Dissertation: Digital Technology's Influence on ASDA Operations

This dissertation examines the impact of rapid advancements in digital technology, particularly social media, on the operations of ASDA, a major British supermarket retailer. The research explores the significance of digital tools in enhancing productivity, maximizing customer reach, and improving brand awareness. It delves into the importance of digital technology in reducing marketing costs and analyzes the challenges ASDA faces when implementing social technology, such as time and data management. The study also investigates strategies for overcoming these challenges and leveraging digital platforms to increase revenue. The literature review covers the concept of digital technology, its impact on business operations, and the role of social media. The methodology includes research design, approach, and rationale, along with an analysis of the findings and recommendations for future improvements. The research aims to provide insights into how ASDA can adapt to the evolving digital landscape and maintain a competitive edge in the retail industry.

Dissertation

Table of Contents
TITLE:.............................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
1.1 Research Topic.................................................................................................................2
1.2 Importance of the problem ..............................................................................................2
1.3 Aim of the research project..............................................................................................2
2.0 Research Objectives and Research Question.............................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW ...............................................................................................................3
Concept of digital technology in regards of ASDA...............................................................3
Importance of digital technology on business operations and activities to reduce marketing
cost by 20%............................................................................................................................5
Main issue faced by ASDA while implementing social technology at their workplace within 1
year.........................................................................................................................................8
Different ways through which ASDA can easily overcome issue related to the rapid
advancement in social media technology to gain 10% increment in revenues....................10
METHODOLOGY........................................................................................................................10
4.1Research Design, Research approach and Research Type .............................................11
4.2 Rationale.........................................................................................................................12
Time scale.............................................................................................................................13
Access to Data and Research Ethics.....................................................................................15
Limitations............................................................................................................................15
RESULTS AND FINDINGS.........................................................................................................15
RESULTS/FINDINGS..................................................................................................................16
Data Sheet.............................................................................................................................19
Data interpretation................................................................................................................22
ANALYSIS....................................................................................................................................38
As per secondary data...........................................................................................................38

As per primary data..............................................................................................................38
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................39
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................39
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................40

TITLE:
“To analyse the implication that are cause by the rapid advancement in digital technology
and its influence on the operations of firm.”A study on ASDA.
INTRODUCTION
Management is identify a coordination and management of the business activities in order
to accomplish defined goals and objectives. Management in entire business areas and
organisational activities are the acts of acquiring people together in order to attain wanted targets
effectively and efficiently (Alam and Imran, 2015). One of the main issue in business
management is latest technology which highly impact on business operations and activities in a
direct manner. For this dissertation chosen organisation is ASDA which is a British supermarket
retailer in England, United Kingdom. This business was established by Roger Burnley, Rob
McWillian in 1949. company decide to implement latest technology in their organisation to
maximise customer base and improve their productivity within predetermined time period.
Digital technology is one of the important and essential tool which is used by an organisation. It
is the use of websites to promote a service or product to the customers. It is refers to the
effective techniques or tools that target social networks and application to increase brand
awareness or advertise particular product or services. In addition advancement in technology
will support an organisation to achieve better outcomes in given time period (Bogers, Hadar and
Bilberg, 2016).
Business are impacted by changes and modification in the digital technology. Such type
of change offers risks, threats and opportunities to an organisation. Some enterprise can leverage
changing and modifying technology to enhance process and product or even develop innovative
process and product that will enlarge markets and profit. Rapid changes in digital technology is
highly impact on the business operations and activities because in this company required more
amount of capital, knowledgeable people and many other. Latest digital technology is applied by
ASDA in order to enhance their sales and maximise customer base. These digital technique
support an enterprise to maintain long term sustainability at marketplace (Chaudron and et. al.,
2015). In this research, there is discussion about social media technology because this is the way
through which managers of ASDA can communicate with internal as well as external parties of
association. This technology includes different activities like image updates and posting text,
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videos and many other data that drives customer commitment. In order to implement
digitalisation in the organisation, ASDA faced some issues such as time management, data
management, continuing decline of organic research, creating an effective cross channel strategy
etc. All this are identify as main problem which highly impact on business operations and their
different departments such as marketing, sales, finance, human resources and so on. Major
impact of digital technology is on sales activities because it help an organisation to maximise
brand awareness among customers.
1.1 Research Topic
“To analyse the implication that are cause by the rapid advancement in digital technology
and its influence on the operations of firm.”A study on ASDA.
1.2 Importance of the problem
One of the main problem in this dissertation is rapid changes in digital technology which
highly impact on business activities and operations in direct manner (Collins and Halverson,
2018). Digital technology is important tool for the ASDA to advertise their goods and services to
the customer's easily. But sometime, rapid changes in technology is adversely influence on
organisation for example: in this business need to use different sources, hire talented workforce,
require maximum amount of capital and many other. All these problem are important and
essential for the ASDA to implement latest technology and gather appropriate outputs and
results. Therefore, digital technology is significant for the organisation to maximise clients base
and increase their brand awareness among different customers. With this research, importance of
social media tools are clear and its impact on marketing operations of company. This also
provides knowledge about issues which arise in implementing social media technology and
measures to overcome it. Hypothesis for this research is to understand path way to conduct
research and collect information through questionnaire (Garrison, Wakefield and Kim, 2015).
1.3 Aim of the research project
“To analyse the implications that are cause by the rapid advancement in social media
technology and its influence on the marketing operations of firm.” A study on ASDA.
2.0 Research Objectives and Research Question
Research objectives: It is identify as a main section of research in which an investigator
prepare some questions in order to complete all activities of research in an appropriate and
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systematic manner (Davies, Coleman and Livingstone, 2015). This part of research is based on
two variables one is dependent and other one is independent. In which success and growth of an
organisation is depend on the technology. There are some important and useful objectives which
are determined as under:
 To understand the concept of social media technology in regards of ASDA.
 To examine the importance of digital technology on business operations and activities to
reduce marketing cost by 20%.
 To evaluate the main issue faced by ASDA while implementing social technology at their
workplace within 1 year. To analysis the different ways through which ASDA can easily overcome issue related to
the rapid advancement in social media technology to gain 10% increment in revenues.
Research questions: It is another important part of research which is based on research
questions and effects on investigator towards accomplishment of goals and objectives of research
(Deegan and Sutherland, 2016). There are some important questions according to the objectives
are determined as under:
 Do you understand the concept of social media technology?
 What is the importance of digital technology on business operations and activities to
reduce marketing cost by 20%?
 What is the major issue faced by ASDA while implementing social media marketing at
their workplace?
 What are the ways through which ASDA can easily overcome issue related to the rapid
advancement in technology?
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is a kind of review article and scholarly paper which includes actual
knowledge about substantive findings as well as methodological and theoretical contribution to a
specific research topic. In this part of research, different number of scholars and authors are give
their point of view about the research topic.
Concept of digital technology in regards of ASDA
Digital technology is identify as one of the main and essential tool which is used by
ASDA in order to improve their operations and enhance productivity within predetermined time
period (Haffke, Kalgovas and Benlian, 2016). Digital technology is large concept which is used
by each and every company for introducing their products or services to the customers and in
marketplace. There are different forms of technology such as modern and traditional. Under
modern method, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and many other forms are used to attract large
number of customers and achieve better results within predetermined time period. According to
the Harmon, 2018, digital technology includes entire kind of applications and electronic
equipments that follow data in the way of numeric code. Thus it is essential and significant
concept for the growth and success of an enterprise within predetermined time duration.
As per the view point of Nikki Baird (2018), digital technologies are used by several
businesses to create game changing business innovation that work toward improving existing
industry or create a new one. Digital transformation help in improving the current business
practices performed by an organisation by simplifying the way in which it perform operations or
deliver services to its customers (Huang and et. al., 2017). The impact of digital transformation is
also visible at retail industry where technological advancement has totally improve the way in
which retailers like ASDA delivery physical goods or services to its customer. The digital
technology is a main part in ASDA company and it provides benefits to consumers to shop from
the multiple channels. ASDA has changes the way in which a consumer acquire product and how
each part of shopper's journey has been digitalise to save their time and improve shopping
experience of customers. Digitalisation has bring up several changes within the serving pattern of
retailers as at the time of end-to-end shopping, retailers have to held product information by
themselves within store. But now after moving toward digitalisation ASDA present information
about its product or services over its own website in a detailed manner (Collins. and Halverson,
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2018). This help a lot in influencing customers to purchase their product or services after
learning about the basic information about the product along with the experience shared by
customers.
Digital technology is identify as one of the main and essential tool which is used by
ASDA in order to improve their operations and enhance productivity within predetermined time
period. Digital technology is large concept which is used by each and every company for
introducing their products or services to the customers and in marketplace. There are different
forms of technology such as modern and traditional. Under modern method, Facebook, Twitter,
Instagram and many other forms are used to attract large number of customers and achieve
better results within predetermined time period. According to the Harmon, 2018, digital
technology includes entire kind of applications and electronic equipments that follow data in the
way of numeric code. Thus it is essential and significant concept for the growth and success of
an enterprise within predetermined time duration (Johnson and et. al., 2016).
ASDA operates in many countries, so it is important to understand to analyse external
market of geographical region. With use of social media, managers of ASDA can communicate
and market their products to consumers. There is more specific and relevant information with
them. Apart from this there is ease in communication with workforce who works at new country.
This takes them aware about their roles and responsibilities. There is use of e- mail for sharing
data and approval for some related projects can be taken frequently under authentic platform.
Social media is cheap method of communicating with internal and external parties of ASDA. In
case of developing country with use of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. it is easy to advertise
product because people are more technology savy. There is positive impact on brand image of
ASDA as well because people recognise them at new land (Davies, Coleman and Livingstone,
2015).
Role of ASDA company in London provide the better services as well as Modern
information technology (IT) to understand as result of meeting among communication
technology and modern digital computing. ASDA organisation use digital technology to
communicate with the people and also aware them about availability of services or products in a
detailed manner. This business firm has penned three- year contract with the IT services
company and that is HCL technology in order to support the digital transformation by application
development services. The main objective of using digital technology is to enhance business
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activities and sustain the company for long period of time in an effective manner (Makridakis,
2017).
Importance of digital technology on business operations and activities to reduce marketing cost
by 20%
According to the Don Q. Dao, (2018), digital technology is more beneficial and essential
for the growth and success of ASDA. Traditional method of operating the business has been
changed and the people are engage by digital technology at the time of conductivity business
activity. The internet and mobile technology have make the business to be change on daily basis.
On the other hand, advancement in communication and computer science have change face as
well as pace of the business activities where company can modified its business process. It will
help ASDA organisation to perform activities as well as work in an effective or efficient manner.
This provide different benefits such as improving productivity, enhancing customer experience
and many other. With use of digital technology it is easy for managers of ASDA to communicate
with consumers (Pan, Pan and Lim, 2015). They can communicate and solve issues of consumers
by merely sitting at one place. This helps to reduce cost of marketing because it is to understand
demand of consumers. They are able to understand changes in demand of consumers, their
feedbacks regarding quality , price of products. When managers of ASDA uses digital
technology, so instant feedback can also taken, so this helps to reduce possibilities of
miscommunication and improvements can be taken frequently. Apart from this there are some
other benefits of using digital technology which are determined as under:
Easy communication with customers- Digital technology impact on ability of firm to
interact with consumers. In this present environment, it is essential for staff members to
communicate with its consumers in a clear or quick manner. ASDA has a website through which
it can provide its information to consumers and resolve their query on it. On the other hand,
websites permit the consumers to search answer to issues of customers quickly (Alam and Imran,
2015). The fast shipment option permit the ASDA to communicate with business and take the
benefits from communicating with consumers. It is helpful for ASDA to develop strong brand
image in mind of customers. With use of social media platform, mobile technology, etc. it is easy
to communicate with consumers which are the base for growth and development of ASDA.
Easy marketing- These days marketing plays crucial role in making business enterprise
growing. Managers of ASDA has to face major competition in retail sector. So in this case, with
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use of digital technology, there is ease in communication through advertisement, social media
platform, etc. This reduces cost because with digital technology advertisement is more
impressive and can be accessed anytime any where.
Improved productivity: Each and every business looking in order to enhance their
productivity level. One of the important way to accomplish this goal and target is by developing
innovations that can support their workers collaborate, work better and communicate. Digital
technology also support an enterprise to increase their sales by providing product or services in
quick manner (Park and Hong, 2016).
Improve customer experience: Digital technology is also more essential and effective for
the organisation to maximise customer experience by providing quality products or services in
speed manner. It help an organisation to maximise customer base and accomplish long term
goals and objectives within predetermined time period. Customer service gets improved with use
of digital technology because, this creates proper communication between managers of ASDA
and consumers, hence they feel free to communicate. This helps to make improvement and
modifications as per consumers desire.
Increase efficiency of operations- Digital technology is helpful for business to
understand need of its cash flow and also preserve the precious resources for an instance physical
space and time. With the effective technology, executives of ASDA company can save money as
well as time through holding meetings over an internet as comparison to corporate headquarters.
Security- In this present time period, most of the business firms are subject to the security
of threats. The digital technology can be used in order to protect the confidential executive
decisions and financial data which leads to the competitive benefits. In addition to this, digital
technology is helpful for business in keep their ideas away from its competitors (Pereira and
Romero, 2017). Through using the better digital technology, ASDA can secure the information
and data of its competitors. When marketing activities are farmed by managers of ASDA, then it
is easy to share data among executives of ASDA within specified time and able to get quick
reverts. Hence this helps to reduce overall marketing plan cost which helps to conduct marketing
activities within specified budget.
Developing business- The motive of every organisation is to make improvement in its
productivity. The main reason behind using executing innovation is to help the staff members to
communicate and collaborate. Through using digital technology, ASDA can communicate with
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its consumers and also know about their needs as well as preferences in a better and effective
manner (Chaudron and et. al., 2015). It will helpful in make improvement in development as
well as productivity of ASDA. As there is competition in market, so with use of digital
technology, it is easy for managers of ASDA are competent to other firms which provides
opportunities of organisational growth and development by maintaining sustainability in
industry.
Enhanced capacity of business- On the basis of opinion of Jace Holyoak (2019), it has
been stated that technology allows the business to reach at large number of people in minimum
period of time. For an example- ASDA business firm use different kinds of technology medium
in order to communicate with consumers as well as experts in an industry. This company can use
the technology in order to host the webinars monthly and publish the new blogs. In addition to
this, digital technology enhanced capacity of the business for work together by using the
effective technologies for an instance CRM.
Save time and money- In this modern era, technology performs several routine tasks or
activities which staff members used to perform in an expected manner (Sandström, 2016). It
permit the employees of ASDA to focus on their time on necessary duties and responsibilities. It
can help in save the cost though cutting expenses of employees and also make improvement in
productivity. On the other hand, digital technology helps in conducting the activities of business
quickly and save time also. It helps in increasing efficiency as well as effectiveness of business
operations and activities.
Main issue faced by ASDA while implementing social technology at their workplace within 1
year
As per the view point of Jabil, 2017, companies that undergoes with digital
transformation are likely get benefited with more customer engagement and market share
enhancement and increase in revenue. There are different issues and problems which are faced
by an organisation while they implement digital technology in their organisation. But apart from
all these there are number of issues that ASDA has faced while moving toward digital
transformation which are explained below:
Cost and time: It is identify as one of the main issue faced by ASDA and its employees.
In order to implement digital technology in organisation, sufficient amount of capital and time is
required (Van Cott, 2018). So it is highly impact on business operations and its different
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activities such as marketing, human resource, operational and production and many other. All
this are directly impact on business performance and productivity in direct manner. There is
frequent changes in social media platform because of frequent up-gradations. These up-
gradations are required to be implemented by managers of ASDA in order to achieve competitive
environment. When new digital technique is implemented, then there is requirement of training
and development of workforce. So this is cost and time consuming approach.
Resource availability: In order to analysis appropriate resources, those who are
technologically and inventive sound is a big challenge and issue to digital transformation. It is
highly effects on business operations and activities directly (Gratton and et. al., 2016). Finance is
the main resource which is required to be considered to implement digital technology changes.
There is requirement of managers for digital technology which updates social accounts pages for
ASDA in case of modification in feature of product and services. This is cost consuming and
requires time as well for planing related to techniques to make social page innovative. In absence
of such resources business manager of an enterprise is not able to complete all activities in
appropriate and proper manner.
Employee Pushback: Human generally have their routine in which they feel comfortable
and work as per it. Therefore employees get use to of things as well as environment in which
they work and as a result of which it become difficult for workforce to adopt changes that are
bring by an organisation. The same case was with some employees of ASDA also, as at the time
of digital transformation they find it difficult to add digital technology as a part of their routine
job. This is because lack of knowledge in this area is the reason which is pushing back employee
to accept this change and implement it effectively within the organisational culture. For instance:
if workers are not ready to accept changes at social media platform which are taking place, then
it is tough for managers of ASDA to implement latest technology at workplace (Weller, Kleer
and Piller, 2015).
Changing organisational culture: In order to perform digital transformation it is very
essential for an organisation to change its culture so that it will be able to perform its operations
effectively. This is the biggest challenge faced by ASDA while implementing digital technology
is cultural transformation which is not an easier task for an organisation. This is because the
culture is very much ingrained with each employee working within the organisation which
support company in being united and implement the changes effectively.
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