Business Research Project: Paul Smith's Export to China

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Research Project
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Conduct appropriate research methodology which integrates knowledge into the research
process.............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis,
supported by a literature review..................................................................................................3
Research Question...........................................................................................................................3
Research Objectives.........................................................................................................................4
Hypothesis.......................................................................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................4
P2 Examine appropriate research methods and conduct primary and secondary research.........6
Research Method.............................................................................................................................6
Research Philosophy....................................................................................................................6
Research Approach......................................................................................................................6
Research Design..........................................................................................................................7
Research Method.........................................................................................................................7
Sampling Size and Technique.....................................................................................................7
Data Collection Method and Tool...............................................................................................8
Technique of Data Analysis.........................................................................................................8
Research Ethics............................................................................................................................8
LO2 Conduct and analyse research relevant to a chosen business research project........................9
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a business research
project that consider costs, access and ethical issues..................................................................9
P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools to analyse research findings and data............................10
LO3 Communicate the outcomes of a research project to identified stakeholders.......................23
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P5 Communicate research outcomes in an appropriate manner for the intended audience......23
LO4 Reflect on the application of research methodologies and concepts.....................................25
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................26
References......................................................................................................................................27
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Introduction
Paul Smith is one of the well-known designers of Britain that is renowned for his creativeness
and aesthetic designs. Paul Smith is a brand name that is known to offer a combination clothing
of tradition and modernity. Paul Smith is a label that has become synonymous with their British
tailoring and style. The designs made by the company is described to be well made, of good
quality, simple fabrics and easy to wear clothing. This has helped the company to hold its name
in the British market. However, the company is planning to export its products to China and
position itself among the Chinese clothing industry (Paulsmith 2019). The company is planning
to do so keeping in view the profit that Chinese market will offer them.
The paper proposes a research process for Paul Smith whether it will be profitable for them to
export their products to Chinese market. Further, the paper conducts a review of past literature to
view the export potentials to China and the exposure that the Chinese market is offering to the
country. Further, the paper suggests a methodology to be used to collect data on the research area
and based on the methodology data is collected from various perspective of Chinese market.
Lastly, the paper concludes the findings and reflects on the learning gathered from the research
process.
LO1 Conduct appropriate research methodology which integrates knowledge into the
research process
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis,
supported by a literature review.
Research Question
Primary Research Question
 What are the profit potentials for Paul Smith designing clothes when exporting to
Chinese market?
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Secondary Research Question
 What is export?
 How can export benefit a company?
 What are the factors that impact export to China?
 What are the factors prevailing in Chinese market that acts as a catalyst for Paul Smith’s
products?
 What benefits Paul Smith will get when exporting to Chinese market?
Research Objectives
 To investigate into the theory of export and it potential for a company
 To analyze the Chinese market and the potential it is offering to Paul Smith’s products
 To analyze the profit potential in Chinese market for Paul Smith
Hypothesis
H0- the profit potentials for Paul Smith designing clothes when exporting to Chinese market is
high
H1- the profit potentials for Paul Smith designing clothes when exporting to Chinese market is not
high
Literature Review
Exports are a process that helps an economy or an organization to produce goods and services in
one country and is purchased by any organization that operated in another country. Export is
consider as a component of international trade and helps in impacting the organization as well as
the economy. Export has been considered as one of the most important instrument to increase
sales, increase profits, reducing risk, lower production cost and attain economies of scale
(Hausmann et al. 2007). This is because indulging in continuous export activities helps a
company to increase its sales because in doing so it is targeting both the domestic customers as
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well as the international customers. This is because it helps in expanding the pie hat the company
can have from the market. Similarly it also helps in increasing the profit and reducing the risk of
growth. This is because a company enters a new market via export with the aim to earn profit
and not loss. Moreover, in doing so they will be able to target increased international customers
that are often larger than domestic buyers. In addition to this, export sales helps in entering a
diverse range of foreign markets that in turn help in reducing the risk for growth potential ( Chen
et al. 2016). All these shows that an export strategy proves to be effective for the business if it is
taken in a strategic and planned manner.
According export.gov (2019) China has experienced a lowest growth rate in 2016 with real GDO
rate accelerating to 6.7 percent. This has made the country to think about an ambitious policy
reforms over the next few years until 2020. China has opened its market to foreign participants
over the years that have increased significantly. However, it is seen that the Chinese market rely
heavily on industrial policies such as subsidies, market access restrictions, restriction to transfer
technology and others. This has restricted the ability of many foreign firms to operate in china.
However china has placed itself as one of the largest nations in terms of exports over the years
from its own countries as well as from other countries. Among all its import partners Vietnam,
Japan, Australia, and other Asian countries stand high. This shows that China is not yet started
extensive import from UK. This gives the UK producers a chance to explore the Chinese market
by exporting their products and expanding their business.
However, the Chinese market does offer a great potential for clothing Exports from other
countries to the Chinese market. This is evident from the findings of Gao et al. (2009) that with
the rising competition in the tradition markets luxury clothing companies are expanding to
emerging markets like China. China is considered as an emerging market for such goods because
it stands second largest market after Japan in the entire Asia-Pacific. Chinese consumers are seen
to demand high for luxury brands and display a possession for luxury items. Further, in China it
is seen that consumers are motivated to purchase such luxury clothing based on product
attributes as well as cultural aspects. This is because Chinese culture stresses on social
orientation, development of interpersonal relationships and group values. This is the reason that
clothing brands showing cultural designs are seen to persist in the Chinese market.
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Thus, it is seen that China being an emerging country has huge potentials for the clothing brands
to seek their positioning in the Chinese market because of the nature of the consumers in the
economy and growth potential offered by technological development in China. Thus, an
exporting country can expect a huge return from the Chinese market over the time if it decides to
export its products to China because it is a trading powerhouse.
P2 Examine appropriate research methods and conduct primary and secondary research
Research Method
Determining a specific method to carry out a research instigates opportunity to hold scientific
approach towards a study and obtain viable research outcomes for meeting objectives of study
(Bell, Brymanand Harley, 2018).In order to understand relevance of exporting business of Paul
Smith in Chinese market requires attention on selecting appropriate research method to conduct
this empirical research.
Research Philosophy
Selection of appropriate research philosophy delivers chances to identify method of collecting
data and conduct research in a systematic manner (Weber, 2017). This particular research will
adopt positivism philosophy among realism, interpretivism and positivism. Selection of this
research philosophy would be beneficial for this study to investigate scientific knowledge as well
as natural phenomenon over a specific subject. Would also contribute to assess factual
knowledge gathered through observation (Walliman, 2017). It can also be essential to conduct
highly structured study with large samples while evaluating observable and quantifiable data
along with qualitative information.
Research Approach
In case of understanding strategy of business export to Chinese market in regard to functional
operations of Paul Smith fashion brand, deductive approach would be selected rather than
applying inductive approach. Application of deductive approach is essential for business research
as it allows researcher to examine all aspects of established theories and deduct conclusion
(Weber, 2017). It will also be helpful to test research hypothesis for evaluating efficacy of
business approach of fashion brand Paul Smith for exporting its business in China.
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Research Design
The research will adopt descriptive design to understand business export in China rather than
following explanatory or exploratory research design. Application of this design would be
beneficial for this study to describe existing issues regarding identified research problem while
evaluating phenomenon of research (Sekaranand Bougie, 2016). It will also be effective to
understand characteristics of population to address research aim while answering research
questions.
Research Method
This empirical research on exporting fashion brand of Paul Smith on Chinese market would
adopt mixed method of research through adopting both qualitative research methods while
assessing data from primary and secondary sources of research. Application of secondary
research would be effective for this study to collect required information from secondary
sources including journals, newspaper and scholarly articles while primary research will support
researcher to collect first hand data from respondent based on real life experiences (Smith,
2015).Identifying primary research will help to gather information from people working in
aforementioned fashion brand along with collecting responses from customers to understand
market trends and buying behaviour of customers. Secondary research, on the other hand, would
help to focus on theories and concepts developed on relevant literature to understand pattern of
market export strategies.
In case of applying primary research, both quantitative and qualitative method would be applied
in this research. Selection of qualitative method of research would be effective for this study to
collect relevant information on brand extension strategies and market trends while qualitative
approach would assist to obtain quantifiable and observable data to meet research objectives.
Hence, it can be interpreted that adoption of mixed method to conduct primary and secondary
research would facilitate opportunity to extract viable research results (Brannen, 2017).
Sampling Size and Technique
Identifying a particular sampling technique signifies process of selecting research participants
from a larger number of population (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016). This research will adopt quota
samplingtechnique and non-probability purposive sampling to select respondents for qualitative
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and quantitative research respectively. Intention to collect information on effectiveness of export
strategy to expand business in China will be addressed through applying quota sampling for
collecting responses from 5 managers working under fashion brand of Paul Smith. Non-
probability purposive sampling, in contrast would be effective to identify 100 customers based
on sound judgement of researcher to obtain required information (Silverman, 2016). Selection of
these sampling techniques would be essential to collect relevant data for research and reflect on
exporting business to Chinese market to support globalisation of fashion brand Paul Smith.
Data Collection Method and Tool
In order to collect data for understanding efficacy of exporting fashion brand Paul Smith to
China, secondary data would be collected from relevant literary sources including newspapers,
journals and scholarly articles for gathering information on export activities due to globalisation
(Palinkaset al. 2015). Apart from this, primary qualitative data would be obtained from
conducting interview of five managers of aforesaid fashion brand with help of questionnaire
containing five open-ended questions. On the other hand, primary qualitative responses will be
collected through arranging survey of 100 customers using survey questionnaire comprising of
12 close-ended questions including 3 demographic questions formulated using 5-point Likert
scale. Application of this method of collecting required using survey and interview questionnaire
as data collection tool would be supportive to carry out the study in a systematic manner
(Walliman, 2017).
Technique of Data Analysis
Obtained data secondary data would be analysed through applying thematic analysis technique
for understanding relevance of export activities in global business integration. In addition,
primary data would be evaluate using analytical tools of Microsoft Excel and software
application of IBM SPSS. Moreover, correlation, regression, descriptive analysis would be
performed to identify patterns in data sets and address research problem.
Research Ethics
Following research ethics are some essential concerns of research that signify reliability and
authenticity of research (Bell, Brymanand Harley, 2018). In this case, participants would be
informed of purpose of research and would be instructed to sign informed consent prior to
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research. This would ensure that no participants would be forced or bribed to take part in this
research. Furthermore, expressed views and opinions of participants would be of their own
without any external or internal influence. Confidentiality of research would be ensured through
following Data Protection Act 2018 and no information would be shared with any third-party
agent (Legislation.gov.uk, 2018). Apart from this, genuineness of data would be maintained
through discarding chances of manipulation throughout the study. Both primary and secondary
data would be presented without interrupting or manipulating to ensure reliability of research and
meet research objectives (Johnston, 2017).
LO2 Conduct and analyse research relevant to a chosen business research project.
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a business
research project that consider costs, access and ethical issues.
Justification of the Research Philosophy
The researcher utilizes Positivism as a research philosophy and it will assist the researcher in
investigating into natural phenomenon as well as scientific knowledge to analyze the profit
potential in Chinese market for Paul Smith. Besides, it will help the researcher in conducting a
study, which will be highly structured with large samples with evaluation of qualitative as well
as quantitative information.
Justification of Research Approach
For the establishment of the study, deductive research approach has been chosen. This will
enable the researcher in examining several aspects of the already developed theories of export,
thereby deducting conclusion. Besides, it will also be beneficial for testing the research
hypothesis.
Justification of Research Design
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The researcher has taken resort to descriptive research design. This will enable the researcher in
describing prevailing issues related to the prospects of Paul Smith by expanding its business to
China.
Justification of Research Method
Application of secondary as well as primary research method will enable the researcher in
collecting the viewpoints of the researchers regarding the prospects of export along with the view
points of the employees and managers respectively.
P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools to analyse research findings and data.
For the effective development of a study, it is highly significant to take resort to an appropriate
analytical tool. This particular section of the study will be based on the findings and analysis of
the case of Paul Smith’s profit potentials in designing clothes at the time of exporting to profit
market.
Quantitative Method
For carrying out the survey effectively, 100 respondents, who are the employees of Paul Smith
were chosen through random sampling method out of which, only 50 respondents turned up for
the survey.
Q.1. Will you please specify your gender?
Options Percentage of
Respondents
Number of Response Overall Response
Male 70 35 50
Female 50 25 50
Table 1: Tabular Representation of the Respondents
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Percentage of
Respondents Number of
Response Overall Response
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
70
35 50
Female
Male
Graph 1: Graphical Representation of the Gender of the Respondents
Findings
From the above table and graph, it has been found out that out of 50 respondents, 70% were
represented by male. On the other hand, 50% of the respondents were represented by female.
Analysis
The analysis of the above mentioned table as well as graph represents higher number of male
respondents compared to female respondents. This indicates to the fact that maximum number of
employees working in Paul Smith are male compared to the female employees.
Q.2. Will you please specify your age?
Options Percentage of
Respondents
Number of Response Overall Response
Below 30 years 40 20 50
30 to 40 years 20 10 50
40 to 50 years 30 15 50
Above 50 years 10 5 50
Table 2: Tabular representation of age of the Respondents
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