Assessing Innovation Effectiveness: A Research Proposal for John Lewis

This research proposal aims to determine the effectiveness of innovation in business, specifically focusing on the John Lewis Partnership. It begins with an introduction defining innovation and its importance, followed by a background on John Lewis and the aims, objectives, and research questions guiding the study. The rationale for selecting this topic stems from the company's ongoing innovation efforts and the desire to understand its return on investment and customer satisfaction. A literature review explores the concept of innovation, challenges faced by businesses in implementing innovation, and the effects of innovation on performance. The research methodology outlines the use of qualitative research, an inductive approach, and a descriptive research design to gather and analyze data. The proposal details the research type, approach, and design to ensure a systematic investigation of innovation's effectiveness, addressing challenges, and suggesting enhancements for John Lewis.

To determine effectiveness of innovation
in business
(Research Proposal)

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background of the study ............................................................................................................3
Overview of organisation ...........................................................................................................3
Aims and objectives of research ................................................................................................3
Research questions......................................................................................................................4
Rationale for selecting the topic..................................................................................................4
Importance of the topic ..............................................................................................................4
Literature review.........................................................................................................................5
Research methodology................................................................................................................7
Time scale...................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Innovation can be defined as the procedure of translating ideas into useful products or
services. The main purpose of innovation by companies is to provide high value proposition to
customers. In addition to this, the other intention of innovation by firms is to gain competitive
advantage. Effectiveness of innovation can be measured in terms of satisfaction gained by target
customer group by consuming unique goods or services developed by firm (Witt, 2016).
The research will be conducted for measuring the effectiveness of the innovation
facilitated by John lewis company. It will emphasize on analysing the perceptions of different
authors about the topic. The different methodology which will be used for performing the
investigation on particular topic will be highlighted in the research report (Tidd and Bessant,
2018).
Background of the study
In today's dynamic and continuous changing business environment, it has become very
much crucial for companies to facilitate innovation in order to sustain in the market. But just
facilitating innovation is not enough new product or procedure developed should be competent
enough that it could fulfil needs of both customers and business. It is required by organisation to
facilitate the innovation in business procedure, products or services considering the demand of
customers. In simple words, customer oriented approach can be adopted by firm for facilitating
inn ovation as it will help them in meeting customer expectations and assist organisation in
earning high profit.
Overview of organisation
John lewis is basically a UK based organisation that operates departmental store. It is
third largest private enterprise in terms of sales. Business entity offers wide range as well as
variety of products as well as services. Some products offered by an organisation are clothes,
watches, cosmetics, bedding etc. In addition to this, firm also provides financial services to its
clients. Business entity consist of approx. 8300 employees working at different location for an
enterprise. Revenue earned by an organisation during the year 2018 was £172 million
(Tidd and Bessant, 2018).

Aims and objectives of research
Aim of investigation – To determine the effectiveness of innovation in business – A case study
of John lewis Partnership.
Objectives:
 To develop the understanding about the innovation in business.
 To determine the challenges faced by John lewis company in facilitating innovation.
 To analyse the effect of innovation on business performance of John lewis.
 To suggest the ways through which the effectiveness of innovation can be enhanced.
Research questions
 What is innovation ?
 What are the challenges faced by organisation in facilitating innovation ?
 What effect innovation have on the business performance of John lewis partnership firm?
 What are the ways through which effectiveness of innovation can be increased ?
Rationale for selecting the topic
The ration for selecting the specific topic for investigation is that John lewis company is
continuously facilitating innovation but still an enterprise is not getting good rate of return on
investment done on producing new products or services. In addition to this, many customers of
John lewis organisation are still not satisfied by goods or services offered by enterprise.
Therefore, researcher by conducting the researcher on particular topic intends to identify the
reason for low rate of return on investment by measuring effectiveness of innovation done by
company. Other rationale for choosing the specific topic for research is that investigator want to
address the various issues faced by enterprise as such problems have significant influence on the
effectiveness of innovation done by organisation. In addition to this, by performing the
investigation on particular topic researcher want to help John lewis company in identifying the
suitable ways through which effectiveness of innovation can be increased and high level of
satisfaction can be provided to customers.

Importance of the topic
The study on topic to determine the effectiveness of innovation in business unit is highly
important as it will help management in determining the performance gap in context of
procedure of innovation. In addition to this, the investigation performed on specific topic is
crucial as it will help an enterprise in addressing the issues in innovation procedure. It will also
assist management in identification of the are which require improvement in context of
innovation. Findings of investigation will help management in finding suitable ways for
increasing effectiveness of innovation procedure (Brunswicker and Vanhaverbeke, 2015).
Literature review
Theme 1: Developing the understanding about innovation at John Lewis
According to Brunswicker and Vanhaverbeke, (2015), innovation can be referred as a
changing process or creation of a more effective process or products with the help of an idea. In
order to develop innovation in a business, it can be referred to implementation of new ides to
create dynamic products or improving the existing services of the business. Basically, innovation
means introducing something new in the business which can help in increasing the performance
of the organization. The major reason for bringing innovation is to create a value for the
business. The value can be derived from creating new opportunities of increasing revenue or it
may include driving more revenue through existing channel of distribution through creating
efficiencies which can save time and money.
As per Tidd and Bessant, (2018), innovation may include improving processes of
business for increasing the productivity or it may comprises extending the range of existing
products by the business. Innovation can also take place by adding value to the existing products
which helps the business in standing unique from other competitors in the market. Creating an
entirely new product is also a part of innovation which is done by the business to increase its
segments in order to expand the business. Innovation in a business can have several effects and
challenges which may lead to failure of achieving organizational objectives.
Theme 2: Determining the challenges that are being faced by John Lewis in facilitating
innovation
According to Christensen, Raynor and McDonald, (2015), innovation is essential in a
business as it helps in providing a competitive edge in the market, but there are several

challenges that are being faced by a business in order to implement an innovation in the
organization. The major challenge which arises while implementing innovation is missed
innovation strategy. It effects the working of the departments in an organization, as
implementation of innovation without an appropriate strategy can lead to failure in
implementation of innovation which can lead to mismanagement in the organization. Another
challenge which is faced by the business is missing customer connections. Feedbacks from the
customers are to be strongly considered by the business in order to fulfil their satisfaction and
needs. Failure of doing so can result in negative effects of innovation in the enterprise.
As per Biemans, (2018), the major challenge which is faced by a business in
implementation of innovation is unmotivated employees. If the employees of the organization
are not encouraged for implementation of innovation, it cannot be effectively executed in the
business. The employees are to be motivated for the innovation by letting them know the need of
innovation in the organization. This can lead to effective implementation of innovation in the
business which results in attaining desirable objectives of the organization. Lack of collaboration
in execution of innovation strategy is also a major challenge for the business. Innovation cannot
be executed by a single person, it needs support of whole team for effective implementation of
the strategy. Ineffective working of a single member in a team can lead to communicate negative
environment in the organization.
Theme 3: Analysing the effects of innovation on performance at John Lewis
According to Witt, (2016), innovation have several positive effects as well as negative
effects which are essential for each and every organization to execute it in the most effective
manner. The major positive effect of innovation is that, it provides a sustainable competitive
advantage. Innovation helps in developing the products according to needs of customers. These
innovated products attract maximum number of customers which helps the company in standing
unique in the market. Another effect of innovation is market growth and differentiation.
Competition in the market has made essential for the organization to increase the segments and
variants of products in order to survive in the market. Innovated products can help in expanding
the business by introducing a totally different segment of product in the market which can be
used for market growth and differentiation.
As per the view of Marin and Lotti, (2017), innovation has likely more negative aspects
which majorly includes cost and time consuming. Innovation increases the cost of research and

development of the organization which can unbalance the financial budget of the company. A
business can run out of funds if all the money is being invested on innovation of the products.
Lastly, innovation may end up wasting resources if it is not implemented effectively.
Research methodology
Research methodology is basically strategies or techniques which has been applied for
performing investigation on particular topic (Biemans, 2018). The choice of an appropriate
research methodology is very much crucial for accomplishing set aims and objectives. Research
methodology is section which describes the way the different activities will be performed during
investigation. The researcher will apply different methodology for conducting the investigation
on particular topic :
Research type : It can be referred to as scientific process through which the data about the
phenomenon could be gathered as well as analysed. It is the nature of the subject as well as
issue which helps in determining the type of investigation to be performed. Qualitative and
quantitative are generally two types of investigation which are generally conducted by
researcher. The qualitative investigation will be executed by researcher for gathering , analysing
and interpretation of the information in order to measure the effectiveness of innovation
facilitated by organisation. Specific type of research will be performed because it assist
investigator in accumulating the huge amount of facts related to the subject. Other reason
because of which qualitative investigation will be conducted is that it provides investigator an
ease in interpretation of data. In addition to this, the qualitative research provides flexibility in
relation to the techniques such as interview, questionnaire which can be applied for gathering the
information about the subject (Kumar, 2019).
Research approach : it is the plan which is designed on the basis of belief about the
methodologies which can be utilised for performing different activities such as data collection ,
analysis and interpretation of information during study. The research approach assist investigator
in performing the investigation in systematic manner. The two basic form if research approach
are inductive as well as deductive. Inductive research approach has between selected for the
present study. Specific research approach will be applied in present investigation because it
enables researcher to develop in depth understanding about the topic. Other rationale because of
which the inductive research approach will be used is that by applying the particular research

approach investigator aim to develop new theory by using the information gathered (Kumar,
2019).
Research design : It is the structure which consist of detailed information about methodology or
strategies which will be applied by researcher for combining the various components of the
study. Selection of an appropriate research design is very much essential in order to handle
issues in systematic manner. Research design in methodology section provides the guidance
related to the way investigation to be conducted using particular technique. . In addition to this,
research design also help investigator in getting the answer to research questions. The choice of
the research design is completely based on the purpose of investigation. Research design can be
categorised into following these are experimental, explanatory, descriptive and exploratory.
Descriptive research design will be applied in present investigation which is to be performed for
measuring effectiveness of innovation in business unit. Particular research will be applied as it
provides researcher in describing the phenomenon in detail. In addition to this, the descriptive
research design will be applied in present study, as it helps investigator in developing the
understanding about the relationship between cause and effect. In context of present
investigation, descriptive research design will assist researcher in determining the effect of
innovation on business performance of John lewis company (Silverman, 2016).
Research philosophy: it is the assumption or beliefs of different researcher about the techniques
which can be applied for facilitating study. There are various belief associated related to the
strategies that can be utilised for performing various activities such as data collection, analysis
and interpretation. The two research philosophies are interpretive and positivism. Interpretivism
research philosophy will be used in the present study for determining the effectiveness of
innovation in business unit. Specific research philosophy will be applied in present study as it
provides investigator an ease in interpreting the information in systematic manner. Other reason
for applying the Interpretivism research philosophy is that it helps in generating the subjective
outcomes (Bresler and Stake, 2017).
Sampling: It is basically a strategical process of selecting the subset from large population.
Sampling can be defined as process which is performed by researcher for selecting few people as
participants in investigation procedure. The researcher should be very much conscious while
selecting the sample as it could have significant effect ion result. Sampling activity has been
conducted by author in present study for selecting the few people as respondents in present

study. Investigator has selected 30 participants using the simple random sampling technique.
Participants those who are selected working as employees in John lewis organisation (Taylor,
Bogdan and DeVault, 2015).
Data collection : data collection is considered to be as one of the important activity without
which the research can not be proceed further. Primary and secondary are the two type of
sources from where the data related to the topic can be gathered. In qualitative research there are
number of techniques which can be applied for collecting the information about the subject such
as interview, questionnaire etc. Researcher in present study on topic effectiveness of innovation
in business has applied the questionnaire technique because it is less time as well as cost
consuming technique of data collection. Questions for questionnaire form has been designed
considering the objective of investigation. Questionnaire has been distributed to participants
through E-mail (Silverman, 2016).
Data analysis : It can be referred to as the procedure of extraction of information from the
large amount of data. The data analysis technique assist researcher in reaching to the conclusion
and help them in making good decision. In context of present investigation investigator has used
the quantitative technique for analysing the information. In addition to this, thematic analysis
has been applied in order to present them data. Themes has been formulated on the basis of
answers provided by participants (Bresler and Stake, 2017).
Ethical Consideration: It can be defined as the ethics which are to be considered while
conducting research. In the present research, researcher will collect relevant information from
authentic sources which will help in effective analysis of data. Researcher will also take consent
from the participants of the research, and their privacy will be ensured. Researcher will also
ensure that all the communication with the participants will be done honestly with transparency
(Silverman, 2016).
Time scale
It can be referred as a process or sequence of the events which consist of time allowed for
the particular activity. This helps in completing the tasks on the targeted dates which prevents the
delay in submission (Bresler and Stake, 2017).

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Biemans, W., 2018. Managing innovation within networks. Routledge.
Bresler, L. and Stake, R.E., 2017. Qualitative research methodology in music education.
In Critical Essays in Music Education (pp. 113-128). Routledge.
Brunswicker, S. and Vanhaverbeke, W., 2015. Open innovation in small and medium‐sized
enterprises (SMEs): External knowledge sourcing strategies and internal organizational
facilitators. Journal of Small Business Management. 53(4). pp.1241-1263.
Christensen, C.M., Raynor, M.E. and McDonald, R., 2015. What is disruptive
innovation. Harvard Business Review. 93(12). pp.44-53.
Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage Publications
Limited.
Marin, G. and Lotti, F., 2017. Productivity effects of eco-innovations using data on eco-
patents. Industrial and corporate change. 26(1). pp.125-148.
Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. Sage.
Taylor, S.J., Bogdan, R. and DeVault, M., 2015. Introduction to qualitative research methods: A
guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.
Tidd, J. and Bessant, J.R., 2018. Managing innovation: integrating technological, market and
organizational change. John Wiley & Sons.
Witt, U., 2016. What kind of innovations do we need to secure our future?. Journal of Open
Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity. 2(3). p.17.

APPENDIX
Time Scale