“A STUDY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION TOWARDS ONLINE FOOD ORDERING

WITH RESPECT TO THANJAVUR”

Project report submitted to

PRIST UNIVERSITY

In partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree in

BACHELOR OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION

Submitted by

P. PON SANKAR (1701BM1001)

C. PARTHIBAN (1701BM1022)

S. ARUNAGIRI (1701BM1029)

N. DIVAKAR (1701BM1014)

R. MATHESH (1701BM1004)

Under the guidance of

R.RENGARAJAN

Assistant Professor

PRIST SCHOOL OF BUSINESS

PRIST UNIVERSITY

VALLAM, THANAVUR-613403
Abstract-
The customer satisfaction category has the main position in marketing theory and it basis on
premise that the profit is made through process of satisfaction of consumers demands

i.e. achievementof their satisfaction.

The consumer satisfaction category has the main position in marketing theory and it basis on
premise that the profit is made through process of satisfaction of consumer demands i.e.
achievement of their satisfaction .Our research was conducted to examine the satisfaction of
consumers by using online food services &it will deal with consumer behavior & helps to
analyse their perceptions & will also help us to understand consumer equilibrium. for the
completion of this research we have prepared a full fledged questionnaire which were distributed
among the 60 respondents to know their behavior & the satisfaction level which they get by
using online food services app.
 CHAPTER-I
INTRODUCTION
 CHAPTER-I

INTRODUCTION

CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:
Customer satisfaction (often abbreviated as CSAT) is a term frequently used in marketing. It is
a measure of how products and services supplied by a company meet or surpass customer
expectation. Customer satisfaction is defined as "the number of customers, or percentage of total
customers, whose reported experience with a firm, its products, or its services (ratings) exceeds
specified satisfaction goals”.

Customer Satisfaction Survey:

A customer satisfaction survey is an instrument that helps companies measure their customers’
level of satisfaction with their product/service. This is a key process to help your customers
achieve success.

PURPOSE OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:

Customer satisfaction provides a leading indicator of consumer purchase intentions and
loyalty. "Customer satisfaction data are among the most frequently collected indicators of market
perceptions. Their principal use is twofold:"

1. "Within organizations, the collection, analysis and dissemination of these data send a
message about the importance of tending to customers and ensuring that they have a
positive experience with the company's goods and services."
2. "Although sales or market share can indicate how well a firm is performing currently,
satisfaction is perhaps the best indicator of how likely it is that the firm’s customers will
make further purchases in the future. Much research has focused on the relationship
between customer satisfaction and retention. Studies indicate that the ramifications of
satisfaction are most strongly realized at the extremes."

PROCESS OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:

Step 1- understanding customers expectations,

Step 2- Promises to customers,

Step 3- Execution,
Step 4- Ongoing dialog with a customers,

Step 5- Customer satisfaction surveys.

TYPES OF CUSTOMERS:

i. Potential customers,
ii. Impulse buying customers,
iii. Sale or discount customer,
iv. Repeat customer,
v. Ready to buy customer.

OBJECTIVES OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:

i. Keep customer satisfied,
ii. Meet customer needs,
iii. Increase repeat business,
iv. Build word of mouth reputation,
v. Lower the amount of complaints received,
vi. Create effective customer satisfaction goals.

METHODS OF MEASURING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:

i. Use customer surveys,
ii. Measure customer satisfaction score,
iii. Find out where you are falling,
iv. Pinpoint specifies,
v. Check your social media pages,
vi. Access the competitors,
vii. Understand customer expectations.

IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:

You should never ignore the importance of customer satisfaction. There are dozens of factors
contributing to the success (or failure) of a business, customer satisfaction is one of them. High-
standard customer service can win your clients’ hearts and make you recognizable within your
target group. Nowadays when social media play such an important role in making decisions it’s
crucial to keep an eye on the quality of customer service you provide.

1. A Loyal customer is a treasure you should keep and hide from the world,
2. They can stop being your clients in a heartbeat,

3. It’s (all) about the money, too,

4. Customer satisfaction is a factor that helps you stand out of the competition,

5. Great customer experience can take your brand places.

FACTORS AFFECTING CUSTOMER SATISFACTION:

Customer satisfaction is the overall impression of customer about the supplier and the products
and services delivered by the supplier. Following are the important factors that could affect
customer satisfaction:

 Department wise capability of the supplier.

 Technological and engineering or re-engineering aspects of products and services.
 Type and quality of response provided by the supplier.
 Supplier’s capability to commit on deadlines and how efficiently they are met.
 Customer service provided by the supplier.
 Complaint management.
 Cost, quality, performance and efficiency of the product.
 Supplier’s personal facets like etiquettes and friendliness.
 Supplier’s ability to manage whole customer life cycle.
 Compatible and hassle free functions and operations.

INDUSTRY PROFILE:-

ONLINE FOOD ORDERING SYSTEM

ONLINE FOOD ORDERING SYSTEM INTRODUCTION:

The online food ordering system is one of the latest servicers most fast food restaurants in the
western world are adopting. With this method, food is ordered online and delivered to the
customer. This is made possible through the use of electronic payment system. Customers pay
with their credit cards, although credit card customers can be served even before they make
payment either through cash or card. So, the system designed in this project will enable
customers go online and place order for their food.

One of such business that the internet introduced is an online food ordering system. In today’s
age of fast food and take out, many restaurants have chosen to focus on quick preparation and
speedy delivery of orders rather than offering a rich dining experience. Until recently, most of
this delivery orders were placed over the phone, but there are many disadvantages to this system.
It is possible for anybody to order any goods via the internet and have the goods delivered at
his/her doorsteps. But while trying to discuss the transfer method of the goods and services,
attention is focused on the payment mode. In other words, how possible is it to pay for goods and
services via the internet? This then leads to the discussion of the economic consequences of
digital cash. What are the implementations from the view point of economic? Since the world is
fast becoming a global village, the necessary tool for this process is communication of which
telecommunication is a key player.

A major breakthrough is the wireless 2 telephone system which comes in either fixed wireless
telephone lines or the Global System of Mobile communication (GSM). What I propose is an
online ordering system originally designed for use in college cafeterias, but just as applicable in
any food delivery industry. The main advantage of this system is that it greatly simplifies the
ordering process for both the customer and the restaurant.

The system also greatly lightens the load on the restaurants end, as the entire process of taking
orders is automated. Once an order is placed on the webpage that will be designed, it is placed
into the database and then retrieved, in pretty much real-time, by a desktop application on the
restaurants end. Within this application, all items in the order are displayed, along with their
corresponding options and delivery details, in a concise and easy to read manner. This allows the
restaurant employees to quickly go through the orders as they are placed and produce the
necessary items with minimal delay and confusion. The greatest advantage of this system is its
flexibility.

Due to the great increase in the awareness of internet and the technologies associated with it,
several opportunities are coming up on the web. So many businesses and companies now venture
into their business with ease because of the internet.

The “Online food ordering system” has been developed to over ride the problems prevailing in
the practicing manual system. This software is supported to eliminate and in some cases reduce
the hardships faced by this existing system. Moreover this system is designed for the particular
need of the company to carry out operations in a smooth and effective manner.

The application is reduced as much as possible to avoid errors while entering the data. It also
provides error message while entering data. No formal knowledge is needed for the user to use
this system. Thus by this all it proves it is user friendly online food ordering system, as described
above, can lead to error free, secure, reliable and fast management system. It can assist the user
to concentrate on the record keeping. Thus it will help organization in better utilization of
resources.

Every organization, whether big or small, has challenges to overcome and managing the
information of the organization of category, food item, order, delivery, customer. Every online
food ordering has the different food item needs and therefore we design exclusive employee
management systems that are adapted to your managerial requirements. This is designed to assist
in strategic planning, and will help you to ensure that your organization is equipped with the
right level of the information and details for your future goals. Also, for those busy executives
who are always on the go, our systems come with remote access features, which will allow you
to manage your workforce anytime, at all times. These systems will ultimately allow you to
better manage resources.

HISTORY OF ONLINE FOOD ORDERING SYSTEM:

History in the US;

The first online food order was a pizza from Pizza Hut in 1994. The online food ordering market
has increased in the U.S with 40 percent of U.S adults having ordered their food online once.The
online food ordering market includes foods prepared by restaurants, prepared by independent
people, and groceries being ordered online and then picked up or delivered.

The first online food ordering service, World Wide Waiter (now known as Waiter.com), was
founded in 1995.The site originally serviced only northern California, later expanding to several
additional cities in the United States.
GrubHub was founded in 2004.
By the late 2000s, major pizza chains had created their own mobile applications and started
doing 20-30 percent of their business online. With increased smart phone penetration, and the
growth of both Uber and the sharing economy, food delivery startups started to receive more
attention. In 2010, Snap finger, who is a multi-restaurant ordering website, had a growth in their
mobile food orders by 17 percent in one year.
Instacart was founded in 2012. In 2013, Seamless and Grubhub merged. Uber Eats launched in
Los Angeles, California in 2014. By 2015, online ordering began overtaking phone ordering.
In 2015, China's online food ordering and delivery market grew from 0.15 billion Yuan to 44.25
billion Yuan.
As of September 2016, online delivery accounted for about 3 percent of the 61 billion U.S.
restaurant transactions.
ONLINE FOOD ORDERING SYSTEM IN INDIA:

India’s online food ordering sector saw a strong growth rate in the number of daily orders,
growing consistently at 15 per cent on a quarterly basis from January to September last year,
according to a report from RedSeer Consulting.

The growth has resulted in the number of orders on a daily basis clocking an average of 400,000
during the September quarter. It has also meant players, including Swiggy, Zomato and
Foodpanda, are investing in in-sourcing deliveries.

In the September quarter, self-deliveries grew to 56 per cent of the total number of orders done
by the food-tech sector in India. In-house deliveries stood at 46 per cent in the fourth quarter of
2016.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that food tech is more and more of a logistics play, restaurant
discovery is not a deep competitive advantage. There are clear trends on customer and seller
satisfaction supported by the better delivery speed and compliance that vouch for superiority of
the captive delivery model in Indian market,” said Anil Kumar, founder and chief executive
officer, RedSeer.

Having a better control of their deliver fleets, food ordering platforms were able to bring down
the average time taken to deliver a meal from 47 minutes in the December quarter of 2016 to 42
minutes in the September quarter in 2017. This number is expected to grow as food tech players
look to boost customer satisfaction and have them order more meals.

Swiggy, one of the leading players, has in-sourced deliveries since its inception and continues to
process 100 per cent of deliveries.

Zomato, which started off as a restaurant discovery platform and turned to online food ordering,
acquired Runner, a hyperlocal logistics firm in order to boost its own in-house delivery arm.

The growth in 2018 is expected to continue at the same pace. However, Ola, India's largest taxi-
hailing firm, buying Foodpanda could upset the market. Ola has said it would invest $200
million into Foodpanda over the next few years, creating a scare that there could be a price war
in the food-tech space again.

Currently, players such as Swiggy and Zomato have managed to maintain the growth despite
charging delivery fees for small-ticket deliveries. Experts and industry watchers say the model of
delivering food from restaurants, which is ordered online has been proven, even if there’s some
way to go for firms in the space to begin making profits.

This also puts the sector at risk from being invaded by players with deep pockets, who splurge
huge amounts of money to grab market share and fend off rivals in the hope that they'll be able to
turn profitable someday.

COMPANY PROFILE:-

SWIGGY

Swiggy is India's largest and most valuable online food ordering and delivery
platform. Founded in 2014, Swiggy is based out of Bengaluru. India and, as of
March 2019, was operating out of 100 Indian cities. In early 2019, Swiggy expanded
into general product deliveries, under the brand name Swiggy Stores.
In September 2019, Swiggy launched instant pick up and drop service Swiggy Go.
The service is used to pick up and drop off a diverse array of items, including
laundry and document or parcel deliveries to business clients and retail customers.
INTRODUCTION OF SWIGGY

 Swiggy is a food ordering and delivery company based out of Bangalore,

India. Swiggy was inspired by the thought of providing a complete food

ordering and delivery solution from the best neighborhood restaurants to

the urban foods.

 A single window for ordering from a wide range of restaurants, Swiggy

has their own exclusive fleet of delivery personnel to pickup orders from

restaurants and deliver it to customers. Having their own fleet gives us

the flexibility to offer customers a no minimum order policy on any

restaurant and accept online payments for all partner restaurants that they

work with.

 Their delivery personnel carry one order at a time which ensures they get

reliable and fast deliveries.

HISTORY OF SWIGGY:
In 2013 two founders, Sriharsha Majety and Nandan Reddy, designed an e-
commerce website called "Bundl" to facilitate courier service and ship goods within
India.[8] Bundl was quickly paused, and they moved into the food delivery market. At
the time, the food delivery sector was in turmoil as several notable startups, such
as Foodpanda(later acquired by Ola Cabs), TinyOwl (later acquired by Zomato) and
Ola Cafe (later closed) were struggling. Majety and Reddy approached Rahul
Jaimini, formerly with Myntra and founded Swiggy and parent holding company
Bundl Technologies in 2014. The company built out a dedicated delivery network
and grew rapidly, primarily driven by the focus on logistics and locking in key
resources.

 It all started back in 2014 when two BITS Pilani graduates, Sriharsha

Majety and Nandan Reddy decided they wanted to make life easier by

Changing the way India eats - all with just a tap! With their idea of
“hyperlocal food delivery”, all they needed was the tech to power it and

Were introduced to Rahul Jaimini, who brought this vision to life with the

First website. And with this, Swiggy was launched as a food ordering &

Delivery platform.

 In August of 2014, Swiggy began operations by signing up a few

restaurants in Koramangala, Bengaluru. Soon enough, the first team of

Hunger Saviors came into action to deliver food within 40 minutes.

Shortly after, Swiggy raised its first round of funding and launched the

app in May of 2015. Fun fact: The technology that delivers great food

right to your doorstep was completely developed in-house!

 With love and support from consumers, Swiggy expanded far and wide,

first through the entire city of Bengaluru and then across the entire

country. As they say, the rest is history.

 Today, Swiggy is the leading food ordering and delivery platform in

India. The innovative technology, large and nimble delivery service, and

exceptional consumer focus at Swiggy enabled a host of benefits that

includes lightning fast deliveries, live order tracking and no restrictions

on order amount, all while having the pleasure of enjoying your favourite

meal wherever you'd like it.

Investments and acquisitions:

By 2015, the company began attracting external investments. The first was a $2 million
investment from Accel and SAIF Partners, along with an additional investment from Norwest
Venture Partners. The next year, Swiggy raised $15 million from new and existing investors,
including Bessemer Venture Partners and Harmony Partners. In 2017, Naspers led an $80
million funding round into Swiggy. Swiggy received $100 million from China-based Meituan-
Dianping and Naspers in 2018 and then later a string of investments took the company's
valuation to over a $1 billion.
Swiggy acquired Bengaluru-based Asian food start-up 48East in 2017. Swiggy later acquired
Mumbai-based Scootsy Logistics, a struggling food and fashion delivery service. In 2019, the
company invested Rs 31 crore in Mumbai-based ready-to-eat food brand Fingerlix.
PARTNERSHIPS:
Swiggy has partnered with Burger King for providing delivery services. It has also partnered
with Google Local Guide to facilitate customer reviews, and with Sodexo to enable customers to
pay through meal cards. Swiggy has partnered with Indifi Technologies to facilitate a financing
program for partner restaurants.
MAJOR COMPETITORS IN THE MARKET:

ZOMATO:

INTRODUCTION OF ZOMATO

Zomato is an Indian restaurant search and discovery service founded in

2008 by Deepinder Goyal and Pankaj Chaddah. It currently operates in 24

countries.

It provides information and reviews on restaurants, including images of menus

where the restaurant does not have its own website.

• Our team gathers information from every restaurant on a regular basis to

ensure our data is fresh. Our vast community of food lovers share their

reviews and photos, so you have all that you need to make an informed

choice.

• Building amazing experiences around dining.

Starting with information for over 1 million restaurants (and counting)

globally, we're making dining smoother and more enjoyable with services like

online ordering and table reservations.

• Enabling restaurants to create amazing experiences.

With dedicated engagement and management tools, we're enabling restaurants

to spend more time focusing on food itself, which translates directly to better

dining experience.

HISTORY OF ZOMATO:
In November 2010, the brand was renamed as Zomato. The restaurant

search and discovery platform began it’s operations under the name,

Foodiebay.

By 2011, Zomato launched in Bengaluru, Pune, Chennai, Hyderabad and

Ahmedabad. With the introduction of .xxx domains in 2011, Zomato also

launched zomato.xxx, a site dedicated to food porn. The company

launched a print version of the website content named, "Citibank Zomato

Restaurant Guide", in collaboration with Citibank in May 2012, but it has

since been discontinued.

In September 2012, Zomato expanded overseas to the United Arab

Emirates, Sri Lanka, Qatar, the United Kingdom, the Philippines, and

South Africa.

In 2013, the company launched in New Zealand, Turkey, Brazil and

Indonesia with its website and apps available in Turkish, Brazilian

Portuguese, Indonesian and English.

In April 2014, Zomato launched its services in Portugal, followed by

launches in Canada, Lebanon and Ireland the same year.

 The acquisition of Seattle-based food portal Urbanspoon marked the

firm's entry into the United States, Canada and Australia, and brought it

into direct competition with Yelp, Zagat and OpenTable.

In February 2017, Zomato in a company's blog, explained the concept of

cloud kitchen. With its cloud kitchen, the company will help the

restaurants to expand their presence without incurring any fixed costs.

In September 2017, Zomato claimed that the company had "turned

profitable" in the 24 countries it currently operates in. Furthermore,

Zomato announced that the "zero commission model" is to be introduced

for partner restaurants. Zomato narrowed down its losses by 34% to ₹389

Cr for thefinancial year 2016-17, from Rs 590.1 Cr crorein the previous

year 2015-16.

On 10 December 2018, a video went viral which showed a food

deliverer eating directly out of the orders he had to deliver. In the video,

the person can be seen repacking the food after eating it. The company

said it was a "rare" incident and it will launch measures to prevent that

from happening again.

UBER EATS:

INTRODUCTION OF UBER EATS:

Uber Eats is an American online food ordering and delivery platform launched by Uber in 2014
and based in San Francisco, California.
HISTORY OF UBER EATS:
Uber Eats' parent company Uber was founded in 2009 by Garrett Camp and Travis
Kalanick.[4][5] The company made its foray into food delivery in August 2014 with the
launch of the UberFRESH service in Santa Monica, California.[6] In 2015, the
platform was renamed to UberEATS,[7] and the ordering software was released as its
own application, separate from the app for Uber rides.[8][9] Its London operation
opened in 2016.[10] In August 2018, Uber Eats changed its flat $4.99 delivery fee to a
rate that is determined by distances.[11] The fee ranges from a $2 minimum to an $8
maximum.[ In November 2018, the company announced plans to triple its workforce
in its European markets. As of November 2018, the company reported making food
deliveries in 200 cities in 20 countries in EMEA markets.[10]
In 2019, Uber Eats announced that it will deliver food to customers by drones,
starting in summer 2019,[16] and partnered with Apple on the release of the Apple
Card.[
On January 21, 2020, Zomato announced the acquisition of Uber Eats India in an
all-stock acquisition. As part of the deal, Uber would own 9.99% stake in Zomato
and Zomato would gain all the users of Uber Eats.[22] At the time of the deal, Zomato
was valued at roughly $3.55 billion.[23]
On January 28, 2020 it was reported that Uber Eats no longer had exclusive delivery
rights for McDonald's in the United Kingdom, as the fast food company had
partnered with British-based food-delivery company Just Eat.[24] The company had
already lost its exclusive delivery rights with McDonald's in the United States the
year before.[25]
CHAPTER-III

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY:

Research by definition is “A careful

investigation or inquiry especially through search for new facts in any branch
of

knowledge”.

Research methodology constitute of research methods, selection, collection of

research

methods used in the content of research study and explanation of a particular

methods of

techniques.

Objective of the study;

1. To study the socio-demographic characteristic of the respondent.

2. To identify the customer satisfaction of Andavar halwa shop in

Thiruvaiyar.

3. To study the customer’s awareness regarding the taste and preference of

the shop.

4. To analyses the customer opinion regarding product, price, and promotion

activities
an various characteristics.

5. To give suitable suggestion to the shop.

Scope of the study;

The present research analysis his a wide scope, it covers various aspects which
are useful

in several ways to various people.

It helps to find out the leading halwa shop provides in Thiruvaiyar at

present.

It shows the various for selecting a particular halwa shop.

Data collection;

Data is set of information collected by\ different means subject to analysis

for a definite purpose.

Types of data;

While deciding about the method of data collection to be used for this study
the

researcher kept in mind for two types of data. They are,

Primary data,

Secondary data.

Primary data;

With the aim of the formal questionnaire with personal face interview the
researcher had gathered
the data for this project. This first part of the questionnaire deals with the
personal characteristics

of the respondents. The second part of the questionnaire deals with the respect
to halwa shop.

Secondary data;

The secondary data are these data or information collected from the
secondary sources. These

secondary sources. There secondary sources may be both internal as well as

external in chapter.

The internal sources refers to information that already exists within the
company or unit studied.

The sources may consist of both private and public document it may be
published or unpublished

in nature.

Research design;

A research design is the arrangement of t5he conditions for collection and

analysis of data in a manner that aims to combine relevance to the research

purpose with

economy in procedure.

Research type;

Descriptive research;

Descriptive research is defined as a research method that describes the

characteristics of
the population or phenomenon that is being studied. This methodology focuses
more on

the “what” of the research subject rather than the “why” of the research
subject.

In other words, descriptive research primarily focuses on describing the

nature of

a demographic segment, without focusing on “why” a certain phenomenon

occurs. In

other words, it “describes” the subject of the research, without covering

“why” it

happens.

Characteristics of descriptive research;

The term descriptive research then, refers to research questions, design of the

research and data analysis that would be conducted on that topic. It is called
an

observational research method because none of the variables that are part of
the research

study are influenced in any capacity.

Some distinctive characteristics of descriptive research are:

1. Quantitative research: Descriptive research is a quantitative

research method that

attempts to collect quantifiable information to be used for statistical analysis

of the

population sample. It is an popular market research tool that allows to collect

and
describe the nature of the demographic segment.

2. Uncontrolled variables: In descriptive research, none of the variables are

influenced in

any way. This uses observational methods to conduct the research. Hence, the
nature of

the variables or their behavior is not in the hands of the researcher.

3. Cross-sectional studies: Descriptive research is generally a cross-sectional

study where

different sections belonging to the same group are studied.

4. Basis for further research: The data collected and analyzed from
descriptive research

can then be further researched using different research techniques. The data
also can

help point towards the types of research methods are to be used for the
subsequent

research.

Research instrument;

A research instrument is a tool used to collect, measure, and analyze data

related to your

subject. Research instruments can be tests, surveys, scales, questionnaires, or

even

checklists.

Questionnaire;

A questionnaire is a research instrument consisting of a series of questions for

the
purpose of gathering information from respondents. The questionnaire was
invented by

the Statistical Society of London in 1838.

Population of the study;

All the members of the Thiruvaiyar town are treated as the population of this
study.

Sampling size;

The sample is selected from the population. We have taken sample size as 50.

Probability sampling;

Probability Sampling is a sampling technique in which sample from a larger

population

are chosen using a method based on the theory of probability. For a

participant to be

considered as a probability sample, he/she must be selected using a random

selection.

Types of Probability Sampling

Simple Random Sampling. Simple random sampling is the easiest form of

probability

sampling. ...

Stratified Random Sampling. Stratified random sampling is also known as

proportional

random sampling. ...

Systematic Random Sampling. ...

 Cluster Random Sampling.

Statistical tool used;

Percentage analysis

Chi-square

Coefficient of correlation

Weighted average method

Regression analysis

The statistical tools used for this study is percentage analysis.

Percentage analysis;

Percentage analysis is the method to represent raw streams of data as

a percentage (a part

in 100 - percent) for better understanding of collected data. Percentage

Analysis is

applied to create a contingency table from the frequency distribution and

represent the

collected data for better understanding.

Percentage of respondents = No. of. Respondents \ Total respondents X 100.

Research limitation;

It is for sure that your research will have some limitations and it is normal.
However, it is

critically important for you to be striving to minimize the range of scope of

limitations

throughout the research process. Also, you need to provide the

acknowledgement of your
research limitations in conclusions chapter honestly.

It is always better to identify and acknowledge shortcomings of your work,

rather than to

leave them pointed out to your by your dissertation assessor. While discussing
your

research limitations, don’t just provide the list and description of

shortcomings of your

work. It is also important for you to explain how these limitations have
impacted your

research findings.

Your research may have multiple limitations, but you need to discuss only
those

limitations that directly relate to your research problems. For example, if

conducting a

meta-analysis of the secondary data has not been stated as your research
objective, no

need to mention it as your research limitation.

Limitation of the study;

Research limitations in a typical dissertation may relate to the following

points:

1. Formulation of research aims and objectives. You might have formulated

research

aims and objectives too broadly. You can specify in which ways the
formulation of

research aims and objectives could be narrowed so that the level of focus of
the study
could be increased.

2. Implementation of data collection method. Because you do not have an

extensive

experience in primary data collection (otherwise you would not be reading

this book),

there is a great chance that the nature of implementation of data collection

method is

flawed.

3. Sample size. Sample size depends on the nature of the research problem. If
sample

size is too small, statistical tests would not be able to identify significant
relationships

within data set. You can state that basing your study in larger sample size
could have

generated more accurate results. The importance of sample size is greater in

quantitative

studies compared to qualitative studies.

4. Lack of previous studies in the research area.

Literature review is an important part of any research, because it helps to

identify the

scope of works that have been done so far in research area. Literature review
findings are

used as the foundation for the researcher to be built upon to achieve her
research

objectives.

However, there may be little, if any, prior research on your topic if you have
focused on
the most contemporary and evolving research problem or too narrow
research problem.

For example, if you have chosen to explore the role of Bitcoins as the future
currency,

you may not be able to find tons of scholarly paper addressing the research
problem,

because Bitcoins are only a recent phenomenon.

5. Scope of discussions. You can include this point as a limitation of your

research

regardless of the choice of the research area. Because (most likely) you don’t
have many

years of experience of conducing researches and producing academic papers

of such a

large size individually, the scope and depth of discussions in your paper is
compromised

in many levels compared to the works of experienced scholars.