#statistical service

CASE – 1    MANAGING HINDUSTAN UNILEVER STRATEGICALLY

 1.                  State the strategy of Hindustan Unilever in your own words.

The purpose of HUL was to bring importance to life and to satisfy the daily needs of the customers in areas of personal and household care. It also strived to create awareness among the people related to nutrition and hygiene. To grab opportunities in untapped rural and food processing market, HUL’s corporate level strategy was to shift the decision making power from subsidiary to its headquarters. HUL’s strategy remained focused in creating power brands and creating margins. One of HUL’s strategy is direct selling .For the rural areas, HUL started project streamline in 1997.HUL have followed the strategy of building its distribution channels in transitional manner. They have restructured their core business in two divisions i.e. food, home and personal core products. It focuses mainly for the improvement in the products already existing in the market.HUL tries to bring a change in their job management structure by taking the step of reducing managerial job classes and developing deep level expertise. Apart from that, HUL also have few pioneering strategies. These include building market and building brands, launching brands when innovative pipeline is full. Also they believe in having clarified long term strategies and delivering sustainable performance.

 2.                  At what different levels is strategy formulated in HUL?

There are various levels at which strategy is formed at HUL and these include:

COORPORATE LEVEL STRATEGY

Strategic management at HUL is the responsibility of the board of directors headed by a chairman. There are five independent and five whole-time directors.

OPERATIONAL MANAGEMENT STRATEGY

Operational management is an area of management concerned with overseeing is looked after by management committee which comprises of vice chairman, CEO and managing director and executive directors of two business divisions and functional areas.

BUSINESS LEVEL STRATEGY

In HUL there is a divisional committee having the executive director and heads of functions of sales, commercial and manufacturing looks after the business level decision-making.

FUNCTIONAL LEVEL STRATEGY

It has the responsibility of functional head. It has two type of structures Decentralised and centralised structures Decentralized structure: Unilever formulated a new global realignment under which it will develop brands and stream line product offerings across the world and the subsidiaries will sell the product. There focus changed to limited number of international brands rather than a large range of local brand. For instance, under Functional-level management marketing manager has team of managers looking after individual brand.

  3.                  Comment on the strategic decision-making at HUL.

Unilever formulated a new global realignment under which it will develop brands and streamline product offerings across the world and the subsidiaries will sell the product this will affect HUL, As Unilever major revenues comes(nearly 50%) from its food business which is not the case with HUL . HUL has nearly 80 percent of sales and 85 percent of net profit from the home and personal care business, adoption of Unilever’s global strategy of focusing on 30power brands will make HUL’s strong position in the niche soap and detergent market suffer. HUL revenues comes 4% (during that time) from food business which can be a target industry as an opportunity in terms of domestic and export markets but this opportunity may not capitalize as HULs own strategy of offering low price is been suffered at the cost of Unilever’s premium priced. In India rural marketing is very necessary and if Unilever will not concentrate on here then domestic player will take an advantage this is because Unilever sells high end product through modern retail outlet on other hand HUL is known for its capabilities in rural marketing , effective distribution systems and human resource development .The Unilever is going to give authority to British CEO rather than Indian CEO so it will not be beneficial for Unilever because in past HUL aligned its strategies to the special need of the Indian business environment.

 4.                  Give your opinion on whether the shift in strategic decision-making from India to Unilever’s headquarters could prove to be advantageous to HUL or not.

The shift in the strategic decision-making power from the subsidiary to headquarters could however, prove to be double-edged sword. An example could be of HUL adopting Unilever’s global strategy of focussing on a limited number of products, called the 30 power brands in 2002. That seemed a perfectly sensible strategic decision aimed at focusing managerial attention to a limited set of high-potential products. But one consequence of that was the HUL’s strong position in the niche soap and detergent markets suffering owing to neglect and the competitors were quick to take advantage of the opportunity. But, there are some dark clouds on the horizon. HUL’s latest financials are not satisfactory. Net profit is down, sales are sluggish, input costs have been rising and new food products introduced in the market have yet to pick up. All this while, in one market segment after another, a competitor pushes ahead. In a company of such a big size and over-powering presence, these might still be minor events developments in a long history that needs to be taken in stride. Therefore, this proves that the shift in strategic decision-making from India to Unilever’s headquarters was advantageous to HUL but upto some level only, as the company was focused to market some limited products, which offer a competitive advantage to its competitors.

An Indian CEO can easily predict the Indian customer mindset. Human resource development now its corporate strategy has changed in an attempt to leverage global scale while retaining local responsiveness to some extent. As Unilever major revenues comes (nearly 50%) from its food business which is not the case with HUL around (4%) from food business which can be a target industry as an opportunity in terms of domestic and export markets but this opportunity may not capitalize as HUL’s own strategy of offering low price is been suffered at the cost of Unilever’s premium priced. The Unilever is going to give authority to British CEO rather than Indian CEO so it will not be beneficial for Unilever because in past HUL aligned its strategies to the special need of the Indian business environment . It will affect the company business in Indian market. Indian subsidiaries can easily perceive Indian consumer mindset. The person who is sitting and observing the market trend in India will be in a better position to take decision which will suit the market environment. By shifting the image of the company will be less in Indian consumer mindset as they take HUL as Indian company and now by shifting they will not take it as Indian company as also there are British CEO and it is regulated by Unilever Headquarter not by subsidiaries which are here in Indian market. So if the decision making is given to subsidiaries rather than headquarters it will be more beneficial because subsidiaries can apply a strategy in Indian market fastly and effectively respective to Unilever headquarter. Shifting of strategic decision making to headquarter will give benefit and better edge to its competitor in Indian market because the headquarter will control and focus on its product globally .There is cultural change in Indian market respective to Britain so British CEO will also face problems regarding this.

As domestic players are very near to Indian consumer mindset and those companies which apply decision making from here in India only. Although it does not have a strong position in the food business in India but it is attractive both in terms of consumption as well as export markets. In India there is rural marketing is also at very necessary and if Unilever will not concentrate on here then domestic player take an advantage here

  CASE: 2    THE STRATEGIC ASPIRATIONS OF THE RESERVE BANK OF INDIA

 1.                  Consider the vision and mission statements of the Reserve Bank of India. Comment on the quality of both these statements.

 The mission states that ‘RBI seeks to develop a sound and efficient financial system with monetary stability conductive to balanced and sustained growth of the Indian economy’. The corporate values of underlining the mission statement include public interest, integrity, and excellence, independence of views and responsiveness and dynamism. An example can be observed with a large body of competent officers and staff; access to key data on the economy; wide organisational network with 22 regional offices; established infrastructure; ability to attract talent; and financial self sufficiency.

 On the other hand, the vision states that the RBI aims to be a leading central bank with credible, transparent, proactive and contemporaneous policies and seeks to be a catalyst for the emergence of a globally competitive financial system that helps deliver a high quality of life to the people in the country. For instance, RBI strives to fulfill its objectives below:

1.            Monetary policy objectives such as containing inflation and promoting economic growth, management of foreign exchange reserves and making currency available.

2.            Objectives set for managing financial sector developments such as supervision of systems and information access and assisting banking and financial institutions to become competitive globally.

3.            Organisational development objectives such as development of economic research facilities, creating information system for supporting economic decision-making, financial management and human resource management.

   2.                  Should the RBI go for a systematic and comprehensive strategic plan in place of its earlier pragmatic approach of responding to environmental events as and when they occur? Why?

 Strategic actions of RBI were taken to realise the objectives fall under four categories:

1.             The thrust area of monetary policy formulation and managing financial sector;

2.             Evolving the legal framework to support the thrust area;

3.             Customer service for providing support and creation of positive relationship; and

4.             Organisational support such as structure, systems, human resource development and adoption of modern technology.

However, RBI has adopted the time-tested technique of responding to external environment in a pragmatic manner and making piecemeal changes. The dilemma in adoption of a comprehensive strategic plan was the risk of trading off the flexibility of the pragmatic approach to creating rigidity imposed by a set model of planning.

The strategic planning exercise was buttressed by departmental position papers and documents on various subjects such as technology, human resources and environmental trends.

There have been sweeping changes in the economic, social and political environment. The RBI has had to respond to it even in the absence of a systematic strategic plan. The strategic plan reiterates anticipation of evolving external environment in the medium-term; revisiting strengths and weaknesses (evaluation of capabilities); and doing away with the outdated mandates for enhancing efficiency in operations in furtherance of best public interests. The results of these efforts are likely to manifest in attaining a visible focus, reinforced proficiency, realisation of shared sense of purpose, optimising resource use and build-up of momentum to achieve goals.

Hence, this is the reason that RBI go for a systematic and comprehensive strategic plan in place of its earlier pragmatic approach of responding to environmental events.

 CASE: 3    THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF KALYANI GROUP

 1.                  What is the motive for internationalisation by the Kalyani Group? Discuss.

 The Kalyani Group is a large family-business group of India, employing more than 10000 employees. It has diverse businesses in engineering, steel, forgings, auto components, non-conventional energy and specialty chemicals. It has established joint ventures with many global companies such as ArvinMeritor, USA, Carpenter Technology Corporation, USA, Hayes Lemmerz, USA and FAW Corporation, China. The emphasis on internationalisation is reflected in the vision statement of the Group where two of the five points relate to the Group trying to be a world-class organisation and achieving growth aggressively by accessing global markets. Moreover, to expand internationally, the Group has followed the path of integration, extending from the upstream steel making to downstream machining for auto components such as crank-shafts, front axle beams, steering knuckles, cam-shafts, connecting rods and rocker arms. In all these products, the Group has tried to move up the value chain instead of providing just the raw forgings.

 Four factors are supposed to have influenced the growth of the Group for expanding internationally. These are mentioned below:

·               Focussing on core businesses to maximise growth potential

·               Attaining aggressive cost savings

·               Expanding geographically to build global capacity and establishing leading positions

·               Achieving external growth through acquisitions

  2.                  Which type of international strategy is Kalyani Group adopting? Explain

 The corporate strategy of the Group for international expansion is a combination of concentration of its core competence in its business with efforts at building, nurturing and sustaining mutually beneficial partnerships with alliance partners and customers. The value of these partnerships essentially lies in collaborative product development with the partners who are the original equipment manufacturers. The foreign partners are not intended to provide expansion in capacity, but to enable the Kalyani Group to extend its global marketing reach.

The value of these partnerships essentially lies in collaborative product development with the partners who are the original equipment manufacturers. The foreign partners are not intended to provide expansion in capacity, but to enable the Kalyani Group to extend its global marketing reach.

 The Group lays high emphasis on research and development for providing engineering support, advanced metallurgical analysis and latest testing equipment in tandem with its high-class manufacturing facilities. Moreover, being a top-driven group, the pattern of strategic decision-making within seems to be entrepreneurial. There was an attempt to formulate a five-year strategic plan in 1997, with the participation of the company executives. But no much is mentioned in the business press about that collaborative strategic decision-making after that. On the other hand, the Group made joint venture agreement in May 2007, with Gerdau S.A. Brazil for installation of rolling mills for its international operations.

CASE 4:     THE STORY OF SYNERGOS UNFOLDS

  1.                  Identify the type of organisation structure being used at Synergos and explain how it works. What are the benefits of using this type of structure? What are the pitfalls?

 Synergos is a young management and strategy consulting firm based at Mumbai. Synergos fits in with their requirements owing to its personalised service and reasonable commission structure.

The Synergos team decided to focus on the small and medium enterprises (SMEs). These were firms that realised they had problems needing specialist advice, but were apprehensive to approach the big firms on account of their limited outlay and inexperience of dealing with such firms. Synergos came to their aid by tailoring their services as near as possible to their needs. Another differentiation platform Synergos offered to its client was a fully-integrated consultancy service where it got involved right from the stage of planning down to its implementation and monitoring.

Presently, Synergos has grown to be a medium-sized consultancy firm, serving clients in India and abroad, working for industries ranging from auto components to financial services and for manufacturing organisations to service providers. Some-how, nearly half of the assignments it has worked on have been for mid-sized, upcoming, family-owned businesses, a niche it has served well.

The organisational structure at Synergos has a board at the top, consisting of seven people, including the four founding members and three independent directors. One of the independent directors is the chairman of the board. Urmish, as the founder CEO, also heads an executive management committee with each of the founding members, leading three other top-level committees dealing with business portfolio, service management and executive recruitment.

The benefits that the company gains is the flexibility that such an organisational arrangement affords seems to have been the major reason for the evolution of the organisation structure at Synergos over the years.

But there are also some pitfalls that the company had like the management control of the company is discreet and performance-based rather than behaviour-based. The means for control are informal, such as direct supervision.

  2.                  Express your opinion about whether the structure is in line with the recruitments of the strategy that Synergos is implementing.

 The organisational structure at Synergos has a board at the top, consisting of seven people, including the four founding members and three independent directors. The management team is called the professional group. The rest of the employees are referred to as the staff. The professional group has young women and men who are graduates from some of the best institutions in India and abroad. There is a lot of multi-tasking however, to utilise the wide range of skills and special expertise that the professionals have. For administrative matters, the professionals are assigned to client-service departments of industry solutions, enterprise solutions and technology solutions. The staff group of employees consists of the support people who provide a variety of services to the professionals

Recruitment for professionals is stringent. Synergos typically looks for a good combination of education and experience and lays much emphasis on the compatibility of the prospective employee with the shared values. The staff positions are also open for persons wanting to work on part-time or project-bases. Emphasis is given to the ability of the prospective staff to undertake multi-tasking and work with documentation and word processing and presentation software packages. Therefore, the structure of Synergos is somewhat in line with the recruitments.

But there is big pitfall that the compensation system consists of a base salary with commission and bonus depending on performance only. The performance appraisal is informal, with at least one of the four founding members being part of the evaluation committee for a professional

  3.                  Based on the information related to the information, control and reward systems available in the case, examine whether these systems are appropriate for the type of strategy being implemented.

 The performance appraisal of Synergos is informal, with at least one of the four founding members being part of the evaluation committee for a professional.

There are not many training opportunities except the on-the-job learning. New professionals are assigned to a mentor for some time till they are ready to handle assignments autonomously. The staff members are usually recruited from fresh graduates, with good degrees from reputed institutions, in arts, sciences and commerce.

Usually, the founding member closest to the work area of the employee is involved in determining the rewards to be given. The time-cycle for appraisal is one year. Management control is discreet and performance-based rather than behaviour-based. The means for control are informal, such as direct supervision. Hence, this shows that the performance appraisal systems are not appropriate to be in lined with the company’s strategy and the company should also give appraisals and rewards according to the behaviour of the personnel also.

 CASE: 5    EXERCISING STRATEGIC AND OPERATIONAL CONTROLS AT iGATE GLOBAL SOLUTIONS

  1.      Analyse the iGATE case to highlight how it could apply some of the strategic controls such as premise control, implementation control, strategic surveillance and special alert control.

 The business strategy is focused differentiation based on the focal points of testing, infrastructure management and enterprise solutions. The competitive tactic is avoiding head-on competition with the formidable larger players in the industry by carving out a niche. The business definition is serving large customers and staying away from sub-contracting work.

iGATE adopts a differentiation business model based on an integrated technology and operations model which it calls as the iTOPS model.

The strategic evaluation and control has both the elements of strategic as well as operational controls. Some controls and their objectives are:

1.            On-shore versus off-shore mix of business revenues: In 2004, this ratio was 55:45 and in 2007, it has improved to 27:73, indicating a much higher revenue generation from off-shore business.

2.            Billing rates: Revenue charged from clients on assignments. With project consulting assignments from off-shore clients, where the revenues are typically higher, with lower costs and higher productivity in India, the realisations from billing have to be higher. The industry norms for ITES are US$18-25 per hour for off-shore and US$ 55-65 per hour for on-shore assignments.

3.            The number of large clients from Fortune 1000 companies: Presently, iGATE has nearly half of its more than 100 clients from Fortune 1000 companies, of which the top 10 account for 70 per cent of its business.

4.            Controlling employee costs:  This is an area where concerted effort is required from the HR and finance functions. Hiring less experienced employees lowers the compensation bill. In the IT and ITES industry, attracting and retaining well-qualified and experienced employees is a critical success factor. The performance indicator for this objective is the cost per employee.

5.            Human resource metrics such as the hiring and attrition rates: In the IT and ITES industry, the human resource metrics such as hiring and attrition rates are critical indicators. Increasing the number of employees and lowering the attrition rate by retaining the employees is a big challenge. There are presently about 5800 employees, likely to go up to 8500 in the next two years. The attrition of 20 per cent presently at iGATE is on the higher side. But such attrition is common in the industry where the employee mobility is high and employee pinching a widespread trend.

 2.      Analyse and describe the process of setting of standards at iGATE.

The process of setting of standards at iGATE are based on the corporate strategies of iGATE that offer integrated IT services and divesting the legacy IT staffing business and possibly making acquisitions in the domain expertise for financial services businesses. The business strategy is focused differentiation based on the focal points of testing, infrastructure management and enterprise solutions. The competitive tactic is avoiding head-on competition with the formidable larger players in the industry by carving out a niche. The business definition is serving large customers and staying away from sub-contracting work.

iGATE adopts a differentiation business model based on an integrated technology and operations model which it calls as the iTOPS model. This is advancement over the prevalent model in the ITES industry based on low-cost arbitrage model. iTOPS is based on transaction-based pricing for services and supporting the clients by providing the platform, processes and services.

The strategic evaluation and control has both the elements of strategic as well as operational controls. The functional and operational implementation is aimed at achieving four sets of objectives:

(a)             Shifting from small customers to large customer (Fortune 1000 companies)

(b)             Shifting away from stocking to project-consulting assignments

(c)             Working directly with clients rather than with system integrators

(d)            Moving from a local to international markets

   3.      Give your opinion on the effectiveness of the role of reward system in exercising HR performance management at iGATE and suggest what improvements are possible, given the environmental conditions in the IT/ITES industry in India at present.

 The human resource management functions being critical in the IT/ITES industry where so many challenges exist, needs a strong emphasis on training and development, motivation, autonomy and attractive incentives. iGATE has an integrated people management model focusing on developing technical, behavioural and leadership competencies. The three metrics by which the HR function is assessed are: human capital index, work culture and employee affective commitment. The reward system at iGATE consists of meritorious employees across all levels being granted restricted stock options, thus providing an incentive to remain with the company till they become due. The company, though, is an average paymaster, but there are some drawbacks that the company tries to trade-off offering a more challenging work environment, quicker promotions and chances for practising innovation.

Moreover, the lacks the big-brand appeal of the larger players such as Infosys and Wipro, cannot compete on scale and is still under the shadow of its original business of body-shopping IT personnel. Therefore, the company should implement effective work culture in its operations and should also motivate its personnel time to time.

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                                                      Table of Contents

1.    Background. 1

2.    Need, Importance and Significance of the Study. 2

3.    Scope and Limitations of the study. 2

4.    Time Period. 3

5.    Geographical Location.. 3

6.    Research Methodology. 4

6.1. Data Collection.. 4

6.1.1. Secondary Data collection.. 4

6.1.2. Primary Data Collection.. 4

7.    Definition of Terms Used. 4

8.    Research Objectives. 5

9.    Research Hypothesis. 6

10.      Chapter Scheme. 6

Chapter 1: Introduction.. 6

Chapter 2: Literature Review.. 6

Chapter 3: Research Methodology. 6

Chapter 4: Analysis, Results and Hypothesis testing. 7

Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations. 7

11.      Cost Budgeting. 7

Bibliography. 8

 1.    Background

A number of consumer behavior researchers have affirmed that store layout and visual merchandising is a key element in increasing foot falls and boosting sales (Pal and Byrom (2003); Dabholkar, 2006; Krishnan et al, 2002). Store layout as described by Rani et al (2008) is the expected and anticipated advantage that a shopper connects with shopping at some definite store. Therefore it is of extreme significance for shop owners to build and maintain an eye-catching layout and a constructive visual merchandising.

The overall objective of the present research work will be to study the effect of store layout on sales. To facilitate attainment of the objectives of the research, the researcher plans to conduct a quantitative study across some selected stores in Mumbai through self designed questionnaires. A sample of 100 respondents will be asked questions relating to the research. The respondents will be selected through non-probability sampling within which convenience sampling is planned to be implemented. Conclusions and recommendations will subsequently be drawn from the review of past literature on the subject area and the findings of the study will be framed.

The researcher will distribute the questionnaire among a sample of 100 respondents. The sample population will comprise of customers and store owners. The researcher intends to use convenience sample under the purview of non-probability sampling for the study. Conclusions and recommendations will be framed based on the analysis of findings from the study and relating it to the secondary study conducted in the form of a review of past literature on the subject area.

    2.    Need, Importance and Significance of the Study

A key aspiration of this study is to show consumers experience what kind of problems with store layout. The study will aim to analyze how outward show of the store, visual merchandising, store ambiance, and service and convenience can be major aspects for boosting sales. Further on the basis of the findings the resear5ch will recommend owners of the store to concentrate to those aspect and make sure that essential strategies are put into practice to help alter the store layout and wherever there is a requirement and thus increase sales. The research will also add to the current literature on store layout and its relation with sales figures. It can be observed that majority of past studies conducted in the subject area has focused on the relation between customer retention and satisfaction and the store layout. These studies have however not focused on the direct link between store layout and visual merchandising and sales. Further most of the studies have been conducted on foreign shores and thus have less relevance to Indian scenario. This study will therefore be of significance for establishing a direct link between store layout and sales figures and will further present information of high relevance with regards to Indian context.

3.    Scope and Limitations of the study

The scope of the study will extend to store Layout, consumer behaviour, and its relation with sales. Te scope will not include financial calculations, human resource management and management control of the organizations.

Limitations of the study include the compromised generalizability due to the individualized basis in which each case is built upon. However, if multiple cases within a specific domain are combined than the external validity is believed to increase.

Limitations of the study will be the some limitations connected with questionnaire based method such as that some respondents might not take interest in the questions and may not provide genuine responses, further responses will only be based on the query and respondents will not have the opportunity to tell something on their own. These limitations will be dealt by careful selection of questions and filtering of the questionnaire after the collection. Further a pilot study will be conducted on the questionnaire with some sample respondents.

4.    Time Period

The proposed timeline of the submission of the proposed research as shown in the table below:

 Year 2013

July

Aug

Sep

Oct

Secondary Data Collection

    Questionnaire Preparation

    Survey Pilot Testing

    Conducting Questionnaire

    Analyze findings and conclude with solutions

    Preparing the Report

    Submission

     5.    Geographical Location

To facilitate attainment of the objectives of the research, the researcher plans to conduct a quantitative study across some selected stores in Mumbai through self designed questionnaires.

6.    Research Methodology

The study will quantitative in nature, as it will be researched involving the use of structured questions in which the response options will be predetermined and a large number of respondents will involved.

The research work will use quantitative techniques by making use of structured questionnaire. In this kind of questionnaire the response are predetermined and a the sample size is generally huge.

The research approach will be exploratory in nature since as Sekaran (2006) points out exploratory approach is essential when a lot of information is not available on the problem in hand.

6.1. Data Collection

6.1.1. Secondary Data collection

The secondary data is that kind of data that is already available in any form. In the present research the secondary data will be collected by means of internet based sources, journals, text books, news articles etc

6.1.2. Primary Data Collection

The primary data collection will be carried out through structured questionnaires.

7.    Definition of Terms Used

Ø  Retail store Retailers/Shoppers

A store is typically a privately owned enterprise that either sells and deals in a verity of goods and merchandise or may deal in some exclusive range of goods (Bucklin, 1963).

Ø  Merchandise Display

Merchandise display, is a word often applied in the reference of in-shop advertising. It denotes to the manner goods are placed in a retail shop

Visual merchandising is a term that is frequently used when referring to the in store advertising. It can be described as the way the goods or merchandise are positioned inside a store (Zentes et al, 2009).

Ø  Store layout

The store layout is a complex term and encompasses all the attributes such as communication signs, the arrangements of goods, the range of goods and the accessibility to the goods (Baker, Parasuraman, Grewal & Voss, 2002).

Ø  Shop image

Martineau (1958) has provided one of the best definitions that describes shop image as the technique or method to generate an idea and notion about the store in the minds of the customer by using the qualities of the store and its operational efficiency.

Ø  Consumer Behaviour

Scholar and Kenneth (1956) had stated consumer behaviour as the reaction of consumers towards the goods and merchandise. The consumer behaviour in turn is dependent on various factors ranging from the personal likes and dislikes of the consumer to external environmental variables.

8.    Research Objectives

The objectives of the research are,

1.    To find out the factors that consumers embrace for building their experiences and buying behaviour respectively.

2.    To find out the relation between of the strategy of store owners with regards to customer’s in-store experience.

3.    To analyze the relatedness of sales with the store layout

4.    To outline the decisive factors in store layout and visual merchandising that enhance customer in-store experience and boost sales.

  9.    Research Hypothesis

Hypotheses:-The following hypotheses are to be tested in order to attain the objectives:-

Ho1- The present layout of stores are not in tandem with the expectations of customers.

Ho2- There is no significant relationship between store layout and sales

10.  

Chapter Scheme

The research work will be including five chapters. These chapters will encompass the following portions:

Chapter 1: Introduction

This chapter will introduce the research topic and will reflect a general idea of the research problem; it will put forward the aims and objectives of the research need and significance of the study. It will also describe the key terms involved. It will also lay down the research hypothesis.

Chapter 2: Literature Review

The literature review will give a review past literature on store layout and merchandising theory and will make use of the available literature regarding visual merchandising variables and their influence on footfalls and sales. The review of literature will also reflect upon consumer buying behaviors and how businesses can augment their store layout and visual merchandising to satisfy and retain customers..

Chapter 3: Research Methodology

The research methodology will make aware about the methods of data collection used in the study. It will detail upon the sampling methods used, the nature and description of the sample population and the techniques of data analysis that will be used in the research. it will also put forward the limitations and validity and methods to overcome these limitations.

Chapter 4: Analysis, Results

and Hypothesis testing

This chapter will synthesize and analyze the data collected through primary means and will present the data in form of statistics. The data that has been collected will be interpreted and processed in the form of findings. The results obtained thus, will be used to test the hypothesis for the study.

Chapter 5: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendation

s

This will be the final chapter of te dissertation and will comprise of the conclusions that have been derived from the findings of the chapter 4 and chapter 2. Subsequently based on the findings recommendations will be framed and the future research areas will also be outlined.

11. Cost Budgeting

Financial Requirements and Budget

S.  No.

Proposed  Research Budget

Cost  (Approx)

1.

Stationary  

1000

2.

Printing  and Binding

100

3.

Travelling  

2000

4.

Misc  (Internet, Mobile, Gifts)

500

5.

Total  Research Cost

3600

All cost in INR (Indian Rupees)

      Bibliography

Ø  Dabholkar, P.A., Thorpe, D.I. and Rentz, J.O. (2006). A measure of service quality for retail stores: Scale development and validation. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. pp. 3-16.

Ø  Krishnan, T., Koelemeijer, K. and Rao, R. (2002). Consistent assortment provision and service provision in a retail environment. Marketing Science. pp. 21-54.

Ø  Pal, J.W. and Byrom, J.W. (2003). The five Ss of retail operations: a model and tool for improvement. International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management. pp. 18-528.

Ø  Rani, L. and Velayudhan, S.K. (2008). Understanding consumer's attitude towards retail store in stock out situations. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics. pp. 259-275.

Ø  Sekaran, U. (2003). Research Methods for Business (4th edn). New Delhi: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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Cyprus’ consumer prices climbed for the first time in more than two years in January, figures from the Statistical Service showed Thursday. The consumer price index rose 0.5 percent year-over-year in January, reversing a 0.3 percent decline in the previous month. Moreover, it was the first increase since December 2014. The annual rise in January was largely driven by a 2.8 percent gain in utility…

Cyprus Industrial Production Growth Slows In September

Cyprus’ industrial production increased at a slower pace in September, figures from the Statistical Service showed Tuesday. Industrial production rose 2.1 percent year-over-year in September, much slower than the 9.3 percent spike in the preceding month. Manufacturing production grew 1.6 percent in September from a year ago and mining and quarrying output jumped by 37.3 percent. During the first…

Cyprus CPI Falls At Slower Rate In July

Cyprus’ consumer prices continued to decline in July, though only marginally, figures from the Statistical Service showed Thursday. The consumer price index edged down 0.2 percent year-over-year in July, much slower than the 2.16 percent drop in the previous month. In May, prices had fallen 2.13 percent. Utility costs dipped 6.3 percent in July from a year ago and transport charges went down by…