BUSINESS DECISION MAKING

Business decision making

Table of contents

Introduction3

Managing Research Design Simulation4

Research information4

Further data7

Validity and reliability of data8

Identifying further data9

Obtaining a random sample10

Limitations of research13

Conclusion14

References16

Business decision making

Introduction

In North America and Europe, CoffeeTime is a well known coffee shop franchise. CoffeeTime supplies some of the world's premium roasted coffee beans, including an assortment of coffee beverages and snacks. Through recent research and development, it was found that South Asia is on the rise in the coffee market. The market includes coffee bars and unique flavors of coffee.

CoffeeTime has identified India among other South Asian countries as possible sites for an overseas business enterprise. Considering the option to enter India, CoffeeTime's Manager for Business Development (International Operations) must develop an international research design to include which city or cities CoffeeTime should enter, who is the target segment, and what is the expected revenue per outlet. Due to the number of risks and potential obstacles to take into account, the company must make careful decisions during the development of the project.

In an effort to become familiar with India's culture and determine the possibility to market its products in India, CoffeeTime must develop a two stage market research design that involves primary and secondary research, since the company's success depends on the market segment, the population's makeup in terms of age, gender, income level, occupation, education, and family circumstances, geographic area, and customer preferences. Gathering and analyzing primary and secondary research data will allow CoffeeTime the ability to make sound business decisions and gain valuable insight to help shape the company's business and prevent costly missteps. “Research is any organized inquiry carried out to provide information for solving problems.” (Chapter 1 - Cooper, 2003.)

In order to operate with a defined budget, CoffeeTime employed Total Access, a market research company, to research the cities and potential target audience in India. Total Access classified the cities based on the degree of affluence, from low to high, and on the cultural outlook, from conservative to modern. By preparing a perpetual map of 12 cities, Total Access categorized each city based on cultural outlook and the degree of influence in reference to people. Due to high density, Total Access selected five cities to include, Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Ahmadabad and Pune.

With the data collected by Total Access, CoffeeTime's executive will have to take a team approach to evaluate the validity and reliability of data provided. Although Total Access is a reputable research company, the possibility for a researcher to be able to see all the potential problems in the study conducted is unpredictable. CoffeeTime also needs to create and follow protocols in an effort to minimize the threats to validity and reliability. “Reliability is a necessary contributor to validity but is not a sufficient condition for validity.” (Chapter 8 - Cooper, 2003).

CoffeeTime still does not have primary data that is specific the company and the company's needs. Therefore, the company will need to do further research such as surveys, interviews, observations such as store checks, mystery shopping, ...