Research in Business: Social Media Sites

Aims and Objectives

The research aims in understanding the influence of social media on the buying behaviour of the consumers and also as an effective promotional instrument in enhancing firm’s profitability.

The objectives of the research activity are:

• To understand the influence of social media on the buying behaviour of the consumers.
• To evaluate the use of social media as a promotional technique on the firm’s profitability.

Brief Methodology

The research activity is carried out through the employment of two types of research paradigms viz. Interpretivism and Positivism. Interpretivism research contributes in gaining an in-depth of the influence of social media on consumer purchase behaviours and also its contribution to business profitability. Conducting of Interpretivism research requires the development of unstructured questions for interviewing purposes. The employment of positivism research philosophy requires the development of structured questionnaires for conducting of needed surveys of consumer respondents regarding the impacts of social media on their purchase intentions (Brown, 2010).

Research Design

The employment of both inductive and deductive research designs is required in the current research. Development of inductive research design requires the researcher for reviewing potential literatures associated with the research issue. The study of different literatures contributes in the development of conceptual understanding of the influence of social media on consumer behaviour and also its impact on the profitability of the firm. It further helps in the generation of conceptual models and theories. The incorporation of deductive research in turn requires the generation of research hypotheses. The research activity is carried out for proving the research hypotheses through the generation of structured questionnaires that for carrying out surveys and in quantifying the inferences through the use of graphs and charts (Trujillo & Taylor, 2001).

Research Approach

The research activity is conducted by employing both exploratory and analytical research approaches. The exploratory approach requires developing unstructured questions that helps the researcher in exploring the research topic. Inferences gained from the conducting of focused interviews are elucidatory and qualitative. The employment of analytical research approach requires the development of structured questions for carrying out surveys. Inferences gained from surveys are analysed based on the use of quantitative techniques like statistical and diagrammatic analysis (Tingli & Chengqing, 2010).

Research Strategy

Research strategies like secondary, primary, qualitative, and quantitative are needed to be employed for carrying out the research. Secondary research activities relate to the employment of literary resources like books, peer reviewed journal articles, other online articles and also company websites and annual and customer satisfaction reports for the understanding of the influence of social media both on consumer purchasing habits and also on the profitability aspects. Employment of primary research serves in generating contemporary and pragmatic information based on interviewing and surveying of respondents. The conducting of interview based primary research and secondary research activities contribute in the generation of qualitative inferences while that of survey based primary research generates quantitative inferences (Babbie, 2009).

Sampling and Data Collection

Data collection process concerning the interview process requires the development of a focused group of organisational managers. The focused group is constructed through the use of Cluster Sampling approach that helps in randomly selecting 20 managerial respondents from managerial clusters involved in different firms. The researcher focuses on collecting data through conducting face-to-face interviews and recording the responses through recording gadgets and use of interview transcripts. The survey approach requires the researcher for selection of survey respondents through incorporating stratified random sampling approach. It helps in the selection of 100 respondents from groups like staffs and consumers and thereby in mailing and online distributing the survey questionnaires for gaining of needful responses (Babbie, 2009).

References

Ayanso, A., 2014. Harnessing the Power of Social Media and Web Analytics. United Kingdom : IGI Global.

Babbie, E., 2009. The Practice of Social Research. USA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.

Brown, A.P., 2010. Qualitative method and compromise in applied social research. Qualitative Research, 10(2), pp.229-48.

Khanlari, A., 2015. Strategic Customer Relationship Management in the Age of Social Media. United Kingdom : IGI Global.

Tingli, L. & Chengqing, W., 2010. Empirical Research on Economic Impact of Mega-Event: Based on the Case of 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Management and Service Science (MASS), pp.1-4.

Trujillo, N. & Taylor, B., 2001. Qualitative Research Methods. In Jablin, F.M. & Putnam, L. The new handbook of organizational communication. USA: Sage Publication. pp.161-65.