Faculty of Higher Education

Group Assignment Cover Sheet

UNIT CODE HI6008

UNIT NAME BUSINESS RESEARCH PROJECT

DUE DATE

GROUP NUMBER

GROUP MEMBER DETAILS - This section must be completed for all contributing
members.
Members not listed will not receive marks.

Members Contact No. Role

Gurdeep Singh Scanning and summarizing articles. Assigning
roles and managing the meetings.
Abishek Sourcing secondary data, developing logical
flow and report writing.
Rahma Zahoor Identifying networking , formatting and editing
and referencing.

DECLARATION
We certify that:

☐ This assignment is our own work.

☐ We have acknowledged and disclosed any assistance received in its preparation and cited all sources from
which data, ideas, words (whether quoted directly or paraphrased) were taken.

☐ This assignment was prepared specifically for this unit only.

☐ The reference list is truthful and accurate and in Holmes approved referencing style.

STUDENT SIGNATURE / NAME

(only one required on behalf of group)
Benefits of network membership in promoting business collaboration between
members of cotton industry in Australia

Contents
Introduction:..........................................................................................................................................................2
Literature Review:..................................................................................................................................................4
Research Question:................................................................................................................................................5
Problem statement:...............................................................................................................................................5
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................................................7
Explanation:...........................................................................................................................................................9
Referencing:.........................................................................................................................................................10

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Introduction:

Cotton is a sustainable, biodegradable, and completely natural resource. The world's third
largest exporter of cotton is Australia. Since Customers demand high-quality cotton, which is
produced in large quantities. Cotton is mostly grown on family farms in eastern Australia's
inlands. Cotton processing areas are being investigated in northern Australia. Cotton is an
important and growing part of Australia's economy. Growers, cotton gins (which separate
seed from lint), and a variety of related support industries, such as crop consultants, input
manufacturers, farming contractors, transportation and warehousing facilities, cotton
classers, merchants, and cotton researchers, are all part of the industry. Cotton production is
a dynamic process involving the careful transformation of natural resources, human capital,
and other inputs into cotton lint and seed. Therefore he impact of the cotton production is
considered as an important part of the daily lifestyle of Australian public. (Australian Cotton,
2020)

PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. is an Australian cotton sustainability platform that will help
to: • Set sustainability goals in the areas that are most relevant to industry and stakeholders.
• Develop a cross-industry plan to meet these objectives.

• Effectively communicate with stakeholders about decisions and development.

PLANET. PEOPLE. PADDOCK. is not a brand or a mandatory norm.

It's a structure that recognizes that sustainability is an essential aspect of doing business and
lays out a road map for the entire industry to benefit from continuous improvement in
sustainability.
Eight environmental, economic, and social issues have been identified as being most
relevant to consumers, cotton growers, industry organizations, regional communities, and
other stakeholders after a process of consultation and evaluation. (Paton, 2018)

Each subject is related to one or more of the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals
(SDGs). The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are widely acknowledged as offering a
global road map to a better and more sustainable future for everyone. To read more about
how the industry contributes to these targets, click on the SDG logo.
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Members of the network form a community of organizations dedicated to ending domestic
abuse. Collaborative groups take part in progressive boards that set the agenda for the whole
provider sector. We have empasised the same in this comprehensive report as we discuss
how collaboration in business means that the how people in a business can work together in
order to achieve a common goal and to fulfill the business purpose. In order to go for a good
business collaboration one need to focus on technology, culture as well as governance.
Business networking is defined as " a formal group formed to facilitate the networking of
independent members so that relationship building and relationship maintenance can take
place with a view to delivering mutually beneficial community and business focused
outcomes through working together" (Lake 2004, p.152-3). The reason for selecting this topic
is to identify the benefits that cotton industry of Australia can achieve by promoting business
collaboration in its network membership. As this is an IT world so the use of communication
tools and other tools to work together is very important. With the help of his topic the research
team members will have idea of business collaboration in cotton industry of Australia. The
benefits that were to identify were developing the sense of community as well as legitimacy,
communicating with minded people, improving strategic position as well as creating private
leadership. These benefits were considered important in promoting business collaboration
between members of Cotton industry of Australia. (Jones, 2018)

Literature Review:
Although collaboration has many advantages for consumer goods producers and retailers, it
is much too common for joint ventures to fail. Partner organizations should take these six
steps together to ensure success. The incentive for retailers is to shift the pain upstream to
their manufacturers by passing on price reductions and pressuring them to shoulder a larger
share of the costs. On the supply side, however, manufacturers are finding it increasingly
difficult to absorb additional costs as volatile input prices place downward pressure on
margins and the marketing investment needed to distinguish branded goods from private-
label competitors rises. Consumer packaged goods companies can significantly increase
their chances of collaboration by being more deliberate about the areas they choose to

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collaborate on, the partners they choose, and how they execute their collaboration efforts.
Based on our experience, we've established six key steps that can make the difference
between a fruitful and a frustrating partnership.It is stated that in case of formal groups in
order to maintain the networking as well as relationships they work on independence bases,
that group does not need any official order to manage the networking in their businesses.
Accessing technology, economies of scale, reduction in transaction cost. reduce risk,
lowering the design as well as development stages are considered as benefits that network
membership gain in promoting business collaboration between members (Lake,P.D., &
Erwee,R.)

In Australia the Cotton Innovation Network was formed in 2012 , the aim of this network was
to bring together the organizations working in the industry in order to enhance the
collaboration and to improve the RD&E strategies. This network was used to focus on
research work done by the cotton industry and to observe whoever is involved in the
development of industry, to identify if any further collaboration is required. The goal of his
network was o work together in order to achieve the best results that will play role in growth
as well as will wider the sector (Finney,B., 2018).

Collaboration is often used by businesses to over their shortcomings in their own capabilities.
In practice, the most successful partnerships capitalize on strengths rather than compensate
for flaws. For example, different manufacturers can attempt to partner with a major retailers
in the cotton industry to boost its own forecasting efficiency. It can also benefit the retailer
point of sale data to accumulate better capabilities to make sure that competent efficiency is
achieved. Entering in collaborative partnerships help in gaining competitive advantage for all
industry players in the cotton field. It also helps in effective and better use of data to increase
the revenues as well to increase the efficiency targets by helping in better utilization of market
information. It also overcomes meeting the demand even if there are capacity constraints to
increase the revenues for industry as a whole. (Jones, 2018)

Through collaborative partnerships and sharing of networks, the companies can save energy,
improve processes, discover product developments, save money, increase efficiency, and
foster corporate values by managing and enhancing environmental, social, and economic
performance within the comfort of their own supply chains. According to research, the

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business case for supply chain sustainability is becoming stronger among the industry
players if effective tools for collaboration between the companies is strongly adminstered.

Research Question:
 In order to explore to what scope the benefits are being perceived in Cotton Industry of
Australia?
 What further competencies can be used by the members in order to develop a good
networking?

Problem statement:
The problem statement for Benefits of network membership in promoting business
collaboration between members of cotton industry in Australia will be :

"How the benefits for promoting the business collaboration are used in order to strengthen
the business connections, get fresh ideas and develop long lasting personal relationships
and to generate ideas for achieving a common goal of business and fulfilling the purpose of
business." (Chair, 2020)

Example:

we would now quote an example how collaboration in the cottton indutry has helped the
industry to survive and thrive under the strong cooperation and networking. The major cotton
ginning companies and the planting seed supply (grower owned) business recognized the
need to reinvest income from production into research during the establishment process of
the new cotton industry (from the mid 1960s). In 1972, these companies formed the
Australian Cotton Farmers' Research Association Inc. (later merged with Cotton Australia
Ltd.) on behalf of all cotton growers, and began collecting a voluntary levy (25 cents per bale
in 1972) to finance research. (Jones, 2018)

ACGRA was in charge of the direct proposal based investment process until the Rural
Research Councils were formed under DAFF administration in the mid-1980s. On an annual
basis, ACGRA considered investment proposals from the CSIRO, NSW, and QLD
Departments of Primary Industries. A research committee of grower members considered
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and prioritized projects, which were then funded directly to the research provider.
The pioneering cotton growers described the objects of their research association as follows
in 1972:

a) Encourage, advance, and promote the interests of cotton growers in Australia through
research;

b) raise funds from its members through grants or other sources for the advancement of the
Association and its objects;

c) publish, distribute, and disseminate matter arising out of and connected with the
Association and its objects; d) publish, distribute, and disseminate matter arising out of and
connected with the Association and its various members. This effort for the importance of
pooled funding to invest in research and the extension of research results cemented a clear
industry value on R&D to educate and identify best practices in cotton production. It also
showed that collaborative efforts can help the industry significantly as a whole.

Many individual growers have committed to hosting and/or conducting on-farm trials to either
specifically assist researchers or to validate study results in regions and circumstances where
the initial research was not performed. This strong industry R&D culture is a key component
of this strong industry R&D culture.

Another example of collaboration and innovation is Kahl family. This hows that through
collaborative management the Kahl family near Wee Waa in New South Wales is
demonstrating how a cotton farm can be carbon neutral, if not carbon positive. The Kahls
have minimized farm emissions by using a holistic rotation method that includes growing
cotton in a four-year rotation with corn, wheat, and mungbeans, as well as grazing livestock
on soils that aren't ideal for cropping. They also maximize sequestration by ensuring that
vegetation zones are healthy. There are 839 hectares of vegetation on their ‘Redbank' lands,
including 153 hectares of super-sequestering River Red Gum riparian forest.
Their property sequesters approximately 1,185 kilograms of carbon per hectare over and
above the carbon released as a result of their cautious land management decisions.
Other advantages to the farm include decreased deforestation, pollution, and pests. This al
was made possible through the collaborative pool of resources that was given for the
research purposes.
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Conclusion
Collaboration among the cotton industry in Australia is part of the knowledge management
and sharing system that helps the industry to survive on a whole. It can also be described as
a system or technique that helps visualize, evaluate, and share the flow of knowledge, such
as social networking. After information has been collected and systematized, it must be
disseminated within the company. However, since the world has globalized, there must be
management of resources and knowledge. This is mostly defined as the collection of abilities
that require various individual companies to assess and use the information provided to them
to take competitive advantage for industry along the globe. In short it helps the cotton
industry in Australia to build a strong network which shall allow the industry to be more
competitive than their counter parts around the world. Therefore it helps in competitive
advantage and better utilization of resources. (Chair, 2020)

Collaboration among the industry takes a long term perspective. It does not focus on inner
competition only rather it also make sure that the industry is in much competitive position
than the other industry players.

Collaboration among the industry also helps in identification of risks and other threats that are
common to all the industry players. They are to be taken as a common viewer and since the
target and goals of all the players are same, they are better equipped to unite and then help
towards fighting the common enemy. It helps in transfer of knowledge management as well
as industry risks to achieve long term goals and sustainable growth. Australia's cotton
industry is booming. Cotton is a lucrative commodity, with an annual value of more than 1.5
billion dollars. Cotton management, on the other hand, is becoming more complicated as a
result of the need to maintain consistent crop production while making the best use of water
and soil resources, employing efficient pest and weed management, and limiting
environmental impacts Innovative agricultural computer-based decision support systems
(DSS) are seen as critical to the implementation of sustainable farming systems (Hearn &
Bange, 2020). According to a review of the literature, despite increasing knowledge of
computers for farm management, there is concern about the low demand for agricultural
DSS. Farm women are also reluctant to use computers for farm management, according to
surveys, and their decision-making positions in rural society are uncertain.

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to help the rural sector withstand recent economic and environmental crises Moving toward a
knowledge-based farm management style through the use of technology is one of these
creative strategies. Stewart (1997) discovered that farm women's lack of trust as data
controllers meant that they frequently avoided responsibility for using information systems for
decision-making purposes in a case study on the gendering of interactive communication
technologies (ICTs) in use on Australian family cotton farms by using collaborative among the
players of the industry. Evidence suggests that through collaboration more and more
advancement is being made in the management capabilities and creative farming practices.
Team charter:

Members Contact No. Role

Gurdeep Singh Scanning and summarizing articles.
Assigning roles and managing the
meetings.
Abishek Sourcing secondary data, developing
logical flow and report writing.
Rahma Zahoor Identifying networking , formatting and
editing and referencing.

Explanation:
1. Team's agreed goals and timeline:
The team agreed on the goals of added benefits that cotton industry of Australia can
achieve by promoting business collaboration in its network membership.
2. Responsibility of activity:
Gurdeep Singh acted as the team leader. He distributed the tasks among the team
members as per the list provided in the cover page. He was also responsible for
scanning nad researching for suitable articles. The availability of secondary data was
the responsibility of Abishek. He also summarized the benefits achieved by the cotton
industry for the cotton industry. He was also the first proof reader and made sure that
the team was following the timelines. Rahma Zahoor was responsible for identifying
the networking in cotton industry of Australia and along with this she also wrote the
introduction and conclusion.
3. Team roles:

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 Gurdeep was the team leader who was also responsible for managing team. Abishek
was the coordinator of the team who played role of a main writer. Rahma Zahoor wrote
and modified the report alongwith editing and writing the references properly.
4. Team's expectation regarding meeting
The team leader always expect from his team members to be on time, complete the
dead line, to attend the meeting and to give his best.
5. Process followed by members in case of absence
If any team member is not able to attend the meeting than he has to inform others the
reason of absence and to submit his task before or after the meeting as he feels
comfortable.
6. team's expectations regarding the quality of preparation
The team members always expects from others to give best in the role played by
each member in the research work.
7. Team's expectations regarding team part played in research
Team members expect from each other o do good research by doing depth literature
review about the research topic and by collecting relevant information. each team
member should have proper and detailed information about the research topic.
8. Contribution expected from members
Each member is expected to contribute on equal level in the research work and should
have grip on the research topic so that they can contribute in the final meeting of team
on their best.
9. Managing member who's role is below expectations
If any team member is working on below average than he will be firstly guided by other
members to how to work even if after guidance he is not still able to work properly then
he will be given the final warning and he will be strictly told to work properly otherwise
he will himself be responsible for his results.

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Referencing:
1. Arku, G. (2002). Collaboration in industry: Empirical findings among small electronics
manufacturing firms in the Greater Toronto Area. GeoJournal, 57(4), pp.325–336.

2. Chair, R. (2020). Australian Cotton Industry. [online] . Available at:

https://www.cottonaustralia.com.au/assets/general/Publications/Sustainability-
Reports/2019-Australian-Cotton-Sustainability-Report-Full-Report-2.pdf.

3. Cotton Industry Research. (2017). Nature, 105(2652), pp.840–840.

4. Finney, B. (2018). Collaboration key to cotton industry RD&E. Australian

Government,

5. Cotton research and development corporation.

6. http://www.ruralrdc.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Collaboration-the-key-to-

7. cotton-industry-RDE.pdf

8. Jones, C.F. and Bader, L. (2018). World Developments in the Cotton Industry, with
Special Reference to the Cotton Piece Goods Industry in the United States. Economic
Geography, 2(2), p.322.

9. Lake, P. & Erwee,R. (2010). Benefits in a business networking

group.https://eprints.usq.edu.au/876/1/Lake_Erwee_ANZAM_05_Benefits_businessne
twork_v3.pdf

10. Lake . (2020). Business networks within a regional industry cluster.

11. Paton, B. (2018). Collaboration among industry, civil society, and government for
sustainability: a framework for identifying opportunities. Progress in Industrial Ecology,
An International Journal, 3(1/2), p.148.

12. Stiller, W.N. and Wilson, I.W. (2014). Australian Cotton Germplasm Resources.
[online] www.intechopen.com. IntechOpen. Available at:
https://www.intechopen.com/books/world-cotton-germplasm-resources/australian-
cotton-germplasm-resources [Accessed 13 May 2021].

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