How Business Organizations Can Gain a Competitive Advantage Through Social Media

DISSERTATION
AN INVESTIGATION TO ANALYSE HOW BUSINESS
ORGANIZATIONS CAN GAIN A COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE
THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to express my special thanks to my professor who gave me the effective
opportunity to do this project on the topic an investigation to analyse how business organizations
can gain a competitive advantage through social media.
I also thankful to my friends who gave me a support during completion of full dissertation
in give time and successful manner. I would like to express my thanks to my family member who
provided me an appropriate guidance regarding successfully completion of full dissertation.
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Main aim of this dissertation is to identify the significance of social media for ASOS within
fashion industry in achievement of competitive advantages. There are different activities that
have been completed for fulfilling this aim. Literature review is an essential activity that has
been completed by investigator by using books, articles etc. sources for collecting secondary
information regarding the topic. There are various effective types of methodologies used for
collecting relevant information about the topic. Qualitative and quantitative research, deductive
and inductive approach, questionnaire and interview and many others. All these are main
methodologies that helped investigator in attainment of each objective of the dissertation in
effective manner. Data analysis was done by applying quantitative and qualitative data through
frequency distribution analysis and thematic analysis. Main conclusion of this dissertation is
research aim and objectives are achieved successfully. Main recommendation of the current
investigation is for attaining competitive advantages, there is responsibility of ASOS to provide
actual data about their products and services on social media platforms i.e. Facebook, Instagram
etc.
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Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...............................................................................................................2
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
Contents...........................................................................................................................................4
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
LITERATURE REVIEW................................................................................................................7
METHODOLOGY AND DATA COLLECTION........................................................................12
RESULTS/FINDINGS..................................................................................................................15
ANALYSIS/EVALUATION OF RESULTS/FINDINGS............................................................27
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................31
RECOMMENDATIONS...............................................................................................................32
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................33
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................36
Questionnaire.............................................................................................................................36
Interview....................................................................................................................................37
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INTRODUCTION
Background of the dissertation
Social media introduces to the applications and websites that are designed to allow
customers and companies to share content efficiently, quickly and in actual time. In business
context, social media is an internet service that helps an organisation in providing of actual
information about the products or services to the customers. This will help an organisation in
interacting of customers towards the brand (Dwivedi and et. al., 2021). There are different uses
of social media for an organisation such as promote the name of brand, find out what customer
think of the brand and tell customers regarding the products and services. There are different
examples of social media such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube etc. All these are
biggest examples that are useful for an organisation in attracting of larger number of customers
towards their brand.
For this dissertation, ASOS is a given British online cosmetic and fashion retailer.
Company is specialising in selling of clothes, shoes, beauty and accessories to the customers.
The company was founded in year 2000 by Nick Robertson, Andrew Regan, Quentin Griffiths
and Deborah Thorpe, and headquartered in London, England and United Kingdom. There are
various types of social media websites used by ASOS by providing information regarding their
products to the customers. These are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Google plus, YouTube etc.
Importance of research topic
This research is based on the topic of the importance of social media for company in
achievement of competitive advantages. This topic is important for various stakeholders such as
an organisation, industry or an individual. This topic helps them all stakeholders by providing
accurate information regarding the effectiveness of social media within a business. My main
interest regarding the selection of this topic is to increase my knowledge about the social media
and its roles within a business (Oyewobi and et. al., 2021). By conducting research on this topic,
I increased my data collection and decision making skills that turn to help in my personal and
professional growth. Therefore, current research is highly important for others and researcher.
All these are main examples of social media used by ASOS that are effective for them in
achievement of competitive advantages.
Research aim and objectives
Research aim
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Main aim of this dissertation is “To understand and analyse how the different bodies in the
fashion industries need to use social media in getting a competitive advantage”.
Research Objectives
 To understand the Role of Social Media in customer interaction
 To analyse the impact that social media from the point of view of business
 To infer the reasons that has increased the efficacy of social media in the fashion Industry
Research questions
 What are the main roles of Social Media in increasing customer interaction within
fashion industry?
 What are the impacts social media on fashion industry of United Kingdom?
 What are the main reasons that have increased the efficacy of social media in the fashion
Industry?
Types of methodology
There are various types of methodologies used within a dissertation (Susanto and et. al.,
2021). These methodologies are interpretivisim and positivism philosophy, deductive and
inductive approach, qualitative and quantitative research, survey research strategy, cross-
sectional time horizon, probability sampling, interview and questionnaire, primary and secondary
methods of data collection etc. All these are main methodologies that are used for collecting
appropriate information about the topic as well as achieving research aim and each objective in
effective and successful manner.
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LITERATURE REVIEW
Literature review is the systematic process followed by researcher for collecting data from
secondary sources i.e. peer-reviewed articles, magazines, journals and many other appropriate to
the research title. Main aim of literature review in a dissertation is to determine the research gap
in previous studies (Bhatti and et. al., 2021). Within a current dissertation, main gap is the impact
of social media on company in attainment of competitive advantages. In previous studies, there
were lots of data available regarding the impact of social media on business but there were lack
of information available regarding the effectiveness of social media in achievement of
competitive advantages. This is a main gap and for fulfilling this research questions are used by
researcher. Research questions are useful for achieving each objective of the research and also
fulfilling the gap in successful manner. Research questions of the current project are explained as
below:
What are the main roles of Social Media in increasing customer interaction within fashion
industry?
According to the Ding and Shi (2021), social media is a collective term for applications
and websites that emphasis on community-based input, communication, content-sharing,
interaction and collaboration. Within a business, social media is used for promote brands, market
brand, connect to current customers, increased customer base and foster new business. In context
of customer feedback, social media help business organisation in identifying of customer
complaints and experienced towards the brand. Social medial played an important role in
increasing customer interaction towards fashion industry. These roles are explained as below:
Engage with audience: The main role of social media is that an organisation can easily
engage with their audience. This is a role of company to provide accurate information regarding
their products and services on social media platforms i.e. Instagram, Facebook etc. This will help
them in increasing of customer engagement and interaction towards the brand. Therefore, social
media can easily increase customer interaction towards the products and services offered by
ASOS within fashion industry of United Kingdom.
Improve communication: This is another role of social media that helps an organisation
in increasing of their sales and customer base within a minimum time period. There are various
websites and applications of social media such as Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. These are
main applications that are effective for ASOS within fashion industry by improving their
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communication with the potential and new customers. Therefore, social media is useful within
fashion industry in increasing of customer interaction towards the products offered by ASOS.
Share feedback: This is one of the biggest roles of social media that is beneficial for
customers as well as an organisation. Through social media, business organisation can easily
collect customer’s feedback towards the brand that turn to help them in overcoming of their
feedback or complaints (Khan, Malviya and Yadav, 2021). Collecting customer’s feedback and
sharing information to the client is essential in increasing of customer interaction toward the
brand.
Share posts, videos and image of the product: Social media is useful for fashion
industry in sharing of picture, posts and videos of the on Instagram, Facebook and many other
applications. This is beneficial for company in increasing of customer interactions towards
products or brand. Along with this, social media is useful ways for fashion industry in attracting
of larger base of customers in less time.
One the other hand Rishi and Bandyopadhyay, (2017), in the fashion sector there is
requirement of timely response to customer queries or feedbacks so that organisation can get a
competitive advantage in respect to this changing external market situation. Social media in the
fashion industry has led to various communication channels with the customers. The changing
trends of fashion industry and growing social media platforms have enabled average customers
in having regular interaction with their target segment of customers. Fashion is one such industry
that is never constant and changes continuously. In 2019 there have been 3.48 billion users
across social media platforms. The average social media user has 7.6 active accounts. Every
social media user is ending approximately 142 minutes a day is crawling across different
platforms. The role of social media in the changing fashion industry has become stronger. It has
helped in enhancing the brand image (Chaffeyand Smith, 2017). Different fashion brands across
world have focused on their digital presence because it is helping them in increasing the traffic.
There is engagement of customers with developing proper interesting content. As compared to
printed advertisement social media has helped in announcing new sales products exciting offers
based on the present requirement of Customers (Parsons, and Lepkowska-White, 2018).
What are the impacts social media on fashion industry of United Kingdom?
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