Business Research Project: COVID-19 Impact on Sainsbury (HI6008)

This business research project investigates the impact of COVID-19 on Sainsbury's organizational performance, aiming to identify both positive and negative effects. The report outlines the research methodology, including qualitative research approaches like interviews and case studies, along with data collection methods and ethical considerations. It explores the challenges faced by the retail industry during the pandemic, examining the impact on sales, employee productivity, and overall business operations. The project utilizes an inductive research approach and an interpretivism research philosophy to analyze the gathered data. The findings detail the specific impacts of the pandemic, and the conclusion offers strategic recommendations for the company to mitigate problems and adapt to the changing business environment. The report covers various aspects of the research process, including research types, approaches, philosophy, data collection, and analysis, ultimately providing a comprehensive understanding of COVID-19's influence on Sainsbury's performance.

Business Research
Project
(Impact of COVID 19 on organizational performance-
Case study on Sainsbury)

Table of Contents
INTRODCUTION...........................................................................................................................3
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................3
Research Type........................................................................................................................4
Research Approaches.............................................................................................................6
Research Philosophy..............................................................................................................7
Data Collection.......................................................................................................................8
Sampling.................................................................................................................................8
Data Analysis..........................................................................................................................9
Ethical Consideration.............................................................................................................9
Research Limitation................................................................................................................9
FINDINGS.......................................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................12
Interview...............................................................................................................................12

INTRODCUTION
The main aim of this report is to identify the impact of COVID 19 on the performance of
Sainsbury organisation positive and negative way. COVID 19 influence the overall performance
of the organisation and it also affect the growth of organisation employees. This pandemic gives
many positive and negative impact which will be discuss in this report. This report also contains
some objectives which are related to the research topic and aim. This report considered many
questions such as what are the impact of COVID 19 on the performance of business? And what
are the main issues that experienced by retail industry in COVID 19 period? How COVID 19
effect the performance and productivity of the employees? and this report also cover what
strategies that company can use to overcome the problems from COVID 19? There are various
questions that research considered and analysed and also recommend some solutions regarding
these questions (Fjellström and Guttormsen, 2016). Business of the Sainsbury continuously
disrupted in the mid-September and organisation faced adverse impact on the sales of non-food
items, fuel and financial services but organisation grocery sales increased so organisation got
some kind of relief. COVID 19 give positive and negative affect on the performance of the
organisation like grocery and general merchandise department of the organisation affected
positively and the sales of these department increased during lock down period but the sale of
cloths decreased so it affected negatively. So COVID 19 give positive and negative impact both
on the performance, productivity of the Sainsbury and their employees.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Methodology is considering as a specific techniques and procedure that mainly
used to recognise to select, analyse and process the useful information and data about any topic
and matter. Through research methodology, researcher can critically evaluate the study and
measure the validity and reliability of the data and information (Vrontis and Christofi, 2019).
There are various steps contain which are essential to consider in the research methodology
process so to conduct the present research it is necessary to measure all the steps which consider
in the research process. Research is the method that used by the researcher to collect information
related to the chosen topic. It concludes various method and technique that are useful for the to
make research successful. The description of research methodology steps is given below-

Research Type
Research is prominent to search the better outcome of any specific topic and area and it
measure which treatment is more effective so that research can consider best one. In research,
people will search new knowledge and facts with the help of existing knowledge and data.
Basically research are two types that is qualitative research and quantitative research. Research
types is a systematic and logical search for the new and useful information on the particular
topic. There are two type of research qualitative and quantitative. Researcher will use the
qualitative research method to conduct research.
This research is all about COVID 19 and its impact on organisational performance of the
Sainsbury so researcher consider qualitative research for this study and the main reason to
choose qualitative research instead of quantitative research are given below-
Qualitative Research
Qualitative Research is considering as a market research and this method mainly
concerned about the obtaining data with the help of open ended questions and communication
and conversations. This research type is not about “what” all people think but this method also
considers “Why” people think. There are various types of qualitative research from which
research can collect the data (Flick, 2020).
Types of Qualitative Research -
This research method mainly designed to reveal the perception and specific behaviour of
the target customers in respect of particular topic. There are various kind of qualitative research
which are essential to provide relevant and appropriate information. The description of these
methods are as follows - One- on-one Interview - In- depth interview comes under the most appropriate method
of qualitative research. In this method, a personal interview conducted that carried out
with a specific person at a given time period. This is considering as a conversational
method that give opportunities to those people who are want to become a part of the
research. Through interview, researcher can collect the personal information and also
consider the point of view of person regarding the research topic. This method collects
meaningful data and through face to face interview (Greening, 2019). Focus Group – This method mainly considers limited number of respondents from 6 to
10 from the selected target area. The main purpose of this method is to find answer of:

why”, “what”, “How” and there is no need to interact the people and groups in a person.
In this time, Focus groups can send online survey with the help of different devices to
collect the appropriate data. Ethnographic Research – This is the also known as the in – depth observational method
that help to study the target audience in their environment. This qualitative research
method helps the researcher to adopt the target person’s environment that could be
anywhere in the organisation. Case Study Research -This method has developed over the last decades and evolved into
a different valuable research method. This kind of research utilized in many areas such as
education, social science etc. Record Keeping – This method use existing information related to the documents and
other source of information so that data can be considering for the new research. With the
help of documents, file, books and journals data can be collected for the new research. Observation – Qualitative research is use subjective methodology to collect the
systematic data. Through strong observation, researcher can collect the valid information
about the target audience. Most of the researcher used this method to collect the
appropriate information for their research (Edmonds and Kennedy, 2016).
 Secondary Research – In this method, researcher can collect existing data and
information in context of texts, pictures, audio, video and recording etc. and all the
information consider as a secondary and qualitative data.
Qualitative research method is most appropriate for the researcher to identify the worst
impact of COVID 19 on the overall performance of the Sainsbury organisation. Through, one -on
-one interview, record keeping and observation method researcher gathered useful information
that mainly used to analysed the positive and negative impact of COVID 19 on the Sainsbury and
their employees.
Quantitative Research
This research method considers as a statistical and mathematical research that use
numerical data for data collection. It is a systematic investigation by using quantifiable data with
the use of statistical tools. This method collects information from the existing customers. There
are various techniques to collect the quantitative research data. The description of these methods
are given below-

 Survey – This is the appropriate fundamental tool to collect the quantitative data form the
selected population. In survey method, researcher can ask relevant questions related to
their research topic and collect the valid respond of the people. In this time, research can
also use online survey and web – intercept survey method because of uncertainty of
COVID 19 pandemic (Kivunja and Kuyini, 2017).
 Questionnaire – With the help of questionnaire, researcher can collect the data very
quickly without any time wasting. This is the most useful method to collect the
quantitative data in a short period of time. There is various form to collect the data form
questionnaire method such as computer questionnaire, telephone questionnaire, mail
questionnaire, multiple choice questionnaire and scaling questionnaire.
Both research type is useful to gather the data but to carry out this present research qualitative
research method would be more useful and appropriate because it help to get the in-depth
knowledge and understanding about the research topic and researcher utilized secondary data and
information to identified the appropriate outcome of the research.
Research Approaches
This is a planned and structured form of approach that analysed the perception,
assumptions, procedures and specific methods related to the topic. With the of research
approach, researcher can maintain the requirement of the data and also consider the data with the
help of two influential approach these are inductive research approach and deductive research
approach. Research approaches include physiological assumption, methods and procedures
related to the study. There are two approaches of research, inductive and deductive. Inductive
research method will be used by research to get better outcomes. To carry out the present
research, inductive research approach selected and the explanation to select this approach instead
of deductive approach are given below- Inductive Approach - This approach is also known as “Bottom Up” approach that use
specific observation and generalised the theories. Inductive reasoning mainly arrives at a
conclusion by the use of appropriate facts and data. This approach start forms the
conclusion with the use of innovative methods (Litosseliti, 2018). This is fast and easy
approach that require evidence instead of true facts. In this approach, arguments may be
weak or strong and researcher can reach from specific facts to general facts and
information.

 Deductive Approach - This is like a valid reasoning that deduce the new facts and
information from known facts and information. This approach mainly follows “Top -
down” approach. In this approach, conclusion must be true if the research premises true.
This approach is very difficult because it need true facts and information. In this
approach, arguments are valid and invalid form. This approach reach forms the general to
specific facts.
To carry out present research, inductive research approach will be considered because
this is most appropriate approach and help the research to analyse the true knowledge and facts
related to the COVID 19 impact on the performance and productivity of the Sainsbury and their
employees. Through innovative and qualitative information this approach analyses the
information through bottom down approach (Höhler and Lansink, 2020).
Research Philosophy
Research Philosophy is like a value and belief that help to collect the research data in a
specific standard form. Through research philosophy all the research data can be analysed and
used in various appropriate form. There are two types of research philosophy like interpretivism
and positivism philosophy. A research philosophy is the belief that is about ways data should be
collected, use and analyse within the research. There are two type of research Philosophy
Interpretivism and positivism. For this research, Interpretivism Research Philosophy will be
considered and the reason to choose this philosophy are as follows. Interpretivism Research Philosophy – This philosophy helps to gain the in-depth
information of the respondents and also help to gain the empathetic understanding about
the target audience and this research philosophy allow the close and face to face
interaction with the respondents. This philosophy used qualitative research data to
analyse some facts and information.
 Positivism Research Philosophy – This philosophy uncovers all the data through social
survey and structured questionnaire so that researcher can get the good reliability and
effective representativeness. This philosophy shapes the individual actions and believe in
social fats. This research philosophy uses quantitative data such as large scale survey to
gather information.

To carry out present research, inductive philosophy used because it is more fit to collect
and analyse the data related to the COVID 19 and with the help of this philosophy researcher can
save their time to generalise all facts and figures.
Data Collection
Data collection is a systematic procedure which use various appropriate methods to
collect the data in a valid form. Most of the researcher can collect the data form people,
documents and also internet. There are two important methods to collect the valid information
which are primary and secondary data collection method. Data collection is the process of
assembling and measuring the information on the variables of the internet. There are two type of
data collection methods primary and secondary methods. Primary data collection methods are
process of collecting the first-hand data. Secondary data is already collected by the other authors.
To take its report successful researcher will use primary method.
To carry out current research, primary data collection method will be utilised and the main
reason to choose this method are as follows - Primary Source of Data Collection - Primary data is a first handed data that researcher
can collect with the help of survey, questionnaire, interview and observation methods.
This data can be collect first time and consider as a original data. This data is present in
form of raw material and very suitable for the investigation and enquiry to collect the
suitable and reliable information. To collect the primary data is quite expensive and
required more time and money (Taylor, et. al., 2020).
 Secondary Source of Data Collection – This data already collected by the other people
and it is not considering as an original data. This data is present in finished form and
contain as a less reliable and also suitable for the researcher. This data requires less time
and money and precaution and editing are prominent to collect the secondary data.
To carry out the current research, primary data would be most preferable and appropriate
because it give most valid and relevant information about the selected target audience. Through
interview and questionnaire method, research can analyse the reliable information about the
topic.
Sampling
Sampling is the effective techniques to collect the data in a statistics form. Through
sampling method, researcher can collect the predetermined data. Sampling is the process used

within the statistical analysis in which a predetermined number are take into the observation to
get the research done and make research successful. There are two types of sampling approach
which used in this research such as systematic and random sampling approach. In Systematic
sampling approach useful to select the target audience at a regular interval and in random
sampling, research chooses the respondents randomly. The sample size of this research is 40.
Data Analysis
For data collection, research can use various tools and techniques such as polls, survey,
questionnaires and also manipulate the pre-existing data with statistical techniques with use of
computational tools and techniques.
Ethical Consideration
Researcher has provided concerned form to the participants. This form is to ensure that
the privacy related data will be hidden and researcher will not share any data about the
participants.
Research Limitation
Research Limitation is indicated by limited budget, resources, time, research type etc. and
to make this research successful researcher has complete their researcher on the given time.
FINDINGS
According to this research, researcher find out various facts which are determined as a
valuable finding of this research in context of Sainsbury organisation are given below-
 It is analysed from the above report that the effect of COVID 19 on the performance of
Sainsbury are both form positive and negative. Grocery and general merchandise
department earn so well and gained more profit as compared to the clothing department
because during lock down period people did not prefer to buy cloths.
 Sainsbury did not prefer to opt the government's furlough scheme.
 The sale of non-food items, fuel decreased (Sutherland, 2016).
 Sainsbury adopted various strategies like price competitiveness, fast and friendly
customer services.
 Nectar app also downloaded by the millions of people so that people can get various
rewards and incentives
 Sainsbury deferred the dividends of their employees and shareholders.

 Most of the employees lost their jobs.
CONCLUSION
According to this research it can be concluded that the impact of COVID 19 influence the
overall performance and productivity of the organisation and to summarized this report it can be
said COVID 19 affect every industry negatively but retrial is the only one industry that consider
both types of experiences like positively and negatively. During lock down period people are
used to live in their home because it is mandatory to maintain some social distancing so that
people can save themselves from the worst and harmful impact of coronavirus. With the help of
this study, it can be identified that employee’s performance decreased and they even did not get
their salary on time or not even get any incentives and dividends.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
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