Answer To: Final Research Proposal The goal of this assignment is to integrate Step One, Step Two, Step Three,...
Abhishek answered on Apr 13 2021
Running Head: FINAL RESEARCH PROPOSAL 1
FINAL RESEARCH PROPOSAL 17
FINAL RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Marcus McCall
The University of Arizona Global Campus
RES 7400 Research Design & Methods Quantitative
Instructor: Latoya Wesley
Abstract
The final project of this course is a research proposal on the topic of strengths and weaknesses of the performances of three retail organizations— Walmart, Costco and Target. The paper identified the research issues, highlights the background researches, which are related to this area of investigation and proposes a methodology that can be implemented to execute the proposed research in real. A survey question has also been formed for usage.
Table of Contents
Abstract 2
Introduction 4
Research Questions 6
Literature Review 6
Hypothesis 9
Dependent and Independent Variables 10
Method 10
Participant Selection 10
Sample Size 11
Place for Obtaining Sample 11
Sample Being Representative of Defined Population 12
Data Collection Measures 13
Instrumentation 14
Research Design 14
Discussion 15
Validity 15
Strengths and Weaknesses 15
Ethical Considerations 15
References 17
Appendix: Survey Questionnaire 19
Introduction
Three very popular retail businesses have been considered in this research proposal, which are Walmart, Target and Costco. These companies vary from each other at different levels. Being an American wholesale corporation in Retail, Walmart operates with multipurpose departmental stores, stores for grocery as well as hypermarkets. It was established in 1962 and ever since, it has spread their presence in several cities. Walmart has shown a great deal of success and has achieved number one spot in the entire wholesale chain of the retail industry. This success has happened in the United States (Cozby & Bates, 2017).
The company has started global expansion by means of strategic expansion and merger acquisition. One of the significant positive sides of the company is the operational size of the company. This is of an enormous size of operations. Walmart gets the advantage of high economical levels. The company has currently started technological investments with the adoption of cost effective and more affordably viable solutions.
According to reports from Capell (2019), the foundation of Target Corporation took place in the year 1902. It was named Drayton Dry Goods and they got their logo and name that is Target in the year 1962 (Rahi, 2017). It has begun its expansion from the year 1980. The company has marketed their presence in many countries of the world. The chain is popular for offering products to the consumers at various discounted prices. This ranges from essentials for everyday to products of the high-end luxury category.
Shopping experience with the corporation is very comfortable. This can be due to the active actions of Target corporations. Sometimes the offers on discounts as well as customer loyalties are quite irregular (Etikan & Bala, 2017). They have an upgradation of various technological progresses with a very efficient and strong supply chain. The corporation has strengthened their presence digitally and has related the other channels for smooth services. This attracts customers for a convenient buying experience. Walmart as well as Target have put sufficient emphasis on their virtual presence and at the same time creating a strong online presence in current times. They aim at better services for customers so that they are keen on repeating their purchases by the same set of customers.
Several analysts have supported technological innovation in the purchase and construction of easy online shopping. This is a major advantage for them and gives them an edge towards their competitors. Costco Wholesale Corporation was established in the year 1976. It possesses a different strength altogether. One of the unique features of the corporation is selling their products in a chain of stores that belong to the category of members only. Membership model has its own benefits (Helgeson, Voss & Terpening, 2005).
With the help of membership fee payments, the customers continue their buying instead of switching to another retail store. This process creates a very loyal customer base for the company. Rahman (2020) has claimed that this has proved to be a strong advantage for the entire organization. This has shown an upward trend in the growth and performance of other retail chains. Initially, it was assumed that the idea would be challenging because it involved many customers who had membership for retail chains (Ofori-Nyarko, Wang & Annoh, 2020).
This proved advantageous for them. If all doubts related to the matter are ignored then we can well conclude that the idea proved advantageous for the company (Martinez, Galvan & Alam, 2017). Other than having a loyal customer base, the corporation is advantageous from the point of view of the customer base. They possess an upfront cash collection and a huge plus-point considering all its financial aspects. Certain significant factors affect the businesses of the world. Upgradation, innovation in technologies, fast globalization as well as enhanced competition are some factors affecting businesses worldwide (Walonick, 2017).
Digitization trends in the market have facilitated almost all the companies to market their products online. This provides them with viable options for browsing through competitions easily at their fingertips. The changes are similar to Costco, Walmart Inc. and Target Corporation. This paper will conduct a study on the various strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as well as threats of the organizations. SWOT analysis always helps in the understanding of the competitive advantages and disadvantages of the companies trying to hold against each other. The challenges faced by them are specific to their particular requirements.
Research Questions
This research aims to discover the SWOT analysis of large retail corporations and that is the reason for the nature of the questions being comparative.
· What are the advantages of Costco over Walmart as well as Target?
· What are the weaknesses in Costco that are not present in Walmart as well as Target?
· Where can customers find the opportunities of Costco?
· What threats are the retail chains facing?
Literature Review
Large retail chains have been created worldwide by corporations like Walmart, Target as well as Costco (Trochim, 2006). As the corporations are in the same business, they have similar kinds of challenges. Addressing of the challenges is different and this creates some kind of differentiation. Walmart is popular worldwide for the extension of a plethora of their products. They maintain this through a chain of stores related to the retail industry as well as hypermarkets.
Efforts are made for the enhancement of the quality of the products. Free shipping is available to customers if the purchase amount exceeds fifty dollars. They have another key strength for the management of costs due to inclusion of cost and leadership strategy. The efficiency of this strategy is from the large volumes of standard products that are an added advantage to the corporation of Walmart for the exploitation of their economies for sale. The simplicity of the retail chain and the model of their business is another source of weakness. This is because any organization with similar operations can imitate this (Karibzhanova & Safronov, 2018).
The widespread network of Walmart gives them flexibility for further expansion in other markets. This can be initiated quickly due to the webbed network of Walmart. This is a very significant opportunity because the advantages of a significant international market have their own threats. This can be vulnerable to the dynamics of that country where the market chain operates. This can have negative impacts in the country in the form of political instability as well as introduction of new rules and guidelines. According to Karle (2019), Walmart have conducted their operations quite successfully and have reached their objectives of becoming the topmost wholesale retailer in the United States of America.
At present, the company focuses more on market expansion and is even located internationally. They make use of various mergers as well as strategic alliances. Huge investments are done on the technological front and these have...