Assignment 2—ResearchPlan This assignment requires you to devise and write a research plan for an empirical study of your own. Include the following elements: a. Title page b. Abstract c. Introduction...

Running Head: ASSIGNMENT 2—RESEARCH PLAN    1
ASSIGNMENT 2—RESEARCH PLAN         2
ASSIGNMENT 2—RESEARCH PLAN
(APPROACHES TO RESEARCH)
[Impact of Market Development for Expansion to New Markets and Coping with High Competition: With Reference to Netflix]
Table of Contents
Abstract    3
Introduction    4
i. Problem Statement and Purpose of the Research    4
ii. Research Questions    4
Brief Literature Review    5
Research Plan Outline    6
Research Problem    7
Methodology    7
a. Study Design    7
Research Philosophy    7
Research Design…………………………………………………………………………..7
b. Sampling Techniques and Participants    8
c. Measures, Instrumentations and Procedures    9
d. Ensuring Rigor of the Research    11
Data Analysis    11
Ethical Considerations    12
Underlying Philosophical Assumptions    13
Strengths and Limitations of the Research    14
Budget and Timeline    14
References    15
Appendices    17
Appendix 1: Survey Questionnaire    17
Appendix 2: Timeline    22
Abstract
This research mainly focuses on the entry of Netflix, American media services provider, into India and analyzing the important factors affecting its growth trajectory in India. Netflix is having a household penetration of merely 5% share in the world, whereas 45% in the US market and it is struggling to grow even after 2 years of operations. This study tries to understand the existing customer as well as the perception of potential customers about Netflix. The research problem tries to find out what are the factors that are actually finding a place in shaping the customer’s decision. Further, positivism, realism, and interpretivism – three approaches to methodology are described, out of which positivism approach is taken up because quantitative inferences are obtained by analyzing the gathered data in this study.
Primary data is collected by means of questionnaires, which forms the most crucial part of the research as it consists of the key factors that will be further analyzed in the research like pricing, content, genre amongst others. Convenience sampling method is used for choosing the sample from the population where the target group of Netflix, forming the population consists of Millennials aged 18-24 years, trendsetters and opinion leaders aged 25-40 years. These people usually have a high-end family household income and likely to spend more on high quality products in line with the image they wish to convey about themselves.
After data collection various tests like ANOVA, homogeneity of variances, descriptive tables’ analysis and others are employed to analyze the online viewing habits of users and non-users. This research helps understand the factors that the company needs to strengthen in order to acquire a significant portion of the market in comparison to its competitors.
Introduction
Netflix, the United States based video streaming giant with its decision dates back in early 2016, rolled out its services in an additional 130 countries including India. The research shall be focusing on India as the pilot study for the research plan as the company completed two years of operations early this year in the country and still struggles to confirm its place as the last member of the top five in the domain. In a country which is used to getting free content and changing its viewing habits gradually, with a mere 5% market share Netflix is striving for quick growth banking on its original international as well as local content focused towards new age millennial and urban internet consuming audience (Financial Times, 2018).
i. Problem Statement and Purpose of the Research
The research problem is to gauge the online video viewing habits of the existing Netflix users and at the same time awareness level and perception of the non-users about the services offered by Netflix. The results of the analysis holds importance in the current market scenario, which is, flooded with stiff competition from global players such as YouTube and Amazon, along with local media networks. Moreover, these will help to learn consumer preferences to overcome the marketing challenges such as vast culture, close to 25 languages and content piracy.
ii. Research Questions
The research is aimed towards finding answers to several questions such as the consumer’s perception of the Netflix service in comparison to competitors, pricing response, entertainment preferences, usage frequency, awareness of original content and satisfaction levels with the current service to name a few. The results obtained from the analysis of this information will help the company in understanding its target consumer in a better way, reassess its strategy in all new markets, and come up with customized offerings for specific target audience and build brand loyalty along with increased consumer spending.
Hence, the focused research question will be “How can market development help in expansion to new markets and coping with high competition in context of Netflix?”
Brief Literature Review
    Understanding and developing the market according to the needs of the customers is a prior agenda for all the entertainment companies that venture to compete in the online entertainment market. As supported by Elkins (2018), the tastes and preferences of the viewers or perceivers in the entertainment industry are changing continuously. It can be stated to be evolving in some cases, while regressively moving back to nostalgia in some. Hence, the entertainment companies, which ensure that the varied contents, catering to the tastes of both the category of viewers, reach their concerned customers effectively, have to struggle a lot for combatting the competition in the market (Kokas, 2018).
    A method to cater to the needs and preferences of the customers have been identified by Zayas (2018), which states that the companies, such as Netflix or Amazon Prime need to expand their market to countries, where their presence is yet to be felt intricately. For that purpose, they need to know the markets well and analyze the characteristics as well as demographics of the customers in those markets. However, as argued by Lemstra and Melody (2015), when there is high competition already existing in the market, the customers might not be opting for any new company or entertainment service provider entering their country’s entertainment network without finding any attractive aspect in it.
Therefore, the development of the contents, features, usability and look of the service providing platform, such as mobile application need to be attractive enough in order to be successful to capture the attention of the perceiver. As suggested by Davis and Zboralska (2017), since the tastes of the new markets might be strikingly different from those of the home market, the companies might also need to remodel their offering in a completely different avatar. Combined with the new contents, such as catchy story lines, reality shows and gripping tunes, their marketing mix can be a lucrative one for the new market. Therefore, market development has been increasingly responsible for causing advantages to the idea of expansion to new markets, especially in the context of coping with the high competitiveness in terms of such entertainment platforms as Netflix.
Research Plan Outline
Figure 1: Research Plan Outline
(Source: Researcher)
Research Problem
Netflix faces problems such as comparatively high pricing for its subscription model with other players charging much lesser in the same market geographies. Its service in India costs about three times to that of the top placed Hotstar and eight times to that of third placed Amazon Prime video. Besides majority of its customer base consists of viewers, which are taking advantage of its one-month free service with just 6% of the total users actually paying for the service. Although it is maintained that the retention numbers are in line with other geographies outside the United States (Economic Times, 2018).
Methodology
a. Study Design
Research Philosophy
As stated by Takhar-Lail and Ghorbani (2015), a proper understanding of the entire research process must be obtained for how the research shall proceed. According to Punch and Oancea (2014), the commonly used research process has three main focusses positivity, reality and interpretivism. Positivism approach determines the outcomes of the research positively and investigates the research problem in such a way that the research problem is delved upon deeply (Punch &...