Business Research Plan: Organizational Culture & Innovation Management

This research plan investigates the influence of organizational culture on innovation management, focusing on Marks & Spencer as a case study. The plan includes an introduction, research aims and objectives, research questions, and a literature review exploring the concepts of organizational culture and innovation management. It examines the significance of effective organizational culture for M&S, the impact of culture on innovation, and strategies for sustaining innovation. The methodology section outlines the research philosophy (interpretivism), approach (inductive), and strategy. The report also covers sampling, accessibility, ethical considerations, deliverables, resources, and a timeline for implementation. Finally, the plan includes an evaluation of the choices made in the research design.

Business Research Plan

Contents
Topic: "Organizational Culture and its influence on innovation management"..............................1
1. Individual Research Plan.............................................................................................................1
Introduction..................................................................................................................................1
Research Aims/Objectives...........................................................................................................1
Research Aim...........................................................................................................................1
Research Objectives.................................................................................................................2
Research Questions..................................................................................................................2
Literature Review........................................................................................................................2
Concept of organisational culture and innovation management..............................................2
Significance of having effective organisational culture for Marks & Spencer.......................3
Impact of organisation culture on innovation management within firm.................................3
Different strategies that helps in sustaining innovation within Marks & Spencer..................4
Research Methodology................................................................................................................5
Sampling......................................................................................................................................7
Accessibility................................................................................................................................7
Ethical Issues...............................................................................................................................8
Significance.................................................................................................................................8
Deliverables.................................................................................................................................8
Required Resources.....................................................................................................................9
Implementation Time Table........................................................................................................9

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2. Evaluation of the Choices Made in Individual Research Plan..................................................11

Topic: "Organizational Culture and its influence on innovation management"
1. Individual Research Plan
Introduction
Organisational culture is defined as the system associated with shared, values beliefs and
assumptions that direct the way in which people behave within the organisation. These have
strong influence on the individuals who are working in the organisation. Innovation is termed as
the new idea, imagination or thought that lead to creation of better solutions that satisfy the needs
and requirements of market and help an organisation in gaining competitive advantage in market.
It is very necessary for the organisation to bring innovation within the products and services on
continuous basis in order to ensure long term sustainability in market (Alvstam, Ivarsson and
Petersen, 2019). This research project is based on Marks and Spencer which is a leading
multinational retailer of United Kingdom offering high quality clothes, food and home products
to customers. The company was established in year 1884 and is founded by Michael Marks and
Thomas Spencer. The headquarter of company is located in Leeds, United Kingdom and
operating in around 1400 locations. This research is based on the topic “To analyse the influence
of organisational culture on innovation management within firm. A case study on Marks &
Spencer.” This business research project includes aims and objectives along with the questions of
research and a literature review in which the viewpoint of different authors are compared on
different themes. In addition to this, research method, sampling, ethical issues, needed resources
in study, accessibility of data and importance of research is included in the first part of research.
The second part covers a brief information about evaluation of choices made in research plan.
Research Aims/Objectives
Research Aim
Research aim is termed as the intention of study. It is the understanding and knowledge
that researcher require to answer the questions of study. It is important is it develops clear links
between this and other research project (Bell, Bryman and Harley, 2018). The main aim of this
investigation is “To analyse the influence of organisational culture on innovation management
within firm. A case study on Marks & Spencer.”
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Research Objectives
Research objectives are defined as the clear and concise statement that administers direction
to study the variables under research (Heagney, 2016. It defines what the study is trying to
accomplish. In relation to this research, the main objectives are as follows:
 To understand the concept of organisational culture and innovation management.
 To analyse the significance of having effective organisational culture for Marks &
Spencer.
 To assess the impact of organisation culture on innovation management within firm.
 To identify different strategies that helps in sustaining innovation within Marks &
Spencer.
Research Questions
Research Questions refers to the answerable inquiry to a particular issue or concern.
Answering the research question will assist in addressing the issue of a particular study in an
appropriate way (Martens and Carvalho, 2016). The main questions framed by researcher in
relation to this research to answer are mentioned below:
 What is the concept of organisational culture and innovation management?
 What is the significance of having effective organisational culture for Marks & Spencer?
 How the culture of an organisation impacts on innovation management within firm?
 What are the different strategies that helps in sustaining innovation within Marks &
Spencer?
Literature Review
Concept of organisational culture and innovation management
As per the view point of Elsmore, 2017, organisational culture is this system with values,
beliefs and shared assumptions that govern an individual's behaviour towards others within the
workplace. it includes the experiences, expectations and philosophy of the organisation. It
influences the way people interact with others and work within the company. If an organisation
maintains good culture within the workplace, it will help in improving productivity of employees
along with the organisation. It also helps in gaining competitive advantage over rivals in the
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market and accomplish its pre-set goals and objectives. Innovation management is defined as the
procedure of coming up with as well as introducing new product and services and developing the
business in one way or another. All the new developments that are bringing by an organisation
are considered to be associated with innovation. Developing and innovation culture within the
organisation that drives sustainable and productive innovation practices can bring more ideas
within the workforce which help organisation in stay competitive in the market and maintain
sustainability for long term.
Significance of having effective organisational culture for Marks & Spencer
As per the view point of Slack and Brandon-Jones, (2018), the culture of organisation plays very
significant role in its growth and success. Each organisation has its own way to work which
contributes in its culture. The culture of an organisation is formed from the ideologies, beliefs,
values and principles of the company. It controls the manner workforce behave among
themselves and other people outside the organisation. If an effective culture is existing within the
organisation, then it healthy contributes in promoting healthy competition at workplace and
employees try to perform their level best which ultimately helps organisation in attaining its
goals and objective. effective culture within an organisation also helps in increasing motivation
level of employees and encourage them to engage more in the activities of company and perform
their roles and responsibilities appropriately (Meredith, and et. al., 2017). The culture of an
organisation brings all the work force on a common platform and unite the employees who are
from different backgrounds. It also helps in promoting healthy relationship among workforce and
enables organisation to extract best out of each individual. So, the culture of an organisation
plays very significant role in ensuring its growth and success.
Impact of organisation culture on innovation management within firm
As per the views of Brame, (2017), all businesses have corporate culture that is ingrained
in operations. No matter what is size of organisation, culture plays imminent roles in impacting
the ways innovations are managed and sustained. It is characterised as an invisible force which
causes shared attitudes along with values in its workforce and various innovations for gaining
success. It is analysed that effective organisational culture helps in managing innovation through
making proper improvements at accurate time. Innovation is considered as essential component
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for an organisation as it helps in maintaining unique position in competition and strengthening
image against those of rivals. Moreover, culture of company engages people for sharing
viewpoints related to particular tasks or operations that results in greater accountabilities and
consistent improvements in manage innovations of the entity. Within the organisational culture,
manager’s emphasis on ensuring workforce performs tasks in coordinated ways and give
accurate proportion in working with teams so to give their best that impacts positively on
managing entire set criteria to sustain innovation and managing it effectively. Managers of firms
create suitable business culture that improve productivity among staff members and influence
them to embrace aforementioned ideas in the path of service excellence that leads to boosting
innovation management within the company.
Furthermore, culture also empowers people at different levels so that jobs of all members
are connected to each other and ensure no outbreaks. This impacts in actively enabling as well as
empowering members and help them to grow in personal and professional life that leads to
encouraging usage and management of innovation. This further impacts favourably on greater
accountability together with consistent improvements in innovation aspects. Addition to this,
organisational culture involves various types that gives powers to different people for the roles
and tasks performed in sequential order that results in impacting constructively on management
of innovations as people with huge powers administers that whether activities executed are in
mode of achieving success from the innovation and protect them from being getting disrupted in
the competing era.
Different strategies that helps in sustaining innovation within Marks & Spencer
There are various numbers of strategies that are adopted by firms to sustain innovation. It
is investigated that sustained innovation is prominent for high organisational productivity. One
of strategy used in firm to sustain innovation includes open communication wherein managers of
business foster communication with employees through setting an atmosphere that involves trust.
The managers of the company which lays down open communication are able to sustain
innovation and provides multiple opportunities to make new ones. Along with this, there are
some firms that do not allow open door policy among management and employees, but facilitates
in time to time face to face contacts among the two and sharing of viewpoints that lead towards
sustainability of innovation. The next strategy implemented by business concerns for sustaining
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innovation is reducing bureaucracy. With the strategy, it is derived that faster implementations
are done to fain inventive thinking and generating ideas to maintain derived or manufactured
innovation for longer duration.
Research Methodology
Research methodology is concerned with some tools and techniques that a researcher will
use to determine and analyses information of particular topic. Different methods of research
enable researcher to perform study in systematic way and it allow reader to analyses validity and
reliability of study. By the utilization of different research methodologies, data will be gather and
analyze. This part of research provides a path to investigator to perform all the activities
associated with the study in proper way and present relevant outcomes of the study
appropriately. Research onion is the most suitable framework for discussing different types of
research methodologies that are utilized in the study. It includes six layers, each of the layer is
discussed below in context of particular study:
Research philosophy: The set of beliefs, ideas and principles are included in the research
philosophy about data collection and interpretation. It helps in reflecting the crucial assumptions
about the views and opinions of researcher. Positivism and interpretivism are the two types of
research philosophies which are mainly used in the study by researchers. Positivism research
philosophy is associated with creation of hypothesis that enable descriptions and can be tested.
Whereas, interpretivism philosophy is concerned with approaches that mainly emphasize on
meaningful nature of people's participation in life. In relation to this investigation, interpretivism
philosophy is utilized by researcher due to its high dependence on understanding the meaning of
actions of individuals which helps researcher in drawing valid conclusion.
Research approach: It is concerned with the steps that includes wider assumption to
detailed methodologies associated with data collection, analysis and interpretation. The nature of
issues one of the component on which the entire research approach is based upon. In the research
onion framework, two types of approaches are there including inductive and deductive research
approach. In detective approach, a hypothesis is developed on the basis of literature review
through which the approach initiates with. On the other hand, the research approach in which the
observations that are utilized by investigator in order to develop a new approach or theory is
included is termed as inductive approach. In this study, the selected approach is inductive as it is
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the most appropriate approach to perform research study systematically on the basis of
subjectivity in observations evaluations that supports researcher in gaining research outcomes in
an effective way.
Research strategy: The strategy of research is defined as a systematic action plan that
facilitates path to the efforts of researcher and make them enable to perform systematic study
within specified period of time in order to generate quality outcomes. Case study, systematic
literature review, experimental research, interviews, surveys, action research etc. are the distinct
strategies of research that are utilized by researcher in order to collect adequate amount of data.
In a particular study, the strategy is selected on the basis of data required. This research study is
based on the analysis of impact of organizational culture on management of innovation within
the firm. For gathering data over this particular topic, survey research strategy is utilized by
researcher this is the flexible approach that helps in researching wide variety of research
questions.
Research choice: Qualitative, quantitative and mixed method are the three type of
research choices which are utilized in the research by researcher. The choice of method is relying
on the type of study conducted by investigator. The method in which non numerical data is
collected is termed as qualitative research method. On the other hand, the method associated with
collection of numerical data by use of statistical tools is termed as quantitative research method.
And, combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods is termed as mixed method.
Quantitative research method is used in the study so that adequate amount of numerical data can
be gathered and valid conclusion can be drawn. The another reason of selection of this method is
that it is a systematic empirical study with observable phenomena by statistical and
computational techniques.
Time horizon: The time frame that includes initiation and completion time of research is
defined as time horizon of the research. Longitudinal and cross sectional time horizon are the
two types of horizon used in research. When all the observations are done on single point of
time then it is termed as cross sectional time horizon. On the other hand, the observations for
specific variable available for quarters, years, months or days are termed as longitudinal time
horizon. In this particular research, investigator will use cross sectional time horizon to measure
individual aspects at single time point.
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Data collection method: This is the process of collecting data on a particular topic in the
research. There are two ways which are utilized to collect data in the study. These includes
primary and secondary data collection methods where through the primary method, first hand or
fresh data is collected which is never used by anyone before. In secondary data collection
method, second hand data will be gathered by researcher which is already used by others and is
published previously. Questionnaire is the tool which is utilized by researcher in order to gather
primary data on the topic, i.e., to analyze the impact of organizational culture on innovation
management within firm. Along with this, books, journals, previously published articles and
online sources are used to collect secondary data on the topic. Utilization of both the methods
will help researcher in gathering adequate amount of data on the topic.
Sampling
The process of selecting the sample from large population is termed as sampling. It is one
of the most important part of research as this helps in determining the accuracy of study result.
For collecting sample, various techniques are used which is depend on the need and the situation.
Non probability and probability are the two types of sampling methods which can be used by
researcher for selecting the sample size. In non-probability sampling, the process of
randomization is not used and there are high chances of biasness. On the other hand, probability
sampling has the equal chances of selection of each individual from the large population. In
context of this research, probability sampling method is used by researcher for selecting the
sample size in which simple random sampling method is used as by using this method, chances
of selection of each individual is equal and it helps researcher in ensuring that there is no
biasness takes place at the time of selection of sample size.
Accessibility
The accessibility of data is associated with elimination of barriers in order to allow to
participate in research activities. At all the stages of research, data accessibility is considered as
this will help investigator in taking informed decisions. Accessibility of data is very necessary as
it helps in redundancy of information which is one of the major issue search. Researcher can
reduce the redundancy by allowing access of information to the audience. Information of
research is accessible to the researcher along with the participants. For gaining the accurate
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outcomes of research, accessibility of data will help researcher to utilize the collected data
appropriately and draw valid outcomes.
Ethical Issues
There are various ethical issues that are associated with the research which needs to be
considered by the researcher at the time of performing activities. Ethics directs the way
investigation is performed and disseminated. This highly contribute in promoting the aim of
investigation. Confidentiality of data, informed consent, honesty and integrity and many others
are the ethics ethical issues that needs to be considered by the investigator. It is very necessary to
maintain confidentiality of data as there are high probability of leaking information. So, for the
researcher it is very necessary to ensure that all the data collected by him/ her must be
confidential and is not accessible to any other person except the team members and researcher
own self. In addition to this, maintenance of integrity and honesty is also one of the big challenge
for the researcher that needs to be considered. The investigator requires to ensure that all the data
should be collected honestly and with integrity so that accurate invalid outcomes of research can
be drawn.
Significance
The topic on which this research is based is "to analyze the impact of organizational
culture on innovation management within firm. A case study on Marks and Spencer". To study
on this topic is very significant for researcher as it enables in understanding the concept of
organizational culture and innovation along with the significance of having good organizational
culture within the company. Apart from this, also help researcher in analyzing the impact of
culture of organisation on the management of innovation along with the different strategies that
an organisation can utilize in order to sustaining innovation within company. This research is
highly significant as this not only improve the knowledge of researcher on the topic, but also
helps in increasing knowledge in other areas. It further helps other scholars in utilizing the study
as a base for their further research on the similar topic.
Deliverables
Through conducting study on the topic "to analyze the influence of organizational culture on
innovation management within company. A case study on Marks and Spencer", the investigator
will able to achieve the aim of project. By conducting this research, the researcher intent to
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analyze the impact of organizational culture on innovation management. This study will help in
knowing the actual impact that the culture of organisation have upon innovation management.
The scope of this business project is very wide as it helps in delivering effective results on the
completion. It also supports in knowing the strategies that organisation can use for sustaining
innovation for long term in order to gain competitive advantage in market. Consideration of this
business project research will help the organisation in gaining competitive advantage. For the
scholars, it supports in carrying out further research on the same topic by utilizing this as a base.
Required Resources
There are various resources required for ensuring that all the activities of research are
performed in appropriate way. In order to ensure that all the activities are initiated and completed
on time, availability of adequate amount of resources is very necessary. These resources include
financial, human, technological and physical resources which are very necessary for maintaining
quality of research and deliver relevant outcomes. It is very necessary for the researcher to
ensure that all the technological equipment’s required to perform research are available. Along
with this, human resource is very important in performing each and every activity of research
effectively. Availability of adequate amount of funds is also one of the thing which needs to be
taken into consideration by the researcher while performing research. Along with this, the other
resources like pen, paper, internet, laptop etc. are also necessary to ensure that all the activities of
research are performed an effective and timely manner and the ultimate aim of research will be
accomplished.
Implementation Time Table
Proper timing of each activity of research is very necessary in order to ensure its successful
completion. In context of this is research, the activities as well as the time that are needed to
perform these in an effective way are mentioned below:
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