Research Report: Marks and Spencer and the UK Business Environment

This report examines the effect of Marks and Spencer (M&S) on the UK corporate environment, focusing on the impact of multinational corporations (MNCs). The introduction highlights globalization and its influence on business expansion, including the benefits of inward investment and the challenges of increased competition. The report outlines the project's aims and objectives, which include analyzing the benefits of M&S to the UK, evaluating its role in economic and social development, and assessing problems created by MNCs. A detailed project management plan covers costs, scope, time management, quality control, and communication strategies. The work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are provided for project organization. The research methodology includes a qualitative approach with inductive reasoning and explanatory research design. Data collection methods involve both primary and secondary sources, with a questionnaire used for primary data and a purposive sampling method targeting 20 customers. Thematic analysis is used for data analysis. The report covers risk assessment, resource management, and the rationale for selecting the chosen methodologies. The conclusion will communicate appropriate suggestions. The report also includes a reflection on the value of participating in the investigation procedure and a list of references.

: Managing s
Successful
Business project

TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE OF PROJECT : Effect of the marks and Spencer on the corporate environment of grown-
up nation UK....................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................3
Projects aims and objectives ..................................................................................................3
Project management plan .....................................................................................................4
Work breakdown structure and Gantt chart ...........................................................................6
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................9
Conducting investigation on small scale ...............................................................................9
LO 3 ..............................................................................................................................................11
Analysing the research and data .........................................................................................11
Conclusion Communicating appropriate suggestions........................................................17
LO 4...............................................................................................................................................18
Reflexion on the value of participating in investigation procedure....................................18
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................19

TITLE OF PROJECT : Effect of the marks and Spencer on the corporate environment
of grown-up nation UK
INTRODUCTION
Globalization is basically the integration of worlds economies. This phenomenon has
provided companies an opportunity to expand their business at international level. Globalization
has enabled firms to explore new markets and to facilitate their production activities at cross
border location to minimize the cost (Begg, Van der Woerd and Levy, 2018). The major forces
which encourage companies to expand their business at international level are low tariff barriers,
cheap labor, intense competition in domestic market etc. Multinational origination have
optimistic as well as counter result on the corporate environment of host nation. One of the major
benefit of global firm is that they bring with them inward investment can be beneficial for
growth of local business. Negative effect of multi national corporation on business environment
is that these firm give rise to intense competition in industry (Contractor, F., 2019.).
The research report will have focus on analyzing the effect of multinational firm on
business environment of host nation. The company selected for present research is marks nad
Spencer. Study will include the information about the methodology used for conducting the
research on specific topic.
LO 1
Projects aims and objectives
The aim of the project is To analyze the impact of the marks and spencer on the business
environment of Afghanistan – A case study of marks and Spencer.
Research Objectives :
 To analyze the benefit of marks and Spencer to Host country.
 To evaluate the role of marks and Spencer on economic and social development of UK.
 To assess the problems created by multinational companies for host nation.

Project management plan
Project management plan could be refereed to as document that comprises detail related
to way the different activities will be executed during investigation. It also consists of
information about key variables such as cost, quality, time etc. which are required to be
considered by investigator while performing various activities during the research. It also
supports researcher in determining the resources which will be required for facilitating the study.
Cost : It is basically a total amount of expenses associated with the execution of research as well
as implementation of specific project. In context of research the major cots is associated with
arrangement of situations in order to collect, analyze and interpret data. The technique which
will be used by scholar in present study for managing the cash flow is budgeting. It will help
scholar in completion of research project in effective as well as efficient manner (Adhariani,
Sciulli and Clift, 2017). The investigator in order to calculate the total cost or expenses related to
the project will first categorized bigger task in smaller parts and then by considering the nature
of activity will determine the cost associated with specific task. Then after calculation of all the
cost associated with each task, researcher will combine all overheads in order to compute the
total expenses.
unit/ hrs Costs/ unit/ hrs WBS Level 1 total
Salary or wages
of
Project manager
team members
1050
1940
$160
$630
$7829
$13 7000
Purchase of
Handheld devices
Servers
140
4
$680
$4600
$ 789
$18000
Installation and
updation of
Licensed software
180 $370 $31700

Testing of
hardware and
software
$72000
Equipment for the
project
$3000
Internet 2000$
Scope: it defines all the things which will covered in research project. In simple words, scope
defines the problem or the subject which scholar intends to study. Present study has limited
scope.
Time: Time as a component in project management plan consist of detail information of time
table according to which all the tasks will be executed during investigation. scholar has prepared
the Gantt chart which consists of the start as well as finish time of all activities which are to be
executed during research. In addition to this, time management strategy has been formulated by
investigator in present study for completing the research project on time (Bilau, Witt and Lill,
2018).
Quality: It is the factor which provides reader or user an assurance about the validity or
reliability of information gathered by researcher. In addition to this, continuous monitoring will
be done by researcher in order to ensure that each and every task are performed according to the
set quality standards. Total quality management is the approach which will be used in present
study in order top complete the research project with high quality standards (Boyd,2017).
Communication Communication is also essential in order to collect the facts or figures related
to the topic of investigation. In context of the present research, investigator has created the
communication plan which indicates the way different information or data will be
communicated: (Clarke, 2018). . It will also highlight the person who will be responsible for
sharing of specific information.
Information to
be shared
Target audience Time Method of
communication
Provider
Report of Miles Project and Bimonthly Direct meeting Project head

stone senior manager
E-mail
Project status
report
Team members Weekly E-mail Project manager
Team status
report
Project head and
manager
Weekly E-mail Team leader
Issues report Team members Weekly E-mail E-mail
Risk : there are few risks which are associated with execution of any tasks. In context of present
study, the major risk associated with execution of investigation for analyzing the effect off MNC
on host country there is high threat of ethical issues. In addition to this, other threat is risk of
plagiarism (Fletcher, 2017). The other risk are legal issues. The major risk associated with the
project is political risk.
Resources :The huge amount of resources are required for conducting the investigation such as
capital, human resources, technology, communication devices, stationery and other equipment.
Proper allocation as well as management of resources is very much essential in order to avoid
various issues in investigation procedure (Guercini, 2014.). Enterprise resource planning
software will be used by scholar in present study for allocation as well as management of
resources.
Work breakdown structure and Gantt chart
Work breakdown structure is defined as the project deliverable which organizes major
activities into manageable tasks. Researcher in present study has prepared the work breakdown
structure in order to reduce the workload on employees (Guercini, 2014.).
Gantt chart can be referred to as the graphical representations of schedules. In context of
present study Gantt chart has helped scholar in planning, coordinating and tracking the status of
different activities during the investigation process (Guest and et.al., 2017.).

LO 2
Conducting investigation on small scale
Research methodology could be referred to as the procedure Performed by scholarly
person for collect, study and interpreting the data relevant to topic of investigation. (Humphries
2017). The methodology part in research report provider user or reader an ease in accessing the
reliability as well as validity of data.
Research type : choice of wrong research type can take study in wrong direction (Ledford and
Gast, 2017). It is crucial for scholar to select the research design considering the nature of
problem as well as subject matter. There are two types of studies which are generally executed
by scholars these are qualitative and quantitative. Investigator has decided to conduct the
qualitative research for collecting the facts for analyzing the effect of multinational corporations
on business environment of host country . As this research type provides ease in collecting,
analyzing and interpretation of data. I qualitative research helps investigator in gathering the
detailed information related to the topic.
Research approach : planned procedure that is formulated by investigator on the foundation of
various hypothesis affiliated to techniques that could be used for accumulation, analyzing and
interpreting the information related to topic (Özerdem and Bowd, 2016). The two types of
research approaches are inductive and deductive. Researcher in context of present study on topic
effect of multinational companies on business environment of host country has used the
inductive approach. Scholar has chosen specific research approach by considering the nature of
problem. The reason for choosing the specific research is that inductive research approach
enables scholar to develop new theory by utilizing the information gathered from different
sources.
Research design : It assists investigator in addressing the issue. Research design compromise
the blueprint related to the way information about the phenomenon can be gathered as we;ll as
analyses (Quinlan, 2018). The research design can be categorize into groups these are
experimental, descriptive, exploratory and explanatory. Investigator in present study has used
the explanatory research design. Scholars as chosen explanatory research design for present
study as the problem related to the effect of multinational companies on business environment
has not been studied earlier in detail.

Research philosophy ; It is mainly concerned with source, nature as well as development of
knowledge. Research philosophy is basically an opinion of scholars related to the know-how
that could be used for the purpose of interpretation and analysis of data. The most popular
research philosophy are interpretative as well as Positivism. Investigator in present study have
used interpretative researcher philosophy. The reason for selecting the Interpretative research
philosophy is that it provides researcher an ease in collection of the facts related to the topic. The
other reason for selecting the interpretative researcher philosophy is that it helps scholar in
ensuring the highly validity of information.
Data collection : This core procedure in investigation procedure without that investigator
procedure can not be proceed further. The primary Information related to the different subject
matter are generally gathered directly from participants use various technique. Secondary data
related to the topic of investigation is collected from accessing the books in library (Robson and
McCartan, 2016). Investigator has used both primary as well as secondary sources for
accumulating the facts related to the effect of MNCs on the business environment of host nation.
Scholar has used both sources in order to gather detailed information related to the topic. The
method used for collecting the Primary information is questionnaire method.
Sampling : This is an important task in which scholar chooses few people as participants in
investigation procedure. Sampling activity has been executed by researcher in order to get ease
in collection of information (Silverman,2016). The different form of sampling methods are
purposive, etc. researcher in present study has selected the 20 customers of marks and Spencer
has selected as participants in investigation procedure. The sampling technique used in present
study is purposive sampling. The purposive sampling method has been used as the scholar
perceives that manager are the people those who can provide the detailed information about the
effect of multinational companies on the business environment.
Data analysis : It is the research activity which is mainly concerned with extraction of useful
information from huge amount of data. Data analysis is considered to be as useful activity which
assist scholar in reaching to the conclusion. Researcher in present study on topic effect of MNCs
firm ion business environment has used thematic analysis technique for refinement of
information (Rose, 2016.). Rationale for selecting the thematic analysis as specific technique
helps researcher in studying the structure of response given by people.

LO 3
Analysing the research and data
Theme : Effect multinational companies have on the business environment of host country .
 Optimistic 10
 Counter 7
 Both 3
Interpretation : From the data it has been found that out of 20, there are 10 participants those who
perceives that multinational have optimistic impact on the business environment. Out of 20, 10
participants have given specific answers on the basis of their assumption that multinational firm
brings with them huge investment can be beneficial in terms of growth of domestic business.
Positive Negative Both 3
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Column B