Essay: Company Market Failure Analysis

DATA COLLECTION
A working plan has been created for the initial investigation to keep track of the research. The working plan shall record all developments of the research. The working plan initially covers a period of 135 days and is divided into four phases. These are the preparatory phase, the structuring phase, the writing phase and the final phase. Each phase is designed to support a proactive writing approach. Furthermore, the working plan also provides a timeframe and time-weighting for the single phases while offering a flexible framework within the phases. The plan supports the research effectiveness through a step-by-step approach as well as realistically assisting in research specification and measurement. More information concerning the working plan can be obtained from the project description of the preliminary investigation. Therefore, the following paragraphs are describing the data collection process for the company market failures analysis and the literature review, as the data collection for the questionnaire is described in a separate part of the study which can be found in chapter seven. The data for the research is coming from different areas which are highlighted within the following paragraphs. However, all sources are being checked and indicated for their validity, reliability and trustworthiness of data. Attention will be given to the process of information and data gathering as well as use, to maintain the reproductive capability of the study.
COMPANY FAILURE ANALYSIS
Concerning the enterprise market failure analysis, emphasis will be given to two primary sources of information. The first are scholarly publication about market failure in China. The researcher intends to utilize the provided online databases, as the university holds vast access to online scholarly publication both in English and Chinese language. Especially Chinese publications are of interest due to the relevancy to the subject. Besides intensive personal search of online publication, the researcher intends to seek help of a professional librarian in order to perform a deeper search. This method is necessary because initial literature review of the preliminary investigation had shown that the analysed literature only covers a small pool of company sample. Moreover, the search of Chinese literature will also be intensified as this might not only lead to more samples but maybe also to more insight from the different perspective. In this regards, Chinese publication might offer different data, due to an alternative cultural understanding of existing problems.
The second type of information for the company market failure analysis is information from various news outlets. These news contents are mainly accessed via the internet, as the researcher only has limited access to regional Northern German newspapers, and hard copies of company statements are not accessible. These news outlets do contain mainly newspaper articles, but also official company statements.
The researcher does not intend to make a large-scale study of underlying reasons for corporate failure within the company failure analysis, but seeks to highlight some crucial factors which are believed to have a large impact on many businesses operating in China. Therefore, a small sample is regarded as sufficient as longs the different sample companies have a comparable amount of data to work with. The data gathering process will be stopped and all samples will be analysed according to the respective evaluation method once the researcher can provide a credible answer. However, should a sample the within the analysing process show insufficient content in regards to the objective, a new sample can be added to the total sample size. The total sample size is defined by the researcher under consideration of the SMART approach as adequate. In this regards less than five sample companies are seen as realizable and achievable to research under the given circumstances and time considerations. All samples should have the necessary specification, regarding if they qualify for the research. The basis mainly is the fact that they are a non-Chinese company which entered the Chinese market, and had to either stop their business activities or to change their business concept radically. Furthermore, all samples must hold sufficient information about the company’s failure which makes data measurable. Sufficient information merely refers to any information regarding why the company is struggling in China or failed to enter China. Hence, an investigative approach while gathering qualitative data seems most appropriate.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The literature review is using a similar approach for data gathering, which is also based on the SMART approach . This method of systematic inquiry uses not only existing theories within the field of market selection and consumer segmentation but also make use of other segmentation techniques, methods and knowledge. The researcher bases the entire literature review on scholarly publications which are obtained through the use of online databases provided by the University of Southern Denmark. However, also uses the help of a librarian concerning literature search within some more particular sectors of market selection. This approach supports not only that the used literature easily applies to the specification, but also, that the process is realizable. The process has no defined extent but is rather measured by its content. Books, containing the most popular literature, serve for this purpose as kick-starter for the research of documentation and general overview which helps to reduce the time needed for the search of documentation. The researcher intends to use a significant number of peer reviewed materials and also verifies that the used literature is at most parts widely accepted within the scholarly world. This action will be done by cross referencing towards other literature and citations. The literature review of this research paper is therefore very similar to standard literature reviews within the field of study.
The data collection methods of the questionnaire can be found in the respective chapter 7.3. The next chapter elaborates on the evaluation method of both the literature review as well as the company market failure analysis.
EVALUATION METHOD
A conclusion can only be given with confidence if the data obtained can be verified as valid and reliable as well as trustworthy. Thus, the assessment is an essential part of any analysis and must be given great consideration to support a credible outcome of the study. Therefore, this chapter highlights the most important factors within the evaluation process of firstly the company market failures analysis and secondly of the literature review. The assessment method of the questionnaire is discussed in the relevant chapter of the empirical part of the study (Chapter 7).
COMPANY FAILURE ANALYSIS
The company market failure analysis is conducted to show the previous observation the researcher made concerning reasons for corporate market failure. Therefore, the focus is given to the information content and reliability of the source. The determination of trustworthiness of the information content is essential for the first step towards the complete evaluation of the source. Thus, the identification of the source is critical to its verification and trustworthiness. This method does not only include whether it is a primary source, a secondary source or a tertiary source but moreover also which purpose the author had while writing the source. After verification of the source, the information content is being analyzed with regards to failure market factors. These factors are being sorted according to categories which are depending on the actual information of the source. As the study puts emphasis on cultural factors, the researcher will need to make sure, that these factors are not weighted to an abnormal degree, which means that all information is given the same weighting. Hence, an approach without prior sentiment is essential for the right evaluation. After analysis of the single sources, all data is collected from a table and described with focus on possible similarities, differences or trends.
LITERATURE REVIEW
The evaluation of the literature review is mainly conducted by means of cross-references. As the researcher bases the literature review entirely on scholarly publications with focus on peer reviewed material, the materials are not being examined in detail concerning their validity as the researcher regards peer-reviewed scholarly publications as trustworthy. However, all information is still being checked according to their information content. Furthermore, especially three factors are taken into consideration in the evaluation of the literature review. The first is the cohesiveness of the research topic and the information content of the source. The second is triangulation between the sources. Therefore, more than one source of data is used to verify any statement or point of view. The third utilizes existing literature overviews as a base for the structure and completeness of the review.
LIMITATIONS
The following part reflects on limitations of the study which had a direct impact on the development and the structure of the research and hence also influence on the answer to the research question.
The necessity for limitation of the research, Work related focus on the product area, Consumer orientated product group, Time and resource capabilities, Personal interest, Furthermore, intends to leave room for further studies and different perspectives as this serves the research objective in the long run.