Content Page          Page(s) 

1.0 Aims of the research 3

2.0 Background 3-4

3.0 Research questions 5

4.0 Research methodology 5-8

5.0 Ethical considerations 8

6.0 Intended outcomes 8

BIBLIOGRAPHY 9-10

1.0 Aims of the research 

These are the aims of this research and they are:

Critically evaluate the impact of the financial crisis in the G7 economies (especially the UK economy)

Examining the consumer behaviour and how it has affect consumer spending [I suggest you forget the other aims and develop more detailed objectives related to a sector and segment under this aim.]

Analysing how customer loyalty have declined with banks in relations to the financial crisis

Evaluating how the UK market has suffered from the global financial crisis

2.0 Background 

The global financial crisis that occurred in the period of 2007 and 2008 had an impact on the consumer behaviour in terms of consumer spending on the global market. Consumers became reluctant to spend money on the market because the collapse of the banks such as Lehman Brothers and Northern Rock; however, Northern Rock escaped bankruptcy with the help of the UK taxpayers. The UK market has been in turmoil with the rapid decline of income disposal for families and unemployment figures soaring, this has changed the attitude of consumer and make consumer spending decline on a rapid rate. However, the investigation of this topic will create a notion to how the recession started and how it has affected consumer spending, and also how it has impacted on the UK market with the failure of banks and other financial institutions. The validity of the research will be based on the global financial crisis but within the context of consumer behaviour and the UK market, as the financial crisis depends greatly on it.  #p#分頁標題#e#

Cahill (2007) denotes that the increase in globalisation and rivalry have shown in the characteristics of the current business environment. Perner (2008) describes consumer behaviour as a procedure whereby an individual or groups make a purchase of tangible or intangible goods or services to satisfy their needs and wants. Hansen et al (2004) explains how consumer behaviour can be identify as the process of which all activities relates to purchasing such as information gathering; information exchange; selecting; buying and consuming. “A consumer behaviour, built on positive experience and value, which leads to buying products, even when that may not appear to be the most rational decision” (Kincaid, 2003:10). There are two factors that determine the consumer behaviour, which are internal and external. The internal factors are based on the various consumer segments and the segments are the determinants for consumer behaviour changing which are the social changes, demographics, geographic and cultural impacts. The external factors are based on the determinants that influence consumer such as the promotion of the product/ or service, the customer service excellence, strong economic structure and the market stability. Dawson et al (2006) denotes that the consumer behaviour is determined by the mixture of external stimuli and the customers’ buying consciousness. However, Arnould et al (2002) points out the four types of consumer behaviour which are: programmed behaviour; limited decision-making buying behaviour; extensive decision-making buying behaviour and impulsive buying. These four consumer behaviour types are significant because it determines the consumers’ emotions and also identify the behavioural choices of the consumer. 

The western economy is facing a financial crisis with the collapse of major financial institutions and the closure of many businesses in the developed economy. The G7 countries were hit the hardest with the closure of Lehman Brothers and Royal Bank of Scotland in the brink of bankruptcy. Toussaint (2008) explains how the US mortgage market suffered in August of 2007 with most consumers struggling to paid their mortgage which result in bad credit history. However, countries in the European Union (EU) was also affected by the financial meltdown with Greece still struggling to reduce its national deficit and its unemployment figures still soaring which have caused disturbances in the country. The Economist (2008) explains how banks lacked liquidation which became hard for business and consumers to borrow money from the bank. Allen and Gale (2007) and Gramley (2008) point out the indicators of how the present financial crisis has affected consumer, which are: job uncertainty and unemployment, the declining in disposable income, reduced saving rates, and product and service prices increasing. 

The retailing market have struggled to hit sales target with consumers spending more on cheap products and refused to purchase premium products. The market that was affected the most was the UK retailing market because consumers have stop spending money on the high street and most consumers look for sales and discount prices which has increased the popularity of retailers such as Primark, Asda, Aldi and Lidl due to their high quality products and lower prices. Euromonitor International (2008) argued that UK consumers spend most of their time at home because they have less income to spend on going out. The online channel has been an alternative way for consumers to make a purchase because consumers can use price comparison websites; this enables the consumer to collect information about the product/ or service before making a decision. [You must correctly reference your work using the Harvard System. Much of this material should be enclosed in parentheses and indented as you have copied it.]#p#分頁標題#e#

3.0 Research questions

The research questions will be used to answer the present dissertation and these questions will help the researcher find the solution for this present research. 

How has consumer behaviour changed since the financial crisis?

Has the global financial crisis affected the UK economy?

How has the retail market and other markets in the UK been affected by the financial crisis?

How has lowering prices on products and services changed consumer behaviour?     

[All too general]

4.0 Research Methodology 

The main hypothesis for this research is: 

The financial crisis affects consumer spending and the negative impact on the UK economy[Too general. Needs focus]. 

The research methodology is significant because it helps the researcher identify how the present research is going to be carried and examined. The research methodology helps the researcher with different research techniques and methods to use, so that the research could be done accurately. Saunders et al (2007) describes the research methodology as an ‘onion’, whereby Saunders et al (2007) explains that the research methodology has layers with each layer representing different strategies, choices and philosophies. The research methodology can be defined as “how research should be undertaken, including the theoretical and philosophical assumptions upon which research is based and the implications of these for the method or methods adopted” (Saunders et al, 2007: 108)

The researcher has chosen realism as the research philosophy because it promotes people’s interactions which create knowledge and this is what the researcher wants if the researcher wants to find out what consumers think about the recent financial downturn. The chosen research approach is the deductive approach because it allows the researcher to create a hypothesis which can be tested and examined to find out a theory.  There are six different research strategies, which are: experiment, case study, survey, grounded theory, ethnography and action research (Saunders et al, 2007). The present research strategy will be based on grounded theory because the grounded theory will help the researcher work on step to step guide to find the accurate data and also the researcher can evaluated the theory to check the quality of the research (Strauss and Corbin, 1990; Glaser and Strauss, 1967; Birks and Mills, 2011; Oktay, 2012).  The time horizon for this present research will be based longitudinal because it allows the researcher to focus on the research and examined the research over a given time period. #p#分頁標題#e#

[Whilst you need to understand this theory it does not need to be repeated here. Your proposal needs to cover your thoughts on your research approaches.]

The data collection will consist of both primary and secondary research which makes the researcher find out the changes of consumer behaviour in the recent financial crisis. The use of case study approach is significant because it is described by Yin as “investigates a contemporary phenomenon within its real-life context, especially when the boundaries between phenomenon and context are not clearly evident” (Yin, 1994: 13). However, the present research will collect both quantitative and qualitative research to make sure that the data collected is understood and show validity throughout the data collection process. Moreover, the data collection will produce meaningful data which could be used to assess the influence of the current financial downturn in ways that has affect the confidence of consumers and the changes in the UK market with banks having more powerful to influence the instability of the UK market.[How will the primary data be collected?]  

The secondary research will focus on the current statistics on consumer spending in the UK market especially the retail market which has been affected the most. However, the secondary research will also look at the unemployment figures in the UK, the reduction in income disposal and the current status of the market whether or not the UK is getting out of the recession. The secondary research looks at the gross domestic product (GDP) of the UK to evaluate how the effects of the GDP could determine the future of the UK economy and also the secondary research will produce data on three UK banks that has been heavily affected by the current recession, and the three banks are Royal Bank of Scotland, Northern Rock and Lloyds Banking Group. Moreover, the data for these banks could be found on their corporate website from its annual reports from the period of 2007 to 2011. This current research will assess these banks’ performance since the recession and it will be based on these variables which are: the total operating income, net profits and lending figures for both businesses and consumers. 

The primary study will focus on the information that the researcher collects from consumers. The best way [Focus groups?, interviews? Why is a questionnaire the best approach?]of conducting primary research is to use a questionnaire; a questionnaire is the best survey strategy to collect data from respondents (Saunders et al, 2009; Bryman and Bell, 2008). The questionnaire for this research will be well-structured and contain information that will be relevant to the research questions because a well-structured will produce a high-quality data (Hague, 1993). However, Easterby-Smith et al (2002) points out the advantages and disadvantages of the questionnaire, the advantages are it is not costly to produce and it is not time consuming and the disadvantages are some respondents may not answer the questions correctly and the use of open-ended might produce large data that may be difficult to process and analysed. The Likert scale is going to be used in this present research because it will analyse the critical factors of consumer behaviour changing due to the financial downturn and the questionnaire will use a Likert scale to assess the problem. However, the Likert scale produces quantitative data which could be analysed using the SPSS. There are several methods that data can be analysed and they are: correlation, chi-square test, ANOVA and regression. [To do so correctly you need an in depth understanding of statistics.  SPSS will process the data even if if it is statistically incorrect to do so. The results will then be meaningless and if you present them you will fail. Do you know the assumptions underlying the Chi-squared test?]#p#分頁標題#e#

 

The use of frequency table will help the researcher put the data in percentage which will produce graphs for the questions in the questionnaire. The ANOVA test will represent whether consumer behaviour has affected the retail market and other markets in the UK economy. The chi-square test will show the differences in consumer behaviour in relations to demographic factors such as age, income and gender. 

5.0 Ethical considerations 

This present research will be mostly based on primary research and using an effective survey strategy to ensure that the research quality is improved but the researcher needs to ensure that ethical issues are considered to avoid any litigation by any of the respondents. The first ethical issue is confidentiality, which means consumers that give information by filling out the questionnaire should be protected and according to the Data Protection Act 1998, it states that personal data of individuals must be kept safe. However, the researcher will make sure that the questionnaire does not ask any personal questions and if so, respondents’ data should be deleted when the project is ended. The fact that the researcher will protect the respondents’ data will make the respondents feel comfortable to participate in the questionnaire. 

6.0 Intended Outcome 

The finding for this research will provide solid data to show how consumer behaviour has changed due to the collapse of the global market. The outcome of this research will highlight the negative factors of the UK economy and how regulators could strengthen the market by decreasing inflation rate so that consumers’ spending will increase. The finding of this research will show how the UK government could improve the stability of the market by allowing banks to lend more money to consumers in order to enhance the market structure. However, the outcome of this research will be positive because it will show data from secondary source to highlight the future of the UK market and how the UK would tackle the global financial crisis affecting consumer spending. 

Bibliography

Allen, F. and Gale, D. (2007) “Understanding Financial Crisis”; Oxford University Press: Oxford

Arnould, E., Price, L, and Zinkhan, G. (2002) “Consumers”; McGraw-Hill: New York

Birks, M. & Mills, J. (2011) “Grounded Theory: A Practical Guide”; SAGE Publications Ltd: London

Bryman, A. and Bell, E. (2008) “Business research methods”, 2nd eds. Oxford: Oxford University Press 

Cahill, D. (2007) “Customer loyalty in third party logistics relationships: findings from studies in Germany and the USA”, Springer: New York#p#分頁標題#e#

Dawson, J., Findlay, A. and Sparks, L. (2006) “The Retailing Reader”; Routledge: London

Easterby-Smith, M., Thorpe, R. and Lowe, A. (2002) “Management Research: An Introduction”. Sage: London

Euromonitor International (2008) “Consumer Lifestyle in the United Kingdom” [WWW] Available at: http://www.ttc-switch.com/dissertation_writing/Ecommerce/ [Accessed on: 16/03/2012]

Glaser, B.G & Strauss, A.L. (1967) “The Discovery of Grounded Theory: Strategies for Qualitative Research”, Aldine Publishing Company: Chicago

Gramley, L. (2008) “Consumer behaviour: the impact of the current crisis” [WWW] Available at: [Accessed on: 16/03/2012]

Hague, P. (1993) “Questionnaire design”; Kogan Page: London

Hansen, F., Percy, L. and Hansen, M. (2004) “Consumer choice behaviour – an emotional theory” [WWW] Available at:    [Accessed on: 19/03/2012]

Kincaid, J. (2003) “Customer relationship management: getting it right”! Prentice Hall Professional: London

Oktay, S.J. (2012) “Grounded Theory”; Oxford University Press: Oxford 

Perner, L. (2008) “Consumer Behaviour: The Psychology of Marketing” [WWW] Available at:  [Accessed on: 19/03/2012]

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2007) “Research Methods for Business Students”, 4th eds. Pearson Education Limited: Harlow

Saunders, M., Lewis, P. and Thornhill, A. (2009) “Research methods for business students”, 5th ed. Harlow: Prentice Hall 

Strauss, A.L and Corbin, M.J (1990) “Basics of Qualitative Research: grounded theory procedures and techniques”; SAGE Publication: London

The Economist (2008) “Bad times ahead” [WWW] Available at:  [Accessed on: 18/03/2012]

Toussaint, E. (2008) “The US Subprime Crisis Goes Global”  [WWW] Available at:  [Accessed on: 19/03/2012]

Yin, R.K. (1994) “Case study research: design and methods”, 2nd eds. Sage Publications Inc: California