Sustainability in Business Environment: Research Proposal and Analysis

This research proposal investigates the necessity of sustainability within the business environment, focusing on its impact on organizational performance. The study aims to determine the need for sustainability to enhance organizational performance, using Sunborn London as a case study. It explores the importance of sustainability in the hospitality industry, identifies different approaches companies use to improve sustainability, examines challenges hotels face in promoting sustainability, and assesses alternative strategies for overcoming sustainability issues. The proposal includes a literature review covering topics such as the benefits of sustainability, various sustainability approaches, and the challenges faced by hotels. The research methodology involves quantitative data collection, employing a deductive approach and utilizing questionnaires and secondary sources like books and journals. The project outlines activities, timescales, and ethical considerations, including participant recruitment and consent procedures. The research aims to provide valuable insights into the practical implications of sustainability for businesses.

Research Proposal Form
Student Name: ______________________ Student ID: ____________
Centre Name: _____________________
Tutor: ________________ Date: ___________________
Unit: ____________________
Proposed Title: ______________________________________________
Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities
Title or working title of the research project (in the form of a question,
objective or hypothesis)
Title: Need of sustainability in business environment”
Research objectives (e.g what is the question you want to answer? What
do you want to learn how to do? What do you want to find out?):
Research aim:
““To determine the need of sustainability for better performance of the
organization. A case study on Sunborn London”.”
Research objective:
 To explore the importance of sustainability in hospitality industry.
 To identify the different approaches used by company to improve
sustainability at hospitality sector.
 To examine the issues hotel face in promoting sustainability.
 To access the alternative strategies Sunborn London used to overcome from
sustainability issues.
Research questions:
 What are the importance of sustainability in hospitality industry?
 What are the different approaches which are used by company to improve
the sustainability at hospitality sectors?
 What are the different type of issues which are face by company while
promoting sustainability?
 What are the possible strategies used by company to overcome the
sustainability issues?

Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research project
Reasons for choosing the project (e.g links to other subjects you are
studying, personal interest, future plans, knowledge/skills you want to
improve, why the topic is important):
This research topic is chosen as because, sustainability is one of the important
topic which will adopt, different business strategies and activities that complete
need of enterprises and its stakeholders today’s world while protecting, sustaining
the enhancing the human and natural resources which are needed in the future
(Roorda, 2020). As this topic will help the companies, to complete the need today
without compromising the need of tomorrow. This research will help the
investigator to know more about the sustainability and reducing carbon emissions
which are the main key to living within environmental limits which are helpful for
the growth of the company.
Section Three: Literature sources searched
Use of key literature sources to support your research question,
objective or hypothesis:
Literature review is the process where data is collected through different type of
sources which provide a clear understanding of the research. This section of the
research proposal is very helpful for the investigator as it will provide a clear and
deep analysing information which are actually related to the research topic
(Grubler and et.al., 2018). This section provide a support to the investigator to
remove unwanted hurdles during research. In this research, literature review is
conducted in order to analysis the need of sustainability to improve the
performance of an organisation.
Importance of sustainability in hospitality industry
According to BauscherHepp, (2021), sustainability save the money by reducing
extra spending and waste. It help the environment but at the same time it help the
company to make the public relation which are helpful in making competitive
advantage that are do not care about the environment and green factors.
Furthermore, he explained that there are various stages which involve in
conducting sustainable approach these are; reuse and recycle, train their
employees, go with the recent trends and go with green. Reuse and recycle are
one of the important and easy way to working in an environmental friendly nature.
Not only environment friendly but at the same time it is cost effective and save
more time while considering sustainable approach within the organisation to
improve the performance of company. It further improve the brand image of
company and attract more and more customer, comes in the result to increase the
sale and profit.
Identify the different approaches used by company to improve sustainability at
hospitality sector
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According to Erich Lawson, (2021); there are various ways which can be used by
company to improve the sustainability in hospitality sectors which are; they can
use cost effective techniques, as they make a balance in between cost reducing
and improving quality in their services. Furthermore they can provide a good
customer experience so that they can visit again and again. This will give a
positive vibes in their employees and achieve the organisational objective easily
(Bain and et.al., 2019). In addition to that, Lawson said that by following the
regular affairs they can easily aim the hotels and achieve the desired goal.
Information related to hazardous material like plastic and PVC materials provide a
better view to for using relevant material in order to use sustainability approach.
The issues hotel face in promoting sustainability
By Frans Melissen, 2021; the main focus is to find out various issues which are
they facing while they promoting sustainability. As it will make current impact and
sustainability approach most concerning issue which is seem while conducting
research is green hospitality, which are actually very important for the company.
Another issue is higher education, as many changes are taking place in the
hospitality industry which are using for several challenges for transforming the
whole process of high education. There are some operating issues which include
human resource management, society development, and government which are
containing importance of tourism which are related to economic and development
policies of tourism industry.
The alternative strategies Sunborn London used to overcome from sustainability
issues
In the point of view of Katherine Purvis, 2021; there are different ways which can
be adopted by company to overcome the issue of sustainability. This can be done
by using USP which are helpful for the company to promote their products and
make a strong position in market. Thinking for the long term aspect which will be
helpful for the company to minimise the expenses which are not needed by the
company in order to achieve long term objectives. They can further communicate
with their target audience in a different and attractive words which give their
customer a specified reason to join with company (Caiado and et.al., 2017). In
addition to strategies they can further improve their management team by
providing training and development sessions to improve their efficiency related to
sustainable management programme.
References
Books and Journals
Bain, P.G. and et.al., 2019. Public views of the sustainable development goals
across countries. Nature sustainability, 2(9), pp.819-825.
Caiado, R.G.G. and et.al., 2017. Towards sustainable development through the
perspective of eco-efficiency-A systematic literature review. Journal of Cleaner
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Production, 165, pp.890-904.
Grubler, A. and et.al., 2018. A low energy demand scenario for meeting the 1.5 C
target and sustainable development goals without negative emission technologies.
Nature energy, 3(6), pp.515-527.
Klopp, J.M. and Petretta, D.L., 2017. The urban sustainable development goal:
Indicators, complexity and the politics of measuring cities. Cities, 63, pp.92-97.
Levushkina, S.V. and et.al., 2018. Methodology for assessing the sustainable
development of business structures. Research Journal of Pharmaceutical,
Biological and Chemical Sciences, 9(4), pp.938-950.
Reznichenko, S.M. and et.al., 2018. Methodological aspects of assessing factors
affecting the sustainable development of the region. Modern Journal of Language
Teaching Methods, 8(11), pp.69-79.
Roorda, N., 2020. Fundamentals of sustainable development. Routledge.
Schroeder, P., Anggraeni, K. and Weber, U., 2019. The relevance of circular
economy practices to the sustainable development goals. Journal of Industrial
Ecology, 23(1), pp.77-95.
Online
BauscherHepp, (2021). The importance of sustainability in the hotel and
hospitality industry, 2021. [Online]. Available through :<
https://deepplate.bauscherhepp.com/blog/sustainability-in-the-hotel-and-
hospitality-industry>.
Erich Lawson, (2021). 6 ways sustainability is changing hotels, 2021. [Online].
Available through :< https://www.hotelmanagement.net/design/6-ways-
sustainability-changing-hotels>.
Frans Melissen, (2021). Is the hotel industry prepared to face the challenge of
sustainable development? 2021. [Online]. Available through :<
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1356766715618997>.
Katherine Purvis, (2021). Nine ways to overcome barriers to sustainable business,
2021. [Online]. Available through :< https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-
business/2015/jul/08/nine-ways-to-overcome-barriers-to-sustainable-business>.
Section Four: Activities and timescales
Activities to be carried out during the research project (e.g
research, development and analysis of ideas, writing, data
collection, numerical analysis, tutor meetings, production How long
this will
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of final outcome, evaluation, writing the report):
Activities Time durations
Developing aims and objectives 25 days
Literature Review 16 days
Research Methodology 30 days
Data collection 30 days
Data analysis 15 days
Conclusion and
recommendation
4 days
Submission of project 3 days
take:
Milestone one: Literature Review
Target date (set by tutor):
Milestone two: Research Methodologies
Target date (set by tutor):
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Gantt Chart
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Section Five: Research approach and methodologies
What type of research approach and methodologies are you likely to use
and why? What your areas of research will cover:
Research methodology is the systematic process, which are used to select,
identity, and analysis the information related to research topic. There are different
type of techniques which are used in research methodology to complete the
research in the organised manner. Mainly there are two type of data which include
qualitative and quantitative data for this research quantitative data is chosen
since it is effective and less time consuming (Levushkina and et.al., 2018). The
theory which is adopt by the investigator is positivism theory as it will be helpful in
conducting quantitative data research. There are two type of approaches is used
mostly i.e. inductive and deductive approach, in this research, researcher use
deductive approach in order to attain all the objectives. In the research, sampling
and questionnaire is used for making strategies and collect the data from the
chosen population. And questionnaire is included in primary source of data
whereas .books and journals are used as secondary source of data which are
helpful for conducting research.
Comments and agreement from tutor
Comments (optional):
I confirm that the project is not work which has been or will be submitted
for another qualification and is appropriate.
Agreed: ________________ (name)_______________ Date ______________
Comments and agreement form project proposal checker( IV sampling)
Comments (Optional):
I confirm that the project is appropriate.
Agreed /Disagree: (Name of the IV)
Date
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Research Ethics approval form
All students conducting research activity that involves human participants or the use of
data collected form human participants are required to gain ethical approval before
commencing their research. Please answer all relevant questions and note that your
form may be returned if incomplete.
For further support and guidance please see your respective Unit Tutor:
Before completing this form, we advise that you discuss your proposed research fully
with your unit tutor. Please complete this form in good time before your research
project is due to commence.
Section 1: Basic details:
Project title: “Need of sustainability in business environment”
Student name:
Student ID number:
Programme:
College Name:
Intended research start date:
Intended research end date:
Section 2 Project summary
Please select all research methods that you plan to use as a part of your project:
 Interviews Yes No
 Questionnaires Yes No
 Observations Yes No
 Use of personal records Yes No
 Data Analysis Yes No
 Action Research Yes No
 Focus Groups Yes No
 Others (Please specify) :
Section 3: Participants
Please answer the following questions, giving full details where necessary.
Will your research involve human participants?
YES
Who are the participants? Tick all that apply:
Ages 12-16: Young people aged: 17-18 Adults: More than 18
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How will participants be recruited (identified an approached)?
 The participants will be recruit by using random sampling method.
Describe the processes you will use to inform participants about what you are
doing:
 Through using the email, researcher will inform the participants.
How will you obtain consent from participants? Will this be written? How will it be
made clear to participants that they may withdraw consent to participate at any
time?
 The consent will be obtaining from participants through using email.
Studies involving questionnaires: will participants be given the option of omitting
questions that do not wish to answer?
Yes No
If no please explain why below and ensure that you cover any ethical issues
arising from this
Studies involving observation: Confirm whether participants will be asked for
their informed consent to be observed.
Yes No
Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e give them a brief
explanation of the study)?
Yes No
Will participants be given information about the findings of your study?(This could
be a brief summary of your findings in general)
Yes No
Section 4: Data Storage and Security
Confirm that all personal data will be stored and processed in compliance with the
Data Protection Act (1998)
Yes No
Who will have access to the data and personal information?
The organisation and research will access data and personal information.
During the research:
Where will the data be stored?
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 The data will be stored in hard disk and personal computer.
Will mobile devices such as USB storage and laptops be used
Yes No
If Yes, please provide further details:
After the research:
Where will the data be stored?
 The data will be stored in hard disk and personal computer.
How long will the data and records be kept for and in what format?
 The data and records will be kept for long time and it will be in word format.
Will data be kept for use by other researchers? Yes No
Section 5 : Ethical Issues
Are there any particular features of your proposed work, which may raise ethical
concerns? If so, please outline how you will deal with these:
It is important that you demonstrate your awareness of potential risks that may
arise because of your research. Please consider/address all issues that may apply.
Ethical concerns may include, but are not limited to the following :
 Informed consent.
 Potentially vulnerable participants.
 Sensitive topics
 Risk to participants and /or researchers
 Confidentiality/anonymity
 Disclosures/ limits to confidentiality
 Data storage and security, both during and after the research
(including transfer, sharing, encryption, protection).
 Reporting
 Dissemination and use of your findings.
Section 6: Declaration
I have read, understood and will abide by the institution’s Research and
Ethics Policy: Yes No
I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with my Unit
Tutor:
Yes No
I confirm that to the best of my knowledge:
The above information is correct, and this is a full description of the
ethical issues that may arise in the course of my research
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Name: Date:
Please submit your completed form to your supervisor and also attach to
the Research Proposal when submitting to Turnitin.
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