Globalization in the Context of Walmart: A Business Research Project

Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students. This research project analyzes Walmart's global success.

Research Project
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1..................................................................................................................................................4
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis
supported by a literature review..................................................................................................4
P2 Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and secondary approach
.....................................................................................................................................................6
M1 Evaluate different research approaches and methodology and make justification for the
choice of methods selected based on philosophical/theoretical frameworks..............................7
LO2..................................................................................................................................................8
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a business research
project that consider costs, access and ethical issues..................................................................8
P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools, analyze research findings and data................................9
M2 Discuss merits, limitations and pitfalls of approaches to data collection and analysis.......10
D1 Critically evaluate research methodologies and processes in application to a business
research project to justify chosen research methods and analysis.............................................11
LO3................................................................................................................................................12
P5 Communicate research outcomes in an appropriate manner for the intended audience......13
M3 Coherently and logically communicate outcomes to the intended audience demonstrating
how outcomes meet set research objectives..............................................................................16
D2 Communicate critical analysis of the outcomes and make valid, justified recommendations
...................................................................................................................................................17
LO4................................................................................................................................................20
P4 Reflect on the effectiveness of research methods applied for meeting objectives of business
research project..........................................................................................................................20
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M4 Provide critical reflection an insight those results in recommended actions for
improvements and future research considerations.....................................................................24
D3 Demonstrate reflection and engagement in the resource process leading to recommended
actions for future improvement.................................................................................................25
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................26
References:....................................................................................................................................27
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Introduction
In this report, “Globalization in context of Walmart” is the topic of research. Advancement in the
development of industry, communication combination and transportation with the people for
work together has changed the world into global village. Here will be findings on the Walmart
that is a retail giant that is based in the UK is sustaining the presence of them globally by the
hard work, commitment and wise strategies. This report describes the necessary business process
that is employed by the Walmart and the profit that is achieved by them. Because of
globalization occurrence, that make sure sales boost successfully. This will also define the global
operations of Walmart that affects the profitability and financial liquidity. Negative impact of the
globalization will also discuss here. Barriers in the globalizations will also describe in this
assessment and methodologies and approaches for the data collection and analysis are mentioned
in the report.
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LO1
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis
supported by a literature review
Title- Globalization in the context of “Walmart”
Background information- Walmart Inc. is a multinational retail corporation that is in America
and runs a chain of discount department stores, hypermarkets, and grocery stores. It also has
headquarters in Arkansas and Bentonville. This company was founded in 1962 by Sam Walton
and it was combined on 31st October 1969. CEO of this company is Doug Mcmillon. It has
11,277 stores all over the world. Also, it deals with the products such as home and furniture,
electronics, clothing, health and beauty, home improvement, sporting goods and fitness, movies
and music, jewelry, Craft supplies, pet supplies, grocery etc. it is the largest employer worldwide
with the 2.3 million employees (Kullberg, and Braekkan, 2018).
Walmart is known as globalization’s poster child as it got affected by the changes through
globalization. Walmart’s success is depended on its deeply held values, corporate value,
management expertise, and philosophies. In the forty years of operations, Walmart has got
affected by the globalization factors. It Walmart had an economy of its own, then it would be
standing at par of Saudi Arabia.
Problem statement- In this era of competition, there are many companies who are in
competition with Walmart. 19% sales of Walmart relies on international operations so without
the help of globalization forces there can be no growth of Walmart. This would not be possible
advances in transportation, economic liberalization, supply chain, and logistics and technology
etc.
Aims and objectives-
- To determine the reasons for establishing the Walmart as a popular and successful global
corporate giant.
- For the benefits of Walmart from various factors of globalization and the negative effects.
- Strategies by the company for financial performance (Atkin, et. al., 2018)
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Significance
Walmart is the largest retail company worldwide and this is much larger than all its competitors
in the world. It runs more than 3,500 supercenters and discount stores. Location of the first outlet
of Walmart for the year of 2001 to 2002 in the Fortune Global 500 had a turnover of 219.81
billion dollars. This company sells the product online also through the websites
www.walmart.com.
Methodology- This research project consists of a descriptive research design.
 Sampling
These samples are using to fulfilling the study. More than 100 samples were taken but only 20-
30 samples were taken into consideration.
 Database
This database consists of quantitative and qualitative method. The qualitative method consists of
data collection by the primary sources for example questionnaire and interview method. A
quantitative method consisting of information gathering by the secondary sources for example
magazines, internet, and journals.
Rationale of selection
This topic is selected for the research for developing the understanding of globalization in the
context of Walmart. It is necessary for the company to maintain themselves among the
competitors in the market (Danyluk, 2018)
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P2 Examine appropriate research methods and approaches to primary and secondary
approach
In the context of globalization, Walmart has used the primary and secondary approaches for this
research. These approaches are here as defined below-
Primary research- It is the research that includes the original work and it is conducted by the
team that collects and examines the information from the design problem. For example- if
Walmart wants to know the customer’s feedback about their products then they can conduct a
survey in that region about what customers think.
Secondary research- It is contrary to the primary research and it is conducted originally by
someone else. After the research, there is the same study as primary research that has been
performed and findings and research can be used for the overall goal.
For the accomplishment of the aim of the research, secondary methods are adopted by the
researcher. Here are the approaches for this (Fauser, 2018).
 This research will approach the impact and the results of the globalization on the
organization Walmart. The concentration is on the strategies that are applied by Walmart for
remaining successful and gain the results in the market out of globalization.
 For judging the Walmart’s financial performance during the year 2007-2011. Profitability
and liquidity of Walmart are recommended and determined that were offered for the
improvements possible.
 This research also needed concentration and plenty of time with the gathered data and
information. Data can be gathered by different resources like internet articles, newspapers,
annual reports, reference books, and business magazines etc.
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M1 Evaluate different research approaches and methodology and make justification for
the choice of methods selected based on philosophical/theoretical frameworks
There are many different approaches for procedure and planning including detailed data
collection method, interpretation and analysis. It is depended on the research problem nature that
is being talked. There are also four types of research methods that are- correlational, descriptive,
experimental and quasi-experimental. This research don’t begin with the hypothesis but produces
after the data collection. This research regulates the reasons for establishing the Walmart as a
popular and successful corporate business (Turban, et. al., 2018).
There are also used the research methodologies that is a systematic plan for doing the research.
There is variety of quantitative and qualitative research methods consisting of survey research,
experiments, secondary data and participant observation etc. There are some methodologies
depended on the theoretical framework that are- sampling, designing, data collection and data
analysis. Use of methodology appropriately or inappropriately can be misleading for the
research. There are three types of methodology that are- quantitative, qualitative, and mixed
methods. Some specific methods consisting of array of options like self-reporting, case studies
and surveys etc. within the broad categories.
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LO2
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods for a business
research project that consider costs, access and ethical issues.
Research doesn’t include data collection from the candidates. There is a large amount of data that
is gathered by the information system of routine management and research activities or surveys.
Existing data can also be identified for producing answer research questions critically or new
hypothesis. This saves money, lots of time and other resources. Data that are collected from large
surveys can be of population representative and higher quality. It also avoids resource wastage
and research repetition through the existing researches detailed exploration and making sure that
hard to gain the population and sensitive topics are not researched over. There are primary and
secondary research that considers access, cost and ethical issues by using appropriate methods as
mentioned-
Access- If the client’s data has no information to identify or is devoid of the information
completely and coded properly so that no one can access to the codes then it doesn’t need ethical
board review. If the data includes the participant’s identifying information or the information that
is linked to participants identification of complete review proposal by the board. If the data is
available freely on the books, internet, and another public forum, permission for analysis and
further use is implied (Fossats-Vasselin, and Mayrhofer, 2018).
Costs- For costs, there is analysis, participants incentives, reporting and product marketing will
affect the budget. Conversely, for quantitative research, the price can widely range from $15,000
to $100,000 in the $30,000 to $55,000. For analysis through primary and secondary research list
the activities, cost each item, check the rules, make a spreadsheet and justify it.
Ethical issues- There are no such ethical issues possibly included in outsourcing the data from
secondary sources. It is the duty of the researcher to maintain the information authenticity for not
manipulating it according to convenience. There should be nothing negative about Walmart in
the business.
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P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools, analyze research findings and data
The appropriate analytical tool is described as maps, a series of charts, and diagrams that are
designed for interpreting, collecting and presenting the data for various industries and
applications. Different methodologies and programs have been established for using it in
industry, wide-ranging of quality assurance and manufacturing for data collection and research
groups companies. Here are some analytical tools as mentioned-
Control chart- By using a graph for the study of changing the process over time. Comparison of
present data to control limits that is for results about consistency or unpredictability of process
variations.
Box and Whisker plot- This tool is used for analyzing and displaying the variation data’s
multiple sets on a single graph (Bland, and Ross, 2018).
Histogram- This is commonly most used for the distribution of frequency or how every unique
value in a data set occurs often.
Check sheet- It is a generic tool that is adapted for purposes variety and it is a prepared and
structured form for analyzing and collecting the data.
Design of experiments (DOE) - It is a method for planned experiments carefully on a
procedure. Design of experiments usually includes experiments series that is started by looking
at many variables great and concentrating on the critical ones.
Stratification- It is a technique that splits the gathered data from different sources for the pattern
that can be seen.
Scatter diagram- It includes a diagram that has pairs of the graph of numerical data, on every
axis, there is one variable for a relationship.
Survey- There is data collection from the people’s targeted groups about the behavior, opinions,
and knowledge (Mishra, and Schmidt, 2018).
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M2 Discuss merits, limitations and pitfalls of approaches to data collection and analysis
There are some merits, pitfalls and limitations of the data collection and analysis of the
approaches that are mentioned here-
Merits:
-It is relevant to the research topic so the result accuracy is high.
-It can be gathered from the sources like telephone surveys, interviews and focus groups etc.
-It is low cost and its datasets can’t be accessed.
Limitations:
-It collects superficial and much narrower dataset.
-There are limited results because they offer numerical descriptions than the thorough narrative.
-It also offer human perceptions less intricate accounts (Maswood, 2018).
Pitfalls:
-There is indecorous illustration of the targeted population
-There is less resources of data collection
-Not able to controlling the environment
-Limited results in quantitative research
-Time consuming and expensive
-Data analysis difficulty
-extra resources need for analyzing the results
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D1 Critically evaluate research methodologies and processes in application to a business
research project to justify chosen research methods and analysis
The research methodologies describes the kind of research for underpinning the methods for
collecting the data. Here is used the secondary data that is quantitative for measuring the
variables and verifying the existing hypothesis or theories or questioning. Data is used often to
produce new hypothesis that depends on data collection results about various variables. Statistics
collection and number crunching are not for the beliefs, meanings and experience by the
qualitative data. It is also gathered with the selected research vehicles and questions of research.
Number production is also guided for the qualitative research data (Ahn, 2018).
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