Digital Technology's Impact on Black Penny SME Performance

This report investigates the impact of digital technology on small and medium enterprises (SMEs), with a specific focus on the Black Penny restaurant. The research aims to determine the effects of digital technology on the firm's performance, evaluate the relationship between digital technology and business growth, identify useful digital tools for managing organizational functions, and analyze the effective application of digital technology within Black Penny. The report includes a literature review citing sources such as Chaffey and Smith (2013), Wymbs (2011), and others, to provide a theoretical foundation for the study. The methodology involves a questionnaire administered to employees, with thematic analysis used to interpret the findings. The analysis explores themes such as the use of new technology, the impact of technology on performance, employee training, and the benefits of digital tools. The results suggest that while there is a general acceptance of digital technology and its benefits, there are also areas where improvements are needed, particularly in employee training and the effective use of technology to maximize performance and customer satisfaction. The report concludes that the digital technology has the potential to enhance the overall performance of Black Penny, but that continued investment in employee training is essential.

UNIT 11 RP
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TITLE
“The impact of digital technology on small medium enterprise”
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Aim:
“To explore the impact of digital technology on small medium enterprise: Black penny”
Research objectives
 To determine the impact of digital technology in Black Penny.
 To evaluate the relationship between digital technology and growth of firm.
 To identify the tools of digital technology which can help in managing organisation
functions.
 To analyse the effective use of digital technology in Black penny.
Research Questions
 What are the impact of digital technology in Black Penny?
 What is the relationship between digital technology and growth of firm?
 What are the tools of digital technology which can help in managing organisation
functions?
 What all are effective uses of digital technology in Black penny?
Literature Review
According to Chaffey and Smith, (2013), it has been stated that digital technology plays a
vital role in enhancing the growth of small and medium enterprises. The technological
advancement has reached to the heights of success with the help of various tools like, cloud
computing, biometric system, face prima etc. This is considered to be the effective form for
raising the sales and profitability as it helps the business to reach out customers in effective
manner.
In addition, Wymbs, (2011), has stated that implementation of digital technology in small
medium enterprise plays crucial role as it assists the firm in making digital record of customer’s
information and details which assist the management in determining potential customers of
organisation. In accordance Järvinen, Tollinen and Jayawardhena, (2012), has stated that the
advancement assists the entities in managing internal business functions easily without any
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cheating and misrepresentation like, the tool which is bio metric system assist the organisation in
recording digital attendance of employees which helps in reducing manual work and on the other
reduces the chance of recording wrong attendance. Therefore, it is important for the enterprises
to implement the use of advanced technology in order to manage business functions effectively
which will further assist in attaining competitive advantage. Hence, in accordance it has been
determined that author believes the use of technological toll will assist in growth and
development of organisation.
As per Stone and Woodcock, (2014) many changes has taken place in relation with
technology. All these have supported the business to develop strong interaction with customers.
As per author communicating with buyers at online platform provides opportunity to understand
need of innovation in existing products and services. In order to attain this goal, business make
frequent innovations so that need and requirements can be met. When any product is promoted
by making use of digital marketing, then it provides the opportunity to management as they get
to know the preferences of people. When talking about social media, individuals can also share
their views and issues that are being faced in relation with the products or services. As per the
view, management can take up initiative to implement strategies so that they can make
improvement and meet requirements of customers. As per the views of Nambisan and et.al.,
2017, it has been determined that there are various benefits of digital advancement like social
media advertising, with the help of which the management of firm is able to target maximum
consumers with one click. Further, there is e commerce which enables opportunity to analyse
changing buying preferences of buyers by tracking down their regular orders.
According to Chaffey and Smith, (2013) productivity of the organization improves when
use of digital technology is done. This type of platform provides management with the
opportunity to communicate, make innovation and raise customer’s base. Further, it also
provides customers proper security in relation with personal information. These are helpful
enough to develop trust and confidence with services users and also develops positive perception
towards the organization. However, according to Cordrary, 2016, Mail chimp is an official
digital communication tool which emerged as opportunity for marketing team of small business
organisations. It is helping SME’s in connecting people via email campaigns. Further, there is
slack which communication tool for official team of company is. It offers easy problems solving
tool for team members irrespective of their locations.
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Reason for choosing this topic
The motive behind conducting this research is to evaluate use of different technological
tools such as information technology, internet, social media advertising, etc. Further, the reason
behind choosing digital technology is to enhance my own knowledge and understanding over use
of different digital tools in growth of SME’s.
Activities and timescales
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Some following research methods are used below in order to conduct present impact of
and implication of digital technology:
Research philosophy: Research philosophies are used to analyse data and regarding collection
effectively. The philosophies are mainly focused on nature of knowledge and sources which
helps to understand topic effectively. Research philosophies are mainly of four types such as
pragmatism, interpretivism, positivism and realism. The combination of both interpretivism and
positivism is used to research on Black penny effectively (Leibowitz, Ndebele and Winberg,
2014). The main benefit of this research is that it will help to observer nature to increase factual
information. In addition to this, the main role of positivism research is to collect interpreting data
in a limited way efficiently. The research is also dependent on observations which are
quantifiable and effective. This will help researchers to be focus on major fats related to the
topic. This will help to determine the impact of digital technology upon Black penny.
Interpretivism research is used because it will help to interpret elements of study effectively.
Research approach: Research approach will help to towards the plan used for carrying out the
study effectively. There are two approaches such as inductive and deductive. The deductive
approach helps to take general way into a specific way efficiently. This is the main reason the
approach is used many times and correctly (Lopez, Caspe and McWilliams, 2016). In addition to
this, inductive approach helps to move from specific observation to a broad generalisation
effectively. For the study of Black penny the inductive approach is used for managing and
analysing business operational activities. The impact of digital technology is good for the
business that specific observations are carried while researching and detecting regularities and
patterns of firm effectively.
Research design: Research design is important that it helps by providing information to
researchers towards the strategy which helps for coherent and logical integration of various study
components effectively. There is different design of research such as exploratory, explanatory,
namely and descriptive etc. Descriptive design is used by researchers for the study of Black
penny that it will help them in collecting information from employees regarding implementation
of distal technology to boost the growth of restaurant. It will also help to define characteristic of
worker at workplace (Schenkels and Jacobs, 2018). The design is also used that it helps to
identify and determine the impact of digital technology on Black penny effectively and
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efficiently. This will help to evaluate actual impact of digital technology by analysing the
effectiveness in business operational activities.
Data collection: Data collection techniques are used by researchers that it helps to collect all the
information regarding business operational activities and impact of digital technology on Black
penny effectively. Primary and secondary two methods are in the process of data collection in
which the primary and secondary data is divided accordingly. The first-hand information is
collected by researchers is the primary data for them and secondary is collected from the
previous information and data which is used in past effectively. The main focus is towards
interviews, observation and surveys that helps to collect relevant data. For the study of Black
penny, primary data is used to collect the information from employees in order to evaluate the
impact of technology on organisation efficiently (Schneider and De Souza, 2015). The secondary
data will be collected from different resources such as books, journals, business records, blogs
and online articles published in magazines and newspapers.
Sampling: Sampling has two types such as probabilistic and non-probabilistic technique. For the
Black penny study, random sampling techniques are used by researchers to provide equal chance
for every employee in the business regarding impact of digital technology. This will be done by
managing 10 employees as a sample for Black penny to determine digital technology
effectiveness and impact.
Ethical issues and considerations: There are two types of ethical issues conducted in this
research while carrying the study effectively.
Confidentiality: The information provided by employees produce an ethical issue for
firm in terms of confidentiality. Proper storage of data and information is adopted by the
researchers in order to assure confidentiality between employees at work place effectively.
Informed consent: The main ethical issues here are in the case study of Black penny is
that researcher will first seek permission from top management to conduct research and further
the individual will formulate research questions in manner that it would not harm emotions and
feelings of any employee working with Black penny restaurant (Obeidat and Abu-Shanab, 2010).
The researchers should carry some process which is involved in costs such as data
collection, analysing the primary and secondary data effectively. The researchers also analyse
that there is a need of research assistant in the firm which will help to manage the cost of various
activities related to the research programs.
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Access issues: Different issues and problems are faced by researchers while conducting the case
study of Black penny restaurant in order to evaluate the impact of digital technology. Collecting
primary and secondary data that there is low involvement of employees in the process, taking
permission to analyse information and data (Peppard and Ward, 2016). There are some
restrictions in some journal and books articles etc.
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Proper analysis is necessary for the firm and researchers in order to analyse response
provided by employees during the process of questionnaire effectively.
Theme 1: The Black penny restaurant make use of new or updated technology
Does the Black penny restaurant make
effective use of updated digital
technology?
Frequency
Yes 5
No 3
Not Sure 2
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Theme: 2 Will the use of digital technology for business is effective to improve performance
Do you think that use of
technology is beneficial for the
firm to improve performance
level?
Frequency
Yes 6
No 3
Not Sure 1
10
Yes No Not Sure
0
0.5
1
1.5
2
2.5
3
3.5
4
4.5
5
Frequency

Theme 3: Current technology used within firm is not effective
Is the current technology used within
your firm effective?
Frequency
Yes 4
No 3
Not Sure 3
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Do you think that use of
technology is beneficial for the
firm to improve performance
level?
Yes
No
Not Sure

Theme: 4 Digital technology positive impact on performance
Does digital technology positively
impact on performance?
Frequency
Yes 6
No 2
Not Sure 2
Theme 5: Digital technologies is helpful in improving business activities and productivity
Is digital technologies helpful in Frequency
12
Yes
No
Not Sure
0 0.5 1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4
Frequency
Yes
No
Not Sure