Evaluation Of The Impact Of Customer Satisfaction On The Performance Of Maruti Suzuki’s Swift Desire Model In India

Problem Statement

This study will identify the impact of consumer satisfaction on the performance of the Suzuki’s Swift Desire model in India.  Consumer satisfaction is one of the key aspects of the success of the organization as it increases repeat purchasing of the products. Globalization has increased the competition in the Indian market with the emergence of global giants in the automobile industry as it has established free trade. The consumers that have had their expectation met will promote the company product to other consumers and product review helps in gaining new consumers and increasing sales. In this report, the issues have been identified and research objectives have been developed based on it. The research questions have also been developed based on the research question and provide justification for choosing this research topic. The critical analysis of different literature will be used to develop the hypothesis in the study to address the research problem. The methodology will be developed in accordance with the research problem along with the budget, schedule, and timeline of conducting the research.

Maruti has recalled the production of new units of swift desire, one of the most popular models due to faults and numerous complaints made by the consumers. The performance of Maruti Suzuki does not reach its expectation and have incurred some losses in the past year due to the issues faced in the Maruti swift desire model. However, as the organization offers a large number of products to the consumers and uses their differentiation strategy to gain a competitive advantage in the market (Pal, 2018). However, the exact impact of consumer satisfaction on a particular product has not been identified in other studies so the study will be focused on consumers of Maruti Suzuki and particular product swift desire. Majority of the studies have considered customer satisfaction as a dependent variable whereas the impact of other factors such as employee motivation, branding, and product performance have been evaluated. However, in this study, customer satisfaction has been taken as an independent variable and its impact on the performance of the organization and a particular product will be identified.

The aim of the study is to evaluate the effect of the consumer satisfaction on the performance of swift desire. The study will identify the different elements of customer satisfaction and product and company performance. The influence of the elements of the customer satisfaction will be evaluated on the elements of the product performance. This will facilitate in identify the exact relationship between both the variables. The objective of the study are as follows:

• To identify the different elements of consumer satisfaction in Maruti Suzuki
• To identify the different elements of performance of the company in Maruti Suzuki
• To examine the relationship between consumer satisfaction and performance of the company in Maruti Suzuki
• To provide recommendations for improving the performance of the product

Aim and Objectives/Research Questions

Research Question

• What are the different elements of consumer satisfaction in Maruti Suzuki?
• What are the different elements of performance of the company in Maruti Suzuki?
• What is the relationship between consumer satisfaction and performance of the company in Maruti Suzuki?

This research topic has been selected as none of the research has not be addressed the impact of the customer satisfaction on the performance of the organization and the product.  This is a specific study which will address the recent issues faced by Maruti Suzuki to identify the performance of Maruti Suzuki which has not been addressed in any of the previous studies.  

The study is expected to provide an output which addresses all the research objectives and questions. The influence of consumers satisfaction on the performance of the company, Maruti Suzuki is expected to be derived along with key factors of consumer satisfaction will be identified that are essential for improving the consumer performance.

Customer satisfaction 

As stated by Rodriguez, Peterson and Ajjan, (2015), customer satisfaction has been viewed diversely by diverse researchers and it can be considered as the amalgamated result of the psychological reaction, evaluation and consumption of consuming or availing a particular product or service. Zablah et al., (2016) opined that customer satisfaction can be defined as the availability of more benefits than the cost and it can be considered as the perception of the expected product and product received determines the level of customer satisfaction.  Satisfaction of the consumers is one of the main aspects of identifying and forecasting future revenue of an organization.  The consumers that are satisfied with their products tend to move to different products offered by other companies in the market. () argued that satisfaction of the consumers is directly related to the performance of the organization and profitability. This means that increase in consumer satisfaction can drastically enhance the profitability and performance of an organization (Saeidi et al., 2015). This is the reason that majority of the companies have oriented towards the consumers where they aim to provide the consumers with the best possible service.  Various researchers have shown that there has been significant relationship between consumers satisfaction and organizational performance. This is the reason that expectation of the consumers and the needs and wants are taken into consideration while developing a product or service. Jung and Yoon, (2015) states that heart of modern marketing theory is providing the consumers with possible service. Customer satisfaction not only impacts the performance of the organization but establishes a long-term relationship between the consumer and the company. This facilitates improving the market share and consumer base and attain sustainability.  Customer satisfaction has also been considered as a parameter of examining and evaluating the performance of any organization. Customer satisfaction has varied benefits attached to it which helps in overall development of the organization.

Organizational performance 

Justification and Potential Output of the Research

According to Kanyurhi and Bugandwa Mungu Akonkwa, (2016), the performance of any organization is evaluated based on various parameters such as profit, market share, service quality, company image, consumer turnover and sales turnover. These factors are instrumental indicators of the growth of any organization and provides accurate review in detail of the organization’s performance.  As stated by Meesala and Paul, (2018), the profit margin of any organization is dependent on the level of satisfaction that the consumers are receiving.  This shows that profit is one of the performance evaluation components. On the other hand, Fu and Deshpande (2014) stated that service and product quality are crucial aspects of understanding the performance of the organization as it is directly linked to the satisfaction level of the consumers. Tzokas et al., (2015) opined that market share of the organization is determined the consumer loyalty and percentage of consumer segment using the services and products offered by an organization on regular basis. The image of the company is also enhanced by the consumer satisfaction due to increase in use of digital media where reviews of products and services are usually considered by other consumers.  This shows that there is high level of transparency about the products and services offered by any organization due to the reviews on social media pages and blogs. Therefore, maintaining high level of customer satisfaction is essential for sustainable business (Kim, Li & Brymer, 2016). However, the common mistake is the fact that organizational performance and profitability is considered to be the same thing but profitability is only just a component of organizational performance.

Impact of customer satisfaction on organizational performance 

The discussion from various literatures show that consumer satisfaction has high impact on the performance of any organization. Jung and Yoon (2015) states that ability of an organization to understand the needs and wants of the consumers is essential creating sustainable growth and competitive advantage. The performance of any organization will be determined based on their ability to satisfy the consumers. The internal cost of marketing increases if the organization is unable to retain their products and consumers switch due to lack of satisfaction from the organizational offerings.  According to Meesala and Paul, (2018), evaluation of the consumer satisfaction provides a clear picture of the shortcomings of an organization and the reason for lack of growth and profitability. Empirical studies have revealed that Amazon is the market leader in ecommerce segment only due to their customer centric business approach. This helps them to cater to all the needs and wants of the consumers and provide high level of consumer satisfaction. This is similar for Apple as quality of the products offered and the service that the consumers receive has developed the niche market segment and made Apple the market leader in their segment.

Hypothesis Development

Hypothesis 1	H01:  There is no impact of customer satisfaction on profitability of Maruti Suzuki H11:  There is no impact of customer satisfaction on profitability of Maruti Suzuki
Hypothesis 2	H02:   There is no impact of customer satisfaction on sales turnover of Maruti Suzuki H12:  There is no impact of customer satisfaction on sales turnover of Maruti Suzuki
Hypothesis 3	H03:  There is no impact of customer satisfaction on service quality of Maruti Suzuki H13:  There is no impact of customer satisfaction on service quality of Maruti Suzuki
Hypothesis 4	H04:  There is no impact of customer satisfaction on company image of Maruti Suzuki H14:  There is no impact of customer satisfaction on company image of Maruti Suzuki
Hypothesis 5	H05:  There is no impact of customer satisfaction on consumer turnover of Maruti Suzuki H15:  There is no impact of customer satisfaction on consumer turnover of Maruti Suzuki

Conceptual Framework and Hypothesis Development

The methodology chapter will follow Saunder’s research onion to identify the research philosophy, research approach, data collection, and data analysis method, research design, sampling, validity, reliability and ethical consideration (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015).  This study is an applied research where the findings of the study can be used by the managers of Maruti Suzuki to make improvements to the performance of the organization. This study uses experimental method where observations, predictions and establishing casue and effect relationship is considered.

There are types of research philosophies in the market are realism, interpretivism, positivism, and pragmatism. Research philosophy describes the framework for collecting and evaluating data. In this current study, pragmatism has been used as the research philosophy which accepts all theories if they are reinforced by valid actions (Da Veiga 2016). Pragmatism is the correct method as the study will aim to use mixed method where both primary and secondary data will be used.  The main aim of the pragmatist approach is the addressing both the aspect by taking both positivist and interpretivist view in the study.  

In this study, the study will use the deductive approach as it will facilitate in conducting hypothesis testing.  This study will use quantitative method to collect and analyse it (Singh, 2015).  The data will be collected using surveys where the questions will be asked to the existing consumers and another set of survey will be conducted where employees of the organization will be the target audience.  Secondary data will be collected from annual reports of the Maruti Suzuki and government website ( www.mospi.gov.in) where data will be available regarding the company performances.  There will be comparison between the primary data and secondary data to make the study more reliable and valid.

The collected data will be analysed by using the statistical tool named Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). SPSS will be used to derive inferential statistics where initially Cronbach’s alpha will check the reliability of the collected data.  Then the collected data will be analysed using descriptive statistics which will consist of response frequencies, mean, median, mode and standard deviation (Quinlan et al., 2019).  The quantitative analysis will also consist of developing correlation using Pearson’s correlation and linear regression model to evaluate the degree and nature of relationship between the variables, customer satisfaction and performance of the organization.

Conclusive and exploratory are the two research designs used in research studies. IN this current study, conclusive research design has been used to establish the cause and effect relationship between both the variables (Meyers, Gamst & Guarino, 2016). Conclusive research design can be further divided into descriptive and causal research design. In this study, the causal research design will facilitate in observing the phenomenon and establishing the cause and effect relationship between the variables.

Sampling is the method of reducing the sample population when the chosen population is huge. This facilities ease in calculation, decreases cost and time of conducting the research. In sampling, the first step is identification of target population and in this study, the employees and consumers of Maruti Suzuki are the same population. The next step is the identification of the sampling frame which will comprise of the lower level employees of the organization and the consumers purchasing swift desire (Palinkas et al. 2015). The final step is identification of the sample size and in this study 50 consumers and 50 employees will be surveyed using close ended questions. In this study, the primary data will be collected using simple random sampling where the population sample will be selected randomly so that all the elements have the opportunity of getting selected. The secondary data will be collected using non-probabilistic sampling where data will be chosen as per availability and convenience from annual reports, government websites and other web articles. This method is known as convenience sampling.

In this current study, anonymity of the respondents will be kept to protect their privacy. The respondents will be made aware of the purpose of conducting the research so that they have full knowledge regarding the objective of the study (Flick, 2015). The survey questionnaire will not consist of any words that are discriminatory or abusive. The study will not manipulate the collected data to develop false results.

The chapter one of the study will consist of the introduction which introduce the proposed study along with the research objectives, hypothesis and research questions. The second chapter will consist of the literature review section which will critically analyse the existing literature in this research topic to identify the literature gap. This literature gap is addressed as the objective in the study. The third chapter is the research methodology which   will describe the suitable research methods that will be used to collect the data and analyse it effectively. The fourth chapter of the study is the findings and data analysis where the collected data will be represented in form of tables, graphs and inferential statistical variables to determine the objective of the study.  The fifth chapter of the study is the conclusion and recommendation which will link the objectives and findings. This chapter will also provide suitable recommendations as per the findings and analysis.

The budget of the total project is $ 8000 consisting of all the phases and activities. The research articles and government websites are not freely accessible subscription of such websites and purchase of articles is required in some cases. The primary data will be collected by survey and conducting a survey will be expensive as each of the participants will be provided a voucher so that they agree to be a part of the project. Moreover, the cost of conducting online survey will require registration into websites like survey monkey where premium account is required. The collected data will be evaluated using statistical tool which has to be purchased and is not available for free.

Purpose	Expenditure
Literature review	$ 1000
Data collection	$5000
Analysis of the data	$2000
Total estimated budget	$8000

Project schedule

Task Name	Duration	Start	Finish
Research plan	47 days	Wed 8/1/18	Thu 10/4/18
Selection of the research topic	6 days	Wed 8/1/18	Wed 8/8/18
Identifying suitable topic for research	4 days	Wed 8/1/18	Mon 8/6/18
Discussion with professor	1 day	Tue 8/7/18	Tue 8/7/18
Finalize topic	1 day	Wed 8/8/18	Wed 8/8/18
Milestone 1: Topic selected	0 days	Wed 8/8/18	Wed 8/8/18
Collection of secondary data	9 days	Thu 8/9/18	Tue 8/21/18
Search for articles, peer reviewed journals and web articles	5 days	Thu 8/9/18	Wed 8/15/18
selecting the relevant sources	4 days	Thu 8/16/18	Tue 8/21/18
designing with the layout of the research	3 days	Thu 8/16/18	Mon 8/20/18
Milestone 2: collection of secondary data completed	0 days	Tue 8/21/18	Tue 8/21/18
Literature review	11 days	Wed 8/22/18	Wed 9/5/18
Examination and analysis of the collected data	5 days	Wed 8/22/18	Tue 8/28/18
annotated bibliography	2 days	Wed 8/29/18	Thu 8/30/18
Forming literature review	4 days	Fri 8/31/18	Wed 9/5/18
Milestone 3: review of literature completed	0 days	Wed 9/5/18	Wed 9/5/18
Research methodology and Analysis	5 days	Thu 9/6/18	Wed 9/12/18
Choosing the Appropriate Research Techniques	3 days	Thu 9/6/18	Mon 9/10/18
Validate the methods	2 days	Tue 9/11/18	Wed 9/12/18
Check for reliability	1 day	Tue 9/11/18	Tue 9/11/18
Milestone 4: Selection of research methods completed	0 days	Wed 9/12/18	Wed 9/12/18
Data collection from primary sources	7 days	Thu 9/13/18	Fri 9/21/18
Conduct survey of consumers and employees	3 days	Thu 9/13/18	Mon 9/17/18
Sampling to select respondents	1 day	Tue 9/18/18	Tue 9/18/18
Data analysis using SPSS	2 days	Tue 9/18/18	Wed 9/19/18
collect secondary data from annual reports and government websites	2 days	Thu 9/20/18	Fri 9/21/18
Data analysis using SPSS	2 days	Thu 9/20/18	Fri 9/21/18
Milestone 5: primary and secondary data collected and analyzed	0 days	Fri 9/21/18	Fri 9/21/18
Conclusion of the Study	9 days	Mon 9/24/18	Thu 10/4/18
Develop rough paper	5 days	Mon 9/24/18	Fri 9/28/18
Checking with the professor	2 days	Mon 10/1/18	Tue 10/2/18
Final project development and submitting it	2 days	Wed 10/3/18	Thu 10/4/18
Milestone 5: Project concluded	0 days	Thu 10/4/18	Thu 10/4/18

 

References 

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Flick, U. (2015). Introducing research methodology: A beginner’s guide to doing a research project. Sage.

Fu, W., & Deshpande, S. P. (2014). The impact of caring climate, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment on job performance of employees in a China’s insurance company. Journal of Business Ethics, 124(2), 339-349.

Jung, H. S., & Yoon, H. H. (2015). The impact of employees’ positive psychological capital on job satisfaction and organizational citizenship behaviors in the hotel. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(6), 1135-1156.

Kanyurhi, E. B., & Bugandwa Mungu Akonkwa, D. (2016). Internal marketing, employee job satisfaction, and perceived organizational performance in microfinance institutions. International Journal of Bank Marketing, 34(5), 773-796.

Kim, W. G., Li, J. J., & Brymer, R. A. (2016). The impact of social media reviews on restaurant performance: The moderating role of excellence certificate. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 55, 41-51.

Meesala, A., & Paul, J. (2018). Service quality, consumer satisfaction and loyalty in hospitals: Thinking for the future. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 40, 261-269.

Meyers, L. S., Gamst, G., & Guarino, A. J. (2016). Applied multivariate research: Design and interpretation. Sage publications.

Pal, M. 2018. Maruti Suzuki issues recall for 1,279 models of 2018 Swift and Dzire. Retrieved from https://www.indiatoday.in/auto/cars/story/maruti-suzuki-issues-recall-for-1-279-models-of-2018-swift-and-dzire-1295489-2018-07-25

Quinlan, C., Babin, B., Carr, J., & Griffin, M. (2019). Business research methods. South Western Cengage.

Rodriguez, M., Peterson, R. M., & Ajjan, H. (2015). CRM/social media technology: impact on customer orientation process and organizational sales performance. In Ideas in Marketing: Finding the New and Polishing the Old (pp. 636-638). Springer, Cham

Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., & Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of business research, 68(2), 341-350.

Singh, K. D. (2015). Creating your own qualitative research approach: Selecting, integrating and operationalizing philosophy, methodology and methods. Vision, 19(2), 132-146.

Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.

Tzokas, N., Kim, Y. A., Akbar, H., & Al-Dajani, H. (2015). Absorptive capacity and performance: The role of customer relationship and technological capabilities in high-tech SMEs. Industrial Marketing Management, 47, 134-142.

Zablah, A. R., Carlson, B. D., Donavan, D. T., Maxham III, J. G., & Brown, T. J. (2016). A cross-lagged test of the association between customer satisfaction and employee job satisfaction in a relational context. Journal of Applied Psychology, 101(5), 743.