BUSN20016 : Marketing - Impact of Recession On Small Business - Assessment Answer

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Case Scenario/ Task

Recession is a general slowdown in economic activity i.e. it is a period of general economic decline usually called contraction in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for six months or longer (Definition, 2015). It leads to a drop in share market, an increase in unemployment, stagnant wages, a fall in retail sales and a decline in the housing market (Amadeo, 2015). If a recession lasts longer, it can be classified as economic depression. There were worldwide recessions during the years 2007 – 2009. Large business companies were a bit resilient during this time with government subsidy and grants but, smaller companies which contribute more to the overall employment growth were badly affected (Nanto, 2009).

Smaller businesses suffered huge net employment losses due to sharper cuts in the rate of gross job gains which in turn reflected on slower business creation and a lower rate of hiring among expanding small businesses. Between 2007 and 2012, small businesses experienced disproportionate job losses wherein their overall job losses was double their 30% share of total employment. Also, jobs at small businesses declined about 11% and the payrolls at businesses that had 50 or more employees declined further by 7%. (Laderman, 2013)

In such a scenario, it becomes imperative to analyse and understand what went wrong for these smaller firms/businesses and this study will fill that gap at a methodological level with empirical evidence of the losses/impacts suffered by the small firms during the period of recession.

2. AIM AND OBJECTIVES

This project aims to investigate the impacts of recession on small businesses. The following objectives will help achieve this aim:

• To explore the impacts of recession on small businesses;

• To formulate a framework to explore these impacts on a wider scale to provide strategic guidelines that will help build the resilience of small businesses during the periods of recession.

3. A BRIEF METHODOLOGY

The following methodologies will be undertaken in order to effectively analyse the aim of this project. They are:

• Literature Review: An in – depth study and analysis of relevant literature and information available from various sources which include Google scholar, Science Direct and journal articles by various authors. A thematic content analysis of these documents will be undertaken to examine the extent to which the repercussions have affected small businesses. (Sharples, 2011)

• Data Series and Surveys: Numerous information collected from series of data and surveys will be scrutinized to give an idea about gross job flows (job gains and losses) during the times of recession, decomposition of job creation and loss, balance-sheet and income statement items, business and economic conditions and changes in lending practices and the changes’ effect on the credit markets. (Ay?egül ?ahin, 2011)

• Observing Key Indicators of Recession: Examining critical information from the National Bureau of Economic Research that focusses on the study and communication of economic conditions in the U.S.A. They have defined certain key indicators that help measure recession well in advance so that businesses can develop defensive strategies to counter the effects of recession before it finally hits. (Research, 2015)

There will be two methods used for data analysis i.e. qualitative and quantitative. Qualitative analysis will make used of online forums and surveys with financial advisors whereas quantitative analysis will make use of figures, pie charts, excel sheets, mathematical and statistical modelling available online and via scholarly articles.

Telemarketing is a term that denotes use of telephone in various marketing activities. This may also include using telephone to sell products or services over telephone or it might denote the usage of telephone for interviewing customers for taking their feedback (Ali, 2013). Telemarketing is not a concept that has a recent origin but marketing firms are using this concept since a long time. It is an easy to use concept of marketing that can be used by anyone. There are many other tools of marketing but some of them are complicated to use and some of those are easy yet ineffective. This is how telemarketing has become an important marketing since long time (Sultan & Henrichs, 2009).

With increasing globalisation many other marketing tools have been discovered and the behaviour of consumers has also been changed. Due to changes in consumer behaviour many small, medium and large enterprises have to change the tools they were sing for marketing (Jones, 2008). It shall now be noticed that a number of large enterprises have discarded using telemarketing. It is also evident that some small and medium companies are using it but there is lack of evidence of success of this tool in current scenario.

This makes it imperative to study about the aspects of telemarketing and impact of telemarketing on small, medium and large enterprises. With this it also becomes important to study the utility of this tool in the current business scenario. This study tends to fill the gap at methodological level by studying various aspects of telemarketing on a number of firms. The research will gain insights from literature survey to prepare a background on telemarketing.

Aims and objectives

The aim of this project is to investigate the impact of telemarketing on small, medium and large enterprises and then comparing them. On the basis of this following objectives are framed by the researcher:

• To ascertain the utility of telemarketing for small, medium and large enterprises.
• To explore the impact of telemarketing on small, medium and large enterprises.
• To compare and contrast the impact of telemarketing on all the types of firms.

Literature Survey

Telemarketing has been the topic of many researches since long time. This section deals with analysing the literature on telemarketing and finding the gaps in the literature so as to address them in present research. For this the researcher will use national and international journal articles and researches.

A brief methodology

Research methodology is an essential part of a research as it denotes usage of various tools and techniques that will be used to come to the conclusion. To effectively analyse the project following methodologies will be undertaken:

• Research design: The research design of present study will be a blend of exploratory research design and descriptive research design (Kothari, 2015).
• Data Analysis: The data will be analysed using quantitative method of data analysis. The collected data will also be in the quantitative form and thus the use of quantitative tool will be optimum. As per the nature of the data the researcher may use Percentage, Pie-charts, graphs, etc. The researcher may also use SPSS and apply any of the tests such as T test, Z test, Regression, Correlation, Factor analysis, etc.(Mantos, 2012).
• Data Collection: The research will be based on both primary as well as secondary data. The primary data will be collected by the researcher using questionnaires. To collect the secondary data the researcher will use renowned journals, magazines, articles, library sources, newspapers, etc. (Jha, 2008).