Reflective Summary - Essay Example

Reflective Summary By [Presented to] of Reflective Summary Every research starts with a small idea basedon personal interest and enthusiasm. When I got an opportunity to conduct the research on investigating the influence of corporate events upon the establishment of brand image and customer loyalty, I was more than happy and enthusiastic considering the fact the events always fascinated me and being a management student, it offered me an opportunity to discover the intricacies of event management in the business environment. I conducted the research in the United Kingdom by attending an event conducted by a corporate organsiation (name not disclosed based on confidentiality issues). The major purpose of attending the event was based on gaining deep insights over the impact and influence of corporate upon brand image and customer loyalty. I contacted with the even organiser and stated my purpose that was accepted and based on that I was allowed to participate in the event along with conducting the research on my own. During the event, I observed that the corporate organsiation offered insights over its products and services and the entire event was based on the active communication between the event organisers and attendees. Once, the event was over, I interacted with few attendees and requested them to become the participants for my research study. Based on the response of the attendees, I identified 200 respondents and offered them the consent form. The major concern before the activity began was to approach the event attendees and seek their approval and consent to become the research participant. In order to overcome this issue, I was prepared to exhibit high level of confidence and professional skills to communicate with the potential participants. I was looking forward for people having interest in the events and willing to voice their opinions without any inhibitions. Based on the observation, I was successful in identifying the desired sample size for the survey. Moreover, I learnt a lot by attending the event as it offered me useful insights that later helped in approaching the research in a logical way. The key events in the research were to identify an appropriate corporate event and attendees willing to share their views and opinions along with collecting their views that can be related to the research study. For this purpose, I read a number of academic books, research papers, journals, and internet articles based on corporate events, brand image, and customer loyalty. The dissertation required in-depth understanding over the concepts like corporate events, purpose of corporate events, brand image, brand loyalty, customer loyalty, and customer relationship management and reading relevant academic books and articles helped in gaining the required knowledge. The requirements for the dissertation were well known during the initiation of the research and based on that the aim and objectives of the research were designed. The aims and objectives of the research were further linked to the literature review to ascertain key findings and outcomes of the literature. The most significant part was the findings of the literature review offered reliability and validity that further helped in conducting the research in a desired and appropriate manner. Initially, I had to read good numbers of books to gain an understanding and perspective over the research topic that at times was a bit monotonous but I kept backing and motivating myself to conduct the research in a logical manner. During the research process, I also gained an understanding over my personal strengths and weaknesses. I m driven by curiosity and human behaviour and the research offered me a platform to analyse human views and behaviour in a systematic manner. However, this strength of mine was further affected by the identified weakness in the form of getting impatient and irritated. In order to avoid these weaknesses, I kept reiterating to myself that the research means a lot in terms of learning and showcasing that learning in my personal and professional life. I also gained confidence to deal with people that further enhanced my convincing and interactive skills during the research process. The event exposed my strengths and weaknesses allowing me to work on them. During the research activity, I also got to know about human behvaiour and perception that often differs from individual to individual. Every individual thinks and reacts differently in different situations and their perspectives often define their understanding and beliefs that played an important role in the data collection process. People taking part in the research were enthusiastic at times but also lost interest in between, the same thing happened during the event as interesting thoughts and activities attracted attention while views, opinions, and activities of little interest affected the interest level of attendees. This highlighted the fact that human behaviour and nature is very dynamic subjected to change with the change in the things and activities attracting or not attracting them. Organising the research and especially the data collection process taught me a number of things. It is really hard to manage people along with keeping them happy as people listen to things and views benefitting them. There has to be an element of excitement to attract them in order to make them indulge and participate in any act. Based on the learning of the human behaviour and perception, I also learnt that managing people is a challenging task requiring management and convincing skills. I personally believe that I did appropriate activities to conduct the research and given a chance would have made slight changes in the present effort. The present efforts were based on desperation to seek views and opinions of event attendees to fulfill the requirement of the dissertation. If given an opportunity, I would like to form a systematic approach where the views and opinions of event organisers will also be included in the research process to make the study more interesting and result oriented. I would also like to assess and analyse the views and opinions of other attendees participating in other events. This would have offered me more scope to assess the views and opinions of participants at a broad level. Overall, it can be said that the efforts being taken to complete the dissertation have been of great importance offering great learning that will surely be used in the personal and professional settings in coming years. Read More