mr assignment on exploratory research

8/3/2019 MR Assignment on Exploratory Research

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Project Report

Of

Exploratory Market Research

On

Cargo Shipping Industry

Submitted to:

Prof. S Mohanty

Submitted By:

Souvik Sil (13)

Manan Zavrei (85)

Rakesh Kumar Soni (62)

ITM B-School, Kharghar Navi Mumbai.

(September 2, 2011)


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pg. 2

Report Comprises of

Sr. No. Content Pg. No.

1 Acknowledgement 3

2 Executive Summary 4

3 Introduction to Project 5

4 Research Design 7

5 Result for Project 9

6 Recommendations 10

7 Bibliography 11

9 Appendix 12


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pg. 3

Acknowledgement

Firstly, we thank the almighty God for blessing us with strength and wisdom to complete

this project.

We express our sincere thanks to Prof. S. Mohanty, faculty of ITM business School for his

valuable guidance during the research project.

We take this opportunity to extend our sincere thanks to Aashirvad Shipping for

offering a learning platform to earn exposure and garner knowledge in the field of

research. We thank our mentors at Aashirvad shipping Mr. Narendra Ramanie and

Mr. Sumit Valecha who guided, supported and encouraged u s during the entire tenure

of the project. We also thank Mr. Chintan Shah for his cooperation and valuable advice

throughoutthe project.

Finally we thank our parents for their support and blessings which have always been an

inspiration to us.

With Regards,

Rakesh Kumar Soni (KHR2010PGDM20F062)

Manan Zaveri (KHR2010PGDM20F085)

Shouvik Sil (KHR2010PGDM20F013)


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pg. 4

Executive Summary

This project report comprises of exploratory research work done on Gujarat shipping

industry. In recent times Gujarat has emerged as a center of attraction for most export

companies as it is one of the fastest growing states in India. This has led to new companies

venturing in the field of shipping services with advanced technological support. This was

initially not seen as a major threat to the shipping companies as their clients were more

inclined to the already existing and dominant players in the industry. But now-a-days there

has been observed some attrition among few companies. So in order to find out the effect of

this shift in the industry on Aashirvad shipping company, we have conducted a survey

which compares the requirements of the clients with the services offered by the company.

This report is a collection of findings of the research. The report mentions the introduction

to the research problem, research methodology and research design, the results and the

recommendations that can be concluded from the research findings.

The report focuses mainly on the client satisfaction index. This is a good measure to

determine if the clients are satisfied with the services provided by the company. If the

clients are not satisfied with the service provided by the company there will be a high

attrition rate of clients and the company will need to adjust its services to the requirements

of the clients, on the other hand if there is more satisfaction then the attrition will be low

and the company need not immediately spend on the advanced technology to retain its

customers.


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pg. 5

Introduction

Study contains exploratory research to carry out the client satisfaction study in shipping

industry with a clear objective as:

To identify the factors affecting quality of cargo shipping industry in order to satisfy

the clients and explore the level of clients satisfaction level for Aashirvad shipping.

The relevance of study is that now-a-days Gujrat shipping industry is facing a huge client

attrition rate due to many reasons, two prime reasons are as:

Many shipping companies are not updating themselves with todays fast movingworld, i.e. they are using same culture since their inception.

Many global as well as domestic players, who are working with latest technicalinclusion, have entered into the industry after seeing the scope of the industry.

So in above mentioned condition all the shipping organizations of Gujrat shipping industry

are more or less facing an adverse condition, to find out a solution for this market research

was one of the best tools to use. The study was conducted to find out the level of

satisfaction of clients for this industry assuming Aashirvad shipping as a true

representative of the industry because it is accountable for about 35% of all the cargo

handling being done here. It was also an ease for the project to be accomplish as we have

access to the client database of Aashirvad shipping.

The scope of study was to cover all the aspects of cargo shipping services being provided

by various providers in Gujrat shipping industry, to accomplish the above said objective as

to explore the factor for client satisfaction & level of satisfaction for the clients of Aashirvad


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pg. 6

shipping. So in order to find out the stabilizing standards for Gujrat shipping industry we

studied all the clients of Aashirvad shipping.

After conducting the study we can say that there is no such issue that would affect the

marketing decision but one thing we came across is that for senior organizations all the

threatening factors become immaterial if they are flexible enough for change and the best

example for this is Aashirvad shipping, a two decade old organization which is always

ready for change, today enjoys the market leadership with about 35% of market share of

cargo shipping industry. So we would like to mention that technical advancement is not the

biggest factor for service industry but how you serve is the biggest factor. However, to

serve in a better way we need technical inclusion of the organization but that is not an

obligation.


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pg. 7

Research Design

In order to conduct the client satisfaction study the following parameter were followed as

research methodology:

Research MethodologyAs mentioned in project title it is an Exploratory Research, which explores the level of

satisfaction for the clients of Aashirvad shipping. The study was conducted by online

survey method, in which an email containing questionnaire was send to each of the

sampling unit in order to get their responses regarding their level of satisfaction with

Aashirvad shipping.

Sampling TechniqueThe following parameter was considered in order to get respondent for the study of

clients satisfaction:

Sampling frame: All the clients of shipping industry who uses any kind ofshipping service was considered as sampling frame for this study.

Sampling Unit: Each individual client whether it was shipper, consignee orvessel owner was studied as a sampling unit.

Sampling Size: The whole client database of Aashirvad shipping wasselected for this study, in which there were 78 sampling units.

Sampling Method: As we had access to client database of Aashirvadshipping company we used the convenient sampling method.


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pg. 8

In order to justify we would like to add that as per our consideration we are able to explore

the level of satisfaction of clients of shipping industry up to a good extent as Aashirvad

shipping is one of the leading company of west cost of India and we can assume the

movement of industry with its standards.

In order to indentify inadequacies in our sampling selection we would like to mention one

thing that though Aashirvad shipping is market leader but we cant be depend only on its

clients for industrys estimation, if we had more recourses it would not have affected this

situation because any corporate house is not provide us access to their client database.

Data Collection MethodWhole data was collected by online surveys, as it was the most convenient and

economic way to tap globally scattered clients of Aashirvad shipping. In this study we

received both qualitative as well as quantitative data as per the questionnaire, which

was completely a primary data.

MeasurementWe needed to measure preference of clients regarding several industrial parameters for

shipping industry as well as their rating for these parameters to service providers.

Analysis Procedure

Mainly clients satisfaction index (CSI) along with performance matrix was used to analyze

the satisfaction level of client for this industry with the help of SPSS as supporting software

assistance to provide an ease and reliability to the research analysis.


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pg. 9

Results

The shipping industry is facing a new set of globally renowned competitors equipped with advanced

technologies. Thus there has been observed rising client attrition rate among the companies. This led us

to find out if this shift will affect the business of Aashirvad shipping company. Hence we have done this

research to identify the requirements of the clients of the shipping industry and compare them with the

services provided by Aashirvad shipping company.

The research indicates that the CSI for Aashirvad shipping company is 8.64 or 86.4% in the On Target

quadrant of the performance matrix.

This means that the client satisfaction is high and thus the attrition rate in Aashirvad is less as compared

to other companies.

In support of the above inferences we have included the highlights of the research findings in this

section. The data is mentioned in the Appendix.

The clients were mostly introduced to the company through referrals from other clients. Organizational efficiency was found to be 4.33 out of a maximum of 5 Client perception of the overall organizational image as good Clients having confidence regarding the well accomplishment of project between 80 to 90%. Clients have given feedback stating that they have seen an improvement in the services over a

period of time

Last but not the least, 100% of the clients of Aashirvad shipping are willing to use Aashirvadshipping for their requirements.


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pg. 10

Recommendations

It is very difficult to give recommendations to a company like Aashirvad shipping which has left

competition far behind by riding on high client satisfaction. However we would like to extend the

following recommendations in the context of the entire shipping industry and not just Aashirvad

shipping company

As per the factor analysis, we found the four important factors for the industry;i. A combination of communication clarity, understanding business requirement

and time effectiveness of service

ii. Combination of Timeliness of project completion, value addition to organisationand project documentation

iii. Keeping the client informed about the progress and providing value for moneyiv. Project coordination and prompt response to the problems.

As mentioned earlier in the results Aashirvad has an efficiency of 4.33 out of 5 thus it has a good

operational efficiency.

Deliver the services with new and innovative approaches like for example Aashirvadshipping provides its port agency services through port tariff accounting.

Aashirvad shipping company need not spend heavily on advanced technology to retainclients. However those technologies which give them a benefit over their current

procedures must be implemented sooner or later to gain the cost and time advantage.


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pg. 11

Bibliography

Summer internship report @ Aashirvad Shipping http://www.kandlaport.gov.in/
http://www.kandlaport.gov.in/http://www.kandlaport.gov.in/http://www.kandlaport.gov.in/


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pg. 12

Appendix

Copy of the questionnaire with the basic results

Personal Detail:

Name: _________________ Designation: _________________ Contact No.: _________________ Organization: _________________

1. How did you come to know about us?(You can choose more than one option)

Referral from other client By our website Media By our employee Other _________

2. Your project with us is

Ongoing

Completed

3. How often you use our services, in a year?


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Up to 5 times 5 to 10 times More than 10 times

4. Please rank, your criteria to select an organization for using its services.

Most Important_____________________Least Important

Industry / Market Knowledge _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(8.78)

Time Span in Business _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(7.85)

Market Goodwill _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(8.90)

Price competency _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(8.55)

Responsiveness to Clients request _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(7.49)

Value added services _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(8.77)

5. Where do you find Aashirvad Shipping Co. on these criteria?

Most Important____________________Least Important

Industry / Market Knowledge _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(9.55)

Time Span in Business _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(9.990

Market Goodwill _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(9.90)

Price competency _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(6.04)


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Responsiveness to Clients request _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____(8.86)

Value added services (6.13) _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____ _____6. Please rate the following aspects of our Organization.

Excellent__________________________________Unacceptable

Understanding your Business needs _________ _________ _________ _________ ________(4.44)

Communication clearly and effectively _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.04)

Keeping you informed of process _________ _________ _________ _________ _________

(3.83)

Time effectiveness _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.31)

Providing value for money _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.42)

Responding promptly to problems _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.97)

Meeting overall Project objectives _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.23)

7. By and large how do you rate the entire quality of services we provide?

Excellent Good Adequate Poor Unacceptable


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8. What degree of confidence you have in us to deliver the services that yourequire?

0 ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ ______ 80 90 % ______ ______ 109. Our current performance as compared to earlier is?

Getting better At par Getting worse We dont know ( as it is our first project)

10.

What is your degree of satisfaction with our performance and its result?

Highly Satisfied________________________Highky Dissatisfied

Our project coordination and management _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.49)

Project documentation _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.28)

Timeliness of completion _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.46)

Value addition to your organization _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.29)

Overall quality of the Service _________ _________ _________ _________ _________Provided by us

(4.35)


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11.What is your degree of satisfaction with our team members?

Highly Satisfied______________________Highky Dissatisfied

Communication skills _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.36)

Understanding your Organizations needs ________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.12)

Knowledge and expertise _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.38)

Responsiveness _________ _________ _________ _________ _________(4.36)

12. Based on your satisfaction, would you like to use our service again?

Yes No13.How could we improve our services?


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pg. 17

Result Table

Client InteractionWe came to know that maximum no of clients interacted with the organization either

through referral from other client or by our employees approach so we can conclude it

as Aashirvad shipping is having such an image in its clients mind that they also are

promoting it and its employees are proactive enough to tap all the opportunities as a new

client.

Project StatusIt was required to know the pattern of clients responding behavior; generally in shipping

industry it is assumed that during the project no one is going to give you a bad rating or

remark they only open provide a correct feedback after the completion the project, but in

case of Aashirvad it did not happen.

Service FrequencyIt was required to know to categorize the clients on the basis of their contribution to our

total revenue, or we can serve a more frequent client in his desired manner of service

specification.


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pg. 18

Clients satisfaction Index (CSI)In order to quantify satisfaction weighted average method was used as follows:

Calculation of average weights for parameters Calculation of average ratings for parameters Calculation of client satisfaction index (CSI)

Calculation of average Weightage

Parameter

Sum total of

All

responses

No. ofresponses

Average Weightage ofthe parameter

Industry / Market

knowledge

685 78 8.78

Time span in Market612 78 7.85

Market Goodwill694 78 8.90

Technology and Tools

provided667 78 8.55

Price competency584 78 7.49

Responsiveness to

requests684 78 8.77

Value added services454 78 5.82

Calculation of average Ratings

ParameterSum total of

All

responses

No. ofresponse

s

Average rating of the

parameter

Industry / Marketknowledge

745 78 9.55

Time span in Market779 78

9.99

Market Goodwill772 78

9.90

Technology and Tools

provided698 78

8.95

Price competency471 78

6.04

Responsiveness torequests

691 788.86

Value added services478 78

6.13


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Calculation of CSI

Parameter Weighti

ng

(A)

Rating

(B)

Weightin

g based

On Avg.

of A

(C)

Weighting

Scores

(D)

Industry / Marketknowledge

8.78 9.55 1.09 10.46

Time span in Market7.85

9.99 0.98 9.77

Market Goodwill8.90

9.90 1.11 10.98

Technology and Toolsprovided

8.558.95 1.07 9.54

Price competency7.49

6.04 0.93 5.65

Responsiveness to

requests8.77

8.86 1.09 9.68

Value added services 5.82 6.13 0.73 5.45

Average CSI = 8.64

Here;

A = Average Weighting assigned by all respondents for each parameter

B = Average Rating assigned by all respondents for each parameter

C = Weighting based on average of A = [Individual Weighting / avg. Weighting]

D = Weighted Score = Rating * Average Weighting = [B * C]

Client Satisfaction Index (CSI) = Average of Weighted Scores

Since the scale used was (1 10), so satisfaction in term of percentage can be calculated

as follows:

Satisfaction = 10 * (CSI)

Satisfaction = 10 * (8.64)

Satisfaction = 86.40 %


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Its now obvious that Aashirvad shipping is having a good degree of clients satisfaction

but to confirm its significance we need to create Performance Matrix, it is a matrix

stating the relevance of scores with their corresponding Weightage.

Performance Matrix

As we are having all the service parameter into the On Target quadrant towards the upper

end of it shows well utilization of the resources.


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pg. 21

Organizational EfficiencyIt was calculated as cumulative mean of all the ratings regarding the industrial parameters.

As follows:

Response for Organizational Efficiency (Q. 6)

Parameter Sum total of

All responses

No. of responses Average rating of

the parameterUnderstanding your

business

requirements

346 78 4.44

Communicating

clearly and effectively

315 78 4.04

Keeping you informed

of progress

299 78 3.83

Time effectiveness 336 78 4.31

Providing value for

money

345 78 4.42

Responding promptlyto problems

388 78 4.97

Meeting overall

project objectives

330 78 4.23

Average


Parameter Sum total ofAll responses

No. of responses Average rating ofthe parameter

Our projectcoordination and

management

350 78 4.49

Project

documentation

334 78 4.28

Timeliness of project

completion

348 78 4.46

Value addition to

your organization

335 78 4.29

Overall quality of the

services provided byus

339 78 4.35

Average


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ParameterSum total of

All responsesNo. of responses

Average rating of the

parameter

Communication

skills340 78 4.36

Understanding of

your organization'sneeds

321 78 4.12

Knowledge andexpertise

342 78 4.38

Responsiveness 340 78 4.36

Average

In order to quantify organizational efficiency we need to take cumulative score or mean of all

these as follows:

Efficiency = [(4.32 + 4.37 + 4.20) / 3]

Efficiency = 4.33

We can conclude it as a good score in terms of efficiency of the organization.

Organizational perceptionIt indicates overall image of services provided by Aashirvad shipping, its having five -point Liker

scale as the response ranging from excellent to poor. We analyzed it by using students t -Test

on SPSS as follows:

First we assigned numeric values to the responses as; Excellent = 1, Good = 2, Average = 3,

Bellow Average = 4 and Poor = 5. Following is the outcome of SPSS:


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pg. 23

SPSS outcome

Here;

N = No. of samples

Mean = Mean value of response

Std. Dev = Standard Deviation of sample

t = outcome of test

Degree of freedom = (N - 1)

By using SPSS when we took test value as 2 (Good) the significance level came to be 0.095

which is greater than 0.05, i.e. this test value lie between the acceptance region and for test

value 1 & 3 it lie outside the acceptance region.

So we can say overall services of Aashirvad shipping are assumed to be good in the mind of its

clients.

Clients ConfidenceIt indicates the degree of confidence of clients in Aashirvad shipping and its capability. It can be

assessed by taking average value of individual confidences. As the average value is (162/20=8.1)

so we can say the confidence level lie between 8 & 9, and in terms of percentage we can say

clients of Aashirvad shipping on an average having 80% - 90% confidence in it.


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Improvement in PerformanceIt indicates comparison of Aashirvad shippings current performance with previous one as

follows:

Here observed values are: 1 for getting better; 2 for at par; 3 for getting worst; 4 forwe dont know.

All the expected values are taken by providing equal probability to the eachresponse as: [(1 + 2 + 3 + 4) / 4] = 2.5

As its a qualitative question so it was analyzed by using Chi -square Test and the test value

came out to be equal to (0.735) which indicates closeness with response value 1.0, which is

getting better. In minds of clients Aashirvad shippings services are getting better.

Service Reuse

It indicates willingness of Aashirvad shippings current clients who wants to work again with it.

Responses for Service repetition (Table 3.11)

ResponseObserved Value Expected Value

All YES 1 1.5

Chi Square Value = 0.999

Here observed values are: 1 for yes; 2 for no. All the expected values are taken by providing equal probability to the each response as:

[(1 + 2) / 2] = 1.5

As its also a qualitative question so it was also analyzed by using Chi-square Test and the test

value came out to be equal to (0.999) which indicates a great degree of closeness with response


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value 1.0, which is getting better, that means none of its clients want to move with any other

service provider.

Details of the Respondents

Personal Detail of Respondents

Sr. So. Name Con. No. Address

As per the policy of Aashirvad Shipping Co. the client database is confidential

and can be used only by the employees of the company for the companys

business operations only. As Rakesh has done Internship with Aashirvad

Shipping, he was allowed to use the client database of the company for this

research project. However the client data still remains confidential and cannot

be shared for any purpose.

mr assignment on exploratory research

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