Globalization's Impact on UK Retail: A Tesco Case Study

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RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Table of Contents
TOPIC........................................................................................................................................ 2
RESEARCH BACKGROUND........................................................................................................ 2
AIMS......................................................................................................................................... 2
OBJECTIVES.............................................................................................................................. 3
RESEARCH QUESTIONS.............................................................................................................3
RATIONALE............................................................................................................................... 3
REVIEW OF LITERATURE...........................................................................................................4
RESEARCH APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY...........................................................................6
ETHICAL CONSIDERATION........................................................................................................ 7
RESEARCH TIME PLAN..............................................................................................................7
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................. 9
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TOPIC
“Key implications of Globalization in the retail industry of UK: A case study of Tesco Pvt.
Ltd”
RESEARCH BACKGROUND
Globalization has made the world an interconnected place and facilitated a massive increase
in trade cultural exchange and trade among the different economies of the world.
Globalization has completed changes to the business scenario today. The business
organizations are now expanding their commercial activities across the boundaries of the
nations. The general populations also have a variety of choices and alternative options while
selecting the products and services as a large number of organizations are offering similar
products at great prices. This has created higher competition in the market (Cavusgil, et al.,
2014). The retail industry is largely influenced by such globalization. Several retail
organizations like ASDA, TESCO, and WALMART have extended their business and market
beyond the national boundaries. Tesco is one of the leading retail organizations that are
presented across the globe. This is a UK based groceries and general merchandise store that
offers a varied range of products and services to the customers. The company has more
than 6700 stores across the world that offers its products at different locations as well as
sources material from developing and emerging economies (Tesco Plc, 2019). This trade of
goods and services is facilitated due to globalization and liberalization of trade policies.
Globalization has created drastic changes and transformations in the business management
system and operations of the company.
Therefore, In the context of the Tesco Plc, this research study would focus on identifying the
key implications that globalization has on the retail industry to have a clear understanding
and knowledge about how retail organizations are dealing with the globalization and what
opportunities and threats globalization present to the retail organizations.
AIMS
The main aim of this research study is to determine the key implications of the globalization
on the commercial actions and operations of the large retail organization Tesco.
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OBJECTIVES
 To reveal the strategies that can be used for dealing with the implications of
globalization.
 To identify the impacts of globalization on business activities of those firms that are
falling under the retail sector.
 To understand all the aspects of globalization and analyze its significance in the
context of the organization.
RESEARCH QUESTIONS
 What is the impact of globalization on Tesco?
 What are the advantages of globalization?
 What are the limitations of globalization?
RATIONALE
The level of globalization is rapidly increasing and affecting the business in every area.
Especially in the retail industry, globalization has drastically changed the business
operations, systems and functions. The large business organizations are gaining an
advantage of the opportunities created due to globalization and increasingly extending their
business operations. Along with the positive implications, globalization is also creating some
threats and limitations of the growth of a business such as it has increased the competition
level along with providing increased market opportunity (Foster and Noh, 2013). Therefore,
this research study is planned to analyze the key positive and negative implications of
globalization on the retail organization. So the business functioning and system of Tesco will
be studied in this research. This would enable the retail organization in identifying the
opportunities as well as threats of globalization to formulate effective business strategies
and decisions.
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REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The global economy was highly fragmented and de-globalized before the early 19th century.
The concept of globalization globally emerges in back 1970 and since then globalization is
increasingly growing in the present century (Villaverde and Maza, 2011). According to
Michie, (2011) the term globalization can be described as the elimination of the barriers in
exchange of information and products across the national boundaries. Globalization has
reduced the limitations on the cultural exchange and has been introduced as the way of
promoting growth and wealth among all the economies of the world.
Kuruvilla and Ranganathan, (2010) have described globalization as integration of countries
to formulate international economy through facilitating trade, foreign direct investment,
sharing of technology and skills, migration and capital flow among nations. According to Kolk
and Van Tulder, (2010) Globalisation is a form of capitalist expansion that amalgamates local
and national economies and forms a single unregulated global economy. Croucher and
Cotton, (2011) through globalisation, individual world market becomes unified and
transformed into a single global marketplace. The technological advancements in
transportation and communication are the key facilitators of globalisation that has fostered
international trade and commerce.
According to Wrigley and Lowe, (2010) Globalization has facilitated retailers in accessing
new consumers and capitals when they are having a saturated market in the local economy.
The retailers are highly benefited through international expansion and marketing. The retail
organizations can easily expand their business in different locations and gain higher
profitability through the opportunities created by the globalization. The companies can
easily source their raw material and products from other developing nations that have
cheap production and labour cost. Bowen, Baker, and Powell, (2015) have stated that
globalization is bringing several positive influences on the retail organizations as they can
source resources from the different locations with low-cost products and labour to
manufacture goods at the comparatively lower price with minimum investment. This allows
companies to reduce their product cost and gain competitiveness in the market.
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According to Homann, (2016) Globalization has both positive as well as a negative influence
on the retail business organizations. With the several advantages and benefits, it has also
increased the rate of competition among the retailing organizations and large numbers of
organizations are increasingly participating in the retailing sector. This is affecting the
customer base and market share of the large business organizations as their profits are
negatively affected due to the increasing number of competitors in the industry.
According to Cincera and Ravet (2014), Tesco is one of the most popular retailing
organization across the globe with its presence across China, Europe, South Korea and the
US. The company has more than 6700 stores. Tesco is also counted as the largest food
supplier across the world. Globalization has brought both positive and negative experience
to Tesco as at initial stage Tesco has face huge competition form the other rivals like Wal-
Mart and Aldi in the international market. The increasing rate of globalization has presented
great competition for Tesco in the local as well as international market (Ch, et al., 2011). The
company has lost its customer and market share at the initial stage. The threat of new
entrants is increased along with the increment in the bargaining power of the buyers that
have affected the profitability of Tesco in the market. However, after a certain time period,
Tesco has acquired great benefits of globalization. The suppliers have retained with the low
negotiation power as the company has a wide marketplace to source its material and
products. This has created a great opportunity for the company to reducing investment,
maintaining quality of product and lowering the cost of the product to achieve
competitiveness in the market. Globalization has also facilitated the company in expanding
its business to the new and emerging economies to enlarge its business presence and profit
across the globe (Alexander and Doherty, 2010). Tesco is now present in around 13 nations
across the globe and serving to billions of people in a single day. Globalization has played a
key role in achieving all this success and growth for the Tesco.
The above literature review has suggested that globalization really does have a great
influence on the profitability and growth of the business organizations, especially in the
retail sector. The retail organizations liked Tesco has face both positive and negative
outcomes of globalization that has affected its business operations at a great extent. Thus,
this research study will further discover on what are the key challenges and opportunities
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creates by the globalization to Tesco and how the company has utilized the benefits of
globalization in attaining higher success and growth in the global market place.
RESEARCH APPROACH AND METHODOLOGY
The research methodology and approaches are the core elements of a research project. The
research subject and objectives should be considered while designing and selecting the
research methodology and approach. The selection of appropriate methodology and
approach is very important to meet the research objectives successfully (Walliman, 2017).
Therefore, a descriptive research design will be used in this research to determine the most
appropriate methodology and approaches to this research. The philosophy of interpretivism
will be followed to examine the opinions and assumptions of the human group in relation to
the influence of globalization on retail organizations (Tuohy, et al., 2013). The case study
strategy is attempted to investigate the influence of globalization on the retail industry in
the context of the case of Tesco organization. By following the case study strategy the
inductive research approach will be used in the research with the utilization of mixed
research technique. The mixed research approach is deemed to be more suitable for this
research to collect in-depth data and insightful understanding of the research subject and
topic. This research study will be based on the mixed research approach and will utilize both
qualitative and quantitative methods to collect primary and secondary data for the study
(Terrell, 2012). The qualitative approach would enable in obtaining conceptual knowledge in
relation to the research topic while the quantitative approach would provide with the latest
knowledge and understanding of the globalisation and its positive and negative effects on
the retail organisations.
The qualitative research would support in collecting the secondary data based on the
existing information and researches. The data collected from the qualitative research would
further support in designing the primary data collection tool to collect relevant primary data
for the research. The qualitative data will be collected through literature review while the
quantitative data will be collected through applying the method of questionnaire survey
(Kumar, 2019). The questionnaire survey is the easiest and promising data collection tool
that facilitates in collecting a large number of data within fewer times and resources as
compared to other methods of data collection. The questionnaire will be performed among
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the workers and customers of Tesco to collect their opinion and ideas regarding in relation
to the research topic (McCusker and Gunaydin, 2015). A set of around 6-7 questions will be
asked from the sample population of around 30. The sample population will be selected by
using the simple random sampling technique where every employee and customer have
equal chances of getting selected for the survey. Moreover, the collected quantitative data
will be analyzed by using the technique of frequency analysis to analyze the research
outcomes accurately and present in a systematic manner.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
Research ethics are very essential to ensure that the study is performed in the legal and
appropriate manner that does not harm anybody. For ensuring the ethical compliance of the
research the key ethical areas are highly considered in this study; privacy protection,
informed consent, data protection, and health and safety of the involved participants. The
involved participants will be primarily informed about the nature, subject and use of
research outcomes (Noble and Smith, 2015). The collected data will be securely held to
avoid a threat to personal information. Moreover, the information collected from the
secondary source will be properly referenced to protect the personal rights of the authors.
RESEARCH TIME PLAN
A research study is a long process that incorporates different activities and resources to
successfully complete them within the desired time. In order to align and complete all the
research activities effectively within the desired time, it is important to formulate an
effective time plan for the research. The research time plan serves as a great tool to manage
all the research activities and ensure that the study is going in the right direction. This
research study is planned to complete within the next 11 weeks after the preparation of the
proposal (Terrell, 2012). For having a clear understanding of the time and resources for
performing different research activities a Gantt chart is developed.
A research Gantt chart facilitates designing and scheduling the research activities against
time. It provides a great tool for systematic planning of the complex research procedure.
The Gantt chart for this research study is presented below:
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REFERENCES
 Alexander, N. and Doherty, A.M., 2010. International retail research: focus,
methodology and conceptual development. International Journal of Retail &
Distribution Management, 38(11/12), pp.928-942.
 Bowen, H.P., Baker, H.K. and Powell, G.E., 2015. Globalization and diversification
strategy: A managerial perspective. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 31(1),
pp.25-39.
 Cavusgil, S.T., Knight, G., Riesenberger, J.R., Rammal, H.G. and Rose, E.L., 2014.
International business. Pearson Australia.
 Ch, A., Faheem, M. H., Dost, M. K. B and Abdullah, I., 2011. Globalization and its
Impacts on the World Economic Development. International Journal of Business and
Social Science, vol. no, 2, no. 23.
 Cincera, M. and Ravet, J., 2014. Globalisation, industrial diversification and
productivity growth in large European R&D companies. Journal of productivity
analysis, 41(2), pp.227-246.
 Croucher, R. and Cotton, E., 2011. Global unions, global business: Global union
federations and international business. Libri Publishing.
 Foster, M.J. and Noh, T.J., 2013. Tesco strikes out into Asia. Frontiers of Business
Research in China, 7(2), pp.289-310.
 Foster, M.J. and Noh, T.J., 2013. Tesco strikes out into Asia. Frontiers of Business
Research in China, 7(2), pp.289-310.
 Homann, K., 2016. Globalisation from a business ethics point of view. In
Globalisation and business ethics (pp. 15-22). Routledge.
 Kolk, A. and Van Tulder, R., 2010. International business, corporate social
responsibility and sustainable development. International business review, 19(2),
pp.119-125.
 Kumar, R. 2019. Research methodology: A step-by-step guide for beginners. Sage
Publications Limited.
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 Kuruvilla, S. and Ranganathan, A., 2010. Globalisation and outsourcing: confronting
new human resource challenges in India's business process outsourcing industry.
Industrial Relations Journal, 41(2), pp.136-153.
 McCusker, K., and Gunaydin, S., 2015. Research using qualitative, quantitative or
mixed methods and choice based on the research. Perfusion, 30(7), 537-542.
 Michie, J. ed., 2011. The handbook of globalisation. Edward Elgar Publishing.
 Noble, H. and Smith, J., 2015. Issues of validity and reliability in qualitative
research. Evidence-based nursing, 18(2), pp.34-35.
 Terrell, S. R. 2012. Mixed-methods research methodologies. The qualitative
report, 17(1), 254-280.
 Tesco Plc, 2019. About us. Online available at https://www.tescoplc.com/about-us/
last accessed on 12th June 2019.
 Tuohy, D., Cooney, A., Dowling, M., Murphy, K., & Sixsmith, J. (2013). An overview of
interpretive phenomenology as a research methodology. Nurse researcher, 20(6).
 Villaverde, J. and Maza, A., 2011. Globalisation, growth and convergence. The World
Economy, 34(6), pp.952-971.
 Walliman, N., 2017. Research methods: The basics. Routledge.
 Wrigley, N. and Lowe, M., 2010. The globalization of trade in retail services.
Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
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