Competitive Business Environment - Social Media

Question: Discuss about the Competitive Business Environment, Social Media. Answer: Introduction: In the present competitive business environment, social media has provided huge challenges for the organizations to handle. Since, it has been identified that social media plays a key role in developing effective marketing and promotional technique. Thus, popularity of the businesses heavily depends on the utilization strategy of social media. Since, every organization is focusing on the utilization of social media. Organizations have to implement an innovative decision making process so that it can able to create a positive impact on the business. Furthermore, constituency of internet-based tools has modified the way consumers communicate the process of word-of-mouth marketing. This has created huge amount of challenges for the marketers in utilizing effective decision-making procedure. Problem statement: Many studies have highlighted the fact that decision-making strategy can actually have serious impact on the business perspective of an organization. However, there is no unique way to implement effective decision-making procedure. Therefore, organizations have to focus on all the factors in order to implement the best possible decision-making procedure for the organization. Furthermore, emergence of social media is relatively a new concept. Therefore, any impact of social media must have to take in to account, as it will influence the shape of the marketing strategy. As per the article by Hutter et al. (2013), marketing strategy is a broad concept that covers consumer behavior, marketing mix, value creation, relationship marketing and organizational orientation. Thus, organizations decision-making procedure must have to cover each of the areas effectively. Otherwise, it will create challenges in the business procedure of the organizations. Research aim: The major of aim of this investigation is to highlight the impact that effective decision-making procedure on social media can have on the businesses. Research objectives: The research objectives are as follows: 1. To evaluate the kind of impact that social media can have on the business perspectives on an organization 2. To examine the extent, social media has influenced decision-making procedure of the organizations 3. To suggest decision-making strategies that can help organizations to cope up with the challenges of increasing popularity of social media Research questions: The research questions are as follows: What kind of impact social media can have on the business perspectives on an organization? What extent social media can influence decision-making procedure of the organizations? What will be the suggested decision-making strategies that can help organizations to cope up with the challenges of increasing popularity of social media? Literature review: Impact of the emergence of social media: As per the article by Aral, Dellarocas Godes (2013) social media represent a internet-based group where people can share their thoughts and believes much more effectively. The emergence of social media has drastically changed the marketing landscape in the past decade. Before the emergence of social media, organizations and customers has no direct link with each other. However, the emergence of social media has completely revolutionized the way organizations promote their products and services in the market. According to Saaty Vargas (2013) emergence of social media not only changed the procedure by which customers interacts with each other but also with the organizations. The emergence of social media has increased the importance of word-of-mouth communication strategy. Since, every customer can actually share their opinion regarding a particular product and services in front of whole world. Therefore, it can actually affect the buying decision of customers (Venkataraman Das, 201 3). Furthermore, social media tools and platforms allow users to recommend, share contents and also positive and negative experiences in a much more effective way. Gensler et al. (2013) highlighted that emergence of social media increases the importance of virtual communities. In fact, it has become an integral part of everyones present life. The massive impact of social media induced people to visit there social media account many times in a day. Furthermore, as mentioned by Halpern Gibbs (2013) customers are more likely to be participating than watching. Now, emergence of social media has given a platform to the people where they can transform themselves from being customers as viewers to customers as participants. This shift in behavior highlighted the increasing importance of social media. Thus, it has certainly influenced organizations to reconsider their decision-making strategy in order to provide customers a chance to participate in the marketing procedure. As per the article by Wang, Yu Wei (2012) the relationship between customer decision-making and social media reflects that the emergence of social media has its affect on brand attitudes, advertising attitudes and purchasing intention of the customers. Thus, social media can certainly affects the buying behavior of the customers. Development of proper brand attitude in social media can lead customers to select a particular brand for purchases. Furthermore, social media is a two-way communication process. Therefore, it also helps customers to make suggestions that can actually enhance the popularity of a particular product or services. According to Bertot, Jaeger Hansen (2012) emergence of social media has opened a completely new platform for the organizations to utilize in order to get competitive advantage in the market. In fact, many studies have mentioned that social media is not only a tool for marketing but also is an effective tool for a product or brand to connect with its p otential customers. Furthermore, social media is providing a global platform for the organizations to promote a particular or service. Thus, organizations also have to keep in mind that their promotional campaign on social media does not focus on any particular geographical area or community of the world. Emergence of social media has also help organizations to understand insight of the customers in a better way (Grajales et al., 2014). Therefore, it allows organizations to implement necessary changes in the business decision procedure in a much more effective way. Importance of effective decision-making strategy: As per the article by Rodriguez, Peterson Krishnan (2012) decision-making strategies heavily depend on needs and perspectives of the customers. Now, emergence of social media has changed the marketing procedure completely. Since, traditional marketing primarily focus on the utilization of one-way communication process. However, emergence of social media has induced organizations to implement two way marketing technique in order to remain competitive in the market. According to Fotis, Buhalis Rossides (2012) two-way communication is extremely important for the fulfillment of marketing objectives. Therefore, it also affected the decision-making procedure of the organizations. For instance, organizations like Microsoft and Coca-Cola have consciously evaluating their decisions through the feedbacks of the customers. As per the article by Tsimonis Dimitriadis (2014), impact of social media on the process of management decision making can be very extensive. Since, social media have the potential to alter opinions of the people and influence the choices. Therefore, it creates direct impact on the managers decision-making procedure. Furthermore, increase utilization of two-way communication process in the marketing techniques has forced organizations to made lot of changes in their decision-making procedure (Croteau Hoynes, 2013). Media and social phenomenon appear relevant for the impact of the expanded utilization of web-based social media on organizational decision-making procedure. Schroeder Pennington-Gray (2015) mentioned different theories such as crowd behavior theory, media richness theory, peer pressure theory, conformity theory, communications saturation theory and convergence theory. Since, these theories have mentioned that it is necessary for the organization to change its decision-making procedure so that it can able to face the challenges of the market successfully. As per the media richness theory, organizations decisions have to include message clarity, social perceptions and ability to evaluate other outside factors on the quality of decision-making procedure (Harrigan et al., 2015). This theory emphasizes on the social perceptions and perceived ability to analyze the needs of the market. On the other hand, communication saturation theory focuses on the utilization of new and advance techniques for the communication so that it can able to cope up with the change in the perception of the customers. Furthermore, emergence of social media has created broader scope for the word-of-mouth communication. Studies have also identified that social media can also create new forms of peer pressure that are very vast as compared to face-to-face situations. However, emergence of social media has also influence organizations to consider the inputs of the peers in order to implement effective decision-making procedure (Hays, Page Buhalis, 2013). Furthermore , emergence of social media has induced organizations to utilize unique marketing techniques. For instance, attractive blogs and gripping tweets have become an integral part of decision-making procedure of the organizations. Particularly for the younger generation, utilizations of blogs and tweets have created huge amount of impact on the popularity of a particular product or service. Literature gap: From the above discussion it can be assess that emergence of social media has forced organizations to made considerable changes. However, no clear-cut solutions are provided by the studies through which organizations can implement effective decisions. Furthermore, several drawbacks also have been found on the excessive utilization of social media for gaining popularity in the market. For instance, saturation effect of social media can actually create huge amount of negative impact on the effectiveness of the decision-making procedure. Therefore, it highlighted the fact that organizations have to restructure its decision-making procedure in such a way so that it can able to minimize the possibility of organizational risks in the market. Research methodology: Research outline: As per the article by Treem Leonardi (2013), research outline helps the research study to cover all the factors related to the research study. The outline of the research study includes the factors like research philosophy, research approach, research design so that the research study can able to fulfill all the requirements of the research study. In this study, the focus will be on all the factors related to social media that can have impact on the decision-making procedure of the organizations. Thus, the research study will include positivism philosophy, deductive approach and descriptive design in order to fulfill all the requirements of the study. Research philosophy: As per the article by Chan Yazdanifard (2014), selection of research philosophy is crucial for the successful completion of the study. Generally, three types of research philosophies namely positivism, interpretivism and realism is used in the order to fulfill the requirements of the study. However, in order to evaluate the impact of social media on the decision-making procedure, the study will utilize positivism research philosophy. The study will focus on the utilization of positivism research philosophy so that it can evaluate all the factors related to social media in a much more effective way. Furthermore, utilization of positivism research philosophy allows the study to fulfill all the requirements of the study within the given timeframe. Research approach: According to Munar Jacobsen (2014), research approach is another significant part that can have huge impact on the success of a particular study. Traditionally, research approach can be separated in two parts namely inductive and deductive approach. However, in this study, the focus will be on the deductive research approach. Since, deductive research approach has the potential to identify all the factors that are affecting the decision-making procedure of an organization. Furthermore, deductive approach will induce the research study to consider different theories and concepts regarding the topic of the research study. Therefore, it helps the research study to have an in-depth analysis on several factors related to social media that influences the decision-making procedure of the organizations. Furthermore, deductive approach will help to implement effective process of research so that the study can able to fulfill all its objectives. On the other hand, the study will not focus on the utilization of inductive approach, as it will prolong the expected time that is required to fulfill all the factors of the study. Research design: As mentioned by Stieglitz Dang-Xuan (2013) research design is another important part or research methodology that has the potential to add value to the research study. Traditionally, research design can be separated in to three parts explanatory, exploratory and descriptive research design (Chen Sakamoto, 2013). In order to evaluate all the factors related to social media, the study will focus on the descriptive research design. The research study will utilize descriptive research design so that the study can able to define application and approaches. Furthermore, utilization of descriptive research design will help the research study to enhance the quality of the research study. Descriptive research design also helps the study to collect effective information regarding the research topic that eventually will create positive impact on the successful fulfillment of the research study. Furthermore, descriptive research design will also help the research study to identify future persp ectives of the factors that can have impact on the decision-making procedure of the organizations. Key variables and the process of measuring them: As per the article by Galan, Lawley Clements (2015) identification of key variables is critical for the successful completion of the research study. Since, it allows the research study to cover all the factors that can have impact on the decision-making procedure of the organizations. In order to identify the impact that emergence of social media on the organizational decision-making process, the study will also have to evaluate all the internal and external factors effectively. In this research study, social media can be regarded as independent factor. Conversely, decision-making procedure has to be regarded as the dependent factor of the study. Since, studies have established the fact that social media can have huge amount of impact on the decision-making procedure. Thus, the study will evaluate different marketing strategies that organizations utilize in social media in order to gain competitive advantage in the market. The study will able to evaluate all the marketing strategies of social media, as it will help to evaluate the independent factors of the research topic in an effective way. For instance, the study will focus on the identification of the changes that organizations have faced after the emergence of social media. This will help the research study to identify a trend that organizations follow in order to implement effective decision-making procedure. The study will also analyze organizational decision-making policies in order to identify the future-plan that organizations can utilize. The identification of future-plan actually help the research study to suggest a particular way so that it can able to fulfill the requirements of the organizations. Data collection and sampling technique: Data collection technique: As per the article by Goh, Heng Lin (2013) data collection is another significant factor that can have huge amount of impact on the successful completion of any particular study. Data collection allows the research study to collect relevant information regarding the research topic. In this research study, focus will be on the primary data collection procedure. Since, collection of primary data will allow the study to utilize practical information. The research study will also focus on the primary data collection procedure, as it will help the research study to identify different perspectives. As per the article by Yadav et al. (2013) primary data collection procedure can be utilized in two ways namely qualitative and quantitative data collection procedure. In this study, focus will be on both qualitative and quantitative data collection procedure in order to collect in-depth information about the research study. In this research study, survey technique will be utilized at the time o f quantitative data collection. The research study will consider formulation of questionnaire in order to collect quantitative information about the research study. The study will only include closed-end questions at the time of collecting quantitative data. The study will focus on the quantitative data collection procedure, as it will help the research study to identify a pattern regarding the kind of impact that emergence of social media can have on the decision-making procedure of the organizations. Furthermore, the research study will also consider qualitative data collection procedure in order to have in-depth information. The study will utilize another set of questionnaire at the time of collecting qualitative data. The study will only include open-end questions in order to have different perspectives of the respondents. In addition, utilization of qualitative data collection procedure will help to improve the quality of the research study. The study will utilize face-to-face conversation technique, as it can enhance the quality of the collected data. Sampling technique: As per the article by Rishika et al. (2013), data collection can only have its desired level of impact when the collected data is analyzed effectively. Therefore, research study also has to focus on the data analysis procedure in order to fulfill all the objectives of the research study. In order to utilize effective data analysis technique, the study will focus on the implementation of sampling technique. Traditionally, two types of sampling techniques including probability and non-probability sampling technique are used in the research studies (Kimmel Kitchen, 2014). However, in this study, the focus will be on the non-probability sampling technique. The research study will focus on the non-probability sampling technique, as it will allow the study to collect information from the relevant resources. Non-probability sampling technique allows the study will select 90 executive level professionals from different organizations in order to collect quantitative information about the res earch study. Furthermore, the study selects 15 managers from different organizations at the time of qualitative data. In addition, the study will utilize several statistical techniques to analyze all the factors related to social media that can have impact on the decision-making procedure of the organizations. In this research study, statistical tools like mean, median, mode will be utilized to fulfill all the objectives of the research. Furthermore, correlation, regression and standard deviation will also be utilized in order to add value to the outcome of the research study. Ethical issues: As per the article by Garrigos-Simon, Lapiedra Alcam Barber Ribera (2012) maintenance of ethics is crucial for the successful competition of the research study. Therefore, research studies always put huge amount of focus so that the ethics of the research study remains intact. Furthermore, maintenance of ethics will allow the research to study to have an unbiased outcome. Thus, in order to analyze the emergence of social media on the decision-making procedure of the organizations, the study will focus on the following ethical aspects: Confidentiality: Maintaining the privacy of the collected data is one of the major ethical factors that the research studies will have to consider in order to fulfill all the requirements of the study. Since, primary data is collected for this particular study; it will also have to maintain the confidentiality of the research study. Therefore, the research study will have to utilize the rules and regulation of the data protection act in order to maintain the confidentiality of the research study. The study will have to protect data from any public sources that are not related to the research study. Reliability: Reliability of the collected data is another important ethical aspect that the study will have to consider at the time of conducting research. However, the research study is utilizing non-probability sampling technique in order to identify the best possible persons for the collection primary data. Still, the study will have to make sure that the respondents are providing the actual information. Otherwise, the study might fail to describe the actual picture that emergence of social media can have on the decision-making procedure of the organizations. Verified source: According to Xie Lee (2014) identification of verified source is another important factor that the research study will have to consider at the time of conducting the primary data collection procedure. Therefore, the research study will have to ensure that the selected respondents are capable of providing in-depth information regarding the topic of the study. Furthermore, the study will also have to ensure that any external factors do not affect the responses of the respondents. Lack of secondary information: Utilization of social media is comparatively a new concept that organizations are considering in order to gain competitive advantage in the market. Therefore, the availability of specific secondary information is still not at the expected level. As a result, the study will have to assume the role of different factors and its impact on the decision-making process of the organization. Integrity: The research study will also have to focus on the maintenance of integrity of the respondents. Otherwise, the respondents might not feel to share their views about the research topic. As a result, it can actually create huge amount of negative impact on the successful fulfillment of all the factors. Expected outcomes: From the above discussion, it can be expected that the research study will be able to evaluate all the dependent and independent factors that can have impact on the decision-making procedure of the organizations. 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