Retail business Dissertation Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Retail business - Dissertation Example Secondary research involves using collecting information on a phenomenon under study from existing resources of databases. Secondary research is cheaper relative to primary research. In addition, it takes less time to collect and analyze data in secondary research compared to primary research. Secondary data analysis enables a research to analyze data from large samples. This kind of analyses would be difficult when conducting a primary research due to time and financial constraints (David & Sutton 2004, p.69; Hulley 2007, p. 207). Researchers sometimes utilize primary and secondary research methods in the same study. The information collected from secondary sources in some cases is sufficient to answer all the research questions in a study. This is particularly true for studies that many researchers have analyzed the research topic extensively and the researcher may not add any new insights into the field by conducting a primary research. In addition, sometimes secondary data is the only source of information on a research topic especially when a researcher is not able to conduct a primary research. Secondary data is useful in a research for providing a foundation or background information on the research problem. In this case, secondary data shapes the expectations of a researcher and provides the current level of knowledge on the topic under study (Wrenn, Stevens & Loudon 2006, p. 71; Webb 2002, p. 32). In the proposed study, the information from secondary sources will be sufficient to answer all the research questions. Extensive research has been conducted by independent researchers and those working under government agencies on UK’s retail sector. It is possible for the researcher to conduct a primary research on the UK’s retail sector. However, such a research would be tedious because the retail sector is large. For the researcher to obtain a sample that would be a true representation of the entire retail sector, different organizations in d ifferent industries would be involved in the study. A large sample would be required and this is costly in terms of time spent in collecting and analyzing data from a large sample as well as resource requirement. Researchers use secondary data as a source of exploratory information on their research topics. This exploratory information helps a research in designing research instruments for a primary research. For instance, a researcher may use the exploratory information as a guide to formulating questions in a questionnaire or for focus groups. The nature of existing secondary data on a research topic can help a researcher in making a decision on the most appropriate research design to use in his or her studies. For instance, secondary data may indicate past attempts by other researchers to conduct primary research on a topic and their success or failure. If past researchers have ruled out the possibility of conducting a primary research in a certain filed, secondary data will help a researcher to save time and resources by adopting a secondary research design (Wrenn, Stevens & Loudon 2006, p. 72). The existing literature on UK’s retail sector indicates the significance of the sector to the economy as well as its magnitude. The retail sector is large and consists of very many significant industries. Past researches and government publications indicate its trend over the years including its performance during the financial crisis. This

Competitive Markets & Free-Market Economies Essay

Competitive Markets & Free-Market Economies - Essay Example In the real world these four characteristics do not hold true. Products are not homogenous, there are some barriers to entry or exit, there is imperfect information available in the market and sometimes there are significant transaction costs. In 2010 the US dropped from the number one competitive market to the third most competitive market in the world. The number one position was occupied by Switzerland while Hong Kong came in and retained its number two spot (Pravda 2010). Although compared to other countries US is more competitive there are some industries where there is no competition. One example of such an industry is the space industry. There is just one company, NASA that is owned by government; operating in this market hence it has a monopolistic nature. It is very difficult for new firms to enter the industry given the large amount of capital needed to as initial investment. Hence it is a very non-competitive industry. Similarly there is also a non-competitive market that exists in the US defense and security industry with the FBI, CIA and police all owned by the government. There is no private competition in these industries as the government considers the matter of defense and security very serious and does not entrust these matters to private companies. On the other hand there are some very competitive industries that exist in the US. The banking industry for example is very competitive with many firms operating in the industry. A large amount of banks local and foreign, big and small are operating in America. Some examples of these banks include Bank of America, Citibank, Barclays and HSBC among others. Other examples of competitive industries include the clothing industry, automobile industry, beer industry, shoes industry and many more. The US has tried to maintain a highly competitive industry by promoting competition through its policies. The US encourages firms to enter different industries by eliminating or lowering trade barriers by passin g laws related to different industries, promoting trade through signing free trade agreements, lowering trade barriers and encouraging foreigners to invest in the country by providing them with more and more investment opportunities. In my opinion a country is competitive if there is a lot of competition among firms and they are free to choose their own industry to compete in. As the major characteristic of a competitive market is that there are many buyers and sellers in the industry hence due to their relatively small size in the market they are not able to influence market factors such as price. Hence if a market has many firms which have a small market share and are not able to influence market price, such markets can be considered as competitive. Similarly the other three characteristics of a competitive market must also be present in the market for such a market to be competitive. For a market to be labeled as a ‘