Background
A piece of research is always geared towards achieving specific objectives in a specific area of knowledge. According to Hakim (2000, p. 85), a piece of research will always be focused on giving more insights on a given topic within a specified period of time.
In this research, the researcher was interested in conducting a comprehensive research on the market conditions in the electronic industry. The researcher is planning to uncover some of the prevailing conditions of the market of the electronics in the past few years in order to be in a position to predict the future market.
This research will also uncover the level of competition in this industry globally, and in order to put this into perspective, the researcher will use Apple in as a reference firm in this industry.
This research is worth the effort that will be put into it. The electronic industry is one of the fastest developing industries in the world. The electronics are changing the way of life of the humankind.
It is therefore important to conduct a research in this field in order to uncover some facts about the development in this industry. This research will specifically focus on the development of this industry, and the competition firms in the industry face.
As Andrzej & Buchaman (2007) say, the electronic industry is one of the most dynamic industries, and therefore, a frequent research will be vital in helping the players in this industry develop.
This research will be supporting the argument that the electronic industry is one of the most competitive industries, but one with a huge potential that is yet to be achieved.
The need to conduct this piece of research was necessitated by the fact that there are gaps in this field. Researchers are yet to respond to a number of facts in this industry.
This research will uncover the basis of competition in this industry, its effect on different players, and how this may affect the future of the industry (McLaughlin & Aaker 2010, p. 82).
The researcher intends to fill this gap. This piece of research will be conducted with a clear knowledge that other researchers have conducted research in this field and given their report based on their findings.
This research will take into consideration the existing literatures in this field in order to avoid any form of duplication. The research will therefore be intended to develop on the existing literatures in order to give more insight into this field (Handlechner 2008, p. 19).
The research will take into consideration a number of research theories, including research design, and theories of organizational behavior. The research will also involve the use of frameworks and concepts. This will give the research a strong academic background.
Industry Background
In order to have a proper understanding of industry background, it is important to understand the external environment by scanning it. Environmental scanning is one of the best ways through which an individual can assess the potential of a market.
There are three variables in the environment, which are the natural environment, societal environment and task environment. The natural environment variables include the climate, wildlife and physical resources. Societal environment entails economic, political, technological and socio-cultural forces.
Environmental scanning can be done using STEEP Analysis. This involves the analysis of socio-cultural, technological, economic, ecological, and political environments.
To enhance the understanding of this industry, it is important to single out one firm in the industry. This research will be based on Apple as a representative of the electronics industry.
The socio-cultural environment of firms in this industry is diversified. This is because the global market. There are those countries that cherish equality, and women have equal economic strength just as men. In such countries, the firm does not segment the market on the basis of sex, but age (Gountas & Mavudo 2008, p. 38).
The United States is one such country. However, other countries like Saudi Arabia have women as subordinates to men. It forces firms in this industry to target the male members of the society because they have bigger purchasing power. The technological environment of firms in this industry is very dynamic.
Technology in mobile telephony and in computers has been the main challenge and strength of most firms at the same time.
While Apple is left with nightmares of trying to guess what its competitors like the Samsung, Nokia, Motorola and Tecno among others are going to come up with overnight, it has used this technology to emerge as the leader in Smartphone market.
Its recent introduction of iPhones 5 found other firms unawares. The dynamism of technology in this sector has made this firm be seen as the most innovative.
Economically, this industry has had both ups and downs. The industry has been faced with economic recession that hit various countries in the world, especially the US economy which makes its main market.
This had serious negative effects on the Apple’s revenues as many of the customers considered the products as non-basic. However, there have been other seasons why the firm has experienced economic boom in various markets, increasing its revenues.
Currently, the United States, and many other countries making up the market of this firm are experiencing steady economic growth, making it have a favorable economic environment. Politically, this firm has not met challenges in various countries that it operates in (Gerber 2008, p. 45).
The United States of America, where its headquarters are located, is the leading democracy in the world. It has a very stable government that is very supportive of business operations.
China, where the firm does most of its productions, had some small political strife, but not enough to have significant negative impact to the firm. This has seen the firm prosper in most of its undertakings.
There are laws and regulations guiding this industry. Legally, Apple has faced some major challenges. It is currently facing a litigation following the law suit filed by Samsung over copyright infringement on its iPhone 5.
The laws that govern trade in the US, China and many other countries in the world have been very favorable to this firm. This is one of the few cases where this firm is facing serious litigation over infringement of a copyright (Bissoondoyal 2006, p. 113).
In most of its markets, especially in the emerging markets in Africa, parts of Asia and South America, this firm has met very friendly markets with laws that are conducive to foreign technological firms like it.
Research Aim
In every research, it is always important to clearly define aims and objectives. According to Anderson (2004, p. 19), aims are the broader desired outcomes of a given research. They are the long term benefits that such a research should bring to an organization.
This scholar holds that a research should have specific aims that would define its path. It will be clear to all the stakeholders that such a research would be striving to achieve specific outcome in the long run.
This research paper is no exception. The aim of this research paper is to give a report, based on a research, of the electronic industry given the emerging trends in the market.
Research Questions
As stated above, the research questions are always dictated by the research aim. After defining a research aim, it is easier to define research questions and research objectives. The following are the research objectives of this research.
- What are some of the environmental changes in the electronic industry within the last five years?
- What is the level of competition in this industry?
- With focus on the selected firm, how are firms struggling to ensure that they remain competitive in the market?
Objectives
Following the above questions, the researcher developed the following research questions to guide this research.
- To give a clear understanding of the current electronic market with focus on Apple Inc.
- To bring an understanding on the main players in this industry and how they relate.
- To research and report on the impact of technology in this industry.
Research Methodology
This chapter focuses on various aspects of research development. It includes methods of data collection, its analysis and presentation procedures. Every research project applies a certain research method to achieve its objectives depending on its goals (Anderson 2004, p. 67).
In research, design deals primarily with aims, uses, purposes, intentions, and plans within the practical constraints of time, location, money, and availability of staff (Hakim 2000, p. 87). In this study, respondents will be briefed in advance.
This is necessary to ensure that respondents are prepared psychologically for the task ahead. This would also help in ensuring that response was given in time to allow timely analysis. The officials of this firm will be given relevant notice by the researcher.
The study population was also amicably informed in order to get prepared for the study. Briefing was important because it could enhance reliability of the study. It is also ethical to inform people before researching on them (Kothari 2004, p. 26).
The findings will also be made public to the researched as one way of ensuring morality in the study. Furthermore, the researcher will observe researcher-researched ethics by keeping away from criticism.
This chapter will also focus on the literature review as one of the methods used in collection of secondary sources of information. It gives the reason why literature review was used as a method to collect data.
The chapter gives an overview of the purpose of collecting and analyzing data and the basic questions used to gather the desired responses. Alternative methods of data collection are very important in research for they avail to the researcher a number of ways through which data can be collected.
The chapter brings back the research hypotheses. This is important because it is at this stage that the researcher goes into the field to gather information. It is therefore necessary that the research hypotheses are brought to focus because they would be the guiding light in the process of gathering data (Murray 2006, p. 93).
The researcher would be trying to confirm the hypotheses. In order to eliminate criticism, this chapter clearly states the scope of the study. There are limits beyond which this research may not hold because of the method used in data collection and analysis.
It is therefore important that limitations are clearly stated to make it clear to readers of this material how far this research reveals what it purports to.
Since the main method of data collection will be primary source, the questionnaire will be the main instrument used to collect data. This chapter brings out the questionnaire format, reasons for choosing this format, its advantages and disadvantages.
This chapter discusses sampling theories, importance of research design, methods of sampling-giving their advantages and disadvantages, and the determination of the sample size.
Also discussed in this chapter is the data analysis technique. In so doing, the researcher hopes to bring to focus the channel through which data would be collected.
The researcher has ensured that the methodology is not only important to the professionals in this sector, but also to other related sectors such as insurance, marketing, procurement etc.
Quantitative research method
Quantitative research is a kind of study that utilizes figures to arrive at certain conclusions (Hakim 2000, p. 89). In this regard, the research will take the form of a survey, whereby the researcher identifies the sample and posts questionnaires to them.
In this research, there was need to compare variables in order to establish cause and effect. The researcher was interested in knowing how different factors (independent variables) dependent variables.
This demanded for a method that would be objective and able statistically to generalize the findings. Quantitative method was found to be the most appropriate method to use in this research.
Quantitative research involves systematic empirical study of a phenomenon by use of statistical tools. Its main objective is always to employ mathematical theories and models in developing its generalization (Anderson 2004, p. 57). Therefore, quantitative method would help in this research.
It would enable the researcher test the hypotheses put forth for validity and allow the use of a sample as a representation of the entire population. Although qualitative methods was traditionally used in social science and would be appropriate in this research, it is not able to give empirical support for research hypothesis.
Qualitative methods explain why a given pattern of events has taken place the way they have (Murray 2006, p 92). On the other hand, quantitative methods explains what and when of a phenomena. Ethnographic research and phenomenology as approaches of qualitative research would have been appropriate.
Ethnography would help in investigation of culture of the society under investigation. Phenomenology would have helped investigate realities of the firm; and how it affected its operation.
However, because the process may not empirically support the hypotheses put forward to help guide the research, it was not used in this research. Due to these reasons qualitative method was not employed in the research and the researcher opted for quantitative research.
Scope of Data Collection
Primary data for this research was collected from the customers and the employees of firm under study. This data was collected with the help of a questionnaire. The scope of data collection was limited to the two categories of individuals. This was because of the time that was available for the research.
Because most of the employees and customers were nationals of this country, they clearly understood the social structure of the society and therefore were in a position to respond appropriately to questions regarding the society of the country. They also understood how this affected the performance of the firm.
The level of accuracy needed in this research would be achieved within this scope. Secondary data was gathered from existing literature about the electronic industry as a country, and the activities of Apple as our specific field of study.
Format for the questionnaire
Questionnaire design
There will be two key methods used to gather information in this proposal. The first one will be through a questionnaire, which will be physically delivered to the staff of Apple at its branches in the United States.
The questionnaire will capture various attitudes of staff members and customers of this firm regarding their opinions on the strategies of this firm.
The second source of information for the research will be literature on various aspects of marketing in general, and the operational activities that takes place within Apple Inc in specific.
The focus of the literature review will be to find information on the application of motivation techniques within the workplace and also to determine the current state of research in relation to the firm. The questionnaire will have four parts.
The first part sought to capture the background information of respondents. The second part will deal with the demography and gender of the respondents. This is to ascertain the prevalence of views in various categories in order to ensure that if any differences came about, then they would be captured in their demographic space.
The third part will deal with academic credentials and work experience of the respondents. The motivation for this section came from the understanding that different sections of population respond differently to issues, based on age and academic credentials.
The fourth part will delve into the specific issues relating to the firm as an institution under our investigation, starting from the understanding of the concept used to counter market challenges to the possible effects it would have on the employees and customers.
The questionnaire will also employ a mix of open and closed ended questions to capture different aspects of issues studied.
Open ended questions will be used because they give respondents more time to figure out their opinions, which would make them volunteer more information related to feelings, outlooks and comprehension of the subject (Murray 2006, p. 39).
This would allow a researcher to understand the position of respondents as regards to feelings. Open ended questions minimize some errors that could have been created in the course of research. Respondents rarely forget answers if given an opportunity to respond freely.
Furthermore, respondents cannot ignore some questions because they must go through all of them. Open ended questions generate data that can be used in data analysis by other researchers.
In other words, they allow secondary data analysis. On the other hand, closed-ended questions are analyzed easily. That is why they were used in this study.
Each response can be coded for statistical interpretation. Nonetheless, closed-ended questions are compatible with computer analysis package. The technique is more specific meaning that its answers are consistent in all conditions.
This aspect is impossible with open-ended questions because each respondent is allowed to use his or her own words. Finally, closed-ended questions take less time to administer unlike open-ended questions, which are detailed hence time consuming.
The questionnaire will be sent to respondents using drop and pick method. The researcher arrived at this decision after considering time and resources. The method is time consuming, but very effective. Furthermore, the method allows respondents to reflect on the questions and answer them accurately.
Moreover, the method is not affected by the respondent’s level of literacy. One big advantage of the technique is that there is interaction between the researcher and the researched. This means that respondent’s reactions are easily captured.
Reactions are important because they give more information regarding the feelings of respondents. The literature collected provided information regarding various theories related to marketing strategies, which is spread across the last century.
The body of literature availed a number of theories dealing with sampling and sample designs in the business world and performance issues in the context of human resource development in the electronics industry. Apple Inc fits well within this parameter.
Finally, the literature provided information on the state of research on the field. Various researchers have conducted studies on various elements of social segregation and its effects on motivation (Murray 2006, p. 112).
This gave the study a sound academic backing and a strong basis for drawing comparisons and conclusions.
The use of the questionnaire made it possible to capture issues that are unique to this firm. This is because there was no accessible literature with required degree of relevance to the subject matter of the firm under the study. The targeted staff would respond to the questionnaires, which will be physically delivered to them.
The availability of staff influenced the choice of this method because this firm operates throughout the day and therefore it is not possible at any one time to find all of them in one place.
Physical delivery of the questionnaire increased the accuracy of data collected as there was interactivity. After collection, the data will go through analysis, culminating the observations and conclusions.
Reliability and validity of the method
Validity means appropriateness, applicability and truthfulness of a study. It is the ability of research instruments to produce results that are in agreement with theoretical and conceptual values (Hakim 2000, p. 38). In this study, internal validity was ensured through checking the representativeness of the sample.
The researcher ensured that the sample used captured all important characters at the firm as the target institution, and the Unites States society. During data collection process and in analysis, the researcher will steer away from any form of bias. All the respondents will be picked randomly, without any preference.
Moreover, the response received from the customers and employees of this firm, and other stakeholders will be assigned a similar weight, depending on their category. This will ensure that data which will be collected will not in any way, be influenced by the opinion of the researcher.
External validity was ensured through triangulation that is, the researcher will use more than one technique in collecting data. This is necessary to ensure that bias from one end is countered effectively by other techniques.
As Murray (2006, p. 28) says, respondents are human beings with weaknesses when it comes to giving views freely. They would always exaggerate or underrate things when they make statements.
Working with this in mind, the researcher designed a formula to moderate data gathered from the field to balance off the two extremes. The researcher found literature review to be very important in this part because the opinions they have are already moderated.
External validity will be also guaranteed by asking respondents to give their views. This would give them freedom of some sort, to provide information based on their own experience and views.
Reliability means that the study is consistent and lacks any ambiguity. It is the ability to trust something to provide information that addresses the issue at hand. It is related to the accuracy of instruments that is, how accurate the measuring device is in measuring what it claims to measure.
In this study, it will be achieved through increasing verifiability of the perspective and using statistical tools to verify reliability. The researcher will adopt the principles of coherence, openness and discourse in order to guarantee reliability.
Timescale
In every research project, there must be a clear schedule that should be followed to ensure that it achieves its objectives. This research project should be completed within four months.
The system should be up and running within the four months from the day it is officially set operational. The Gantt chart below specifies the activities that will be carried out in this project
Resources
In a piece of research, it is always very important to clearly define the materials that are to be used in order to retrieve the desired data both from primary and secondary sources. The primary sources of data for this research will be retrieved using questionnaire as has been stated in the methodology section above.
The questionnaire will be the important tool for the collection of the primary data. The resources for secondary data will be from books, journals, articles and other available literatures in this field. In every research process, time is always another important resource.
As stated in the timeline above, the available time for this piece of research was four months. Within this time, the researcher will be expected to collect all the relevant materials, get the desired data and then analyze this data to produce the desired results.
Another important resource will be finance. In order to be in a position to conduct a successful research, there must be a sound financial support. These resources will enable the researcher to conduct a successful research.
List of References
Anderson, P 2004, Research Methods in Human Resource Management, Chattered institute of Personell Management, London.
Andrzej, A & Buchaman, A 2007, Organizational Behavior, Prentice Hall, London.
Bissoondoyal, U 2006, Total quality management: a practical approach, New Age International, London.
Gerber, K 2008, Marketing communication, Pearson Education, Cape Town.
Gountas, J & Mavudo, F 2008, Marketing Strategy: A Decision-Focused Approach, McGraw-Hill, North Ryde.
Hakim, C 2000, Research Design: Sucessful Designs for Social and Economic Research, Routledge, New York.
Handlechner, M 2008, Marketing Strategy, GRIN Verlag GmbH, MĂĽnchen.
Kothari, C 2004, Research methodology: Methods and techniques, New Age International (P) Limited Publishers, New Delhi.
McLaughlin, D & Aaker, D 2010, Strategic market management: global perspective, Wiley, Chichester.
Murray, R 2006, How to write a thesis. Open University Press, Philadelhpia.