UWL Research: Ethics Application for Sport Direct Online Sales Study

This document presents a student's ethics application for a research project analyzing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the online sales of Sport Direct. The application includes a detailed project description outlining the research questions, objectives, and methodology, which involves secondary data collection. The student addresses ethical considerations, including data management, confidentiality, and informed consent, and completes both Section A: Ethics Form and Section B: Data management and storage form. The research aims to understand the changes in the market due to the pandemic, the impact on online sales, and strategies to maintain profit margins. The student will use exploratory research design and thematic data analysis, collecting data from sources like Mintel and Google Scholar. The application emphasizes the importance of data security, anonymization, and adherence to data protection principles. The student confirms that the project has no significant ethical implications and acknowledges the responsibility for data security and confidentiality.

Secondary Data collection Only
You are required to complete an ethics application BEFORE you
embark on the data collection exercise of the research project
Please complete all the following sections:
- Section A: Ethics Form
- Section B: Data management and storage form
RESEARCH ETHICS AND INTEGRITY

RISK ASSESSMENT FORM
Section A: FORM A
For all Undergraduate/Postgraduate Dissertations and Research
Projects
Please fill in this form, then SAVE IT AS A PDF and submit as instructed by your supervisor
with your project proposal

PROJECT DESCRIPTON
Please answer the following questions:
1. Do you intend to involve human participants in the conduct of your research?
If no, please skip questions 2 & 3.
☐ Yes No✔
2. Does your research involve vulnerable adults or under-18s?
☐ Yes No ✔
3. Could your research potentially expose you, anyone assisting you, or
participants to emotional harm?
☐ Yes ☐No ✔
4. Will your research involve travelling to geo-politically unstable
regions/countries (e.g. areas affected by war, civil unrest, natural disasters, or
listed as unadvisable to travel by the UK government?
☐ Yes No ✔
5. Will your research involve access to security-sensitive material? If yes, you
must include a data management statement.
☐ Yes No ✔
This proposal must be completed with the assistance of your supervisor. You
can change the size of the boxes (below) by typing or deleting as necessary.
It is very important to convey with clarity:
• Your research questions/the problem/the theme or topic you are investigating
(what you are proposing to do and to find out or to create)
• The methodology or technical approach (for projects comprising in whole or
in part the creation of an artefact) you will adopt – methods, number of
participants, who the participants (if any) will be, survey instruments used
technology and equipment employed etc.; and what questions you are
planning to ask your respondents (if applicable); how you will deal with
technical challenges.
Title of project ________ The impact of covid on the online sales in Sport Direct.
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_____________________________________________________________
Name of researcher(s)
Vincenzo Mittica_____________________________________Email: [e-mail]
Name of supervisor Mariet Geldenhuys _____________________________
Date:_03/12/2020_______________________
WHERE APPROPRIATE TO YOUR CHOSEN TOPIC/RESEARCH: YES NO N/A
1 Will you describe in writing the main procedures to participants in
advance, so that they are informed about what to expect? A copy of
this must be attached to this application
✔
2 Will you tell participants that their participation is voluntary? ✔
3 Will you obtain written consent for participation and include within this
that they have a right to withdraw at any point? A copy of this must be
attached to this application
✔
4 If the research is observational, will you ask participants for their
consent to being observed? ✔
5 With questionnaires, will you give participants the option of omitting
questions they do not want to answer? ✔
6 Will you tell participants that their data will be treated with full
confidentiality and that, if published, it will not be identifiable as
theirs? This should be evidenced in the consent form and with a
signed copy of UWL’s data management form, attached to this
application.
✔
7 Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e. give
them a brief explanation of the study)? A copy of this must be
attached to this application
✔
If you have ticked No to any of Q1-7, but have ticked box A overleaf, please give an
explanation on a separate sheet.
[Note: N/A = not applicable]
YES NO N/A
8 Will your project involve deliberately misleading participants in any
way? ✔

9 Is there any realistic risk of any participants experiencing either
physical or psychological distress or discomfort? If Yes, give details
on a separate sheet and state what you will tell them to do if they
should experience any problems (e.g. who they can contact for help).
✔
If you have ticked Yes to 8 or 9, you should normally tick box B overleaf; if not, please
give a full explanation on a separate sheet
YES NO N/A
10 Does your project involve work with animals? If yes, please tick
box B overleaf. ✔
11 Do participants fall into any of
the following vulnerable
groups? If they do, please and
tick box B overleaf.
Note that you may also need
to obtain satisfactory DBS
clearance (or equivalent for
overseas students).
Schoolchildren (under 18 years of
age)
✔
People with learning or
communication difficulties
✔
Patients ✔
People in custody ✔
People engaged in illegal
activities (e.g. drug-taking)
✔
Any other groups who could be
reasonably argued as
representing any form of
vulnerability – please specify
✔
12 Will you be accessing materials which may be considered security-
sensitive under the Counter Terrorism Act (2015)? ✔
There is an obligation on the researcher to bring to the attention of the School Ethics Panel any
issues with ethical implications not clearly covered by the above checklist.
PLEASE TICK EITHER BOX A OR BOX B BELOW AND PROVIDE THE DETAILS REQUIRED
IN SUPPORT OF YOUR APPLICATION. THEN SIGN THE FORM.
Please tick
A. I consider that this project has no significant ethical implications to be brought
before the School Ethics Panel. ✔
B. I consider that this project may have ethical implications that should be brought
before the School Ethics Panel, and/or it will be carried out with children or other
vulnerable populations.
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I have received guidance on ethical research practices relevant to my subject as part of
my preparation for this module.

PART 2
SPECIFICATIONS OF PROJECT
Please answer the following question:
1. Do you intend to use only secondary data in the conduct of your research?
☐ Yes No
Introduction to the research
Background to research topic area (with references where applicable). 200 words approx.
Include Aims and Hypothesis, Research Question(s) of the dissertation/project.
Aim: To understand the changes which are coming in the market
because of the pandemic situation this has been created globally.
There are a lot of internet and online platforms which are being used by
businesses and if going to be discussed in the further report
Objective:
- The company needs to have higher sales since there were no sales in
the lockdown
- The profit margins have to be increased by 20% by the end of 2020
- The productivity and operations of the organization must increase by
40% by 2024
- Digital marketing is very important for the organization to have and
that is implicated in the company and the sales would increase by 2023
Research objectives
- What are the impact on online sales due to the pandemic situation
which has taken place?
- What are the changes which have come in the business activities
because of the Covid-19 situation?
- What are the measures and strategies which can be used by the
organization to be able to maintain their profit margins in the market?
Method
Outline all methodological issues - e.g. Design, participants, questionnaires, tests,
method of data collection. Who are you working with? How? What Measures? What
interventions/manipulations? What controls? If your research entails exclusively the
consultation of published documents, books, articles or other work in the public domain
please state this under the heading ‘materials’.
Research design
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In this research project, exploratory research design has been chosen
as it is a qualitative research type in which specific aspects of research
area are explored for answering main research question
Participants (where applicable)
This business research project will be a secondary data research and
will not collect any primary data using any participants. Hence, this
section is not applicable
Materials (to include locations and resources)
For this research project, secondary data has been collected by the
researcher because it has helped in exploring differed aspects of
research problem in much better manner. Materials for this business
research project will be collected from secondary sources using Mintel,
Google Scholar. This will be done by accessing various textbook,
journals, articles and other relevant materials from the database.
Analysis
CLEARLY describe the method of analysis you are going to use. Is it qualitative or
quantitative?
For this business research project, the current researcher will be
adopting thematic data analysis method as it is a qualitative type of
research project, so in this thematic data analysis method has been
used for analysing non-numerical data for answering main research
questions in an appropriate manner

Section B: RESEARCH ETHICS AND INTEGRITY
DATA MANAGEMENT AND STORAGE STATEMENT
All applicants should familiarise themselves with the Data Protection Act
1998, and adhere to its principles in all aspects of their research:
http://www.uwl.ac.uk/sites/default/files/Departments/About-us/Web/PDF/
policies/policy-on-data-protection.pdf
Research data covers a broad range of types of information (see examples
below), and digital data can be structured and stored in a variety of file
formats.
EXAMPLES OF RESEARCH DATA
Some examples of research data:
Documents (text, Word), spreadsheets
Laboratory notebooks, field notebooks, diaries
Questionnaires, transcripts, codebooks
Audiotapes, videotapes
Photographs, films
Test responses
Slides, artefacts, specimens, samples
Collection of digital objects acquired and generated during the process of
research
Database contents (video, audio, text, images)
Models, algorithms, scripts
Contents of an application (input, output, logfiles for analysis software,
simulation software, schemas)
Methodologies and workflows
Standard operating procedures and protocols
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As a student or member of staff undertaking a research project, I
understand that I am responsible for the following:
 The security and confidentiality of all data collected
 Mitigating all risks to anonymity, privacy and confidentiality posed
by all kinds of personal information storage, processing, including
computer and paper files, e-mail records, audio and video files, and
any information that directly identifies an individual. It is
recommended that data be anonymised at the point of collection.
I will ensure that:
 Data and codes and all identifying information will be kept in
separate locked filing cabinets/files and working files will contain no
identifying information, and will only be accessed by one or two
persons
 All audiotapes will be transcribed using codes or pseudonyms for
identification of individuals and destroyed upon completion of the
research project
 Access to computer files will be available by password only
 Research data will be stored for up to 5 years after the end of the
project, after which they should be disposed of safely.
Name: Vincenzo Mittica
Application ID: UWL UKCBC
Project title: The impact of covid on the online sales in Sport Direct.

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