Impact of New Technologies on Tesco's Productivity and Profitability

This research project, titled "To analyse the impact of applying new technologies in organization and its effect on developing the productivity and profitability of the company," examines the case of Tesco plc. The study begins with an introduction highlighting the significant impact of digital tools and technologies on business operations, emphasizing their role in driving productivity and profitability. The project is structured into four tasks. Task 1 focuses on producing a research proposal with a clear research question, objectives, and a supporting literature review, examining factors for technology adoption, effectiveness of new technologies, and potential issues during implementation. Task 2 involves conducting primary and secondary research using appropriate methods, considering costs, access, and ethical issues, and applying analytical tools to interpret the findings. Task 3 focuses on communicating the research outcomes effectively to the intended audience. Finally, Task 4 reflects on the effectiveness of the research methods and considers alternative methodologies and lessons learned. The research aims to analyze the impact of new technologies, ascertain factors aiding technology implementation, analyze its effectiveness, identify implementation issues, and provide recommendations for enhancing productivity and profitability. The literature review emphasizes the advantages of technology in enhancing competitive advantages, improving communication, and monitoring business productivity. The project also discusses the challenges and issues associated with change implementation and the importance of effective communication and planning.

RESEARCH
PROJECT

Contents
TITLE..............................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis
supported by a literature review.............................................................................................3
P2 Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and secondary research
................................................................................................................................................9
TASK 2..........................................................................................................................................10
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a business
research project that considers costs, access and ethical issues...........................................10
P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools, analyse research findings and data.........................13
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................21
P5 Communicate research outcomes in an appropriate manner for the intended audience. 21
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................22
P6 Reflect on the effectiveness of research methods applied for meeting objectives of the
business research project......................................................................................................22
P7 Consider alternative research methodologies and lessons learnt in view of the outcome’s 23
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................23
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................24

TITLE
“To analyse the impact of applying new technologies in organisation and its effect on
developing the productivity and profitability of the company”. A case study on Tesco plc.
INTRODUCTION
Digital tools and technologies is having a deep impact on the activities which are going in
the company. They have brought a vast change in the way business is conducted. Earlier all the
functions of the companies were conducted as per the traditional models but now it has been
modified and organisations are more interested in doing all the activities in digitalized manner as
they believe hat through this they will be able to gain more amount of profits in less time
(Camisón and Villar-López, 2014). These technologies are also considered in trend and that is
why it is being implemented by each and every company so that they can achieve high
profitability and productivity in the company. Only, it is required to be made sure that these
technologies should help the company to achieve their gains and objectives of the company.
TESCO plc is a multinational company which is doing their operations all around the
world in an effective and efficient manner but there is scope of improvement in every company
and TESCO can also bring changes in the company if they will implement new and innovative
techniques in the company. For this, the organisation will have to go through a systematic
process which the management will conduct so that changes can be brought in the company in an
effective manner.
TASK 1
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis supported
by a literature review
It can be said that there are so many tools and technologies which are being implemented
in the business environment and because of these companies are achieving high amount of
growth and profitability in the marketplace as well. Since there are so many kinds of
technologies so companies can implement it as per their needs and wants as it is very essential
for them to implement new and innovative technologies which matches with the activities
performed in the company so that positive changes can be brought in the market. In context with
TESCO, they are doing their operations all around the world and thus they need to find new and

innovative ways to do their business so that all of their activities can be conducted in more
proper manner.
It is a big sized company so their main purpose will be to gain more and more amount of
profits so that they can earn more amount of profits and gain a strong customers base as well.
These technological advancements will help them in taking more challenges and opportunities
which are present in the marketplace so that they can achieve growth and development in an
effective manner. TESCO plc is also thinking in a broad manner to implement new tools and
technologies in the company so that growth can be achieved in the marketplace. Through this,
they will be able to face the competition which is present in the market and compete with their
rivals as well. With the help of technologies, TESCO will also be able to get to know about the
needs and wants of the customers and they can make use of it to produce and gather products
according to that itself.
It is very important for the companies to make use of innovative and creative
technologies in the company because through this skills and abilities of the employees will be
enhanced and issues which are present in the business will be solved by this as well. It is also
required that the researcher should have proper knowledge about the topic and so that research
project can be conducted in effective manner and goals of the company can be achieved as well
(Epstein 2018). It is also considered crucial for every company to attract more and more
customers towards their company so that they can gain maintain an appropriate image in the
market. This will be effective for them in gaining more and more profits of the company in the
marketplace as well. In TESCO plc, technologies can help them in segregating variety of their
products as per the needs of the customers and they will not have to face any kind of trouble in
searching for the products they want.
Research Aim
The essential aim for this particular research is - “To analyse the impact of applying new
technologies in organisation and its effect on developing the productivity and profitability of the
company”. A case study on TESCO plc.
Research Objectives
The questions which are prepared for this research project are as follows:
 To ascertain the factors which help in applying new technologies in the company.

 To analyse the effectiveness of new technologies in improving the performance of the
organisation
 To identify several issues which a company goes through while bringing new changes at
the workplace To provide recommendations about the usage of digital technologies through which
companies can gain higher productivity and profitability.
Research Question1. The questions which are being prepared in the research project are as follows:2. What are the ways to ascertain the factors which help in applying new technologies in the
company?3. How to analyse the effectiveness of new technologies in improving the performance of
the organisation?4. How to identify several issues which a company goes through while bringing new
changes at the workplace?5. Provide recommendations about the usage of digital technologies through which
companies can gain higher productivity and profitability?
Literature review
Literature review provide in depth knowledge and understanding of specific topic. For
performing an effective research many things and factors are required.
Factors which will help the company in application of new and improved technologies
According to Hakansson (2014) says that, technology advances provides competitive
advantages to the company. It helps in establishing a new and innovative process for conducting
their activities in an efficient and effective manner. Technology adaptation is increasing day by
day, so it is very necessary for company to adopt advance technology. Being a multinational
grocery store Tesco PLC should adopt new technology which can help in enhancing their
productivity and profitability. New technology will help company in many ways like in
improving communication with stakeholders, providing better and enhanced services or products
to potential consumers. There are some factors which company should consider while
implementation of new and advance technology.
Conduct a need assessment: Company should first analyse the need for adopting or
implementing the new and advancement technology. They should determine whether it will be a

perfect solution for solving the existing problems or not. For this Tesco should determine that
will it be successful in achieving productivity and probability as per the strategies made by them.
The following are the factors which helps in adaptation of technology:
Inappropriate sales performance: Company needs to adopt advance technology to
improve the sales performance because the present technology is not that much profitable for the
company. Tesco has to adopt different technology which can help them to cater more and more
clients for providing their products and services. They can use technology which can improve
customer relationship management, collaborate entire sales team etc. It will improve and enhance
their profitability of company.
Inefficiency in production process: Production process of company depends upon the
technology used by the company. If manufacturing process is effective and efficient then it will
provide good quality of goods and services to consumers at lower cost (Jones, 2013). Company
needs to change this process when it is not profitable for company and producing small number
of units at higher cost to company. In this case Tesco needs to adopt such technology that can
give them high quality of product at economic rate. Technology helps company to use rare
resources in an effective manner and assist in achieving economies of scale.
Hence, all above mention factors will help Tesco to identify needs for adopting and
implementing advance technology.
Analysing the effectiveness of new technologies in improving its performance in the market?
According to Čuček, Klemeš and Kravanja (2012) says that, performance of company
plays an important role in success of the company. Good and efficient performance of
organisation helps in accomplishing the goals and objectives in a productive and profitable
manner. It is a key for maintaining a successful enterprise. Performance of a company depends
upon the technology and processes adopted by company or management. It has benefits in
improving performance like it provides open communication environment, motivates employees
by adding skills and knowledge, analyse performance and keep track on it. This will help
workforce of company to use their full potential for giving best and high level of output. All
these factors will help in improving productivity as it engage employee, increase loyalty among
subordinates and make them productive. Technology has the following roles in improvement of
business performance:

Access to information: Employees need a lot of information for performing their roles
and responsibilities in an efficient manner which increases performance of business. For this
technology will help Tesco to implement such network which can create effective flow of
required information to all employees. This will assist in building employee engagement and
they will provide better services to their customers by having enough information to satisfy
them.
Monitor business productivity: Technologies in an organisation keeps track on
performance of employees and management in order to attainment of goals and objectives. It
helps Tesco to track performance deadline and accomplishment of task. Technology provide s
continuous learning to employees which improves their level of skills and knowledge for
enhancing their performance. This learning will motivate employees to work hard by using their
full capacity.
The issues which a company goes through while bringing new changes at the workplace
According to Laforet, (2013) says that, changes are not always comes only with
advantages for organisations. Implementing changes at workplace faces some issues which can
have major or minor effects on organisation. If these change issues are at large scale then it can
impact the future. As changes are necessary for future growth and due to these issues can act as
barriers to company. These issues can arise from improper planning to implement change as
inefficient planning creates problems. For this management needs to identify what changes are
going to take place. For this company needs to delegate specific and clear roles and
responsibility to employees as that all changes can take place in an pre decided manner. While
implementing changes company needs to analyse difficulties. Low consensus among employees
related to implementation of changes at workplace is also an major issues. If Tesco fails to
convene all the employees for corporate changes then top level management will face hurdles in
bringing changes. Managers should explain employees that how the implementation of changes
will be helpful for all. Inefficient communication with employees creates confusion and
indiscipline at workplace (Schaltegger, Lüdeke-Freund and Hansen, 2012). All the employees
and workers wants to know what is happening in their company. This leads to create felling of
uncertainty when they are not part of decision making process. So they resist implementation of
changes at workplace. To minimise the effect of this issue management has to keep updating

their staff for the process of bringing changes in organisation. They should also involve
employees in decision making process.
This long time and huge money includes opportunity cost that the company will have.
Company needs to analyse all cost and returns which will occur by implementing changes. Some
of these issues can impact the profitability and productivity of organisation. To reduce the impact
from these issues management should have effective and efficient communication with all those
employees and individuals who will get affected from these changes.
Recommendation about the usage of digital technologies through which companies can gain
higher productivity and profitability
Digital technology are beneficial for organisations as it use different digital resources and
platforms to effectively communicate, use, create and analyse the information in digital form. It
consists of using digital, web and programming tools which helps in enhancing profitability and
productivity. It creates new business models to increase values in conducting business activities,
enhances consumer experience etc. use of digital technology will help Tesco in accomplishment
of objectives and goals by using innovative ways which improves employee engagement and
communication. Tesco can implement consumer friendly website, online platforms and can do
tie up with payment gateway for providing easy payment process to their customers (Mithas and
et. al., 2012). Company can use digital platforms for promotion and advertisement of their
products and services to large number of customers. By using this they will have chances to
increase their market share as digital technology provides wider reach to company. This will
increase profitability of the company as more customers will attract to purchase their goods and
services. Management can automate, measure and analyse the marketing activities done by
marketing department. Organisation can identify the impact of using social media platforms,
electronic media, websites, applications on their profitability and productivity. This provides
security to information and data of consumers as these are the most important part for every
organisation. Digital technology helps company in saving time as it provides fast and easy
process in transaction and other management activities.
Thus, it helps in time management. Higher amount of data can be process in less amount
of time.

P2 Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and secondary research
It is the systematic and logical way to solve a problem. It is considered as the science of
studying and analysing that how much research has been done till now. It is the procedure by
which researcher go for describing, explaining and analysing phenomenon. It is also known as
plan which gives about how to conduct and results could we get out of the following research.
Research design is the most important component of the research methodology.
Type of research
Research is a systematic process that describe and explain all the aspects of the a
particular phenomena. This helps in understanding particular concept of the circumstances. It is
very useful to do research as it helps in filling the small gaps of the knowledge. There are two
types of research which are explained above
Qualitative research-This is the scientific method that gather all type of non numeric
data and then analyse them specifically. The main focus of this research is to give reason behind
every information so that concept could become more clear to the researcher. This helps in
determining the in depth knowledge of the particular subject (Christensen, 2013). So this is very
helpful in making planning of making various projects. In this the researcher always tries to
understand the motivation and belief integrated in the matter while studying the particular
subject. There are various kinds of qualitative research methods which are user to gather
different information and are interviews, focus group, ethnographic research, content
analysis,case study research etc. These research are based on open ended questions gives focus
of the individual experiences of a person and its belief.
Quantitative research-This research is used in analysing and collection of various data
from the different sources. It include kinds of mathematical tool like computation and stats etc.
The type of data produced in these kinds of research are numerical only .This type of research
include structure method and various observation are taken by using surveys and questionnaires.
generally these type of research are carried out for system engineering purpose because
numerical calculation are always required for technical purpose (BolíVar-Ramos and et. al.,
2012). The various types of quantitative research are longitudinal and cross sectional surveys,
correlation research, comparative research, experimental research etc.
Data sampling - Different set of data collection from the population is known as data
sample,sampling is used for analysing larger population by taking small number of observation.

In management process sampling is helps in marketing research. There are various types of
sampling stratified, systematic, cluster, multistage, snowball sampling etc. This is the most easy
part of the research but if wrong sample are collected then if would make overall research and
analysis totally wrong (Sekaran and Bougie, 2016).So highest amount of accuracy and
knowledge is needed while selecting the sample. It needs larger amount of time,resources and
money for achieving the best results so not a cost effective method of doing research.
Data collection
This is a process of gathering accurate information and measuring all related variables to
obtain best result. It enables to researcher for acquiring relevant questions, assessing outcomes
and future uncertainty. Data can be collect from two type of methods primary and secondary
method. Primary data refers to fresh information which never assemble before through any
organization or person. In this approach, investigator finds facts and reliable guidance
independently. They need to clear about related terminologies, sample size and statistical units
for analysing information (Schaltegge and Wagner, 2017). For accomplishing this problem
solving program, organization may cater more time and cost to reach a faithful results.
Secondary data Under this process, contents are already available through previous
research. Investigator does study on the bases of collected accumulation such as local newspaper,
business magazines, financial reports and government agencies. It consumes less time and
provides relevant information about related problems.
TASK 2
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a business research
project that considers costs, access and ethical issues
In order to collect and gather accurate amount of data, in which there are generally two
types of an investigation such as primary and secondary data. In the regard of primary research,
questionnaire will be used by researcher in order to collect reliable and valid data about the
impact of applying new technologies in organisation and its effect on developing the productivity
and profitability of the company. On the other hand, secondary research is also used by an
investigator in collecting in depth information about the topic with the help of books, journals,
articles and publications of investigation and many more. Thus, both types of data methods or

sources are valuable or useful for researcher in accumulating data and information. There are
some important and appropriate methods which are determined as under:
Costs – It is one of the main method which required by an investigator in order to
complete research functions and activities in successful manner. Along with this, cost is an
important factor that directly effect on researcher in order to make and develop decisions about
selection of accurate method of investigation. For example, by implementing primary method
researcher required to have adequate amount of capital and time due to gather new data and
information from market.
Ethical issues – This should be managed and handled carefully through research at the
time of collecting accurate data and information. In this, objectives and aim are clearly described
to each respondents of the investigation. Respondents are participated in the research and it is
provide appropriate views and opinions of withdrawing from investigation whenever they
required. In addition to this, research ethics are used to make sure about results of study are
determined to be accurate and robust. There are some research ethics principles such as informed
consent, anonymity and confidentiality. Such principles should be follow by an investigator
because without this, they can not complete research functions and activities in effective manner.
Thus, all the methods and techniques are essential for an investigator in order to collect
primary and secondary method regarding investigation topic. For this, questionnaire will be
developed and prepared by an investigator in order to gather and collect reliable or valid data
regarding topic. There are two types of sampling methods namely random sampling and non
random sampling.
Questionnaire
Q1) Are you familiar with the concept of cloud technology?
a) Agree
b) Disagree
Q2) Does implementing technology helps in the growth of TESCO?
a) Yes
b) No
Q3) What are the main challenges faced by company while implementing new technology?
a) Lack of employees support
b) Change is expensive

c) Lack of availability of resources
Q4) What are the main benefits of implementing new technology?
a) Growth of company
b) Makes work easier
c) Increase in productivity
Q5) What are the main types of technology form can implement in Tesco?
a) Cloud technology
b) Mobile technology
c) Internet of things
d) Social media
Q6) Does digital technology helps in attaining higher growth of productivity?
a) Yes
b) No
Q7) Does new technology helps business to expand their business operations?
a) Yes
b) No
Q8) What are the major products sold by Tesco?
a) Clothing
b) Home products
c) Food and beverage
Q9) Does digital technology helps in attracting large number of customers?
a) Yes
b) No
Q10) Provide recommendation by which firm can maximise their overall sales and Profitability
index?
P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools, analyse research findings and data
Theme: 1 Concept of new technology
Q1) Are you familiar with the concept of new technology? Frequency