RESEARCH PROJECT

on

Implication of Digital Technology on SMEs

(Company Chosen: ThirdWay Group)

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Executive Summary

The main purpose of this research project is to determine the consequences of innovation and
technology exerted upon SME. From the research, I found that with right decision and with right
tool, an SME can become more profitable through digital technology. Tasks can be made easier
and performance might be more efficient than before. Thus, helping managers in expanding their
present business.

But, there is not always positive aspect of technology, rather there come such negative
consequences with the development of digital technology within the SME. They might even put
downward pressure on the profitability if they are nit addressed very well and not taken into
account while implementing digitalization.

Hopefully, all the negative impacts can be tackled, and managers can still reap more profit out of
SME if they learn to use technology efficiently.

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................4
LO1 Appropriate research methodologies and approaches for research purpose......................................5
P1 Producing research proposal backed up by literature review defining research hypothesis..............5
P2 Appropriate research method for both primary and secondary approach.........................................6
LO2 Conducting and analysing research relevant for business....................................................................8
P3 Conducting primary and secondary research with appropriate methods..........................................8
P4 Analysis of data and findings..............................................................................................................9
LO3 Communicating outcomes to identify stakeholders...........................................................................15
P5 Communicating the research in appropriate manner for the audiences..........................................15
LO4 Reflecting on the application of research methodologies and concepts............................................17
P6 Effectiveness of the research methods for meeting objectives of the project.................................17
P7 Lessons learnt in the view of the outcomes.....................................................................................17
Recommendation......................................................................................................................................17
Conclusion.................................................................................................................................................18
Index..........................................................................................................................................................19
Research Proposal Form........................................................................................................................19
Research Ethics approval form..............................................................................................................22
Authentication of the project................................................................................................................26
References.................................................................................................................................................27

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Introduction
The term innovation is treated as both threat and window of opportunity in the business world
today. This is a useful tool to use against the competitors in the market to reap more profit out of
the industry (Anon Higon, D., 2012). Innovation and digitalization helps firms in finding out new
ways to develop diversified products and establishing new ways to reach new segment of
customers. The following project report shows how ThirdWay Group (chosen company) can
reap the benefit out of digital technology and how to tackle the negativity produced through the
process.

The conclusion of the research has been drawn upon the requirements of the assignment. That
are choosing research type, methodologies, conducting a thorough research, interviewing people
and lessons learnt from the research conducted.

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LO1 Appropriate research methodologies and approaches for
research purpose
P1 Producing research proposal backed up by literature review defining research
hypothesis
Background

Innovation and digitalization can be used as the supreme tool to survive strongly in the business
today. In the era of globalization, it is necessary to embrace the technology and reap greater
profit out of the industry. Services and products delivery can be made easy and efficient and
customers can be satisfied to a whole new level as technology emerges into SME (Bayrak, T.,
2013). SMEs should first analyse whether embracing technology’s benefit can exceed the costs
incurred for that. If the research is not done properly and decision is taken with hassle, they
might end up losing their business.

Problem Statement

With the emergence of the technology in the business, ThirdWay Group got confused whether
embracing technology will be profitable or not. Many customers find it profitable while other
think that as total wastage of money. Decision can not be made in hurry, so ThirdWay Group
decided to conduct a research to thoroughly understand whether the negative impact of
digitalization can be eliminated with the gigantic benefit from it.

Objectives

The aim of the research is to get answer of the following questions-

 What are the benefits that can be reaped from digital technology?
 In what positive way ThirdWay Group will be affected in this regard?
 In what negative way ThirdWay Group will be affected in this regard?
 How can the negative impacts be eliminated?

Literature review

The research is done with the view to identifying the technological opportunity available to
ThirdWay Group, an SME company. This research will help identifying the benefits of
ThirdWay Group and how technology can be used to become more profitable.

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Technology poses as both opportunity and threat in the business perspective. When the firm
cannot embrace new technology and also can not use as an advantage, they are highly unlikely to
survive in the competitive world. On the other hand, when firm uses technology to serve in a
better way and to a greater extent, the technology works as a business tool to fight the
competitors.

Research Limitations

When a research is conducted, the main limitations are time and proper resources (Bayrak, T.,
2013). In this case, it is not different. Moreover, some people might not want to give information
as they believe their personal information might get disclosed raising the privacy issue. Also, the
research was limited only to the SME sector.

P2 Appropriate research method for both primary and secondary approach

When conducting a research, it is essential to choose the perfect research methodologies to
gather as much information as possible (Creswell, 2013). Methodologies can be both subjective
and quantitative. Subjective information gathering refers to the fact that when information can
not be measured in numbers while on the other hand, in quantitative method, information is
measured in ways that is easily measurable in number. Research methodologies cover the area of
data collection, procedures, primary and secondary research etc.

Approach

In this regard, both subjective and quantitative analysis have been done with a view to reaching
to a viable conclusion. In the subjective approach, questionnaires have been prepared based on
the 5 exclusive options that the customers were to answer and based on that answer, data has
been analyzed to get the best result. The subjective approach will help understand the internal
comprehension of the research on the other hand, quantitative analysis will help clarify precise
data of ThirdWay Group. The research has been developed based mostly on subjective
information.

Techniques and procedures

The research is conducted for ThirdWay Group Company, an SME, whether it is profitable for
them to merge digitalization or not. As stated earlier, subjective questionnaire has been used to
gather information from the population. Subjective information gathering is both easy and less

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resource consuming. As a result, it is better for ThirdWay Group to conduct an initial research
based on this, and may be in future they might further conduct research based on more
comprehensive technique.

100 randomly people were selected to conduct the research. A questionnaire with 10 multiple
choice questions has been also prepared to gather information from the customers of ThirdWay
Group.

Data collection

Both primary and secondary data has been collected for the sake of the research. The
questionnaire to survey 100 customers is the primary data collection at first hand and also
websites and other magazine/journals have been used to gather secondary data.

Timeline

A research timeline needs to be created to show how long the research analysis will take.
Timeline has been given below-

Tasks Weeks needed Why needed?

Planning
Execution
Information Gathering
Analysis of information
Reaching Conclusion
0.5 week To shape the research and
follow a formal procedure.
2 weeks To actually implement the
plan into the field.
1.5 weeks To gather information for
further analysis.
3 weeks To analyse gathered data for
reaching conclusion.
2 days To reach the result of the
research done.

Ethical consideration: Under the gathered information, there is a need for ethical consideration.
Data gathered from individuals will be kept in discreet manner and identity will be kept away
from disclosure.

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LO2 Conducting and analysing research relevant for business
P3 Conducting primary and secondary research with appropriate methods
As the subject of digitalization, primary and secondary both data is needed for breaking down its
profitability and problems. As for the primary data, survey has been conducted with the help of
questionnaire and secondary data have been collected from newspaper, websites, journals etc.

Primary Analysis

Primary analysis has been conducted with the help of a set of questionnaires. This includes 10 set
of questions asked to random 100 people. This includes-

1. Technology has a great impact on SME.

2. For an SME, innovation and digitalization is a must.
3. Digitalization will highly benefit SME sector.
4. People will be able to cope up with the recent technological change in SME.
5. The initial cost of changing the business model of SME due to technology will be high.
6. ThirdWay Group will be able to attract more customers through digitalization.
7. Technology will open a new window of opportunity for ThirdWay Group to compete in
the industry with other rivals.
8. Customer service will be made efficient in ThirdWay Group through technology.
9. Including new technology will affect the old customers of ThirdWay Group.
10. Profitability will increase through digitalization by ThirdWay Group.

On the basis of the statements, 5 options are given to the sample. These are-

 Strongly agree- 1
 Agree- 2
 Neutral- 3
 Disagree- 4
 Strongly Disagree- 5

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P4 Analysis of data and findings
Findings

On the basis of the questionnaire, the following findings are concluded-

1. Technology has a great impact on SME.

2. For an SME, innovation and digitalization is a must.

3. Digitalization will highly benefit SME sector.

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4. People will be able to cope up with the recent technological change in SME.

5. The initial cost of changing the business model of SME due to technology will be high.

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6. ThirdWay Group will be able to attract more customers through digitalization.

7. Technology will open a new window of opportunity for ThirdWay Group to compete in the
industry with other rivals.

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8. Customer service will be made efficient in ThirdWay Group through technology.

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9. Including new technology will affect the old customers of ThirdWay Group.

10. Profitability will increase through digitalization by ThirdWay Group.

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Analysis of the findings

Is was necessary to review the public opinion of the technology on ThirdWay Group. First of all,
5 questions revolved around whether technology in SME is helpful or not. From the basic
statistic around 75% strongly believe that there is a very positive impact on SME due to
technology. While 15% agree with the fact. While on the other hand, remaining 10% were either
neutral or disagree with the positive impact of technology. So, from the public opinion, it can be
easily said that there is a positive impact on SME.

Now proceeding to the next portion of the questionnaire. Remaining statements were about the
impact of technology on ThirdWay Group. The responses were also on the positive side of the
technology of ThirdWay Group. Though few believed that implementing new technological
improvement may result in usage hinderance in old customers as they might not be accustomed
to using new way of buying products from ThirdWay Group. Around 80% agreed that ThirdWay
Group will be able to incur the cost of new technology and be benefited from it more than the
cost incurred. While on the other hand, around 20% people disagree to the fact as ThirdWay
Group is just an SME.

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LO3 Communicating outcomes to identify stakeholders
P5 Communicating the research in appropriate manner for the audiences
Introduction

The intention of the research report is to show the correlation of technology and profitability on
the operations of ThirdWay Group, an SME. The data was actually gathered from the people
related to the SME industry to draw a better conclusion regarding technological impact on
ThirdWay Group.

Presenting information

The data has been presented with horizontal graph for each statement of the questionnaire. As a
result, plausible conclusion can be drawn easily just by seeing the graph for the moment by the
stakeholder.

Presenting Findings

From the analysis, it is believed that ThirdWay Group will be able to reap more benefits out of
the industry if it embraces new technological investment such as online shopping. People will be
able to shop on a go from anywhere and their products will be delivered on time. This will
facilitate their shopping experience.

From even the survey perspective, people believe that the profitability rate after this
technological advancement will be higher than before. From the company’s forecasting, the
profitability will increase by 13% per year more than before. It is a very good sign for the
company to avail digitalization of the company.

But on the bad side, the firm will have also to increase their maintenance cost after introducing
the technology. But the cost incurred by the firm will increase only by 6% more per year. So, the
net gain from the innovation will be around 7% more per year. With this kind of increase in
profitability the firm will be able to expand their business further.

Negative impact on ThirdWay Group

Every action will have a reaction. For these sorts of benefits that xx will enjoy, it must also suffer
from few drawbacks (Kerzner, H., 2013). For example, the older customers may not get

15
accustomed to this sort of technology. As a result, they might get fed up of the services provided
by ThirdWay Group. Moreover, implementing a new technology is a long process as well as
people hired for maintenance need especial consideration. Meaning, ThirdWay Group needs to
put special effort in selecting employees who will be working at the online business of ThirdWay
Group.

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LO4 Reflecting on the application of research methodologies and
concepts
P6 Effectiveness of the research methods for meeting objectives of the project
It is very easy to determine whether the research objectives are met or not by just only cross-
checking the preliminary objectives with the conclusion of the research (Liamputtong, P., 2013).
This research has various objectives such as to find out whether the technology is effective in
SME as well as ThirdWay Group; whether there is any positive or negative impact of technology
on ThirdWay Group. These basic objectives are met with the help of gathering data from both
primary and secondary sources. Around 75% strongly believe that there is a very positive impact
on SME due to technology. While 15% agree with the fact. While on the other hand, remaining
10% were either neutral or disagree with the positive impact of technology. While on the other
hand, around 80% agreed that ThirdWay Group will be able to incur the cost of new technology
and be benefited from it more than the cost incurred. This statistic bears the evidence for the
fulfillment of the objectives discussed earlier.

P7 Lessons learnt in the view of the outcomes

This section will discuss about the recommendation from the research paper and the conclusion
drawn.

Recommendation
The recommendation regarding the research has been given below-

 When thinking about implementing digitalization within an organisation, management

should consider various factors that might negatively affect the firm.
 Firm should work in a way that the technology might be customer-friendly.
 The technology should be used to maintain a co-ordination between it and the goals as
well as objectives that the firm desired to attain.

From the recommendation, it is necessary to understand that the firm should innovate taking the
viewpoint of the customer usage.

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Conclusion
As said earlier, the purpose of the report was to determine the impact of technology on
ThirdWay Group. With the help of both secondary and primary information, I was able to reach
the conclusion that the technological improvement proposed for ThirdWay Group has a positive
impact and through which the company will be able to generate more profit ever than before.
Innovation in SME in also leads to improvement of the economy of the country.

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 Index
Research Proposal Form
Student Name:

Student ID:

Centre Name:

Tutor:

Date:

Unit:

Proposed Title:

Section One: Title, objective, responsibilities

Title: ‘RESEARCH PROJECT ON IMPLICATION OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY ON SMES

(ThirdWay Group)’

Research objectives:

 What are the benefits that can be reaped from digital technology?
 In what positive way ThirdWay Group will be affected in this regard?
 In what negative way ThirdWay Group will be affected in this regard?
 How can the negative impacts be eliminated?

Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research project

The main reason for choosing this research project was to show the impact of technology in SME
sector. I specifically choose the company ThirdWay Group for reaching conclusion regarding the
research.

Section Three: Literature sources searched

Innovation and digitalization can be used as the supreme tool to survive strongly in the business
today. In the era of globalization, it is necessary to embrace the technology and reap greater
profit out of the industry. Services and products delivery can be made easy and efficient and

19
customers can be satisfied to a whole new level as technology emerges into SME. SMEs should
first analyse whether embracing technology’s benefit can exceed the costs incurred for that. If
the research is not done properly and decision is taken with hassle, they might end up losing their
business.

Section Four: Activities and timescales

Tasks Weeks needed Why needed?

Planning
Execution
Information Gathering
Analysis of information
Reaching Conclusion
0.5 week To shape the research and
follow a formal procedure.
2 weeks To actually implement the
plan into the field.
1.5 weeks To gather information for
further analysis.
3 weeks To analyse gathered data for
reaching conclusion.
2 days To reach the result of the
research done.

How long this will take: 7 weeks

Milestone one:

Target date (set by tutor):

Milestone two:

Target date (set by tutor):

Section Five: Research approach and methodologies

Research Approach/Design: In this regard, both subjective and quantitative analysis have been
done with a view to reaching to a viable conclusion. In the subjective approach, questionnaires
have been prepared based on the 5 exclusive options that the customers were to answer and
based on that answer, data has been analyzed to get the best result. The subjective approach will
help understand the internal comprehension of the research on the other hand, quantitative

20
analysis will help clarify precise data of ThirdWay Group. The research has been developed
based mostly on subjective information.

Comments and agreement from tutor

Comments (optional):

I confirm that the project is not work which has been or will be submitted for another
qualification and is appropriate.

Agreed: (name)

Date

Comments and agreement form project proposal checker ( IV sampling)

Comments (Optional):

I confirm that the project is appropriate.

Agreed /Disagree: (Name of the IV)

Date

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 Research Ethics approval form
Section 1: Basic details:

Project title:

Student name:

Student ID number: Programme:

College Name:

Intended research start date: 00/00/0000

Intended research end date: 00/00/0000

Section 2 Project summary

Please select all research methods that you plan to use as a part of your project:

Interviews Yes
Questionnaires Yes
Observations No
Use of personal records Yes
Data Analysis Yes
Action Research No
Focus Groups No
Others (Please specify) No

Section 3: Participants

1. Will your research involve human participants?

 Yes No
2. Who are the participants? Tick all that apply:
 Ages 12-16:
 Young people aged: 17-18
 Adults:
3. How will participants be recruited (identified an approached)?

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Recruitment approaches:

 Emailing
 Making phone calls
 Sending letter
 Website surveys

4. Describe the processes you will use to inform participants about what you are doing:

I’ll first inform the participants about the research objectives of the project and what should be
gained through the conclusion. Moreover, I’ll provide them with my contract information for
further inquiry.

5. How will you obtain consent from participants? Will this be written? How will it be made
clear to participants that they may withdraw consent to participate at any time?

To acquire assent from the members I will disclose to them the goal of the exploration, and the
inquiries I will inquire. I will advise them of their rights, information secrecy, how the outcomes
will be utilized and so forth. The assent shape will be in composed organization and I will clear
them about the intentional idea of the support to influence them to clear that they may pull back
agree to partake whenever.

Studies involving questionnaires:

1. Will participants be given the option of omitting questions that do not wish to answer?
 Yes No
2. If no, please explain why below and ensure that you cover any ethical issues arising from
this
(Not applicable)

Studies involving observation:

1. Confirm whether participants will be asked for their informed consent to be observed.
 Yes No

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 2. Will you debrief participants at the end of their participation (i.e give them a brief
explanation of the study)?
 Yes No
3. Will participants be given information about the findings of your study?(This could be a
brief summary of your findings in general)
 Yes No

Section 4: Data Storage and Security

1. Confirm that all personal data will be stored and processed in compliance with the Data
Protection Act (1998)
 Yes No
2. Who will have access to the data and personal information? During the research: Where
will the data be stored?

Only people related to research work and monitoring the research will have access to the data
and personal information. The data and personal information collected during the research will
be stored in laptops and clouds.

3. Will mobile devices such as USB storage and laptops be used

 Yes No
4. If Yes, please provide further details:

As during the research data will be kept in laptop I think only password protection will not be
enough. I will keep the personal data in an encrypted format as soon as possible.

After the research:

5. Where will the data be stored?

I’ll use electronic format for storing the data of my research in my computer.

6. How long will the data and records be kept for and in what format?

I’ll retain the data until I reach conclusion of the research objectives.

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 7. Will data be kept for use by other researchers?
 Yes No

Section 5: Ethical Issues

1. Are there any particular features of your proposed work, which may raise ethical
concerns? If so, please outline how you will deal with these:

Information social affair and information investigation will bring moral worries up in my
proposed act as it is a subjective research. The outright privacy of information is another moral
concern. To manage these, I will know about the exact target of the exploration work to
anticipate bothersome individual issues. The examination outline itself can raise moral issue for
which I have to clear up the implications of the strategy in various viewpoints.

Section 6: Declaration

I have read, understood and will abide by the institution's Research and Ethics Policy:

 Yes No

I have discussed the ethical issues relating to my research with my Unit Tutor:

 Yes No

I confirm that to the best of my knowledge:

The above information is correct, and this is a full description of the ethical issues that may arise
in the course of my research.

Name:

Date:

25
 Authentication of the project
Learners Declaration: I certify that the work submitted for this unit is my own and the research
sources are fully acknowledged.

Learners Signature:

Date:

26
References
 Anon Higon, D. (2012). The impact of ICT on innovation activities: Evidence for UK
SMEs. International Small Business Journal, 30, 684–699.
doi:10.1177/0266242610374484.
 Bayrak, T. (2013). A decision framework for SME Information Technology (IT)
managers: Factors for evaluating whether to outsource internal applications to
Application Service Providers. Technology in Society, 35, 14–21.
doi:10.1016/j.techsoc.2012.11.001.
 Best, J.W. and Kahn, J.V., 2016. Research in education. Pearson Education India.
 Creswell, J.W., 2013. Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods
approaches. Sage publications.
 Davies, M.B. and Hughes, N., 2014. Doing a successful research project: Using
qualitative or quantitative methods. Palgrave Macmillan.
 Elo, S., Kääriäinen, M., Kanste, O., Pölkki, T., Utriainen, K. and Kyngäs, H., 2014.
Qualitative content analysis: A focus on trustworthiness. Sage Open, 4(1),
p.2158244014522633.
 Kerzner, H., 2013. Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling,
and controlling. John Wiley & Sons.
 Levy, P.S. and Lemeshow, S., 2013. Sampling of populations: methods and applications.
John Wiley & Sons.
 Liamputtong, P., 2013. Qualitative research methods.

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