Client Project Methods & Methodology

The investigation of the issue is based on the extensive research method applications in different manners. For that purpose, the researcher has the right to decide the research methodology among different methods that are extensively discussed in the research. Based on the requirement of the research, quantitative or qualitative research methods are applied(Shaikh and Karjaluoto, 2015; Kanodia and Sapra, 2016). In applied research, in most cases, the research is divided into primary and secondary research. In the primary research, the first-hand research data for a particular issue is selected and in secondary research, the research paradigm is developed on the existing knowledge. At the same time, the researchers also select the research models to apply in particular research for the application of the research methods. Hence, the research methodology development is considered the pathway for the researcher to streamline all the important activities like data collection, data analysis etc (Aspers and Corte, 2019).

Hence, in view of this client project, as the main focus is to investigate the impact of the Brexit referendum on the international drivers and the role of the AI corporation as the case study, the preliminary decision about the application of the method is quantitative research. It is evident from the investigation that the most appropriate method that can be applied in this research is the quantitative research method in which the secondary data is collected from several reliable resources such as “office of national statistics, peer reviewed journals etc” for investigating the issue.In this section of the project, the research methodology is applied which includes detailed information about the research models that are used in the research as well as the criteria set to get the information (Coyle, 2016; Henökl, 2018a; Kemp, Froese and Pauly, 2020). Moreover, it also includes information about the constraints that can be emerged in view of the set of research methodologies. Moreover, the research also includes information about the applicable research methodology, which can be governed by the application of the “research onion”developed by Saunders et al (2007), as a major model that is used to set the parameters for the application of the research methodology . Later in this section, the whole research methods are evaluated along with some important recommendations which are appropriate because of the methodology applied in the client project.

1.0 Solution/Model Methods & Criteria

1.1 Research Method and Criteria

It is evident from the detailed investigation that the application of the research methods is particularly important to investigate the issue. It is observed that the literature highlights several methods that can be applied in the research to get considerable information about the topic under investigation. In this research, the main focus is to investigate the implication of the Brexit referendum and its impact on the international driver which is why it is important to investigate data related to the economic impact of Brexit (Samitas, Polyzos and Siriopoulos, 2017; Hall and Wójcik, 2018; Pollard, 2018). That is why the quantitative method for the application of the research methods has been used in this research. The major criteria for the application of the research method are that it must be effective in terms of getting the information from the selected resources. This effectiveness of the information can be guaranteed through the judgement of the validity and reliability of the data set. Although the researcher is well aware that effective data can lead to bringing the information which is more valuable for the development of the research that can be effective to participate in the extension of the knowledge.

1.1.1 Application of Research Method

The research method that has been selected for this project is the “Quantitative Research Method” which is based on the secondary information collected from the existing resources (Harrison and Reilly, 2011), such as the office of national statistics. The main purpose of applying the quantitative research method is to explore the trends in fuel consumption and its budgetary impact in this research. Along with that, it is very facilitative to understand the impact of the Brexit referendum on the international drivers. In this research, it is investigated to what extent the international trade of the UK has changed positively or negatively. Leading to international trade, the role of the international drivers is also changed ultimate lead to an increase or decrease in the consumption of fuel. Hence it is important to investigate the recent fraudulent ratio in the usage of financial technology. Hence, the implication of the quantitative method is considered to be effective for the research (Krauss, 2005; van der Hoorn, 2016).

1.1.2 Research Design

The research design provides detail information about the combination of different activities that are performed in the study. In this section, the research design is presented through the application of the “Research Onion Model” which is one of the leading models that is used by the researcher in social science to apply several essential elements of the research in detail (Garcia and Gluesing, 2013). This model explains the stages that engage in the implication of the research as well as the organized methodology. This research onion symbolically provides information about the elements that participate in the development of the design applied in the research.

fig 1- Saunders et al 2007

1.1.3 Research Philosophy

Research philosophy is considered as the set of principles that provide the worldview on researchs (Harrison and Reilly, 2011). In this case, the philosophy of “Positivism” has been applied which indicates that the knowledge is independent of the subject under investigation. The application of this philosophy provides facilitation for the investigation of the problem as well as also help to make a major stance on the issue based on the certain collection of the information.

1.1.4 Research Approach

Before leading the research, the researcher needs to define the approach which is taken for the research. Two major approaches are applied in the research. These approaches include the “deductive and inductive” research approach. In this research, the deductive research approach is applied as the investigation is based on research objectives (Gale et al., 2013). The data collected for the investigation of the research is based on the research objectives that also provide information about the requirements of the clients.

1.1.5 Research Strategy

The research strategy that is applied in this study is a “Case Study”. The reason for the selection for this research strategy is that this study includes the investigation of the Fin-Tech Company that offers EazyFuel services for international drivers. At the same time, the case also includes the investigation of the Brexit referendum in this research which is why the application of the “Case Study” research strategy is effective.

1.2.0 Data Collection and Analysis

A major part of the research methodology is the implication of the data collection procedure in the research. . Here in this research, the collection of the data is especially important as the researcher need to use several important sources for the data collection (Scully, Shaw and Smith, 2017). Given that It is important to consider that the development of long-term success in the research is to have a valid investigation of the independent variable to the dependent variable. In this research, the Brexit referendum impact has been investigated for the international drivers. To investigate the AI corporation, the case includes secondary information about the AI corporations and their contribution to the development of a financial structure for petroleum companies.

1.2.1 Major Sources of Data Collection in this Case

To understand the dynamics of the case, it is particularly important to include the most valid data in the research. To do so, it is important to understand which are the major variables that have been investigated in this research and how relevant is the time horizon. The detailed investigation in till this point indicates that the major variables for the investigation, in this case, include the “Brexit Referendum, International Trade and Fraudulent Activities”. The data collect were between 2006 and 2022. This is important because the pressure for change began after around this time and the UK rebate to EU became a major issue among the EU member states(Alasdair, 2016). This led the UK government to start being Eurosceptic and structuring for the Brexit Referendum.

fig 2. Variable investigated in Research

1.2.2 Data Sources

After the investigation of the topic in detail and the in-depth investigation of the case study and variables, the following are some important resources that are used in this investigation. The application of these resources is reliable and provides in-depth information about the topic under investigation.

Scientific Journals and Articles

Scientific journals and Articles are particularly important for the investigation as they lead to providing detailed information about the impact of Brexit. Following are some important journals which will be included in this research. This journal were selected because they are scholarly and peered-reviewed while providing detail information of on the key economic, law and finance impacts of Brexit.

• Journal of International Economics

• Journal of Digital Policy, Regulations and Governance

• Journal of International Financial Markets and Institutions

• Journal of Public Administration, Finance and Law

• Journal of Economic Modeling

• European Journal of Political Economy

• Geo Forum

Office of National Statistics, UK

This is one of the leading datasets office of the Uk government which provide s detailed information about economic issues and financial frauds. The important data set used in this case study includes:

• Growth of UK economy

• Exchange rate of Pounds(GBP)

• Visits by Oversea residents to Uk( thousands)

• Unemployment rate

• Impact of Border restriction on Businesses' Imports and exports

• Total Trade Imports and Exports

• Crime rate

AI Corporation( EazyFuel Fraud Management Solution)

Another important data source is the official website of the AI corporations (EazyFuel Fraud Management Solution) which provide in-depth information about the fraudulent activities which are governed among the international drivers. This platform provides information about fraudulent activities which has been presented in some important articles published by the company.

1.2.3 Data Analysis

Given that the research method for this case study is a quantitative method, quantitative data have been collected from reliable sources. Based on that, the software used in the data analysis for this research includes "Microsoft Excel and R studio". This two major analysis tools have been used by previous researchers for data analysis. Following are some of the important data analysis techniques which is used in this case for the investigation of the Brexit referendum's impact on the international drivers.

Trend Analysis for Selected variables

This technique is important to understand the dynamic trends of several economic indicators before and after Brexit. This representation of the data is very valuable to understanding the dynamic changes governing after the Brexit referendum

• Economy Condition of the UK

The major economic indicators that have been affected due to the implication of Brexit include “GDP million, Unemployment, Inflation, Interest Rate and Exchange Rate”. These are the major indicators which are strongly impacted due to Brexit. The graphical representation indicates that after 2016, the decline of unemployment is at a very rapid pace which indicates that with the implication of Brexit, there is a very rapid transformation in the business sectors which leads to an increase the overall job opportunity.

Inflation is also one of the major indicators which have been the main focus of the researchers. After the Brexit referendum, the inflation rate increased at a rapid pace. The graphical representation indicates that after 2016, the major changes in the country's economic condition have been governed that ultimately lead to an increase in the inflation rate. The interest rate declined after the Brexit referendum which highlights that the power of GDP will is increased after the Brexit referendum.

fig 3 Graph of UK Economic Condition (Source: Author)

• Trade of UK

Trade is one of the important variables in this research project. The researcher intends to investigate the impact of the Brexit referendum on international drivers. The major role of the international drivers is associated with trade which is why in this section, the trade of the UK with the European countries and with the global level countries will be analyzed. The investigation of these trends leads to the understanding that at what extent the trade has been changed with the Brexit implementation. The graphical representation of the data indicates that the global level trade of the UK has increased at a rapid pace. Both imports and export of the UK to global countries have increased after 2016 which demonstrates that Brexit has facilitated the trade of the UK. On the other side, trade with the EU and the UK is also increased but at a moderate pace. The overall results highlight that Brexit has led to facilitate trade which is why the role of the international drivers has increased which leads to an increase in the overall consumption of fuel by the international drivers.

fig 4- Graph of Uk trades (source: Author)

• Crime Rate in the UK

Crime is one of the major issues that has been faced by the UK for a long. There is a large number of research has been conducted to demonstrate the origination of the crime. some of the research include datasets publications by Crime Survey for England and Wales (CSEW) and National Fraud Intelligence Bureau (NFIB). It is observed that after the implementation of Brexit in 2016, the rate of crime related to card fraud has increased at a rapid pace. Crime is of different aspects which is why the crime related to fraudulent activities has also increased with the rapid pace as shown in the graph below.

fig 5 Graph of Crime in the Uk( author)

Regression Analysis

Regression analysis is very important to understand the impact of the independent variable on the dependent variable. In this research, the main focus is to determine the Brexit referendum on the international drivers. The major issue associated with the outcome of the crime is related to the fraud of the fuel card. That is why, in this research, regression analysis is used to analyze this issue.

fig 6 Coefficient output of regression analysis. (Source:Author)

The coefficient output of the regression analysis indicates the impact of Brexit (Economic Condition) on the Crime rate in the UK. The coefficient indicates that Unemployment, inflation rate, and interest rate have a negative impact on the crime rate. Most importantly, the increase in unemployment is one of the major reasons for the increase of crime in the UK.

fig 5 output of regression analysis in R studio. (source: author)

To confirm whether the full regression line is showing a significant relationship between the dependent variable (Crime rate) and the independent variables, we can test and assume the following hypothesis:

The null hypothesis is that all the coefficient of the independent variable is equal to zero, and the alternative hypothesis is that; at least one of the coefficients of the independent variable is not equal to zero.

The F-statistic in the output of the summary of the full regression model has a p-value of p <0.001, we, therefore, reject the null hypothesis at the 5% level of significance and conclude that the regression line is significant. We can conclude that the regression model is a good fit for predicting the dependent variable(crime rate).

2.0 Solution Success Criteria and Constraints

2.1 Success Criteria

The success of this research is based on the overall outcome of the research. If the research provides detailed information about the impact of the Brexit referendum on the international drivers and the financial solution of the AI corporation has been discussed in detail, then it will consider successful research. At the same time, this study will be considered a success if the data collected in this research is valid and reliable.

The success of this project is determined through the implication of major determinants of the success as discussed by Baker, Murphy and Fisher (1988). The researcher has highlighted that the success of the project has been determined by the “project manager, project team, project organization, client organization, managerial implications and pre-conditions”. There are several sub-determinants for each of the categories have been also included in the research. In this project, the following are the determinants aligned with the success of the project.

Project Manager Commitment to the Project Goals

In this project, the project manager has a strong commitment to the project goals which are finalized in the initial session of this project. The project manager aligned all the requirements and activities with the goals to attain inappropriate manner.

Project Task Orientation

Each of the tasks in this project has been defined exceptionally. For example, it includes the detailed research methodology, in which the complete procedure for the data collection and implications of the project activities have been presented in detail.

Project Team Capabilities

The project team's capabilities are very important for its success. In this project, the completion of the client requirement is the main focus through exceptional capabilities of conducting the research.

Project Organization Coordinative Efforts

As the project is based on the AI Corporation, that is why it is important to have strong coordination with the client organization. For example, the information based on the AI corporation initiative related to the fuel card scams is very important.

Managerial Techniques

The success of the project needs valuable managerial techniques in which the major focus is to align all the important activities. The participants of this project have all important managerial techniques.

2.2 Constraint in the Project

Along with the success, some important constraints are also associated with the application of this research. First of all, the research only includes qualitative information. It did not include the human factor or the information that can provide more detail about the study. Another important constraint is the time limitation for the completion of this research.

Moreover, the dynamic external environment is very important to understand as it leads to developing several constraints. For example, a change in the economic condition might lead to an increase the fuel card-related crime. It might be possible that recommendations made in the research can be changed with the change in an external business environment.

3.0 Solution/Model Methodologies

This section provides detailed information about the methodologies that are applied in this project to meet the expectation of the client. In this section. The “Do Nothing Strategy” and “Waterfall” methodologies will be detailed. It also includes the advantages and disadvantages of the methodology which is used for the solution option. In the end, this section of the report also includes the reasons for choosing the methodology.

3.1 Solution Methodology/Model Relevant to Solve the Client’s Problem- WHAT

WaterFall Methodology

To solve the client problem in this project, the most appropriate solution methodology/ model is the “Waterfall methodology”. The waterfall methodology is one of the leading project management approaches that emphasized the linear progression from the beginning to the end of the project. This methodology is effectively used by the engineers, project managers etc to develop careful planning through detailed documentation and effective execution.

Do Nothing Strategy

The alternate methodology that has been applied in the research is considered as the activity to determine the effects that originate from the solution and also highlight the causes. These techniques are used to determine the problem and perspective for the major picture. If the Waterfall strategy is not appropriate, then this methodology will be applied in the research.

3.2 The Implication of the Waterfall Strategy

The waterfall method is comprised of certain stages that include “requirements, design, implementation, verification and deployment”.

Requirements

All the requirements of the project have been pre-determined by the client as well as also align with the project objective. The main focus of the project is to analyze the impact of the Brexit referendum on international drivers.

Design

This project is designed to implement intensive research. The research design of the project is a “quantitative research design” in which the quantitative method is used for the implication of the research. The quantitative data is gathered from the secondary resources to analyze the problem.

Implementation

After the selection of the research design for this project, its implementation has been started. For that purpose, this project uses several important data sets to analyze the information. The detailed secondary information has been analyzed by using Microsoft Excel and R studio statistical software.

Verification and Testing

To test the results, the outcome of the project has been analyzed in accordance with the existing literature. At the same time, the research objectives have been determined whether they are achieved or not.

Deployment and Maintenance

The result of this study will be investigated later in accordance with any kind of change in the business environment. For example, any kind of major change in the economic condition that affects the Brexit outcome and the international drivers will be analyzed.

3.3 Advantages and Disadvantages of Waterfall Methodology – WHY

3.3.1 Advantages of Waterfall Methodology

The implication of the Waterfall Methodology is straightforward to develop a well-defined project. If the requirements of the project have been determined clearly at the beginning of the project, this methodology can be applied effectively. This methodology is very effective to determine the design error and rectify these errors in the implementation phase. The overall impact on the cost of the project is very minimum as well as it also facilitates the estimation of the completion time of the project. It is also very easy to measure the progress of the project to determine the achievement of the milestone.

3.3.2 Disadvantages of Waterfall Methodology

Due to the chronological approach of the project, it might be the possibility that it lead to a delay in the project. At the start, it is a possibility that clients did not know what they want and it might cause the effect to later process in the project. The clients have very minimum involvement in the project.

3.4. Application of Waterfall Methodology to arrive at Solution- HOW

To get the solution in this project the Waterfall methodology has been applied in this project. As mentioned in the previous section that each stage of the Waterfall methodology has been applied in this research. The main focus while applying the Waterfall methodology is to access the requirements of the client in this project. Based on that requirement, an effective design has been developed and led to the implementation stage. In the implementation stage, all of the secondary information has been analyzed in detail and ultimately leads to the final results. As the main focus of the project is to determine the impact of the Brexit referendum on the international drivers, that is why a strong recommendation has been developed based on the complete analysis of the information.

4.0 Solution/Model evaluation

4.1 Evaluation of the Research Methodology

While developing the research methodology, it is observed that there are several dimensions or options for the researchers to formulate the research methodology. It is observed that as in this research, the research methodology applied in this study is based on “Quantitative Research”. It is observed that this is the most appropriate research methodology for the case under investigation. Most effectively, it provides comprehensive information about the topic as well as also facilitates the inclusion of the quantitative data set for the investigation. Moreover, the research design of the study is based on the “Research Onion Model” which is unbelievably valuable for the application in the study. Here it is important to consider that using the research onion is highly effective and provides a detailed pathway for the development of the research methodology for this study.

4.2 Expected Output and Outcomes

This project is conducted to investigate the impact of the Brexit referendum on the international driver. Currently, the ratio of fraudulent transactions has increased which is why it is important to determine how the Brexit referendum act on this issue. It is expected from the project that it provides detailed information about the Brexit referendum's impact. That is why several important economic indicators such as inflation, unemployment, etc. have been investigated. At the same time, the investigation also includes the trend analysis for UK trade with the EU countries and at the global level. The main reason for including this information is to understand the role of the international drivers in the economy of the UK and the ultimate impact of Brexit in this regard. The investigation of the crimes is also very important. It is expected from the project that including all this information will be very beneficial for the development of a strong stance on the overall problem under investigation.

4.3 Data analysis Facilitation for Expected outcome

The data analysis is the major part of the project. As the whole project is based on the investigation of the issue that is why the researcher needs to analyze the effective data. For that purpose, the secondary data is gathered from several secondary sources. After that, the implication of the data analysis is a critical part. To get the most appropriate results, several statistical techniques have been applied. The analysis of the data by using the statistical method is considered to be very effective for the detailed investigation of the data. The implication of the data analysis is considered to be very facilitative for the investigation of the problem in this research. The detailed analysis provides several important dimensions of the discussion related to the topic.

Although detailed information is provided about the implication of the “Quantitative Methodology” in this case it is also recommended to the client that the outcome of this project is increased manyfold with the implication of the quantitative research. In later stages, if the client needs to increase the scope of this research, the client can add the qualitative research method which can lead to the application of the mixed method research in this study. Here it is also recommended that several other factors are not included in the research due to several constraints such as time constraints, limited data and funding. That is why these constraints must be highlighted in the future and must be mitigated with the effective implication of the research method.

4.4 Process of Achieving Recommended Solution - WHY

This research project is designed with a certain process that leads to the completion of the project effectively. In the first phase of this project, the requirements of the client have been determined and based on which the objectives of this project have been developed. These objectives are very important for the completion of the project and all of the activities performed in this project are based on these objectives. After that, the risk assessment is conducted to determine whether there is any kind of risk associated with the project or not. Based on the preliminary investigation in this project, the literature review has been developed which is considered to be the strong basis for the completion of the research. Moreover, the proceeding section is based on the research methodology development. The research methodology includes all the important information about the activities which are governed in this research. The research methodology section includes information about the data collection procedure. This section of the project also includes the data analysis for the secondary information to get the information which is very important for the investigation of the topic under investigation.

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