Research Proposal: Customer Behavior & Jewelry Business Expansion

This research proposal investigates the potential expansion of a jewelry business, XYZ store, within the Australian market, specifically considering whether to open a new store in Melbourne or Adelaide. The proposal outlines the current state of the Australian retail jewelry sector, highlighting the presence of both independent jewelers and chain stores, along with the industry's growth factors. The research aims to determine the impact of customer buying behavior on business expansion, analyzing factors influencing decision-making, particularly the spending capacity and income of potential customers. The proposal includes a detailed literature review, covering industry trends, self-employment opportunities, and competitive landscapes, as well as the need for innovative designs and effective business development skills. The methodology section describes the research philosophy, design, approach, data collection, and analysis techniques. The study intends to answer key research questions about customer behavior, market expansion factors, and purchasing intentions, ultimately recommending effective strategies for the jewelry business's expansion. The proposal also includes sections on ethical considerations, research limitations, and a Gantt chart for project management.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research proposal
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Chapter 1:...................................................................................................................................2
Introduction............................................................................................................................2
Background of the Study........................................................................................................3
Problem of the research..........................................................................................................3
Aim of the research................................................................................................................4
Objective of the research........................................................................................................4
Questions of the research.......................................................................................................4
Structure of the dissertation...................................................................................................5
Chapter 2:...................................................................................................................................5
Literature Review...................................................................................................................5
Chapter 3:...................................................................................................................................8
Research methodology...........................................................................................................8
Outline of the method.............................................................................................................9
Research Philosophy............................................................................................................10
Justification of the chosen philosophy.................................................................................11
Research design....................................................................................................................11
Justification of the research design......................................................................................12
Approach of the research.....................................................................................................12
Justification of the research approach..................................................................................13
Data Collection process........................................................................................................13
Source of data.......................................................................................................................14

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Data Analysis technique.......................................................................................................14
Sampling technique..............................................................................................................15
Accessibility issue................................................................................................................15
Ethical Consideration...........................................................................................................15
Research Limitation.............................................................................................................16
Gant Chart............................................................................................................................16
Chapter 4: Conclusion..............................................................................................................17
Reference list............................................................................................................................17

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Chapter 1:
Introduction
The retail jewelry sector in Australia is a specialized sector that mostly focuses on
selling the bracelets, rings, necklaces and earrings which are made of precious metals and
fixed with gemstones. There are also various jewelry stores in Australia that sells the fashion
accessories and watches. Other than the small independent jewelers in the Australian market,
there are chain stores. The small independent jewelers are mostly specialized in the
designing, manufacturing and repairing market, other than providing the antique second hand
jewelries and designer jewelry (Carrigan et al. 2017). In most cases, the entire business,
administration to sales, is carried out under the same roof. If the trends of the Australian
jewelry stores are considered, the chain stores are generally located in the famous shopping
centers with a broad range of products and service, however there service and administration
are located at some other place. The stores deal with both the Australian and the overseas
customers and the suppliers. The inventory of the stores includes the high priced products
within the retail range. The employees of this industry are also highly skilled who are capable
of providing customized client service (Boothroyd 2017). There are new entrants in the
market as this industry is flourishing in a continuous way. There are several factors that
contribute to the jewelry business expansion in the domestic market in Australia. This
research proposal has taken the XYZ store in Australia, which is planning to open a second
store either in Melbourne or Adelaide, for analyzing the important factors that are contribute
to the decision making for the jewelry business expansion in the Australian market.
Background of the Study
XYZ store already has a store in the Australian market; however the management of
the organization wants to expand the business by opening another store. However, there is a

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severe confusion whether the new store should be opened in Adelaide or Melbourne.
Therefore the organization requires carrying out a detailed research before taking any final
decision as opening another store would require a huge investment. The new store should
also be situated at a place where the customer demand is higher as the organization provides a
personalized service to the customers (Kecharananta and Sukcharoenphon 2015). Therefore
the organization has to ensure that before making any ultimate decision, they have to gather
information regarding the spending capacity, income of the existing habitant base and the
competition in the market. These factors contribute to a great extent for the decision making
process.
Problem of the research
As the jewelry business within the Australian market is expanding continuously, there
are several new players in the market. The jewelry business industry has also undergone
dramatic changes over many years. Along with the exceptional increase in the metal prices,
the domestic manufacturing field has also experienced a constant reduction of the tariff and
sudden implementation of different trade agreements. Therefore the prices of the products
and services have increased in last few decades. Moreover, opening another store for the
purpose of expanding the business would require a thorough research and development for
the business. Other than that, the imported jewelries have also dominated the Australian
market for a long time. Therefore, the local manufacturers have only been utilized for
repairing, resizing and remaking the products which resulted into a huge failure of the
manufacturing skills (Shimp 2013). However, the innovative designs and the usage of
different materials for the jewelry have strengthened the business for past few years. This
also contributed to the rise of the prices to a great extent. Therefore before opening a new
jewelry store, XYZ Company has to do a thorough market research as it would be baseless if
the store is situated at a place where no customer is interested in the business. Therefore, this

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research will intend to find the factors that can contribute in the expansion of the jewelry
business such as the customer buying behavior.
Aim of the research
The aim of this particular research will be to investigate the impact of the customer
buying behavior on the expansion of the jewelry business in the Australian market.
Objective of the research
The objectives of this particular research are as follows:
 To investigate the impact of customer buying behavior on the expansion of the
jewelry business
 To analyze the factors that contribute to the business expansion in Adelaide or
Melbourne
 To investigate the effect of the components of the customer buying behavior on the
purchasing intention of the local jewelry in the Australian market
 To recommend the effective techniques for find out the buying intentions of the
customers.
Questions of the research
The questions of the particular research are:
 What is the impact of the customer buying behavior on the expansion of the jewelry
business?
 What are the factors that contribute to the business expansion in Adelaide or
Melbourne?
 How do the components of the customer buying behavior influence the purchasing
intention of the local jewelry in the Australian market?

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Structure of the dissertation
This research study will include several chapters. The first chapter of the dissertation
will be the introductory chapter which will include the background of the study, rationale of
the research, background of the company, questions and objectives of the research study. The
second chapter will be the literature review which will include the detailed review of the
relevant literatures regarding the customer buying behavior and the impact of it on the
purchasing intention of the customers. This chapter will also include the necessary and
relevant concepts, models and the theories related to the purchasing intention of the
customers. The next chapter will be the research methodology which will contain the research
design, research approach, and the research philosophy of the particular study. This chapter
will also include the source of data, sample size, sampling technique and the data analysis
technique. The fourth chapter will contain the finding of the gathered data and the analysis of
that data. The fifth chapter of the research will include the conclusion and the necessary
recommendation for the research. The researcher will link the objectives of research with the
gathered data and the proper analysis of the data. The recommendations will be made
according to the requirements of the research.
Chapter 2:
Literature Review
Jewelry is already a growing industry in Australia and starting a second jewelry shop
is not a bad idea. This is because; it is the only industry of Australia, which has complete
information of the whole databases (BRENTON and ST 2013). Many small businesses are
growing in Australia but jewelry industry is not a small one. This literature review is to
discuss about the expansion of jewelry industry in Australia. This research proposal consists
of research procedures resulting to the descriptive data and these analyses the results to

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determine the process of expansion. This literature review section discusses the existing
business and finds out with the help of the research of primary and secondary sources. In
spite of having information about the entire database, the result was mostly available from the
secondary sources. This literature review includes the experiences and the thoughts of the
practitioners of Australian jewelry industry, which were noted during the surveys.
The purpose of this review was to explore the theories of the industry and discuss
about the expansion of the jewelry industry of Australia. While exploring the theories it is
required to relate to the questions that may arise when planning for expansion. The problem
found was not in the expansion process it was about maintaining the integrity that an artist
has on the jewelries. This literature review identified that having an aim of business and
expanding the jewelry industry is a different thing but in the competitive market, it will be
very hard to maintain the integrity. Therefore, this study also highlights the requirement of
business management strategies and capabilities that needs application for course of survival.
Self-employment is the most commonly used form in the Australian economy as well as for
the jewelry industry. The jewelry industry of Australia can be expanded exploring the
opportunity of self-employment for the businessperson (Chuangemanee and Punnakitikashem
2016). Designers are a growing and developing job profile of Australia and hence it can be
said that there are many opportunities that will help in expansion (Junginger and Faust 2016).
Expanding the jewelry business will not face a big problem as there are almost 40000
designers, who need job and they can be utilized according to the plan of expansion. Unlike
other industries, jewelry industry also has some flaws and staring a new jewelry store with all
experienced people is tough hence, training period will help the employees get better. This
literature review has the purpose to research the income and expenditure capacity of the
people of Melbourne or Adelaide so that a clear planning can be done on how to start the
store and expand the same. It is found through the research that the average incomes of the

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people are A$78,832 excluding the overtime and bonus and including them the account
becomes A$81,947.
Though the research shows that the rate of income is increasing, still people are still
needed to go a long way to live a richer lifestyle but the demand of jewelry among them does
not seem to get affected due to the income matter. May be the amount of buying jewelry will
differ from time to time but that will not bring a large change in the market. The literature
review also focuses on the increasing competition of the jewelry market, as it is already
mentioned that the jewelry market is a growing market of Australia. For surviving the jewelry
store there must be an implementation of innovative designs of jewelry that will grab the
customer attraction and get hold of the market. It is also found in the research that there the
Australian jewelry industry lacks in accessibility and reliability and thus starting a new
jewelry store will need effective planning and innovative development. Through research, it
is found out that over the years there is a development in monitoring the trends of designs,
therefore the new store can process their development according to the changing trends
(Greenville, Pobke and Rogers 2013). The jewelry industry needs encouragement so that the
store can become self-supporting. To avoid the failure the new jewelry store must have the
competence management policy so that the problem of inadequate finance can be managed
along with other problems. Technical skills of the designers are another important issue that
needs management as without the adequate knowledge of the designs is very important
(Carrigan et al. 2017). The literature review records a lack of reliability in the business and
that is why the new store has to build up many networks in the market so that they can turn
up to be reliable for the customers. The jewelry market of Australia is having a problem of
not incorporating an effective business development skill but it is recommended that the new
store must have an effective business development skill in order to survive in the market.
This is because the old business are already settled in the market in spite of the competition

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but for the new store it will be very difficult to adjust at the very moment and grab the
customer attraction. This can be possible if they have a business development plan for the
targeted customers and process the plan to compete with the present market and make their
separate identity (Boothroyd 2017).
This literature review identifies the problem that the new store might face if it does
not have the knowledge about the market, income and competition. This literature review
identifies the previous researches in order to decrease the problems that the industry might
face planning for expansion. The purpose of this literature review was to investigate about the
market of Melbourne of Adelaide to have a brief idea on how to plan the starting of a new
store along with planning the expansion. For starting a business, having the idea of the
market is very important because no business will be successful without the planning
(Roscam Abbing and Zwamborn 2012). The use of internet for grabbing customer attraction
will be an effective business management process in the present world (Meyer 2014). The
research even provided the knowledge of the competition that is present in the market and to
be very precise the jewelry market of Melbourne and Adelaide undergoes a lot of
competition.
Chapter 3:
Research methodology
The research methodology or the research design is a systematic process of gathering
the relevant information and data from different reliable sources. The main purpose of the
research methodology is the evaluation of the data using different methodological tools for
completing the research study (Bernard 2012). This specific study will provide the profound
overview of the impact of the customer buying behavior on the expansion of the jewelry
business in the Australian market. In order to examine the relevant data, the researcher will

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utilize the necessary methodological tools. These tools will include the research approach,
research philosophy, research design, sampling size, data collection method and several
others.
Outline of the method
The outline of the research design will be consisted of the descriptive research
purpose, deductive approach and positivism research philosophy. In addition to that, the
secondary and primary both the data will be collected by the researcher and the data and
information has been analyzed the data in the qualitative approach. The researcher will
collect the secondary data from different reliable sources such as relevant literatures, blogs,
reports, journals, websites etc (Bernard 2012). The primary data will be collected from the
potential customer base form both the cities, Melbourne and Adelaide. All these aspects will
be discussed in the research design chapter briefly.
Figure 1: Research Onion
Source: (Bottomley and Holden 2014)

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Research Philosophy
Before performing any specific research study, the individual requires observing the
whole research problem in a proper method. In this method the necessary information and
data can be collected in a systematic procedure. The research philosophy is a suitable tool
which can enhance the identification of the research issue with the help of several appropriate
methods. The research philosophy is also constituted with different factors such as realism
research philosophy, positivism research philosophy and the interpretativism research
philosophy (Burns, Burns and Burns 2013). The positivism philosophy is the methodical
procedure which helps the researcher for analyzing the information and data with an intense
observation. Interpretativism research philosophy is the procedure which enables the
interpretation of the gathered information from different perspectives. In addition to that,
there is another research philosophy, realism, which helps in analyzing the accuracy and
dependability of the collected information by observing with a clear conscience.
Justification of the chosen philosophy
In this particular research study, the positivism research philosophy will be utilized
for few reasons. The positivism research philosophy is mostly based on the keen and
profound examination of the researcher topic. As stated by Burns, Burns and Burns (2013)
the observations should always be repeatable, however the phenomenon should be isolated.
Therefore as a consequence to that, before gathering the necessary information and data, the
researcher is expected making a deep observation in order to accomplish the whole research
work in a successful way. Along with that, it is also unquestionable that this research
philosophy is cost effective. As in this research, the researchers will not get much time, as
they have take a decision where they will open their next store, however the positivism
research philosophy can take a long time for conducting the entire research study. On the
other hand, the interpretivism research philosophy is mostly based on the interpretation of