Business Plan Assignment: Improving Promotion of National Multicultural Festival
Question
Task: In this business plan assignment, you are suppose to present a business research proposal for helping the government of Australia to promote diverse cultural celebration of festivals and resolve management problems in the conduct of the National Multicultural Festival.
Answer
Introduction
Overview
The main purpose of this business plan assignment is to form a business analysis report for helping the government of Australia to promote diverse cultural celebration of festivals and resolve management problems in the conduct of the National Multicultural Festival. The report will contain a proposal for the analysis with discussion about the research design, justification of the methodology to be used for the research and justification of data collection and sample selection.
Key issues
- Diversity of festivals - The government of Australia must implement other policy regulations and opportunities for the tourists to know about the cultural history and heritage of diverse communities in Australia.
- Cultural stigma- Celebration of religious cultures of aboriginals and other ethnic communities in the National Multicultural Festival must be promoted by the local government of Canberra for a widespread range of tourist audience to the festival.
- Acknowledgement of cultural diversity- the state and local governments must realize the importance of the celebration of cultural heritage of ethnic and aboriginals’ community.
Problem definition
Management problems in organizing multicultural national festival
The organization of conducting celebrations of different ethnic backgrounds can be exhausting for the execution authorities (Hutchinson, 2020) since attention to the important details about the range of activities require careful consideration. Community celebrations have more themes and assets for providing the exposure to the different cultural values, and as result racism towards the goodwill of the community can be a problem (Lee et al, 2012). Preservation of the cultural values of the minority groups can be a problem while managing celebrations to promote cultural expression.
Research statement
The aim of the business research proposal is to help the local and regional governments of Canberra in Australia for better promotion and expression of cultural values of different ethnic communities in the National Multicultural festival. Demonstration of inappropriate racist behaviour towards any particular communities must be ensured while conducting such national festivals.
Research Objectives
1. To investigate customer satisfaction of the experience in the celebration of special events and festivals.
2. To assess the perceptions of the diverse communities about their store competitors in the National Multicultural Festival.
3. To determine the awareness about the market conditions regarding ethnic and cultural diverse groups prevailing for celebration of special events in the festival.
Research Paradigm and research Design
Research paradigm
Interpretivism
Nature: Interpretivism involves interpreting elements of the study developed through subjective perspective. It is concerned with the factors and variables associated with the context and separates physical phenomenon from human beings and create meaning through assumptions that are not explored like physical phenomenon.
Characteristics
Interpretivism does not gain knowledge by observing the object and human interpretations are essential to understand the problems.
This paradigm is used with social inquiry to enhance the understanding of the meaning of the social world. Second-order observation is used and the condition is observed along with the observation that latkes place. It discovers the state and tracks which observation is different among people (Mishra &Alok, 2017). Through interpretivism, the researcher assesses the reality or social construct like language, consciousness, and shared meanings. It is based on the critique of positivism. Interpretivism helps the researchers to consider different factors like behavioural aspects based on the experience of the participants to describe the reality based on assumptions and beliefs. It helps the researchers to treat the context of the research as unique based on the given circumstances.
Advantages
• Interpretivism philosophy uses qualitative data in conducting research.
• This philosophy is subjective in nature which uses multiple realities and can be socially constructed.
• The goals of research provide an understanding and the focus of interest lies in specific, unique and deviant nature.
• This philosophy is useful in involving human participants, and the researcher can build rapport with them. It is useful for associating primary data with high levels of validity.
Disadvantages
• Interpretivism philosophy relates to the subjective nature of the approach which creates the possibility of bias from researchers.
• The data generated from primary sources cannot be generalised because the data is impacted by personal views and beliefs.
• The data cannot be representative in some cases.
• This philosophy has low reliability and the imposition of the researcher makes it less reliable.
Positivism
Nature: Positivism philosophy adheres to factual knowledge gained from observation and measurement. The role of the researcher is limited to collecting data and interpreting it in an objective manner. The research study findings are based on observations and can be quantifiable. Positivism philosophy depends on quantifiable observation and content analysis. This philosophy is in accordance with the empiricist view where knowledge derives from human experience.
Characteristics
Positivism philosophy does not have any provision for human interests and uses a deductive approach. This philosophy uses facts and the research is purely objective. The world is considered external and objective. It is based on the principle that there is no difference between inquiry logic and the research focuses to explain and predict the outcomes (Nayak& Singh, 2021). It uses scientific basics to test the theory and common sense is prohibited from formulating bias in research findings. It uses logic and science which is value-free. Positivism methods use large samples and use generalisation along with scientific methods to operationalise hypotheses to reach conclusions.
Advantages
• Positivism philosophy is useful for using quantitative data in research.
• It is reliable and helps to show patterns and trends.
• It is representative and can be generalised. It used objective and single reality and can be expressed tangibly.
• Positivism uses objective data and uses scientific logic or theories to validate the approach.
Disadvantages
• Using statistical tests can be misused leading to misinterpretation when positivism is used due to the selection of incorrect statistics. The results will be dependent on the sample size, hence the significance of the correct test of statistics will generate accurate or inaccurate results.
• Using generalisation in the research can will prevent the research to access the intention of individuals or their actions which may not get fully explored. It requires depth to answer the main questions of research based on the perspective of research respondents.
• Positivism philosophy is more dependent on research findings of descriptive nature. It can be challenging in research to gain insights or in-depth understanding which is part of the research (Alharahsheh& Pius,2020).
• This philosophy is dependent on experience as a valid source of knowledge. It assumes that every process can be perceived as a certain variation of actions either on an individual level or relationships between individuals.
Research methodology
Research methodology is used to complete the research study. The research has identified appropriate research philosophy to conduct the research. Positivism research philosophy is chosen using a deductive approach to support qualitative research. Using positivism philosophy can hold the accountability for the factual data used in the study (Bairagi&Munot, 2019). The research is conducted in to form of a business analysis report to help the Australian government to promote festivals and special cultural events to include culture and diversity. The research methodology will help to conduct research using a specific procedure or set of techniques to identify, select, process or conduct data analysis to critically evaluate the research study.
Mixed methodology
To conduct mixed method research, it is vital for researchers to understand the dimensions of mixed method research and factor in the issue of validity. A mixed-method in research is a type of research where the researcher combines the approaches from qualitative and quantitative research viewpoints by using qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis to broaden the purpose of research and get significant understanding and corroboration (Bazeley, 2017). . Mixed methods systematically integrate qualitative and quantitative data within a single investigation to get complete and utilise the data synergically.
Both qualitative and quantitative data is collected in the research to conduct data analysis.
The quantitative data is represented by numerical facts and figures and statistical measures. Quantitative data is unique and measured through numerical association. The numerical data constitutes quantitative data which is collected in the form of a questionnaire. The survey will be conducted using questionnaires designed for research participants. The quantitative method will help the researcher to procure numerical data collected from the questionnaires from the diverse and ethnic groups of Australia. The primary data will be conducted in the form of quantitative data acquired from the questionnaires. The data collected from the quantitative data will be analysed using excel sheets and presented graphically using statistical software like Power BI or Ms Excel.
The qualitative research includes non-numerical data to understand the individual perception and meaning to the social reality. Qualitative research involves a focus on an interpretive, naturalistic approach to the subject matter (Pathak, Jena &Kalra, 2013). It is useful to understand the individual, groups of individuals or culture and the experiences of the participants in a natural setting that seeks to examine the how and why aspects of the phenomenon. The behaviour of the individuals in a particular context generates hypotheses and theories from the data. The research will integrate qualitative and quantitative methods to derive the research outcomes exploring the problems in research (Pham, 2018). The secondary data will be collected from research articles, journals, peer reviews, the government released information and other secondary sources. The articles will be analysed through content analysis to get themes and link with the primary data to understand the context of the research.
Hence, a mixed method will be used in this research to get insights into the research studied.
Justification of using mixed methodology
A mixed-method is used in the research because it will be useful to understand the relationship and contradiction between the quantitative and qualitative results. Mixed methods will provide the perspective of research participants that can be ensured to study the findings of the research through the experience of the research participants (Bazeley, 2017). Furthermore, it fosters scholarly interactions and helps to explore multidisciplinary research to integrate quantitative and qualitative results to provide an in-depth understanding of the research conducted. Mixed methods are flexible and can be adapted to elucidate more information (Schoonenboom& Johnson, 2017). Furthermore, mixed methods will help to collect rich and comprehensive data by combining quantitative and qualitative data to provide more complete findings in this research.
Qualitative research
Qualitative research focuses to understand the query of research as a humanistic or idealistic approach. Qualitative research involves the collection of data and analysing non-numerical data to understand the concepts, experiences and opinions of people. Qualitative research helps to gather in-depth insights into a problem or to generate new ideas for research. In this research, using qualitative research will help the researcher to analyse the current problems faced by the Australian government while conducting National Multicultural Festival. And analysing the management problems. Using qualitative research will help the researcher to explore and understand the experience of people and get rich sources when data is interpreted (Silverman, 2020). The qualitative research will use an ethnographic approach to understand the culture and groups of individuals from ethnic and cultural groups in Australia.
Data Collection Method
Data collection is a vital part of research and serves as the basis for formulating the research outcome. Data collection helps the researcher to collect meaningful data that will be processed to analyse the data to get useful information. Raw data in itself will not be helpful to the researchers to get viable answers hence, collecting the right data is integral to explore the research problems presented to find the answers to the underlying questions. Through the data collection process, relevant data will be collected and the researcher can evaluate the data maintaining the richness in information and reliability of data. The primary data will be collected through a quantitative survey which will have questions related to the current problems of the research. There will be 15 questions focusing on ethnic and cultural groups, demographics, and will be divided into interval, nominal and ordinal scales. A five-point Likert scale will be sued to gather responses from the participants. There will be two questions related to ordinal data type and the remaining questions will be based on interval type. There will be six questions based on demographics and 3 objective questions. The remaining questions will focus on cultural and ethnic groups, multicultural events and knowledge of cross-cultural groups.
The secondary data will be collected in the qualitative form from different databases like Google scholar, Australian databases and government sites. These data sources collected will have an exclusion criterion, where the articles will be collected only from the Australian region and the recent 10 years. Only English language articles will be selected. A total of 5 articles will be selected for doing content analysis. The search criteria will use keywords like multicultural events, ethnic groups of Australia and cultural events, national multicultural festival, Torres Island groups and cultural events, tourism and multicultural events, ethnic groups of Australi and multicultural celebration among chosen keywords.
Sampling
Sampling is an integral part of the data collection process and based on correct sampling size, the results of the research will be reflected. The choice of correct sampling will help to obtain a proper population and bring significant results to the research. Sampling is a statistical measure that will help the researcher to manipulate data and conduct data analysis to represent the subset of the population studies (Sharma, 2017)). The research outcome is dependent on a small amount of data to produce effective results to acquire feasible data. The research participants are secluded based on the research aims and objectives that correspond to the research questions. There are different types of sampling strategies, however, based on the research requirements, the sampling methodology and sample size are chosen that best represents the research objectives.
Sampling Methodology
The sampling methodology used in the research is stratified random sampling. The stratified random sampling involves the division of the population into strata. Strats is a smaller subgroup within the population. The strata are organised according to the similarity in characteristics and qualities expressed by a group or target population. Using stratification, the larger population is subdivided and classifies into smaller subgroups that allow the researcher to obtain a sample population when studying the entire population and gets reduced to subgroups that represent the characteristics of the larger groups (Etikan&Bala, 2017). The subgroups or strata have more concentration of homogeneous elements that determines the appropriate and efficient elements while planning the strata. The random samples are taken from the strata which decrease the chance of bias and it adequately represents the subgroups of the population.
Sample size
The sample size taken in the research is 100. 100 people will participate in the quantities survey to collect the primary source of data in the research. The sample size is represented as N=100, where the responses collected from the research participants will be classified into subgroups or strata having similar characteristics. The samples will use random stratified sampling to convert them into strata which will draw inferences based on collective similarities and behaviours, perspectives and opinions shared by the research participants. There are no gender or age group restrictions set, the ideal target will be 18-65 years old, where both genders will participate in the research. The use of random stratified sampling will give greater precision and chances of error are small.
Target groups
The target groups of the research chosen are the ethnic and native groups of Australia, the aboriginals of Torres Island people. This target group matches with the research study undertaken to conduct an analysis report to help the Australian government to promote the diverse cultural celebration of festivals. It will explore the management problems in the context of the National Multicultural Festival. The people of Torres Island people will participate to share their experiences, beliefs and experiences of the ethnic and diverse cultural groups of celebration of festivals held in Australia.
Justification of data collection methods
The data collection methods can be justified through the use of primary and secondary data. The use of quantitative data collection will help the researcher to get numerical data that will be analysed and presented in the form of charts and graphs. The quantitative data is collected using questionnaires through surveys. This gives the participants the degree of freedom to record their answers based on the options that feel suitable without any interference from the researchers. The secondary data collected will help to present a theme that can be directly aligned with the research objectives and present a relationship with the numerical data collected from the questionnaires.
Justification of target population, sampling methodology and method and Sample Size
The target population chosen is the native people of Australia, the people from aboriginal groups of Torres Island. The cultural and diversity festivals are targeted at these ethnic groups and taking their perspective and beliefs will help the government to arrange better festivals in the future.
Random stratified sampling is chosen as a sampling methodology because it will allow the researcher to obtain a sample population that will best represent the entire population, here the population is aboriginals of Torres Island. It will group the homogenous groups into strata and samples will be randomly selected and the error will be small with greater precision when using this sampling method (Sharma, 2017)). The sample size is taken 100 and is suitable because qualitative data using positivism philosophy is chosen. This philosophy allows to chose a large sampling size which will allow diversity in sampling and the chances of bias will be minimised. Since the target population is large, 100 is a perfect choice which represents less than 10% of the actual sample size.
Questionnaire
Question 1 : Age
o 18-24
o 24-31
o 31-38
o 38-45
o More than 45
Question 2: Gender
o Male
o Female
o Others
Question 3: Religion
o Christanity
o Protestants
o Native Torres Islander Religion
Question 4: Ethnic Background
o Malyasian descendant
o Aboriginals Australian
o Torres Strait Islanders
o Indegenious group
Question 5: Cultural status
o Below poverty line
o Lower class
o Middle class
o Upper middle class
Question 6: Would you like to attend the National Multicultural festival if it is held once again?
o Yes
o No
o Maybe
Question 7: The festival event took consideration of all the cultural values and expression of ethnicity
o Strongly disagree
o Disagree
o Neutral
o Agree
o Strongly disagree
Question 8: I enjoyed the performances and the choice of styles by different ethnic groups in the event.
o Strongly disagree
o Disagree
o Neutral
o Agree
o Strongly disagree
Question 9: Do you know about any other National Multicultural festivals other than us?
o Yes
o No
o Maybe
Question 10: The other events are much more recognized to be highly diversified in terms of celebration of multicultural events than this event.
o Strongly disagree
o Disagree
o Neutral
o Agree
o Strongly disagree
Question 11: The adoption of different cultural activities and values are better in this event at lower prices
o Strongly disagree
o Disagree
o Neutral
o Agree
o Strongly disagree
Question 12: I have much greater knowledge in terms of cross-cultural groups dynamics and diversification of different ethnic backgrounds of origin.
o Strongly disagree
o Disagree
o Neutral
o Agree
o Strongly disagree
Question 13: I have supported mutliculturalism by attending many events of minority groups in other events.
o Strongly disagree
o Disagree
o Neutral
o Agree
o Strongly disagree
Question 14: There is huge bias towards the minority group events in the budget considersation of the multicultural festival event.
o Strongly disagree
o Disagree
o Neutral
o Agree
o Strongly disagree
Measurement instrument
Measurement instrument tools are used in research for collection and evaluation of responses from subjects. Measurement tools are mainly in the form of interviews, scales, surveys and informal observations which are used to obtain data from participants for research work.
The quantitative data will be measured by means of survey
questionnaires. The survey questions are indicated to find out the objectives of the research regarding the market awareness and perception of competition by minority communities in the National Multicultural festival. The variables which will be considered for the research work are promotion and awareness of cultural diversities within multicultural festival events. The reliability and validity of the survey questionnaires will be measured by conducting cronbach alpha reliability test and construct validity test.
Project summary
Purpose
The purpose of the research proposal is to promote awareness about festivals of diverse ethnic communities and help the governments to conduct the event of national multicultural festivals to attract more tourists and provide exposure within a stipulated time frame.
Methods
The mixed methodology is implemented where qualitative data will be taken from secondary data in the form of article journals and research reports while for quantitative data will be taken in the form of survey questionnaires as primary data . Data is collected from a sample size of 100 participants from aboriginals of Torres island groups and stratified random sampling will be used for sample selection. The responses from participants will be assessed in the form of statistical analysis for quantitative data and content analysis for qualitative data.
Expected outcomes
The use of questionnaires can show trends and patterns in the response of participants and the information from the data can be used for resolving the possible management problems that can result from holding a multicultural festival celebration. Greater awareness about the cultural heritage of minority communities can be created among tourists and other residents of Australia.
References
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Bairagi, V., &Munot, M. V. (Eds.). (2019). Research methodology: A practical and scientific approach. CRC Press.
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Etikan, I., &Bala, K. (2017).Sampling and sampling methods.Biometrics & Biostatistics International Journal, 5(6), 00149.
Hutchinson, J. (2020). State festivals, foundation myths and cultural politics in immigrant nations.In Celebrating the Nation (pp. 3-25).Routledge.
Lee, I. S., Arcodia, C., & Lee, T. J. (2012). Key characteristics of multicultural festivals: A critical review of the literature. Event Management, 16(1), 93-101.
Mishra, S. B., &Alok, S. (2017). Handbook of research methodology.Educreation,.
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Schoonenboom, J., & Johnson, R. B. (2017).How to construct a mixed methods research design.KZfSSKölnerZeitschriftfürSoziologie und Sozialpsychologie, 69(2), 107-131.
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