Benefits Of Adopting Sustainable Business Ideas of Marks & Spencer

2. Introduction

2.1. Background

Marks & Spencer is an iconic retailer of quality goods from the Great Britain. Moreover, the organisation has been running based on a single slogan from 1953, “The customer is always and completely right!” (Esoimeme, 2020). The company has been observed to be popular for its wide variety of fashionable clothing items for every season (Brauner et al., 2015). Moreover, it’s limited-edition products during holidays adds to the fame of M&S. But, the concept of sustainability has a primary role to play here. Business sustainability is associated with the development of a strategy as well as a set of actions for the reduction of negative impact on society, environment, and communities. Based on this concept, M&S has been observed to have reset their Plan A to neutralize the impacts of upcoming climate emergencies. As per their website’s sustainability reports, M&S aims shift their singular focus on becoming a net zero business across all their operations and the entire value chain by 2023/40 (Cheong et al., 2023). This early adoption of sustainability strategy has been aimed to be made effective, 10 years prior to the implementation of the nations’ UK wide strategy.

2.2. Rationale

Since M&S is one of the pioneers in sustainable business practices, a research on the long term benefits of adoption to such sustainable business practices can set an example for other sustainability goals of other business organisations also. In addition, it has been also observed that several benefits of long term sustainability such as cost savings, brand loyalty, and regulatory compliance are essential. However, these benefits and their effects have still not been researcher for the long term sustainable business plan of M&S.

2.3. Summary

Based on the above discussed background information and rationale, a research study on the investigation of long-term benefits of adopting sustainable business practice of M&S will be conducted. The following chapter will review the existing piece of literature based on the topic of the research study.

3. Initial Literature Review

3.1. Current thinking on sustainability in business

Sustainable business practices can lead to increase in likelihood of entrepreneurs to integrate both environmental and social considerations in their decision making processes. According to a research paper, sustainable business practices by using digital technologies can drive business transformation as well as highlight the influence if both business sustainable orientations and regional socio-environmental contexts (Basit et al., 2024). Moreover, another research evidence has talked of the fact that eco-innovation as well as sustainable business practices in the UK revealed that both external and internal factors influence their designs (Plečko and Bradač Hojnik, 2024). In other words, it can be said that the product or process eco-innovations and green innovation systems were the main determinants of business performances in small and medium sized companies. Furthermore, another research paper by a group of researchers has revealed that re-use of clothing materials was a significant method of reducing the impacts of fashion sectors on environment (Almeida and Wasim, 2023). This qualitative research paper has revealed that various challenges existed in terms of enhancements in clothing longevity, which can be neutralized by increasing knowledge, process, skills, and infrastructure in the fashion sectors. The overall clothing life-cycle needs to be better assessed to enhance the production, distribution, and distribution phases, which will impose lesser negative impacts on the environment. Moreover, it has also been observed that there is a strong relationship between long term sustainable business practices and brand loyalty (Goworek et al., 2023). In other words, it can be said that another specific research study has highlighted the fact that long term sustainability is beneficial because it promotes transparency, ethical engagement, and authenticity. These benefits are essential in developing long term brand loyalty that comes from an increase in trust among consumers. However, it can be said that as consumer expectations evolve, all companies must align their long term sustainability strategy with their expectations and changing regulatory landscapes.

3.2. Focus on retail industry

Consumers have been observed to look for products that cause minimal harm to the environment and bring about positive impact on the society. According to a research study, a connection between suppliers and consumers formed by retail initiatives can help to reduce, reuse as well as recycle (Oxborrow et al., 2020). In addition, retailers can also leverage their unique positions associated with the supply chain and enable as well as put more focus on supply chain as well as social issues also. Moreover, another research study has highlighted the connection between sustainable reverse supply chains and circular economy in multiple retail sectors of the UK (Vadakkepatt et al., 2021). Adoption of long term sustainable business strategies has been observed to be helpful in identifying vulnerabilities, challenges, and challenges that come against these practices. Moreover, circular practices have been observed to be helpful in promoting loss prevention, sustainability, and profit optimization that aligns well with the reverse supply chain of retail organisations. However, as per another research study, M&S did not have any initial plan for an innovation in their business model (Morgan, 2022). In other words, they did not have any target of adopting any sustainable business strategy. But, as time passed, due to the changing customer dynamics and business needs, they came up with their sustainable business plan known as the Plan A. Moreover, it was also observed that the initiative was built on the business sources and competitive advantage of M&S only and might not be replicable by other firms. The approach was named as the Use Chain approach and highlighted novel opportunities for sustainable consumptions in clothing retail sectors in the UK.

Another research study has highlighted that UK retail companies are integrating sustainability into their businesses (Frei et al., 2020). They are doing this to maximise their financial and non-financial returns from their business operations. Moreover, it has also been found that the sectors are also focussed on communicating their decisions regarding sustainability to their stakeholders. Furthermore, it has also been seen that the UK retail sectors are actively engaged in redesigning their strategies to address that are associated with the root causes of unsustainability. However the research study was conducted considering the retail companies listed on the FTSE100. Thus, a major drawback of this specific evidence was that it did not talk about the sustainable approaches of M&S specifically.

Furthermore, another group of researchers have emphasized that there are various challenges that affects the sustainable developmental goals of retail companies (Jones and Comfort, 2019). The commentary research has highlighted that challenges including strategic SDG prioritization, issues related to metrics and measurement, communication on the position of retailers, and abiding by the financial commitments to achieve the SDGs. In the competitive trading environment, transitions between economic growth and sustainability is something that guides the growth of retail sectors in the UK.

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3.3. Gaps in current literature

Although there are some studies that focused on analysing the benefits of adopting sustainable business practices in UK retail sectors, most of them were focused on short term benefits (Frei et al., 2020; Vadakkepatt et al., 2021). Moreover, other studies talked of the benefit of sustainable business practices from other retail sectors on maintaining brand loyalty and customer satisfaction. Thus a research gap exists in analysing the long term benefits of sustainable business practices on M&S.

The proposed research study will aim at filling this existing research gap by exploring the long term benefits of the sustainable initiatives of M&S. In addition, primary focus will be given on the non financial outcomes that include market differentiation, employee satisfaction, and customer loyalty.

4. Research problem, questions and objectives

4.1. Problem statement

Although there are research works on sustainability and its effects on business performances across UK retail sectors, the benefits of adopting long term sustainable practices on M&S have still not been studied (Goworek et al., 2020; Jones and Comfort, 2019). In addition, it has been also observed that they already have an existing sustainable business plan named the Plan A. Although this strategy is widely acknowledged, the plan has still not been evaluated by any of the previous research studies. Therefore, the focus of the proposed research will be to solve this existing problem and identify the benefits of investigating the long term benefits of adopting sustainable business strategies in M&S.

4.2. Research questions

The research questions are –

1. What are the long term benefits of adopting sustainable practices in M&S?

2. How can these benefits impact the reputation, operational efficiency, employee engagement, and customer loyalty in M&S?

3. What are the recommendations for other UK retail sectors based on the learnings from M&S’s approach?

4.3. Objectives

1. To examine the long term non-financial and financial benefits of M&S via their sustainable business practices.

2. To examine the long term impact of sustainability on the reputation and customer relationships in M&S.

3. To analyse the operational efficiencies as well as cost savings achieved via sustainable business practices in M&S.

4. To give recommendations for other specific companies that follow similar sustainable business practices in UK.

5. Research Methodology

5.1. Research design

A secondary qualitative design will be followed by the proposed research study. This specific research design was selected because of the availability of several non-scholarly sources of evidence. Moreover, it has also been found that this research design was well aligned with the topic of the research study. In addition, there are various governmental reports, academic literature, and case studies available on sustainable business practices of M&S (Chatfield, 2020). These data are also publicly available, which makes it easier to be included for analytical purposes in the proposed research. Moreover, secondary qualitative research will allow the use of in-depth analysis of existing data that offers various insights on the study topic. This method will also be beneficial in understanding the multi-dimensional benefits which emerge on an over time basis (Akcam et al., 2019). Furthermore, the analysis will be better than a quantitative analysis because the latter is based on analysing and commenting on immediate metrics associated with the study topic. The proposed research will also explore how sustainable business practices can contribute to the success of long term business. On an additional basis, the thematic analysis will also provides insights on how the sustainability affects the non-financial aspects of a business also. Thus, the conduction of a secondary qualitative research study for the proposed research can be said to be justified.

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5.2. Data collection

As the proposed research study is based on a qualitative research design, qualitative data will be collected for the proposed research. However, the collected data will be secondary qualitative in nature. In other words, no data from scholarly sources such as journal articles and research papers will included in the proposed research. No journal based database will be used to collect data for the proposed research. Moreover, data sources will include sustainability reports, annual reports, news articles, as well as academic journal articles that are focused on M&S. Furthermore, documents of Plan A, audits of sustainability and third party documents on M&S will also be considered for data collection purposes in the proposed research.

The process will aim at gathering secondary data by leveraging existing studies based on qualitative design (Cheong et al., 2023). Case studies can also be selected which provide external perspectives on the benefits of long term sustainability of M&S. Moreover, secondary data will only be chosen in relevance to research questions selected for the proposed study. This can ensure the fact that the proposed study specifically contributes for answering the research question. The selected design will be effective in designing recommendations for other retail sectors, based on the findings of the proposed study.

5.3. Data analysis

Since the proposed research study will be based on a qualitative research design, a thematic analysis will be the best data analysis method that can be chosen for the proposed research. This is because of the fact that qualitative research study data are generally analysed by thematic analysis only (Ruggiano and Perry, 2019). In addition, thematic analysis also helps in the generation of key themes that can directly answer the research questions. Moreover, each of themes represents the study objectives that make it easier for readers to understand the way in which the research has met fulfilled its purpose. Long term benefits such as operational efficiencies, brand loyalty, customer satisfaction, and long term financial health of the M&S can be the expected themes. In addition, thematic analysis will also aid in uncovering specific insights based on both the non-financial and financial outcomes that include customer loyalty, brand reputation, and operational efficiencies (Kiger and Varpio, 2020). Furthermore, it has also been observed that this specific research method is also effective for secondary qualitative studies since it provides a flexible way of analysing large volumes of data. These data will be contained in different sources that include case studies, sustainability reports, and external assessment documents too. Thus, the collected data needs to be categorised into meaningful themes so that they can directly address the research objectives. Along with this advantage, thematic analysis will also enhance the understanding of how the sustainability initiatives create value with time.

In addition, a narrative synthesis can also be conducted. This synthesis is generally conducted for quantitative research studies, but will be useful for the proposed research also. The narrative synthesis method can be used to compare between post-sustainability and pre-sustainability reports that can demonstrate long term benefits of adopting sustainable business practices by M&S (De Fina, 2021). This comparison analysis can further prove whether the sustainable practices were effective in improving the functioning of the company or not.

On a summarising note, it can be said that unlike quantitative analysis, thematic analysis does not specifically focus on analysing numerical or measurable data. Therefore, it will be easier to be performed by a single research and can also provide scopes of comparing and contrasting different themes from different sources. Since two types of data analyses processes will be used, there will be very minimal chances of missing important analytical areas during the analysis. Thus, it can be concluded that the selection of both thematic and narrative synthesis for different purposes will be justified for the proposed research.

6. Ethical considerations or Implications

Ethical considerations are significant for both primary and secondary research studies. However, the considerations have been observed to differ between primary and secondary research studies.

6.1. Potential ethical issues

No direct involvement of live participants in the proposed research study will in turn reduce the chances of data privacy issues. However, wrong referencing and not citing author names beside the evidences used from secondary sources can give rise to lack of credibility and integrity issues (Head, 2020). Moreover, drawing conclusions from obsolete or older data can also be considered deteriorative for the quality of the proposed research study. Therefore, care has to be taken so that no such ethical issues can arise in the proposed secondary research study.

On the other hand, secondary sources including case studies will be used after checking their associations with copyright laws (Garrecht et al., 2023). This is because of the fact that case studies are sometimes associated with copyright laws, which prevents them from being quoted or copied for any purpose. Plagiarism is another ethical issue that might occur in a secondary research study.

6.2. Mitigation

Only reputable and credible resources will be used for the completion of the proposed study. These credible resources can include company, reputed news articles and governmental reports. Case studies and articles with copyright law alignment and conflict of interests will not be included in the data collection process of the proposed research (Yip et al., 2016). Moreover, transparency in analysis and use of citations will ensure that misinterpretations and plagiarism are avoided. Evidences obtained from non-scholarly sources will be paraphrased with self-understanding so that it does not appear as copied from another source. These are the overall ways of mitigation that will be followed to mitigate the risks of ethical issues in the proposed research study.

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7. Time Scale

7.1. Indicative Timeline

Table 1: GANTT chart

Task/Time	Week 1 to 2	Week 2 to 3	Week 3 to 4	Post Week 4
Topic selection
Literature review and source collection
Data analysis and thematic analysis
Writing the main thesis
Refining research findings
Final write up and submission

The research study will be completed within a month or so. After that, the paper will be submitted for feedback and reworked again for resubmission.

7.2. Milestones

Milestone 1

Completion of a thorough literature review, learning to identify relevant non-scholarly sources, and finalising the research problem, aim and objectives.

Milestone 2

Gathering and analysing secondary data, carrying out thematic analysis to address the study objectives.

Milestone 3

Writing a draft of the main body of the research paper, integrating the observations made from the thorough literature review as well as data analysis.

Milestone 4

Revising and refining the draft based on feedbacks and ensuring that the findings have answered all the research questions.

Conclusion

The proposed research study will be able to address the aim and objectives. In addition, the use of a secondary qualitative research design will also enable the researcher to complete the research in a very short time. As a novel area surrounding the research topic will be studied, more value will be added to the existing knowledge base of the research study. The benefits of adopting long term sustainable business strategies for M&S will be found out. Moreover, the proposed study will open scopes for performing primary studies in future.

8. List of references

Agu, E.E., Iyelolu, T.V., Idemudia, C. and Ijomah, T.I., (2024). Exploring the relationship between sustainable business practices and increased brand loyalty. International Journal of Management & Entrepreneurship Research, 6(8), pp.2463-2475.

Akcam, B.K., Guney, S. and Cresswell, A.M., (2019). Research design and major issues in developing dynamic theories by secondary analysis of qualitative data. Systems, 7(3), p.40.

Almeida, F. and Wasim, J., (2023). Eco-innovation and sustainable business performance: perspectives of SMEs in Portugal and the UK. Society and Business Review, 18(1), pp.28-50.

Basit, S. A., Gharleghi, B., Batool, K., Hassan, S. S., Jahanshahi, A. A., & Kliem, M. E. (2024). Review of enablers and barriers of sustainable business practices in SMEs. Journal of Economy and Technology, 2, 79-94.

Brauner, Y., Dourado, A.P. and Traversa, E., (2015). Ten Years of Marks & Spencer. Intertax, 43, p.306.

Chatfield, S.L., (2020). Recommendations for secondary analysis of qualitative data. The Qualitative Report, 25(3), pp.833-842.

Cheong, H.I., Lyons, A., Houghton, R. and Majumdar, A., (2023). Secondary qualitative research methodology using online data within the context of social sciences. International Journal of Qualitative Methods, 22, p.16094069231180160.

De Fina, A., (2021). Doing narrative analysis from a narratives-as-practices perspective. Narrative Inquiry, 31(1), pp.49-71.

Esoimeme, E.E., (2020). Using the risk-based approach to curb modern slavery in the supply chain: The Anglo American and Marks and Spencer example. Journal of Financial Crime, 27(2), pp.313-322.

Frei, R., Jack, L. and Krzyzaniak, S.A., (2020). Sustainable reverse supply chains and circular economy in multichannel retail returns. Business Strategy and the Environment, 29(5), pp.1925-1940.

Garrecht, C., Czinczel, B., Kretschmann, M. and Reiss, M.J., (2023). ‘Should We Be Doing It, Should We Not Be Doing It, Who Could Be Harmed?’ Addressing Ethical Issues in Science Education. Science & Education, 32(6), pp.1761-1793.

Goworek, H., Oxborrow, L., Claxton, S., McLaren, A., Cooper, T. and Hill, H., (2020). Managing sustainability in the fashion business: Challenges in product development for clothing longevity in the UK. Journal of Business Research, 117, pp.629-641.

Head, G., (2020). Ethics in educational research: Review boards, ethical issues and researcher development. European Educational Research Journal, 19(1), pp.72-83.

Jones, P. and Comfort, D., (2019). “Better Retail, Better World”: A commentary on British retailers and the sustainable development goals. Journal of Public Affairs, 19(2), p.e1910.

Kiger, M.E. and Varpio, L., (2020). Thematic analysis of qualitative data: AMEE Guide No. 131. Medical teacher, 42(8), pp.846-854.

Morgan, E., (2022). ‘Plan A’: analysing business model innovation for sustainable consumption in mass-market clothes retailing. In New Business Models for Sustainable Fashion (pp. 73-98). Routledge.

Oxborrow, L., Goworek, H., Claxton, S., Cooper, T.H., Hill, H. and McLaren, A., (2017, July). Managing sustainability in the fashion business: exploring challenges in product development for clothing longevity. In Global Fashion Management Conference (pp. 376-381).

Plečko, S. and Bradač Hojnik, B., (2024). Sustainable Business Practices and the Role of Digital Technologies: A Cross-Regional Analysis. Systems, 12(3), p.97.

Ruggiano, N. and Perry, T.E., (2019). Conducting secondary analysis of qualitative data: Should we, can we, and how?. Qualitative Social Work, 18(1), pp.81-97.

Vadakkepatt, G.G., Winterich, K.P., Mittal, V., Zinn, W., Beitelspacher, L., Aloysius, J., Ginger, J. and Reilman, J., (2021). Sustainable retailing. Journal of Retailing, 97(1), pp.62-80.

Yip, C., Han, N.L.R. and Sng, B.L., (2016). Legal and ethical issues in research. Indian journal of anaesthesia, 60(9), pp.684-688.

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