Case Study of Wumart in Beijing (Research Proposal Sample)

The effect of technology innovation on firm performance in Chinese retail industry: Case study of Wumart in Beijing
1.0 Research proposal
1.1 Introduction
With the rapid development of technology, the way that retailers provide services to their customers has greatly changed. Self-service technologies are referred to as those technologies which help customers to produce a service without involving employees in the store. Across the world, self-service innovative technologies are being tried by grocery stores (Fernandes and Pedroso, 2017). For instance, in China, statistics show that the value of technological innovation investment deals in the retail industry between 2012 to May 2019 were $0.23 billion worth AI investment deals in the Chinese retail industry (Statista, 2020). Similarly. According to AP News (2019) the spending on technologies in the retail industry in China rose by 73.9% in 2018 to $240 million. Further, the reasons for its adoption is due to real time pricing and other incentives, proper logistics and delivery, predictive merchandising and inventory management, ability to detect fraud and manage risks including chatbots as well as image recognition advantages.
Consequently, Andriulo, Elia, and Gnoni (2015) posit that the adoption of innovative technologies allows the retail service providers to double their internal productivity in addition to increasing their customer loyalty. Nonetheless, Cebeci, Ertug, and Turkcan (2020) asserts that service industries have become very competitive due to technology and innovativeness in the present world. Further, the use of innovative technologies such as Artificial intelligence (AI) in retail stores has been accepted due to the advantages that the technologies bring mostly to retailers and customers alike. One advantage is the reduction in time spent in shopping, convenience as well as users having higher control.
For retail businesses the use of new innovative technologies is not the only requirement for profitability but is also a key ingredient needed for survival and sustainable development in a competitive environment which then determines the performance of the retail outlet such as Walmart. Therefore, retailers need to adopt new technologies and innovative service methods. With the rapid popularity of self-service technologies, retailers are becoming more and more technical in services such as reducing costs, enhancing value, and improving customer satisfaction. However, little is known about the effect of technology innovation on firm performance in Chinese retail industry more so the Walmart retail in Beijing. This research will therefore focus on the innovative technologies to explore their impact on retail firm’s performance in Chinese retail industry
1.2 Research objectives and research questions
This research study will be guided by the following objectives:
1. To identify which innovative technologies have been applied to Chinese retail industry.
2. To analyse how the technology innovation impacts the firm’s performance in Chinese retail industry.
3. To explore the barriers in technology adoption process and recommend Chinese retail firms to promote technology innovation and firm performance.
1.3 Significance of the study
From a theory perspective, this research is going to contribute to the existing literature on understanding the effects impact of technology innovation in Chinese retail industry with respect to the technology such as self-check-out innovations in Chinese supermarkets. Academically, the information obtained by this study will be used to guide future research on the same topic as well as contribute to academic knowledge. According to Lee and Lyu (2016) consumer traits and personal values are the barriers to innovative technologies adoption in retail outlets.
From a practical perspective, this study will provide information which could be useful to the retail industry policy makers and business people as a guide in future investments. Further, the information could be useful to innovation and technology inventors to guide their product market introduction planning in the future.
2.0 Literature review
2.1 To identify which innovative technologies have been applied to Chinese retail industry
Due to advances in technological innovations, the retail industry is at the forefront of embracing retail-oriented technologies which has the potential of changing the way customers do their shopping (Balaji and Roy 2017). The usage of AIs self-service technologies is very important in the offering of self-service technology (SST). The technology’s advantage is the way it is used by supermarket customers to make payments thereby completing a transaction after finishing their shopping with minimum or no interaction with service employees (Wang, 2017). Further, the use of omnichannel retail due to rise in app-delivered grocery services for example on Alibaba’s Hema grocery and 7fresh which operate as brick-and-mortar grocery retail outlets are examples of technological innovations. Similarly, the use of AI technology has been widely adopted in the Chinese retail industry with huge investments in the use of the technology by retail outlets (Melchers, 2020).
2.2 To analyse how the technology innovation impact the firm’s performance in Chinese retail industry
Technology advancement has resulted in the emergence of smart technologies in retail stores. These advancements in technological innovation pose significant managerial impacts in the Chinese retail industry (Roy, Balaji and Nguyen, 2020). According to Fernandes and Pedroso (2017) posit that the use of technologies in supermarkets positively impact customers’ perceptions while using it. Therefore, the use of the technology is advantageous to the retail industry it offers users the excitement of using new technologies. Further, consumers view the service being provided by innovative technologies as being part of the complete customer experience with a retail store.
According to Yao et al. (2018) posit that technological innovations in emerging economies such as China promote the development of an industry therefore accelerating the process of industrial evolution.
2.3 To explore the barriers in technology adoption process and recommend Chinese retail firms to promote technology innovation and firm performance.
According to Zhang et al. (2017) the barriers of technology innovation adoption in an industry include the support of top managers, the accessibility as well as the competency levels of the information technology personnel, and regional economic and social environment are the drivers of technology innovation in the Chinese retail industry. What this means is that innovation technologies in the Chinese industry have to be introduced and promoted by the top managers, IT personnel of the retail outlets such as supermarkets for the technologies to be adopted. Further, China’s economic and social environment plays a big role in influencing technology innovation in the Chinese retail industry. This therefore impacts the way retail outlets such as Walmart conduct their business operations.
3.0 Methodology
3.1 Research philosophy
This study will employ an interpretivism philosophical research approach because the customers hold different opinions regarding the effect of technology innovation in the Chinese retail industry more so the use of AI technology (Saunders et al. 2011). This is because the study focuses on the analysis of the effect of technology innovation in Chinese retail industry with a bias on the AI technology usage. Therefore, this research assumes that there is a different effect of technology innovation in the Chinese retail industry with a focus on the AI technology usage which could be positive or negative. In this regard, the interpretivism philosophical approach is more relevant in this study.
3.2 Qualitative approach
A qualitative approach will be applied in this study because its use is pegged on words rather than numbers and it is also not produced through quantification means as compared to a quantitative approach. It takes a holistic form which seeks to discover by involving actual experiences. It aims to provide an in-depth comprehension of social phenomena by the exploration and interpretation of the collected data. The qualitative data is usually in form of narratives or descriptive accounts and in text formats (Ragab and Arisha, 2017).
3.2.1 Primary and Secondary data
This study will employ both the use of secondary and primary data. The secondary data will be collected from past studies on the driving factors of technology innovation in Chinese retail industry such as AIs systems in supermarket retail stores. The advantage of using secondary data over primary data is because secondary data is readily available, cheap and convenient (Flick, 2018).
The data collection process will involve the searching of information from different documented secondary data sources such as emerald, EBSCO, authentic newspapers and magazines, industry reports, peer-reviewed journals, Google scholar and other relevant websites with information relevant to this study. The collected data will be instrumental to achieving the objectives of this study. The key words which will be used include use of technology in the retail industry in China, factors driving technology in Chinese retail industry, effect of technology in the Chinese retail industry.
On the other hand, regarding the use of primary data, the researcher plans to interview 5 managers from Wumart Beijing. The researcher will firstly contact the HR manager of...