Business Research Project: Brexit's Impact on UK Retail (M&S)

This business research project investigates the impact of Brexit on the UK economy, focusing on the retail industry and using Marks & Spencer as a case study. The project begins with an abstract and table of contents, followed by an introduction that outlines the topic, background of the industry, research rationale, aims, objectives, and research questions. A literature review explores the concept of Brexit and its impact on UK retail sales, overall growth, and implications. The methodology section details the research methods employed, including secondary research, inductive approach, exploratory research design, and interpretivism. The research and findings chapter presents the results, organized thematically, addressing the research questions. The project concludes with a summary of findings, conclusions, and recommendations, providing insights into how Brexit has affected the UK retail sector. References are provided at the end.

Business Research
Project
(Impact upon the UK economy after Brexit)
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Abstract
Main purpose of doing this research is to identify the impact of Brexit on UK economic. In
this retail industry is a selected part of UK economy that have impacted due to Brexit. It is a
main aim of this dissertation and in order to achieve this aim, different number of activities were
completed by researcher. Literature review was done with the use of secondary sources which
are books, articles, magazines, publication research etc. Research methodology is another
activity that was completed by using number of methods such as secondary research, inductive
approach, exploratory research design, systematic literature review, interpretivisim research
philosophy etc. These are main methods that included in research methodology that resulted in
getting of valid outcomes for current study. Research and findings are another activity that was
completed with the use of collected secondary data. This helped in identification of accurate
outcomes and results of the study. Conclusion and recommendation is last part of the study that
was completed by presenting entire information of dissertation briefly.
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Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................2
Chapter 1: Introduction....................................................................................................................4
Overview of the Topic.................................................................................................................4
Background of the industry and company...................................................................................4
Research Rationale......................................................................................................................5
Importance of the chosen topic....................................................................................................5
Research Aim:.............................................................................................................................5
Research Objectives:...................................................................................................................5
Research Question.......................................................................................................................5
Sub-questions of research............................................................................................................5
Overview of the structure of dissertation.....................................................................................6
Chapter 2: Literature review............................................................................................................8
Explain about the concept behind the term Brexit?.....................................................................8
How Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry?..............................................................9
What are the impacts does Brexit upon overall growth of UK retail industry?........................10
What are the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry?................................................11
Chapter 3: Research Methodology.................................................................................................13
Chapter 4: Research and findings..................................................................................................16
Theme 1:-Explain about the concept behind the term Brexit?..................................................16
Theme 2:- How Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry?..........................................17
Theme 3:-What are the impacts does Brexit upon overall growth of UK retail industry?........19
Theme 4:-What are the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry?...............................20
Chapter 5: Conclusion and Recommendation................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................25
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Chapter 1: Introduction
Overview of the Topic
Brexit is the withdrawal of the UK from the European Union. It is an acronym for the word
“British exit”, similar to “Grexit” that was applied for numerous years to introduce to the
chances of Greece leaving the Eurozone. Brexit introduces to the chance of Britain moving back
from the European Union. The nation will hold a referendum on its European Union membership
on June 23. Brexit has direct impact over growth of UK retail industry. Britain’s retailers
suffered from decrease sales last month as mounting uncertainty over the United Kingdom
departure from the European Union led to consumers becoming more wary of making bigger
purchases before Brexit (Aguzzoni and et. al., 2016).
Brexit is recognized to be a British live from the EU that is one of the main decision
made by United Kingdom which bewildered the UK economy very poorly. This has a large
effect on the economic and social factors or attributes of the nation. It also influenced the
industries or business because the income level of people get impacted which in turn impacted
their buying behaviours or decisions that leads to a reduced sales and profitability of an
organisation. Apart from this, Brexit has also impacted the trade practices and operations of
business, so that they get performed and do their business operations or functions with other
nations. As most of its trade flow is being carry out with European Union country in excess of a
free trade agreement amongst them because of its membership with European Union (Alfano,
Dustmann and Frattini, 2016).
Background of the industry and company
This report is based on UK retail industry that is largest private sector employer with
around million workers. The retail industry is fundamental to the economy of United Kingdom
because in year 2018 they generated £381billion worth of retail sales (Anderson and Wittwer,
2017). Retail is the sale of goods and service to the public or society for use of consumption,
before for resale. It encompasses department stores, shops, market stalls, supermarkets, internet
retailers and door-door-to salespeople. Marks & Spencer is a chosen retailer for this dissertation
that was founded in year 1884 by the Michael Marks and Thomas Spencer and headquartered in
London, England, UK. Company mainly specialise in selling of clothing, food products and
home products.
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Research Rationale
Main rationale behind selecting the topic or research is to identify the impact of Brexit on
overall growth of retail industry that is a part of UK economy. There are other different reasons
behind selecting this topic as with the help of this, researcher can easily develop their knowledge
about the Brexit and its impact on sales of UK retain industry. They also know about its impact
on growth of Retail sector and also analysing implications that will be beneficial in overcome of
Brexit impact over them. Therefore in order to carry out research about the Brexit’ impact on UK
economy, this dissertation is being performed.
Importance of the chosen topic
This topic holds significance because it will assist in identifying the areas that being
impacted by reason of Brexit which take changes to the UK business and also trade it perform
(Banerjee and Mio, 2018). Additionally, this will also assist in signifying industrialist regarding
what are some bad effects that an enterprise faced or may face as a result of Brexit so that
suitable strategies or practices can be implemented in advance to address with such type of
changes in effective manner. Along with this, this research will also helps UK business in
identifying the advantages that they can gain after this Brexit with purpose to enhancing their
business growth and performance easily.
Research Aim:
To identify the impact of Brexit on overall growth of UK retail industry. A study on
Marks & Spencer.
Research Objectives:
 To determine the concept behind the term Brexit.
 To identify the Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry.
 To identify the Brexit impact upon overall growth of UK retail industry
 To determine the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry.
Research Question
 What are the impacts of Brexit on overall growth of UK retail industry?
Sub-questions of research
 Explain about the concept behind the term Brexit?
 How Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry?
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 What are the impacts does Brexit upon overall growth of UK retail industry?
 What are the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry?
Overview of the structure of dissertation
This is an important and main part of the dissertation that helps reader in identification of
structure of report. There are number of chapters that have been included for completing full
dissertation in systematic manner. All these chapters apart from their will be explained as below
in clear manner:
Chapter 1: Introduction: This is a first part of the dissertation that includes entire detail
about the report such as research aim, research objectives, research questions, overview of the
topic, rational of the research etc. All these are main aspects of introduction chapter that will be
essential for reader in determination of this chapter. Main purpose of this chapter is successfully
development of research aim and objectives because other next chapters are based on them
(Bloom and et. al., 2019).
Chapter 2: Literature review: This is second chapter that includes secondary data gathered
from the different number of sources such as magazines, books, journals, articles, publication
study etc. Main purpose of literature review is to find out research gaps in previous studies. By
analysing this, researcher can easily fulfil this gap by following research questions.
Chapter 3: Research methodology: This is another and main chapter that includes number
of methods, tools and techniques of data collection and data analysis. These methods are;
research philosophy, research approach, research strategy, research design, research ethics,
secondary sources of data collection etc. All these are useful methods that will be applied for
carrying out this investigation in systematic manner. Main purpose of research methodology is to
collect data from the different methods and gain valid outcomes for research.
Chapter 4: Research and findings: This chapter is correlated with the literature review
because in this chapter, researcher find out outcomes that are based on secondary data gathered
for literature review. Main purpose of this chapter is to find out and discussed secondary data
effectively and systematically.
Chapter 5: Conclusion: This is another chapter that is important and necessary for doing
any type of dissertation. This chapter includes entire information of dissertation briefly that helps
reader in identification of outputs and aim of the research is achieved or not.
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Chapter 6: Recommendations: This is a last part of the study that includes some
recommendation about the topic. If there is lack of data about the topic and its impact on
business or industry, there is requirement of providing some recommendations about how to deal
with present issues and how to grow business successfully within an industry (Bolet and et. al.,
2018).
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Chapter 2: Literature review
Literature review introduces to the process in which researcher can collect secondary data
from the number of useful sources such as articles, magazines, publication research, journals,
books etc. These are known as secondary sources that will be useful for doing present study in
systematic manner. This section helps researcher to refine research questions and supports to
identify current issues, trends and debates in selected topic. Along with this, main purpose of this
section is to identify consequences and gaps in previous investigation. Main gap of present study
is the impacts of Brexit on overall growth of UK retail industry (Chang, 2018). In previous
research, there is information about the impact of Brexit on business but there is lack of data
about its impact on overall growth of retail industry of United Kingdom. In order to fulfil this
gap, researcher becomes able to use sub-questions of research because this will help them in
fulfilment of research gap and also accomplishment of research aim and objectives easily.
Therefore, research questions of current dissertation will be explained as below in systematic
manner and with purpose to fulfil research gaps. These questions are:
Explain about the concept behind the term Brexit?
According to the Che, Wang and Jiang, (2016), BREXIT is acknowledged as the
withdrawal of United Kingdom from EU. The referendum in respect to similar was completed in
June 2016 where 52 percent give the vote in support of withdrawal and 48 percent was voted tore
remain in European Union. The formal declaration of countries withdrawal as of the government
side was ended in March 2017. It is the point in time when process of BREXIT started. It took
lengthy time as of the stalemate in British parliament. The date when United Kingdom finally
leaves European Union was on 31 January 2020. The features in which United Kingdom still
have incorporation with European Union includes European Union law, EU customs union as
well as single market throughout the changeover but no longer the division of the European
Union political bodies and institutions. This is the huge transaction for the reason that for Britain
since Europe is the most significant source to create a centre of attention for enticing foreign
investment.
On the other hand Bowe (2019), UK exits the EU on midnight by 31 January 2020 and
from 1st of February it come into transition time and in this time duration the trading connection
will carry on to go behind the European Union rules and regulations. The United Kingdom is a
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best nation for new venture as well as expansion of business operations but this likely going to
change because of a number of unidentified impacts that Brexit can take. The United Kingdom
export industry will obtain the major hit at the same time as Brexit bring up higher cost and also
tariffs, which can be extra, broaden seen crossways supply chain. It is so for the reason that as of
the statistical data of 2015 it has been determined that United Kingdom exported approximately
£133 billion merchandise to the rest of European Union that remains about equivalent to the half
of worldwide merchandise exports. It means that United Kingdom will knowledge a bigger
failure of just about £4.5 billion a year but it exist European Union with no negotiating an
innovative trade agreement with European Union.
How Brexit impact on sales within UK retail industry?
According to the Partington (2019), England's retailers experienced more vulnerable deals a
month ago as mounting vulnerability over the UK's take-off from the EU prompted buyers
getting progressively careful about creation greater buys before Brexit. In the most recent proof
that energy in the economy is blurring during the prior week’s Britain is booked to officially
leave the EU, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Accounting firm KPMG said that all out
deals development dropped to 0.5% in the year to February, down from 1.6% per year sooner.
Customers were increasingly hesitant to spend on optional products, regardless of an
improving standpoint for family unit funds from blurring levels of inflation and the most
grounded wage increments for British specialists in 10 years. Barring food shopping, high road
deals dropped by 0.4% over the three months to February, in a more regrettable result than
normal over the previous year, while development in online deals of non-food things additionally
slowed back (Dhingra, Ottaviano, Sampson and Van Reenen, 2016).
Separate information assembled by Barclaycard, which forms half of the nation's credit and
debit card exchanges, additionally recommended on Tuesday that Brexit has abridged optional
deals on the high road. Barclaycard said spending on attire had dropped by 5.2% and in retail
establishments by 5.5%. Lodging spending shrunk by 3.8% and bars and eateries – ordinarily
more grounded parts over late months – detailed more slow deals development of 7.4% and 3.9%
individually (Fassam, 2019).
Families have additionally battled with powerless compensation development and advantage
cuts under the administration's earnestness strategies over the previous decade. Normal wages
after expansion despite everything stay beneath the high point recorded before the money related
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emergency, crumbling families' spending influence. A few retailers experience run into difficulty
in the midst of the troublesome exchanging conditions, including high road stalwarts, for
example, Marks and Spencer and Debenhams, which have reacted by declaring work cuts and
store terminations. Financial development has verged on slowing down point as of late. New
figures due on Tuesday are relied upon to uncover that the administrations division – which
incorporates retail and records for 80% of the economy – was probably going to have fallen into
withdrawal a month ago (Fetzer, 2019).
What are the impacts does Brexit upon overall growth of UK retail industry?
As per the view presented by Lowe, Adkins and Laird (2020), there are number of issues
of negative impacts does Brexit causes for UK retail industry. Each and every business faces
various numbers of issues when they come to the United Kingdom go away from the European
Union. Some major challenges have been explained as below:
Supply chain will be disrupted and may have to renegotiate supplier contracts: Brexit
take to provide number of risk or issue by maximising the business operations cost and also
delays in supply chain. This is a major issue for retail industry because it impacts on business
operations by increasing the amount of material that will be needed for manufacturing,
processing as well as supplying products or services to the customers and in marketplace. These
all are highly impacted by reason of increased inflation rate. For example: Some 59 percent
expected the supply chain management cost to remain the same otherwise maximise to some
extent, at the same time as 15 percent thought Brexit would bring down costs (Fichtner, Große
Steffen, Hachula and Schlaak, 2016).
Economic challenge: Due to Brexit, each part of the UK economy and retail sectors are
being impacted because each financial transaction and trade of United Kingdom is related with
the European Union. For that reason, it externally impacted the UK economy that turn to effect
on overall growth of retail industry by reducing the number of customers due to poor income
status of people (Geng, 2020).
Customs Traffic: This is another challenge faced by UK retail industry due to the Brexit. It
is vital for exporters and importers to know the possible customs implications for their company.
For example: with the go away of European Union, the practices of cross border are also
impacted because its standards and laws are more impacted. Therefore, it is another challenge of
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retail industry to understand laws and customs of both nations which is more difficult in running
of business successfully (Gudgin, Coutts, Gibson and Buchanan, 2018).
Therefore, Brexit has negative impact on overall growth of UK retail industry by
increasing cost of business operation, reducing number of customers etc. These are main risks
that retail industry of United Kingdom are facing currently which have a biggest impact over
their business operations and functions.
What are the implications of Brexit on the UK retail industry?
According to the Cooper (2018), with the terms of the United Kingdom leave from the
European Union still being negotiated as well as the present uncertainty around whether or not,
an organisation will exist with or without a trading of their goods and service, there continues to
be a poor clarity regarding the implications of Brexit over the retail industry. Retailer across the
United Kingdom are already trading with the consequences of the vote to exist with the
depreciation within sterling in the repercussion of the vote and also the effect over confidence
level of consumer that comes with economic and political uncertainty. It is important that UK
retailers get ready for the post-Brexit globe and the better implications on their business
functions and operations instantaneously. There are several areas that must be focus by retail
industry which has been explained as below:
Access to Labour: The retail industry of United Kingdom employs approximately 300,000
European Union nationals in the UK by means of large numbers within the logistics as well as
completion side of the manufacturing. Several of these employees will hang about post Brexit,
other than they are probably to see a smaller amount of EU workers within the United Kingdom
in the future, by those that do come up to work at this point requiring work authorize. With
United Kingdom employment being in close proximity to trace high, rivalry among industry for
Labour will possibly effect on earnings inflation (Hepburn and Teytelboym, 2017). This comes
at a point in time when traditional 'bricks and mortar' stores are already facing the outcomes of
many headwinds such as the fall in sterling, extended opposition from online stores and high gas
fees impacting logistics costs. Retailers will consequently find they want to awareness on
attracting and retaining key personnel and one way may be to inspire EU personnel to use for
paintings permits now, in the event that they have already been resident within the UK for five
years.
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Products: UK retailer must offering their products or service to the both nations such as UK
and EU post Brexit will potentially have to comply with two units of product requirements and
set of laws. At the same time as that is not likely to be a big difficulty without delay following
the leave from the EU, through the years it appears inevitable that there can be differing
standards and regulations across the EU and the UK markets main to additional compliance fees
for brand new products. The lack of United Kingdom influence in putting requirements inside
the European Union after the United Kingdom exists is also probable to have an effect on
retailers (James and Quaglia, 2019).
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