Research Proposal Sample

 Title

Evaluating the business sustainability fundamental concept in global corporate environments. A case study of current practices and forecast trends for the solo entrepreneur.

Rational

In the global market business sustainability is the emerging area which is also considered by solo entrepreneurs. Business sustainability is the comprehensive area which includes many issues like climate changes, human rights, working environment, employee availability and continuity, pollution, financial stability, and more (Kraus et. al. 2020). These issues affect businesses in both positively or negative ways. Therefore, all national and multinational organisations consider these issues in their strategic decision-making processes. Hence, it is important to develop understanding about the impact of business sustainability issues on the organisation. Big entrepreneurs are able to attend these issues and overcome them if they affect them negatively but on the other hand, solo entrepreneurs face difficulties to address them along with operating their business solely. Thus, the study is important to know the practice of solo entrepreneurs and identify their current practices and addressing methods to ensure their sustainability. In the real world there are many examples of solo entrepreneurs who got immense success and still sustain in the market due to their robust strategies and future forecasting methods (Tajeddini et. al. 2020). Hence, it is important to conduct a present study in order to know different aspects and efforts of solo entrepreneurs to sustain their business in such a competitive market.

Context of the study

Business sustainability refers to how businesses are ensuring constant improvement to have required resources to thrive in present environment and future. It is the management or coordination of social, economic, and environmental demands and ensures ethical, responsible, certain, and constant success. Social, environmental, and financial demands are the three key areas of sustainability (Wakkee et. al. 2019). The main aim of business sustainability is to positively affect those areas who can affect businesses for example, employee rights issues, healthy working environment, income equality, racial or gender discrimination, pollution, climate change, and more. These issues can impact business sustainability in both positive or negative ways. In the corporate world, business sustainability strategy is called ESG (environmental, social, and governance) ((Natalie, 2019).). Hence, businesses need to invest in the development of ESG, which provides long-term benefits in future.

There are multiple benefits of business sustainability as it protects brands and reduces risk. For example, Nike, Amazon, Zara, McDonalds, and more giant brands mainly focus on their business sustainability and develop strategies around them. Those businesses who consider sustainability issues important, their employees and stakeholders tend to be satisfied and motivated. Hence, they can reduce their maximum risk factors. Moreover, sustainable development provides competitive advantage. A recent study shows that 73% of international customers agree to change their consumption habits to reduce their negative impact on the environment. Therefore, sustainable produce sales have increased by 20% since 2014. Hence, businesses now value the environment and social issues along with financial benefits ((Tucker, 2021).). It is easier for multinational organisations to have additional provisions for business sustainability but it may challenge tasks for solo entrepreneurs.

Figure 1: Business sustainability elements

(Source- Tucker, 2021)

Solo entrepreneurs are professionals who choose to start a business by themselves or grow their businesses without employees. It is also called as non-employer and business without employees. Since they are a ‘one man army’, it may be difficult for them to focus on sustainability issues. In order to maintain business sustainability, they generally include some strategies like embracing change and market trends because it is easy for them to adopt frequent changes rather than multinational organisations where they need to do a lot of provisions to adopt tiny changes. Hence, they are more resilient and flexible for new changes which ensure their sustainability (Wigmore, 2021). Moreover, sole entrepreneurs focus on value creation as they figure out market trends and drive value according to customer demand. Since, they are one and only responsible for business consequences hence, they freely develop and change strategies as per the market prediction. Entrepreneurs use advanced technologies to sustain in the market and change their strategies to ensure sustainability. They can be innovators, creators, market makers, expanders and scalers. They change their roles as per the market prediction and trends in order to remain sustainable. Through such practices, most solo entrepreneurs are now becoming very popular. For example, Daymond John and Hip-Hop Clothing, Ingvar Kamprad and Furniture Mart, Philip Green in Arcadia Group, and many more examples are there (Jain, 2015). These examples provide that solo entrepreneur are more resilient about their practices and use more accurate forecasting techniques to attend business sustainability needs in the global market.

Aim

Evaluating the business sustainability fundamental concept in global corporate environments. A case study of current practices and forecast trends for the solo entrepreneur.

Objectives

• To identify different aspects of business sustainability and its importance in the global corporate environment.
• To understand the solo entrepreneur current practices and their forecasting method to ensure their business sustainability.
• To analyse the interrelation of business sustainability and competitive advantage in the global corporate environment.
• To explore different methods and strategies from which solo entrepreneurs improve their current practices to remain sustainable and competitive in the global

Proposed Methodology

In order to conduct research study, it is necessary to follow some methods which facilitate data collection, interpretation, and implementation of the study to get the desired outcome (Pandey and Pandey, 2021). For the present study the researcher address research methodology’s subjects:

Research philosophy- It is the belief about data collection, analysation, and usage methods. Mainly four types of philosophies are generally used in research from which the researcher chooses interpretivism philosophy for the present study. The chosen philosophy relies on the idea of independence of collecting information from real situation from an individual mind-set. The present topic is business sustainability in the global environment and the researcher develops an idea based on real world examples (Snyder, 2019).

Research approach– It is the contextual framework for research where researchers conduct their study in a coherent and logical perspective. Mainly two types of approach are used first in inductive or second is deductive. The researcher uses deductive approach because generalisation of data collected is important for the current study where solo entrepreneurs’ practices and forecast trends will be highlighted (Cazeaux, 2017). Since, it is comprehensive hence, deductive approach is best suited to get data from particular to universal.

Research design– It is the overall strategy which is used to carry out research that explains a succinct and logical plan to handle established research. There are different kinds of designs and from that the research select experimental research under qualitative design where they use experimental design to establish cause-effect relationship between variable groups. Since, the study is about business sustainability issues for solo entrepreneurs, there are various dependent or independent groups on which the investigator conducts experimental study to get relevant data.

Data collection– It is the method which is used to collect data from different primary or secondary sources (Covington and Duff, 2021). For the present study, the researcher will use a secondary (qualitative) data collection method. In this regard, data will be collected from secondary sources such as online published material, books, articles and journals from reliable websites, newspaper and other scholarly publication. Researcher will focus on the reliability which means that closely associated with topic and gathering information from authenticated sources.

Sampling– In order to collect data from secondary sources the researcher will investigate 30-35 online scholarly articles and published material based on the research topic. In order to maintain reliability and validity of data, 20 articles will be selected based on inclusion criteria taken from key words of research (business sustainability, corporate governance, forecast trends, successful entrepreneur) it will be collected from latest sources such as sciencedirect, online library in between 2018 to 2021. In this regard, simple random sampling will be used and past 3-4 years’ publications will be considered.

Data analysis– The data collected from secondary sources will be analysed using thematic analysis method. In this regard, 6 major themes will be developed based on research aim and investigated secondary information. The themes will examine secondary information in against literature and will produce conclusive discussion for accomplishment of research aim and objectives.

Ethical issue– The researcher presents their topic and chosen methods in front of project mentors for approval and further changes (Alase, 2017). Moreover, they choose reliable sources of data collection and not harm others’ privacy and ensure that any kind of data will not breach any privacy of scholars.

Limitation

The researcher faces several limitations while conducting research for example formulation of aims and objectives of research, lack of previous study materials, not able to access all selected company’s websites, and implement data collection methods properly due to lack of peer and mentor’s support.

Delimitation

Since it is the study of solo entrepreneur’s current and forecast practices, hence, it is a very comprehensive study. It is not possible to include all solo entrepreneurs in the world. Further, it is also a challenging task to study all factors that affect business sustainability (Diego, 2020). Hence, the research takes the UK’s solo entrepreneur and takes only 50 samples for study. Moreover, the researcher uses giant multinational organisations who are listed in the Fortuner top 30 list to study business sustainability and the global corporate environment.

Propose structure

In order to conduct study, it is important to follow proper structure. The researcher first describes the topic and its introduction. Then the rationale of the study is given which provides reason to conduct the study along with its benefits to the researcher and the readers. After that, the context of the study is given which gives clarity about the topic and provides brief knowledge. Then research methods are describing where the research philosophy, design, approach, data collection and analysation method is given. It gives understanding about the research process. At last, research limitation and delimitation is provided by the researcher while conducting the study.

Timeline

References

Books and Journals

Alase, A., (2017). The interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA): A guide to a good qualitative research approach. International Journal of Education and Literacy Studies, 5(2), pp.9-19.

Cazeaux, C., (2017). Art, research, philosophy (p. 202). Taylor & Francis.

Covington, N.V. and Duff, M.C., (2021). Heterogeneity is a hallmark of traumatic brain injury, not a limitation: A new perspective on study design in rehabilitation research. American journal of speech-language pathology, 30(2S), pp.974-985.

Diego, L.A., (2020). Scope and Delimitation & Benefits and Beneficiaries of Research.

Kraus, S., Rehman, S.U. and García, F.J.S., (2020). Corporate social responsibility and environmental performance: The mediating role of environmental strategy and green innovation. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 160, p.120262.

Pandey, P. and Pandey, M.M., (2021). Research Methodology Tools and Techniques.

Snyder, H., (2019). Literature review as a research methodology: An overview and guidelines. Journal of business research, 104, pp.333-339.

Tajeddini, K., Martin, E. and Ali, A., (2020). Enhancing hospitality business performance: The role of entrepreneurial orientation and networking ties in a dynamic environment. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 90, p.102605.

Wakkee, I., van der Sijde, P., Vaupell, C. and Ghuman, K., (2019). The university’s role in sustainable development: Activating entrepreneurial scholars as agents of change. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 141, pp.195-205.

Online

Natalie, (2019). WHY YOU NEED SUSTAINABILITY IN YOUR BUSINESS STRATEGY. [Online] [Available Through]: <https://online.hbs.edu/blog/post/business-sustainability-strategies>

Tucker, J., (2021). 10 OF THE UK’S GREATEST ENTREPRENEURS. [Online] [Available Through]: <https://www.headspacegroup.co.uk/10-of-the-uks-greatest-entrepreneurs/>

Jain, S., (2015).  6 effective ways to build a sustainable business. [Online] [Available Through]: <https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/252029>

Wigmore, I., (2021). business sustainability. [Online] [Available Through]: <https://whatis.techtarget.com/definition/business-sustainability>

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