Based on the analysis of the last six months’ sales, your boss notices that sales of beef products are declining in your chain’s restaurants. As beef entrée sales decline, so do profits. Fearing beef sales have declined due to several newspaper stories reporting E.coli contamination discovered at area grocery stores, he suggests a survey of area restaurants to see if the situation is pervasive (page 94, number 5).a. What do you think of this research suggestion? b. How, if at all, could you improve on your boss’s formulation of the research question?
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A. I think the research on all factors and variables must be conducted within the restaurant to determine the cause.
B. To improve my boss formulation, a survey of the area restaurants may support the idea of reduced sales. Both internal and external causes should be explored in order to answer this question.
A. There are a variety of reasons why the selling of beef products could be declining. Recent research has indicated that economic instability and declining food prices could be a cause of slow traffic in restaurants (Kell, 2016). Sales of beef could be reduced due to fear or healthier choices made by consumers. There may be disturbances in the supply of beef, where the head chef of the restaurant may run out of or out of stock. This may lead to other consequences inside the restaurant, such as a waitress not offering a beef starter and recommending others to customers. I think the Research on all factors and variables must be conducted within the restaurant to determine the cause. Monthly sales inventory may be a starting point to see what entries have increased and what has declined, and then to use these statistics as a benchmark to compare with other restaurants.
B. To improve my boss formulation, A survey of the area restaurants may support the idea of reduced sales, but would not provide a reason for a drop in sales or help the manager to correct the situation. It would cause the manager to leap to an unwarranted conclusion that results in lost research dollars. The main issue facing management is that the sales of beef are down. The question that management should ask, and needs an answer, is what should be done to increase the sales of beef? Both internal and external causes should be explored in order to answer this question. Other questions that are in the same line of thought that might be answered in exploratory research to address this issue are: what can management do to reverse the trend of declining beef intakes? Will the beef entries be sold? If yes, in different parts? Should the entry of beef be marketed as a special feature?