Research Proposal: Inclusive Design Strategy for Marks and Spencer

This research proposal examines the inclusive design strategy of Marks and Spencer (M&S), a major British multinational company. The study investigates the role of inclusive design in stakeholder satisfaction, stakeholder consultation, and business modeling. It explores the relationship between inclusive design and business models, focusing on how M&S utilizes these strategies to meet specific consumer needs and gain a competitive advantage. The research employs a secondary research methodology, reviewing journals, books, online data, and previous studies. It covers stakeholder theory and mapping, business modeling, and the use of inclusive design in creating value for customers. The proposal outlines the research design, methods, data collection, and ethical considerations, including limitations and a timeline. The literature review highlights the importance of inclusive design in generating revenue, maximizing customer satisfaction, and creating value for stakeholders. The study aims to identify how M&S uses inclusive design to serve consumer needs and increase brand value, ultimately contributing to the understanding of inclusive design strategies in multinational retail chains.

Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Research Proposal
Name of the student
Name of the university
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................4
Background of the Research............................................................................................................4
Statement of the Problem.................................................................................................................4
Rationale of the Research................................................................................................................4
Research Question...........................................................................................................................4
Research Aims and Objectives........................................................................................................5
Research Hypothesis........................................................................................................................5
Research Methodology....................................................................................................................5
Literature Review............................................................................................................................6
Stakeholder theory and stakeholder mapping:.................................................................................7
Figure 1: Figure showing stakeholder mapping..............................................................................8
Stakeholder consultation:.................................................................................................................9
Business modeling:........................................................................................................................10
Use of inclusive design in business modeling:..............................................................................10
Research Design and Methods.......................................................................................................11
Research Philosophy......................................................................................................................11
Research Approach........................................................................................................................11
Research Design............................................................................................................................12

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Research Strategy..........................................................................................................................12
Data Collection Method.................................................................................................................12
Data Analysis Technique...............................................................................................................13
Validity and Reliability of Data.....................................................................................................13
Ethical Considerations in Research...............................................................................................13
Limitations of the Study................................................................................................................14
Timeline.........................................................................................................................................14
Figure 2: Gantt chart......................................................................................................................16
References......................................................................................................................................17

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Introduction
Background of the Research
Marks and Spencer is one of the major British Multinational Companies that is
headquartered in the city of Westminster, London. It is listed in the stock exchange London
Stock Exchange. The company specializes itself in selling of clothing, home products, luxury
items, food and many other things. Theparticular study will deal with the inclusive designing
strategy of the company in the current as well as for the coming days.
Statement of the Problem
The problem statement lays in the fact that how the managerial department of Marks and
Spencer fits inclusive design in both international and local markets.
Rationale of the Research
The issue that has been identified in the research must be dealt in properly to address the
issues properly. The identification of the inclusive designing is a must for a brand like M&S to
be more successful in the market. Addressing the specific needs of the consumer will help it to
gain a certain degree of competitive advantage that will be hard to emit.
Research Question
The research questions are given below;
1. What is the role of inclusive design in stakeholder satisfaction?
2. How is stakeholder consultation used to create value for customers?

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3. What is the relationship between inclusive deign and business modeling?
Research Aims and Objectives
The aim of the research is to identify how the Multinational retail food chain especially
Marks and Spencer uses inclusive design to serve the more specific needs of consumers. On the
other hand the objectives of the research is to get a good idea of the inclusive design and the
models of inclusive design that are and will be used by Marks and Spencer to reach out to more
specific customers and increase their brand value.
Research Hypothesis
The null and alternate hypotheses are as follows;
H0: The business models and Inclusive Design theory of the mentioned organization are not
related to each other.
H1: The business model and Inclusive Design theory of the mentioned organization are related
Research Methodology
The total study will be based mainly on the secondary sources. The resources that will be
used for the secondary research includes the likes of different journals, books, online data,
resources or information collected from the employees and also previous researches done on the
same topic. The responses that are obtained from the experts shall also be evaluated by
transforming the information into different themes. There will be no such qualitative analysis as
because it is not possible to gain proper response by the conduction of a survey on a selected

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group of individuals. Thus the findings from the particular research will be mainly based on the
findings of the secondary research.
Literature Review
Inclusive design:
Persson,(2015) mention that inclusive design refers to designing of products to meet the
needs of elderly people. The multinational companies like M&S market products like food
products and disability products to help the elderly customers. The companies further divide the
elderly customer base into different segments like people with dietary challenges due to health
issues and customers with disability. These companies have evolved their product line to serve
deeper needs of the elderly customer segments like those thriving on vegan food items. Ceric et
al. (2016) further mentions that international business organizations today involve the customers
by encouraging them to express more specific needs which they would like the existing products
to satisfy. For example, today international retail chains retailing food offer similar food products
having various quantities of sugar to suit the lifestyle needs of specific consumers. The young
people can have a variant having a lot of sugar while the aged and the health conscious consumer
prefer the sugar-free variant of the food products (marksandspencer.com, 2018).Rodriguez,
Peterson and Ajjan(2015)mention that customer satisfaction plays a very important role for the
firms and help to generate revenue. Business organizations today create value for consumers
through inclusive designing strategies to maximize customer satisfaction and generate revenue.
Ottman (2017) points out to a darker side of inclusive design and points out that developing

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variants of products to satisfy individual tastes requires huge initial investment on the side of the
firms. Kotabe and Kothari (2016) point out in this regard that inclusive design is a strategy that is
used mostly by established multinational companies. This is because they have a huge consumer
base which provides them with the revenue that they channelize towards research and
development of inclusive design products. Plangger and Watson (2015) further points out that
business organizations use consumer insight as a strategic tool to predict the customer
preferences which can emerge in the future. This helps them to develop the attributes in their
existing products to cater to the future consumer insights. Nyberg and Soini (2017) point out that
multinational companies aim to create and strengthen the experience of the customers of using
their products through inclusive design. Lee et al. (2016), however points out that failed
inclusive design strategies result in draining of wealth. Thus, one can infer from the discussion
that inclusive design strategies enable business organizations cater to more specific needs of the
consumers to enhance the value of their purchase. This leads to generate more revenue for the
marketer of the following design. The analysis clearly points out that the success of inclusive
designing strategies of multinational companies is dependent heavily on the purchase and
consumers preferences of consumers, one of the most important stakeholder groups.
Stakeholder theory and stakeholder mapping:
Hörisch, Freemanand & Schaltegger(2014) mention that as per stakeholder theory,
stakeholders refers to the groups or individuals which have significant interest in the operations
of business organizations. The internal stakeholders consist of the apex management and
employees of the organizations. The external stakeholders consist of the government, investors,
consumers, the society, suppliers, distributors and even rival companies. Dawuda (2016) points
out that apex management bodies of business organizations make decisions while the employee

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execute them. Thus, the apex management and the employees have the power to impact the
organizations through their functions. Similarly, governments make policies on which industries
work while financial institutions provide financial help the business organizations which fund
their operations. Vezzoli et al. (2015) mention that the consumers similarly consume the
products and generate revenue for the company. Thus, analysis shows that support of
stakeholders are important for companies to sustain in the market. Rodriguez, Peterson and Ajjan
(2015) supports this view and mentions that value creation and enhancement for stakeholders
have become crucial for the substance and growth of the business organizations. This significant
role of the stakeholders has made it important for multinational business organizations to map
their stakeholders.
Power
latents: Keep
satisfied
Governments,
financial institutions
Promoters: manage
closely
Consumers, investors,
Monitor: Apathetic
Apex management,
employees
Keep Informed: Defenders
Media, marketing
companies, society
Interest
Figure 1: Figure showing stakeholder mapping
(Source: Author)
The figure above shows mapping of stakeholders which business organizations need to
manage. The figure has four quadrants namely, latent, promoters, monitor and keep informed.

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The latent consists of stakeholders which the business organizations must keep satisfied to
sustain in the market. The group consists of governments and financial institutions. The next
quadrant consists of promoters or the stakeholder group which they need to manage closely. This
group ideally consists of consumers and investors which provide business organizations with
capital and revenue respectively. The quadrant consists of apex management and employees of
business organizations which monitor the working of the business organizations. The last
quadrant consists of media and society which the business organizations need to keep informed
about their business strategies. The analysis clearly points out the tremendous impact
stakeholders have on business organizations and the necessity of the latter to create value for the
latter. The business organizations use two important tools namely stakeholder consultation and
business modeling to maximize value creation for stakeholder groups.
Stakeholder consultation:
Business organizations today engage their stakeholder groups like the government and
consumers right at the initial stage of strategy making. Mason and Simmons (2014) point that
business organizations today gain the views of the consumers and seek their suggestions
regarding further developments which they want in future products. These consultations actually
correspond to the view that since products impact the consumers, the consumers have the right to
decide the products. These cause and effect relationship between the companies and their
consumers give rise to continuous consultation process. Daugherty and Hoffman (2014) point
out that advancement in technology have led to the emergence of social media as a crucial
platform for stakeholder consultations, particularly from consumers. The business organizations
today can gain product ideas from their global base of consumers which help to develop new

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variants of their existing products. This aim of the entire process of stakeholder consultations and
new product development through inclusive design marketing is business modeling.
Business modeling:
The business organizations today adopt business modeling to create more value for
customers and generate more revenue. Rodriguez, Peterson and Ajjan(2015) clearly points out
that business organizations aim to use inclusive designing to cater to more specific needs of the
customers. The origin of business modeling begins at the business planning stage where the apex
management makes plans about the products (Spisak et al., 2015).. They incorporate the
customer views and suggestions gained through consumer consultation processes. For example,
the multinational food retail chains today obtain consultations from consumers regarding types or
varieties of food products which they want from them in the future. They then incorporate the
different expectations of the consumers while developing new products (Daugherty& Hoffman,
2014). The retail food chains are offering food products having low sugar and vegan food to
cater to aged and health conscious consumers. The consumer specific products enhance the
customer satisfaction which generates more revenue from the customers. Thus, this analysis
shows that business modeling can be used a strategic tool to implement inclusive designing to
satisfy more specific needs of the consumers. The growing importance of the inclusive design in
business modeling is evident from the fact that companies consult multinational consultants to
develop their products (deloitte.com, 2018).
Use of inclusive design in business modeling:
Multinational companies like Marks & Spencer today use inclusive design to develop
products which cater to a more specific segment of customers. Their aim is generate more

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revenue by satisfying as many a large spectrum of consumers. For example, low sugar food
items are preferred by both elderly people and the health conscious people. These companies use
business modeling and stakeholder consultations to develop these products. Kotabe and Kothari
(2016) mention that inclusive design strategy can be used by multinational companies which
have vast financial resources. These resources are used to allocate funds towards development of
new products. These companies like M&S use customer insight to predict future demands of
customers. They then integrate this vast reserve of consumer information in developing new
forms of their existing products which are aligned to the customer expectations. These products
enhance the value of consumer purchases thus maximizing the value. This analysis clearly shows
that inclusive design which MNC retail chains like M&S use have contribute to their high market
position (Daugherty& Hoffman, 2014).
Research Design and Methods
Research Philosophy
The researcher will be taking the help of the positivism research philosophy to conduct
the research as because it provides a logical manner to the study of the particular topic. The
particular research is objective in nature and the research is based on real facts. The hypothesis
for the research is based on the inductive reasoning which will be tested during the process of the
research.
Research Approach
The deductive research approach has been used in this particular study to continue with
the research. This is because the formulator of this report will be considering a number of

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different theories and models. The already existing theories of Inclusive designing will be used
in this research. The other reason for its use in the study is because it helps in the development of
the hypothesis for the management of Marks and Spencer to use inclusive designing (Camilleri,
2017).
Research Design
Different types of research designs has their own use (Bala,Labonté-LeMoyne& Léger,
2017). The researcher will be taking any one between analytic or descriptive design as because it
helps the research to achieve a detailed idea about the different frameworks as well as concepts
involved in the particular research topic. The descriptive and the analytical design both support
the use of secondary data sources.
Research Strategy
The research strategy that will be used in this particular research will be used to manage
the research in a more compact way. The deductive research strategy will be used in this research
to avoid any form of risk (Somoray, Wishart&Biggs, 2016).. This is because a very short time
will be available for completing the whole research.
Data Collection Method
The findings that will be deduced from the research will all be based on the secondary
sources of data and so the data will be collected from the secondary data only. The information
that will be received from the different books, journals, magazines, online sources, earlier
researches will form the backbone of the research (Walsham, 2018). The concentration of the
research will be on the recent inclusive designing strategies that will be adopted by the