Research Ethics Panel Application

Research Ethics Panel Application form
For additional guidance, please refer to the Ethics organisation on Blackboard, the University
Research Ethics Policy and the Code of Good Research Practice available on the Bucks
websitehttps://bucks.ac.uk/about-us/governance-and-policies/policies
Section 1: Researcher details
1.1 Contact details of researcher
Title Miss Forename Madalina-
Andreia
Surname Pasniciuc
School: E
Status: Employee Postgraduate Research Postgraduate
Taught
Undergraduate
X
1.2 Co-applicants (please include everyone who will be involved in the research project, including
research assistants)
Name Post held Organisation
Section 2: Project details
2.1 Project title and timescale
Ethical approval is only valid for the time period specified on your application. Extension of period
1

will require further approval.
Title : “To evaluate the factors or drivers that yield
sustainable competitive advantage to an
organization”. A case study on Starbucks.
Proposed start date: 28-02-20
Proposed end date: (of
data collection)
5-05-20
2.2 Costs and funding
Please indicate the total costs and source of funding (if applicable):
N/A
2.3 Brief project description
The organisation selected for this research project is Starbucks that is associated with Coffee
shop industry. Starbucks is a well known American coffee house and company founded in
Washington, US but the operations of this company are spread out across the 30000 locations
of world including many parts of UK also. The reason behind selecting this organisation for
current research topic is that many efforts are made by Starbucks to have a sustainable
competitive advantages to remain superior of its competitors and have better position and
image in business environment.
Aims and objectives
The aim of this research project is “To evaluate the factors or drivers that yield
2

sustainable competitive advantage to an organization together with its importance in success
of organisation.” Thus, this research project is focused on determining various ways that yield
better sustainable competitive and plays a crucial role in improving position of organisation in
business environment.
Objectives
The research project conducted on Starbucks is having following main objectives:
 To determine the factors or drivers that yield sustainable competitive advantage to an
organisation. To evaluate the role and importance lead by sustainable competitive factors in success
of Starbucks.
Research question
 What are the factors or drivers that yield sustainable competitive advantage to an
organisation?
 What important role is lead by sustainable competitive factors in success of
Starbucks?
Section 3: Research Design
3.1 Research design
It basically provides information about the various methods and tools used for conducting a
research. Their are two main Philosophy of research i.e. Positivism and Interpretivism. For
current research work use of Positivism research philosophy is made it facilitates better
objective reality and a scientific way together with quantitative and hypothesis testing of
collected data (Bhardwaj, 2016). Beside this, out of inductive and deductive approach of
research use of deductive approach is selected for this research work as it provide better
testing to theory and lead to better generalisation of collected data. Further, from Qualitative
and quantitative methods of research use of quantitative research method has been made as it
facilitates collection data in numeric terms that lead to better presentations of findings. Use of
both primary and secondary sources of data collection has been made as primary source
provides direct connection with respondents and facilitates collection of authentic data while
3