Operations management of the Tata Motors Group

Operations management of the Tata Motors Group The concept of operations management is related to the optimum utilization of the resources in the best possible way. In todays complex business environment it is very important to understand the importance of every management process. operations management is a very important factor for the maximum utilization of resources in any firm. Introduction Established under the parent company, Tata Group, in 1945, Tata Motors Limited has become Indias largest automobile company. It was the first Indian automobile company to list on the New York Stock Exchange. Tata Motors began manufacturing commercial vehicles in 1954 with a 15-year collaboration agreement with Daimler Benz of Germany. This partnership has led Tata Motors to not only become Indias largest automobile company but also Indias largest commercial vehicle manufacturer; the worlds top five manufactures of medium and heavy trucks and the worlds second largest medium and heavy bus manufacturer. Having just entered the passenger vehicles market segment in 1991, Tata Motors now ranks second in Indias passenger vehicle market. Tata has enjoyed the prestige of having developed Tata Ace, Indias first indigenous light commercial vehicle; Tata Safari, Indias first sports utility vehicle; Tata Indica, Indias first indigenously manufactured passenger car; and the Nano, the worlds least expensive The company that has been taken for the purpose of demonstrating operation management and its effectiveness is Tata motors India Pvt. Ltd. The fact that tata motors came up with a small car in the Indian market and has been very succesfull it needs to be understood that what it is that instigated the success to such a boundry. Tata Motors is Indias largest automobile company, with consolidated revenues of USD 20 billion in 2009-10. It is the leader in commercial vehicles and among the top three in passenger vehicles. Tata Motors has products in the compact, midsize car and utility vehicle segments. The company is the worlds fourth largest truck manufacturer, the worlds second largest bus manufacturer, and employs 24,000 workers. Since first rolled out in 1954, Tata Motors has produced and sold over 4 million vehicles in India. Established in 1945, when the company began manufacturing locomotives, the company manufactured its first commercial vehicle in 1954 in a collaboration with Daimler-Benz AG, which ended in 1969. Tata Motors is a dual-listed company traded on both the Bombay Stock Exchange, as well as on the New York Stock Exchange. Tata Motors in 2005, was ranked among the top 10 corporations in India with an annual revenue exceeding INR 320 billion. In 2010, Tata Motors surpassed Reliance to win the coveted title of Indias most valuable brand in a annual survey conducted by Brand Finance and The Economic Times. Tata Motors has auto manufacturing and assembly plants in Jamshedpur, Pantnagar , Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Sanand,Dharwad and Pune in India, as well as in Argentina, South Africa and Thailand. Tata Motors aimed to increase its presence worldwide. In 2004, it acquired the Daewoo Commercial Vehicle Company of South Korea. The reasons behind the acquisition were: Companys global plans to reduce domestic exposure. The domestic commercial vehicle market is highly cyclical in nature and prone to fluctuations in the domestic economy. Tata Motors has a high domestic exposure of ~94% in the MHCV segment and ~84% in the light commercial vehicle (LCV) segment. Since the domestic commercial vehicle sales of the company are at the mercy of the structural economic factors, it is increasingly looking at the international markets. The company plans to diversify into various markets across the world in both MHCV as well as LCV segments. To expand the product portfolio Tata Motors recently introduced the 25MT GVW Tata Novus from Daewoos (South Korea) (TDCV) platform. Tata plans to leverage on the strong presence of TDCV in the heavy-tonnage range and introduce products in India at an appropriate time. This was mainly to cater to the international market and also to cater to the domestic market where a major improvement in the Road infrastructure was done through the National Highway Development Project. Tata remains Indias largest heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer and Tata Daewoo is the 2nd largest heavy commercial vehicle manufacturer in South Korea. Tata Motors has jointly worked with Tata Daewoo to develop trucks such as Novus and World Truck and buses namely, GloBus and StarBus. In January 2008, Tata Motors launched Tata Nano, the least expensive production car in the world at about 120,000 (US $3000).The city car was unveiled during the Auto Expo 2008 exhibition in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi. Tata has faced controversy over developing the Nano as some environmentalists are concerned that the launch of such a low-priced car could lead to mass motorization in India with adverse effects on pollution and global warming. Tata has set up a factory in Sanand, Gujarat and the first Nanos are to roll out summer 2009. Tata Nano Europa has been developed for sale in developed economies and is to hit markets in 2010 while the normal Nano should hit markets in South Africa, Kenya and countries in Asia and Africa by late 2009. A battery version is also planned. Tata Motors Limited is Indias largest automobile company, with revenues of 35,651.48 crore (US$7.74 billion) in 2007-08. It is the leader in commercial vehicles in each segment, and among the top three in passenger vehicles in India with products in the compact, midsize car and utility vehicle segments. Tata vehicles are sold primarily in India, and over 4 million Tata vehicles have been produced domestically since the first Tata vehicle was assembled in 1954. The companys manufacturing base in India is spread across Jamshedpur (Jharkhand), Pune (Maharashtra), Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), Pantnagar (Uttarakhand) and Dharwad (Karnataka). Following a strategic alliance with Fiat in 2005, Tata set up an industrial joint venture with Fiat Group Automobiles at Ranjangaon (Maharashtra) to produce both Fiat and Tata cars and Fiat powertrains. The company is establishing a new plant at Sanand (Gujarat). Tatas dealership, sales, service and spare parts network comprises over 3500 touch points. Ta ta Motors also distributes and markets Fiat branded cars in India. Current Situation The Tata Motors group is a passenger and commercial vehicle manufacturer based in India. The motor group was established in 1945 as part of the larger Tata Group. They have long been known for their commercial vehicles and in the past ten years entered into the passenger car market. Currently, Tata Motors has a line of five passenger vehicles and a large line of commercial vehicles producing pickups, trucks, tractor trailers, tippers, and buses. Both product lines of the Tata Motors group have seen success, but much of this has been built upon the more deeply established commercial vehicle product line. Tata Motors commercial line has been established for several years in many market segments such as Europe, Africa, The Middle East, Australia, Southeast Asia, and South Asia. Tata Motors has expanded their business and market share around the world through a series of acquisitions. In 2004, they acquired Daewoo commercial vehicle Company in South Korea which was South Koreas second largest truck manufacturer. This acquisition gave Tata Motors a significant presence in the Korean market. They have also entered into joint ventures with companies such as Thonburi Automotive in 2006, which allowed them to manufacture and market pickup trucks in Thailand. Tata Motors have been making global headlines in the auto industry lately; the largest news being their acquisition of Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford. Tata paid 2.3 billion dollars to Ford for the two brands that cost Ford 5.3 billion (Carty, USA Today). This is a major step for the company because it catapults them into the luxury car business which they are not known for at this time. Tata, like many new businesses it acquires, is allowing this new segment of the business to be run by previous management since they have more experience in the luxury automotive business. Tata will give us some space. They want us to run our business, be a premium British car company (Mike ODriscoll, managing director of Jaguar). This is yet another large acquisition for the Tata Motors group and could create great success for the company in the near future. Corporate Governance Since Tata Motors is a part of a large conglomerate company it needs to have a strong corporate governance to ensure that its employees act ethically and the business continues to run smoothly especially during the ever changing and dynamic global economy. Tata Groups corporate governance is founded upon a rich legacy of fair, ethical, and transparent governance practices (tatacarsworldwide.com). One of the more important parts of this is the transparency of the company people have a right to know what the company is doing not only to ensure ethical practices, but for the insurance of their many shareholders whom have a right to know the inner workings of the company Tata has created some models for employees to guide themselves through everyday business practices to ensure that the corporate governance is continuously being upheld. The Tata business excellence model is upheld by Tata quality management services. Quality management is an in-house group dedicated to helping the various Tata companies achieve their business objectives through specific processes. The two main processes that the quality management services employees focus on are business excellence and business ethics. These two objectives have helped build Tata into the strong, dynamic company it is today. These models are entrenched in the companys ethnical standards and Tata feels strongly about enforcing both throughout the company. Tata quality management services plays the role of supporter and facilitator in the journey that Tata enterprises undertake to reach the peaks of business eminence while, at the same time, adhering to the highest ethical standards (Tata.com). To further prove their commitment to quality and ethical practices Tata has introduced annual quality awards for those companies conducting business with the utmost quality. These awards are called the JRD quality value awards named after the late chairmen JRD Tata. These awards are presented annually on July 29th, the birthday of JRD Tata. Tata has committed to ensuring quality and ethical standards not only within Tata Motors, but throughout their many other branches and sectors of the Tata Group. They have done so by benchmarking quality standards through the Tata business excellence model as well as providing incentives for companies to strive to improve the quality of their service, by awarding JRD quality management awards. Financial Position Tata Motors have increased its earnings over the years through their various acquisitions and joint ventures with truck manufacturers in Southeast Asia. Gross profit in the year 2006 was 1,160.9 million and increased to 1,510.1 million in the year 2007. Earnings after taxes also increased significantly between 2006 and 2007 increasing from 336.6 million to 405.5 million in 2007. After a large drop in revenues from 2004 to 2005 when the company first went public on the NYSE it has been increasing revenues greatly annually, from 4,422.0 million in 2005 to 7,354.0 in 2007. Core Competencies Tata Motors is able to maintain, as well as increase, their market share by capitalizing on their core competencies. Tata Motors is active, competitive, and dynamic in all aspects of the automotive industry, which means that there must be many different activities going on in all areas of the company. As a result of the ever evolving automotive industry Tata Motors must always be changing and one way to stay at the forefront of the industry is to make continuous improvements in technology through research and development. One way that Tata Motors has done this is by producing one of the most efficient and low cost vehicles on the market. Acquisitions, mergers, and expansion is another core competency that Tata Motors has is embedded in their company structure and philosophy. Another core competency that Tata Motors holds is being located in the India. This location has allowed them to understand not only the Indian market but also the dynamics of emerging and developing markets. This market understanding and knowledge allows Tata Motors to manufacture their products at lower costs, sell them to emerging markets while making profits as well as take advantage of the strong labor base in India. PEST Analysis Political Since Tata Motors operates in multiple countries across Europe, Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Australia, it needs to pay close attention to the political climate but also laws and regulations in all the countries it operates in while also paying attention to regional governing bodies. Laws governing commerce, trade, growth, and investment are dependent on the local government as well as how successful local markets and economies will be due to regional, national and local influence. In accordance, Tatas headquarters in Mumbai, India, strictly controls and regulates operations in all dealerships and subsidiaries, in addition to knowing and abiding by all labor laws in the multiple countries where they have manufacturing plants it has to watch political change. Economic Operating in numerous countries across the world, Tata Motors functions with a global economic perspective while focusing on each individual market. Because Tata is in a rapid growth period, expanding or forming a joint venture in over five countries world-wide since 2004, a global approach enables Tata Motors to adapt and learn from the many different regions within the whole automotive industry. They have experience and resources from five continents across the globe, thus when any variable changes in the market they can gather information and resources from all over the world to address any issues. For instance, if the price of the aluminum required to make engine blocks goes up in Kenya, Tata has the option to get the aluminum from other suppliers in Europe or Asia who they would normally get from for production in Ukraine or Russia. Tata Motors also has to pay close attention to shifts in currency rates throughout the world. Currency fluctuations can equate to higher or lower de mands for Tata vehicles which in turn affect profitability. It can also mean a rise in costs or a drop in returns. But they also have to pay attention to not just the domestic currency, the rupee, but also to the dollar, euro, bhat, won, and pound, to just name a few. Just because the rupee is strong against the dollar does not mean it is strong against all the other currencies. Attention to currency is important because it influences where capital investment will develop and prosper. Social Undoubtedly, the beliefs, opinions, and general attitude of all the stakeholders in a company will affect how well a company performs. This includes every stakeholder from the CEO and President, down to the line workers who screw the door panel into place, from the investor to the customer, the culture and attitude of all these people will ultimately determine the future of a company and whether they will be profitable or not. For this reason, Tata Motors tends to use an integration and rarely separation technique with foreign companies they acquire. In 2004, Tata Motors acquired Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company, which was at the time Koreas second largest truck maker. Rather than using de-culturation or assimilating Daewoo, Tata took an integrated approach, and continued building and marketing Daewoos current models as well as introducing a few new models globally just as it had been done under Korean management. Technology Tata Motors and its parent company, the Tata Group, are ahead of the game in the technology field. The foundation of the companys growth is a deep understanding of economic stimuli and customer needs, and the ability to translate them into customer-desired offerings through leading edge RD (Tata). Employing 1,400 scientists and engineers, Tata Motors Research and Development team is ahead of the pack in Indias market and right with the rest of the field internationally. Among Tatas firsts are the first indigenously developed Light Commercial Vehicle, Indias first Sports Utility Vehicle and, in 1998, the Tata Indica, Indias first fully indigenous passenger car, as well as the increasingly famous Tata Nano, which is projected to be the worlds cheapest production car (Tata). In the automotive industry, it is becoming increasingly crucial for manufacturers to stay on top of the technology curve with new problems always rising such as escalating gas prices and pollution problems. Tata rec ognizes this and dedicates lots of resources and time into research and development to be even with or preferably ahead of other competitors, global trends, and changing economies. In all, an automobile manufacturer must change, adapt, and evolve to stay competitive in the automotive game, and this is exactly what Tata is doing with their rapid growth, and extensive research and development. SWOT Analysis Strengths Tata Motors excels when it comes to innovation through intensive research and development. Their ability to make the least expensive car on the market, the Nano which will retail for $2,500, is far beyond what any other car dealership has created. This innovation gives Tata Motors their main competitive advantage. Tata Motors makes everything from tractor-trailers to the worlds least expensive car. This product diversity grants them a competitive advantage over their competitors because they can satisfy more markets and customer needs. Another strength that Tata Motors possesses is high corporate responsibility. They donate a portion of their profits from stock increases towards a specific charity. This highlights Tata Motors overall desire for community improvement while also emphasizing Tata Motors high morals and values which is something money can not buy. Tata Motors is unique in a way in which when it buys a company. Tata Motors keeps the original management of that company int act. The company that Tata Motors purchases will look exactly the same in terms of management and organizational structure as if it was never purchased by Tata Motors. Weaknesses There are strings attached with every new invention and improvement on products. These strings are Tata Motors weaknesses and what other groups perceive as their weaknesses. One weakness that Tata Motors faces is its inability to meet safety standards. Although they have made the most inexpensive car out on the market, it has yet to pass all the safety standards which is a legal factor. Some consumers and pessimists inquire as to how Tata Motors can make such a cheap car and withstanding a car accident or not just falling apart after hitting something once. Pessimistic people also want to believe that car manufactures are already doing everything they can to keep costs low for the consumer, and if that is the case, then putting the cheapest car out on the market automatically questions if it is safe to drive.Tata Motors only have been making passenger cars for the approximately last ten years. This can be viewed as a weakness from a customer standpoint since a decade does not seem li ke a lot to consumers and therefore they will think that Tata Motors is inexperienced car manufacturing. Opportunities Tata Motors has already opened the doors for many new and innovative ideas, but not only for their company, but their competitors as well which could turn into a threat. One of the major opportunities that Tata Motor faces is that as of right now 90 percent of China and Indias adult population do not own cars, partly because cars are costly and require more expenses after purchased. So the market for a low-priced car is huge which benefits Tata Motors perfectly since they produce the lowest priced car on the market. This is a huge opportunity for Tata Motors because if they can get their feet into that market of people that do not have cars because they cannot afford them, then they will make large profits down the road. Chinas total car sales are estimated at over 8 million dollars annually and they were the worlds second largest car market in 2006. Chinas government forecasts that demand for cars will top 20 million by 2020. With Tata Motors in the market with the cheapest car, Chinas demand for cars will probably increase even more significantly which will in turn increase sales for Tata Motors. As of March 2008 Tata Motors finalized a deal with Ford Motor Company to acquire the British businesses, Jaguar Cars and Land Rover. This is a huge opportunity for Tata Motors since they will acquire the large knowledge base and technologies for producing and marketing luxury vehicles. This acquisition helps them dive into the more mature markets in Japan, Europe and the U.S. The knowledge transfer from these two companies will greatly improve Tata Motors ability to continue to grow and flourish in both developing and developed market segments. Threats The obvious threat to Tata Motors is intellectual property rights. Tata invented the cheapest car on the market and every automobile manufacturer wants to know how Tata did it. Headhunters are soon going to find out this valuable information and make it available to their own company. This is a huge threat to Tata Motors because at first they had low competition, but once other car manufactures find out how they invented such a low cost car, and then these companies too will jump on board and design their own line of low cost automobiles. On one hand this can be a threat, but on the other it may not affect Tata Motors at all because people will still want to purchase their product since they were the pioneers of all the excitement. Another main concern that Tata Motors faces is that cheap cars in India will have an adverse effect on pollution and global warming because most of the population will be able to afford the cars.

Key factors influencing online shopping

Key factors influencing online shopping This study is done as it is to fulfill the MKT662, Industrial Training Report for final year student of Bachelor in Business Administration (Hons) Marketing from University Teknologi Mara (UiTM), Kota Kinabalu Campus. This study aims to establish preliminary assessment, evaluation and understanding of the key factors that driving or influencing consumers in Kota Kinabalu to shop through online. This study also will also differentiate the characteristics between public and private servants in the context of online shopping besides will reveal the correlation between demographic characteristics towards the key factors identified. This study will be a very useful for local businesses to get more information about the virtual marketplace trend in Kota Kinabalu before engaging into online businesses. 1.2 BACKGROUND OF STUDY The importance of the Internet as an advertising medium has generated a lot of attention in recent years where there are a lot of businesses have been using the internet in their marketing activities and somehow driving consumers all the way through the process and eventually persuading them to shop online (Goodwin, 1999) . Study on the adoption of internet activities by consumers has been done by many researchers. For example study done by E-revolution (2000) ; Haque A. et al., (2006) and Zhou et al., (2007), these study reported generally that internet activities are increasing over the year and expected to continue growing globally. Besides these study also reveals that businesses nowadays are ready enough to bring their businesses operation online. Moreover, Zhou et al., (2007) also summarized that the ability of internet users to shop online has also significantly improved from 16% to 32% since March 2001. As in Malaysia, according to Lee (2000), the internet become a virtual places where people share their ideas, build communities, shape the future democratically, and promote a new way of doing business. Moreover, the study stated that the web has become the worlds biggest shopping mall that allows local businesses to do their business with low cost involved, but yet covering global market. By looking back at the early stage of online activity in Malaysia, the year 1995 was considered as the beginning of Internet age. Back to the year 2000, it is reported that only 7% of the population was registered as Internet subscribers and only 701,000 units of total number of computer sold (Lee, 2000). As the competition in e-commerce is increasing nowadays (Haque A., et al., 2006), it becomes more important for online retailers to understand consumer acceptance of online shopping activities and what makes them to do so (Zhou, et al, 2007). Supported by Goodwin, (1999), Wu., (2003); Kolsaker, et al., (2004) ; Khatibi, et al., (2006), examining these factors are crucial as it has been suggested that they play an important part in determining the success or failure of online shopping business. Despite a host of studies on online shopping, there is no specific research done on the subject matter in Kota Kinabalu which contributes to lack understanding on the keys factors that influence customer to shopping online in the area. In short, this study will investigate the keys factors that facilitate customer from Kota Kinabalu willingness to purchase online and for the purpose of this study, few factors will be identify from the literature review and however, only the most dominant factors will be examine. 1.3 SCOPE OF STUDY This study will specifically examine and indentify the factors that directly and indirectly influence consumer the most specifically in Kota Kinabalu on purchasing decision through online. Researcher will also look into the demographic characteristic such as age, income level, profession, ethnic etc- of online users to be related to the identified keys factors influencing customer to shopping online. The research will be using data gather from selected samples which will include both career individual which includes both public and private servant in order to avoid of having bias data and maintain quality of the data besides to cooperates with time constrains. 1.4 PROBLEM STATEMENT At its core, the mission of marketing is to attract and retain customers. To accomplish this goal, a traditional brick and mortar marketer uses variety of marketing variables to satisfy current and new customers. As for online retailers, it is important for them to have a good understanding of the marketplace for their products and their target customers before engaging themselves in online retailing. Previous researchers found out that there is a rapid rise in the number of PCs as well as growth in the proportion of PCs hooked up to the internet each year which contribute to the growth in e-commerce in Malaysia (Legard, 1998). Despite the high potential of online shopping in Malaysia, however, there is no specific research done on the subject matter and its potential impact on local businesses (Kota Kinabalu area). Knowing the concept of bringing stores to shoppers instead of shoppers to stores is not enough to be success in online businesses. Precise and deep understanding of key f actors is critical to help online retailers and entrepreneurs to develop more effective and targeted online retail operations that will meet the requirements and expectations of their new online shopping customers. Therefore, this study aims to examine the key factors that influence current users of online shopping in Kota Kinabalu to shop online and in the same time assessing, evaluating and understand the characteristics of online shoppers in Kota Kinabalu. 1.5 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES The objective of conducting this study includes; To identify the critical factors that would influencing customer to shop through online. To investigate the differences on the between public and private sector shopping online adoption. 1.6 RESEARCH QUESTIONS In order to reach the objectives of this study, there are three (3) critical issues encountered. These issues are formed into questions that need to be answered. These issues including; What would the factors influence customers in Kota Kinabalu to shop online? What are the main characteristics of the customers who shop online? Are there any differences between public and private sectors employees in shopping online context? By having for the answer of these questions will help the local businesses to have better understanding on characteristic of the online customer especially factors benefits that make them buy products or services through online shopping, as well as their products or services preferences bought from online stores. In general, by having these question answered, this study will reveal the trend of online shopping in Kota Kinabalu. 1.7 IMPORTANCE OF STUDY 1.6.1 Local Businesses Planning on expanding businesses is not an easy job to be done. There are a lot of parts and divisions a business have to take into account especially when a business considering to go online. Therefore, this study will help local businesses to have a better understanding on the customers attitudes, characteristics and preferences shopping online besides guiding the local businesses to utilize the existing advanced technologies in operating their business and go global. 1.6.2 The Consumers This study can help consumers to have a better understanding on the advantages and disadvantages to shop online besides identifying a new way of shopping channel. This study also will provide information on products and services preferred to be purchased through online store which eventually will help consumer to make online purchases. 1.6.3 The Academicians This study will help to enhance researchers to conduct more study regarding the subject matter as it is more focus on the factors that influencing customers to shop online instead of traditional way of shopping. This study will provide the academicians with new information of online shopping trend in Kota Kinabalu specifically besides helping to enhance other researcher to do in depth review pertaining on the consumers attitudes towards adopting this new shopping channel. CHAPTER 2 LITERATURE REVIEW AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 2.1 LITERATURE REVIEW In this chapter, relevant literature and research related to the scope of study will be reviewed and analysed to structure this study to present research findings in subsequent chapters. The current literature on consumer online purchasing decisions has mainly concentrated on identifying the factors which influence customer to engage in online shopping in order to truly ascertain what factors influence the online shopping activity adoption in Kota Kinabalu. Study done by Margherio (1998) mentioned about E-commerce which cover any commercial transaction that is effected via electronic means, including such means as facsimile, telex, electronic data interchange (EDI), the Internet, and the telephone. Inter Agency Task Force on Electronic Commerce, IATFEC (1997) on the other hand define E-Commerce as All form of business transactions conducted over public and private computer networks. It is based on electronic processing and transmission of data, text, sound and video. E-Commerce includes transactions within a global Information Economy such as electronic trading of goods and services, online delivery of digital content, electronic funds transfer, electronic share trading, electronic bills of lading, commercial auctions, collaborative designs, engineering and manufacturing, online sourcing, public procurement, direct consumer marketing and after sales service. It includes both products (consumer goods, specialised medical equipment) and s ervices (information services, financial and legal services, traditional services) and new activities (virtual malls). It involves the application of multimedia technologies in the automation and redesign of transactions and workflow, aimed at increasing businesses competitiveness In adopting the above definitions, it is involvement of face to face communication between consumers (Internet users) and companies (Internet sellers) via computer networks to facilitate any kind of commerce transaction (browsing or purchasing products or services) easier, faster and cheaper electronically beyond traditional geographical boundary (Norazah M. S, et al., 1997) while the term online shopping according to Ton˜ ita Perea y Monsuwe, et al., (2004) defined as the use of online stores by consumers up until the transactional stage of purchasing and logistics. Study by Shwu-Ing Wu (2003) reported that a persons buying choices are influenced by four major psychological factors: motivation, perception, learning and beliefs and attitude and through motivation, perception, and learning, attitudes are formed and consumers make decisions. Some researchers categorized influence factors into internal and external factors (Kaufman-Scarborough K, 2002 and Shwu-Ing Wu, 2003). Based on the idea, consumer purchase behavior is influenced strongly by cultural, social, personal, and psychological characteristics (Bellman, et al., 1999). The internal factors are including beliefs and attitudes, learning, motives and needs, personality, perception, and values and the external influences upon consumer behavior includes demographic, economic, social, situational and technological factors (Shwu-Ing Wu, 2003). In Malaysia context, study on Internet users are in abundance (Ramayah and Jantan, 2003; Ismawati and Ainin, 2004). However, there have been few studies carried out to understand their online purchasing behavior for example Haque A., et al., (2006); Ainin S., et al., (2005) and Razinah H. et al., (2009). Thus, the main objective of this study is to examine the key factors that influencing online shopping in Kota Kinabalu specifically. Study done by Taylor Nelson Sofres, (2001) found that the penetration of Malaysians shopping online, i.e. people who bought or ordered goods and services online in 2000, 1% of the total adult population in Malaysia which according to the study is corresponded to 4% of the Internet users in the country at that time. There is high demand among Malaysians Internet users conducting online shopping due to Ecommerce provide enormous of consumers worldwide potential benefits (Ainin S., et al., 2005) and study have shown that many consumers have started to shop their desired products online (Sefton, 2000). This shows that online shopping is highly accepted by the consumers (Swaminathan, et al., 1999 ; Rowley J., 2000 ; Ainin S., et al., 2005 ; Zhou, et al., 2007 ). Interestingly, in Malaysia context, Ainin S., et al., (2005) found that females were the dominant Internet shopper than males which contradict to the study done by Adeline Chua, et al., (2006). While according to study done in different market by Gupta et al., (1995) ; Haque et al., (2007) and Zhou et al., (2007) on the basis of Stafford, et al., (2004) and Susskind (2004), these researchers found that man tend to make more purchases online compare to women. Zhou, et al., (2007) reported that consumer involved in online shopping are mostly university graduates, aged 35 years old and below, have full-time job, earning monthly personal income of between RM2000 RM5000 and mostly single. This supports the study done by Shwu-Ing Wu, (2003) and Ainin S., et al., (2005) on the demographic profiles of online shopper. Another issue on online shopping from the previous literature is the characteristic of products and services can be marketed online (Peterson, et al., 1997 ; Legard, 1998 ; Klein, 1998) which according to these researchers, there are two types of product and services marketed online and it is highly depends on the characteristics of the products and services to be able marketed online. We are now seeing the emergence of an important new medium for commerce (Ainin S., et al., 2005 ; Adeline Chua, et al., 2006 and Zhou, et al., 2007). However, in Malaysia especially, even though sales growth rate suggests that the number of online consumers is growing however most research findings do not conclusively determine which key factors that influence consumer the most to shop online ( Ramayah and Jantan, 2003; Ismawati and Ainin, 2004). Examining these factors is important as it has been suggested that they play an important part in determining the success or failure of online shopping business (Goodwin, 1999 ; Wu, 2003; Kolsaker, et al., 2004; Khatibi, et al., 2006). Studies have been done to investigate consumer acceptance of online shopping from the perspectives of technology acceptance whereby the perspective prescribes that beliefs about ease of use and usefulness of a technology predict attitudes towards the technology and subsequent acceptance and use, for example by Sejin Ha and Leslie S., (2008). Bruner and Kumar, (2005) however, suggests that beliefs on trust and enjoyment are among the key factors that influencing consumer acceptance of online shopping. While Hoffman and Novak, (1996) developed more abstract concept on the relevant context for example shopping values, quality of information, system quality, enjoyment, perceived usefulness and ease of use- in order to improve predictions about purchase behavior. Factors that also influenced customer to shop online is product variety (Wolfinbarger, M. and Mary Gilly, 2001 ; Ainin Sulaiman, et al., 2005 ; Adeline Chua, et al., 2006) which categorized into good selection and wider availability of product choices offered by online stores. Online retailers are able to provide a wide range and assortments of products as compared to traditional channels simply because there is no physical space limit on the number of products that online retailers can display on their online storefronts (Delafrooz et al., 2009). Furthermore, the number of online stores that consumers are able to visit online compared to far physical stores, thus, exceeds the number of providing them with a wider selection of products to choose from (Harn et al., 2006). A survey by Ernst and Young (2000) also reported that one of the reasons why consumers use the internet is because of good product selection. Hyo-Joo Han, et al., (2006) found that product variety and quality of product pictures were observed to more important. Indeed, easy access to an abundance of current and detailed information on products and services facilitates comparison shopping, aid in product selection and enables consumers to make more informed decisions (Adeline Chua, et al., 2006). Furthermore, the Internet users could receive more attractive sales promotional offers from Internet sellers and also through individual e- mail accounts (Norazah M. S. et al., 2002) Consumer willingness to spend online also influence by privacy factor whereby online consumers are unwilling to reveal personal information over the web, despite assurances given by online merchants (Wolfinbarger, Mary and Mary Gilly, 2001; Ainin Sulaiman, et al., 2005). To most of the consumers, the issue of security and privacy over the internet is the most overwhelming barrier facing the online shopping adoption process that caused them not to make any purchase on the Internet (Norazah et al., 2002 ; Janice Tsai et al., 2007). Smith, et al., (1996) outlined four dimensions of privacy concerns for organizational practices which include collection of personal information, unauthorized secondary use of personal information, errors in personal information, and improper access to personal information. According to Malhotra, et al., (2004), the dimensions of concern refer to the collection of personal information, the control over the use of personal data, and the awareness of privacy practices and uses of personal information. Janes et al., 1997 reported that consumers tend to be more comfortable providing sensitive information in a realm where they can see with whom they are dealing, revisit the physical location of the business if necessary, and thus, exert a perceived amount of control over the situation besides want to be assured that their communication and transactions will remain secured and private (Hoffman et al., 1999; Ainin Sulaiman, et al., 2005). Janice Tsai et al., (2007) in their study found that, people will tend to purchase from merchants that offer more privacy protection and people even willing to pay for a premium to purchase from such merchants. Kargaonkar and Smith (1986) ; Swaminathan, et al., (1999) ; Bellman, et al., (1999) ; Elliot and Fowell (2001) ; Eastin (2002), found that consumers who are primarily motivated by convenience are more likely to make purchases online. These authors proposed those consumers who have interface with the net and who are more time-constrained tend to buy online more frequently. According to Bellman, et al., (1999), wired lifestyle consumers are consumers that use the internet as a routine tool to receive and send emails, to do their work, to read news, to search for information or for recreational purposes. Their routine use of the Internet for other purposes leads them to naturally use it as a shopping channels as well (Bellman, et al., 1999). Similarly, McGann (2004) also reported that the main reason why consumers shop online is because it is convenience. It is said to be the major factors that motivates consumers to shop online. Charles D., et al., (2002) also found that Internet shopp ing is convenient however it is never replace actual shops. For years, information search has been one of the main marketing research topics (Kulviwat et al., 2004). Information is an important resource for consumers shop online especially for goal-directed fashion type of consumer (Wolfinbarger, M. and Mary Gilly, 2001). According to the study, the availability of information is one of the reasons that many buyers view search and purchase online as a utilitarian activity and it is consistent with the finding by Ainin Sulaiman et al., (2005). As noted by Bakos (1997) Internet search enables consumers to reduce imperfect information about products. The study also supported by Rha (2002) where it were stated that consumers can easily find information about other consumers experiences of products through internet. The internet is a medium to search for product specification and product prices as well. In addition to product information, price was a piece of information that was usually sought by consumers (Wolfinbarger, Mary and Mary Gilly, 2001). Brynjolfsson and Smith (1999) found that prices online are 8 to 15 percent lower than the prices for comparable products in traditional retail outlets. According to McGann (2004), Ainin Sulaiman et al. (2005), Adeline Chua et al., (2006), competitive prices and deals offered by online retailers are one of the dominant factors that influence consumers to shop online. Rowley (2000) reported that the Internet is the most powerful search medium for products, services, and most other types of information because it lowers both search cost and search time. Therefore, by referring to the available literature, factors that might influence customer to shop online can be conclude as widespread of product choices or product variety (Delhagen, 1997 ; Wolfinbarger, Mary and Mary Gilly, 2001 ; Ainin Sulaiman, et al., 2005 ; Adeline Chua, et al., 2006); enjoyment factors (Wolfinbarger, Mary and Mary Gilly, 2001 ; Bruner and Kumar, 2005); privacy factor (Wolfinbarger, M. and Mary Gilly, 2001; Norazah et al., 2002 ; Ainin Sulaiman, et al., 2005 ; Janice Tsai et al., 2007) which become one of the main concern to shop online; convenience factors (Kargaonkar and Smith, 1986 ; Swaminathan, et al., 1999 ; Bellman, et al., 1999 ; Elliot and Fowell 2001; Eastin, 2002 ; Chen and Chang, 2003 ; McKinney, 2004); product information factor (Wolfinbarger, M. and Mary Gilly, 2001 ; Rha, 2002 ; Ainin Sulaiman et al., 2005 ) and prices factor (Margherio, 1998 ; Strauss and Frost, 1999 ; Rowley, 2000 ; McGann, 2004 ; Ainin Sulaiman et al., 2005). As stated in Delafrooz et al., (2009), consumers who value the convenience, prices and wider selection of Internet shopping tend to purchase more online and more often. Even though wider selection or product variety also mentioned as one of the major factors, for the purpose of this study, as regards to the time constraint, researcher will only focus on two most dominant factors from all the factors identified which are the convenience factor and price factors. Thus, these two (2) factors are further discussed below; CONVENIENCE By referring to the studies done before, the main factors customer shop online is that it is more convenient than to shop in-store which also supported in current study by Delafrooz et al., (2009). Convenience reflects ease access of information about product, provision of in-depth information, ease of ordering product, potential for money saving, and timely delivery. (Mathieson 1991 ; Bruner Hensel, 1996 ; Turban et al., 2002 ; Gurvinder and Zhaobin, 2005 ; Hui et al., 2006). Convenience is the most prominent factor that motivates consumers to shop through the internet. In this study, convenience which refer to 24-hour availability of online storefront (time saving) and accessibility from almost any location (less moving) have been found to be significant explanatory factors for Internet shopping adoption (Karayanni, 2003) and also provides consumers with a powerful alternative channel for making purchases (Delafrooz et al., 2009). These factors (time saving and less moving) will be taken into account as part of convenience factor. As contradict to the studies saying that convenience is the most prominent factor that motivates consumers to shop through the internet, study done by Razinah H. et al., (2009) reported that although the net offer convenience in shopping, online shopping, assurance in payment and lots of information, some group of online users are still reluctant to shop online even though these group of online users have limited time allocated for shopping due to their hectic daily life. PRICE Price in this study refers to the market value, or agreed exchange value, that will purchase a definite quantity, weight, or other measure of a good or service. Price of product offered online is one of the major factor that influencing customer to engage in online shopping and this supported by the finding in McGann, 2004. The idea is the simplest reason for consumers to buy through the internet is to save money from the cheaper prices offered by online retailers compared to traditional retailers. Contradict to the study by Brynjolfsson and Smith (1999), study by Lee (1997) and Bailey (1998) found that products are sold at higher prices in the Internet channel compared to physical channels. Clay, K. et al., (2001) reported it may be due to unobserved quality variation. Rowley (2000) stated in his study that, online retailers usually are able to offer cheaper prices because of the shrinking cost of information processing, lower operating cost and global reach provided by Internet. In addition, Strauss and Frost (1999) also identified the ease of comparing price as one of the most important factors to online shopping. To some extent, according to Clay, K., et al., (2001) price of online product has positive relationship with the availability and widespread of information. Conventionally, shoppers will make comparisons and always go for the best value for price products (Ainin Sulaiman et al., 2005). Hanson (1999) reported the main reason that cheaper prices are offered to online shoppers is because of competitive pressure, especially from new online retailers. Study by John P. and Jackie L. (2001) found that even though more than half respondents mentioned price of the product or service as the primary factor when they consider buying on the Internet, however to some extend it would cost more to buy from online store than purchasing it from physical retail store. Customer expressed concern associated with high shipping cost, high pricing, lack of opportunity to examine the product prior to purchase, confidentiality of credit card and purchased information also mentioned in the study by Razina H. et al., (2009) on the basis of study done by Goldstein and Oconner, (2000). 2.2 THEORITICAL FRAMEWORK Based on the existing literature connected directly to the scope of this study, there are few factors identified to have significant effect towards online shopping namely convenience, price, product variety, widespread of product information and etc. However, only two the most dominant factors will be the ultimate key that will used to aid and examine the key factors that influencing consumers to engage in online shopping. CONVENIENCE ONLINE SHOPPING PRICE 2.3 SUMMARY Based on the review on the related literature review, researcher found few dominant factors why consumer do engage in shopping online is generally influence by the factors of feeling of convenience, product prices sold online is relatively lower than existing retail stores, the widespread of information availability and also variety of product offered online. Moreover, this study will also look into the characteristic of customer especially in terms of profession, as regard to meet the objective to investigate the differences on the between public and private sector shopping online adoption. In summary, consumer purchasing behaviour through online can be examine in different model and generally, the factors that influence them to engage in online activities may be vary. However, for the purpose of this study, researcher will only look into the most significant factors convenience factors which include the time saving and less moving, and also the price factor on the basis of key factors that influencing customer to shop online in Kota Kinabalu. CHAPTER 3 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY 3.1 METHODOLOGY A structured questionnaire will be used to collect the necessary data. It will be designed to specific information of the respondents. It serves as primary data to answer the research questions and objectives pertaining to online shopping in Kota Kinabalu. The survey questionnaire consists of few distinct sections, each of which contains questions which lead to answer the research question of the study. In view of time and cost constraints as well as the large population of Internet users in the country, random sampling was used to collect data from the consumer from Kota Kinabalu area. Even though the sampling method adopted might have limitations in terms of generalisibility compared to other sampling methods; it is assumed that the sample represents the whole population of consumer in Kota Kinabalu. 3.2 SOURCES OF DATA This study will be based on both primary and secondary data. The primary data will be from the structured questionnaires which will be distributed to the appropriate sample to collect necessary information regarding the subject matter. The secondary data will be gathered by reviewing web sites, business magazines, journals, publications and other relevant document related to the subject matter. 3.3 INSTRUMENT Sample data The sample in this study will be selected from different groups of people including non-executive, executive, students, and housewife in order to avoid collecting bias data. Mode of administration of survey Face to face and video call interview may be used in this study to gather appropriate information. This study will also be conducted by a constructed questionnaires with consumer selected as sample and all participants will be voluntarily. Nature of Questionnaires The questionnaires consist of 20 questions. Both open ended and fixed-response-alternative question will be used. Fixed-response-alternative question include multiple choice and also dichotomous. The questionnaire was self-administered, where it contains simple question with detailed instructions. The questionnaires were collected back after the respondents completed them. A copy of the questionnaire is provided in the appendices. Scope of the Study 300 questionnaires will be distributes by hand to the random sample of consumer in Kota Kinabalu area which will include both female and male from all groups plan. 3.4 RESEARCH APPROACH A descriptive research is being proposed to perform this study. Prior literature provides with a rich foundation on which to build a research framework for the study. As suggested by previous researcher, strong theoretical and conceptual framework can be developed through an integration of constructs from different research traditions and disciplines. In this study, the literature search was based on the keywords such as Internet Shopping, Internet Marketing and Online Shopping. Each article was reviewed and screened to eliminate the articles that were not pertinent to the study. 3.5 LIMITATION OF RESEARCH In order to conduct the research, the researcher is confronted this problem: time constrain Basically, research need to be done in longer period of time, unfortunately this study might only have few months given to complete be completed. Ample of time is needed to complete this study properly. Thus researcher only focus on two factors to be examined in this study. lack of expertise As beginner in the marketing research, the researcher level of competency and sophistication not is compared with experienced researcher. Researcher will have to refer on several books and seek guidance

A Look at Myelin and Myelin-Related Disorders Essay -- Biology Essays

A Look at Myelin and Myelin-Related Disorders Myelin is the protective sheath around axons in the nervous system, and is often referred to as 'white matter.' It acts as an insulator to the electrical signal that is conducted down the axon as a neuron fires, and can well be compared to the insulation around an electrical wire. The myelin sheath contains a variety of fatty substances (lipids), and contains at least ten distinct chemicals (2). . From what is known, axons are not fully myelinated at birth, but myelin is formed from birth on into the second decade of life (3). The way myelination takes place is through glial cells wrapping around the axons in a spiral fashion. The axons are originally embedded in these glial cells, and the cell's membranes extend to wrap the axon tightly and repeatedly. 'Glia' comes from Greek, meaning 'glue,' hinting at the way the cell's membrane sticks to the axon, and how the different layers of the extended membrane stick to each other. There are different glial cells that form myelin: in the ce ntral nervous system, these cells are referred to as oligodendrocytes, and in the peripheral nervous system they are Schwann cells. While in the peripheral nervous system the glial cell wraps around a single axon to insulate it, in the central nervous system a glial cell may wrap around several axons at once (4).. The characteristics and specific functions of myelin have not fully been explored by researchers, and as far as I can tell most current research efforts are initiated by groups that research myelin-related disorders, such as the Myelin Profect. In demyelinating diseases, the myelin sheath around some axons is targeted. These diseases fall into two main groups: acquired diseases and heredit... ...bout the leukodystrophies http://www.ulf.org/ulf/intro/#inf1 3) Myelin Disorders Menu

Edgar Allen Poes The Black Cat, The Tell-Tale Heart and The Cask of Am

Edgar Allen Poe's 'The Black Cat,' 'The Tell-Tale Heart' and 'The Cask of Amontillado' In each of Edgar Allen Poe's stories of murder and madness, he takes us inside the mind of the murderer from the time he begins until after the deed has been done. Poe gives us a point of view not common in works of horror and suspense: the killers. We read the thoughts and follow the actions of the killer as he plots and follows through with his victim?s demise. All three of his stories are alike, especially 'The Black Cat' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart.' However, I found that 'The Cask of Amontillado' differ more than any of the other two from each other. While the murderers in 'The Black Cat' and 'The Tell-Tale Heart' are motivated by their own insanity, the character in 'The Cask of Amontillado' is driven by pure, old-fashioned revenge and jealousy. A couple main details I noticed about all three tales is that each story is told in first person, and all of the main characters are male. Also, in the end of each of these short stories all men turn out to be no better, if not much wo rse, than they already were. The ?Tell-Tale Heart? begins with the murderer raving about his sanity, and that he commits the crime not because of lunacy but for his master?s ?Evil-Eye.? The man describes the eye as if it is a separate entity from the old man, and if it weren?t for the eye he would have nothing against his master. The eye being attached to the old man is just an unfortunate detail. In the following quote the man describes his feelings towards the Evil-Eye and what he decided to do about it: ?Whenever it fell upon me, my blood ran cold; and so by degrees-very gradually-I made up my mind to take the life of the old man, and thus rid myself ... ...d in some part of the home of each of the murderers. Also, in both of ?The Tell-Tale Heart? and ?The Cask of Amontillado? the killer?s guilty consciences eventually caused some sort of confession of their crimes. The man in the first story was driven mad into confessing from an imaginary heart beat, and the man in the latter is left to believe his conscience is what caused him to write his story confessing his crime. Both men in ?The Tell-Tale Heart? and ?The Black Cat? were extremely confident in their job hiding the bodies, and almost bragging at their job at hiding the body. However, in all three stories the men were punished in some way. The first two stories I described had the law punishing the two men. The final story I described the man was never caught by the authorities for his crime, but instead he had to deal with the weight from his guilty conscience.

Marketing Research Krispy Kreme

GROUP MEMBER [pic] †¢ Usarat Rungruangrattanawadee1531007027 †¢ Chavivuth Soonthornsima 1511001933 †¢ Tirapitch Pichitnorakarn 1511007096 †¢ Arnuphap Chaiyaraj 1531007209 †¢ Pavinee Pinijkijsopon1531007530 Exclusive Summary As you know Thailand has many brand of donut and last year have new brand come to Thailand it is Krispy Kreme Doughnut. First time that they promote everyone interesting and exciting about that. Now it not interesting like beginning period. So, our group would like to study about customer preference and want to know about customer satisfaction with price, place, taste and location of Krispy Kreme Doughnut.We try to know all customer think with Krispy Kreme Doughnut and also our competitor. We use many methods to do the research. For this research we get some limitation from whether, time, confusing with questionnaire, and etc. As we research we get good information back for analyze the data and code data for do graph. Introduction Backgrou nd 1937s A Humble Beginning †¢ Krispy Kreme Began More Than 70 Years Ago In Winston-Salem, NC †¢ Our Founder, Vemon Rudolph, Bought a Yeast-Raised Doughnut Recipe From a Chef in New Orleans. †¢ Today, All Krispy Kreme Stores Use the Same Proprietary Recipe That Was Used 70 Years Ago! 940s & 1950s A History of Innovation 40s&50s †¢ Improving the doughnut Making process through Innovation from the Beginning †¢ Krispy Kreme Was the First to Automate the Doughnut Making Process Soon After We Opened. †¢ These Innovation Remain the Foundation of Our Doughnut-Making Process Today 1960s & 1970s The Store Experience 60s & 70s (Our Stores are Fun Gathering place for Friends) †¢ The Store Expereince is the Brand for Our Customers. †¢ For Year, Krispy Kreme Stores Have Been Fun Places for Friends and Families to Gather Our â€Å"Doughnut Theatre† and You Team’s Great Customer Service are Critical Components. 1980s & 1990s Hot Original Glazed 80s & 90s (The famous hot doughnut experience) †¢ Krispy Kreme Signature Product Original is Our Original Glazed †¢ Our World Famous â€Å"Hot Now† Sign Signals To consumers that making Fresh Product †¢ Customer Young and Old Love Watching the Doughnuts Being Made Today Growing the Brand Worldwide (Sharing the Krispy Kreme experience) †¢ Today, Krispy Kreme has Stores in the United States, Europe, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia. †¢ We have More Than 500 Stores in 18 Countries More than 60% of Krispy Kreme’s Stores are Now Outside the US †¢ This Year, Krispy Kreme Hopes to Open Our First Stores in Dominican Republic, Thailand and Taiwan! Krispy Kreme in Thailand †¢ Krispy Kreme open in Thailand at Siam Paragon since 28 Sep, 2010 Situation Analysis First Krispy Kreme launchs in Bangkok at Siam Paragon. It has a Krispy Kreme trend because they have promotion for 100 prople get free Krispy Kreme but the first person of 100 peopl e will get Krispy Kreme free all year. People very interest and excited about Krispy Kreme. Before it lunch in Bangkok, it reputation in aboard.For first 4-5 months, it has very long queues out of Siam Paragon. Someone who waiting in queues for re-sell all opposite side at Siam Paragon, they will up price about 10-20 baht per piece or someone get 50-100 baht per box for waiting in queues instead of the person who want it. Now Krispy Kreme is quiet, no body waiting for buy Krispy Kreme, you can walk to the shop and buy it without waiting in long queues. Now it has variety for favors, first it launches only original favor. Research Objective †¢ To study Krispy Kreme Customer Preference. †¢ To know customer satisfaction with price. To know customer satisfaction with place such as atmosphere, decoration and convenience. †¢ To know customer satisfaction with taste such as soft and sweet. †¢ To know customer satisfaction with reputation. †¢ To know some improvemen t that we think customer will accept or it will effect with customer or not. †¢ The last objective that we want to know is about competitor. Define problem and opportunity identification Problem is Thai people interest with Krispy Kreme lower than the beginning period, so male Krispy Kreme no more long queues although Krispy Kreme launch more favors, but not attraction customer like beginning period.Now Krispy Kreme has not yet opens a new branch although I think Krispy Kreme must to open new branch. Limitation of the study Our main target is student, so we divide into two groups for research. The first group is BU Student at City Campus and Second group is Student around Siam Paragon and BTS (Siam station). First limitation that we met we can’t do the research inside Siam Paragon, so we must to go outside it and stand at BTS. We go to research about 5 pm; this time is the times for student go for tutor.We have some problem about student don’t have more time for d o our questionnaire. And we stay at BTS, we will met student who also hurry to back home. Until we meet one group in front of Siam Paragon, we go for research them but security guard is not allowing to research front of Siam Paragon. Second limitation that we met is some people they don’t understand some question and some people who say no with the question that we ask about last one month you ever consume Krispy Kreme or not, so it make that questionnaire fail. I must to do more questionnaires because we need 30 questionnaires.The last limitation that we met is weather, first of all we will stay at Siam Square, the place that reseller sell Krispy Kreme Donught but that they is raining day, so it make our can’t stay there. It hard to do questionnaire in raining day. Finally we decide to divide in to two groups first stay around BTS. We stand different door. Finally, The problem that we meet is from confusing with question, place and weather that we survey is not conven ience for do the research but finally we get questionnaire enough to do the research although it has correct one and wrong one.Method Definition of the population Is the amount of people or has the same characteristic in the similar way or the same way which include all sex and every age. Person are likely the same things and from one to others, they all in a group and as a group we called â€Å"population†. For example our group project we doing a research about donut which is the most popular and famous in Thailand now called â€Å"Crispy Cream† located in paragon shopping mall.As we research we want to know the amount of population which has the same things in the same ways such as like to eat donut or like to do the same activities, we don’t target only people who are under 30 but we do target all sex, age and people who are in Bangkok too. Therefore population are large group of people not even in the country can be all over the world who like to do or eat in the same or similar things. And if we want to target something we can target in a whole group of people which means population of something we want to target such as we want to know population of people who loves to eat donut especially â€Å"Crispy Cream†.Every research must have their population of their project which can tell u to analyze that people who you are targeting is like or dislike your product or services. These can tell u little more about people or customers are interest in your product or not. For example if high population it might means they like your product or service but if low population so which means that they might not be interest or not in the trends of nowadays. Sample plan and sample size Our sample plan is that we have conducted the sample of 30 respondents between the age of 16-25 both high school and university students who are consuming KrispyKreame donuts.To understand how these age group of people buying decision on the KrispyKreame produc ts on their preference on taste, price, reputation, quality of the products. The population of ours target is the people in Bangkok who consuming the donuts whether consume themselves or buy for other people as a gift. However, the total surveys that we have conducted was 50 questionnaires but only 30 of them which can be useful for conclude the final sample which gives us 60% of the total sample size that we have been given out for the surveys.Ours sample method was we have used an exploratory method but in questionnaire type and we let them to fill out the form by themselves and as we have a cluster sampling type of method which mean we have selected the group of ours sample size for this particular surveys. Furthermore, the sampling method for ours survey was probability sample type as we have select the sample which in equal chance to be select to fill out the questionnaire. We have resampling the sample to conclude the result by looking at the sample that we have gathered to ju dge the total population of people who like to consume donuts in Bangkok area.Development of the questionnaire We started developed our questionnaire to answer the objectives. The questionnaire was created by all members in group. First time we draft developed it in class room to know just like which direction we will ask. We also make sure by consult with the instructor about the content in questionnaire. After that we had meeting again to do questionnaire in details. Each member helps together to developed questionnaire and tries to show the ideas and the benefit of that question to fit with the objective.We had use of computer and networks to help in developed the questionnaire by type and design the questionnaire. We also sent the questionnaire through the E-mail to each member in our group to help together to recheck the questionnaire in term of the word understanding and design again before launch it to the public in testing the questionnaire within BU city campus. After that we fix the questionnaire again before use it in real surveys. We chose Closed- ended type to be our question response format. We use both Dichotomous which provide two response options and Multiple response which provide more than two response options.We design to use closed –ended question because it provide options on the questionnaire which help respondent to answer quickly and easily. The more benefit is this type of question is also easier to analyze the data which proper for short period of time that we have. Moreover we also use Scaled- response format to measure the attributes of the Krispy Kreme doughnuts. We design in Unlabled scale which is purely numerical that allow respondent to express feeling and it also easily to code the data. There are more details in each questions following; †¢ The first part of questionnaire is Screening questions.It helps us to identify which questionnaire can be the sample or the representative of the research. The screening quest ions start from question number one to three. ? The question one is â€Å"Have you been purchased Krispy Kreme doughnuts during the last one month? † This question will be separate respondent who is the representative apart from who is not by the answer. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. ? The question two is â€Å"How often do you consume Krispy Kreme doughnuts a month? † The purpose is to know the frequency of consuming Krispy Kreme doughnuts.The Scale of measurement is Interval scales because distance between each descriptor is equal. ? The question three is â€Å"Where did you buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts? † The purpose is to know is the respondent buy doughnuts from the Krispy Kreme directly or buy from the reseller. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. †¢ The second part of questionnaire is General question. It will be the question about the purpos e of buying Krispy Kreme Doughnuts and why. The general questions start from question number four to eight. The question four is â€Å"How did you know Krispy Kreme doughnuts? † The purpose is to know which way they know Krispy Kreame doughnuts. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. ? The question five is â€Å"Purpose of buying Krispy Kreme doughnuts? † The purpose is to know the objective of buying Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. ? The question six is â€Å"if you see long queue, do you want to wait in queue or not? † The purpose is to know the tendency of who will wait in queue if there is line.The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. ? The question seven is â€Å"Why you want to waiting queue? † The purpose is to know the reason why they still want to wait in queue. The Scal e of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. ? The question eight is â€Å"Why did you buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts? † The purpose is to know reason why they buy. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. †¢ The third part of questionnaire is Preference. This will give depth data in term of Krispy Kreme attributes. There will be sub-questions for question nine which give data in scale about price, taste (soft and sweet), quality, reputation and location (atmosphere, decoration and convenience). The purpose is to know customer preference in each attributes. The Scale of measurement is Interval scales because distance between each descriptor is equal. †¢ The fourth part of question is Compettition. This will help to generate data about the rivals of Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The questions start from question number ten to thirteen. ? The question number ten is â€Å"Do you purchase others donuts brand while purchase Krispy Kreme doughnuts? The purpose is to know that do the representative still buy other doughnuts brand while buy Krispy Kreme doughnuts. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. ? The question eleven is â€Å"Which doughnuts brand that you purchase apart from Krispy Kreme doughnuts? † The purpose is to know who the Krispy Kreme doughnuts rivals are. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. ? The question twelve is â€Å"From question no 11: why do you purchase those doughnut brands? † The purpose is to know reason why the representatives still buy those brands.This may help to identify which attribute is Krispy Kreme do not well. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. ? The question thirteen is â€Å"Please rank which donut brands do you prefer the most? † The purpose is to know which bra nd do the representative prefer (order in rank). The Scale of measurement is Ordinal scales because provide rank-order to respondent. †¢ The fifth part of question is Improvement. These will help to know what could be improving for Krispy Kreme. The questions start from number fourteen to fifteen. ? The question fourteen is â€Å".If Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has a membership card, would it make you buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts more than before or not? The purpose is to understand the potential of customer preference in membership card that may affect frequency of buying. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. ? The question fifteen is â€Å"If Krispy Kreme Doughnuts launch new branch, where would you like it be located? † The purpose is to know where representative want Krispy Kreme to open new branch. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. The sixth part of question is Perso nal data. This part will be detail about the representative which shows gender, ages, occupation and income per month. The purpose is to know details about the representative. The questions start from number sixteen to nineteen. ? The question sixteen is â€Å"Gender†. The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. ? The question seventeen is â€Å"age† The Scale of measurement is Interval scales because distance between each descriptor is equal. ? The question eighteen is â€Å"Occupation† The Scale of measurement is Nominal scales because it uses only labels in questionnaire. The question nineteen is â€Å"Income per month† The Scale of measurement is Interval scales because distance between each descriptor is equal. Questionnaire No. ___________ Interviewer’s name ___________ Bangkok University International College Questionnaire for Marketing Research Hello, I am student at Bangkok University Internatio nal College. I would like to conduct survey about Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. I would like to ask you few questions about your experience with Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. It will take only few minute and this questionnaire is part of term project of Marketing Research and it will be confidentially.Thank you for your spending time to response to the questionnaire. / / / Please answer the following question by mark (in ( given below: ( ( Screening Questions ( ) 1. Have you been purchased Krispy Kreme Doughnuts during the last one month? (1 ) Yes ( ) No ( ) 2. How often do you consume Krispy Kreme Doughnuts a month? ( ) Once (1 )2-4 times (2-4 ) 5-7 times (5-7 )More than 7 ( 7 ) 3. Where did you buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? ( ) Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop at Siam Paragon ( ) By reseller ( ) General Questions ( ) 4. How did you know Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? ( Friend( )Experience ( ) Media and Advertising ( )Other Please specify (_____) 5. Purpose of buying Krispy Kr eme Doughnuts ( ) Consume ( )Resell ( ) Gift ( )Other Please specify (_____) 6. If you see long queue, do you want to wait in queue or not? ( ) Yes ( ) No (Skip question no. 7) ( 7) 7. Why you want to waiting queue? ( ) Trend( )Fashion ( )Want to try/eat ( / )Other Please specify (_____) 8. Why did you buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? ( ) Price ( ) Reputation ( ) Taste ( )Location ( ) Quality ( )Other Please specify (____) Preference ( ) 9. How did you rate Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in term oftheir price, taste, quality, reputation and location? ( , , , ) | |Low( | | | | |High( ) | | |1 |2 |3 |4 |5 |6 | |9. 1 Price ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | |9. 2 Taste ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | | 9. 2. 1 Soft ( |   |   |   |   |   |   | | 9. 2. 2 Sweet ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | |9. 3 Quality ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | |9. 4 Reputation ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | |9. Location ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | | 9. 5. 1 Atmosphere |   | |   |   |   |   | |( ) | | | | | | | | 9. 5. 2 Decoration |   |   |   |   |   |   | |( | | | | | | | | 9. 5. 3 Convenience |   |   |   |   |   |   | |( ) | | | | | | | Competition ( ) 10. Do you purchase others donut brand while purchase Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? ( Yes ( ) No ( ) 11. Which donut brand that you purchase apart from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? (Answer more than one) ( 1 ) Bapple Donut Daddy Dough Dunkin’DonutsMister Donut Other (Please specify___________) 12. Form question no. 11; why do you purchase those Donut brand? ( 11 ) Price ( )Taste ( ) Quality ( )Location ( ) Other (Please specify___________) 13.Please rank which Donut brands do you prefer the most ( ) (1-5 1 5 ; 1= most , 5 = lease ) ____________ Bapple Donut ( ) ____________ Daddy Dough ( ) ____________ Dunkin’Donuts ( ) ____________ Krispy Kreme Doughnuts ( ) ____________ Mister Donut ( ) Improvement ( ) 14. If Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has a membership card, would it make you buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts more than before or not? ( Yes ( ) No ( ) 15. If Krispy Kreme Doughnuts launch new branch, where would you like it be located? ( ) Central Plaza ( )The Emporium ( ) The mall ( )Robinson ( ) Super market (Tesco Lotus, Big C, Careful, and etc) ( , , ) Other (Please specify___________) Personal Data ( ) 16. Gender ( ) Male ( )Female ( ) 17. Age ( ) Less than 20 ( 20)21-25 30. 1-35 More than 35( 35) 18. Occupation ( ) Student ( / )Office Worker ( ) Business Owner ( )Other Please specify___________ ( ) 19. Income per month ( ) Less than 10,000 ( 10,000)10,001-15,000 15,001-20,000More than 20,0000 ( 20,000) ___________________________ Thank You ________________________ / Data collection method We design to use Exploratory research method to gain background information about the research topic. Exploratory also can help in define term and clarify problem.We use Secondary information to know and understand history or background of the company. It will provide how, when it establish and by whom. Normally, Exploratory research will be unstructured but for Krispy Kreme research we will use quantitative research to help in collection the data. The survey will use questionnaire which is structured question for respondent. The reason is that it can use with a large number of respondents and also easily for code and analysis. In collection mode, we use Self-administered which respondent have to completes the survey by his or her own.It is the most popular way in collection mode; some time people called it paper and pencil survey. The reason for using Self- administered is cost reduction and respondent can control the answer so, it will be affect to time saving. The location that we went to do survey is Siam Square and BU city campus. The reason is that our sample will be students who are in high school and university student. As the lifestyle of this group of people is li ke to hang out at Siam square so, Siam square is the place that majority of that student group like to go.If we went to Siam square we will get data from many type of student in that group. We divide members group to do survey in three small groups. To be faster to collection the data and avoid shy to do questionnaire with big group of researcher. In depth detail of the location, we did survey at BTS Siam, BU city campus. By the BTS Siam, we divide into two group because there is big area that can do survey. Nonsampling error reduction There are many types of errors that might occur during the questionnaire survey some might be avoidable but some might not due to the respondent’s behavior of the survey.However, the error also occurs with the field workers who hand the survey to the entire respondent to fill, they might not be effective to give the respondent an explanation of the question since they did not understand and explain the question to the respondent well. Furthermo re, interviewer might perform their job by unsatisfied reaction to the respondent if they ask too many questions on the survey and might show it to the respondent by tone, body language or characteristic of the interviewer.Some might not give the respondent full explanation of the objective of the survey. This will lead to respondent error, since they did not understand how to answer so they did not answer it correctly or answer it guessing since they unsure on the question or whether they intent to committed an error on purpose since they did not attend to focus on the survey as they might be in the hurry or on the way to work or see friends or get tired from work so they did not willing to answer it properly.Some might get a distraction on the location of the surveys by interruption or crowed places to be able to fill the questionnaire. However, we can reduce such error by supervision on the field workers or training them on the understanding of the survey before let them out on t he field. And for the respondent, we might check the answer before letting them go or go thought the question with them on by one so they can give the best possible answer.Not only an on field surveys that encounter a problem but other kinds of survey such as an online, mail, calling surveys also have the same problems. For an online survey, the respondent might have done more than one survey or might not answer the certain question that they did not want the interviewer to know such salary or occupation etc. Moreover, some even avoid to do it since they can just close the page on the web to avoid answer it. For mailing surveys might have a high set up cost to send to each household and might not get the mail back as they might consider a junk mail.Telephone survey, the interviewer have to follow up the respondent as some people might not be home or lazy to answer it on the phone since the might be in the middle of something such as cooking their meal, watching their favorite progra m. So to avoid such an error the interviewer might have to screening the questionnaire first before it complete, inspect the grammar error that might have confuse the reader and also the answer might have to be clear ,for example, scale question from 1 to 5 the respondent might answer only 5 or in the middle like 3.So these kind of screening might have been consider and need to be eliminate before conducting the questionnaire. Or providing a sample questionnaire to see whether the problems are might have occurred during the pretest. In addition, close supervise data collection and provide training to give the interviewer the best effort are also needed to minimize the error. Data analysis 1. For the question, â€Å"Have you been purchased Krispy Kreme Doughnuts during the last one month? † We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently.The graph is response rate result from the survey is show that the 60% or 30 people of 50 answer Yes (Mode), whi le 40% or 20 people of 50 answer NO. (See graph at p. 31) 2. For the question, How often do you consume Krispy Kreme Doughnuts a month? We analyse by using Mean which result is 1. 2667(fx = 38 / N= 30) The graph result from the survey is show that the majority of the sample said they eat Krispy Kreme once a month which is 26 people out of 30 people as a percentage of 86. 67 percent. Next, the second high is 4 people out of 30 as a percentage of 13. 3 percent eat Krispy Kreme 2-4 times a month. Nobody said eat 5-7 times and more than 7 times a month. (See graph at p. 31) 3. This graph shows about where did you buy Krispy Kreme Dougnuts? We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently. We research about 30 people. The majority of the respondent prefer to buy by Krispy Kreme Dougnuts shop (Mode) at Siam Paragon about 28 people out of 30 as a percentage of 93. 33 percent and people who choose buy by reseller are about 2 people out of 30 as a percentage of 6. 67 percent.Finally, the people who consume Krispy Kreme Dougnuts they like to buy by shop at Siam Paragon more than they buy by reseller. (See graph at p. 32 ) 4. For the question, How did you know Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently. The graph result from the survey is show that majority of sample said they know Krispy Kreme from Media and Advertising (Mode) which count as 14 people out of 30 as a percentage of 46. 67 percent. The second high is people know Krispy Kreme from Friend which is 13 people out of 30 as a percentage of 43. 3 percent. The third high is people know Krispy Kreme from Experience which is 3 people out of 30. (See graph at p. 32) 5. For the question, Purpose of buying Krispy Kreme Doughnuts. We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently. The graph result from the survey is show that the majority of sample said they buy Krispy Kreme for Consume (Mode) which is 26 peo ple out of 30 as a percentage of 86. 67percent. The second high is they buy Krispy Kreme to be Gift which is 4 people out of 30 as a percentage of 13. 33 percent.And nobody answer resell in the research. (See graph at p. 33) 6. For the question, If you see long queue, do you want to wait in queue or not? We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently. The graph result from the survey is show that the majority of sample said No (Mode) in wait in queue which is 77% out of 100%. Another said Yes which is 23% out of 100%. (See graph at p. 33) 7. For this graph talk about Why you want to waiting queue? We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently.The graph result from the survey is show that 100% said they waiting queue bacause they want to try/eat Krispy Kreme doughnuts (Mode). (See graph at p. 34) 8. For the question, why did you buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most fr equently. The graph result from the survey is show that majority of sample choose Reputation to be reason why they buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts which is 15 people out of 30 or (50%). The second high that people choose is Taste which is 11 people out of 30 or (36. 67%).There are 3 people out of 30or ( 10%) choose other which they said trend and variety. There are 1 people out of 30 said location and another 1 people out of 30 30or ( 3. 33%) said quality. The choice that nobody answers in the research is price. (See graph at p. 34 ) 9. This graph shows about the rank that customer rate with Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in term of their price, taste, quality, reputation and location. We analyse by using Mean which result for price is 3. 47 (fx = 104 / N= 30), soft is 4. 67 (fx = 139 / N= 30), sweet is 4. 47 (fx = 134 / N= 30), quality is 4. 3 (fx = 133 / N= 30), reputation is 5. 07 (fx = 152 / N= 30), atmosphere is 4. 07 (fx = 122 / N= 30), decoration is 3. 83 (fx = 115 / N= 30), conveneinve i s 3. 37 (fx = 101 / N= 30). The first graph is shows Price, respondent prefer price in rank 3 with 19 people out of 30 as a percentage of 63. 33 percent. For the taste we divide into two categories are soft and sweet. For soft respondent choose Rank 4 with 10 people out of 30 as a percentage of 33. 33 percent and sweet respondent choose same Rank as 4,5 and 6 with 8 people out of 30, as a percentage of 26. 67 percent.For the quality respondent prefer rank 4 with 12 people out of 30 as a percentage of 40 percent. For reputation respondent prefer rank 5 with 13 people out of 30 as a percentage of 43. 33 percent. The last one is show location, we divided in to 3 categories. First one is atmosphere respondent prefer rank 4 with 12 people out of 30 as a percentage of 40 percent. Second is Decoration respondent prefer rank 3 with 12 people out of 30 as a percentage of 40 percent. Last one of location is convenience respondent prefer rank 3 with 10 people out of 30 as a percentage of 33. 3 percent. (See graph at p. 35) 10. For the question, Do you purchase others donut brand while consuming Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently. The graph result from the survey is show that the majority of sample 26 proplr out of 30 or 87% said they purchase others donut brand while consuming Krispy Kreme Doughnuts†YES† (Mode). Another part is 4 people out of 30 or 13% said they they did not buy others donut brand while consuming Krispy Kreme Doughnuts â€Å"NO†. (See graph at p. 35 ) 11.This graph shows about which donut brand that you purchase apart from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently. It surprisingly, the most favorite donut brands that most of all the respondents on this survey preferred was Mister Donut (Mode) about 21 people out of 30 as a percentage of 70 percent, Dunkin’ donut and Daddy Dough are same as 12 people out o f 30 as a percentage of 40 percent, last one is Bapple Donut is 6 people out of 30 as a percentage of 20 percent. (See graph at p. 36) 12. Form question no. 1; why do you purchase those Donut brand? This pie chart has show us the most preferences of people who buying other donuts brand in term of their price, taste, quality, location and other factors. We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently. From what you can see taste (Mode) was the major factors that were considered by many people who are buying the other donut brands. Followed by, location as it is easy to travel and with lots of transportations that can give them an easy access to get to the destination point.Furthermore, Siam Paragon is the place where most people are likely to go after work or meeting friends. Next, price was the third choice of buying and quality as a sequence. Since the price they would pay for the products must have the similar quality to the amount that they have pay t heir money for that why these 2 factors are follow each others. Other factors are considered to be last which is up to each individual person might have their own reason on their preferences. (See graph at p. 36) 13. This graph shows about Please rank which Donut brands do you prefer the most.We analyse by using Mean which result for Bapple Donut is 3. 7 (fx = 111 / N= 30), for Daddy Dough is 3. 2 (fx = 96 / N= 30), for Dunkin’Donuts is 2. 8 (fx = 84 / N= 30) for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts is 2. 7 (fx = 81 / N= 30), for Mister Donut is 2. 5 (fx = 76 / N= 30)This graph shows us the brands prefer the most by the 30 respondents. We have rank from 1 to 5 forms most favorite to least favorite according to the numbers. As you can see from the 1 rank, Mister Donut has the most preferred by respondents with 13/30 as the percentage of 43. 33 %.At rank 2 Dunkin’ Donuts has overcome KrispyKreme Doughnuts by one person which give Dunkin’ Donuts the second favorite brand among K rispyKreme Doughnuts by 10/30 as the percentage of 36. 03%. Between the rank of 3-4, KrispyKreme Doughnuts and Daddy Dough has the same amount among these two ranks which give them the same the number of respondents of 8/10 as the percentage of 26. 66%. The least favor donut brand at rank number 5 was Bapple with consist of 12/30 respondents are choose to be the least favorite brands of all. (See graph at p. 37 ) 14.This graph shows about If Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has a membership card, would it make you buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts more than before or not? We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently. The respondent answer â€Å"Yes† (Mode) 17 people out of 30 as a percentage is 65. 67 percent and answer â€Å"No† 13 people out of 30 as a percentage is 43. 33 percent. So, if Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has a membership it can effective with some customer. (See graph at p. 37) 15. In ours survey we have asked that if KrispyKreame Doughnuts will launch a new branch, where they would like it to be located.We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently. Out of 30 respondents, 19 people or 63. 33 percent have chosen Central Plaza (Mode) as their first choice, followed by Emporium with 6 people or 20 percent have chosen it. Supermarket, such as Tesco Lotus, Big C, and Careful has been chosen by 3 people or 10 percent and Robinson as the last choice which only 2 persons or 6. 67 percent have chooses it as the new location. (See graph at p. 38) 16. For this graph talk about gender of respondents. We analyze data by using Mode which is the value that occurs most frequently.From the survey that we have interviewed, we have found out that 25 out of 30 people who have done the survey was â€Å"female† as the percentage of 83. 33% in total, whereas, male only 5 out of 30 give us a percentage of 16. 67%. Therefore, most of the women give us almost 90% out of the total number of all the respondents who given up their time to filled out the questionnaire for ours interview. (See graph at p. 38) Conclusion and Suggestion Surprisingly, from all 30 respondents that we have survey we have found out that the majority of Thai people prefer Mister Donut more than any other donut brands.Which give KrispyKreme Doughnut come behind Mister Donut and Dunkin’ Donut. So we can conclude form ours survey that Thai people are like to try new product as it first opening their products by giving to AF contender on TV show and many people may want to try it and wondering whether it is as good as it say or not. However, Mister Donut may be tastier to Thai people taste as it been in business for far longer than KrispyKreme Doughnuts so they know how Thai people taste would like it.In contrast, the reason Mister Donut was the first majority that Thai people are consider as their top donut brands might be that the price for these two brands are quite different to each others and many Thai peopl e are mostly at the middle class status so Mister Donut would be the most reasonable price for many Thai people follow by Dunkin† Donut as both brands have a similar in term of the price. Whereas, KrispyKreme Doughnuts mainly target the upper class status people who have more purchasing power to buy.Where others donut brands might not fit Thai people taste such as Daddy Dough and Bapple might be to sweet or at the same price they would consider of buying KrispyKreme Doughnuts instead. To sum up, according to ours survey we can refer that price was the main reason for Thai people when they consider to buy the product whether such product are food or cloth or electronic stuff. Our suggestion we think KrispyKreme Doughnuts should have a new branch at Central Plaza because, we got the result that if KrispyKreme Doughnuts have a new branch where would respondents like it be located, almost people choose Central Plaza.I think if KrispyKreme Doughnuts have a new branch at Central Pla za it easily for consumer to buy KrispyKreme Doughnuts. By survey respondents think location it not more convenience for them. This is some suggestion that we think for KrispyKreme Doughnuts to reach more consumers. Appendix Bangkok University International College Questionnaire for Marketing Research For the coding we will show how we change choice of answer to be number in coding process. We will show the number that we use instead of label in color number after each choice. The coding number will show in red colorPlease answer the following question by mark (in ( given below: ( ( Screening Questions ( ) 1. Have you been purchased Krispy Kreme Doughnuts during the last one month? (1 ) Yes ( ) (1) No ( ) (2) 2. How often do you consume Krispy Kreme Doughnuts a month? ( ) Once (1 ) (1) 2-4 times (2-4 ) (2) 5-7 times (5-7 ) (3)More than 7 ( ) (4) 3. Where did you buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? ( ) Krispy Kreme Doughnuts shop at Siam Paragon ( ) (1) By reseller ( ) (2) Ge neral Questions ( ) 4. How did you know Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? ( ) Friend( )(1) Experience ( ) (2) Media and Advertising ( ) (3) Other Please specify (___) (4) 5. Purpose of buying Krispy Kreme Doughnuts ( Consume ( ) (1) Resell ( ) (2) Gift ( ) (3) Other Please specify (___) (4) 6. If you see long queue, do you want to wait in queue or not? ( ) Yes ( ) (1) No (Skip question no. 7) ( 7) (2) 7. Why you want to waiting queue? ( ) Trend( ) (1) Fashion ( ) (2) Want to try/eat( / )(3) Other Please specify (_) 4) 8. Why did you buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? ( ) Price ( ) (1) Reputation ( ) (2) Taste ( ) (3)Location ( ) (4) Quality ( ) (5)Other Please specify (___) (6) Preference ( ) 9. How did you rate Krispy Kreme Doughnuts in term oftheir price, taste, quality, reputation and location? ( , , , ) | |Low( | | | | |High( ) | | |1(1) |2(2) |3(3) |4(4) |5(5) |6(6) | |9. 1 Price ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | |9. 2 Taste ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | | 9. 2. 1 Soft ( |   |   |   |   |   |   | | 9. 2. 2 Sweet ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | |9. 3 Quality ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | |9. 4 Reputation ( ) |   |   |   |   |   |   | |9. 5 Location ( |   |   |   |   |   |   | | 9. 5. 1 Atmosphere |   |   |   |   |   |   | |( ) | | | | | | | | 9. 5. 2 Decoration |   |   |   |   |   |   | |( | | | | | | | | 9. 5. 3 Convenience |   |   |   |   |   |   | |( ) | | | | | | | Competition ( ) 10. Do you purchase others donut brand while purchase Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? ( ) Yes ( ) (1) No ( ) (2) 11. Which donut brand that you purchase apart from Krispy Kreme Doughnuts? (Answer more than one) ( 1 ) Bapple Donut (1) Daddy Dough(1) Dunkin’Donuts(1)Mister Donut(1) Other (Please specify___________) (1) * 1 it’s mean respondent choose that brand 12. Form question no. 11; why do you purchase those Donut brand? ( 1 ) Price ( ) (1) Ta ste ( ) (2) Quality ( ) (3)Location ( ) (4) Other (Please specify___________) (5) 13. Please rank which Donut brands do you prefer the most ( ) (1-5 1 5 ; 1= most , 5 = lease ) ____________ Bapple Donut ( ) ____________ Daddy Dough ( ) ____________ Dunkin’Donuts ( ) ____________ Krispy Kreme Doughnuts ( ) ____________ Mister Donut ( *It code by how many respondent prefer with 1(most) – 5(lease) in each rank Improvement ( ) 14. If Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has a membership card, would it make you buy Krispy Kreme Doughnuts more than before or not? ( ) 15. If Krispy Kreme Doughnuts launch new branch, where would you like it be located? ( ) Central Plaza ( ) (1)The Emporium ( ) (2) The mall ( ) (3)Robinson ( ) (4) Super market Tesco Lotus, BigC, Careful, and etc) ( , , ) (5) Other (Please specify___________) (6) Personal Data ( ) 16. Gender ( ) Male ( ) (1)Female ( ) (2) 17. Age ( ) Less than 20 ( 20) (1)21-25 (2) 31. (3) 31-35(4) More than 35( 35) (5) 18 . Occupation ( ) Student ( / ) (1)Office Worker ( ) (2) Business Owner ( ) (3)Other Please specify_________ ( ) (4) 19. Income per month ( Less than 10,000 ( 10,000) (1)10,001-15,000(2) 15,001-20,000(3)More than 20,0000 ( 20,000) (4) ___________________________ Thank You _________________ / Coding [pic] [pic] [pic] Graphs 1. Response rate [pic] 2. [pic] 3. [pic] 4. [pic] 5. [pic] 6. [pic] 7. [pic] 8. [pic] 9. [pic] 10. [pic] 11. [pic] 12. [pic] 13. [pic] 14. [pic] 15. [pic] 16. [pic] References †¢ Gilbert A. Churchchill, Jr. , and Tom J. Brown (2007), Basic Marketing Research (6th ed. ), International Edition: Thomson South-Western. †¢ http://www. krispykreme. co. th/

Csr in Sme

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY IN SMES (Small and Medium Enterprises) THE LITERATURE REVIEW The importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has been increasing rapidly over the past few years (Crawford and Scaletta, 2005) although meaning of the term CSR remains a subject of much debate (Roberts, 2003; Hopkins, 2003). The reason behind the debate is that the beliefs and attitudes on the nature of CSR have varied over time (Hill et al. , 2003). However, according to European Commission’s Green Paper on CSR (2001), CSR is a concept whereby the companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their daily business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis. On the other hand, CSR can also be understood as the business contribution to sustainable development (EC, 2002). Regardless the definitions, CSR is all about effectively managing the relationships that can affect the business and taking responsibility for the consequences that running the business has on society (Mallen Baker, 2008). Again, the arguments so far shows that all organizations have an impact on society and the environment through their operations, products and services and through their interaction with key stakeholders and therefore CSR is important in all firms, large and small (Williams, 2005; Hopkins, 2003; Roche, 2002). But it seems that less research have been made regarding the engagement of CSR in SME (Vyakarnam et al. , 1997; Schaper and Savery, 2004; Perrini et al. , 2006; Spence et al. , 2000). This literature review has been prepared with the aim of clarifying the engagement of CSR in SMEs. Small and Medium Enterprises as defined by DTI and EU are those organizations with a turnover of under 40 million Euros (? 27 million) and either has employees below 250 or over 25% owner-managed is proven to be important both numerically and economically since the last couple of decades (Jenkins H. , 2004). According to the research conducted by UNIDO (2002), SMEs make up over 90 per cent of businesses worldwide and account for between 50 and 60 per cent of employment. Similarly, a recent research suggests that SMEs (Small & Medium Enterprises) in the UK may make a social contribution worth up to ? 3bn each year – about ten times that of large corporations (BITC, 2002) which proves their equal importance like companies. *Unlike in large organizations, the ownership and management of small organizations seems to be more closely related (Spence and Rutherfoord, 2001). Thus, control remains in the hands of one of the owners, potentially enabling him or her to make personal choices about the allocation of resources (Spence, 1999). As described by Burns, 2001 small businesses are like social entities that revolve around personal relationships, which are often short of cash, likely to operate in a single market, who find it difficult to diversify business risk and are vulnerable to the loss of customers. Thus, in SMEs, the acceptance of CSR is largely a factor of the personal attitudes of the owner/manager (Hopkins, 2003; Perez-Sanchez, 2003). Improved image and reputation. Improved trust and understanding. Better market position. More business. Increased employee motivation. Increased attractiveness to potential recruits. Cost savings and increased efficiency. Risk management The overwhelming motivating factor for SMEs to engage in CSR is not external pressure but an internal drive to ‘doing the right thing’ or ‘putting something back’ or showing ‘entrepreneurial spirit’(Jenkins H. , 2001). *However, from the viewpoint of SMEs, CSR means to pay attention toward social and environmental responsibility (Southwell, 2004). Similarly, Grayson (2005) suggests that, researchers and practitioners should recognize that lots of small firms are already doing things that benefits society, but those are not described as CSR. Another important element in the field of CSR research is stakeholder theory. There is an inherent acceptance that all business has stakeholders and appropriate management of which can help reduce risk and improve all companies’ social responsibility (European Commission and Observatory of European SMEs, 2002; Irwin, 2002). However, stakeholder research has tended to focus on â€Å"corporation† or large company. But the nature of stakeholder relationship for SMEs may not be drastically different (Jenkins, 2004). Stakeholder relationships for an SME may be based on a more informal, trusting basis and characterized by intuitive and personal engagement with less of a gap between the relative power and influence of company and stakeholder; whilst large companies are far more likely to engage in carefully planned, formal strategic stakeholder management (Jenkins, 2004). Thus, SMEs approach to CSR is likely to influence according to the way they manage their key stakeholder. Brussels, 2001, Green Paper for Promoting a European Framework for Corporate Social Responsibility, Commission of the European Communities, COM (2001)366 final, p. 6. Burns, P. 2001, Entrepreneurs hip and Small Business, Hampshire: Palgrave. Business in the Community (BITC), 2002, â€Å"_Engaging SMEs in community and social issues_†. Cohen, A. P. , 1985, The_ Symbolic Construction of Community, _London: Routledge. EC and Observatory of European SMEs, (2002), ‘‘_European SMEs and Social and Environmental Res ponsibility_†, No. 4, Enterprise publication, p. 12. Fuller, T. : 2003, ‘Small Business Futures in Society’, Futures 35 (4), 297-304. Hill, R. , Stephens, D. and Smith, I. (2003), ‘‘Corporate social responsibility: an examination of individual firm behaviour’’, Business and Society Review, Vol. 08 No. 3, pp. 339-64. Irwin, D. , 2002, Encouraging Responsible Business, Small Business Service, London. Jenkins, H. (2004), â€Å"A Critique of Convectional CSR Theory: An SME Perspective†, Journal of General Management, Vol. 29 No. 4. Pp. 37-57. Mallen Baker, (2008), â€Å"Arguments against corporate social responsibility – redoubled†, Business Respect, 26 October, Issue Number 139. Perez-Sanchez, D. (2003), ‘‘Implementing environmental management in SMEs’’, Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, Vol. 10 No. 2, pp. 67-77. 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