Research Proposal: Impact of Technology on ASDA's Business Operations

This research proposal investigates the impact of technology on ASDA, a major supermarket chain. The introduction highlights the dynamic business environment and the crucial role of technology in enhancing efficiency and competitiveness, particularly in the context of globalization. The research aims to examine how technology influences ASDA's operations, productivity, and profitability, setting specific objectives to articulate the concept of technology in business, investigate its benefits, identify challenges, and recommend solutions. The literature review explores how technology impacts business operations, communication, and cost savings, while also addressing challenges such as integration and ethical considerations. The methodology section outlines the research approach, including qualitative research with an inductive approach, interpretivism philosophy, and a combination of secondary and primary data collection. The study will involve a sample of 20 ASDA managers, selected through random sampling, with data analyzed using thematic analysis. Ethical considerations, including informed consent, are also addressed. The timeline and references are also provided.

RESEARCH
PROPOSAL

INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................4
RESEARCH METHODS................................................................................................................4
TIMELINE.......................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
The business operates in a environment which is very dynamic and ever changing and
there are many changes taking place within the environment (Beck, and et.al., 2017). Also, the
major reason behind these changes is the changes taking place because of the global business
trading. Due to globalization there are many changes taking place within the companies
operation and the technology which the companies use. Thus, the use of technology is very
essential in the business as this decreases the human effort in the business sand increases the
efficiency of the business. This is majorly pertaining to the fact that the use technology increases
the working ability of the company. This result in the increase in the efficiency and effectiveness
of the company in the highly competitive world.
The present research is based over the company ASDA which is a large supermarket
chain founded in the year 1949 by J W Hindell and Noel Stockdale. The company is a retail
chain which includes a wide variety of the product and services like groceries, merchandise,
financial services and many other services. The present research will outline the use of
technology within the company and what is the impact of using the technology over the
productivity and profitability of ASDA. Also, the research will focus over the making of the
aims and objectives and then directing all the working of the research towards the completion of
those aims and objectives (Luftman, Lyytinen and Zvi, 2017).
Aim and objectives
Aim
To examine the impact of use of technology within the management of operations of company in
order to increase the productivity and profitability. A study on ASDA.
Objectives
 To articulate the concept of technology within business.
 To investigate the different benefits of using technology within the business with respect
to increase efficiency of ASDA.
 To identify the challenges being faced by ASDA while implementing the technology
within the company.
 To recommend some best ways to overcome the challenges being faced by ASDA in
adopting the technology within the business.

Research question
1. What is the concept of use of technology within the business?
2. What are the various benefit enjoyed by the company because of use of technology in
business?
3. What are the major challenges which are being faced at time of implementing latest
technology?
Rationale
The technology is the major issue which is being faced by all the companies in the
success of the company and increasing the efficiency of the business. Hence, the major reason
for the selection of the research topic as impact of technology over business is that this is the
major challenge being faced by the company in managing the business. Hence, the most
important thing for the success of the business is to adapt to the latest technology for the
betterment of the company and its working. Another major reason for the selection of the topic is
the personal and academic interest of the researcher. This is because they want to learn the
importance of using the technology within the company and ways of improving the use of
technology.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Dash and Pani, (2016), stated that technology in context of the business describes all the
technology which helps the company for running its business and the operational processes. It
could be customer facing apps & solutions, critical production of business and the logistics
related solutions or the financial systems. In business technology is seen as the growing
necessity, as it causes a tremendous growth in the trade and commerce. The concepts and the
models of business were been revolutionized as the result of introducing technology. This is due
to technology had gave a better and new approach on the way in which business runs. It
facilitated faster, convenient and more as efficient way in performing the business transactions.
Some actions of the technology within business involves accounting systems, point of sales, MIS
and the other complicated and simple tools.
Xue and Xin, (2016), reviewed that with technological advances, businesses has greater
or several options for an effective communication, increasing productivity and saving costs of
the business by way of automating the business operations and the processes. These days,
companies are making use of computers, software, apps, internet & IoT in order to transform

their respective businesses from the local market to an international market intending to compete
against the giant competitors within the industry across the world. Automation in the business
processes and the operations are counted as one of the important benefit of the technology for the
business. Computers that are connected with the high internet speed allow authorities and the
workforce in collaborating and in discussing the business regarding terms in more effective
manner. Technology leads to change the way in which organizations and company works for
chasing their business goals and objectives. By using technology, an employee in the company
can accomplish their assigned tasks and the duties quickly by making use of different devices,
equipment and the machines for the purpose of increasing productivity and efficiency at the
workplace. With an execution of technology, productivity increases and this result to reduction
in the cost of business with limited workers. Technological advancements play a crucial role in
reducing expenses and cost in various ways. Thus, in today’s world companies are moving
towards automation because of the availability of latest business apps and the software. Use of
technology within business helps in attaining effective communication as in this era, use of
mobile devices, employees and the workers connects with each other to converse the business
relating issues in the real time for getting the things done on track without any delay. Virtual
meetings executed by the business he helps in running the business operations smoothly and
effectively.
In view of Dlamini and Johnston, (2016), technology could expand potential pool of the
participants who are working & collaborating together on the project by way of share data- bases
on the internal intranets and internet & challenges like information security, cloud computing
like risk management, regulatory compliance etc. It is very essential for company to understand
that the technological challenges had transformed changing dynamics of technology and
innovation. Working with the team of technological development could bring it with many
challenges, from which majority of them are been rooted in ever changing nature of a
technology. Thus, introduction of technological change into organization represent different set
of the challenges to the management as compared to the work of a competent administration of
the project. Choosing the appropriate technology is the major challenge which is faced by an
enterprise as use of wrong tools could result any business towards hesitation in respect of
acquiring new type of technologies. However, this type of challenge could be overcome by

knowing the strength of the business, knowing employees, being as user friendly, researching
etc.
Moreover, integrating an application is also a big challenge which businesses face as
sometimes the newer technologies does not integrate well with existing systems. Therefore, in
overcoming this type of challenge, company should use CRM integrations so that better
integration can be attained.
RESEARCH METHODS
Type of research- the type of research is referred to as the ways or methods in which the
research can be completed and the intended aim of the research is attained. It is very essential for
the researcher to decide that which type of research they need to adopt for the completion of the
research. There are two type of research that is qualitative and quantitative (Kumar, 2019). The
qualitative research is the one which includes the study of the attributes and the non- numerical
data and information for the research. On the other side the quantitative research includes the use
of facts and figures and all numeric data for study. In the present case the researcher will take
help of qualitative research as the researcher want to gain the knowledge of the use and benefit
of technology within the business.
Approach of research- this is the ways in which the data is collected and how the whole
research is being completed. These are also of two different types that is the inductive and
deductive approach. The deductive approach is the one which includes formulation of the
hypothesis and then testing it and inductive approach includes the use of setting of aim and
objective and then reaching to some conclusion. For the present research the use of inductive
approach will be done as the research wants to frame the aim and objective and then reach to
some conclusion (Bresler and Stake, 2017).
Philosophy of research- this is defined as the beliefs and values on which the aims and
objectives and the whole research is based. The philosophy is also of two different types that is
interpretivism and the positivism. The interpretivism is the one which involves the human
interest within the study and the positivism is the philosophy which includes the study of the
factual data. Hence, for the completion of the current study the researcher will make use of
interpretivism philosophy because this is more suitable with the qualitative research.

Collection of data- this is the most important thing in the completion of the whole
research because if the data will not be there then the research will not take place in good and
effective manner. Hence for this the research uses the combination of both the secondary and
primary data because this provides for a more advance and clear data. Also, the data from both
the sources are more reliable and valid.
Method for sampling- the whole population cannot be studied and for this a small portion
of the whole population is being selected for the study of the research topic. Hence, in the
present case the researcher will take the sample of 20 managers of ASDA in order to complete
the research over the impact of technology over the business. This sample will be selected on the
basis of the random sampling method and this will be used because under this method there is
chance or probability of every part of the population to get selected as the sample (Ørngreen and
Levinsen, 2017).
Analysis of data- this is also the most important part in the completion of the research in
successful manner. This is majorly because of the reason that if the data will not be analysed in
proper manner then the whole research will be wasteful. Thus, for this the most important thing
is the proper use of data analysis methods and for this the researcher will use thematic analysis
because under this method the data is analysed and interpreted with help of the themes, data and
charts and graphs.
Ethical consideration- this is also very essential for the success of the whole research
because if the research will not be carried on in ethical manner then the research will not be valid
and reliable. This is because of the fact that if the research will not make use of ethical methods
then the research outcome will not be good. Thus, for this the most essential thing is to get sign
the consent form from the respondent and the research participant. This is necessary because this
form gives the authority to the researcher to make the use of the data provided by the researcher
in the research (Mohajan, 2018).
TIMELINE
PARTICULAR
S
WEE
K 1
WEE
K 2
WEE
K 3
WEE
K 4
WEE
K 5.
WEE
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K 7
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WEE
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Searching for
the research

topic
Aims and
objectives
formulation
Reviewing the
different
literature
Methods being
used in research
Analysis of the
data
Recommending
ways of
improvement
Concluding the
results

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Beck, R., and et.al., 2017. Blockchain technology in business and information systems research.
Bresler, L. and Stake, R.E., 2017. Qualitative research methodology in music education.
In Critical Essays in Music Education (pp. 113-128). Routledge.
Dash, S. and Pani, S. K., 2016. E-Governance paradigm using cloud infrastructure: benefits and
challenges. Procedia Computer Science. 85. pp.843-855.
Dlamini, N. N. and Johnston, K., 2016, November. The use, benefits and challenges of using the
Internet of Things (IoT) in retail businesses: A literature review. In 2016 International
Conference on Advances in Computing and Communication Engineering
(ICACCE) (pp. 430-436). IEEE.
Kumar, R., 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage Publications
Limited.
Luftman, J., Lyytinen, K. and Zvi, T.B., 2017. Enhancing the measurement of information
technology (IT) business alignment and its influence on company performance. Journal
of Information Technology. 32(1). pp.26-46.
Mohajan, H.K., 2018. Qualitative research methodology in social sciences and related
subjects. Journal of Economic Development, Environment and People. 7(1). pp.23-48.
Ørngreen, R. and Levinsen, K., 2017. Workshops as a Research Methodology. Electronic
Journal of E-learning. 15(1). pp.70-81.
Xue, C. T. S. and Xin, F. T. W., 2016. Benefits and challenges of the adoption of cloud
computing in business. International Journal on Cloud Computing: Services and
Architecture. 6(6). pp.01-15.