Background of the Study

With the increasing competition within both the national and global market place has determined the managers for focusing on having a competitive edge for staying in the business. In the recent years, fulfilling the customer expectations and winning the trust of people has become more difficult. However, the managers soon realized that improving the services and products can be very much effective in accomplishing the customer needs (Monczka et al. 2015). An effectual increase in the organizational performances can be identified as one of the conventional methods for improving the competitiveness within the market; however outsourcing the business can also be effective within the process (Christopher 2016). The primary objective of outsourcing is making the organizational activities more adaptable and flexible in the changed business environment while the focus is entirely on the core functions or activities of the organization.

The supply chain management can be considered as the management of networking within the organization which contributes to provide the services and products on the basis of needs of consumers about the value, cost and time (Mangan and Lalwani 2016). The supply chain consists of all different kind of activities in order to meet the demands and requests of the clients. These core functions are related with the supply and transformation of the products from raw materials to the final products through different stages along with the flow of the funds and the other related information. The products and services of the organization can move through different organizations while travelling from the original raw materials to the clients. The management of the supply chain also implicate the development and management of all the associated actions which are included in the source of the products and purchasing them, logistics activities, collaboration and coordination between the partners as the intermediate channels, suppliers of the service and products, service providers for integrating an well-organized demand and supply management (Brindley 2017). Essential beauty is an organization that provides numbers of beauty products and services to the customers. Other than the beauty treatments, the organization also offers own skin-care beauty products for the customers. Outsourcing their business can be very much helpful for the organization as it will be easier for the organization to meet the need of the customers and reach them within a short span of time.

Essential Beauty is a franchise chain of beauty products and services in Australia that had originated in Adelaide, South Australia. The organization has been established in the years 1990 and through these years has expanded to seventy three salons all over Australia. There are numbers of services such as laser treatment, eye enhancement, piercing, and other beauty services and products such as tonic skin care which is an in-house brand of the organization. Outsourcing has been a major strategy of the organization for increasing the skills and expertise of the organization and aligning the services with the new requirements of the customers (Wisner, Tan and Leong 2014). They have several franchises all around the country so that they can reach their target customer base easily. Therefore this study will focus on finding the major impact of outsourcing the supply chain management of the organization.

Rationale of the Study

The research aim will be to investigate the impact of outsourcing the supply chain management on the business activities of the organization.

The research objectives are listed below:

• To investigate the effect of outsourcing the supply chain management on the business activities of any organization
• To investigate the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing on the business activities of any organization
• To analyze the significant components that can affect the outsourcing of supply chain management

The primary question of the research is:

• What are the impacts of outsourcing the supply chain management on the business activities of any organization?

The secondary questions of the research are:

• What are the advantages and disadvantages of outsourcing on the business activities of any organization?
• What are the significant components than can affect the outsourcing of supply chain management?

Outsourcing can be defined as a major part of the business function that can be done by some other person or entity. There are several procedures that can be outsourced to reduce the burden from the mother company. Therefore this procedure has gain popularity with the course of time even if there are some uncertainties associated with the organization. According to Coyle et al. (2016) the numbers of organizations are increasing who are utilizing outsourcing at different stages of their organizational functions, as the requirements of such entities can arise due to several reasons such as cost efficiency, time saving or the strategy of the organization, however it may vary from business to business. As stated by Wang et al. (2015) both the small or large businesses can opt for outsourcing the business activities. Several business sectors have already adopted the outsourcing technologies such as IT sector, retail sector or service sectors. The most lucrative advantage of using the outsourcing technology is that it is helpful for freeing the facilities, cash amount or time factors within the business. The Transaction Cost Economics theory states that the execution function is in both the management phase and the change phase. The most helpful aspect of the theory is that this theory can be used in selecting the outsourcing convention which may be considered as complicated (Wisner, Tan and Leong 2014). The Agency theory also states that an organization can hire any other organization or agency for performing a specific task for the mother company. The competency theory also supports the outsourcing and this theory is associated with the technology usages in the business. However there are many disadvantages such as the other agencies may not be as competent as the mother company for the business, therefore it may create issues later (Monczka et al. 2015). Also, on an international level, most of the times it is quite impossible for the organization to communicate with all the other organizations.

The research methodology chapter defines the structure of research in a systemic method. This chapter contains the detailed research method outline consisting of the research philosophy, sampling methods, data collection, research approach and the other practices.  

The research philosophy provides the knowledge and dimension of the research study. It also provides the primary knowledge, facts and concepts for the entire research in a well-organized manner. According to Creswell and Poth (2017) three types of research philosophies are interpretivism, realism and positivism philosophy. The positivism research philosophy helps the individual in analyzing the data by maintaining the major observation. Conversely, the interpretivism research philosophy helps the researcher for interpreting gathered information from different perspectives. The realism research philosophy helps analyzing the authenticity of the information after maintaining keen observation with evidence.

For this particular study, the positivism research philosophy will be chosen. The research philosophy is the intense and profound observation of the individual (Gale et al. 2013). Therefore, collecting genuine information generally depend on the observation procedure of the researcher. Furthermore, the researcher will choose the positivism research philosophy for this particular research study.

Aim of the Research

Deductive and Inductive research approach are the two research approaches for con. The inductive research approach mostly focuses on generating new theories on the basis of the gathered information (Mitzenmacher and Upfal 2017). On the other hand, the deductive research approach is mostly aimed for testing the previous models or theories for the research study.

For this research study, the research will choose the deductive research approach for conducting this specific research study. The study will follow the previous models and theories for the particular topic and investigate the gathered information on the basis of previous theories and models.

According to Uprichard (2013) there are three different kinds of research purpose, those are descriptive purpose of research, exploratory purpose of research and explanatory purpose of research. The research purpose is the structural approach for the entire research which provides a definite and proper research purpose for the entire research work. The exploratory research purpose is mainly focused on exploring this specific research issue for identifying the research problems from different perspectives. Conversely, the explanatory research purpose helps the researcher in finding out the negative and positive aspects of the issue of research. Along with these two research purposes, there is another research purpose, descriptive research purpose.

This study will be conducted on the basis of descriptive research purpose. For this research, the impacts of outsourcing the supply chain management on the business activities of Essential Beauty will be the main focus. The descriptive research approach has been found to be successful for the evaluation of the essential information from different perspectives. Along with that, this approach is also not much cost effective and does not consume more time.

This research will be conducted through surveying and interviewing the managers and employees of the selected organization. The necessary data will be collected from the interviews and survey forms.

The data collection is considered as the most important part of entire research, where the researcher collects different kinds of data based on the research issue. The data acts as the most significant and useful element for conducting the research.

As stated by Mitzenmacher and Upfal (2017), the data sources can be of two types, secondary and primary. The primary data is collected from the surveys, interviews and the other direct methods. The primary data can also be collected from the unpublished resources as well. Conversely the secondary data refers to the published data such as books, journals, websites, blogs etc. The researcher can collect such data from the reading books and other sources.

For this study, the researcher will collect both the kinds of data. The primary data will be collected from the interviews and survey of the managers and employees of the organization. The secondary data can be collected from the literatures on the topic.

The data analysis technique can be of two kinds, qualitative and quantitative. For this research study, the researcher will utilize the qualitative data analysis process. The qualitative data analysis process will be helpful for the researcher to ensure that the research purpose is served.

The validity is the qualitative data analysis technique indicates to the appropriateness of the data and the data collection method. However, the reliability refers to the exact explicability of the process and the outcomes of it.

The sampling techniques are of two kinds, non-probability and probability. This research will be done on probability sampling technique as the sample size for this research will be fixed. Therefore the researcher will take help of the probability sampling technique for selecting the employees and managers of Essential beauty for this particular study.

The researcher will choose 50 employees of Essential Beauty where there will be 10 managers. Therefore, there will be 10 managers and 40 employees of the organization.

For conducting this research, the researcher may face some of the limitations for budget and time. The researcher has to conduct the entire study within six months. However, if the researcher would get more time, the research can be more effective if there is at least extra two months for completing the entire study.

Main functions	February	March	April	May	June	July
Selection of topic
Secondary sources data collection
Framing the research layout
Literature review
Formation of the research Plan
Selection of the Appropriate Research Techniques
Primary data collection
Analysis & Interpretation of Data Collection
Conclusion of the Study
Formation of Rough Draft
Submission of Final Work

Conclusion 

This research will consist of descriptive research purpose, deductive approach and positivism research philosophy. Both the primary and secondary data will be collected and analyzed in qualitative technique.

Reference List 

Brindley, C. ed., 2017. Supply chain risk. Taylor & Francis.

Christopher, M., 2016. Logistics & supply chain management. Pearson UK.

Coyle, J.J., Langley, C.J., Novack, R.A. and Gibson, B., 2016. Supply chain management: a logistics perspective. Nelson Education.

Creswell, J.W. and Poth, C.N., 2017. Qualitative inquiry and research design: Choosing among five approaches. Sage publications.

Gale, N.K., Heath, G., Cameron, E., Rashid, S. and Redwood, S., 2013. Using the framework method for the analysis of qualitative data in multi-disciplinary health research. BMC medical research methodology, 13(1), p.117.

Mangan, J. and Lalwani, C., 2016. Global logistics and supply chain management. John Wiley & Sons.

Mitzenmacher, M. and Upfal, E., 2017. Probability and Computing: Randomization and Probabilistic Techniques in Algorithms and Data Analysis. Cambridge university press.

Monczka, R.M., Handfield, R.B., Giunipero, L.C. and Patterson, J.L., 2015. Purchasing and supply chain management. Cengage Learning.

Uprichard, E., 2013. Sampling: bridging probability and non-probability designs. International Journal of Social Research Methodology, 16(1), pp.1-11.

Wang, Y., Wallace, S.W., Shen, B. and Choi, T.M., 2015. Service supply chain management: A review of operational models. European Journal of Operational Research, 247(3), pp.685-698.

Weigold, A., Weigold, I.K. and Russell, E.J., 2013. Examination of the equivalence of self-report survey-based paper-and-pencil and internet data collection methods. Psychological methods, 18(1), p.53.

Wisner, J.D., Tan, K.C. and Leong, G.K., 2014. Principles of supply chain management: A balanced approach. Cengage Learning.