Research Proposal: Corporate Branding in Volvo's Int'l Operations

This research proposal examines the effectiveness of corporate branding within international business operations, focusing on Volvo as a case study. It aims to develop a basic understanding of corporate branding, identify its importance within Volvo's international operations, examine the challenges Volvo faces, and analyze ways to overcome these challenges. The literature review covers basic concepts of corporate branding, its importance for Volvo, challenges such as IT infrastructure and cultural barriers, and strategies for overcoming these challenges, including harnessing local markets and navigating new legislation. The proposed research methodology includes both quantitative and qualitative research approaches for data collection and analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of corporate branding on the global stage.

Research Proposal on
“(The corporate branding in
international business operations)”.
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Background of the research....................................................................................................3
Literature Review.............................................................................................................................4
Basic understanding regarding the corporate branding..........................................................4
Importance of corporate branding within international business operations of Volvo..........4
Challenges that would be faced by Volvo within its international business operations.......5
Different ways for overcoming challenges associated with international business operations
for Volvo................................................................................................................................6
Research Methodologies..................................................................................................................7
Research approaches..............................................................................................................7
Data collection........................................................................................................................8
Sample....................................................................................................................................9
Data analysis.........................................................................................................................10
References......................................................................................................................................11
Books and Journals...............................................................................................................11
Online...................................................................................................................................12
APPENDICES...............................................................................................................................14
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1.0 Introduction
Background of the research
Corporate branding is defined as the practice to promote the brand's name of an entity, as
opposed to particular services or products. The thinking and activities that go with corporate
branding are totally different services and products branding (Ginesta and de San Eugenio,
2021). The scope of corporate branding is generally wider and broader. Corporate branding is
one of the increasing and gaining relevancies in order to make effective companies and achieve
their internationalization for the growth of an organisation. There are different ways which are
helpful for considering the growth to analyse the corporate branding for the process of
internationalization. Corporate branding holds significant place in marketing for large and small
companies. The major motive of adopting a corporate branding is having a consistent and unique
look and feel across each medium. Identity of corporate could present business with many
opportunities to grow and develop in the international market.
The main reason for doing branding is to export the company's product and make the use
of proper challenges to make systematic growth in order to make a choice of market. All of this
system are related to achieve their targets and make effective understanding of the nature and
make changes for analysing the growth of the company and achieve effective growth for
analysing the system and make a growth in major perspective. For the growth of the firm, there
are different process to work and make systematic changes to work and achieve simpler growth
to work on the basically to achieve changes and make benefits for the growth of the company
(Fahlevi, 2021). This may be related to work and make systematic growth in managing products
branding to make approaches in different sector of the market. In order to complete the research
project, VOLVO is chosen and make growth for the use and major changes to analyse effective
growth for managing different changes and work as per the progressive growth and possibilities.
This is the company which was founded in 1927, by Assar GabrielssonandGustav Larson. The
company's headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden. The company deals in manufacturing car and
grand tourers as they are providing their customer more products and make systematic changes
to analyse systematic growth for luxury car group and serve their customer in local and global
market more than 100 years (VOLVO lagonda, 2021). The company is working in order to
develop their edge in international market and to attain higher prominence as well.
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Along with this, main reason behind the choosing of Volvo over Aston Martin is there are lots of
data available regarding the Volvo. Aston Martin is a biggest organisation that have lack of
information about its corporate branding. This is a main reason behind the selection of Volvo as
there are lots of secondary information about them.
Research aim: “To identify the effectiveness of corporate branding within business operations
of an organisation at international level: A study of Volvo”.
Research objectives:
 To develop basic understanding regarding the corporate branding.
 To identify the importance of corporate branding within international business operations
of Volvo.
 To examine the challenges that would be faced by Volvo within its international business
operations.
 To analysis the ways for overcoming challenges associated with international business
operations for Volvo.
2.0 Literature Review
Basic understanding regarding the corporate branding
As per the view of Bhasin. H., (2021), the need of analysing and using corporate
branding is to evaluate the brand name and make effective changes for the overall growth and
advertisement process. Corporate branding is the new method adopted by organisation in order
to promote name of their brands and product or services into the market. For an organisation
corporate-branding is holding high degree of relevance in order to attain overall business
missions and objectives in appropriate manner (Ginesta and de San Eugenio, 2021).
With the help of effective changes and make effective growth in transactional approaches
to make effective changes for corporate changes to make an attraction to make corporate image
and work on the customer loyalty and different public opinion for the growth of the company
(What is Corporate Branding? 2021).
Importance of corporate branding within international business operations of Volvo
As per the view of Acevedo. L., (2021); Volvo's logo is really the ancient chemical
symbol for iron. Volvo's founders wanted a strong image for their vehicles. Larson and
Gabrielsson were stimulated by their time spent working for a Swedish steel organisation
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(Behind the Badge: Why Is the Volvo Logo the Male Gender Symbol? 2020). The nation had
already created a reputation for steel production, as proven throughout WWI. In addition,
corporate branding is important for Volvo in improving its business operations at global level
through the increased number of customers. Setting out in a crowded place and make systematic
changes for growing and managing concepts to analyse the work and make systematic changes
for make a systematic branding will lead to minimize the impact of marketing changes in the
company (Khamis and Wan Ismail, 2021). Corporate-branding is associated with significant
place in marketing aspect of the organisation and helps in gaining market opinions. Using such
aspect, the organisation may get market knowledge and shape their market reputation in such a
way that business objective of international expansion can be executed easily (Mazaraki and et.
al., 2021).
In the respected company, most of the sector are related to achieve effective changes and
work as per the progressive growth in different sector which are related to company personality;
the corporate branding is related to make effective business personality and achieve the standard
and make growth for different type of employees and consider the changes to feel good and
make good feeling at physical store (Kim, Duffy and Thorson, 2021).
Challenges that would be faced by Volvo within its international business operations
According to the prospective Alonso. B., (2021); The two main components of an
information technology that is coordinated by an organisation include enterprise software
applications and computer hardware platforms. These two components exhibit the major risk to
the business of Volvo Group but it is also determined that this also gives the opportunities to
information technology strategy (Robertson, 2021). The most important information of Volvo is
done through computer hardware platforms and there are times when these technologies fail.
This makes Volvo Group to face issue especially in their international business operations
because in this kind of operation every small information is also necessary.
The other challenge related to international business operations of Volvo is legacy
information system. This makes Volvo Group to face number of challenges that include:
expensive maintenance of software, running an old hardware, difficulty in integrating with other
significant systems etc. corporate branding is important for the growth and progress to make new
regional revenue for the growth of the different perspective. Using such aspects related with
corporate-branding Volvo may promote their brand in various international market and this
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would be helpful for the organisation to attain global identity (The Importance of Corporate
Branding, 2021).
But at the time of international business operations, the company are able to manage
effective changes and having the effective brand image for the growth of international branding
market: the major challenge is related to breaking through the cultural barriers which is related to
different branding strategies and make a language aside with branding sector. All is related to
work and make systematic growth in understanding the project and make new initiatives. There
are different forms and method to prevent customer and make a barrier (Kucherov and Zhiltsova,
2021). Another challenge which the respected company assume is related to technology adoption
this may be related to effective growth and progressive changes to analyse the perspective and
work for international branding sector. Different team members, legal obstacle for manufacturing
the care and their spare parts are related to different challenges and growth of the company
(Challenges in International Branding, 2021). Challenges related with corporate-branding is
providing greater impact to the business in terms of minimised profitability and sustainability as
well. This is being examined that there are various aspects which are linked with developing
business issues due to implication of corporate-branding within international manner.
Different ways for overcoming challenges associated with international business operations for
Volvo
As per the view of Cassidy. F., (2021); The market in China is slowing down due to
increasing price competition and softened demand of cars. In order to develop the market in
China the company is behaving in aggressive manner the company is trying to expand their
master product in China. On the other hand, the company is trying to be specific for the new
target market and consumer. The customer is grouped for Volvo in such a manner that the
organisation may target their customer in appropriate manner so that to maintain specific edge
into international market. The very first way is to harness the local market; this information is
related to achieve effective knowledge and perspective for the growth of their local market
(Ghauri, Strange and Cooke, 2021). Which is helpful for formulating the concept and manage the
authenticate progressive image in order to influence the progress. Another approach is navigating
the new legislation for the growth of new global market and achieve effective changes
(Amankwah-Amoah, Khan and Osabutey, 2021). Further, there are different perspective for
managing expectation to analyse effective analyse systematic growth in order to manage the
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buying behavioural changes and growth for addressing effective technique and model
(Štreimikienė and Ahmed, 2021). The last approach or method which is helpful for sharing
effective information and share the value price to success and manage the regional concepts to
work and make across informative challenges and work as per the progressive theory of
competencies and achieve the issue to analyse effective market (Shams and et. al., 2021). In
order to manage such challenges Volvo is required to associate various aspects related to
marketing and corporate-branding within their business so that to inhale such changes within
business and practices as well (Tips to overcome barriers to international business growth,
2021).
Conceptual framework
Illustration 1:
conceptual framework of corporate-branding
From the above conceptual framework this is concluded that there are various aspects
linked with brand adoption such as international commitment, international experience, income
level and cultural aspects. In this manner an organisation may develop awareness of their product
and render high brand adoption into the market. Using such terminology various aspects can be
covered by the business and business insights can be attained. These aspects are one of the basic
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development opportunities can also be inhaled. Within the market of UK, Volvo is basically
helpful for considering the approach and make effective changes to meet the preferences and
achieve informative growth as well. The products and strategies of Volvo’s are given in
appendix.
3.0 Research Methodologies
1.1 Research approaches
In the respected research proposal, there are different ways and method to collect and
analyse the research for addressing effective issue and analyse two main approaches for examine
the concept to analyse the quantitative and qualitative research methods. Quantitative and
qualitative research is applicable for the growth as this will be helpful for managing customer
prospective in different forms. Brand image is basically helpful for gain the market need and
manage the approaches of research. Quantitative data is helpful for considering the numerical
values and method which are related to graph and numerical aspect. Whereas, qualitative data is
helpful for manageable and make systematic growth in addressing effective approaches. The
researcher chose quantitative research method as this will help the market to achieve suitable
growth to achieve objective and know more about the branding with graph, tables and many
more data (Luo, 2021). Which will be helpful for completing objective and make effective
growth to accomplish the need and make systematic change over the period? This is related to
achieve effective growth and make systematic collection for addressing issues and make changes
in corporate branding method.
1.2 Data collection
This is the method which is helpful for considering effective changes and makes growth
to manage the effective growth of primary and secondary source of data. To complete a research
this seem important for growth and make changes to analyse the growth and work for addressing
changes in an useful manner. There are different approaches and data collection method are
needed to be analyse and choose an appropriate manner for analysing different sources and
analyse the sue of data collection method. For considering primary and secondary method
collection, the researcher has different option which are needed to be considered for analysing
effective changes. Different method for data collection is related to interview, questionnaire,
observation, documentation and focus group which are related to achieve effective strategies to
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overcome the period and collect sources for gaining more informative knowledge (Maon, Swaen
and De Roeck, 2021). Meanwhile, the researcher needed to choose their secondary source of data
that are related to work on effective growth and make suitable changes that are related to
corporate branding and their awareness in the market.
Here, the researcher use the both primary and secondary method that is helpful for
gaining more effective knowledge related to the chosen topic. For the use of primary data
method, researcher use survey which includes a close ended questionnaire with the customer in
market. For the use of secondary market research, the researcher are able to work and make
systematic growth through online sources, journals and different E-books (Saienko and et.al.,
2021). All is related to achieve effective management to work and make growth in addressing
different method major changes to work and make systematic make effective featuring style to
make growth for addressing effective team management for the style. Data collection is the
technique which is helpful for gaining more effective knowledge and improves the major
strength and work process.
1.3 Sample
In this research, investigator use the probabilistic method of sampling and with the 100
chosen numbers of respondents would be selected as they are rich and get paid by great amount
of salary. It is believed that customers of Volvo are rich and do great position jobs. 50 managers
are also selected to conduct interview about the topic that corporate branding in international
operations because they are the responsible people who have great knowledge about such
operations. The 5 managers are selected from Volvo’s group because they are the people who
possess great knowledge about the company’s corporate branding. They also know about the
challenges they face in international business operations. They also come up with various ways
to mitigate such challenges. Hence, they are chosen as human participants in the current
investigation. Which means researcher opted mixed method approach that is related to
quantitative and qualitative methods? But the major focus is on Quantitative approach. They
could easily explore the idea of corporate branding (Mishra and Sharma, 2021). This element
helps in using population and makes equal opportunities to be included in the sample and make
growth. There are different benefits of probability sampling because it facilitates in increasing
gathering great piece of information from the chosen respondents and another benefit with the
probability sampling is it assists getting defined outcomes and results in shorter time duration.
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The probability sampling assists in getting direct link to the chosen respondents so that
requirement and importance of gathering data to attain objectives and aim in effective and
efficient manner. The accuracy of gathered information is always high as larger number of
participants are easily selected.
As they are the customer of the respected company and try to gather the impact and
benefits of corporate branding to them. There are different ways and method to work and make
systematic changes to work with authenticate manner and make growth for addressing issues and
manage the sustainable growth in analysing marketing need and complete their objective
(Pistikou, Masouras and Komodromos, 2021). This may be related to achieve and make suitable
changes to make achieve close-ended questionnaire to analyse systematic changes to different
ways. Which is related to work make sustainable changes to work and achieve the targets for
different sector to make authenticate changes and analyses?
Research instrument and techniques
The research instruments assist researcher in collecting appropriate information related to
the topic. For the present research, investigator would be using questionnaire and interview to
gather relevant and reliable data. Interview is conducted to collect information from managers
who work in the organisation and they have great information about the corporate branding.
Questionnaire will be selected to gather data directly from customers of the company as the
chosen company has customers who are rich and high paid jobs. Furthermore, in this study case
study is used to complete the research on Volvo, as the data is collected through the employee’s
survey. The main reason behind the chosen case study is it will be helpful for make systematic
approaches and enhancing approaches to gain more knowledge.
1.4 Data analysis
This is the method which is related to work and make effective growth for addressing
issues and make a suitable change in an appropriate effective growth. With the help of frequency
to manage different ways to work on frequency distribution as it is basically related to basic
analysis methods. Frequency is used to collect the data and manage different perspective of
sampling. There are different ways that may be related to work and achieve data analysis for
considering different sector and achieve sampling size for the use of effective instruction to
analyse the data. There are different informative steps which are related to collect primary and
secondary source of data collection to collect information of corporate branding values
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(Partanen, 2021). This is helpful for considering effective changes and makes systematic growth
for analysing changes and makes growth in different platform and make achieve data analysis
techniques.
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4.0 References
Books and Journals
Amankwah-Amoah, J., Khan, Z. and Osabutey, E.L., 2021. COVID-19 and business renewal:
Lessons and insights from the global airline industry. International Business Review,
30(3), p.101802.
Bargenda, A., 2021. 7 Aesthetic heritage and corporate branding Luxury heritage brands
between tradition and modernity. In Building Corporate Identity, Image and Reputation
in the Digital Era (pp. 181-202). Routledge.
Bertholet, J. and Juistenga, D., 2021. How FIFA Scores from an Offside Position: Understanding
the longevity of a Disliked Brand.
Buckley, P.J. and Casson, M., 2021. Thirty years of International Business Review and
international business research. International Business Review, p.101795.
Burström and et. al., 2021. AI-enabled business-model innovation and transformation in
industrial ecosystems: A framework, model and outline for further research. Journal of
Business Research, 127, pp.85-95.
Cavusgil, S.T., 2021. Advancing knowledge on emerging markets: Past and future research in
perspective. International Business Review, 30(2), p.101796.
De la Cruz-Fernandez, P., 2021. The Multinational Corporation. In Oxford Research
Encyclopedia of American History.
Estialbo, H.A., 2021. A study of the importance of branding and digital marketing to South
African msmes.
Fahlevi, M., 2021, April. Corporate branding in banking environment: Evidence from acquisition
process. In IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science (Vol. 729, No. 1,
p. 012130). IOP Publishing.
Ghaleb, M. and Kaplan, B., 2021. The Importance of Branding for Organizations: Decision
Mechanism on Willingness to Pay a Price Premium for Branded Audit Services in
Emerging Markets. In Auditing Ecosystem and Strategic Accounting in the Digital
Era (pp. 287-313). Springer, Cham.
Ghauri, P., Strange, R. and Cooke, F.L., 2021. Research on international business: The new
realities. International Business Review, 30(2), p.101794.
Ginesta, X. and de San Eugenio, J., 2021. Rethinking Place Branding From a Political
Perspective: Urban Governance, Public Diplomacy, and Sustainable Policy
Making.American Behavioral Scientist, 65(4), pp.632-649.
Hu, L., 2021. Self as Brand and Brand as Self: A 2x2 Dimension Conceptual Model of Self-
Branding in the Digital Economy. Journal of Internet Commerce, pp.1-17.
Kalash, I., 2021. Corporate sustainability performance in the emerging market of Turkey: the
role of accounting information quality and firm risk. Journal of Economic and
Administrative Sciences.
Kashif, M. and Udunuwara, M., 2021. Twenty Years of Research in Brand
Globalness/Localness: A Systematic Literature Review and Future Research Agenda.
Journal of International Consumer Marketing, 33(2), pp.178-193.
Khamis, N.I. and Wan Ismail, W.K., 2021. The impact of corporate social responsibility on
corporate image in the construction industry: a case of SMEs in Egypt. Journal of
Sustainable Finance & Investment, pp.1-19.
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