Abstract
This study focusses on employee development in firms with regard to the dairy industry. The EU dairy industry has been undergoing a radical change recently with the abolition of the milk quota. Therefore, it is important for diary companies such as Arla and FrieslandCampina to know how to reinvent their business. Does employee development fit into this context and how? That is what is investigated in this research. The overall aim is to investigate which factors are needed to maximize employee development in order to have a sustained competitive advantage. Stakeholder theory and the resource based view are used to evaluate the dairy sector; its players, resources and other characteristics. In the analysis is found that managers need to incorporate sustainability into their business. Furthermore, an important issue for dairy companies which needs to be considered is the relationship with farmers. Additionally, improving marketing skills will be key in order to gain customer awareness and thus a competitive advantage. The most important factors which are needed to maximize employee development are informal activities and an inspiring working environment.
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Table of contents
Abstract 2
Introduction 4
Literature review 6
Characteristics of dairy industry 6
General 6
Food processing 7
Regulations in dairy sector 7
Milk – byproducts and suppliers 8
Theoretical framework 9
Abolition of milk quota and how to reinvent business 11
Abolition of milk quota 11
Reinvent business 12
Discussion and hypotheses 15
Conceptual model 17
Conclusion 19
Limitations and future research 19
Reflection 20
References 21
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Introduction
Traditionally, dairy processing has been regulated and protected heavily with policies such as the European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy. However, since these protections have been dismantled largely the dairy sector experienced growing competitive pressures and dynamics (Hannon, 2010). Even recently, in April 2015, the European milk quota was abolished and this caused changes in the dairy industry. In case of a quota abolition, milk production increases by 4.4% and raw milk prices decline with 10% in the EU (European Commission, 2009).
Furthermore, production of butter and milk powder will increase by 5-6%, but prices will decline with 6-7%. Production of fresh milk products and cheese increase by 1%, while prices decrease by 4-6% (European Commission, 2009). The latter expectation hits companies such as FrieslandCampina and Arla. This study focusses on how these dairy processing companies respond to these changes, especially concerning their HR practices and specifically employee development. Moreover, this study analyzes the field of Human Resource Management (HRM) with regards to sustaining a competitive advantage, specifying on a particular aspect of HRM, namely employee development.
According to Guest socialization, selection, training and development and quality improvement programs have a positive influence on the skills and ability of the employees and thus improve the quality of their work (Guest, 1997). Furthermore, it is written that innovative HRM practices potentially have a positive contribution to the economic performance of a firm. Especially when employees are able and make effort to apply knowledge and skills which managers do not possess and thus contribute to improved performance (MacDuffie, 1997). As employee development proves to be positively related to corporate performance, the question then arises which factors (such as an inspiring working environment, the right analytical skills, marketing awareness) influence employee development and how these contribute to a sustained competitive advantage.
To analyze how firms manage their HRM practices and respond to changes in the market or sector, research is done in the dairy industry. Researchers argued that improvements in job quality in skill or low wage sectors are hard to protect by insufficiently powerful labor market institutions and regulations (Hannon, 2010). Accordingly, this research is also focused on how these institutions and regulations have an impact on the dairy sector. Alongside two main theories this analysis will be developed: Barney’s resource based view and Freeman’s stakeholder based competition. In investigating whether or not the HR practices of a firm can lead to sustaining a competitive advantage in the dairy sector, it has to be valuable, rare, inimitable and organized well. In addition to this, it is important for the dairy industry to involve the stakeholders in order to be competitive.
This study focusses on finding out how firms have to respond to the abolition of the milk quota and already to the announcement of this regulatory change back in 2008. Especially regarding their HRM policies and especially the way in which they have to reinvent their business by for example preparing and training their employees. With these issues in mind the research question of this study is:
Which factors are needed to maximize employee development in order to have a sustained competitive advantage?
Expected is that training and development for employees is helping the firm to reinvent their business in such a way that it can contribute to a competitive advantage. For example, employees having the right marketing skills can help improve the customer and market awareness in the sector. This research supports managers in making decisions concerning their HRM policy in improving the ability to reinvent a business.
Literature review
Characteristics of dairy industry
General
Several aspects need to be taken into consideration when writing about the dairy industry. The European dairy industry can be described as an oligopolistic market (Gardebroek, Turi, & Wijnands, 2010). According to Marketline, in their Dairy Industry Profile Europe, the dairy industry/market consists of sales of milk, cheese, yogurt, cream, soy products and several other desserts (MarketLine, 2015). The European dairy market has been growing over the last couple of years and is expected to further grow in the next few years. Total revenues in 2014 of the dairy market were $125,346.2m and is expected to have been growing 11.8% in 2019 compared to 2014. The party accounting for the highest share of the sales in the dairy industry are the supermarkets, namely 65.3% and another 16% to other independent retailers (MarketLine, 2015). As can be seen in the table 1, the biggest players in the European dairy industry are Groupe Danone, Groupe lactalis, FrieslandCampina and Arla Foods Amba. Arla Foods Amba is a Danish distributor and manufacturer of dairy products. It is an agricultural
co-operative owned by dairy farmers from mainly Denmark and the UK. It also mainly operates in those countries together with Sweden, The Netherlands and Germany. They operate under the brands Arla, Lurpak and Castello of which Arla is the most well-known. Another co-operative is FrieslandCampina, headquartered in the Netherlands is engaged in the worldwide marketing and production of dairy products and fruit-based drinks selling under several brand names such as Mona, Optimel and Chocomel. The other two leading companies in the dairy market, Danone (global consumer goods company) and Lactalis (family-owned company), are French companies mainly known from brands such as Danio, Activia, Evian (Danone) and President, Locatelli, Galbani (Lactalis).
Food processing
Dairy food processing can be characterized by continuous processes, highly automated and batch based (but still highly automated) (Hannon, 2010). The challenge for a dairy manufacturing company is to process all different recipes (e.g. different dairy desserts, cheese etc.) in the most economic and efficient way. Every dairy manufacturing process has to deal with different packaging formats and sizes, but also different flavors and brands. Therefore, most important is that the processing stage is properly planned (Van Kampen & Van Donk, 2014). Employees are a very important factor when it comes to managing the manufacturing process. Business processes can be improved by harnessing the vast experiential knowledge obtained through day-to-day tasks that employees possess (Aikenhead, Farahbakhsh, Halbe, & Adamowski, 2015).
Furthermore, one way of generating more efficiency in the production process is by promoting the efficient use of resources such as materials, water and energy and minimizes pollution at the source. Aikenhead, Farahbakhsh, Halbe, & Adamowski (2015) describe pollution prevention as an opportunity which has already been successfully implemented in several industries and leads to reduced business liabilities and risks associated with environmental pollution. To make this successful, the knowledge embedded within the employees in the detailed process level is key. Furthermore, another opportunity for the manufacturing process might be the introduction of private labels into the process leading to the enlargement of the product assortment might better suit consumer preferences (Hirsch & Hartmann, 2014).
Regulations in dairy sector
The global dairy industry is known for its many regulation and protection by the government. It is one of the most controlled industry in the fast moving consumer goods industry. Exports are dominated by the United States, Australia, Canada and the European Union. The EU is also one of the major importers together with Japan, Russia, US and Mexico (Meilke K., Larivi”re S., & Martin C., 2001). Traditionally, the EU has been regulating its dairy industry heavily. The European Union’s Common Agricultural Policy is one of the most important regulations that has been imposed in the past 30 years (Hannon, 2010). This highly controlled aspect of the dairy industry can be explained by the nature of the products (perishability of milk and related products) and the market structure (to compete on the international market each country has different abilities to do so). Imposing policies such as production quotas and import tariffs make it harder for dairy industries in developing countries to be competitive in comparison to developed countries (Couillard & Turkina, 2015).
In the past few years plans have been made to dismantle regulatory protections which increased competitiveness and pressures in the industry (Hannon, 2010). This might also be an opportunity for dairy companies from developing countries to better compete in the international market. According to Couillard & Turkina, liberalization in the industry also has a downside, namely that dismantling regulations can be detrimental to competitiveness in the dairy sector. This concerns only some countries due to the fact that some corporations are able to be competitive in the sector because of these regulations and are depending on it (Couillard & Turkina, 2015).
Milk – byproducts and suppliers
Another important characteristic of the dairy industry is the production of byproducts of milk which can also be called processed dairy products. The three most processed byproducts are butter, skim milk powder and cheese accounting for 55 percent of the world dairy product trade. Additionally, whole milk powder accounts for 23 percent of the world dairy product trade (Meilke K. et al., 2001). Constant technological and scientific developments have enabled dairy companies to produce sophisticated dairy products and this implies that all these byproducts make the processing a complex network of interrelated production processes. Production of one products may result in an additional dairy flow which is also called a byproduct (production of butter results in additional buttermilk) (Banaszewska, Cruijssen, Claassen, & Van, 2014).
Milk, the most important ingredient of dairy products, is supplied by mainly dairy farmers who are the key suppliers in the industry. It is a hardly substitutable product and it is price-sensitive. Furthermore, due to the perishable nature of milk storage costs are high and logistical costs are also high because of the frequent deliveries. Although dairy companies are heavily reliant on the milk producers (the dairy farmers) and therefore would have much supplier power, it is the heavy competition between the small-scale farmers which reduces this power (MarketLine, 2014).
Theoretical framework
Understanding the resources of a firm has become very important in research nowadays. Organizational processes, information, knowledge, assets and capabilities can all be placed among firm’s resources. Additionally, human capital can be a very important resource of a firm (J. Barney, 1991). Originally designed by Barney (1991), the VRIN-framework is used and discussed widely by many researchers; it states that a firm can yield a sustained competitive advantage if the firm’s resources are valuable, rare, imperfect inimitable and non-substitutable (Priem & Butler, 2001). Although used by many researchers, Barney improved his VRIN model already in 1995 to the VRIO model. He included the organizational aspect in his model, namely that a firm must be able to exploit its capabilities and resources through the right organization (J. B. Barney, 1995). In table 2 the VRIO model is summarized. Alongside this improved theoretical perspective, the resources of dairy companies can be investigated and determined if or when they will yield a sustained competitive advantage for the firm.
Table 2 ‘ The VRIO model. Source: http://nikswiki.weingartmair.eu/doku.php?id=vrio-analyse
Since customers are very important stakeholders to dairy companies, they need to take into consideration what the consumer preferences are and be able to anticipate and respond accordingly. Furthermore, sustainability is becoming more and more important in industries where food processing is key, so this analysis will also involve some aspects of sustainability which can have a positive effect on a firm’s business process and their competitive advantage.
In addition to customers, dairy companies have a lot of other stakeholders to consider such as competitors, suppliers, but also their own employees. The core of stakeholder management has been proved to be positively linked with financial performance (Egels-Zand”n & Sandberg, 2010). Furthermore, stakeholder theory can be usefully applied to sustainability management and since this research is also investigating how a firm can be sustainable in its resources (mainly employees) it is favorable to take the stakeholder approach into consideration (H”risch, Freeman, & Schaltegger, 2014). Freeman describes a firm’s stakeholder as groups or individuals who can affect or be affected regarding value creation of a firm. How can the relationship between the two parties be improved and how does it influence a firm’s competitiveness? The link with corporate ethics can easily be made and will thus also be a component of this research.
In the next section this theoretical framework is used in relation to the characteristics of the dairy industry. Since several characteristics of the dairy industry can be identified as either a resource or a stakeholder the theories can be linked and used in this context. It is important for a firm to involve stakeholders into their decision-making because these stakeholders are part of the value creation in the firm and managers need information about these stakeholders to engage them in where they are and use such insights in creating more value (Harrison & Wicks, 2013). In the dairy industry stakeholders such as the farmers, the dairy companies (e.g. Danone, FrieslandCampina and Arla) and the regulations which are imposed by the governments need to be taken into consideration in managers’ decision-making in order to have a value creating effect on firms. Dairy farmers are the suppliers of the main raw material namely milk and they definitely need to be engaged in the process.
Furthermore, since the industry has always been highly regulated, the governments need to be taken into consideration as well, especially when the authorities make changes in their policies regarding the dairy industry. Other characteristics of the dairy industry can be identified as resources, namely the milk farmers are suppliers of and which is the resource of the whole industry, the food processing which includes milk processing and processing of other dairy products and the byproducts (which are also another resource). These resources must be valuable, rare, inimitable and well-organized in order to be a source of competitive advantage.
Applying this theoretical framework to the characteristics of the dairy industry we see that concerning Barney’s resource based model the resources have to be evaluated according to their value, rareness, imitability and the organization. Regarding one of the most important resources of the industry, milk, it has to be said that it is valuable to the firm. The other resources, byproducts and food processing, are valuable for dairy firms as well since these enable a firm to exploit opportunities. However, the rareness of these resources are questionable. According to Barney a firm’s resources are rare if it is not possessed by a lot of other firms as well (J. B. Barney, 1995). Milk is not rare at all in this sense, because all firms possess this resource.
Furthermore, every dairy firm is processing food and using byproducts, although these can differ in kind and thus be rarer. A resource is inimitable if other firms want to obtain the resource or imitate it and have a cost disadvantage because of it. Milk can be defined as inimitable because it is hard to imitate the resource itself, however milk is not difficult to obtain by other firms. Food processing and byproducts are not really inimitable either, because another firm will not have a huge cost disadvantage from obtaining these resources or capabilities. The last question which needs to be asked is whether a dairy firm is well-organized to be able to fully exploit their resources and capabilities (J. B. Barney, 1995).Through their vast experience in the industry, it can be concluded that the main dairy companies are capable of exploiting their resources and capabilities sufficiently.
Abolition of milk quota and how to reinvent business
Abolition of milk quota
The heavily regulated dairy industry experienced a huge change in 2015, namely the abolition of the milk production quota. It was the first time in 30 years the dairy industry in Europe is not subject to milk production quotas anymore. As a result, dairy farmers are vulnerable to price volatility, but this should be stifled partly due to the EU ‘soft landing’ strategy implying production boosting over the past decade (Knott, 2015). Back in 2011 it was already argued that if the quota would be abandoned milk production is determined following the usual optimality condition of ‘marginal cost equals price’. Accordingly, it is predicted that production of milk will increase and milk prices decrease differing per region. In regions where quota rent was low the effects might be not as strong as in region where the quota rent was high (Kempen, Witzke, P”rez Dom”nguez, Jansson, & Sckokai, 2011).
Furthermore, EU commissioner for Agriculture and Rural Development, Phil Hogan, recognizes that the new situation without a milk quota might worry farmers. However, he argues that in, especially value-added products such as cheese, it should lead to more jobs and growth. Moreover, he argues that the dairy sector can become a potential economic drive for the EU when it focusses more on value-added products and ingredients for functional food (Knott, 2015). This is already an example of how dairy businesses can respond to changes in the industry. However, this paper investigates the way in which a company can reinvent its business by improving their employee development.
Reinvent business
As stated earlier, production of milk is expected to rise by 4.4%, while production of other dairy products is predicted to increase by approximately 1%. Prices of dairy products will probably decrease by 4-6% (European Commission, 2009). How do dairy companies such as FrieslandCampina and Arla have to respond to this? A suggestion could be to improve marketing skills of their personnel which can then in turn improve the customer awareness and the understanding of what the customer actually wants. The firm’s adaptation to a change in the market is dependent on marketing capability improvements in order to improve their competitive position via knowledge and skills in the marketing department (Orr, Bush, & Vorhies, 2011). Improving specialized marketing skills and knowledge might help achieving a competitive advantage. Marketing dimensions such as positioning, awareness, image and brand management play an important role regarding customer knowledge and expectations about a product (Orr et al., 2011).
As written before, business processes can also be improved by the experiential knowledge from day-to-day tasks that employees possess, so it is important for firms to fully utilize these well-experienced staff (Aikenhead et al., 2015). Furthermore, another way to improve the business or manufacturing process is by focusing on sustainability and pollution. In the food processing sector supply chain and sourcing issues are the most active sustainability themes including topics such as packaging, safety of food and transportation. Monitoring and directing inputs’ sourcing and managing and enhancing supplier relationships are very important in that respect (BOLAND, COOPER, & WHITE, 2016).
Due to competition organizations have to take sustainability seriously because it impacts the internal and external environment where the company operates. Incorporation of sustainability into business decisions is needed in order to achieve advantages from it. Teamwork and internal communication are the key for sustainability and the five elements of processes, people, structure, strategy and rewards have to be interrelated in order to be a source of competitive advantage. Transparent communication and openness have to be encouraged by the organization and total personality development of the employees has to be stimulated in order to achieve advantages (Singh, 2013).
Research design
The purpose of this section is to explain the method of research and the way in which the problem was tackled using the research method described by Saunders (M. Sounders, P. Lewis, A. Thornhill., 2009). First of all, the philosophical stance of this research is pragmatism since both constructivism and objectivism (the involvement of social actors in the phenomena) are allowed and theory and practice are linked. Secondly, since the research question is quite broad, the way of collecting and processing data has an inductive approach; the research is done to create a theory. It goes from research question to observation and analysis in order to create a further theory. Furthermore, it is a longitudinal study since the data collected is from different periods of times. The data collection process is done through mainly academic journals and articles written by well-known scholars and researchers.
Moreover, this research is a qualitative research because it involves only text provided through the internet and does not involve any numerical data. The reason why qualitative research was done is that the research question was very broad. Therefore, qualitative research was useful in order to explore the how and the why of the phenomena: maximizing employee development in the dairy sector. Many articles were analyzed using a constant comparative method of data analysis. The purpose was to detect possible underlying patterns and create a conceptual model out of it (Ng & Hase, 2008). The data are secondary, archival data, collected through search engines such as WorldCat or EBSCO. Searching for words such as ‘HRM’, employee development, dairy sector and resources yield enough information in order to start this investigation. Eventually, the collected data is discussed and hypotheses are established. Additionally, a conceptual model is created in order to visualize the causal relationships between the several concepts. Finally, managerial implications are given and the most important hypotheses will be addressed.
Discussion and hypotheses
Given the collected information on the dairy industry in connection to employee development and how to reinvent a business several arguments can be made. First of all, since the relationship with the supplier of the main raw material and resource of milk, namely the dairy farmers is very important when considering the stakeholder theory. Dairy farmers are depending on the firm and the firm is depending on the farmers for its existence (H”risch et al., 2014). Therefore, managers of a dairy company have to take into consideration that they need to improve skills of their staff in order to maintain or enhance the relationship with their suppliers. Moreover, in case of a cooperative (e.g. FrieslandCampina), dairy firms have to guarantee a milk price which is sufficient enough to cover all costs. For that reason, a dairy company needs to train employees to keep track of the world market price and provide the best price for their dairy farmers. One could argue that training and development of relational skills is necessary in order to maintain or enhance the relationship with the stakeholders, in this case the dairy farmers. Thus, the first argument for maximizing employee development in order to sustain a competitive advantage would be:
Hypothesis 1: Training and development op employees’ relational skills enhance the relationship with stakeholder resulting in a higher sustainable competitive advantage.
Secondly, the importance of experienced managers or employees who have a massive knowledge about the company itself or the industry cannot be underestimated. Knowledge embedded in employees throughout the years improve the business process (Aikenhead et al., 2015). This vast experiential knowledge obtained from day-to-day tasks might help changing the process where necessary and add value to the firm overall. Giving these valuable people the opportunity to grow and providing them with a comfortable working environment is an important aspect to consider for a dairy company. One could argue that creating a comfortable, but especially an inspiring working environment will give experienced employees the motivation to keep on cooperating with less experienced employees. As a result, the experiential knowledge will continue to grow within the firm and will improve the customer knowledge and awareness. Therefore, the following arguments are:
Hypothesis 2a: Experiential knowledge creates higher customer awareness when experienced employees work in an inspiring working environment.
Hypothesis 2b: Knowledge which is embedded in employees creates higher customer awareness when experienced employees work in an inspiring working environment.
Thirdly, the theme of sustainability is where the next argument arises. Promotion of the efficient and sustainable use of resources will generate more efficiency in the manufacturing and business process (Aikenhead et al., 2015). Topics such as safety of food, transportation and packaging are all active sustainability themes for the food industry and to remain competitive among other dairy companies, a dairy firm has to incorporate sustainability into their business decisions (BOLAND et al., 2016). Especially since it is proven that throughout the last couple of decades several companies realized that sustainability is no longer a necessary evil imposed by the government, but may also contribute to profitability and provide gains in the long term (Nisa, 2015). Human resource aspects such as teamwork and internal communication are key in incorporating sustainability into the business (Singh, 2013).
Furthermore, in order to gain advantages of the overall employee development process it is necessary for a dairy firm to regard the total personality development of employees and if there is transparent communication within the company and between staff (Singh, 2013). To improve teamwork, communication and personality development even more a firm might consider to organize non-work related activities. Activities such as sports events or informal meetings with drinks are very likely to improve communication between employees and therefore also teamwork and personality development. Accordingly, the third statement will be formulated as follows:
Hypothesis 3: Teamwork, communication and personality development drive a stronger business process when employees attend informal activities.
Lastly, another influential human resource aspect is the development of marketing skills in order to gain more marketing and customer awareness. As a response to the change in the market with the abolition of the milk quota, dairy companies have to anticipate how to reinvent the business. One way of achieving an appropriate response to a change in the market is to improve the marketing skills of their employees (Orr et al., 2011). As a result, aspects of marketing skills such as positioning, brand management, awareness and image should generate more knowledge about customer preferences (Orr et al., 2011).
Furthermore, the introduction of private labels enlarging the product assortment was seen as an opportunity to create more value for the firm (Hirsch & Hartmann, 2014). The decision whether or not to introduce these private labels is also an issue for the marketing department to investigate. Moreover, the focus on value-added products and byproducts such as butter and cheese is also mentioned as a potential value-creating source for a dairy company (Knott, 2015). Similar to enlarging the product assortment, the decision of whether or not to focus on either value-added products or byproducts is a matter which needs to be investigated by the marketing department. Thus, preparing managers and staff in the marketing department by improving training and development of marketing skills is important in order to maintain viable in the industry.
However, how can this improvement be best implemented? As well as is the case for providing experienced employees with an inspiring working environment it might be necessary for marketing personnel to have such an environment as well. An inspiring working environment can guarantee even more development of marketing skills since employees are more likely to get new ideas and better solutions to problems. As a result, customer awareness will be increased. The following can be argued:
Hypothesis 4: Improvement of training and development of marketing skills and knowledge will yield better customer awareness when employees work in an inspiring working environment.
Conceptual model
In the next section a conceptual model is shown resulting from the discussion and hypotheses above. The dependent variable is the competitive advantage which is viable for firms to have. All other factors are positively related to this concept which means that the other concepts have a positive effect on competitive advantage. Competitive advantage is dependent on several independent variables namely experienced employees, marketing skills, relationship with farmers and sustainability. The relationship between experienced employees and competitive advantage is positively influenced by the mediator ‘customer awareness’ and the moderator ‘inspiring working environment’. Furthermore, the relationship between competitive advantage and the relationship with farmers is positively influenced by the moderator ‘training and development of relational skills’. Additionally, the relationship between competitive advantage and marketing skills is influenced by the mediator ‘customer awareness’ and the moderator ‘inspiring working environment’. Moreover, the mediators ‘teamwork, communication, personality development’ and ‘business process’ influence the relationship between competitive advantage and sustainability. In addition this relationship is positively influenced by the moderator ‘informal activities’.
H1
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H2 +
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H4
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H3
Conclusion
The most important characteristics of this qualitative research will be mentioned in this section. First of all, the phenomenon, employee development in the dairy sector, was explained in the introduction. Secondly, the research question was developed. In the literature review the characteristics of the dairy industry were laid out and the theoretical framework was applied to these characteristics. Furthermore, the gap, abolition of milk quota and how to reinvent business, was analyzed. As a result, this literature review had enough basis to build a discussion on and make hypotheses from it. An important managerial implication was that managers or leaders of a firm need to take sustainability into consideration since this is becoming more and more important in the dairy sector.
Moreover, suggested was that organizing informal activities could improve teamwork, communication and personality development in order to improve the business process. Furthermore, managers should encourage a better understanding of how the relationship with farmers has to be developed. Additionally, the experiential knowledge embedded in employees should be used to advance marketing skills and increase customer awareness and implementing an inspiring working environment might enhance this. Following the discussion, the research question was answered. The factors which maximize employee development to have a sustained competitive advantage are ‘attending informal activities’ and ‘working in an inspiring working environment’. Marketing skills and teamwork, communication and personality development are all achieved through and grounded on training and development. In contradiction to the relationship with farmers and experienced employees which are not established through training and development, however only influenced by it. Therefore, hypotheses 3 and 4 are considered as most important and influential.
Limitations and future research
There were two issues that limit this research. Firstly, due to bounded rationality the researcher was not able to investigate all information from every source available about the dairy industry. Another limitation is that this research was not comprehensive enough in the sense that in order to fully investigate everything regarding the dairy industry, a much longer and extensive study needs to be done. In contradiction to the opportunities this research provided, there are some opportunities for future research as well. To test whether hypotheses of this study can be accepted researchers could carry out an empirical analysis on this literature review. Moreover, another suggestion for future research would be to investigate this research can be applied to other industries in the fast moving consumer goods sector such as cosmetics and soft drinks.
Reflection
Writing this thesis and doing research opened a whole new world for me. As I experienced many struggles and saw many blockades initially, I overcame these and was able to do a complete qualitative research in the end. Although it was not always fun, in the end I enjoy looking at the result. Digging deep into one specific topic and trying to analyze it thoroughly made me look at theory and articles more critical. Throughout the process I learned how to find most important aspects of many different theories and create a new discussion from it in order to provide the reader with takeaways. I can conclude that it was a great learning experience for me.