Ethical Considerations in Research: A Case Study on Sainsbury

This report discusses the key ethical considerations in a research project on the effectiveness of social media marketing strategies in acquiring new customers, using Sainsbury as a case study. It covers autonomy, dignity, privacy, scientific integrity, social responsibility, and minimizing harm and optimizing benefits.

CW2 Critical reflections on ethical issues &
Ethics checklist submission
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Aim..................................................................................................................................................3
Objectives........................................................................................................................................3
Methodology....................................................................................................................................3
Ethical considerations......................................................................................................................4
Autonomy, dignity and privacy of individuals............................................................................4
Scientific integrity.......................................................................................................................4
Social responsibility.....................................................................................................................5
Minimising harm and optimising benefits...................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
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INTRODUCTION
Ethics are defined as the moral and philosophical principles which determines that if actions
or practices are good or wrong. Data collection is an important aspect of the research and thus
action affect the research outcomes (Broesch and et.al., 2020). Thus it is highly required that
ethics must be followed in research methodology to make the research reliable, valid and
ethically accepted. Lack of ethical consideration within research can also cause legal
implications or academic misconduct. This report will discuss the key ethical considerations
which will be used in the proposed research project.
Aim
The aim of research is to evaluate the effectiveness of social media marketing strategies in
addressing the challenges of acquiring new customers: A case study on Sainsbury
Objectives
The research objectives are:
 To identify the development and concepts of social media marketing.
 To discuss significance and role of social media marketing strategies in attracting new
customers.
 To evaluate effective social media marketing strategies by which Sainsbury can attract
and retain its customers.
 To recommend the suitable social media marketing strategies for improving customer
attraction.
Methodology
The research methodology which will be used in the research project is as follows:
Research approach: The research is qualitative type and thus inductive approach is used. In
inductive approach theories are used to analyse the data and to develop conclusion. One of the
advantage of using inductive approach is that its higher flexibility also permits development of
new theories related to research topic.
Data collection and analysis: For collecting data both primary and secondary methods will be
used. Primary data is collected using a questionnaire while secondary data is collected through
books and journals. The use of secondary data collection method provides strong theoretical and
literature support so that validity of research can be increased. At the same time primary data
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will help to analyse the latest trends and perceptions in data (Suri, 2020). In order to analyse the
data thematic analysis will be used so that broader concepts can be understood and included in
the research.
Sampling: In the proposed research random sampling will be used and 30 employees of
Sainsbury will be selected as sample population. Random sampling avoids bias and thus helps in
more reliable data.
Ethical considerations
While collecting data from the participants it is important that ethics must be followed so
that validity and reliability of the collected data can be ensured. Some of the key ethical
considerations which must be taken into accounting while conducting research are as follows:
Autonomy, dignity and privacy of individuals
It is the responsibility of researcher to ensure that they maintain the privacy and dignity of
communities or individuals included in research. It is the right of individuals to choose that if
they want to be part of research or not and for how long. Thus before initiating research, every
participant must be informed about purpose and process of research so that they can give valid
consent (Brittain and et.al., 2020). A detailed participation information form must be given in
which detailed procedure of research methods must be given. Participants must have right to
allow to quit anytime from any particular question or stage. During the research procedure
researcher must be polite and ensure that they do not conduct any harm or unfair behaviour with
participants. The personal information or the data shared must be used only after approval from
the participants via an approval form.
Scientific integrity
For validity and accurate research outcomes it is required that scientific integrity of data
is maintained. This is possible when participants are fearless and open to freely describe their
views. Even after data collection fairness and accuracy will be maintained in the data
presentation and interpretation so that integrity can be achieved. Each participant will be given a
prior briefing about how they will undergo into research process as well as their rights to
withdraw from research at any instant. It will give choice to participants so that they can
participate in research without any fear or bias (Abrar and Sidik, 2019). This will help in
maintain the high quality research as well.
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Social responsibility
Research must also showcase respect towards the organisation and individuals concerned.
The topic chosen for this research reflect the common trend used in society and its changing
perception. Thus using this outcome organisation can improve their outcomes to deliver better
quality and services. Thus satisfactory customer relation will contribute in greater trade activities
and improved social lives of people. For respecting this social responsibility topic chosen is
related to common social trends. The organisation chosen for the case study is also asked for
approval so that its employees can be used for the research purpose. While using and collecting
the organisation related data researcher must ensure that data is presented in authentic way and
no falsification or misinterpretation is done. After analysis and collection permission and
approval must again be taken from the organisation so that it can be included in the research
work.
Minimising harm and optimising benefits
During research there are risk factors that individual privacy may be threatened and they
may become uncomfortable with certain questions. For ethical perspective these risks must be
identified and eliminated. For instance, the questions asked during survey or interview must be
respectful and not violate the dignity of individuals. A consent must be taken from participants
after informing that how and at which platforms their information or opinions will be used and in
what way. (Fiesler, 2019) Elimination of these lowers the research bias. From the findings
various organisations or businesses will be benefited as they will understand the social media
marketing strategies which are essential for the growth and success.
CONCLUSION
It can be concluded that ethical considerations used to make research results acceptable and
valid. Thus while conducting research it must be assured that data collection and analysis is
facilitated by appropriate ethical research. It can also be concluded that ethical principles like
social responsibility, privacy and scientific integrity are vital for establishing trust in the research
outcomes and processes.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Abrar, M. and Sidik, E.J., 2019. Analyzing ethical considerations and research methods in
children research. Journal of Education and Learning (EduLearn), 13(2), pp.184-193.
Brittain, S. and et.al., 2020. Ethical considerations when conservation research involves
people. Conservation Biology, 34(4), pp.925-933.
Broesch, T., and et.al., 2020. Navigating cross-cultural research: methodological and ethical
considerations. Proceedings of the Royal Society B, 287(1935), p.20201245.
Fiesler, C., 2019. Ethical considerations for research involving (speculative) public
data. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer Interaction, 3(GROUP), pp.1-13.
Suri, H., 2020. Ethical considerations of conducting systematic reviews in educational
research. Systematic reviews in educational research, pp.41-54.
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