan, 2018). The qualitative data on the other hand
can be analysed using the thematic data analysis technique where the different charts, figures,
graphs etc. are used to analyse the data that has been collected and then interpret them
accordingly. The research that will be undertaken is also qualitative in nature and therefore, the
thematic analysis technique will be used.
Research Limitations: The research limitations section helps in identifying what are the various
drawbacks of the proposed research. The current research that is being undertaken is not
quantitative in nature and therefore, there is substantial data that might not be taken into
consideration despite its relevance however all the facts will be tried to be accommodated in the
proposed qualitative research (Ørngreen and Levinsen, 2017). Since the tome availability was
also limited, an in- depth study will not be possibly conducted due to the constraints but still, all
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the relevant and major findings will be included in the limited time period study that will be
undertaken. Therefore, these limitations might reduce the effectiveness of the research but the
gap will be bridged up by the qualitative research that has been proposed.
Therefore, the different points in the research methodology helped in concluding that the
proposed research to be undertaken will be effective in collection of all the relevant data
pertaining to the selection of Joint venture as an expansion strategy by Morrison’s. These tools
will also help in ascertaining the correct tools and techniques required for the research that will
help in generating maximum results.
Sampling
Sampling is basically selection of the respondents that will contribute in the research by
presenting their own views which in turn will reflect the view of the general public that they
represent. There are mainly two methods of sample collection i.e. probability sampling and non-
probability sampling method. Under the probability sampling method, the samples are selected
randomly without any biasness in the selection criteria. In the non- probability sampling there are
certain pre- developed criteria that the respondents needs to meet in order to be qualified to be
selected in the proposed research (Hickson, 2016). For the undertaking of the research, purposive
sampling method is used where the sample will be selected from the population that will be
selected on the basis of some pre- formulated criteria. In the proposed research on evaluation of
joint venture as an expansion technique for Morrison’s, the selected sample will be 30 managers
working in Morrison’s who will be selected randomly out of all the managers working in
Morrison’s so that relevant analysis and interpretation can be done.
Accessibility
The research that will be undertaken will be available in the university library where other
students and teachers wishing to refer can easily obtain. Further, the online availability of the
research paper also makes it easy for other people to access the data but only after proper
approval and granting of adequate permission (Aithal, 2017). However, the personal details of
the respondents with lie in possession of researcher solely and the administration office or the
supervisor. This will ensure that the confidentiality of the respondents is not compromised with
and the data remains protected with the researcher only thus removing any chances to access
those respondents.
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Ethical Issues
The ethical compliance will be the primary objective of this research where the entire
research will be completed in accordance to the ethical norms and aspects. The researcher, in the
research that has been proposed, will also make the respondents fill a consent form stating that
they have not been forced or coerced by the researcher in any manner to either forcefully
participate in the research or to introduce biasness in the research by giving more weight age to
one aspect over the another intentionally (Snyder, 2019). Apart from this, another declaration
form will be attached by the researcher themselves stating that the entire research work is
original and carried on their own. Additionally, they will also state that any external references
wherever they have been taken have been properly cited and appropriate credit has been given.
Significance
The significance of this research is that there are many strategies that can be adopted while
carrying out expansion activities especially in context of international expansion. The research
will basically justify the validity and reliability of joint venture as an expansion strategy over all
the other strategies that are available. The research that will be conducted is important because it
will help in providing clear direction regarding the challenges that can arise before the
companies and business men who are planning to set up their stores through the technique of
joint venture (Daniel, Kumar and Omar, 2018). This research will also help in ascertaining the
recommendations or other strategies that can be used by the similar businessmen and other
companies so that the potential threats and risks in the establishment of joint venture can be
avoided. The suggested recommendations are very important in the present context as these help
in effectively presenting before the other readers the variety of challenges and their solutions
regarding international expansion especially in context of joint venture.
Deliverables
The key deliverables of the research will be mainly in context of the research findings and
outcomes that will be presented i.e. through this research mainly the viability of the joint venture
as an international expansion option will be analysed. The research will also mainly highlight the
current position of Morrison’s and whether they should go further with the expansion in the
international market with the proposed strategy of joint venture or whether this is not a feasible
option for them will be presented (Quinlan and et.al., 2019). Lastly, the research will highlight
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that what is the best strategy as per the employees i.e. manager of Morrison’s thus increasing the
relevance of this research where they will be able to significantly draw realistic conclusions.
Required Resources
The key resource that is required for the completion of the research comprehensively
includes primarily the human resource i.e. the researcher themselves and additionally, the human
resource in the form of guidance or supervisor of the research as well. The respondents will also
be included in the human resource that is required for the completion of the research critically
(Krishnaswamy, 2016). Apart from this the technological resources will be used majorly where
the need to collect relevant data through the assistance of these resources, the emails, Skype,
phone calls etc. that might need to be made in order to collect the data in the form of
questionnaire from the respondents etc. makes it necessary to use technological resources.
Implementation of Time Table
The entire duration that will be required to complete the research can be ascertained
through the preparation of Gantt chart. The Gantt chart is systematic representation of the
different activities that are required to be performed in order to complete the research effectively
and the estimated time that it will be required to complete each activity identified in the research
(Tobi and Kampen, 2018). For the proposed research, the Gantt chart can be presented in
following manner:
S. Nos. Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
1 Formulation of aim and objective 5 days Fri 2/21/20 Thu
2/27/20
2 Background and Literature review 6 days Fri 2/28/20 Fri 3/6/20 1
3 Research methods selection 8 days Mon
3/9/20
Wed
3/18/20 2
4 Formulation of questionnaire 3 days Thu
3/19/20
Mon
3/23/20 3
5 Sending questionnaire to respondents 4 days Tue
3/24/20
Fri
3/27/20 2,4
6 Collection of data 6 days Mon
3/30/20
Mon
4/6/20 5
7 Data interpretation 10 days Tue 4/7/20 Mon
4/20/20 6
8 Conclusion and Recommendation 4 days Tue
4/21/20
Fri
4/24/20 7
9 Formatting 2 days Mon Tue 8
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4/27/20 4/28/20
10 Taking feedback 4 days Wed
4/29/20
Mon
5/4/20 9
11 Doing changes as per the feedback
provided 6 days Tue 5/5/20 Tue
5/12/20 10
12 Final submission 1 day Wed
5/13/20
Wed
5/13/20 11
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Evaluation of individual research plan
The research plan that has been developed will be conducted and implemented with the
purpose of mainly analysing feasibility of joint venture as an expansion option available to the
hugely popular chain retail store organisation of UK, i.e. Morrison’s. It can be evaluated from
the research proposal that the proposed research will be an extremely comprehensive one where
both primary and secondary factors are being taken into consideration. Further, it can also be
stated clearly that the selection of literature review will be comprehensive as it can be evidently
identified in the literature review done in research proposal. The research methodology aspect
that will be further detailed in the dissertation will also be strong as the options and different
tools or techniques that have been selected in the research methodology for the company are very
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impressive with profound basis. Therefore, it can be evaluated that the data collection and
analysis activity will be extremely detailed and on point generating relevant conclusions and
findings for the research. Further the primary data research that will be conducted is mainly
based on responses given by the selection of the respondents i.e. 30 managers of the Morrison’s
company will be selected and presented with questionnaires. The primary data analysis will be
extremely useful in drawing correct conclusions as it will help in analysing the answers given by
different respondents and then drawing interpretation accordingly. Since the thematic analysis
will be used, the representation of such primary data will be exhaustive and simplified. This
helps in concluding that the research finding and conclusions that will be hence drawn from the
primary and secondary research will be extremely comprehensive, accurate and realistic with
appropriate findings.
However, the time within which the research is estimated to be completed might extend
and stretch because it might get difficult for the researcher to complete all the activities in the
developed timeline. It can be evaluated that the time allotted for completion of data interpretation
itself is just 10 days but in reality it is possible to incur much more days than the estimated
figure. Therefore, it can be evaluated that the research will be full of different aspects that will be
taken into consideration and despite the time boundations the results ultimately would be
extremely insightful and meaningful.
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