Chapter 4 Findings and conclusion
This chapter will contain the findings of the research as described in the methodology section and the analysis of those results following the hypothesis and the research questions of the study. The theory of this study is that a No-deal Brexit policy will be better for SME manufacturing firms in the west midland and the null hypothesis is that a No deal BREXIT deal is not suitable for SME manufacturing firms in the west midlands SME companies. And the research questions are based on what the effects of Brexit will be on the SME manufacturing firms in the west midland as seen below:
RQ1: The results of a No-deal BREXIT on the SME companies in the west midland.
RQ2: The effects of a soft deal BREXIT on the SME companies in the west midland.
RQ3The effects of a hard deal BREXIT on the SME companies in the west midland.
The analysis is done to provide sufficient information that will test whether the hypothesis is true or null and to answer the research questions. The results will be produced in the form of charts and tables to complement the summary provided by the researcher. The primary data collection method employed was questionnaires. The questionnaires were a closed kind of inquiries with pre-written questions and a selection of answers in which the participants were to choose from.
The questionnaires were posted on social media, specifically Facebook. The post attracted more than two hundred participants. The survey required the participants to give information on the company they work in and their role or position in that company. Out of the two hundred participants, only one hundred and forty-six filled all the questionnaires accordingly N-146.To collect the necessary data out of the N-146 samples, the questions used in the surveys were converted into variables. The answers to each item on the questionnaire were given values from a pre-determined scale.
For instance, the question “do you think a No-deal BREXIT would be the best option for the country? “The answers were in the form of scales from one to five with five meaning the participant favours the No-deal Brexit and one meaning they don’t like it. The same was done for all the other information given by the participants, and the data was then arranged and sorted in Microsoft Excel. After the data had been saved on Microsoft excel SPSS, a statistical programming software will be used for the analysis. The analysis will entail two crucial things the reliability test and the study of the data to test whether the research questions and the hypothesis are correct.
Data reliability and consistency testing
It is essential to ensure that the data being used for the study is reliable and consistent. There is a mathematical formula that does this using the Cronbach’s alpha. The data will be imported to SPSS, and the covariance between the items will be tested, and the alpha will be produced. A Cronbach’s alpha of higher than .70means that the data is highly reliable and consistent (Bonett, 2015). The results from the SPSS software are as seen below.
| Cronbach’s Alpha | Cronbach’s Alpha Based on Standardized Items | Number of Items |
| .702 | .708 | 9 |
Figure 1Cronbach’s alpha
The total number of variables was nine, and the Cronbach’s alpha produced was .702 and .708 as seen in the table below this proves that the data used is reliable and consistent.
Descriptive statistics of the data
The next step included finding out the descriptive statistics of each variable and its data items. This will consist of finding the mean mode and variance of all the N-146 samples. The questionnaire required the participant to input their gender age and the level of education.
The effects of a No-deal BREXIT on the SME companies in west midland.
To determine the significance of the effects of the No deal BREXIT on the companies. A correlation analysis was done between the participants who are in favour of the No deal BREXIT and the overall effect on sales and jobs.
| No-deal Brexit | Effects on sales | ||
| No-deal Brexit | Pearson Correlation | 1.0 | 0.365* |
| Sig. (1-tailed) | .223 | ||
| N | 146 | 146 | |
| Effects on sales | Pearson Correlation | 0.165* | 1.0 |
| Sig. (1-tailed) | .223 | ||
| N | 146 | 146 | |
The independent variable used for this correlation analysis is the “No-deal Brexit”, and the dependent variables are the “Effects on sales”. The correlation coefficient produced from the study is .465 and .323. The factors contributed are too low meaning that a no-deal BREXIT wouldn’t positively affect the overall sales of the company. Instead, the sales would decrease.
The effects of a soft deal BREXIT on the west midland SME companies
The effects of a hard deal BREXIT on the West midland SME companies.
Data obtained from the interviews
The participants were interviewed for around fifteen minutes; the interviews were done in a pre-determined order according to the companies they represent. The first two participants were from different SME companies that deal in the manufacturing of car parts, the pump manufacturing companies and the metal and plastics companies, respectively. The interviewer asked pre-written questions as seen in the appendix. This allowed the researcher to code the answers presented according to selected themes manually. Additional information produced by the participants was also analyzed manually in an open coded manner.
For instance, the first question requires the participant to give their view on how the exit or stay in the EU will affect their company. Participant one didn’t like the thought of leaving the EU the emphasized on the significance of the revenue earned by their company through the exports.
Leaving the EU will have significant effects on the sales of the machine parts negatively. Most of the machine parts are usually exported to other European countries like France, and an exit will mean a loss in the overall demand for the machine parts. The inevitability would be closing shop and losing my livelihood.
The primary information produced is that BREXIT will hurt the company’s sales. The secondary data is on how the company will be affected. The two sets of information will be analyzed and filtered and compared to the other games of information provided by other participants.
References
Bonett, Douglas G., and Thomas A. Wright. “Cronbach’s alpha reliability: Interval estimation, hypothesis testing, and sample size planning.” Journal of Organizational Behavior 36.1 (2015): 3-15.
SPSS, IBM. “IBM SPSS Software.” United States (2016).
Roulston, K., 2014. Analyzing interviews. The SAGE handbook of qualitative data analysis, pp.297-312.
Paulson, D.W., 2019. Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises in Britain and West Germany and Their Pursuit of Industrial Competitiveness, c. 1949-c. 1979 (Doctoral dissertation, University of Cambridge).
Price, V., Nielsen, B. and McCabe, S., 2019. Brexit and the Potential Business Impact on English SMEs’. Brexit Negotiations After Article 50: Assessing Process, Progress and Impact, p.153.