A Motivational Perspective on User Acceptance of Social Media: A Research Project

Research project
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
LO1Conduct appropriate research methodology which integrates knowledge into the research
process.............................................................................................................................................5
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis, supported
by a literature review.......................................................................................................................5
Aims and Objectives........................................................................................................................5
P2 Examine appropriate research methods and conduct primary and secondary research.’.........10
M1 Evaluate different research approaches and methodology, and make justifications for the
choice of methods selected based on philosophical/ theoretical frameworks...............................11
LO2 Conduct and analyse research relevant to a chosen business research project......................13
P3 Conduct primary and secondary research using appropriate methods that take into account
costs, access, and ethical issues.....................................................................................................13
P4 Apply appropriate analytical tools to analyze research findings and data...............................16
M2 Discuss the merits, limitations, and pitfalls of approaches to data collection and analysis you
used................................................................................................................................................17
D1 Critically evaluates research methodologies and processes in the application to a business
research project to justify chosen research methods and analysis.................................................18
LO3 Communicate the outcomes of a research project to identified stakeholders.......................19
P5 Communicate research outcomes in an appropriate manner for the intended audience..........19
M3 Coherently and logically communicate outcomes to the intended audience, demonstrating
how outcomes meet set research objectives..................................................................................24
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D2 Communicate critical analysis of the outcomes and make valid, justified recommendations.25
LO4 Reflect on the application of research methodologies and concepts.....................................26
P6 Reflect on the effectiveness of research methods applied for meeting objectives of the
business research project...............................................................................................................26
P7 Consider alternative research methodologies and lessons learnt in view of the outcomes......26
M4 Provide critical reflection and insight that results in recommended actions for improvements
and future research considerations.................................................................................................26
D3 Demonstrate reflection and engagement in the resource process leading to recommended
actions for future improvement.....................................................................................................26
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................27
References......................................................................................................................................28
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Introduction
In the modern era, social media play a very crucial role for a business organisation as well as the
consumer. With the help of social media, people changed the way to connecting and
communicating with others. The business organisation gives high attention to the use of social
media for increasing sales and revenue as it assists to maintain a good relationship with
customers. It is highly important for an organisation to understand the influence of social media
on purchasing as well as the decision-making process for customers. People give high focus on
the use of social media for communicating with other, shopping and to search anything on sites.
There are so many motivational perspectives on the customer’s acceptance of social media. The
use of social media is a great marketing communication that assists the organisation to build a
strong customer base and also increase market share in the tough competitive marketplace. There
are various factors such as personal utility, information seeking, entrainment and convenience
that impact positively on the user’s experience, satisfaction level, and time spent with social
media. This report is based on a motivational perspective on the user acceptance of social media
in today’s tough competitive environment. In this report, research aims, objectives, literature
review, research methodology, Gantt chart, and findings have been covered. Apart from this,
various recommendations have been developing for achieving success and growth in the future.
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LO1Conduct appropriate research methodology which integrates knowledge into the
research process
P1 Produce a research proposal that clearly defines a research question or hypothesis,
supported by a literature review.
Title
“A motivational perspective on the user acceptance of social media”
Research background
In today’s digital business environment almost all company use social media for spreading new
information and detail about existing as well as new products and services. There are so many
motivational perspectives on the user to accept social media like Facebook, Google, Instagram,
Twitter, and others. People get wide and right information related to any products and services
easily by using social media that impact positively on their experience and satisfaction level. It is
a major responsibility of the company to encourage the customer to use social media for online
shopping and to gather the right information. It is highly important for every business
organisation to give high-quality services and products through an online platform to make their
shopping experience great that enhance the level of satisfaction (Acaps, 2012). Nowadays all
people are activated on social media so it is essential for the company to create an attractive page
to attract lots of customer’s that help to increase sale and revenue. If any customers have a
negative experience on social media then it will negative perspective on the user acceptance of
social media.
Aims and Objectives
Research aims and objectives play a very important role in completing research properly as it
provides the right direction and way to the investigator. On the basis of research aims and
objectives investigator perform all project activities to collect information and data to attain
desired outcomes.
Aims
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The main aim of the research is to examine the user’s acceptance of social media such as
Facebook and others.
Objectives
 To understand the satisfaction, and time spent influence on the user to use social media
 To analyse the user’ experience influence the continued intention to use different social
media like Facebook
 To examine the negative risk factors influence on people to use social media
 To understand the social media acceptance by users
Literature Review
According to Berger (2015), In today’s time digital technology plays a very important role in
resolving social and commercial issues. Social media is a great platform through which people
communicate and interact with associates, friends and family members. Lots of people face
Privacy risk on social media like Facebook, YouTube, Google, snapshot, and others. If people
have high privacy risk then it will influence negatively on perspectives to use social media.
There are so many hackers who can easily hack anyone’s accounts that can easily control by
making privacy setting. It is important to spread right information to people to secure their
accounts from hackers. People share personal photos and daily activities on social media with
their friends, family, and associates.
In the view of Bernard (2017), Customer enjoys to spent time on social media to accomplish set
desire and outcomes. Perceived enjoyment is positive perceptive that influence users to use
social media to fulfill their needs and wants in an effective way. Interpersonal trust is other
motivational factor that one social media user has in other user of the sites. Lots of people use
social media to enjoy their free time and also to gain useful information on social media. Social
media increase interaction and communication between people that assist to build a strong
relationship. If the high Social risk is faced by people then it influences negatively on users of
social media. Internet self-efficiency is one’s ability to execute and organise courses on the
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internet to access important for identifying important information, concept, and facts to fulfill
their requirements.
In the words of Bernardi (2013), Social media is a great platform through which people can
easily communicate with any person in the other location. It is used by almost everyone to
maintain a good relationship with friends, family, and associates. In today’s time, people share
their day to day activity, event on social media to share their experience with other people. There
are so many motivational perspectives that influence users to use social media like Facebook,
Google, Twitter, Instagram, and others. With the help of social media they aware of any
incidents and actions that take place anywhere in all over the world.
Methodology
There are so many research methods that are used by the investigator to complete research in the
most suitable and proper manner to attain set goal and objectives. Saunders research Onion is a
great method that covers different stages that must be considered by the investigator to gather
important information and data related to the selected study. The researcher can skip some of the
stages which are not reliable for the selected topic.
Using Saunders Research Onion
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(Figure: Saunders's research onion)
(Source: Kaminskiy, 2014)
There are various stages involved in this research method some of them are examined as under:
Research philosophy: In this stage, investigator understands the nature of reality related to
selected study topic to attain desired outcomes. Various assumption and justification are
identified by the investigator related to selected study topic.
Research approaches: There are so many research approaches like qualitative, quantitative, and
inductive as well as a deductive approach that assists to complete a research project in a proper
way. Investigator develops hypothesis by using a deductive approach and inductive approach is
used by the researcher to gather required data and information (Fukuda-Parr and Lopes, 2013).
Research strategy: In the research strategies several approaches are used by the investigator like
a case study, interview, survey, literature review and experimental research. This will assist to
create a suitable conclusion and finding related to selected study to accomplish set aims and
objectives.
Timeline or Gantt chart
Timeframe
It is highly important to develop an effective timeframe for overall project work according to
which investigator perform different task and activities to achieve set aims and objectives of the
study.
Action plan
Table1
Tasks Start date End date Days
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