1.Research context

In the last decade, the number of research studies and discussions on environmental changes and problems has increased due to the enhanced level of technological advancements.  It is important to understand the dynamics of technological change due to two reasons. Firstly, the social and economic activities can have a negative impact on environment with the increasing rate of technological change. when new technologies are being introduced, they have potential to facilitate the increased pollution or to mitigate the polluting activities. Secondly, the impact of many technologies is quite large as they result in the environmental changes which are evaluated over time horizons of centuries or decades (Carayannis, Sindakis and Walter, 2015). Certainly, as also told by Turnheim et al., (2015), this uncertainty about the future rate and direction of technological change is foundation for forecasting the environmental problems which are associated with the technological change. This demonstrates that when new technologies are being introduced, they have the potential to result in many environmental problems for the universe. These problems need to be addressed by the innovators who introduce the certain technology.

The automobile industry is one of the most popular industries which introduce the technology which has the implications for the environment (both positive and negative). There have been introducing many strategies and technologies since years for reducing the issues like carbon print. However, there are many automobiles which are still notorious for being one of the core reasons of the sustainability problems. In the sports car industry, the issue of sustainability is more glaring. There exists mixed concerns of the researchers about how the sports car industry is managing the sustainability. According to Tigabu, Berkhout and van Beukering (2015) and Dechezleprêtre, Neumayer and Perkins (2015) when sports cars are produced there are giant footprints that exist as a result of their production process. Like other automobiles, materials like galls, rubber, steel, paints and many more are used in its production. When the life of these card ends, they still leave the environmental impact like toxic battery acids, plastics etc. Likewise, another issue is related to the fuel costs which is associated with the petroleum products which further enhances the environmental concerns. The extraction of energy from earth can damage the local ecosystem and a lot of energy is used (Liu, Liu and Chen, 2015). Similarly, the issue of air quality is also significant. When these sports cars are on track, they leave the smog, carbon monoxide and other toxins. This demonstrates that many environmental related issues are specific to the sports cars. As they are based on high technology, it is important to analyse how technology could be used to have the lowest possible environmental adversaries (Bauer et al., 2015). The present research will be conducted with the intention to study how the technological advancements and innovation could be used to deal with the issue of sustainability, with particular focus on environment protection. As there are many types of automobiles and there is a long list of sports cars and it is not possible to examine all of them in detail, therefore, this research specifically focuses on one sports car named Formula One. Formula One is a single seat, open wheel and open cockpit racing car which has rear and front wings. The placement of engine is behind the driver. This car is used in the competitions of car racing which are organised by Formula One racing events. It is based on some unique regulations. One of the regulations state that cars must has to be constructed by racing teams themselves where they can only outsource the manufacture and design (Limebeer and Perantoni, 2015).

The rationale for studying the role of technological innovation in sustainability with reference to Formula One car is that it is heavily associated with the greenness in the public consciousness. states that Formula One is one of those sports cars that is known as the most environmental friendly innovation (Sylt, 2105). The success of this technological innovation does not only ensures the efficiency but it also ensures the sustainability and this has allowed this car to gain a competitive advantage. It is currently working on the philosophy of creating and developing technology using the fewer resources and having improved performance (Morris, 2012). Though, there also exists few critics who have also highlighted the negative impact of technology used by the Formula One on the environment. The criticism makes it more interesting to study how the technological advancement used by Formula One have implications for sustainability.

Research aim and objectives

The aim of present research will be to examine the role of technological innovation in sustainability of sports cars. In sports cars, Formula One cars are of particular focus. The following objectives will be used to accomplished the aim.

• Critically evaluate the existing literature about the role of technological innovation in sustainability
• Examine how technological innovation of Formula One cars is helping to achieve sustainability.
• Investigate the negative impact of technological innovation of Formula One cars on sustainability.
• Recommend how technology can be used for improving the sustainability in sports cars industry.

2.Research questions

The following research questions will be answered in this research study.

• What is the current thinking about the role of technological innovation in sustainability?
• How the technological innovation of Formula One car has ensured the sustainability?
• How the technological innovation of Formula Onecar is negatively influencing the sustainability?
• How the role of technological innovation could be improved for ensuring the long term future sustainability?

3.Review of current thinking

This research is about the role of technological innovation in sustainability, therefore, the focus of literature review will be on two aspects i.e. technological innovation and sustainability. To analyse the current thinking on these two broad areas, various models and theoretical arguments will be analysed in the research. The below section briefly introduces the current thinking.

3.1.Technological innovation

According to Moroni, Arruda and Araujo (2015), the technological innovation system examines and explain the nature and rate of technological change. It is defined as a dynamic network of agents which interact in a specific environment for generation, diffusion and utilisation of technology (Bergek et al., 2015). It could be applied to three levels of analysis. firstly, it has implications for technology in the sense of knowledge field. Secondly, it could be applied to an artefact or a product. Thirdly, it could be applied to a group of related products which aim to satisfy the particular functional need (Harding, Lock and Toohey, 2016). The present research focuses on the technological innovation which is used in Formula One Car.

3.2.Sustainability

Sustainability is defined how natural systems are functioning and producing things which are necessary for maintaining a balance in the ecology (Crouch, 2015). This theoretical concept acknowledges the fact that it is partially the human civilisation which has taken out the resources for sustaining the modern lifestyle and this also damages the environment and due to this human activity, its own survival is in danger (Conejos, Langston and Smith, 2015). So the principle is sustainability looks into how human beings can live in harmony with the natural world which is around them such that protection from destruction and damage could be ensured (Sarkawi and Abdullah, 2015).

According to Souza et al., (2015), in this modern and consumerists economy, a lot of natural resources are used on daily basis. For example, people living in urban cities utilise more power than rural population. This concept of sustainability is about balancing the fine line which exists between competing needs which can be fulfilled through economic and technological changes and needs to protect the environment in which human beings are living. It is not only about the environment but it also considers the health impacts and it examines the long term impacts of all human actions which can be improved one way or the other (Ciegis, Ramanauskiene and Martinkus, 2015). This research specifically focuses on the sustainability of Formula One car which will be the core research issue of this study.

3.3.The Three Pillars of Sustainability

Sustainability refers to meeting the needs of the present generation without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. Therefore, it will be analysed that how current needs are fulfilled through Formula One car and how this has an influence over the ability of future generations to fulfil their needs. In the sustainable development, there are three pillars which needs to be analysed. the three pillars are economic development, social development and environment protection.

• As mentioned by Hansmann,  Mieg and Frischknecht (2012), economic development is quite problematic as it is still not found and agreed by mainstream that what is economically sound what what is not, and how it can have an influence on economy. The economic development pillar states that every human activity should look into providing the incentives for businesses and other organisations where they take a step further the normal legislative requirements. The principle of economic development states that every individuals needs to work on giving what is needed without compromising the quality of life. There should be less financial burden on lower class and red tape should not exist (Gibson, 2006).
• The social development pillar is quite broad. It includes the awareness about the legislation related to pollution and harmful activities of business. The health and wellness of people should be protected in every possible manner and for this strong check and programs of legislation help significantly (Pope, Annandale and Morrison-Saunders, 2004). The social development also states that basic resources must be provided to every individual and the quality of life should not be compromised for any social class. The education to encourage individuals to participant in environmental sustainability is also part of the social development (Littig and Grießler, 2005; Sanfélix et al., 2015).
• The third pillar of sustainability is environmental protection and every individual knows that how important it is to protect the environment through recycling, reduction in power consumption, energy efficient devices or through any other possible manner (Simon, Penn and Hu, 2016). It is prime responsibility of all businesses including the technologically advanced product businesses to ensure that their carbon emission level is low (Peterson et al., 2016). The future of humanity is linked with the environmental protection. This principles targets mainly on protecting the ecosystem, sustainability of resource, air quality and it emphasise on those places where the stress on environment could be reduced. It is also about using technology for green future (Dui?, Urbaniec and Huisingh, 2015).

According to Sala, Ciuffo and Nijkamp (2015), all three pillars of sustainability have their own importance for the businesses. Now days, the advanced firms are trying to target the all three pillars of the sustainability.  However, to study all three pillars could be out of the scope of this research. therefore, this research will particularity focus on third principle where it will be analysed how Formula One car is ensuring the sustainability through environmental protection.

It is asserted by many authors that this Formula One car is based on technological innovation which is helping in ensuring sustainability. However, the critical analysis of previous studies lead towards the conclusion that there is a lack of empirical support regarding these arguments. The researchstudies like Boussauw and Vanoutrive (2016), Blunck (2016), Oldiges (2015), has also identified the need to explore this area further to know how technological innovation system used by this company has enabled the sustainability. This research will further obtain the empirical support for these arguments. The next section explains how this empirical analysis will be conducted to minimise the highlighted research gap.

4.Methodology

4.1.Primary research approach

According to Matthews and Ross (2014), there exists two alternatives for conducting a research and these are named as primary and secondary. The present research will be based on the primary research approach where first hand data will be collected for analysing the role of technological innovation in the sustainability of Formula One cars. The rationale for using primary research approach is that it provides the updated information about the current issue. The updated and fresh data about the research issue enhances the practical and academic significance of the research studies (Blaxter, Hughes and Tight, 2010). Moreover, as per the current situation where it is highlighted by the research studies in literature that this research issue is not empirically explored yet, it was not possible to rely on secondary data. Therefore, another rationale for relying on primary data is the nature of study. The set aim and objectives of this study could be effectively achieved with the primary data. Further to this, the reliance on the secondary data also comes with various issues related to the quality of data. Though, researchers can minimise their own bias, there can never be certain about the bias of author of the secondary data. This can create future problems for the research (Cooper and Schindler, 2007). Considering these aspects, this research has relied on primary research approach where primary data will be collected.

There are various means to collect the primary data. This research uses the interview strategy for collecting the primary data. The rationale for using interview strategy is that it can allow to conduct an in-depth analysis of the research issue. Especially, when the research issue is novel and the nature of study is exploratory, it is more useful to rely on interview strategy (Seidman, 2013). Therefore, considering the nature of this research which is exploratory, the interview strategy has been selected. The data collected through interviews is more rich as it allows to capture non verbal and verbal cues during the data collection process (Silverman, 2013). Moreover, the interviewer can also explain the interview question again and again in simple words to the interviewee to collect the desired data. These attractive characteristics of interview strategy and its feasibility with this research has motivated the researcher to rely on interview strategy (Gray, 2013). For conducing interview, as per recommendation of Marshall and Rossman (2014), an interview guide will be developed which will lists the questions and these questions will be designed after reviewing the literature.

4.2.The sampling strategy

This research is about Formula One Car, hence, its population is the managers and employees which are employed in this company. Therefore, the sample is the managers which are working in this sports car company. The sample size of five managers will be selected.  As per suggestion of Collis and Hussey (2013), these managers will be selected on the basis of purposive sampling technique where those managers will be selected who are more knowledgeable about the technological innovation and sustainability of this sports’ car.

4.3.Data analysis

This is a qualitative research study, therefore, qualitative research analysis techniques will be used.  It will use the content and thematic analysis technique. Once interviews are conducted, the data will be transcribed in English language and this will be used for analysis purpose. The content will be analysed and themes from data will be generated. These themes will be designed such that the research aim and objectives could be accomplished (Altheide, 1996).

4.4.Validity, reliability and generalizability

As told by Creswell (2013), for ensuring the reliability in the results, the researcher will rely on semi-structured interview technique where standardised questions will be asked from the interviewees. For ensuring validity, the researcher aimed to measure exactly what it aims to. For conducting the interviews, an interview guide will be developed. this interview guide will be based on the themes which will emerge from the literature review. After understanding the literature in a proper and accurate manner, this research will start the data collection process. This practice of relying on interview questions based on the literature will help to ensure the validity of the results and findings (Bryman and Bell, 2015). As mentioned by Alvesson and Deetz (2000), qualitative studies has more ecological validity and as the present study uses the qualitative methods, hence, its ecological validity is high. Generalizability is about replication of the research study. in qualitative research study, this could not be ensured. Qualitative research studies use the transferability which will be ensured by ensuring that context of the research study is explained in the most accurate manner. 

4.5.Limitations

This is a qualitative research study, therefore, one foremost limitation is about the bias of interviewer and interviewees during the data collection process.  Moreover, the data analysis phase also encounters the limitation of bias the researcher. The researcher will ensure to be objective and do not use any pre-conceived notions or emotions while completing this research (Bryman  and Bell, 2007). This research faces the limitation regarding the accessibility of the interviewees from formula one car. It is not easy to access them. However, as suggested by Zikmund et al., (2013), the researcher will gain the appointment from them using his social network as few friends are working in research and development department of formula one car. This will help to deal with ‘gate keepers’ of data collection phase and accessibility issue will be resolved. This accessibility issue will also be resolved through getting an authorised letter from university regarding this research project. This will further ease the process of collecting data from managers of Formula One Car.

5.Project management

The following time plan will be used for this project. This project will be completed in the period of four months. In first month, introduction chapter will be written. The second month will be spared for writing the literature review. the third month will devise methodology and data collection will also be done in this month. The process of taking appointments will be started in the first month of the project. The third month will also be used for data analysis. The last month will be used for writing the conclusion and doing the necessary final revisions.

 

 

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