BA (Hons) Business Management with Enterprise
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://eresearch.qmu.ac.uk/handle/20.500.12289/10912
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Item An exploration into the main barriers to entreprenurship, from the perspective of students(2021)This dissertation seeks to explore the barriers to entrepreneurship from the perspective of prospective entrepreneurs, specifically students. Despite an abundance of research on the general topic of barriers to entrepreneurship, there is a notable lack of research on prospective entrepreneurs, those who intend on becoming entrepreneurs but have not yet done so. Therefore, this study seeks to address this gap by exploring the main barriers as perceived by Edinburgh based final-year business students, by conducting in-depth semi structured telephone interviews. A review of the literature highlighted twenty key barriers to entreprenurship, which provided the basis of barriers explored in the interviews. The subsequent responses were then analysed thematically and compared with the existing literature, in doing so the findings showed strong concurrence with the existing literature, limited disagreement, and two emergent themes. From these results, some key findings were, the main three barriers as perceived by the participants being, ‘Lack of capital’, ‘Lack of experience’ and ‘Lack of support’. The gap between student’s intentions to become an entrepreneur and their behaviour, as coined the ‘intention-behaviour’ in the literature; was clearly illustrated in this study as all participants had some interest in entreprenurship yet none were planning on acting on this in the next twelve months, illustrating the inhibiting impact of barriers. An emergent theme of this study was that, if the main barrier ‘lack of capital’ was alleviated this would increase in ‘fear of failure’. This is significant for the governmental entrepreneurship support, leading to a recommendation for future study. A key thread throughout the results was a strong psychological focus, considering barriers such as ‘uncertainty’ and ‘personality type’ for example, almost never considered in the literature. Therefore, a further recommendation is a future study in this area encapsulating both business and psychology theory. Keywords: Entrepreneurial Intention (EI), Lack Of Capital (LOC), Planed Behaviour Theory (PBT).Item An exploratory study investigating the potential threats and opportunities resulting from technological transformation in retail sector(2021)Aim. This dissertation aim was to critically investigate the potential opportunities and threats resulting from the technological transformation in the retail sector. The study also identifies how technology influences employment within retail resulting in whether or not sales assistants could be replaced due to the increased development of digitalisation and automation. Methodological Design. The most appropriate method for carrying out this research report was considered qualitative analysis. This approach helps the researcher to perceive the experience from the perspective of the individual. It helps to acquire an in-depth analysis of an individual’s thoughts and emotions alongside with clearer understanding of a situation or circumstance from the perspective of the person who is experiencing it. It is relevant to the researchers' aim of understanding whether certain roles will be replaced by technology in conjunction with the opportunities and threats that arise by gathering distinct opinions of experienced retail workers. Methods. In order to conduct primary research, In-depth semi-structured interviews were used as the research process alongside the convenience sampling method in order to contact the respondents. The requirement for the participants was to have valuable retail experience since some interview questions needed to be answered using knowledge acquired from working experience. Additionally, 18 and above demographic age and above was specified, however, no specific gender preferred. . The data was transcribed after the researcher interviewed six respondents including sales assistants and managers. The researcher was able to apply primary data obtained from the interview process and secondary data results gathered from the literature review allowed linking the findings to study aims and objectives. Findings. Overall, the findings of the collected primary data show that technology has brought unique opportunities in the retail industry that availability of smart technologies are already being used in retail, ranging from iPads to self-service checkouts. Technology has benefited the retail industry by increasing staff productivity, making interaction simpler, delivering a unique consumer experience, decreasing pressure, and making the work of a sales assistant even easier. The participants are confident about sales assistants' potential future prospects, considering that they will not be replaced by technology. Sales assistants will continue to be needed as technology progresses alongside the decision that online roles will be available in the future. Participants explained that sales assistants help improve sales, offer a unique customer experience, resolve technological errors, maintain human interaction. As a result, technology cannot achieve any of the tasks; therefore, retailers cannot over-rely on technology yet.Item Gaming or Gambling? An investigation into the use of loot boxes in FIFA Ultimate Team(2021)This research project examines the use of loot boxes in FIFA Ultimate Team (FUT) which is an integral part of EA Sport’s FIFA video game series. The loot boxes in this game appear as ‘packs’ which gamers purchase to receive player cards and other items that can be used for gameplay. The aim of the research was to identify whether this is an ethical feature that should be allowed in a game that is targeted at children. Because of the games age rating there has been questions surrounding the morality of the loot boxes in FIFA Ultimate Team which EA Sports has publicly opposed. This research aim would be concluded by the use of the following research objectives: • Identify if links exist between FUT packs and gambling. • Understand how does EA Sports influence FUT pack purchases. • Conclude if children are more vulnerable to gambling links and influences to purchase FUT packs. Data was gathered using a semi-structured focus group which contained 6 adult respondents who had experience playing FUT and purchasing FUT packs both in the present and in their adolescent years. The researcher found that a clear link did exist between FUT Packs and gambling and that EA Sports uses a variety of methods to actively encourage pack purchases and gambling behaviours. The findings also indicated that children were significantly more vulnerable to gambling like mechanics and the methods used to influence purchasing behaviour. Overall, it was concluded by the researcher that FUT packs are an unethical feature and should not be a part of a video game that is targeted towards children and adolescents.Item The Use of In-Game Marketing Through Video Games and Mobile Applications and the Effects on Consumers(2021)This dissertation will investigate and explore the concept of IGA (In-Game Marketing) relating to the video and mobile game industry. The aims and objectives of the research seeks to firstly identify why and how video games have become so popular and are now one of marketing’s preferred mediums. It will then introduce the concept of IGA and provide background context on this area, while also identifying various examples that currently exist in today’s society. Once this has been achieved, IGA will be looked at critically, to try and understand if this concept can have more of an impact that the traditional marketing methods that have been around for decades. As this area of research is relatively new, this study provides an opportunity to highlight the awareness as well as the efficacy of IGA and will be analysed through the process of a questionnaire. This will contain various questions related to the concept of IGA, in order to fully answer the aims and objectives of the research study and will be analysed in depth, to provide a discussion on the results that followed.Item “The impact of social media marketing on consumption of luxury brands in the fashion industry”(2020)This research paper undertaken has investigated the impact that social media marketing has had on brands in the luxury fashion industry, in terms of the increase in consumption. The luxury fashion market is now predominantly made up of younger generations, those of which are also the highest users of social media, so luxury fashion marketers have began using social media for marketing to these consumers to aid in increase of consumption. The study aims to explore how much of an impact social media marketing has had on luxury brands in the fashion industry and to identify the importance of other factors that have an influence on consumption. Objectives were developed to aid with answering the research aim, these were: - To identify the extent that luxury consumers use social media -To evaluate whether luxury fashion brands marketing strategies on social media influences consumption. - To evaluate other factors that impact consumers purchasing decisions of luxury fashion products. For data collection, primary data collection was selected as the most appropriate method to allow new data to be formed on the subject area. Secondary sources were also used., such as journal articles, to conduct the literature review and to gather already found knowledge surrounding the subject areas. A quantitative approach was selected for the data collection, due to time restrictions and a large amount of data being accumulated. The research concluded that social media is a useful tool for luxury fashion brands but does not play a highly significant role in terms of increasing consumer spending. Marketing on social media makes a slight impact on consumption, but luxury consumers have already perceived values attached to luxury that contribute to their spending choices.