Impact of Digital Technology on Panther Taxis: A Profitability Study

This research proposal investigates the influence of digital technology on the profitability of Panther Taxis, a UK-based taxi company. The introduction provides an overview of the company and highlights the rapid advancements in digital technology, emphasizing its impact on businesses. The aim is to assess how digital technology affects Panther Taxis' profitability, with objectives focusing on identifying benefits, assessing the impact of social media, smartphones, and the internet, and determining challenges faced. The literature review explores the concepts and benefits of digital technology, its impact on operations, and challenges such as privacy and competition. The methodology section outlines the research approach, methods, and data collection techniques. The proposal employs qualitative research to understand the impact, and the study aims to offer recommendations for better utilization of digital technology by Panther Taxis. The study also addresses ethical considerations and provides a conclusion and references.

RESEARCH METHODS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TOPIC:.............................................................................................................................................1
“To assess the impact of digital technology on the profitability of the company. A study on
Panther Taxis.” ...........................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Overview of the Panther Taxis....................................................................................................1
Aim and Objectives.....................................................................................................................1
Research Background: ...............................................................................................................2
Rationale:....................................................................................................................................2
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
Introduction.................................................................................................................................4
Detailed concept and benefits of digital technology for the businesses......................................4
Impact of social media, smart phones, texting and internet on the functions and operation's of
the Panther Taxi company...........................................................................................................5
Challenges faced by taxi company in using these advance technologies...................................5
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY.....................................................................................................6
Introduction.................................................................................................................................6
Research Methods.......................................................................................................................6
Research Approach.....................................................................................................................7
Sampling.....................................................................................................................................7
Data Collection............................................................................................................................7
Data Analysis..............................................................................................................................8
Ethical Consideration..................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................11

TOPIC:
“To assess the impact of digital technology on the profitability of the company. A study on
Panther Taxis.”
INTRODUCTION
The world is of rapid and frequent processing worlds where technology is progressing
and developing every single day. It is the era of deep changes within companies, whether in
politics or business, this is an uncertain time. Digital technology has transformed modern life by
bringing with it many advantages (Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, 2019). Travel, shopping, work,
communication and entertainment are just some areas which have been revolutionized in recent
decades. Digital technology consists of many things such as social media, internet, smart phones,
ICT and many others that has change the entire life of businesses as we as people. With the
advance technology, it becomes easy for the business to connect with the world through wireless
devices.
This present research proposal will evaluate the impact of digital technology on the
profitability of the company by using various techniques and methods.
Overview of the Panther Taxis
Panther Taxis is the one of the best taxi service company in United Kingdom. Company
is providing services for last 25 years and not firm has raised the scale of business with over 500
vehicles. Panther Taxis are a familiar sight on Cambridge Roads. They also provide wedding car
services and cars available for all special occasions and functions (About Panther Taxis, 2018).
Panther Taxis is known for its outstanding customer services and in Cambridge, they are the only
taxi company who offers customers an unrivalled pick time of 10 minutes within the city of
Cambridge and annexed villages.
Aim and Objectives
Aim:
“To assess the impact of digital technology on the profitability of the company. A study
on Panther Taxis.”
Objectives:
 To extract the detailed concept and benefits of digital technology for the businesses.
 To identify the impact of social media, smart phones, texting and internet on the
functions and operation's of the Panther Taxi company.
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 To determine the challenges faced by taxi company in using these advance technologies.
 To provide recommendation to Panther Taxi company for better usage of digital
technology.
Research Questions:
1. What is the detailed concept and benefits of digital technology for the businesses?
2. What is the impact of social media, smart phones, texting and internet on the functions
and operation's of the Panther Taxi company?
3. What are the challenges faced by taxi company in using these advance technologies?
4. What are the recommendation to Panther Taxi company for better usage of digital
technology?
Research Background:
This present research proposal is based on the impact of digital technology on the
functions, operations as well as profitability of Panther Taxi which is a taxi company of United
Kingdom. Digital technology is very vast topic as it covers many other advance techniques such
as internet, social media, smart phones etc. these are the technologies which are most popular
and it is used by more than 85 percent of UK population (Chaffey, 2015). Technology has put
the business gracefulness centre stage. These technologies are providing positive impact on the
business especially taxi company as there are outstanding benefits through internet, social media
as drivers and passengers can get by using taxi applications.
Rationale:
The reason behind selection the research topic is give an insight over the impact of digital
technology on the profitability of the taxi company which is chosen as Panther Taxis. It is fact
that technology has always been centre of everything people do and all the bookings of taxi.
Technology has benefited not only taxi companies but is very beneficial for all the types of
company. Internet has raised the range of services across the regions which in turn increases the
customer base (Ross, 2016). Further more, the reason behind selection of these sectors is that
people have served the great interest for the advance technologies which also raise the interest of
researcher to choose this particular topic.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Introduction
Literature Review is one of the most important chapter that provides a handy guide to a
particular topic. It is a type of review article as it includes the current knowledge that indulges
substantive findings along with theoretical and methodological contribution to the particular
topic. In this present chapter, thematic literature review will be done where themes are
formulated on the topic of digital technology.
Detailed concept and benefits of digital technology for the businesses.
According to Korpela, Hallikas and Dahlberg, (2017) the world is of rapid and frequent
processing worlds where technology is progressing and developing every single day. It is the era
of deep changes within companies, whether in politics or business, this is an uncertain time.
Digital technology has becomes very important because it has captured the people. Digital
technology has changes modern life by bringing with it many advantages. Travel, shopping,
work, communication and entertainment are just some areas which have been revolutionized in
recent decades. Now, technology has becomes the main and central part of every businesses.
Digital technology is very broad topic as it consist of many other elements such as social media,
internet, smartphones, texting, ICT, IOT and many other technologies which has transformed the
life to luxurious way.
As per the Curry, (2016) there are many benefits of using these advance technologies in
the business. The very first benefits of using these advance technologies is that it improves the
productivity of the functions and operation's of the organisation. One of the best way by the
desire goals and objectives are achieved is by implementing innovation which aids collaboration
of employees, communicate as well as work better. For example, Panther Taxis is providing
outstanding services to there customers through online booking as they claim that they are the
only company who offers an unrivalled pick up tome of up to 10 minutes in Cambridge.
Passengers and Drivers both have come very closer just because of advance technologies z like
mobile apps. In addition to this, digital technology improves the customer engagement with
consumers as well as raise the experience of customers.
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Impact of social media, smart phones, texting and internet on the functions and operation's of the
Panther Taxi company.
Chaffey and Ellis-Chadwick, (2019) articulates that, the impact of social media,
smartphones, texting and internet on the functions as well as operation's of Panther Taxi
company is positive at all. It is because, through social media, it becomes very easy for company
to promote there services to large customer base. The bottom line of company is increase through
social media. However, the power of social media goes far beyond making money through better
advertising. Social media has raised the connectivity with stakeholders. All the offers, discounts
are also informed to customers through social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter etc.
Furuholt and Sæbø, (2018) argued that, social media increases the connectivity but it is not
entirely risk free. It is because, when company makes any post on the page, fans and followers
are free to post there comments on their level, exposing the business to the likelihood of negative
publicity.
Further, the impact of internet, smartphones and texting is also very deep on the
profitability of the company as said by Liu and et.al., (2018). With the smartphones and internet,
things are going very fast. There are some mobile bookings APP of Panther Taxi company for
customers such as “On the go”. The application of booking of this taxi company bis very
convenient for customers, fast as well as very simple to use. For Panther Taxis, technology is
like heart for human. They are nothing without internet, smartphones and other technologies
because the 80 percent of bookings of Taxis is done thorough internet. With the mobile
application, customers enable there booking taxi “On the go” App within in seconds. IN addition
to this, another great advantages of internet for specially taxi and delivery companies is finding
location has becomes very easy as customer send the current location to drivers and through
google map, driver can reach to customers rightly.
Challenges faced by taxi company in using these advance technologies.
Kenney and Zysman, (2016) articulates that, it is true that the inception of smartphones
followed by the smart apps has transformed the lives very big time. But there are various
challenges faced by taxi company in using the advance technologies. Privacy and cyber security
issues with emerging technologies and management of infrastructure rank as the top
technological challenges companies face today. Privacy and Cybersecurity is taxi services is very
important it is because personal information is very sensitive, it need not be disclosed with
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anyone prior taking permission from customers like personal mobile numbers, home address or
any other information. Thus, thus is also issues faced by taxi company.
Developing an integrated app solution is another challenge faced by the Panther Taxi
company as said by Wajcman and Dodd, (2016). It sometimes becomes very complex for them
to cope up with the rapid change in the technologies. Company has to bring the forth a
compelling yet strapping taxi app solution which satisfied the market necessitate. It is very well
known that, technologies adaption requires cost, teams in order to build customized platform. At
the same time, it becomes very challenging for firm to offer quality of services in reasonable
services.
Goodall and et.al., (2017) committed that, lack of proficient drivers is another challenges
faced by Taxi company as it is true that they need skilled and knowledgeable people who can
asses the technologies like mobile app, google map and all other features should also be known
by them. However, in today's era it is not so difficult to use smartphones and internet because
everybody are now familiar with these technologies but still it is a challenge for company to find
skilled and experienced drivers. In addition to this, the level of competition is very high in taxi
booking industry just because of internet and smart technologies. Not only Panther Taxis,
Heathrow, Friendly Cab, UK Taxi Services and many other companies are there who are offering
all these services. Thus, technological up-gradation has raised the competition in taxi industry.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Introduction
This is also one of the most important chapter that enable the researcher to reach the aims
and objections as well as to solve the research question. It is the techniques which are used to
take decision for collection of data. In this present research, researcher has taken some of the
most important methodologies which are described below.
Research Methods
When the research study begins, the very first thing that researcher have to select the type
or methods on which the data collection process will be done. Research is the scientific study of
the topic that identify the problem, clarify the problem, determine what data would aid to solve
the issues, organise the data and interpret the outcomes. Qualitative and Quantitative are two
types on which researcher applied (Amin, Aijun and Shamshirband, 2016). The research
method's which is used to gain an apprehension of depth opinion, motivators and reason is called
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qualitative research. Apart from this, the research methods that is based on statical phenomenon
is called quantitative research. Research will apply qualitative research in order to identify the
impact of digital technology on the profitability of Panther Taxis.
Research Approach
After the selection of research methods, scholar has to select the approaches used in the
study. It is a plan and process which consist of wide assumptions in order to detailed methods of
collection of data, evaluation along with interpretation. There are mainly two types research
approaches which are applied to answer the research problems which are Inductive and
Deductive approaches (Emerson,2015). In this present research paper, researcher will apply
deductive research approach in order to identify the impact of digital technology on the
profitability of Panther Taxis as it start the procedure by taking past as well as present theories in
consideration which are concerned about the main subject of the study. To create hypothesis,
deductive approach is best to use.
Sampling
When qualitative methods is applied in the research, it is very important to select the
sampling. It is the small part of the population which represent the respondents selected for the
sample size. Probabilistic and Non-Probabilistic are two techniques of sampling used to study the
population (Mahapatra and Bharti, 2017). The techniques to select the small part of population is
called as sampling. In this present research, scholar will apply simple random sampling where 30
drivers of Panther Taxi company will be chosen for assessment.
Data Collection
After the selection of sample, it is very important to collect the data or information. It is
the process to gathered the data from relevant sources in order to find the answers to research
problems, test the hypothesis as well as to measure the outcomes. Primary and Secondary are
two methods which are used to collect the information. Primary data are fresh and first hand data
as it is gathered by the scholar own efforts such as survey, interview, observation etc. Whereas,
the data which is collected by the other sources like biographies, annual report of books, articles,
journals and other authentic secondary sources for gathering information. Researcher in this
present research will apply for the techniques (Hwang, Chu and Yin, 2017). For primary data,
scholar will prepare questionnaire and for secondary data scholar will use authentic secondary
sources to collect the information.
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Data Analysis
Once the data is gathered, it becomes very important for researcher to evaluate or analyse
the data gathers as the data which is collected is raw data. The data gathered is of no use without
its analysis. The techniques which is used for the process of cleaning, modeling and transform of
data in order to reveal the meaningful information. There are mainly two techniques which is
used for analysing the data which are qualitative and quantitative. Researcher will apply
qualitative technique for analysing the data as with this technique the subject matter will be
evaluated with greater detail's (Hennessy and et.al., 2018). Scholar will use thematic analysis
where researcher will prepare chart, graphs and tables for presenting the data.
Ethical Consideration
Ethics are the norms and standard which makes difference is what is rights and what is
wrong. It is very important for researcher to consider all the ethics and norms for collecting the
data and in conducting entire research (Swanson, 2017). In this present research, scholar will
follow all the standards which are as follows-
 Informed concent
 Respondents have freedom to leave the sample whenever they needed.
 Information are collected from valid sources.
 All the participants are adults and sound mind.
 Privacy and Security concerns are ensured by the researcher.
CONCLUSION
The above research, comes to the conclusion that digital technology is very for the
success of the business. No any business can ever achieve its desire goals and objectives without
using advance technologies. From the secondary research, it is concluded that the impact of
digital technology is positive on the taxi industry. Further, the challenges are also discussed in
the narrative review which was faced by the taxi company.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
Amin, R., Aijun, L. and Shamshirband, S., 2016. A review of quadrotor UAV: control
methodologies and performance evaluation. International Journal of Automation and
Control, 10(2), pp.87-103.
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Chaffey, D. and Ellis-Chadwick, F., 2019. Digital marketing. Pearson UK.
Chaffey, D., 2015. Digital business and e-commerce management. London: Pearson Education
Limited.
Curry, E., 2016. The big data value chain: definitions, concepts, and theoretical approaches.
In New horizons for a data-driven economy (pp. 29-37). Springer, Cham.
Emerson, R.W., 2015. Convenience sampling, random sampling, and snowball sampling: how
does sampling affect the validity of research?. Journal of Visual Impairment &
Blindness, 109(2), pp.164-168.
Goodall, W., Dovey, T., Bornstein, J. and Bonthron, B., 2017. The rise of mobility as a
service. Deloitte Rev, 20, pp.112-129.
Hennessy, M and et.al., 2018. Improving trial recruitment processes: how qualitative
methodologies can be used to address the top 10 research priorities identified within the
PRioRiTy study. Trials, 19(1), p.584.
Hwang, G.J., Chu, H.C. and Yin, C., 2017. Objectives, methodologies and research issues of
learning analytics.
Kenney, M. and Zysman, J., 2016. The rise of the platform economy. Issues in Science and
Technology, 32(3), p.61.
Korpela, K., Hallikas, J. and Dahlberg, T., 2017, January. Digital supply chain transformation
toward blockchain integration. In proceedings of the 50th Hawaii international conference
on system sciences.
Liu, J., Shen, H., Narman, H.S., Chung, W. and Lin, Z., 2018. A survey of mobile crowdsensing
techniques: A critical component for the internet of things. ACM Transactions on Cyber-
Physical Systems, 2(3), p.18.
Mahapatra, D.K. and Bharti, S.K. eds., 2017. Handbook of research on medicinal chemistry:
innovations and methodologies. Taylor & Francis.
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Swanson, D.M., 2017. Mathematics Education and the Problem of Political Forgetting: In Search
of Research Methodologies for Global Crisis. Journal of Urban Mathematics
Education, 10(1), pp.7-15.
Wajcman, J. and Dodd, N. eds., 2016. The Sociology of Speed: Digital, organizational, and
social temporalities. Oxford University Press.
Online:
About Panther Taxis. 2018. [Online]. Accessed through: <https://www.panthertaxis.co.uk/>.
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APPENDIX
Task
Mode Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Auto
Schedule
d
Research proposal 2 days Fri 15-02-19 Mon 18-02-
19
Auto
Schedule
d
Aims and objectives 4 days Tue 19-02-19 Fri 22-02-19 1
Auto
Schedule
d
Literature review 5 days Mon 25-02-
19 Fri 01-03-19 2
Auto
Schedule
d
Research methodologies 7 days Mon 25-02-
19 Tue 05-03-19 2
Auto
Schedule
d
Data collection 8 days Wed 06-03-
19 Fri 15-03-19 3,4
Auto
Schedule
d
Data analysis 4 days Mon 18-03-
19 Thu 21-03-19 5
Auto
Schedule
d
Data interpretation 5 days Fri 22-03-19 Thu 28-03-19 6
Auto
Schedule
d
Finding and conclusion 2 days Fri 22-03-19 Mon 25-03-
19 3,6
Auto
Schedule
d
Recommendations 1 day Fri 29-03-19 Fri 29-03-19 7,8
Auto
Schedule
d
Execute the plan 1 day Mon 01-04-
19
Mon 01-04-
19 9
Auto
Schedule
d
Submission 1 day Tue 02-04-19 Tue 02-04-19 10
Table 1: Time Plan
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Illustration 1: Gantt Chart
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Illustration 2: Critical Path
12