The Role Of Budget Planning In Delivering High Quality Events

Background on Event Management and Event Planning

Event management and event planning have been high on demand for the past few decades. There are various types of event take place for different purpose and the event management companies are hired for managing the most high profile or large scale events, such as, festivals, ceremonies, conferences, formal parties, weddings, conventions or concerts. Event planning requires the knowledge about the brand or company and identifying the target audience for them, which helps in devising the concept of the event and arranging the technical aspects prior to the launch of the event (Getz 2012). Among all the factors, budget is one of the most important factors that play a major role in event planning. This research paper aims to study the role of budget planning in determining the quality of the event, with a focus on different factors of event management. To conduct this study, the researcher has chosen to conduct a survey on 50 employees of a well known, London based, event management company, Story Events, who are in this business since 2013, and has already carved a niche for themselves in the event industry of London (Storyevents.co.uk 2018). 

Event planning is the most important task under event management. An event can be small scale or large scale, formal or informal. The event industry comprises of events like to Olympics to a wedding ceremony, a business conference to a charity function. Events are hold for many different purposes. The event management industry has grown rapidly across the world as organizations or individuals cannot often organize the large scale or formal events on their own. Event planning comprises of many stages, such as, budgeting, scheduling, acquiring permits, arranging and coordinating transport and other facilities, arranging speakers, organizing vendors for food, décor, security etc. (Ickman et al. 2016). Since, every event is different in nature and type, the process of planning and implementation should be different too. Event management companies are hired mostly for the large scale, corporate events, which cannot be organized by few individuals (Getz 2014). The success of these events depends on many factors and the event management companies are given the task of arranging and coordinating those important factors in a most efficient manner to deliver a successful high quality event. However, budget planning is one of the most common and crucial parts of event planning irrespective of the size or type of event. There are many factors in event planning that determine the dimensions as well as the quality of the event, and budgeting is one of them. Through this paper, the researcher will address the issue of how far the budget of an event, out of all the other factors, can affect the quality of the event.

Factors Required for Successful Event Management

The aim of the researcher is to find out how far the budget planning of an event can influence the quality of an event. Since, the success and quality of every type of event depend on many factors, such as, efficiency of human resources, permits, tastes and preferences and on budget, the researcher wishes to highlight how far the budget planning is important in determining the quality aspects of an event.

The objectives of the research paper are:

• To examine the factors that is important for a successful event planning and management
• To evaluate the factors required for a good quality event
• To assess the role of budget in delivering an event with a high quality

1) What are the factors that are required for successful event management?

2) What factors determine the quality of an event organized by an event management company?

3) How far the budget planning is important in delivering a good quality event?

H0 (null hypothesis): Budget planning has no significant impact on the quality of an event.

H1 (alternate hypothesis): Budget planning has significant impact on the quality of an event.

The rationale of this research is to assess the weightage of budget planning in delivering a good quality event. The event can be of any size or any type. It can be organized by the individuals involved in it or by event management companies. Event management in the modern world also includes sustainability issues. The event management companies must consider the environmental issues while planning for an event. The processes include economic, social and environmental considerations and must be incorporated since the beginning of the planning (Jones and Jones 2014). These processes are expensive and must be taken care of depending on the budget. The technology is also important in event planning. As developed technologies are available, the companies must pay a good amount of money to avail the best technology. Even some event planning software is available for the aid of the event planning companies. However, many factors come together to make an event successful, and among all of them, budget of the event is extremely important. Without proper budget planning, an event cannot be organized. Efficiency in budget planning is required to include all the necessary actions and aspects of the event, and a high quality event can only be delivered when every minute details is given attention and addressed in the best possible manner (Getz 2014). Through this research paper, the researcher will present how the budget planning can contribute in efficient event planning and how the efficiency of budget planning can be improved so that the events turn out to be not only of high quality in terms of price, content, arrangements, facilities, but also include sustainable practices of event management.

Budget Planning in Event Planning

Chapter 1 is the introductory chapter, in which the researcher introduces the research topic, its aim and objectives, research hypotheses and research rationale to the researcher. In chapter 2, a comprehensive literature review is presented. The researcher presents the knowledge gathered from the extensive study of the literatures by other scholars on the topics related to the subject of the research in this chapter. Chapter 3 presents the research methodology, which illustrates the processes to be adopted by the researcher to address the research questions and test the hypotheses. In chapter 4, the analysis of the collected data is presented and in the last chapter, conclusion is drawn and recommendations are given to address the issues found through the research study.

This chapter presents an overview of the relevant theories and concepts in the context of the topic of the research. The researcher studies various literatures and other scholarly articles and presents the knowledge in this chapter. Various nuances and aspects of the research topic are addressed by the researcher in this chapter. This helps in introducing the research topic to the readers along with its context. The points of views of the other scholars are explored to gain the knowledge about the theories related to the research topic (Machi and McEvoy 2016).

‘Event’ is a word, derived from a Latin word ‘Eventus’ meaning outcome or result, or ‘eventum’, meaning occurrence. Hence, it can be said that event refers to the occurrence of something, which may or may not be related to the everyday living (Conway 2014). The temporary occurrences can be planned or unplanned and the difference is usually denoted by adding the word ‘special’ in front of the term ‘event’. In the event industry, special events are those that represent a temporary and planned occurrence happening outside the daily life routine of the people (Della Lucia 2013). As the event industry has been growing in the past few years, the demand for event planning and event management has grown very rapidly across the world.

Events are of various types. There are business events, charity events, public events, private events etc. Under these broad categories of events, there are all the more different types of events, such as, conferences, trade fairs, wedding ceremonies, birthday parties, success parties, sports events, entertainment events, charity show, university events, festivals and fairs, religious events, cultural events, such as, exhibitions, and various types of public events; and many such big events lead to event tourism also. When a large scale event, such as, sports tournament, attracts people from different locations to visit the place, event tourism occur, which benefits not only the sports industry but also the travel and tourism industry of that place (Morgeson 2017).

Factors Determining the Quality of an Event Organized by an Event Management Company

Event management is the application of business and management studies in planning and organizing an event (She, Tong and Chen 2015). The event studies include various subjects, such as, event planning and management, outcomes of the events, experience, processes of the events, meanings, motivations and attitude of the audiences and importance, roles and impacts of the events in the culture and society (Müller 2015). Event planning is one the most essential and basic part of event management as it depends on many external factors, which determine the quality and success of the event. 

The first thing that needs to be considered for event planning and management is the purpose of the event. Every event has a purpose. The event managers and planners must understand the requirement of the clients and their purpose of hosting an event. After that, the objectives of the event must be outlined, which includes, number of people attending, number of participants, number of sponsors, donations and grants, profitability and goals or desired outcomes, media exposure, repeat visitors, merchandizing, value of the food and beverages, and the number of the vendors and exhibitors (Ziakas 2013). According to the basic rules of event planning and management, the event planners must set the objectives of the event corresponding to the purpose of the event as this would help in focusing on the desired outcomes. These factors must be framed as per the requirements of the clients. It is a business, which has scopes for high customization. The discussions with the customers are extremely important to know about their tastes and preferences to allocate resources and design the event accordingly (Kim and Feamster 2013).

The designs and allocation of resources are highly varied as the structure and requirements of the events are different. The scope of the events is dependent on the available resources. This includes the availability of the human resources, physical resources, such as, tools, equipment and infrastructure, and financial resources. Apart from that, the timing of the event is crucial as the planners must see that it does not clash with similar events at a nearby place (Richards 2013). The other important factors of event planning are the selection of theme, venue, event audience, food and beverage, décor, and financial considerations. The evaluation and allocation of financial resources should be done at the very beginning of the event planning, as this plays a major role in determining the scope and quality of the event. Hence, it can be said that, the factors that affect the event management are demographic, technology, economical, culture and values. 

Importance of Efficiency in Budget Planning for High-Quality Events

As an event depends on many factors to be organized, there are many critical factors for its success. The critical success factors of an event include many formal as well as informal factors and management concepts. Those are as follows:

• Professionalism, which includes education, culture, training, learning, of the human resources
• Financial resources, as inadequate funding or mismanagement of the funds can lead to failure of the event
• Market competition, that is, the level of existing competition in the event industry, especially in the region where the event to be organized and substitutability of the event (Preston 2012)
• Forms of assistance for the event development and prosperity, available through donation, charity, grants etc. and through human resource support (Yeoman et al. 2012).

According to Getz (2014), there is serious implication about the saturation and the event life cycle responsible for event management and failure. However, the competitiveness, overall demand and financial considerations are the three major factors that influence the success of the event management. 

Event management is a discipline or branch of management studies and the theories of organizational development, strategy, human resource management, marketing and leadership are applicable in this field also. However, relevant theory should be applied depending on the context of the event management. The event planning that requires heavy marketing plans, the theories on marketing should be applied. Hence, context specific research is required while applying any theoretical knowledge for event planning (Broudehoux and Sánchez 2015). The event managers and the planners should have the knowledge for understanding the purpose and requirement of the event and therefore apply the relevant framework for the planning and allocating resources.

The theories of event management and planning arise from various courses of study, such as, anthropology, sociology, philosophy, economics, management, communication, political science and tourism and leisure. Anthropological exchange theory addresses the symbolic value of events in cultures. Social exchange theory addresses the attitude and perception of people towards the event, from which they derive any benefit or value (Yeoman et al. 2012).

The event industry of the UK is rapidly growing. According to a report by Eventbrite (2018), in 2017, the UK event industry was worth of £42.3 billion. The annual registration fees by the event attendees collected around £65,943. Top 10 event management companies in UK saw a turnover of over £3.5 billion in 2017, and the industry created 570,000 full time jobs. 35% of the UK visitor economy is accounted to the event industry. The report also showed that every year around 1.3 million business events are held in UK, with more than 85 million event attendees. Conferences and meetings collect revenue around £19.9 billion, exhibitions and trade fairs collected £11 billion, followed by corporate hospitality and corporate events (£1.2 billion), outdoor events (£1.1 billion), cultural events and festivals (£1.1 billion), music events (£1.3 billion) and sport events (£2.3 billion) (Mkto.eventbrite.com 2018). 

This chapter illustrates the methodology or process of the research that the researcher has followed for this study. Research methodology includes research philosophy, research approach, strategy, design, data collection process, sampling, data analysis process and the timeline of the study. This represents the tools used to conduct the research, and processes used to collect the data and analyze it. Research methodology comprises of the basic steps of the researcher’s plan to answer the research questions.

Overview of the Research Methodology

Research philosophy or paradigm is the set of assumptions about the data collection and analysis process required for the research work. The appropriate philosophy was chosen based on the source, nature and growth of the knowledge. Among the four major types of research philosophy, namely, positivism, realism, interpretivism and pragmatism, the researcher had chosen the positivism philosophy. This philosophy mainly focuses on application of scientific or statistical calculations of the data to reach a logical and rational conclusion. It mainly considers large sample of data and follows a high structured process (Idowu 2017). The other philosophies were not chosen because the researcher collected data from 50 respondents and applied statistical methods to obtain a scientifically proved result. The other philosophies do not allow the researcher to apply the scientific method.

Research approach represents the direction to be followed by the researcher to conduct the study. Three types of research approaches are there, namely, deductive, inductive and abductive. The deductive approach is followed when the researcher wants to test the validity of the hypotheses or assumptions on the basis of some established theories. Under inductive approach, the researcher focuses on generating new theories from the observations and their analysis (Behfar and Okhuysen 2018). Abductive approach enables the researcher to choose the most relevant possible explanation from a set of potential explanations to the research problem on the basis of the characteristics of the observations (Osman et al. 2018). In the present research study, the researcher has chosen deductive approach as he aimed to test the hypothesis on the impact of budget planning on the quality of the event organized. There is no need to generate new theories or choose one solution from the set potential solutions to the research problem.

According to Bryman (2015), research strategy refers to the framework, exhibiting the plan of the researcher about proceeding with the study in the proper direction to get the desired outcome in a most logical manner. Surveys, case studies, experiments, grounded theories, archival research, ethnography, narrative inquiry and action research are some of the most common research strategies (Neuman and Robson 2014). Under the deductive research approach, case studies, experiments and surveys are most commonly used. In the given study, the researcher chose the case study and survey strategy for collecting the data and studying the research phenomenon in a more specific manner. Story Events was chosen as the case study company, as it is a well established event planning and management company, based in London.

Analysis of Collected Data

This enables the researcher to address the research question in most logical and unambiguous manner based on the evidences obtained from the study. Explanatory and exploratory are two types of research design. The researcher chose explanatory research design for this research, in which the research phenomenon was explained or tested on the basis of traditionally established theories by other authors. This is opposite to the exploratory approach, in which the researchers need to explore the research topic with a completely new perspective and without a preconceived notion and generate a new theory (Ioannidis et al. 2014). In the given research, the researcher needed to explain the impact of budget planning on the event quality, and this did not need to generate a new theory of study, hence, explanatory approach is most suitable.

The researcher collected primary data to conduct the research study. As the paper deals with a qualitative aspect of the research topic, the secondary data about the budget statistics would not have been helpful to analyze the impact of budget planning on the quality of the event. Primary data was collected from the employees and some direct contractors of Story Events, London and this helped the researcher to get an insight about the research topic from the point of view of the people directly involved in event management (Cheung and Pennell 2014). A survey was conducted on the employees with 9 close ended questions. The responses were collected on a five point Likert scale value, which were converted into numerical values for analytical purpose. 

Purposive sampling technique was  followed too choose all the 21 employees and 29 contractors of Story Events, UK. These contactors are directly associated with the company who help to manage events in places in the country, away from London. This is a type of non-probability sampling, in which the samples were chosen with a special purpose (Smith 2015). Since, studying the entire population is not possible, the researcher had to choose a subset of the population by applying the sampling technique. This sample of 50 respondents was asked questions for the survey and the response data was analyzed using quantitative method.

The researcher adopted the quantitative method of data analysis for evaluating the response data. The response data were converted into numerical values and statistical functions were applied on them to get the desired outcome. The researcher used SPSS version 20 tool to apply the statistical functions on the data. Frequency analysis, reliability test, cross tabulation and correlation analyses have been performed to analyze the collected data to test the research hypothesis and get a valid conclusion.

	Month
Task	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
Strategy planning
Framework preparation
Literature review
Primary data collection
Conducting survey
Data analysis
Presenting the findings and discussion
Providing the conclusion
Thesis submission

Conclusions and Recommendations

Table 1: Gantt chart

(Source: Author)

Similar to any other researcher, this paper also has some ethical considerations. The researcher must maintain the originality of the paper by citing the proper information sources; else there will be instances of plagiarism, which is a serious offence in the educational world. Informed consent must be taken from all the participants of the survey and the data should be used only for educational purposes.

This chapter illustrates the process of data analysis and its findings. The researcher applied all statistical calculations on the data by using SPSS tool. The survey questionnaire contained 9 questions and all were close ended questions. Among those, 3 questions focused on demographic data and the rest focused on subjective factors, that is, factors influencing the quality of events and the role of budget planning in the event management. The response values were converted into numerical values, with 1 denoting strongly disagree and 5 denoting strongly agree. Frequency analysis, reliability test, cross tabulation and correlation analysis were performed on the data. The findings are presented below.

Demographic data refers to the factors depicting the socio-economic features of the community (Rushing et al. 2016). In this research, the age group, gender, and work experience of the respondents in the Story Events, London, are considered while doing the survey. The work experience is important because, with experience, the perspectives of the individuals’ change and knowledge increase. This helps in reflecting upon the most suitable answer option to the questions. The frequency analyses are as follows. 

Age group
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	20-30 years	17	34.0	34.0	34.0
31-40 years	21	42.0	42.0	76.0
41-50 years	11	22.0	22.0	98.0
51 years and above	1	2.0	2.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

Figure 2: Age profile of the participants 

Among the 50 respondents, 17 people belong to 20 to 30 years, majority, that is, 21 people are within the age of 31 to 40 years, 11 people are within 41-50 years and only 1 person is above 51 years. Hence, it can be inferred that mostly the younger generation participated in the survey and provided their viewpoints. 

Gender
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Female	25	50.0	50.0	50.0
Male	25	50.0	50.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

Figure 3: Gender profile of the participants

It is seen that there is equal number of male and female participants in the survey. 

Work experience
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	1-5 years	27	54.0	54.0	54.0
6-10 years	9	18.0	18.0	72.0
Less than 1 year	14	28.0	28.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

Figure 4: Work experience with Story Events 

Regarding the work experience with Story Events, London, since the company was established in 2013, none of the respondents have more than 10 years experience with the company. 54% (27) have 1-5 years of experience, 28% (14) have less than 1 year experience and 18% (9) have more than 5 years of experience. 

Sustainability in Event Planning

This section contained questions on the subjective factors, that is, the elements that have significant relation with the topic of the research. The first two questions focused on selecting the most important factor for successful event management and the factors contributing in the quality of an event. Rest of the questions addressed the perception of the participants about the role of budget planning in delivering a quality event. The analyses of the factors are as follows. 

Most important factor for successful event management
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Budget	23	46.0	46.0	46.0
Location	5	10.0	10.0	56.0
Type of event	8	16.0	16.0	72.0
Food and beverage	3	6.0	6.0	78.0
Décor	1	2.0	2.0	80.0
Facilities and equipment	8	16.0	16.0	96.0
Layout and signage	2	4.0	4.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

Figure 5: Most important factor for event planning 

Regarding the question on the most important factor according to the participants for a successful event planning, 7 factors were chosen by the researcher and the factors were chosen based on the knowledge gained from literature review. Those factors are, budget, location, type of the event, food and beverage, décor of the venue, facilities and equipment and layout and signage. As per the responses, it is found that, 46% have said that budget is the most important factor, followed by facilities and equipment and type of the event, as reported by 16% for both. 10% said location is most important, 6% said its food and beverage, 4% responded with layout and signage and the rest said it’s the décor of the venue. Hence, from the pattern of the responses, it is said that majority have given importance to the budget as a crucial factor for event planning. 

Most important factor contributing in improving quality of the event
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Selection of programs based on customer preferences	12	24.0	24.0	24.0
Time and scheduling	5	10.0	10.0	34.0
Food and beverage planning	1	2.0	2.0	36.0
Budget planning	15	30.0	30.0	66.0
Quality of service	13	26.0	26.0	92.0
Venue decor	4	8.0	8.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

Figure 6: Most important factor contributing in improving quality of the event 

Quality of an event depends on many factors. The researcher selected 6 factors, which have significant impact on the quality of an event planned or delivered.  From the survey, it is seen that 30% selected budget planning, 26% selected quality of service. Among the other factors, 24% responded with selection of the event programs based on the preferences of the customers, 10% chose time and scheduling of the event, 8% selected décor of the venue and only 2%, that is, 1 person chose food and beverage planning.

Budget determines dimensions of event
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly disagree	2	4.0	4.0	4.0
Disagree	6	12.0	12.0	16.0
Neutral	4	8.0	8.0	24.0
Agree	18	36.0	36.0	60.0
Strongly agree	20	40.0	40.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

Figure 7: Budget determines dimensions of event 

Regarding the question on whether the budget of an event determines the size and other qualitative dimensions of an event, majority, that is, 40% strongly agreed while 36% agreed. Only 8% responded neutral, 12% disagreed and 4% strongly disagreed.

Budget is the only factor that can improve the quality of an event
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly disagree	6	12.0	12.0	12.0
Disagree	18	36.0	36.0	48.0
Neutral	11	22.0	22.0	70.0
Agree	10	20.0	20.0	90.0
Strongly agree	5	10.0	10.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

 Figure 8: Budget is the only factor that can improve the quality of an event 

On the question of whether budget is the only factor that can help in improving the event quality, 20% agreed and 10% only strongly agreed, while 36% disagreed, 12% strongly agreed and 22% remained neutral. Thus, it can be inferred that not many respondents consider budget planning as the only factor influencing the quality of an event. 

Efficient event planning can be done within a constrained budget
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly disagree	5	10.0	10.0	10.0
Disagree	8	16.0	16.0	26.0
Neutral	8	16.0	16.0	42.0
Agree	20	40.0	40.0	82.0
Strongly agree	9	18.0	18.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

Factors Impacting the Success of an Event

Figure 9: Efficient event planning can be done within a constrained budget 

The respondents were asked whether an efficient event planning is possible within a constrained budget. 40% agreed to that and 18% strongly agreed. 16% responded neutral, 16% disagreed and 10% strongly disagreed. It can be said that, the employees of Story events are efficient to produce a high quality event within a constrained budget. 

Human factors, such as, education and training on event management, are crucial for a quality event planning
	Frequency	Percent	Valid Percent	Cumulative Percent
Valid	Strongly disagree	3	6.0	6.0	6.0
Disagree	6	12.0	12.0	18.0
Neutral	16	32.0	32.0	50.0
Agree	18	36.0	36.0	86.0
Strongly agree	7	14.0	14.0	100.0
Total	50	100.0	100.0

Figure 10: Importance of human factors in event planning 

Regarding the question on whether, human factors, such as, education and training in event management play any role in quality event planning, it is seen that 36% agreed and 14% strongly agreed, while 32% responded neutral, 12% disagreed and 6% strongly disagreed. This indicates that, the opinion regarding the importance of human resource factors in event management.

Reliability Statistics
Cronbach’s Alpha	N of Items
.728	4

The reliability score is 0.728, which is greater than 0.7, the critical value of Cronbach’s alpha. The score is good and acceptable, that is, it indicates that the data is internally consistent (Bonett and Wright 2015).

Cross tabulation is used to analyze the relationship between two variables on the basis of the observations. It shows the break up analysis of the response data, one against the other. These are tables of data, presenting the response of the entire group and along with that of the subgroups (Silverman 2018). Three cross tabs were performed in this study, which relates the work experience of the employees with the most important factor in budget planning, the most essential factor required for improving the quality of the event planning and if efficient event planning is possible within a constrained budget. 

Most important factor for successful event management * Work experience Crosstabulation
Count
	Work experience	Total
1-5 years	6-10 years	Less than 1 year
Most important factor for successful event management	Budget	9	6	8	23
Location	3	2	0	5
Type of event	6	0	2	8
Food and beverage	2	1	0	3
Décor	1	0	0	1
Facilities and equipment	5	0	3	8
Layout and signage	1	0	1	2
Total	27	9	14	50

In the above table, cross-tab was performed with work experience as the column and important factor as the row. The frequency of the responses based on the work experience is shown in the table. It is seen that, people with experience of all types, have put emphasis on budget as the most important factor. It is followed by the type of event and facilities and equipment. 

Most important factor contributing in improving quality of the event * Work experience Crosstabulation
Count
	Work experience	Total
1-5 years	6-10 years	Less than 1 year
Most important factor contributing in improving quality of the event	Selection of programs based on customer preferences	5	4	3	12
Time and scheduling	3	1	1	5
Food and beverage planning	1	0	0	1
Budget planning	7	2	6	15
Quality of service	8	2	3	13
Venue décor	3	0	1	4
Total	27	9	14	50

In the above cross-tab table, it is seen that, among the all the factors contributing in the quality of event, people with all types of work experience with Story Events, have reported budget planning as the most crucial factor in improving the quality of an event. This is followed by quality of service and customized event programs. 

Efficient event planning can be done within a constrained budget * Work experience Crosstabulation
Count
	Work experience	Total
1-5 years	6-10 years	Less than 1 year
Efficient event planning can be done within a constrained budget	Strongly disagree	4	1	0	5
Disagree	3	1	4	8
Neutral	6	1	1	8
Agree	9	3	8	20
Strongly agree	5	3	1	9
Total	27	9	14	50

Here, it is seen that, people with more than 1 year of experience have agreed and strongly agreed that efficient planning of an event can be done within a constrained budget. This reflects the skills of the event management employees of the company to organize a good quality event at any budget.  

Correlation analysis was performed to find out the direction and strength of the linear relationship between two or more variables (Cohen, West and Aiken 2014). The four variables, on which the response values were collected on the values of five point Likert scale, were converted into numerical values, by using values 1 to 5, 1 denoting strongly disagree and 5 denoting strongly agree. Correlation analysis was performed on the values to find out if the variables have linear and dependent relationship among each other (Rocco et al. 2017). The result of the analysis is as follows. 

Correlations
	Budget determines dimensions of event	Budget is the only factor that can improve the quality of an event	Efficient event planning can be done within a constrained budget	Human factors, such as, education and training on event management, are crucial for a quality event planning
Budget determines dimensions of event	Pearson Correlation	1	.200	.661**	.474**
Sig. (2-tailed)		.163	.000	.001
N	50	50	50	50
Budget is the only factor that can improve the quality of an event	Pearson Correlation	.200	1	.274	.240
Sig. (2-tailed)	.163		.054	.094
N	50	50	50	50
Efficient event planning can be done within a constrained budget	Pearson Correlation	.661**	.274	1	.567**
Sig. (2-tailed)	.000	.054		.000
N	50	50	50	50
Human factors, such as, education and training on event management, are crucial for a quality event planning	Pearson Correlation	.474**	.240	.567**	1
Sig. (2-tailed)	.001	.094	.000
N	50	50	50	50
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).

The four factors taken for correlation analysis were the ones that focused different aspects of budget on the event planning and its quality. It is found that, all the four factors are positively correlated with each other. The value of the correlation coefficient is measured in terms of Pearson’s correlation coefficient, whose value ranges from +1 to -1, with 0.05 being the critical value (Puth, Neuhäuser and Ruxton 2014). In this table, the correlation coefficient values for all the variables are positive and greater than 0.05.

This chapter illustrates the discussion of the findings from the data analysis. In other words, the explanations of the findings are presented in this chapter with justifications and to present the verdict about accepting or rejecting the research hypothesis. The researcher performed frequency analysis of the variables, along with cross tabulation and correlation analysis answer the research questions and reach to the conclusion of either accepting or rejecting the hypothesis.

This was performed to see the pattern of the responses against each variable. The first three questions collected data about the age, gender and work experiences of the respondents with Story Events, London. This data was gathered with a purpose to understand the demographic pattern of the respondents. All these give the idea of how people perceive about the factors relevant to the research topic (Sandryhaila and Moura 2014). Work experience is crucial as that increases the knowledge about the industry and makes people have a better perspective about the business.

From the tables it is found that, people have mostly agreed to the variables, except on the question that asked whether budget is the single important factor in determining the quality of an event. A successful and high quality event depend on many factors, such as, budget, food and beverage, location, quality of service and many more. Only one factor cannot influence the entire event completely. Many factors should come together to deliver a well-planned and organized event and budget is one of those many factors.

Reliability test is conducted to test the internal consistency of the dataset. The validity of the dataset is tested in this method. The score is measured in terms of Cronbach’s Alpha value, which has the critical value of 0.7. A reliability score equal to or more than 0.7 is considered as an excellent score. In the given research study, the reliability test was performed on the last four variables, whose response were collected through the Likert scale values and were converted into numeric values of 1 to 5 for the purpose of calculation. The reliability score of the variables is 0.728, measured in terms of Cronbach’s alpha. Since, the score is more than the critical value of 0.7, hence, it is acceptable (Melchers and Beck 2017). It can be said, that the dataset is internally consistent. 

Cross tabulation analysis is performed to compare the categorical relationship between two mutually exclusive variables, that is, it measures the relationship between two variables when one variable is broken into the subcategories of the other variable under cross tab (Silverman 2018). In the given research, three cross tab analyses were performed, keeping ‘Work experience in Story Events, London’ as the column. This variable is important as it helps in gathering the best knowledge that comes with work experience. The row variables were the most important factor for successful events, most important factor contributing in the quality of event and if efficient event planning is possible within a constrained budget. In all the three cases, it is seen that, respondents who have more than 1 year of work experience have said that budget is one of the most important factors that contributes in making an event successful as well as increases the quality of the event. The experienced respondents also said that efficient event planning is possible within a constrained budget, although that requires knowledge and skills of the employees gained through education and training. Thus, it can be said that, budget planning is a very crucial part in any event planning.

Correlational analysis was performed on the four variables with numeric values, that is, on the variables which collected responses of the employees of Story Events, London on their perspectives about the role of budget planning in the quality of an event. It seen that all the four variables are positively correlated with each other, as the Pearson’s correlation coefficient values are all positive and significant. Hence, it can be said that, the factors chosen to throw light on the topic of the research had helped the researcher to answer the research questions in the most appropriate manner.

With the data analysis, its findings and explanations, it can be inferred that, there are many factors in an event planning and among all of those; budget is one of the most important ones. Budget helps in incorporating all the necessary things required to deliver a high quality event, in terms of arrangements of contents and programs, guests, venue décor, quality food and beverage, good quality of service, choosing the location etc. If sufficient budget is not allocated, it is difficult to deliver an event that would be of a good quality. At the same time, efficient budget planning is more important for improving the quality of an event. The respondents have reported that, in any event management, budget planning must be efficient to include all the other elements appropriately, so that, the quality of the event is high along with meeting the requirements of the customers. Thus, it can be said that the null hypothesis is rejected and the alternative hypothesis is accepted. In other words, budget planning has significant impact on the event management.

Conclusions and recommendations

The researcher presents the concluding remarks about the research in this chapter. A connection of the findings with the objectives is established in this chapter and the researcher places the arguments about the relevance of the findings. It is found from the data analysis that the null hypothesis was rejected, that is, budget planning has significant impact on the quality of the event planned and delivered. Going along with the research, some recommendations are provided on the basis of the issues found. The future scope of the study was also presented in this concluding chapter.

The first objective of the paper is to examine the important factors for an event to be successful. The researcher has found through the study of the literature that there are many factors that contribute in making an event successful. An event is an occurrence of something outside the daily routine of the individuals in a society. It is comprised of many tangible and intangible things, such as, the agenda or purpose, objective, venue and its accessibility, décor, food and beverage, budget, service, customer’s tastes and preferences in case of private events, such as, wedding ceremony, and many more. Every event has a purpose and a precisely defined expected outcome. For an event to be successful, all these factors should be arranged together in an efficient manner. The event planners and managers should make a proper outline of the plan and execute the plan by through efficient allocation of the resources. From the literature and the survey conducted to collect the data about the research topic, it is found that, majority of the respondents have chosen budget as the most important factor for a successful event, followed by the quality of service. It is to be noted that, if there is no sufficient budget, one cannot offer the best of all the products and services in the event, or even can arrange all the required things for the event. Along with that, the quality of services provided also determines the success of an event. If the organizers provide bad quality of service and facilities to the guests, it would bring failure for the event. Hence, budget planning and quality of services are crucial parts of event planning, which contribute majorly in the success of an event.

The second objective of the paper is to do the evaluation of the factors resulting in a god quality of event. From the study of the literature and observations, few factors were identified which are closely related to the quality of an event. It is a relative parameter as perspective differs from one person to the other. However, few common elements were identified by the researcher, which play significant roles in determining the quality of an event. Those elements are the selection of the programs of the events based on the customers, requirement and tastes and preferences, budget planning, time and schedule of the event, venue décor, food and beverage quality and the services offered. It is found that the participants in the survey, who are associated with the event industry of UK, had chosen budget planning as the most important factor, followed by the service quality and choosing the event as per the customer’s profile, requirement and preferences. An event can be of good quality if the customers and the guests derive satisfaction from it. That can be gained from the best quality of food and beverages served, most appropriate timing compared to other similar events in that particular region, efficient services.

Assessing the role of the budget in a good quality event is the third objective of the paper. The researcher collected data on different aspects of the budget planning from the employees of Story Events, a well known and popular event management company in London. The purpose of the survey was to find out how the budget of an event can impact the quality of the event. The researcher framed four questions that focused on the importance of budget regarding the determination of the dimensions of the event and if it is the only factor that helps in achieving a high quality of the event, possibility of efficient event planning with constrained budget and importance of human factors in efficient event planning. It is found that, the respondents have mostly agreed to the importance of budget and its efficient planning in all the above mentioned aspects. The human aspect is also very important in this regard, as it requires knowledge and training to plan and organize events efficiently and sometimes within a controlled budget. However, it is also found that the quality of the elements in an event is heavily dependent on the budget planning. The event managers should do efficient budget planning so that it can accommodate all the necessary factors within the resources available along with maintaining the best quality of the programs and the services. Hence, efficiency in budget planning is significant in delivering a high quality event.

Based on the observations and the analysis of the data collected through the survey, the researcher has found some issues that can arise during efficient budget planning for an event planning and organizing the event. To address those issues, the following recommendations can be followed.

• The event management companies should provide adequate training and hire people with degrees in event management. This would help in understanding the business requirement well and plan the event accordingly in the most appropriate manner.
• Event planning should be done based on the efficient allocation of the available resources, which includes budget allocation. All the requirements by the customer or the organizers must be met within the allocated budget, as budget is one of the most important factors determining the dimensions and quality of an event. In the cases of controlled budget, the planner must have the ability to choose the most important programs and other elements of the event that would serve to purpose of the event.
• During event planning, the event managers should also focus on the other factors, such as, timing, accessibility of the location, food and beverages to be served and choosing the programs to match with the purpose and objectives of the event. Understating the purpose of the event is necessary to make the event successful.

The research on the role of budget on delivering a high quality event has some areas whether further research can be conducted. The researcher has focused on budget planning as the major factor in achieving a good quality event, and for the study, only primary data was collected from 50 employees of Story Events, London. For the further studies, the researchers can increase the sample size to reduce further sampling error and gain perspectives from more people of the event industries, which can open up new areas of event management. Secondary research should also be done to validate the outcomes of the primary research. The researchers should also conduct studies that would concentrate not only on the budget planning, but also on other factors important for a successful event. 

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