MGT726 Managerial Project

1.Write an introduction, describing the topic, any background to the topic, including the particular area of interest, and a statement of the research problem and a research question related to the research problem. 
2. Write two to three research objectives for a study that you would seek to conduct. Discuss how your objectives will add to the current knowledge on the topic and how this might benefit an organisation or society. (150-200 words)
3. Write a short critical literature review of the combined articles used for the individual annotated bibliography assignment above. 
4. Describe the overall approach you would take for this research proposal and justify your choice. In this section you should describe the population and sampling, method of data collection, how you would apply the methods, justify your selected methods, any ethical implications and how you intend to analyse the data.
5. Include a correctly constructed reference list of all sources used in this project following APA referencing style, going beyond of the references you have already used in annotated bibliography).

The research proposal is about upgrading of mobile phones every one or two years by users. The tendency of upgrading the mobile phones is basically attributable to two reasons that is need to catch up with modern generation or due to expiry of the contracts with the service providers. Organization competes with the different models and brands that enables the consumers to upgrade their phones (Babin & Zikmund, 2015). The key objectives of the study is to examine the reasons that is mainly responsible for upgrading of mobile phones by users. Mobile phones are used by users for staying informed, conducting transaction and navigating various events of life and they seek various information from their phones. Upgrading the phones becomes essential for staying updated with the latest technology. The study intends to research using the primary source to get more reliable and valuable data. A survey has been conducted regarding the types of cellphones used by people and the factors that is responsible for influencing them to change their phones or upgrade them. Sometime the users upgrade their smartphones because of getting themselves acquainted with new and latest technology (Coghlan & Brannick, 2014).

Background of topic:

Cell phones is the fashion accessory and it is responsible for transforming the lives of people and the way they do their business. Uses of smartphone are rapidly increasing and most of users are of view that upgrading of phones are completed when they become obsolete and stops working. Mobile carriers attempts to entice customers to upgrade their smartphones so that they are able to catch better and new models. Some of the minor and major carrier’s agreements the smartphones service with no contracts and offers pay as you go plans. Consumers are often provided with the opportunity of purchasing enhanced cell phone such as upgraded cell phones. Upgrading of technological capabilities is essential in the current competitive edge (Bell, 2014). In the technology industry, upgrade cycle plays a bigger role and upgrading of mobile phones are done by adding several new features. In the current time, the arrival of 4G phones have replaced 2G or 3G phones. It has been found that in some countries, users are talking long time to upgrade their cell phones. Smartphones evolution is makes people to understand why people wants to upgrade their cell phones. In addition to this, some cultural factors are responsible for people to upgrade their phones. Study also analyzes the difference between cultural background and thoughts of upgrading their cell phones. Security is another reason why the up gradation of cell phone becomes essential and upgrading

Research problem:

Updating and managing of technology has become very essential in the current modern age. Upgrading to latest technology is important for avoiding the development of problems. This particular research has been conducted to analyze the issues faced by organization if they do not influence the users to upgrade their technology. Upgrading to the advanced technology helps in removing the technological issues faced by organization.

Research questions:

Research questions consists of multiple-choice questions and they are listed below:

What are the factors that is considered by users for upgrading their phones?

What attributes of cell phones attracts users for upgrading their phones?

What is the time duration of upgrading mobile phones by users?

Does the carriers are responsible for influencing the users having upgraded cell phones?

Research objectives:

The objective of research is to examine the factors that is responsible for upgrading the cell phones by users. Such examination is done by considering the various factors on part of both organizations, carriers and users of cell phones. Analysis has been done by briefly explaining about the evolution of smart phones that would assist people in upgrading their phones. The experience of users of smartphones is measured in terms of level of mobile phone users. Second and third generation of mobile phone users are not directly influenced for upgrading their phones compared to consumers of new generation.

Study also intends to investigate about true and fair view on why people are willing to upgrade their phones. The loyalty of consumers toward their operators have been investigated, which makes them remain with the same phones for over years rather than upgrading. The findings are based upon research that has been conducted in Australia on counts of contextual factors and socio-cultural diversity. Survey has been undertaken periodically for gauging the exact perception of customers that keeps changing with time. However, in the course of study, there are certain topics have not been covered due to time constraints  

Benefits to organization and society:

Upgrading of the phones and software by people helps the society and organization in multiple ways. There has been dramatic change in united communication landscape and upgrading of phones provides with ongoing business benefits. It helps the organization in building the ability to provide access to new world of value added applications, building productivity, reducing complexity of information technology and enabling business innovation. The communication portfolio of organization is continuously enhanced by using the most current software versions. It helps in providing open system that will lead to deep integrations and helps in delivering effective and enhanced collaborations (Vaishnavi & Kuechler, 2015).

Upgrading of cell phones provides the society with better way to communicate with people and provide them with the opportunity to learn new things and ease in applications. It leads to social responsibility and personality developments, enables business development, career, and learning growth (Yin, 2013). However, sometimes upgrading of smartphones has integration of positive and negative impact.

Critical Literature review:

Internet access allows the users to stay connected with the presentations, documentaries and emails. The upgraded technology provides the users with latest and advanced system that comes with enabled features. The third generation mobile channels allows the individual to download the digital content anywhere and anytime. Purchasing of new cell phones is dependent largely on brand rather than fancy features of products. About half of users on internet plans to upgrade their cell phones because they are inclined to the particular brand.  Using cell phones has become essential part of lives of youth and teens and upgrading of phones attracts the users in their own way (Creswell, 2013).

 Consumers justify the purchase of their cell phones in their own way even though the device that is currently fully functioning. Most of the customers are on the plan of two-year device and contracts and war is indicated between the practical and making fiscal sense. Sometimes, the fiscal responsibility of customers are another factor that is compelling for upgrading their smartphones. Mobile technology allows the users to tie with the company and the mobile devices changes the way company does business. This can be used by business to improve the technology and productivity. Organization has various plans that induce the customers to upgrade their cell phones (Silverman, 2016). Nonetheless, it might happen that additional features in new model of phones worth upgrade as consumers have to spend bear the expenses.

Population, Sampling frame and Techniques:

The respondents of survey in the sample mainly comprised of youth and teenagers in the age groups of 15-30 years. Respondents were chosen based on random convenience sampling basis who were interviewed. The population of survey comprised users of different brands such as HTC, Apple, Google, Samsung and others. There were 40 respondents in total and out of these, 10 interviewees were dropped from the analysis. This is so because of the incomplete data entry on the respondent end. Hence, the analysis is presented for remaining interviews of 30 respondents and this comprise of the size of sample. Importance of recognizing the target groups in terms of demographic aspects is self-evident.

For the purpose of analysis, there most important variables have been considered. This involves gender, age and socio-economic level. In addition to collecting the primary data, researcher has collated secondary data from articles that have been published in magazines, dailies and reports of industry through World Wide Web and visiting libraries. The research uses a multiple regression analysis in order to achieve the objective. In every units of population, a simple random sampling method was utilized. With the application of simple random sampling, the sample from the population has equal chances of being selected.

Methods of Data collection:

The research is conducted based on primary research and it demonstrated use of quantitative protocol. The protocol involved collection of data through a detailed questionnaires administered across central, eastern Australia. There is a requisite sample allocation for garnering current comparative opinions factors affecting and influencing the users in upgrading the cell phones. Techniques incorporated in the collection of data was the responses of individual on one to one interviews. For arriving at the opinion on reasons behind the upgrading of smartphones by users every one to two years is attaining the responses of individual through processing, compiling and analyzing.

Structured questionnaires is the instrument of data collection that produce information on psychographic and demographic aspects of respondents. Psychographic variables involve loyalty behavior, social issues and usage of cellular phones. Demographic aspects involve education, age, gender, occupation and income (Hair, 2015). Questionnaires has mixture of close ended and open-ended questions. An added qualitative feel was provided by the open-ended questions that provided a rationale for behavioral pattern. This has helped in generating insights.

Ethical implication of research:

While conducting the research on examining the factors behind the up gradation of cell phones very one to two years, research has also stressed the importance of ethical considerations. Researcher must ensure compliance with existing laws must ensure it. It is required by researcher to take safety and privacy into account while collecting the data of respondents. While conducting the survey, reaching people on cell phones should be done by responding appropriately to ensure safety and privacy of respondents. Interviewers should be trained about how politely explaining the inadvertent problem of reaching respondents in different time zones. It is required to conduct the ethics of maintaining internal identification number to request the wishes of owner.  There are issues involved while conducting the survey research and the implication of ethical consideration is likely to affect the survey project (Mertens, 2014).

Method of data analysis:

The primary and secondary data collected are analyzed using the statistical tools. Interpretation of the answers of various research questions are done by correlation of types of answer based on the availability of informational data. Graphical representations for the different types of responses has been used and the observational differences in the data is studies in more detail by the method of correlational coefficient. The findings and interpretation of collected data has been done by exploratory data analysis that involves looking at the data files. Data collected is of interpretative nature. Analysis of data is done by aligning the questions of research with the provided research topic. Final part of analysis has link with the discussed literature review where various reasons are indicated for users to upgrade their cell phones.

Conclusion:

From the above analysis of research conducted, it has been investigated that upgrading of cell phones by users depends on individual as well as the carriers and different brands of phones. There are several variables associated with the users’ behavior in upgrading their phones. This might relate to different aspects and it has been ascertained that more than fifty percent of respondents in the sample would not upgrade their cell phones only for some extra and advanced features. However, the loyalty of users toward the brand is becoming increasing relevant. This particular factor has resulted in increasing the time duration of up gradation. It has also been demonstrated from the research that culture of individual users affects their behavior in upgrading their phones.

Reference:

Babin, B. J., & Zikmund, W. G. (2015). Exploring marketing research. Cengage Learning.

Baskerville, R. L., & Wood-Harper, A. T. (2016). A critical perspective on action research as a method for information systems research. In Enacting Research Methods in Information Systems: Volume 2 (pp. 169-190). Springer International Publishing.

Bell, J. (2014). Doing Your Research Project: A guide for first-time researchers. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).

Blumberg, B. F., Cooper, D. R., & Schindler, P. S. (2014). Business research methods. McGraw-hill education.

Bryman, A., & Bell, E. (2015). Business research methods. Oxford University Press, USA.

Coghlan, D., & Brannick, T. (2014). Doing action research in your own organization. Sage.

Collis, J., & Hussey, R. (2013). Business research: A practical guide for undergraduate and postgraduate students. Palgrave macmillan.

Creswell, J. W. (2013). Research design: Qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods approaches. Sage publications.

Eriksson, P., & Kovalainen, A. (2015). Qualitative Methods in Business Research: A Practical Guide to Social Research. Sage.

Evertson, C. M., & Weinstein, C. S. (Eds.). (2013). Handbook of classroom management: Research, practice, and contemporary issues. Routledge.

Flick, U. (2014). An introduction to qualitative research. Sage.

Hair, J. F. (2015). Essentials of business research methods. ME Sharpe.

Liamputtong, P. (2013). Qualitative research methods.

Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (2014). Designing qualitative research. Sage publications.

Mertens, D. M. (2014). Research and evaluation in education and psychology: Integrating diversity with quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods. Sage publications.

Rowlinson, M., Hassard, J., & Decker, S. (2014). Research strategies for organizational history: A dialogue between historical theory and organization theory. Academy of Management Review, 39(3), 250-274.

Silverman, D. (Ed.). (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.

Vaishnavi, V. K., & Kuechler, W. (2015). Design science research methods and patterns: innovating information and communication technology. Crc Press.

Yin, R. K. (2013). Case study research: Design and methods. Sage publications.

Zikmund, W. G., Babin, B. J., Carr, J. C., & Griffin, M. (2013). Business research methods. Cengage Learning.