Business Research Methods and Resource Assembling

This assignment covers various topics related to business research methods, including individual-level resources, institutional context, and new business activity. It also touches on sustainability in human resource management, Internet of Things (IoT)-aware process modeling, and assembling resources when forming a new business. The assignment includes references to academic papers and books that provide insights into these topics.

Business Resource

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1............................................................................................................................................1
P2............................................................................................................................................2
P3............................................................................................................................................3
P4............................................................................................................................................4
P5............................................................................................................................................5
P6............................................................................................................................................6
P7............................................................................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Business resource is consist of many kinds of resources which is used by the company so
that they can proceed towards success and that has to be used by the company in better and
careful manner to sustain it for long. In business resources there are different parts which are
finance, human, physical, etc. all this resources has to be maintained properly to run the business
in smooth way, this would help in providing best services to their customers 1. Curry Lounge is a
restaurant which is owned by some people and it is situated in UK. They provide various
products to the customers and they are now connected to number of customers. In this below
report all the information is being collect by the Curry Lounge.
TASK 1
P1
Job description
Customer service managers at Curry Lounge are there to ensure that customers are
satisfied with the service they are being given, they also need to ensure that other staff are
complying with the businesses policy to provide excellent customer service. Customer service
managers will also help develop and implement the specifics of the organisations customer
service policy, find ways to measure customer satisfaction, improve services, manage a team of
customer services staff and handle enquiries from customers 2.
Requirements of the job that Curry Lounge want the customer service employees to have:
Soft skills
 Communication skills – needs to be sufficient enough to be able to help and inform
customers and instruct colleagues on customer service policies
 Listening skills – to understand what customers need and listen to input from other
colleagues on how to improve customer service
1 Lüftenegger, Egon, Paul Grefen, and Caren Weisleder. "The service dominant strategy
canvas: Towards networked business models." Collaborative Networks in the Internet of
Services (2012): 207-215.
2 Bae, Johngseok, Chris Rowley, and Tae-Won Sohn, eds. Managing Korean business:
Organization, culture, human resources and change. Routledge, 2012.
1

 Problem-solving skills – be able to address any issues that are bought up from either
colleagues or customers
 Confidence, patience, politeness, tact and diplomacy
 Motivational skills – helps with the ability to lead a team of customer service assistants
 Creative thinking skills – gives the ability to come up with new improvements to the
customer service policies.
 An ability to work well under pressure
 Organisational skills and planning skills
 Good personal presentation – as will be working face-to-face with customers
 A commitment to improve your own personal customer service skills on an ongoing basis
 Time management 3.
Hard skills (not necessary but desirable)
 Business studies degree
 Consumer studies degree.
 Management studies degree.
 Marketing degree.
P2
Employability skills
Employability skills can be defined as a skills that a person needs to have in order to get a
job and/or be effective in the job role he or she has. Such skills allow the employee or person to
have a mutual and friendly relationship with colleagues or the manager thus if there are any
problems that arise they will be resolved efficiently. There are many examples of employability
skills that employees or people applying for jobs should possess which include; qualification and
experience that are directly linked to the job that is being applied for.
Personal skills
Personal skills can be defined as a skills that a person may possess but doesn’t
necessarily need when applying for a specific job role. There are many examples of such skills
3 Breton‐Miller, Le, and Danny Miller. "Socioemotional wealth across the family firm life
cycle: A commentary on “Family Business Survival and the Role of Boards”." Entrepreneurship
Theory and Practice 37, no. 6 (2013): 1391-1397.
2

which would benefit the business including; speaking different languages, trustworthy and
having a sense a humour 4. It is good if employees or applicants possess such sills when applying
for a job as it will make them more likely to get the job as it shows the employer other skills that
the employee/applicant have that can help the business; these skills are useful for a lot of
different jobs.
Communication skills
Communication skills can be defined as a skills that help a person convey information to
another person efficiently and with ease. Managers or employees with good written or verbal
communication skills will benefit the business; this is because they will be able to talk and
understand each other properly.
P3
Physical resources
At Curry Lounge the building they use is essential towards the day to day running of the
business. In order for the business to provide products and services to its customers they will
need different in-house resources to facilitate the smooth running of the business.
Security
Can be an issue for big companies like Curry Lounge, this is because people find it easier to steal
from big corporations than little independent shops, most Curry Lounge shops are open 24/7 so
they hire security staff that are there around the clock, Curry Lounge also uses security cameras
and security tags (on expensive or commonly stolen items) to facilitate the work of the security
guards.
Organisations are required to have policies and provisions for what should happen if an
emergency within the building occurs 5. If an emergency was to happen all the employees will
know exactly what to do, organisations must also have the equipment within the building ready
to use if necessary.
Technological resources
4 De Clercq, Dirk, Dominic SK Lim, and Chang Hoon Oh. "Individual‐level resources and
new business activity: The contingent role of institutional context." Entrepreneurship Theory and
Practice 37, no. 2 (2013): 303-330.
5 Zikmund, William G., Barry J. Babin, Jon C. Carr, and Mitch Griffin. Business research
methods. Cengage Learning, 2013.
3

Curry Lounge uses software that is loaded on to all their technology. The software is the
programme that tells the technological items, like tills, what to do, it is loaded with all the
barcodes of items the store sells which means employees can quickly and easily scan items and
the tills will add it up with the least human labour possible.
Experience and skills are necessary for Curry Lounge to work as a business, skills are required
for the higher up jobs in the business such as management.
Intellectual property needs to be kept secret as it is required for Curry Lounge to ensure that
new ideas they come up with to improve the store will not be stolen and used in other competing
stores.
P4
Internal
Retained Profit can be defined as the amount of money that is left over when the all the
overhead and costs of business have been deducted. Retained profit could be used by a business
to pay shareholders as a dividend or to invest in new equipment such as a new state of the art
tandoori oven to make the business more efficient 6. This is a good source of finance for Curry
Lounge to use as it is there for them to use and they don’t need to go to the bank or any other
organisation to borrow money /loan which can be a lengthy process as they will be looking at the
financial side of the business to see whether they would be able to pay the loan back.
Personal Savings can be defined as the amount of personal money that the owner himself puts
into the business. Personal savings could be used by a business to pay staff their wages or to
reinvest into the business to revamp the décor or front house of the restaurant. This is a good
source of finance for Curry Lounge to use because like the previous source; it is there for them to
use and they don’t need to go to the bank or any other organisation to borrow money /loan which
can be a lengthy process as they will be looking at the financial side of the business to see
whether they would be able to pay the loan back.
Sales of Assets can be defined as the amount of money that come from the sale of stock or assets
that belong to the business. Sales of assets could be used by a business to replace his kitchen
6 Meyer, Sonja, Andreas Ruppen, and Carsten Magerkurth. "Internet of things-aware
process modeling: integrating IoT devices as business process resources." In International
Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering, pp. 84-98. Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg, 2013.
4

equipment or to pay for wages of new staff that Raz may hire for his business; The Curry
Lounge. He could do this by selling assets such as the big chandelier that he has in the middle of
the restaurant which is part of the décor or any old kitchen equipment.
External
Shareholders can be defined as people who have bought a share/stake within the business.
Shareholders may be used by a business like Curry Lounge to invest in new produce or stock for
the business like new food products such as meat and rice or flour, they could also be used to
invest in new tables or chairs for the restaurant, the amount would just depend on how many
shares they sold 7. This is a good source of finance for Curry Lounge to use as they would not
have to get a bank loan and so would not have to pay interest back.
P5
A Trading, Profit and Loss account (Income Statement) can be defined as an account
that highlights a business’s financial performance over a given period of 1 year which includes
the sales revenue, Cost of sales, Gross profit, expenses and Net profit of the organisation or
business. The purpose of the Trading, Profit, and Loss account is to show the business whether
or not it has made a profit or made a loss over that 1 year period thus giving a better insight to
the business owners to see whether the business venture is successful or not and if it’s
worthwhile for them to trade.
Turnover can be defined as the amount of revenue or money generated from sales by a business
or organisation over a period of 1 year. The turnover figure for The Curry Lounge in 2014 was
£2175,000 and for 2015 the figure was £3300,000; the difference between the two years accounts
for the Curry Lounge is £1125, 000. There are many reasons why there is a difference of
£1125,000 between the two figures for each year; one such reason may be that in the first year of
2014 the Curry Lounge may have less customers as it had just introduced itself and may have
been focusing on another aspect of the business which was to get through the first year. In the
second year the business got a higher turnover because it had been established for 1 year in the
location thus people from the area were well known and familiarised with the restaurant and ate
there.
7 Sekaran, Uma, and Roger Bougie. Research methods for business: A skill building
approach. John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
5

Cost of Sales can be defined as the direct costs incurred by the business when producing the
goods that they sell; in order to calculate the costs of sales you have to carry out the following
formula which is [Opening stock + ( purchases & expenses ) – Closing stock] which give the
business its cost of sales. The cost of sales figure for The Curry Lounge in 2014 was £750,000
and for 2015 the figure was £982,500; the difference between the two years accounts for the
Curry Lounge is £232,500. There are many reasons why there is a difference of £232,500
between the two figures for each year; one such reason may be that in the first year of 2014 the
cost of producing their products or buying their product would be cheaper so products like meat
and vegetables may have been cheaper to buy in the first year 8.
Gross Profit can be defined as the profit after deducting the cost of goods sold from the business
total revenue of the financial year; in order to calculate the gross profit you have to carry out the
following formula which is Total Revenue – Cost of goods Sold which give the business its
Gross Profit figure. The gross profit figure for The Curry Lounge in 2014 was £1425,000 and for
2015 the figure was £2317,500; the difference between the two years accounts for the Curry
Lounge is £892,500. These figures show that the Curry Lounges performance was better in 2015
where it made an extra £892,500 compared to the figure that the restaurant got in 2014 which
was £1425,500. It clearly shows the business did well and may have had more customers in the
second year; this may be due to many reasons; one such reason may be that a lot of customers’
went to the restaurant because they may have been cheaper than other local restaurants or it may
be due to the food they give.
P6
Sales
One problem that is highlighted in the above budgets is that the food sales that curry lounge had
made. The restaurant had predicted that it was going to make £2500 of food sales in June
however, they actually made £1500 of sales. This means that the variable in this case was
adverse of £1000. The next month of July the restaurant predicted that it would make £3200 of
food sales but in actual fact they only made £2100 of sales thus making the variable yet again
adverse of £1100. On the other hand, the restaurant did make a favourable variable in the month
8 Ciabuschi, Francesco, Andrea Perna, and Ivan Snehota. "Assembling resources when
forming a new business." Journal of Business Research 65, no. 2 (2012): 220-229.
6

of August when it had forecasted to make £4200 of food sale but ended up making £5000 of
sales.
Expenses
Another problem that is highlighted in the above budgets is that the materials that curry lounge
had has bought. The restaurant had predicted that it was going to buy £650 of materials in June
however, they actually ended up buying £800 of materials 9. This means that the variable in this
case was adverse of £150. The next month of July the restaurant predicted that it would buy £850
of materials but in actual fact they ended up buying £1000 of materials thus making the variance
yet again adverse of £150.The restaurant made another adverse variance in the month of August
when it had forecasted to spend £1100 on materials but ended up spending £1500 on materials.
P7
Solvency
Using figure 1 (below) I can figure out solvency for Curry Lounge in 2014, the current ratio is
1.42:1. A ratio between 1.5:1 and 2:1 is desirable, but 1.42:1 is close and it means that if Curry
Lounge needed to pay off all its liabilities they could do so by selling their assets and still have
the 0.42 of assets left over.
Profitability
Profitability can be figured out using a formula, there are three main ones – gross profit
percentage, net profit percentage and return of capital employed using figure 1 I can figure out
the gross profit percentage and net profit percentage which is 6.31% and 1.53% respectively,
these are both low and probably due to the intense competition that Curry Lounge has as they
are always having to lower their prices 10.
Performance
Performance can be measured by calculating stock turnover, using figure 1 and 2 the stock
turnover is 27.19 number of times which means it takes 27.19 days for the stock to be sold and
replaced 11.
9 Ciabuschi, Francesco, Andrea Perna, and Ivan Snehota. "Assembling resources when
forming a new business." Journal of Business Research 65, no. 2 (2012): 220-229.
10 Ward, John. Keeping the family business healthy: How to plan for continuing growth,
profitability, and family leadership. Springer, 2016.
7

CONCLUSION
From the above report it is been analysed that to run a business it is very essential take
care of all the activities which is done in the organisation, and they have make proper use of the
resources which they have with them so that it would be helpful for them in having their work in
better manner. In the above report the budget and the financial state of the business is also being
described so that they can know about their financial state so they would improve it.
11 Ehnert, Ina, Wes Harry, and Klaus J. Zink, eds. Sustainability and human resource
management: Developing sustainable business organizations. Springer Science & Business
Media, 2013.
8

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Lüftenegger, Egon, Paul Grefen, and Caren Weisleder. "The service dominant strategy canvas:
Towards networked business models." Collaborative Networks in the Internet of Services
(2012): 207-215.
Bae, Johngseok, Chris Rowley, and Tae-Won Sohn, eds. Managing Korean business:
Organization, culture, human resources and change. Routledge, 2012.
Breton‐Miller, Le, and Danny Miller. "Socioemotional wealth across the family firm life cycle:
A commentary on “Family Business Survival and the Role of Boards”." Entrepreneurship
Theory and Practice 37, no. 6 (2013): 1391-1397.
De Clercq, Dirk, Dominic SK Lim, and Chang Hoon Oh. "Individual‐level resources and new
business activity: The contingent role of institutional context." Entrepreneurship Theory
and Practice 37, no. 2 (2013): 303-330.
Zikmund, William G., Barry J. Babin, Jon C. Carr, and Mitch Griffin. Business research
methods. Cengage Learning, 2013.
Meyer, Sonja, Andreas Ruppen, and Carsten Magerkurth. "Internet of things-aware process
modeling: integrating IoT devices as business process resources." In International
Conference on Advanced Information Systems Engineering, pp. 84-98. Springer, Berlin,
Heidelberg, 2013.
Sekaran, Uma, and Roger Bougie. Research methods for business: A skill building approach.
John Wiley & Sons, 2016.
Ciabuschi, Francesco, Andrea Perna, and Ivan Snehota. "Assembling resources when forming a
new business." Journal of Business Research 65, no. 2 (2012): 220-229.
Ward, John. Keeping the family business healthy: How to plan for continuing growth,
profitability, and family leadership. Springer, 2016.
Ehnert, Ina, Wes Harry, and Klaus J. Zink, eds. Sustainability and human resource management:
Developing sustainable business organizations. Springer Science & Business Media,
2013.
9