Entrepreneur - Free Essay Example

Sample details Pages: 17 Words: 5074 Downloads: 7 Date added: 2017/09/26 Category Business Essay Type Analytical essay Did you like this example? Table of Contents 1. Introduction ImageCafe2 2. Clarence Wooten’s Strengths and Weaknesses2 3. Product versus Service-Oriented Focus2 4. Feasibility Analysis2 5. Capital Funding3 6. Conclusion3 7. Introduction – Roxanne Quimby4 8. Idea versus Opportunity4 9. Burt’s Bees Success Story4 10. Relocation to North Carolina: The best solution? 5 11. Conclusion5 12. Introduction – Globant6 13. Globant Challenge6 14. Strengths Weaknesses6 15. Industry Analysis6 16. Competitors Analysis7 17. Target Market7 18. Globant Industry Segments7 19. Conclusion7 20. Introduction – Indulgence Spa Products8 21. Family Business versus Family Enterprising8 22. Indulgence Issues8 23. Parent Company Concerns8 24. Growth Strategies9 25. Introduction – Quick Lube Franchise Corporation (QLFC)10 26. Super Lube Franchising Model10 27. QLFC Success and Growth10 28. Critical Issues10 29. Was QLFC Suit Justified? 11 30. QLFC/Huston â€Å"Summit† Episode 21 1 31. Bibliography12 Introduction ImageCafe Clarence Wooten has been motivated to become an entrepreneur since young with a typical childhood dream to get rich. Following his strong academic and technical interests, he founded Envision Design, an award-winning 3-D animation company targeting architects. His second start-up, Metamorphosis Studios, a company that focus on special effects and multimedia presentations ended up in failure like the first venture as he morphed into his third, ImageCafe, a business that designed website templates that appeared to have been designed by high-end professionals. Clarence Wooten’s Strengths and Weaknesses With both of his parents being self-employed and a constant transitioning between homes, school systems and friends at a young age enabled him to become comfortable adapting to different situations in life. Clarence main strength was his high learning curve, accumulating extensive knowledge in computer graphics possessing creative design skills. Clarence was constantly on the lookout for opportunities and develops ideas, creating businesses to fill it as evidenced by the setting up of Envision Design and Metamorphosis Studios. However, Clarence failed to understand the difference between an opportunity and an idea, as to whether the idea fills a need and meets the criteria for an opportunity because an idea is a thought, an impression or a notion and may or may not meet the criteria of an opportunity (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 67). The end-result was two-failed entrepreneurial efforts prior to ImageCafe but the effect characterized his ability to persevere through setbacks and failures, giving him a vital learning experience for the third (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 36). Product versus Service-Oriented Focus By going to a product-oriented service, he understood the two most important elements in any businesses, which are products and customers. While it’s important to think about management, finance , marketing and the like, none f these functions make any difference if a firm does not have good products with the capability to satisfy a wide audience of potential customers (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 36). It is inevitable in service-oriented business model to encounter payment and commitment problems as in any other industries because service-orientation means supporting customers’ activities and processes, resulting in overlapping service production and consumption where the most important characteristic of services is their process nature and the interaction between provider and customer in the service process (Erwin, 2008). In reality, a business model can be a mix of product and service-orientation focus as these orientations are more different kinds of logic then different characteristics of the offering (Erwin, 2008). Therefore, a physical product can have a service-oriented business model, while a service can have a product-oriented business model (Erwin, 2008). Feasibility Analysis Wooten noticed a technology trend among computer users and corporate companies on their need for creating websites (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 69). He knew that that in order to obtain a website, one had to either hire a dedicated, full-time web design firm, which was expensive or a DIY method with relatively inexpensive software programs but hindering it’s use is a steep learning curve for its appropriate use. Wooten took advantage of the technological trend and found gap in the marketplace for web design targeting specific market segments, which is the small business firms who could not afford full service web design firms and yet could not afford to erode their corporate image with cheap and unprofessional websites done by DIY methods. It is just not realistic to introduce a completely original product idea into a completely new market, which is too expensive to be a pioneer in each area (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 112). Wooten knew that he did no t have the resources needed to participate in a broad market and by focusing on the small business segment, ImageCafe can avoid head to head competition with industry leaders and can focus on serving this specialized market very well meeting their demands with his innovative product (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 112). This was a win-win situation for both small business segment and Wooten. Using their extensive knowledge of high-end software, HTML, web programming and artistic ability for developing graphical user interfaces along with their previous experience in the same field, Wooten understand the markets in which the firm will participate (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 114). Capital Funding All new ventures alike, in order to build a high potential venture; he needs to raise enough capital because a company’s burn rate can cause several complications until it reaches profitability or growth capability even if it has good products and satisfied customers given the fact tha t he had a small team of two programmers working on the back-end whom Wooten has agreed to pay $30,000 in stock or cash once capital had been raised (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 341). Wooten did not want to deal with people who did not understand or care about their long-term business vision just like the way he approached WSGR, the law firm for their legal services and when he rejected Walker as an angel investor after his request for relocation of the new company and payments paid based on milestones. With WSGR, Wooten developed a strategy for engaging potential investors as they setup several meetings for him using their professional recommendations with venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. WSGR stand to earn $40,000 in legal fees should he manage to receive sufficient funding while enabling Wooten to secure the funding needed should things go well, fulfilling mutual interests. Wooten went one step further; making presentation and providing investor a completed business p lan as evidenced by his approach towards Bill Daniels (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 348). Wooten went for equity financing, wanting $300,000 in capital, based on a $3,000,000 valuation, giving up 10% of the company equity without being aught short on cash yet paying for capital it doesn’t need. Moreover, appearing uncertain about the amount of money required to support his venture make a poor impression to potential lender or investor (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 345). Conclusion Was $10,000,00 valuation the cause for ImageCafe’s inability to secure further funding to continue the fight resulting in the financial uncertainty even though the product was on track? Introduction – Roxanne Quimby Roxanne is a young, enthusiast entrepreneur living at a subsistence level in the backwoods of Maine, whose creative ideas and entrepreneurial spirit lead her to an opportunity and create a new business around bee’s wax products and derivatives, growing it into a multi-m illion dollar venture within a few years. With her company experiencing profitable growth, Roxanne faces a major issue of re-location to North Carolina and the offer of a significant strategic sale. Idea versus Opportunity Barringer Ireland (2010: 66) defined opportunity as a favorable set of circumstances that creates a need for a new product, service or business. An idea is a thought, an impression or a notion or form part of an opportunity (Russell, 2003; Barringer Ireland, 2010: 67). According to Russell (2003), an idea is of academic interest only when judge in isolation and is inert, until combined with the other factors to create an opportunity. Generating idea is the entrepreneur’s first step to realizing a favorable opportunity where an idea must interact with other components to create an opportunity, but many ideas need to be assessed till the right one is chosen to become part of an opportunity (Russell, 2003). According to Russell (2003), idea might be a great innovation or simply a more effective way of doing something. Insight or exploration may generate an idea or may be accidentally stumbled upon. Russell (2003) states that opportunity construction is the next step in the entrepreneurial process where idea is positioned in the real world. When idea is combined with marketing and economic factors to form the opportunity, the likelihood that a gap is determine between market needs where wants can be filled by creating businesses (Russell, 2003; Barringer Ireland, 2010: 66). A real need in the market must be either satisfied or created where the timing should be right, adding value for the buyer with both profit and growth potentials high for the entrepreneur (Russell, 2003). More often than not, opportunities are more important than the ideas themselves in the real world. Burt’s Bees Success Story Roxanne acquired an early entrepreneurial education through her father by working on his numerous entrepreneurial projects a nd selling her own hand-made crafts to raise money for her college education. Although generally not interested in business but because of her character, she developed a passion for the business and remained passionate about her business idea about Burt’s Bees (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 33 35). Roxanne stated, ‘ I liked buying and selling things well, adding value. She wanted control and self-accountability reflecting strong entrepreneur characteristics as she stated, ‘ I loved the freedom of starting a business, of not knowing how it would turn out. ’ Roxanne had a partner who shared her vision where there is no conflict between them about the business. Burt’s demonstrates an ability to adapt to the evolving needs of the business and the risks along with it, sharing the same perspectives as Roxanne as he supported her decision to relocate from Maine to North Carolina. ‘ Burt was my main sounding board and gives me a lot of moral and psy chological support. In all this time, there’s never been a conflict between us. ’ said Roxanne. As a first-mover in the market carry a significant amount of risks but Roxanne knew that the product is desirable and serves a need in the marketplace with the candle an initial hit. She has accidentally tapped on an un-served market in urban areas where people has an unconscious desire for more simplicity and their products speak to that need. Roxanne came up with a marketing strategy to expand the product line to include other handmade crafts and beeswax-based products like lip balm to serve the same market. Roxanne adopts a bootstrapping approach to finance the company through thriftiness and retained profits, as she is a non-believer of going into debt to keep a company going. Being a cash-aware person, Roxanne refused to sell products to any retailer who didn’t pay its bill within the required 30 days. During the growth stage of Burt’s Bee, the minim al amount of resources were used where household kitchen appliances were used for the manufacturing processes and messages for Burt’s Bees orders were taken at a local health food store. Roxanne willingness to sleep at the back of pickup truck for trade shows and the rental of an abandoned one-room schoolhouse with no utilities for $150 demonstrates the efficient use of resources. This approach proved to be a success as the company since the beginning of 1987 has never once dipped into the red, had always turned a profit and had always increased with large number of national retailers stocking Burt’s Bees’ products. Relocation to North Carolina: The best solution? Burt’s Bees remaining in North Caroline will allows the company to grow, realize its full potential and become ready for harvesting for a price that is acceptable to both Roxanne and Burt. Transportation costs and payroll taxes are significantly lower in North Carolina than in Maine but wh at was more compelling though was the large supply of skilled labor, which will enable Roxanne to hire a management team with relevant expertise would release her to consider broad management issues and support her in business decisions, rather than to involve herself in direct supervision of the product workers. From a cost and manufacturing perspective, operations in North Caroline will have to change from manual production-oriented methods to automated manufacture-oriented in order to control labor costs and to ensure future revenue is not limited as in Maine. Another critical factor was that a large percentage of the country’s population live within a twelve from the North Carolina plant, which will places Burt’s Bees products closer to the majority of its customer base. Additionally, Burt’s Bees could retained its original product line in Maine that make the company so successful since the governor of Maine had said to call him should Roxanne changed her mind about North Caroline. She could make use of this opportunity to negotiate a deal to mitigate Burt’s Bees’ tax, transport and employment costs. Since the whole product line in North Caroline is going to change and refocus on skin care products, it would be useful to make use of Burt’s Bees’ valuable branding in Maine to concrete and market their new products line in North Caroline to the existing urban customers, making it easier for them to penetrate existing and potential markets. Conclusion As suggested above, moving to North Caroline and retaining the production line at Maine would have great advantages, such as maximizing Burt’s Bees’ potential in terms of greater profit and yet fulfilling Roxanne sense of ethic responsibility towards the Maine’s employees. Introduction – Globant Globant is a four-year-old venture making business headlines in Argentina as the largest independent information technology (IT) outso urcer in the country. Both Martin Migoya and co-founder Guibert Englebienne are network entrepreneurs who fueled sales by tapping their personal networks, and by successfully following up on every lead and referral that had come their way. Their sustained push for wins, however, has resulted in such a broadly diversified portfolio of clients and service offerings that they risk being marginalized by larger, more focused competitors. Globant Challenge One of the early challenges for Globant was that there was a lack of knowledge about their country among many of their potential clients. In addition, historical fears of criminal activity and political instability have required Globant to do additional explaining to convince potential investors and clients. Another significant challenge was with Globant’s broadly diversified portfolio of clients and service offerings as tier one prospects were choosing IT service partners who could demonstrate a deep and wide understanding of their particular industries, which were not to their advantage. Strengths Weaknesses Globant place an emphasis on supporting and contributing to open source technologies for NET and Java applications and by utilizing agile development methodologies. The other lies in their recruitment strategy, hiring a wide variety of backgrounds and technological skill sets such as Java, NET, LAMP and Oracle, employees’ knowledge domains differed across platforms such as Linux, Unix and Windows as well as system administration experience and application design work through existing employees for referrals. Both of this emphasis gives Globant the ability to be in constant contact with their clients globally, staying relevant to their clients or industries changing needs and requirements, enabling them to provide any skill set a client might request as well as being able to attract talent with industry-specific expertise. Their weakness was language barriers, which was the level of English proficiency as they go into geographical and eventually international expansion. By providing free English lessons to help employees, it was apparent that they wanted staff that can make a valuable contribution and it’s not good enough to hire someone who is well intended but who doesn’t precisely fit the job (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 316 -17). All this created such a broadly diversified portfolio of clients and service offerings such that Globant is in danger of losing focus on the market to their competitors. Industry Analysis Outsourcing become a business trend as more firms want to save on cost and time, access to expertise that were not available internally and give back organizations the ability to refocus on core business functions (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 173). Firms simply wanted to offload areas of work that were not central to their business models, allowing them to maximize their efforts in areas where they could best differentiate themsel ves. There was thousands of IT outsourcing companies in the world where competition was fierce and growing. Differentiation is very difficult given the sheer size of the industry and because there were usually several similar companies for any particular specialty or segment. Globant was completing in global industries with experiencing significant international sales at different geographical locations and will have to note that global strategy depends on how similar customers’ preferences are from market to market (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 185). Competitors Analysis Globant faced a number of direct competitors who offer identical services and going after the same customer base, many with North American sales offices in Massachusetts. They also faced future competitors who have set up development centers in Uruguay, Brazil and Russia. It faces difficulty in winning over the loyal customers of its major competitors even if it does offer better services (Barringer Irel and, 2010: 186). Target Market By targeting specific industries as well as geographic regions, Globant can keep abreast of technological and business trends for its market, developing core competencies pertaining to its specific marketplace. For Globant with such diversified portfolio of clients and service offerings, it has to begins breaking itself down into more narrowly focused markets to regain its competitive edge. Globant Industry Segments Given Globant’s software development expertise with open source architecture as another of their strong technology differentiator, their industry segments should be based on companies that used technology as a competitive advantage. The high-tech segment would provide the most value as reference customers for Globant as California represented about 30% of the high-tech market and contained many of the big-name companies. Firstly, for most of the larger firms, the greatest outsourcing need was for customization expertise in pack aged and prepackaged software such as SAP and Oracle, which Globant could provide for. Secondly, the segment also had strong interest in using open source technologies that Globant is supported of, which is also their expertise. The travel industry has undergone a tremendous shift in recent years toward online commerce with off shoring having successful experiences with it. With the growing need for travel websites to cut costs, Globant can allow the segment to differentiate themselves through innovative technologies, breadth of functionality and international capabilities with their expertise. The financial services are a midsized market where competition is fierce driven by new offerings and innovations. Many of the new products are technology based and diverse. There were also new areas of interest for exploration where build decision was more pertinent in the midsized segment that Globant could provide for with their expertise. Conclusion Their strategy of ‘ Recruit the best local talent and deliver high-quality solutions while ensuring superb customer service’ can define the path a company takes and acts as its compass to redevelop their focus and tactical approach to their future business development in order to complete. Introduction – Indulgence Spa Products Robert and Ulissa Dawson family enterprise, Dawson Products, was one of the last remaining privately held black enterprises in the personal care products industry, making them role models in the African-American community. They had taught their daughters, Angela, 39, and Jimella, 32, to be self-sufficient at a young age. Bright, energetic, and independent, the talented young women have become key figures in the growth trajectory of this family enterprise but now Jimella wants to strike out on her own rather than stay and grow the core family business. Family Business versus Family Enterprising According to Bellet et al. (2010), family business has been defined as a b usiness that is owned and managed or controlled by one or more family. A more detailed definition define family firms as organizations where two or more extended family members influence the direction of the business through the exercise of kinship ties, management roles, or ownership rights (Bellet et al. , 2010). Bellet et al. (2010) stated in his article that the connection between entrepreneurship and family business is widely unrecognized but families are vital and supportive environments for entrepreneurial behavior. Entrepreneurship research has also revealed that family support and the presence of self-employed parents are important influences in venture initiation and business ownership (Bellet et al. , 2010). In fact, the family business is quite simply the wider-lens view of entrepreneurship as the initial business efforts of one or more family members grow and change over time. According to the definition above, this case in question was a family business because they termed Dawson Products as the parent company, which means that Indulgence was a subsidiary of Dawson Products. For her continuous contribution to the family business, Jimella received financial support of $250,000 from Dawson and allow her to use the Dawson business infrastructures to support Indulgence and manufacture most of her product lines. Indirectly, this also means the Dawsons could influence the fate of Indulgence through the exercise of kinship ties, management roles or ownership rights. Indulgence Issues Although Jimella did a competitors analysis for Indulgence, she did not realized that her targeted market was too broadly diversified by positioning itself as a company that creates products for all women. Even though she had created competitive marketing strategies, without a clearly defined target market, she has failed to develop core competencies pertaining to its specific marketplace. Despite the distributor’s success in building a base of white clients , most Indulgence recruits were African American, making it even harder to penetrate the market, struggling to meet her aggressive growth goals. Parent Company Concerns Dawsons Products succession strategy was disrupted by Jimella decision to set up Indulgence. They wanted Dawsons Products to remain a family business without the interference of outsider even if it is appointed from within the company, wanting to avoid being a victim of corporate buyouts by white-controlled multinational companies. Growth Strategies Jimella has to understand that not all business have the potential to be aggressive growth firms unless ones that can solve a significant problem or have a major impact on their customers’ productivity or lives. By setting an aggressive growth goals of attracting 100 beauty advisors and $100,000 in monthly sales and profitability was unrealistic outlook of how fast the business is expected to grow (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 451). Jimella should tapped on Daws ons Products branding and launch Indulgence as a product that adds value for existing customers, focusing on existing target market such as the African American (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 483). Conduct feasibility analysis and market research in focus groups and surveys, making incremental adjustments as and when appropriate (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 483). She could increase the market penetration of the product through increasing advertising expenditures, offering sales promotion, lowering the price or increasing the size of the workforce For example, Jimelle can engage white celebrity endorsers to demonstrate and promote her Indulgence products in the white-dominated, competitive market, which she find it extremely difficult to penetrate. Next, Jimella can expand the product line in making additional versions of the Indulgence products so that it will appeal to different clientele since she is pursing broadly diversified clients. For example, Indulgence may make another ver sion of a low-end product, which is a little better, and then make another version of it that represent the top of the line to appeal to the different color groups. This would allow Indulgence to take one product and extend it into several products without incurring significant additional development expense. Lastly, Jimella can purse an external growth strategy by forming a marketing alliance with Dawson Products to gain access to their distribution channels in order to increase sales of Indulgence products (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 496). In this way, Dawson Product can increase economies of scale and reduce per unit cost and benefits by adding products to its product line, increasing its attractiveness to those wanting to purchase a wide array of products from a single supplier (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 497). This is a win-win situation for both Indulgence and Dawsons Products because this allows the both of them to focus on their specific area of expertise and partner with e ach other to fill their expertise gaps. This approach is most appropriate for Indulgence who does not have he financial resources or time to develop all the competencies they need to bring the final products to the market quickly (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 497). Most importantly, Jimella can remain working in Dawson Products as part of the original succession strategy in growing the core family business and yet retaining control over decision-making at Indulgence. Introduction – Quick Lube Franchise Corporation (QLFC) QLFC is a franchisee of Super Lube, the number one franchisor in the quick lube and oil-change business. As one of the co-founders of Super Lube before, Frank Herget is now concerned about his relationship with Super Lube because Huston Oil, an industry leader, has acquired a 80% interest in Super Lube and subsequently has replaced its top management. Herget believes there is a basic conflict between QLFCs objectives as a franchisee and Hustons objectives as both QLFCs franchisor and the exclusive supplier of QLFCs oils and lubrication products. After an unsatisfactory meeting with Hustons executives, Hergets company sues Huston, which denies the charges and files a countersuit. Super Lube Franchising Model Super Lube has adopted a business format franchise system that offers a franchisee the rights to engage in a business system by using the franchisor’s trade name, trademark, service marks, know-how and method of doing business. In return, the franchisee has to pay Super Lube in the form of a percentage of top-line sales (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 514). Between Super Lube and its’ franchisees, in placed was a area franchise agreement that allowed service centre development and operating rights to a geographical area covering parts of California and Washington with the potential for over 90 service centers (Barringer Ireland, 2010: 515). QLFC Success and Growth With his vision to turn QLFC into a big chain of Su per Lube service centers and identifying a high growth opportunities beyond the location issues, Herget demonstrate effective leadership and management skills in the success of QLFC by recruiting former Super Lube employees in senior management positions allowing them to purchase stock in QLFC with cash realized by selling their stocks in Super Lube. By doing this, he has not only brought much needed business expertise to QLFC but also use the funds from them to inance QLFC’s growth with both equity and debt. In order to finance further high growth opportunities, Herget utilized real estate partnerships and struck a deal with Huston Oil for $6. 5 million of subordinated debt, which QLFC in return has to commit contractually to purchasing Huston products. Critical Issues Franchisees grew increasingly discontented with Super Lube mounting financial problems when the franchisor failed to perform its contractually obligated tasks. With the subsequent Huston deal, the new appoi nted CEO of Super Lube took a hard-line position on how the franchise system would operate where the focus of the franchisor would be on motor oil sales instead of service center-level profitability. This is a huge red flag for the franchisee as to the core business direction of the franchisor, which is different from its original business strategy. With business focus in confusion and the lack of clarity from Huston Oil rejecting historical relationship between Quick Lube Franchise Corporation and Super Lube, the franchisees invariably feel stress by the situation and lead to negative conflicts. Was QLFC Suit Justified? Yes, because the franchise relationship between Super Lube and QLFC has changed with Huston acquiring 80 percent of Super Lube shares. Huston has now become QLFC’s man franchiser and exclusive oil supplier. With Huston primary interest in selling oil, QLFC got limited growth for future expansion as a franchisee that is interested in their profitability, cr eating a significant potential conflict now if not in future. These conflicts have translated into legal issue such as breach of contract. However, there is a risk that Huston may stop the financing for QLFC’s real estate partnerships affecting their growth as a company and whether Herget can sustain his resources against a multibillion-dollar company. QLFC/Huston â€Å"Summit† Episode 2 Assuming that Herget decides to meet with Huston, he should try to negotiate on the rights to buy oil from other suppliers so that they are not totally dependent on Huston for business survival and yet meeting their interest of maintaining service center-level profitability. To enhance and protect future profitability, Herget should try to get an exclusive guarantee from Huston that oil price will never be more than the price that QLFC can get from other suppliers. QLFC is a growing business, but its growth has slowed in the last 3 years with its net income peaked at $764,794 in 1990, and fell to $532,640 in 1991, which was substantially below its budgeted net income. This indicates that the strife with Huston is taking its toll on both revenue and income. If the above fails to work out, Herget should consider selling QLFC to Huston to avoid becoming a failed business venture, which would be the ultimate ending since business visions differed and both parties failing to find common ground to compromise. However, prior to this meeting, Huston has to do some risk assessment in the event that the case really goes to court and the jury finds in favor of QLFC? This will enable QLFC to walk away from its franchise agreement with Super Lube with Huston standing to lose the 7 percent royalty, which is about $2. million. Huston Oil has an advantage in this case based on U. S. legal rules and regulations under franchise law because according to Barringer Ireland (2010: 533), franchisor has no fiduciary obligation to its franchisees, meaning that jury would always act in their best interest of the franchisees. Barringer Ireland (2010: 533) further state in the book through Robert Purvin, an experienced franchise attorney, While the conventional wisdom talks about the proactive relationship of the franchisor to its franchisees, virtually every court case decided in the U. S. has ruled that a franchisor has no fiduciary obligation to its franchisees. Instead, U. S. courts have agreed with franchisors that franchise agreements are ‘arms length’ business transactions. Bibliography Barringer, Bruce R. , Ireland, R. Duane (2010): Entrepreneurship, New Jersey: Prentice Hall Bellet, William, Dunn, Barbara, Heck, Ramona K. Z. Parady, Peter, Powell, John, Upton, Nancy Bowman (2010) Family Business as a Field of Study [WWW] Available from: https://www. fambiz. com/Orgs/Cornell/articles/real/ifbpa. cfm [Accessed 29/08/10] Erwin, Fielt (2008) A service-oriented business model (Article). Weblog [Online] 5th March. Available from: https:/ /fieltnotes. blogspot. com/2008/03/service-oriented-business-model. html [Accessed 27/08/10] Russell, Davison (2003) Small enterprises [WWW] Available from: https://www. allfreelancework. com/images/portfolioFile/35744. pdf [Accessed 28/08/10] Don’t waste time! Our writers will create an original "Entrepreneur" essay for you Create order

The Birthmark, Rappaccini’s Daughter and the Strange Case...

When you hear the word â€Å"mad scientist† you perceive an aggressive, eccentric, awkward and intellectual individual that works with fictional equipment in order to initiate their intelligible schemes. On the other hand, they fail to recognize the evil that will stream from the hubris of â€Å"playing god†. A majority of the time these â€Å"mad scientists† are individuals who value their experiments and scientific curiosity over themselves, others and the world. The literature works, The Birthmark, Rappaccini’s Daughter and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde all depict the role of a â€Å"mad scientist† who ultimately destroys themselves and others in an attempt to create something perfect. Nathaniel Hawthorne in The Birthmark† illustrates an†¦show more content†¦Thus, Dr. Rappaccini is symbolic of an early gardener who uses genetics to alter the appearance and fragrance of plants and flowers. It should be noted that Beatrice, much like Georgiana sans the birthmark, is an extraordinarily beautiful young woman, for she is â€Å"endowed with all gentle and feminine qualities† (Hawthorne, 1057) and is worthy to be worshipped. Without a doubt, this little tale related by Professor Baglioni serves as a foreshadowing device related to Beatrice herself, meaning that Dr. Rappaccini has â€Å"experimented† on Beatrice since birth with poisons which have mysteriously endowed her with â€Å"Nordic† beauty. In fact, Professor Baglioni points out that Beatrice is certainly the offspring of her father’s experiments — â€Å"That old fable of the Indian woman,† he exclaims, â€Å"has become a truth by the deep and deadly science of Rappaccini and in the person of the lovely Beatrice† (Hawthorne, 1059). Beatrice then admits the truth, for she tells Giovanni that her father is â€Å"a man fearfully acquainted with the secrets of Nature† and that she is â€Å"the effect of my father’s fatal love of science† (Hawthorne, 1062). In order to rid Beatrice of this curse and be â€Å"purified

Impact of Income on Purchase of Luxury Fashion Products Free Essays

string(64) " only buy luxury fashion products when they have a high income\." Executive Summary The current paper is a synopsis of the study on influence of Income on purchase of Luxury Fashion Products. The suggested study is a quantitative study of women and uses age based sampling; women aged 16-45 years. The traditional economics concept that higher income would lead to higher consumption of normal and quality goods and lesser of inferior goods are often challenged by marketers for luxury goods. We will write a custom essay sample on Impact of Income on Purchase of Luxury Fashion Products or any similar topic only for you Order Now Literature suggests that there are a number of other factors other than income that lead to purchase of luxury fashion products such as brand affiliation, prestige and social status, symbolic, functional, emotional attributes. Thus the research would explain the importance of income when young women in UK make purchase decisions related to luxury fashion products. The study is suggested to be quantitative in nature but in accordance with the logical positivism philosophy. It would follow a survey strategy and close ended questionnaire would be used in the research. The findings from the study are expected to have significant implications for companies in luxury products industry as well as specifically for marketers, marketing luxury fashion products to women in UK. 1 Introduction The current paper provides a synopsis for the study of impact of income on consumer decision making regarding luxury fashion products. The suggested study would use a case study of women in UK between ages of 16-45 years. The synopsis explains the research background, aims and objectives, scope and limitations, literature review and methodology for conducting the study. It further highlights the expected problems and limitations of the research. 1.1 Research Background: The suggested study is aimed at studying the impact of income on purchase decision regarding luxury fashion products. A further case study of women aged between 16 to 40 years from the United Kingdom has been taken. Like other industries, even within luxury goods, the marketers have to consider factors like competition, globalization, increased customer sophistication and maturity of markets etc to formulate its marketing strategy (Djelic and Ainama, 1999). The Economic crisis 2008 affected the sales in the luxury goods industry. However an upturn was observed in 2010. According to Passariello (2011) the luxury goods market in the Europe is worth ˆ168 billion and showed reasonable growth in the year 2010. The growth is not just specific to Europe, but market for luxury goods has increased greatly world over in the last few years. According to McKinsey Co‘s research, the highest growth is expected to be within China which is expected to grow by 20% till 2015 (Atsmon, Dixit and Wu, 2011). In luxury industry, globalization also offers huge opportunities like an emergence of new markets in countries like India, Russia and China (Silverstein, Fiske and Butman, 2003). The fastest growing market as suggested by analysts is that of China since the economy is growing very fast and the income of the people has significantly increased in the last few years (Agarwal and Wu, 2004). According to Roberts (2012) the luxury goods market incr eased by 4% in Europe in 2012, mainly attributable to high tourist spending but low local demand. Each year, more Chinese tourists visit Europe and are counted as biggest spenders on luxury products (Passariello, 2011). The marketers, in order to benefit from the emerging opportunities and promote sales of luxury fashion products, need to know the motivations of the targeted markets. The UK market is now recovering from recession and is an important market for sales of luxury fashion products. The economists suggest that as the income of consumers increases they move to quality goods from inferior goods. This is an objective explanation and the income is given as objective criteria however for luxury goods, marketers stress subjective reasons more. For example, Phau and Prendergast (2000) were of the view that how consumers perceive luxury is in subjective terms and it is their understanding of â€Å"luxury† which determines their related purchase behaviour. Marketers argue that income is not as important as a factor for purchasing luxury products. According to them Luxury goods consumption has always been a significant social practice while Berry (1994) explains that the value one attaches to luxury is a component crucial to the self-realization of a society. The marketers thus need to identify other factors that motivate the consumers to buy luxury fashions products besides income. The suggested research would study impact of income as well as important factors besides income that the marketers need to consider when developing their marketing campaigns for luxury fashion products. Dubois and Duquesne (1993) in their research found that culture is as important as income that determines the consumptions of luxury product s. 1.2 Research Aims and Objective: The research aim is to study the impact of income level on consumer decision making in the case of luxury fashion products. The aim would be achieved by the following objectives: To review literature and understand the factors impacting consumer decision making for luxury products. To study income as a factor and how it impacts purchase decisions regarding luxury fashion products. To understand the role of income for purchase decisions by young women. To develop a framework to explain the income effect on purchase of luxury fashion products by women. To study the significance of variables other than income that has an impact on luxury purchase behaviour. To make recommendations to the companies and marketers dealing in luxury fashion products for women. 1.3 Research Question The main research question that the research would answer is: Does income influence purchasing of Luxury Fashion ProductsThe study would test related hypothesis such as: H1: Income is an important factor for purchase of luxury fashion products. H2: The women in different age groups have different buyer orientations towards luxury products. H3: Income if an important factor for young women in UK for consumption of luxury fashion products. H4: Income is not the main factor but value creation for older women when buying luxury fashion products. H5: Women only buy luxury fashion products when they have a high income. You read "Impact of Income on Purchase of Luxury Fashion Products" in category "Essay examples" H6: Social motivations are more important variable for fashion conscious women in UK. H7: Luxury loving women do not consider income an important factor when purchasing luxury fashion products. 2 Preliminary Literature Review Whenever a consumer, practitioner or a researcher focuses on luxury goods, some specific characteristics of a number of luxury brands may come in mind such as Chanel suits, Cartier watches or Hermes handbags. These are all expensive, excellent quality, aesthetic heritage, design, reputation, desirability, exclusivity, inaccessibility, and personality reflection (Quelch, 2006). Quelch (2006, p.100) states that: Luxury brands are those whose ratio of functional utility to price is low while the ratio of intangible and situational utility to price is high. Besides satisfying the material needs of the consumers, the luxury goods also addresses social and symbolic needs (Wiedmann et al., 2007). Some researchers have further delineated luxury goods by comparing and contrasting their characteristics to the characteristics of mass consumption products. Riley, Lomax, and Blunden (2004) specified various features of luxury goods (e.g., Christian Dior fragrance) differing from everyday consumer goods (e.g., Dove soap). According to scholars, luxury goods are intended for niche market segments (Riley, Lomax, and Blunden, 2004). The marketers of luxury fashion products use exclusive placing, promotion, distribution and marketing segmentation techniques. On the other hand, for non-luxury products, they focus more on functionality and price. When buying luxury goods the consumers are influenced by quality, status and prestigious brands. Marketers emphasize association with heritage and craftsmanship when positioning luxury brands. Riley, Lomax, an d Blunden (2004) also explained that after-sales services and several other methods of value creation are very important in luxury goods. Hauck and Stanforth (2007) said that income effects, to some extent, the perception of luxury. For example, something might be a perceived necessity for one person while a perceived luxury for another. A popular way to identify luxury is based on five factors framework given by Phau and Prendergast (2000). These factors include brand identity, exclusiveness, high level of brand awareness; focus on customer loyalty and quality. In consumer behaviour literature the model given by Vickers and Renand (2003) explains that the purchase behaviour is determined by experiential, interactional symbolic and functional aspects for luxury goods since they are high in both social and personal identity. The non luxury products are only high in functional aspects. The model given by Seringhaus (2005) includes emotion related factors like personality and image, effective symbolic communication for brand identity and congruence with self-concept which positions luxury brands. According to Tse (1996), most of the research done on consumption strongly indicates the reflection of Western society and its impact on individualistic goals. In an individualist society, the behaviour and motivational factors of consumers when purchasing products may be fundamentally different from those in a collectivist society. Numerous scholars (e.g., Phau Prendergast, 2000) have testified that collectivist consumers have different attitudes and perceptions regarding luxury brands as compared to the consumers belonging to the individualist societies. Wiedmann, Hennigs, and Siebels (2007) however, argued that consumer behaviour for product categories like cars, fashion and luxuries is independent of their cultures and regions. According to this school of thought, the information search and exchange are universal in nature for such kind of products. Behaviour is an aspect of attitude derived from values and hence is associated to culture. Since attitudes are a projection of be liefs; consumers holding different beliefs about making purchases will therefore differ in their methods of searching information and making purchase decisions Personal attitude and values of a consumer has a bigger impact on their purchase behavior than their income. This means that people of same income group but different social and cultural backgrounds may have different approach towards buying luxury goods, depending upon their preferences and values. For instance the low income segment of consumers may possibly have a desire to buy only the best, as a result of which they may not buy bulk of luxury goods but quality goods. By and large, consumers can be divided into three categories on the basis of their income level: average, elite and lower class. It must be noted that though there would be a substantial difference between the purchasing power of the elite and lower class however both the classes have certain purchasing habits similar to their respective classified segment. But despite all this, it would be illogical to deny the impact of income on a consumer’s buying behavior, on both, prices and types of products. Early researchers argued that social class can be a better predictor of consumer purchase behavior than income (Keiser and Kuehl, 1972; Shimp and Yokum, 1981). Likewise, Coleman (1960 in Keiser, and Kuehl, 1972) found that while purchasing furniture, the prices of purchased goods and social class have a higher correlation than between the prices of purchased goods and income. To find the answer to the debate of income versus social class, numerous researches were conducted. The answers established the superiority of income over social class (e.g. Myers et al., 1971). According to Myers and his colleagues (1971) income had more predictive power over social class, when examining the purchase behavior of low priced goods, semi-durable and durable products, cosmetics, plus services such as travel, furniture, clothing and appliances. Sivadas (1997) also testified that income is a better predictor than social class when it comes to consumer behavior for leisure and recreational activities. Earlier consumers used to shop according to the value of dollar, which stayed limited to purchasing necessary products and services only. Modern shoppers, however, make purchases when rewarding themselves and utilize shopping as a method of â€Å"feeling good† and self-satisfaction. In contemporary society, consumers make purchases to make a statement, exhibit their personality and boost their self-image. Since the purchased goods are in accordance with the psyche of the consumers, the researcher decided to assess the pattern of consumer purchase behavior with regards to luxury products. Some researches take income as the prerequisite, for example they study elite consumers only when studying consumption of luxury fashion products. They then use psychosocial variables to differentiate between the consumers of luxury products (Xiao and Pras, 2011). Researchers further show that even though men buy more luxury products in few cultures but the decision is influenced greatly by women. Study by Kaefer, Heilman and Ramenofsky (2012) showed that attitude of wife towards luxury products is very important and women have an impact on spending their spouses. Truong (2010) considers the role of personal aspirations and suggested that both intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are important for consumption of luxury goods. 3 Methodology 3.1 Research Philosophy: The methodology design is a very important part of any research based study. For the purpose of this research, it is suggested that a logical positivism research philosophy should be adopted. The philosophy suggests that empirical analysis should be backed by a logical analysis (Potter, 1996). Such a research would not only suggest findings but would also justify the findings using logic and literature. Using this philosophy would add a qualitative aspect to the research and would help the reader better understand the findings and implications. 3.2 Research Approach: Research approach can be defined as the studying of a phenomenon in order to collect, transmit and produce knowledge under the examination of a researcher. Thomas (2003) noted that either of the two research approaches, i.e. qualitative or quantitative or both, can be used in a dissertation depending upon the nature and purpose of the study. Qualitative research is also referred to as inductive approach, through which one can understand the research context and the occurrence of different events. However, the drawback of this research approach is its extensive nature and that it is hard to be defined and measured. Different scholars have observed that this approach relies upon a phenomenological and post-empirical assessment of the world, which perceives that reality is constructed socially as depicted by the situational context (Bryman and Bell, 2007). The quantitative research method, otherwise termed as deductive research approach, can be largely regarded as the scientific data co llection method. The quantitative data can be effectively classified, measured and assessed due to its numerical outlook. It is framed on firm rules or formulas and follows very strict procedures for making determinations (Bryman and Bell, 2007). A quantitative approach is being used because the results can be easily generalised and presented in the form of an empirical analysis. The quantitative study would provide an objective measure for importance of income for purchase of luxury fashion products. Furthermore, significant variables other than income and the extent of dependence of consumption of luxury on them can be identified using the quantitative approach. In this research, a quantitative approach is suggested using a survey strategy. The quantitative approach would help study the significance of income as a variable in quantitative terms. A survey strategy is easy and economical, and can help collect quality data in short spaces of time (Saunders et al., 2007). The sample size for the survey is suggested to be 300 however the size can be reduced due to certain problems and limitations of research. Furthermore, as aforementioned, demographic sampling would be used. Women in UK from aged between 16-45 years would be randomly selected and contacted for the study and would be asked to fill questionnaires. This age group has been chosen because they have exposure to different levels of income as well as social motivations are different at different ages. Furthermore, women are generally thought to be the intra-house income decision makers and consumption allocators (Bourguignon et al., 1993; Ashraf, 2009). 4 Data Collection and Analysis For data collection purposes, a researcher is provided with two techniques: primary data collection and secondary data collection. The suggested research would be primary research and would make use of primary data primarily. As previously mentioned, a survey strategy would be employed and in accordance, questionnaires would be used as data collection tools. The development of a questionnaire is a lengthy process however it is alongside meeting the data collection needs of the research. Prior to development of the questionnaire a framework would be designed using literature review. Using the literature review, main variables would be indentified that have an impact on purchase and consumption of luxury fashion products. For the initial literature review it is suggested to include several variables such as perceived quality, brand loyalty and social status and as such they should be studied as independent variables. Income can be used as an independent variable or a moderating variable in the study. The choice would be clearer for the researcher after reviewing more literature on the subject. Lastly, the purchase behavior would be the dependent variable. For the purpose of analysis, SPSS would be used which would make the data collection, management and analysis easier. 4.1 Reliability, Validity, And Generalisability: For any research, issues regarding qualitative or quantitative data, reliability, validity and generalisability are important factors for determining the quality. For quantitative research, the reliability and validity can be tested in quantitative terms (Creswell, 2009). For example, in the suggested study a pilot test would be conducted and using croncbach’s alpha the validity and reliability would be determined. Furthermore, using triangulation and support from literature the findings would be supported according to the logical positivism approach. This research focuses on an in-depth analysis of the purchase behaviour of women in mainland or suburban areas of the UK, whilst keeping in focus the significance of different income groups of consumers within a market. Since this study is limited to the urban markets of luxury, it might therefore be inappropriate to generalize the results of the study to beyond the urban and suburban areas of UK. Similarly the gender and age based sampling decreases the generalisability of the study. 4.2 Research Limitations The most important limitations that the researcher would need to consider at every step of research are time and capital. Besides time and finance, the scope of the research would be limited to luxury goods and the UK market. The realm of luxury goods constitutes capital goods like personal jets, real estate, luxury automobiles, and yachts; consumer services in expensive retail stores, resorts and hotels; and wines and champagne, as well as exotic vacations, travelling; and financial services such as credit cards etc., targeted at elite class consumers. However this study will keep itself limited to the superior personal fashion goods such as apparel, perfume and accessories, such as watches, handbags, shoes and jewellery. The research conducted in the future could examine the other product categories for further exploration of the luxury goods market in UK. 5 Conclusion This study is aimed at understanding and assessing luxury goods consumer behaviour. Product development, communications management, branding strategies and numerous other business activities require understanding consumer behavior, especially towards luxury products. In order for the designers, retailers and producers of the luxury products brands to benefit from the market expansion trends, they need to have a thorough understanding of the consumer behaviour of their target market. Therefore a proactive investigation of the target consumers and their purchase behaviour is necessary to derive the implications for marketers of the industry. 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