Statistics and Research Methods for Business Decision

Question: Discuss about the statistics and research methods for business decision. Answer: Introduction: Coffee regarded as the second largest product market of the globe. In addition, it is expected that it will continue to grow in the near future as well. Peoples love for the coffee has encouraged the caf and coffee shop market to grow at a rapid pace over the past couple of decades. The increase in the popularity of caf shops observed all over the world. Australia is also not an exception, as caf industry owes it to the nations love for the coffee. Therefore, the study will focus on the caf and coffee industry to analyze the kind of economical impact it is making on the society. The study will also try to focus on the future perspectives of the coffee and caf shops to have an idea about the potential of the industry. Background of the study: In the past few years, huge amount of investment was made on the development of the caf industry in the Australian market. As a result, people are getting more and more attracted towards the caf shops to spend their leisure time. This in turn is creating positive impact in the path of success for the coffee and caf industry. However, the growth in the caf industry in Australia is becoming more and more stagnant from the year of 2010. Therefore, it is creating concern for the industry to consider. Significance of the study: As mentioned earlier, the growth in the caf industry is getting stagnant for the past few years. Therefore, the study will try to analyze all the aspects of the caf industry so that it can able to provide idea about the future positioning of the coffee and caf industry. Furthermore, the study will try to analyze the kind of challenges the caf industry has to face in near future in order to maintain its position in the market. Research aim and objectives: The prime aim of the study is to identify the factors that are creating adverse impact on the path of growth in the caf industry in Australia. Therefore, for fulfilling the aim, the study will focus on the following objectives: To analyze total market size of the caf industry in Australia To analyze the market trend regarding the growth in caf industry in Australia To identify the prime factors that are creating adverse impact on the path of growth in caf industry To forecast future growth of caf industry in the Australian market To evaluate the expected challenges that caf industry will have to face in order to maintain its position in the Australia market Research questions: Formulation of research question is very important, as it helps the researcher to direct the research study in the right direction. The research questions of the study are as follows: What is the present market size of the caf industry in Australia? What is the present market trend regarding the growth in caf industry in Australia? What are the prime factors that are creating adverse impact on the path of growth in caf industry? What may be the effective strategy for the future growth of caf industry in Australian market? What kind of challenges the caf industry will have to face in order to maintain its position in the Australian market? Literature review: Overview of caf industry: As per the article by Wakefield et al. (2013) caf shop industry in Australia includes more than 7,000 stores with a combined revenue of around 1100 million. The industry has almost 70,000 employments all over Australia. However, the caf industry is concentrated highly at the top and vastly fragmented at the bottom. As a result, top 30 caf organizations have able to capture almost 72% of the entire market share in Australia. Therefore, prime competition takes place right at the top in case of caf industry. Clifford (2012) highlighted that coffee among the popular products, as it is consumed throughout the world. It also mentioned that the major production of coffee took place in the Latin American countries like Brazil, Vietnam and Colombia. As a result, most of the coffee used in the cafs is imported from different part of the world. In Australia, consumption of coffee is very high. As per the article by Raghu and Shyamsundar (2013) an average coffee drinkers in Australia consumes al most 3.5 glass in a day. Thus, it helps the industry to grow at a rapid pace in Australia. Customer overview: As per the study by Hattox (2014) 18 to 45 years is the prime age group that create major impact in the businesses of caf industry. However, as caf are becoming bigger, supplementary food items are now also found in the caf shops, which have major contribution in attracting younger people or the teenagers towards the coffee shops. According to Tjora and Scambler (2013) caf industry has able to cope up with the changes in culture, which help the industry to grow as a rapid pace. However, Mishra (2013) mentions that too much investment on the development of highly comfortable caf and coffee shops have made some places extremely costlier. Therefore, it does affect the overall sale of the industry. Market segmentation: Figure 1: Market Analysis (Source: Weschenfelder et al. 2015) The above figure highlights the fact that majority portion of sale in caf are occurred due to the popularity among the students. On the other hand, the figure also highlights that senior people are not so much addicted to the comparatively new market sensation like caf industry. Therefore, Li and Wang (2014) mentions that there is still huge portion of the market are left for the caf and coffee industry in order to increase sale. In fact, as per the article by Elder, Lister and Dauvergne (2014) if caf and coffee shops are able to attract older generation more towards the caf, it will increase the overall sale of the organizations by up to 50%. Thus, it highlights the fact that cafs will have to implement more and more aggressive marketing strategy in order to grab the attention of the potential customer in the society. Market segment strategy: As discussed earlier, there are few segments are left for the caf industry to penetrate in order to enhance the present level of sale. Thus, the organizations will have to impose crucial strategies in order to cover all the segment of the market. As per the article by Benavides (2014) caf and coffee shops not only have to segment the market by age group but also economically as well. Since, Mukashema, Veldkamp and Vrieling (2014) mentions that people belongs to the higher class of the society are more often found in the caf shops as compared to any middle class people of the society. Thus, Lee, You and Chang (2013) highlights that marketer of caf shops will have to focus on the lower class of the people of the society as well in order to enhance the overall revenue of the companies. For instance, Brazinha, Cadima and Crespo (2015) mentions that caf and coffee shops will have to provide quality product at various price level so that everyone of the society can be able to consume it mo re often. Potential factors influence sales in caf and coffee industry: As per the article by Rodrguez et al. (2013) economical condition, age and culture are the prime factors that can have impact on the sales volume of a caf shops. Thus, the article mentions that the organizations will have to consider all the factors in order to maintain a sustainable growth for a longer period of time. However, Fujioka et al. (2015) service quality at the caf shops is another prime factor that can have impact on the overall sales of the caf industry. Since, modern caf are not only focusing on the coffee only but also has included several other supplementary products to grab the attention of the customers. Therefore, it has emerged as a prime competitor of restaurants as well. Thus, service level at the caf shops can have huge amount of impact on the overall business developmental process. Literature gap: From the above discussion, it can be assess that caf industry has able to grow at rapid pace for a longer period of time. In fact, it has emerged as an integral part of life for the students and younger generations, as they spent their most of the time at cafs and coffee shops. However, the rate of growth of caf industry in Australia has not able to maintain its rate of growth since 2010. Therefore, it has started to create a huge amount of negative impact on the present businesses of caf industry. Thus, the study will look to identify and analyze all these factors so that it can able to provide guidance to the caf industry. Research methodology: Outline of the research: Outline of the research is useful in elaborating all the factors of the research study. The outline of the research includes factors like research approach, research design, data collection, data analysis so that the outcome of the research can fulfill its objective. Thus, it outline of the research does provide great level of help to the researcher in order to fulfill the objective of the study. In this study, the researcher will try to analyze all the factors related to the caf industry so that the study can be able to highlight the objective of the study. Thus, to analyze all the factors related to caf and coffee industry, the researcher will choose positivism research philosophy, descriptive research design, and deductive approach. The researcher will also focus on the quantitative as well as qualitative method in order to collect effective information regarding the topic of the study. Thereafter, the researcher will utilize non-probability sampling technique so that the study ca n be able to analyze captured data in an effective way. Research philosophy: Implementation of research philosophy is critical for successful completion of any study. It has three parts namely realism, interpretivism and positivism. In this research topic, the researcher will utilize positivism research philosophy. Since, it will allow the researcher to evaluate different factor caf and coffee industry in a much more effective way. In addition, this research philosophy will assist the researcher to analyze the topic of the research topic in an effective way. Furthermore, the researcher will consider positivism research philosophy, as it will allow the researcher to complete the entire study within the timeframe. The researcher will not consider other research philosophies, as it will make the research process more complex. As a result, the study will require more time to fulfill its aim and objectives. Research approach: Research approach has two parts deductive and inductive approach. For this particular study, the researcher will implement deductive research approach in order to analyze each factor of the research study. Since, the prime aim of the research is to identify the factors that are creating adverse impact on the path of growth in the Australian caf and coffee industry. The deductive research approach has the potential to play a key role in that. The researcher will focus on the deductive approach, as it will allow the researcher to utilize several concept and theories relevant to the research topic. Thus, it will allow the researcher to have an in-depth analysis regarding the caf and coffee industry. In addition, the researcher will also select deductive research approach, as it will help the researcher to gain in-depth knowledge about the study. Therefore, it will benefit the researcher to implement effective research process so that the study can be able to fulfill its objective. Research design: As per the article by Creswell (2013) research design is a significant part of research methodology that helps the researcher to enhance the quality of the study. Research design has three parts, exploratory research design, explanatory research design and descriptive research design. Now, evaluating all the factors related to caf and coffee industry in Australia, the researcher will utilize descriptive research design. For this particular study, the researcher will utilize descriptive research design, as it will assist the researcher define application, approaches and theories relevant to the research topic. Therefore, descriptive design will help the researcher to improve the quality of the research study. In addition, the researcher will consider descriptive research design for this particular study, as it will help the researcher to analyze all the captured information regarding caf and coffee industry so that the study can be able to fulfill its aim and objectives. Furthermore, descriptive design will also allow the researcher to evaluate the future perspectives of the caf and coffee industry. Data collection process: As per the article by Ritchie et al. (2013) data collection is a necessary factor that the researcher will have to perform in order to fulfill the objective of the study. Data collection will allow the research to gather all the information relevant to the research topic. Generally, it has two parts secondary data collection procedure and primary data collection procedure. Now for this particular study, as the researcher focusing on the entire caf and coffee industry of Australia, both primary and secondary data collection procedure will have to consider by the researcher. The research will collect secondary information from different online portals, books, business magazines, trusted websites etc. The researcher will collect secondary information to develop literature review portion of the study. Since, secondary data collection will allow the researcher to utilize various theories and concepts regarding the topic of the study that will create positive impact on the completion of th e research process. On the other hand, the researcher will utilize survey technique in order to collect primary data. The researcher will select 90excutive level of employees from various organizations in caf and coffee industry. The researcher will develop a quantitative questionnaire for capturing information from the executive level of respondents. The researcher will utilize online platform to collect quantitative information from the respondents. The researcher will utilize quantitative data collection technique, as it will help the researcher to identify the trend regarding the caf and coffee industry. In addition, the researcher will select 15 managers from different caf and coffee organizations to capture qualitative information relevant to the topic of the study. The researcher will create another questionnaire that will include open-end questions for the managers. The researcher will utilize face-to-face conversation technique in collect qualitative information regarding t he topic of the study. The researcher will implement this technique for qualitative data collection, as it will help the researcher to evaluate the perspective of the respondents in a much more effective way. Data analysis technique: Data analysis is another significant part that can have huge amount of impact on the successful completion of the study. As per the article by Silverman (2016) for implementing effective data analysis, effective sampling technique will have to be used by the researcher. Generally, sampling technique has two parts, non-probability sampling technique and probability sampling technique. As mentioned earlier, the researcher focuses only on the employees of caf and coffee industry to capture information relevant to the topic of the study. Therefore, the researcher will have to select non-probability sampling technique, as it will help the researcher to focus on any particular group for the collection of effective information relevant to the research topic. Furthermore, the researcher will utilize various statistical tools in order to analyze captured information in an effective way. The research will utilize statistical tools like mode, mean and median in order to evaluate the captured in formation so that the study can be able to meet its objective. Furthermore, as the researcher will utilize both primary and secondary data for caf and coffee industry, statistical tools like regression and correlation also will have to utilize by the researcher. The researcher will utilize statistical tools, as it has the capability to enhance the overall quality of the study. Project plan: Figure 1: Gantt chart (Source: As created by the author) Conclusion: As mentioned earlier, caf and coffee industry is considered among the influential industry that has able to grow at a rapid pace for over the years. Therefore, it has become one of the most popular places for the people to enjoy their leisure time. In addition, many business and official meetings are also takes place at various caf centers. Therefore, it highlighted that caf and coffee industry has the potential to grow even further for next few years as well. In Australia as well, caf and coffee shops are very popular. Therefore, it has able to become an integral part of peoples daily life. However, as the study mentioned that the pace of growth for caf and coffee industry in Australia has gone down for the past few years. Therefore, it highlighted that several factors are there that are creating negative impact on the overall development of caf and coffee industry. Thus, the research outcome is expected to identify and evaluate all the factors that are creating adverse impact on th e overall growth in the caf and coffee industry. In addition, it is also expected that the researcher will able to recommend few suggestion for the caf and coffee industry regarding the minimization of the negative factors so that it can able to move further towards the path of growth in future as well. Future work: In this particular research study, the prime focus is to identify the factors that are creating adverse impact on the path of growth for caf and coffee industry in Australia. Therefore, it is expected that the research study will able to identify the factors and will able to evaluate the best possible way to minimize the effect of the factors that are creating adverse impact on the overall study. It is also expected that the research study will able to identify the best possible way that can be able to prolong the growth rate of caf and coffee industry in Australia. As the technology is improving at all the time, it also can have major impact on the development process of caf and coffee industry. Therefore, it is expected that the study will able to identify the best possible use of technology for the continues success of caf and coffee industry in Australia. References: Benavides, P., 2014, January. 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