Managing Small Business in Halal Foods Industry - Dissertation Example

? Background 2 Within what academic area will your research be? An assessment of management techniques employed by a local halal food shop Marhaba,and how these management techniques and business strategies make this shop more attractive to it’s halal purchasing customer base and more competitive in the unique niche market of local halal foods grocers. 2.2 Will your research be industry based? If yes, which industry or industries will your research focus on? If no, what will your research be based on (e.g. stock market data, a particular company, a particularly country, etc)? This research will be based on the local halal foods industry. While this study will focus on all important aspects of managing a halal business, management techniques and business practices related to the successful operation of a local, small halal foods store will be the primary interest of this study. The focus of this research will be one such local Halal food shop serving both Muslims and general halal food purchasers, Marhaba. 2.3 What will the general topic area be, and can you give us a general overview of the developments to date in this area? What is already known about the area/industry/issue? The academic focus of this dissertation will be management. Specifically, this dissertation will analyse the management techniques and business stratigies employed by Marhaba, a local halal foods shop, to appeal to their unique customer base: Muslims seeking to purchase halal food. The specific industry being studied will be the local halal foods industry, and the specific organization to be considered will be Marhaba shop. Before a basic literature review can be conducted, halal food needs to be defined. The Islamic Food and Nutrition Council describes halal food in specific terms by saying, “Halal is an Arabic word meaning lawful or permitted. The opposite of halal is haram, which means unlawful or prohibited. Halal and haram are universal terms that apply to all facets of life,” (IFANCA). The IFANCA goes on to describe some common haram foods, such as pork, alcohol, and birds of prey. The idea of halal comes from the Al-Baqara of the Quran, which says, ”O, ye men! Eat of what is in the earth lawful and wholesome and follow not the footsteps of Satan; for verily he is an open enemy to you,” (Quran). According to a recent report conducted by the government of Canada, the 1.6 billion Muslims currently alive are the engine behind a growing $580 billion halal food market. This report gives an encouraging take on the market saying, “There is strong commercial potential for halal certified products, with consumers looking for safe, genuinely certified and diversified halal products,” (Canada 2008, 4). This promising market data shows that the market is growing, and remains already large. While a local halal grocer will only take in a miniscule fraction of this \market, a growing market is encouraging for any business, no matter the size. One of the biggest concerns for any management is whether or not the current customer base will be there in the future. Bubbles pop, booms die, and fads fade, yet a true niche market will serve a business for years. (please write source These sentences were not drawn from a source, this is using common knowledge which is acceptable according to MLA standards. If you were citing specific bubbles or niche markets you would need to cite this, but in this context, these sentences are just a general introduction to the main point.)The question facing halal food shops across the UK is will the European Muslim population remain as large as it has been in the future, or will this population dwindle in size? According to a 2011 article by Steve Doughtry for the Daily Mail, the answer to this question is no. According to Doughtry, the UK will have 5.5 million Muslims within 20 years, forecasting England to have more Muslims than Kuwait in the year 2030. While these statistics certainly draw up an immigration conversation, in terms of the halal foods industry, they couldn’t be better news. The UK is at the centre of a growing market, and the demand for this market is only going to increase. Methods 2.4 What issues and objectives are to be included in this research? (1) What unique qualities do Muslim customers look for in a halal food supplier versus non-religious butcher shops? (2) What unique management techniques and business practices does Marhaba employ to appeal to their unique halal purchasing Muslim customer base. (3) What are the unique customer needs of the halal purchasing Muslim population in St. Albens (4) What are the unique challenges posed by Marhaba’s competition in the local halal food sector and how does Marhaba adopt and implement new management techniques to respond to these threats? (5) In order to maintain an appropriate focus of research, this research will NOT focus on non-halal areas of Marhaba’s business. 2.5 How, precisely, are you going to tackle this work? Prompt: you need to think about the methodology To answer objectives 1 and 3, it will be necessary to conduct a survey of local Muslim halal shoppers. One possible method for conducting this survey would be to host the survey through an online website like surveymonkey.com, and advertise the survey in local halal food stores and campus Muslim organizations. These objectives will rely primarily on primary data. To answer objectives 2 and 4, interviews will need to be conducted with Marhaba management. These interviews will focus on management techniques utilized and business strategies employed by Marhaba, and how these techniques help Marhaba attract and maintain their unique customer base. These interviews will provide valuable primary data, but secondary data such as sales data and historical company finance records will be reviewed also. Literature Review 2.6 Identify relevant sources (at least six, ideally more) and summarise what information these will generate The body of scientific literature concerning local halal food shops and their management and business strategy is sparse. One of the most significant recent advances in the body of knowledge came in 2011 from Ahmed in an article titled “Marketing of Halal Meat in the United Kingdom”. In it, Ahmed describes the potential for modern local halal food shops by saying, “the majority of UK Muslims are at odds with most UK shoppers and increasingly prefer to shop at small shops, rather than big supermarkets,” (Ahmed 2011, 655). (different between this date and reference list changed. I’m so sorry about these mix ups. The works cited dates are all correct, I misread the works cited page when doing the parenthetical citations in the next few paragraphs. Again, I’m so sorry for this mix up. I really try to avoid small mistakes like this in my work, but nonetheless, mistakes slip through and I apologize for that.)This highlights the potential for small, local halal shops like Marhaba because of its size. It appears that Marhaba management should make the decision, while contrary to typical beliefs, to limit the size of the store. Ahmed shows that customers looking for halal foods prefer to shop and a local halal grocery because they know they can trust the quality of the food. This is important for halal grocery managers to bear in mind, since the guidelines for preparing halal food are so open to interpretation. Since the definition of halal is vague, customers feel they need to be able to trust who they buy their halal foods from so they know it is of a high quality and not just stamped with the halal symbol. Maintaining this trust and rapport with the customer base is extremely important to any halal grocery manager. Furthermore, Flogel (2011, 30)(different between this deat and reference list date same problem here as listed above, I’ve changed them.) describes the potential benefits of appealing to a Muslim market in his paper “ASDA Goes Halal” by saying, “because halal shopping refers to a religious aspect, it can be assumed that stronger religiously identifying consumers are more likely to buy their groceries at ethnic (Muslim) shops than weaker religiously identifying consumers.” Flogel (2011, 30) goes on to describe the benefits of local halal shops offering quality halal products to consumers by saying, “because there are no objective criteria to detect whether the meat is really slaughtered in the halal way, e.g. that it was slaughtered in the name of god, consumers have to trust that the products which are designated to be halal are really halal.” This quote shows that Muslim customers will be attracted to local halal food shops over larger supermarket chains if they feel they can trust the local shop, and echoes the point made by Ahmed. By offering quality halal food products to Muslim customers, Marhaba management has the potential to develop an extremely loyal and valuable customer base. Beyond the potential that exists in this market, Dali (2008, 3) highlights eleven factors that contribute to customers’ perceptions of the quality of the halal food being served. Among these were promotion, place, [attractiveness] and quality, price, product samples, market demand, and clean operations. Using these qualities as a checklist of things customers look for in a local Halal food store, Marhaba can be rated in these categories and can be compared to other local food shops near St. Albens. Furthermore, Marhaba management can use this list as a guidepost for where they should be aiming to develop the company. For example, if management does not feel that they offer adequate product samples at Marhaba, yet Dali has said this is an important quality of a halal foods grocer, management may make the decision to offer more or different samples of their halal foods. One of the biggest potential benefits Marhaba has is its location. In his 2005 (276) paper “Feeding Secularism: Consuming Halal among the Malays in London”, Fischer describes southern UK halal markets by saying, “in the wake of Islamic revivalism, halal (lawful or permitted) markets are expanding on a global scale, and London has emerged as a centre for halal production, trade, and consumption at a time when its meaning and practices are being transformed and contested.” This is significant because following this logic, Marhaba is sitting near the centre of a growing global market; and because it is a trusted, local shop, it is uniquely positioned to capitalize on this market. To extrapolate from other countries, Journo (2007, 3) and Peacock highlight similarly promising trends in France’s halal food market. “France’s halal market is an expanding niche, with demand growing along with new products being offered. Halal consumption has been increasing anywhere from 7 to 15% per year since 1988.” This quote shows the growing European halal market and the potential for halal grocers to capitalize on this growth. Halal food consumption is growing in part due to a response from European Muslims to the Islamic revivalism described by Fischer. Marhaba is in a unique position to capitalize on this growing market. Further highlighting this growing market, Rarick and colleagues describe the growing European Muslim population in their paper “Is it Kosher? No, It’s Halal: A New Frontier in Niche Marketing”. Rarick says, “the European Muslim population has grown approximately 140% in a decade and outpaces that of non-Muslims,” (Rarick 2011, 52). This echoes the facts from the Daily Mail, and argues that the European and the British Muslim populations are dramatically rising. The staggering growth of this population means that these people will need a place to purchase halal foods. By following Dali’s suggestions and by conducting business strategy and management research, Marhaba’s management can place their business in a unique position to capitalize from the UK’s niche market of halal foods. Academic Models 2.7 What academic models and writings would be useful in your research? This research requires a model of a quality local halal foods store and the subsequent management techniques related to this quality. An operational definition of quality of a halal foods store will be determined based on six of Dali’s (2008, 3) eleven qualities of a good halal foods store previously listed. Other qualities will be determined based on interviews conducted with Marhaba management. Timescale 2.8 Using the proforma provided, complete a time line/Gantt chart Activity Week 1 Week 2 Week3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12 Week 13 Week 14 Week15 Week 16 Week 17 Read literature                                   Finalize objective                                   Draft literature review                                   Read methodology literature                                   Devise research approach                                   Draft research strategy                                   Develop plan for interview                                   Revise interview                                   conduct interview                                   Enter data                                   Analyse data                                   Draft findings                                   Update literature                                   Finish unfinished parts                                   Submit first draft                                   Revise and review feedback                                   Revise                                   Print and bind                                   Submit                                   Works Cited 1. Ahmed, A., 2011. Marketing of Halal Meat in the United Kingdom: Supermarkets versus Local Shops. British Food Journal 110(7) pp. 655-70. Web. 2 June 2011. . 2. Dali, N. R. S. B. M., Mohammad N. B. N., Norhaziah B. N., and Hartini B. M. "Is Halal Products Are More Expensive As Perceived by the Consumers? Muslimprenuers Challenges and the Opportunities in Establishing a Blue Ocean Playing Field." Diss. Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia. Online. Is it book or journal? This is a dissertation not published in a journal. If you type in the phrase “Is Halal Products Are More Expensive As Perceived by the Consumers?” into a Google search, the dissertation should be one of the top hits. 3.  Daughtry, S., 2011. Number of British Muslims Will Double to 5.5m in 20 Years | Mail Online. Home. The Daily Mail. Web. 03 June 2011. . 4. Fischer, J., 2005 Feeding Secularism: Consuming Halal among the Malays in London. Diaspora: A Journal of Transnational Studies 14(2/3) pp. 275- 97. Project Muse. Web. 2 June 2011. . 5. Flogel, F., 2011 ASDA Goes Halal. Geographische Handelsforschung 27 pp. 30-33. Web. 2 June 2011. . 6. Government of Canada, 2008. Global Halal Food Market Brief. Rep. Print.(What is this This is a report published by the Government of Canada in 2008 analyzing the global market for halal foods. While it is from a foreign government, sources were so scarce on this subject that I decided to include it. Government reports are almost always very reliable and the citations in the paper help make points.) 7. IFANCA: What Is Halal?,IFANCA: Halal Food Certification. Web. 02 June 2011. . 8. Journo, L. J., and Peacock, N., June2007. France's Market for Halal Foods. FAS Worldwide. United States Department of Agriculture. Web. 2 June 2011. . 9. The Qur'an: Al-Baqarah (2:168). Trans. Abdullah Yusuf Ali. Elmhurst: Tahrike, (how can I access to this This verse is in any quran or available at this website: http://quran.com/2/168) 10. Rarick, C., Gideon F., Casimir B., and Lori F. Is It Kosher? No, It's Halal: A New Frontier in Niche Marketing. International Association for Case Studies Proceedings. Allied Academies International Conference, Orlando, Florida. 1st ed. 18. pp. 51-56. Web. 2 June 2011. . (I could not access that is the web address but to access the page, go to this site: http://alliedacademies.org/Public/Proceedings/Proceedings28/Proceedings28.aspx and click the International Academy for Case Studies link at the bottom of the page. This will link you to the pdf that is listed here. Also, I’m so sorry about the Soong reference that I didn’t use in the assignment. I used it in a previous draft, but I ended up deleting it and forgot to delete the reference. Again, I really try hard to prevent and check for small mistakes like this, but sometimes they get through and for that I apologize to you. I try to give my customers the quality they pay for and small mistakes like these aren’t up to that standard. I’m glad you brought these mistakes to my attention and I appreciate the opportunity to fix them. Please don’t hesitate to contact me in the future if you need any other changes to this assignment, and please keep me in mind in your future assignments.) Read More