Research Proposal: Impact of Outsourcing Supply Chain Management

This research proposal investigates the impact of outsourcing supply chain management on the business activities of organizations, specifically focusing on Essential Beauty, a franchise chain of beauty products and services. The study aims to explore the effects of outsourcing, its advantages and disadvantages, and the significant components influencing it. The research employs a positivism philosophy and a deductive approach, utilizing both primary and secondary data collected through surveys and interviews. The methodology includes qualitative data analysis and probability sampling with a sample size of 50 employees, including 10 managers. The proposal outlines the research questions, literature review, and a Gantt chart, concluding with a discussion of potential limitations and a reference list. The research seeks to provide insights into the strategic benefits and challenges of outsourcing within the context of supply chain management, contributing to a better understanding of how businesses can improve their operations and competitiveness.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author note

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Background of the study........................................................................................................2
Rationale of the study.............................................................................................................3
Aim of the research................................................................................................................3
Objectives of research............................................................................................................3
Questions of research.............................................................................................................4
Literature review........................................................................................................................4
Research Methodology...............................................................................................................5
Research philosophy..............................................................................................................5
Justification of the chosen philosophy...................................................................................6
Research Approach................................................................................................................6
Justification of the chosen approach......................................................................................6
Purpose of the research..........................................................................................................7
Justification of the chosen purpose........................................................................................7
Strategy of research................................................................................................................7
Data collection process..........................................................................................................8
Sources of data.......................................................................................................................8
Data analysis technique..........................................................................................................8
Approaches to Reliability and Validity..................................................................................8
Sampling technique................................................................................................................9

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Sample size.............................................................................................................................9
Research Limitation...............................................................................................................9
Gant Chart..............................................................................................................................9
Conclusion............................................................................................................................10
Reference list............................................................................................................................11

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Introduction
With the increasing competition within both the national and global market place has
determined the managers for focusing on having a competitive edge for staying in the
business. In the recent years, fulfilling the customer expectations and winning the trust of
people has become more difficult. However, the managers soon realized that improving the
services and products can be very much effective in accomplishing the customer needs
(Monczka et al. 2015). An effectual increase in the organizational performances can be
identified as one of the conventional methods for improving the competitiveness within the
market; however outsourcing the business can also be effective within the process
(Christopher 2016). The primary objective of outsourcing is making the organizational
activities more adaptable and flexible in the changed business environment while the focus is
entirely on the core functions or activities of the organization.
Background of the study
The supply chain management can be considered as the management of networking
within the organization which contributes to provide the services and products on the basis of
needs of consumers about the value, cost and time (Mangan and Lalwani 2016). The supply
chain consists of all different kind of activities in order to meet the demands and requests of
the clients. These core functions are related with the supply and transformation of the
products from raw materials to the final products through different stages along with the flow
of the funds and the other related information. The products and services of the organization
can move through different organizations while travelling from the original raw materials to
the clients. The management of the supply chain also implicate the development and
management of all the associated actions which are included in the source of the products and
purchasing them, logistics activities, collaboration and coordination between the partners as

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the intermediate channels, suppliers of the service and products, service providers for
integrating an well-organized demand and supply management (Brindley 2017). Essential
beauty is an organization that provides numbers of beauty products and services to the
customers. Other than the beauty treatments, the organization also offers own skin-care
beauty products for the customers. Outsourcing their business can be very much helpful for
the organization as it will be easier for the organization to meet the need of the customers and
reach them within a short span of time.
Rationale of the study
Essential Beauty is a franchise chain of beauty products and services in Australia that
had originated in Adelaide, South Australia. The organization has been established in the
years 1990 and through these years has expanded to seventy three salons all over Australia.
There are numbers of services such as laser treatment, eye enhancement, piercing, and other
beauty services and products such as tonic skin care which is an in-house brand of the
organization. Outsourcing has been a major strategy of the organization for increasing the
skills and expertise of the organization and aligning the services with the new requirements of
the customers (Wisner, Tan and Leong 2014). They have several franchises all around the
country so that they can reach their target customer base easily. Therefore this study will
focus on finding the major impact of outsourcing the supply chain management of the
organization.
Aim of the research
The research aim will be to investigate the impact of outsourcing the supply chain
management on the business activities of the organization.
Objectives of research
The research objectives are listed below:

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 To investigate the effect of outsourcing the supply chain management on the business
activities of any organization
 To investigate the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing on the business
activities of any organization
 To analyze the significant components that can affect the outsourcing of supply chain
management
Questions of research
The primary question of the research is:
 What are the impacts of outsourcing the supply chain management on the business
activities of any organization?
The secondary questions of the research are:
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing on the business activities
of any organization?
 What are the significant components than can affect the outsourcing of supply chain
management?
Literature review
Outsourcing can be defined as a major part of the business function that can be done
by some other person or entity. There are several procedures that can be outsourced to reduce
the burden from the mother company. Therefore this procedure has gain popularity with the
course of time even if there are some uncertainties associated with the organization.
According to Coyle et al. (2016) the numbers of organizations are increasing who are
utilizing outsourcing at different stages of their organizational functions, as the requirements
of such entities can arise due to several reasons such as cost efficiency, time saving or the

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strategy of the organization, however it may vary from business to business. As stated by
Wang et al. (2015) both the small or large businesses can opt for outsourcing the business
activities. Several business sectors have already adopted the outsourcing technologies such as
IT sector, retail sector or service sectors. The most lucrative advantage of using the
outsourcing technology is that it is helpful for freeing the facilities, cash amount or time
factors within the business. The Transaction Cost Economics theory states that the execution
function is in both the management phase and the change phase. The most helpful aspect of
the theory is that this theory can be used in selecting the outsourcing convention which may
be considered as complicated (Wisner, Tan and Leong 2014). The Agency theory also states
that an organization can hire any other organization or agency for performing a specific task
for the mother company. The competency theory also supports the outsourcing and this
theory is associated with the technology usages in the business. However there are many
disadvantages such as the other agencies may not be as competent as the mother company for
the business, therefore it may create issues later (Monczka et al. 2015). Also, on an
international level, most of the times it is quite impossible for the organization to
communicate with all the other organizations.
Research Methodology
The research methodology chapter defines the structure of research in a systemic
method. This chapter contains the detailed research method outline consisting of the research
philosophy, sampling methods, data collection, research approach and the other practices.
Research philosophy
The research philosophy provides the knowledge and dimension of the research study.
It also provides the primary knowledge, facts and concepts for the entire research in a well-
organized manner. According to Creswell and Poth (2017) three types of research

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philosophies are interpretivism, realism and positivism philosophy. The positivism research
philosophy helps the individual in analyzing the data by maintaining the major observation.
Conversely, the interpretivism research philosophy helps the researcher for interpreting
gathered information from different perspectives. The realism research philosophy helps
analyzing the authenticity of the information after maintaining keen observation with
evidence.
Justification of the chosen philosophy
For this particular study, the positivism research philosophy will be chosen. The
research philosophy is the intense and profound observation of the individual (Gale et al.
2013). Therefore, collecting genuine information generally depend on the observation
procedure of the researcher. Furthermore, the researcher will choose the positivism research
philosophy for this particular research study.
Research Approach
Deductive and Inductive research approach are the two research approaches for con.
The inductive research approach mostly focuses on generating new theories on the basis of
the gathered information (Mitzenmacher and Upfal 2017). On the other hand, the deductive
research approach is mostly aimed for testing the previous models or theories for the research
study.
Justification of the chosen approach
For this research study, the research will choose the deductive research approach for
conducting this specific research study. The study will follow the previous models and
theories for the particular topic and investigate the gathered information on the basis of
previous theories and models.

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Purpose of the research
According to Uprichard (2013) there are three different kinds of research purpose,
those are descriptive purpose of research, exploratory purpose of research and explanatory
purpose of research. The research purpose is the structural approach for the entire research
which provides a definite and proper research purpose for the entire research work. The
exploratory research purpose is mainly focused on exploring this specific research issue for
identifying the research problems from different perspectives. Conversely, the explanatory
research purpose helps the researcher in finding out the negative and positive aspects of the
issue of research. Along with these two research purposes, there is another research purpose,
descriptive research purpose.
Justification of the chosen purpose
This study will be conducted on the basis of descriptive research purpose. For this
research, the impacts of outsourcing the supply chain management on the business activities
of Essential Beauty will be the main focus. The descriptive research approach has been found
to be successful for the evaluation of the essential information from different perspectives.
Along with that, this approach is also not much cost effective and does not consume more
time.
Strategy of research
This research will be conducted through surveying and interviewing the managers and
employees of the selected organization. The necessary data will be collected from the
interviews and survey forms.

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Data collection process
The data collection is considered as the most important part of entire research, where
the researcher collects different kinds of data based on the research issue. The data acts as the
most significant and useful element for conducting the research.
Sources of data
As stated by Mitzenmacher and Upfal (2017), the data sources can be of two types,
secondary and primary. The primary data is collected from the surveys, interviews and the
other direct methods. The primary data can also be collected from the unpublished resources
as well. Conversely the secondary data refers to the published data such as books, journals,
websites, blogs etc. The researcher can collect such data from the reading books and other
sources.
For this study, the researcher will collect both the kinds of data. The primary data will
be collected from the interviews and survey of the managers and employees of the
organization. The secondary data can be collected from the literatures on the topic.
Data analysis technique
The data analysis technique can be of two kinds, qualitative and quantitative. For this
research study, the researcher will utilize the qualitative data analysis process. The qualitative
data analysis process will be helpful for the researcher to ensure that the research purpose is
served.
Approaches to Reliability and Validity
The validity is the qualitative data analysis technique indicates to the appropriateness
of the data and the data collection method. However, the reliability refers to the exact
explicability of the process and the outcomes of it.

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Sampling technique
The sampling techniques are of two kinds, non-probability and probability. This
research will be done on probability sampling technique as the sample size for this research
will be fixed. Therefore the researcher will take help of the probability sampling technique
for selecting the employees and managers of Essential beauty for this particular study.
Sample size
The researcher will choose 50 employees of Essential Beauty where there will be 10
managers. Therefore, there will be 10 managers and 40 employees of the organization.
Research Limitation
For conducting this research, the researcher may face some of the limitations for
budget and time. The researcher has to conduct the entire study within six months. However,
if the researcher would get more time, the research can be more effective if there is at least
extra two months for completing the entire study.
Gant Chart
Main functions February March April May June July
Selection of topic 
Secondary sources data
collection
 
Framing the research layout 
Literature review   
Formation of the research
Plan
 
Selection of the Appropriate
Research Techniques
 

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Primary data collection  
Analysis & Interpretation of
Data Collection
 
Conclusion of the Study 
Formation of Rough Draft 
Submission of Final Work 
Conclusion
This research will consist of descriptive research purpose, deductive approach and
positivism research philosophy. Both the primary and secondary data will be collected and
analyzed in qualitative technique.

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Reference list
Brindley, C. ed., 2017. Supply chain risk. Taylor & Francis.
Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.
Coyle, J.J., Langley, C.J., Novack, R.A. and Gibson, B., 2016. Supply chain management: a
logistics perspective. Nelson Education.
Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N., 2017. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing
among five approaches. Sage publications.
Gale, N.K., Heath, G., Cameron, E., Rashid, S. and Redwood, S., 2013. Using the framework
method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research. BMC medical
research methodology, 13(1), p.117.
Mangan, J. and Lalwani, C., 2016. Global logistics and supply chain management. John
Wiley & Sons.
Mitzenmacher, M. and Upfal, E., 2017. Probability and Computing: Randomization and
Probabilistic Techniques in Algorithms and Data Analysis. Cambridge university press.
Monczka, R.M., Handfield, R.B., Giunipero, L.C. and Patterson, J.L., 2015. Purchasing and
supply chain management. Cengage Learning.
Uprichard, E., 2013. Sampling: bridging probability and non-probability
designs. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 16(1), pp.1-11.
Wang, Y., Wallace, S.W., Shen, B. and Choi, T.M., 2015. Service supply chain management:
A review of operational models. European Journal of Operational Research, 247(3), pp.685-
698.

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Weigold, A., Weigold, I.K. and Russell, E.J., 2013. Examination of the equivalence of self-
report survey-based paper-and-pencil and internet data collection methods. Psychological
methods, 18(1), p.53.
Wisner, J.D., Tan, K.C. and Leong, G.K., 2014. Principles of supply chain management: A
balanced approach. Cengage Learning.