7BUS2002- 0901-2022 Research Business Methods
7BUS2002- 0901-2022 Research Business Methods
1. Contemporary business issue, research aim, research objectives and research question(s)
Research background and importance of the research
In this digital age, small businesses primarily utilise social media or online platforms, as a tool to market their goods and services, interact with customers, and increase sales. According to Akpan et al. (2021), small businesses frequently have limited resources than larger companies, but social media offers an accessible as well as affordable way to reach a large audience. The top five social media platforms that offer the highest ROI (return on investment), when selling products are Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and Twitter (Sproutsocial, 2023). In 2022, Instagram crossed approximately 2 billion users (Fischer, 2021) (Refer to appendix). Therefore, small companies use Instagram in terms of increasing awareness among customers regarding their products and services.
However, for small business owners and marketers to properly utilise social media platforms for business growth, they must understand how these platforms are encouraging small enterprises. Social media platforms are always changing, with new features, algorithms, and user behaviour (Fisher and Mehozay, 2019). The most recent trends, tactics, and best practices in social media marketing can be learned by researching how Facebook, Instagram, and other social media platforms are promoting small companies, which is the main focus of the study.
The overall aim of the project
The overall aim of the project is to critically scrutinize how social media platforms such as Instagram and Facebook are promoting small businesses. The complete project hopes to achieve the objectives that are extremely concerned with the real status of using social media platforms for ensuring the growth of small businesses, along with analysing challenges as well as opportunities witnessed by small companies.
The research objectives
- To understand the role of social media in terms of supporting the growth of small businesses
- To critically evaluate the effectiveness of using social media promotion for small businesses
- To identify the challenges and opportunities for small companies in utilising social media platforms
- To critically examine the perceptions as well as experiences of small companies with social media marketing
The research questions
- How significant is the role of social media in terms of supporting the growth of small businesses?
- How effective is the use of social media promotion for small businesses?
- What are the challenges and opportunities for small companies in utilising social media platforms?
- What are the perceptions as well as experiences of small companies with social media marketing?
2. Literature Review
Significance of social media platforms for promoting businesses
As per Mason et al. (2021), social media use has substantially expanded in recent years, and after Covid-19, it has expedited immensely. Additionally, the expansion of social media platforms has transformed the dynamics of the marketplace while fostering a network for customers’ opinions with a great level of expertise (Urena et al. 2019). The most positive aspect of consumer impression of a product image significantly triggers the purchasing decision.
In this connection, social media platforms become extensively significant for business organisations. Marketing has the most significant impact on a small business’s success out of all of the important factors (Tobing et al. 2019). In today’s digital environment, small businesses start their marketing with a social media platform that leads to increased levels of brand awareness, direct communication, and high traffic at low prices (Makrides et al. 2020). Thus, it has been acknowledged that social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and significant others are playing a significant role in promoting businesses regarding information searches.
Impact of social media platforms on small businesses
Small businesses looking for new approaches to increase visibility and enhance their marketing strategies (Dumitriu et al. 2019). Even though some business owners may still be opposed to the idea, it has been understood that a customer uses social media platforms extensively, which is making it a wonderful way for organisations to promote their content and build a wide range of brand awareness (Sharma et al. 2020). There is a positive impact of social media platforms for small businesses in terms of increasing brand awareness, driving traffic, and constructing valuable communications along with a better understanding of the customers. All of these are allowing small businesses to step ahead in the competition, while sustaining in the business marketplace (Costa and Castro, 2021).
In contrast, according to the study of Qalati et al. (2020), small businesses in developing economies struggle to own due to a lack of capital, changes for future expansion, globalisation, and technology utilisation. This is creating issues for them in terms of leverage in social media platforms and their advantages. However, there are a few issues that have been faced by small businesses to structure and establish their social media platform effectively with a better prospect of increasing their brand visibility (Kushwaha et al. 2020).
Challenges incorporated with the utilisation of social media platforms for small companies
The Covid-19 pandemic has disproportionately impacted small businesses with these effects including a decline in consumer demand and labour supply, and limits on human migration while disrupting supply networks (Helgeson et al. 2022). There are challenges that have been faced by small businesses in social media platforms such as not enough executives, limitations on time, choosing the right platform, balancing multiple platforms, coming up with ideas for content, and more importantly budget (Thukral, 2021).
In contrast, referring to the idea of Katsikeas et al. (2020), the present digital era has few advantages for businesses to see opportunities in the global market such as building and maintaining better relationships regardless of cultural, economic, or political differences. Additionally, gathering trustworthy and beneficial data for customers along with obtaining a cost-effective customisation approach for customers can increase the competitive edge while enhancing financial performance (Katsikeas et al. 2020). In this connection, it can be stated that with challenges there are few opportunities for small businesses to rely on social media platforms if managed appropriately.
Theoretical underpinning
10 C’s of digital marketing model
The 10 C’s of the digital marketing model are considered to be the major element of the marketing framework starting from the customer to being the primary centre of the marketing context. Customer is specifically revolved around different elements such as corporate, culture, convenience, competition, consistency, creative content, customisation, coordination, and control (Behera et al. 2020). These core aspects are specifically required to be understood by small businesses to have better management of social media platforms for products and services.
It is essential that there should be better use of organisational websites for marketing communication that can manage customers while understanding the needs of customers to meet organisational goals along with increasing their financial stability (Dastane, 2020). Thus, the 10 C’s of the digital marketing model can be considered as a structured way for small businesses to understand the promotional aspect of social media channels such as Instagram and Facebook.
Literature gap
The analysis of this literature has been constructed based on the impact and challenges of the social media platforms for small businesses. In this context, the literature has not examined the context of experiences small companies faced in terms of social media marketing. Thus, the following research would further focus on understanding the experiences of small businesses along with the strategies in terms of improving their social media promotion through Facebook and Instagram.
3. Research Design and Methodology
Research onion
Research onion is a framework for assisting researchers to create thorough research plans and comprehend the various components of the research process. The research onion often has numerous layers, as indicated in figure 3 (Mardiana, 2020). Considering this framework, the overall selection of methods for this research is completed and further described in adjoining paragraphs.
Research philosophy
For completing the research, interpretivism philosophy will be used. By examining the individualised meanings, viewpoints, and experiences of individuals or groups, interpretivism enables academics to develop a profound knowledge of complex social events (Alharahsheh and Pius, 2020). Hence, this philosophy is undertaken in the study as it has the ability to contribute in achieving the objectives, by assisting the researcher in understanding and critically evaluating the use of social media promotions for small businesses. However, as research philosophy depends on the interpretation and subjective meaning-making of the researcher, it is subjective and can include biases (Durnová and Weible, 2020). In contrast, the main advantage of this philosophy is its assistance to researchers in gaining an in-depth comprehension of the topic, which will benefit the research to a great extent.
Research approach
The inductive research approach will be incorporated for analysing the role of social media platforms in promoting small businesses. One of the foremost advantages of the inductive approach is its assistance to researchers in specific observations, as it allows flexibility (Walter and Ophir, 2019). However, as inductive research does not begin with predetermined theories, it lacks the systematic approach of deductive research. Despite that, further research will use the inductive approach due to the advantages provided by it, in terms of allowing flexibility that would allow the study to identify and critically examine the challenges and opportunities for small businesses in utilising social media platforms.
Research design
The descriptive research design will be used to critically analyse how social media platforms are promoting small businesses. According to Patel and Patel (2019), descriptive research design deals with descriptions. With the use of this design, it will be possible for the researcher to not only identify the effectiveness of utilising online platforms for small businesses, but also properly describe them along with presenting challenges and opportunities for small companies in this regard.
Sampling method
The complete research will be conducted by considering the purposive sampling method and qualitative research strategy. Purposive sampling, also identified as purposeful sampling, is a non-probability sampling technique where researchers purposefully choose particular people or cases for inclusion in a research study based on their traits, expertise, or experiences that are in line with the research’s goals (Christina and Alexander, 2020). With the use of this sampling method, the research will be focused on analysing the effectiveness of using social media platforms for small businesses.
Data collection method and data analysis
The secondary data collection method is one of the significant methods for data collection that allows the collection of existing data (Olabode et al.2019). This method will be applied and information for the study will be collected from journals from Google Scholar, newspaper articles, business reports, and some other websites such as Statista.
For analysing data, the secondary data analysis method would be applied in the research. Through the process of coding, by conducting a coding tree, themes will be generated and accumulated data will be analysed according to that. Lastly, the overall study would be focused on ethical considerations and data protection. Furthermore the guidelines of the “Data Protection Act 2018” will be followed (GOV, 2023).
4. Expected Outcomes
The result of the study might add value to small businesses respectively in terms of improving the understanding of the social media channels along with the possible advantages and ways through which they can gain better visibility. Apart from this, possible opportunities might be one of the advantageous perspectives that could be gained from this entire research, as there would be an evidence-based interpretation that will offer small companies a wide range of information and acknowledgment about social media platforms. Moreover, the researcher would further focus on evaluating other social media platforms along with Facebook and Instagram effectively to comprehend the current approach of social media marketing and the contexts of businesses regarding this platform. Thus, it can be stated that the entire research results would be a way through which small businesses would gain an understanding of improving their promotional tactics and activities. This would probably allow them to operate successfully in the domestic market as well as in the international markets.
Reference list
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