Research Methods for Strategic Manager

Research Methods
for Strategic
Manager

Table of Contents
Table of Contents 1
Introduction 2
1.1 Select research question 3
1.2 Explain the factors that contribute to the process of successful research question selection
3
1.3 Justify your choice of research question 5
LO 2: Literature review 6
2.1 Conduct research to find literature review relevant to research question 6
2.2 Undertake a critical review of the key literature for inclusion in research proposal 7
LO 3: Techniques used to interpret data in research proposal 9
3.1 Evaluate techniques for use with quantitative data in research proposal 9
3.2 Evaluate techniques for use with qualitative data in research proposal 10
LO 4: Appropriate methodology to research the question 10
4.1 Evaluate appropriate research methodologies in terms of research question 10
4.2 Choose an appropriate methodology in terms of the research question 12
4.3 Justify the methodology selected in terms of the research question 12
LO 5: Presenting the findings of research proposal 14
5.1 Recording findings on research a question, literature review and methodology 14
5.2 Summarizing the findings 15
5.3 Presenting findings using suitable methods 16
5.4 Critically analyse the findings 17
Limitations 18
Further areas of research 19
Conclusion 19
References 20
Appendix 1 23
24
Appendix 2 26
Appendix 3 27
Appendix 4 30
2

Introduction
In the modern era, social media has emerged as one of the biggest and most potential platforms
to advertise and market products and services. Nowadays, most of the business have started
using social media such as Facebook and Twitter as marketing tools. On the other hand,
competition among business has become so intense that businesses are required to retain their
customers. In the present scenario, organizations seek for the ways through which they can
enhance their customer base and manage relationship with them. This research will reflect that
how the use of social media can help in developing better relationship with all the customers.
Samsung is one of the leading manufacturers of smartphone in the current market. Samsung is
facing tough competition from Apple. Further, both these brands have emerged as the biggest
rivals of each other. In order to maintain its existing market share and customer base, Samsung
Mobile is required to make sure that it develops effective relationship with all its customers. This
report will focus on whether it is possible for Samsung to improve Customer Relationship
Management using social media.
Background
Competition among businesses in the mobile sector has become very intense and it is not easy
for brands such as Samsung to retain all its customers. In the present scenario, mobile companies
such as Sony, HTC have started to use social media as an important tool to manage relationship
with all its customers. The present study will demonstrate the benefits of social networking sites
Facebook and Twitter in developing good relationship with customers. Therefore, this study will
explain whether the use of Facebook and Twitter can help in retaining customers and developing
relationship with them.
1.1 Select research question
Research question helps in directing the efforts of a researcher and enables him to collect as well
as evaluate sources. In order to develop a research question, an orderly process is followed. This
comprises of the following steps:
1. Considering needs and interests of the readers
2. Reflecting on the role of the researcher
3. Generating potential research questions
4. Selection of a preliminary research question
5. Refining the preliminary question to arrive at the final research question
Research title ‘Use of social media to improve Customer Relationship Management in Samsung
Mobile UK”
3

In the present study Quantitative research would be used to assess the primary data. On
the other hand, qualitative data will be used to assess literature review. Descriptive design will be
used as the researcher aims at determining the impact of social media on customer relationship
management. Deductive approach will be used as more specific data will be required. In terms
iof of philosophy intrepretivism philosophy will be used.
1.2 Explain the factors that contribute to the process of successful research question
selection
One of the main factors that contributed in selecting this research question is raising importance
of social media in the market. In the present era, every business enterprise strongly focuses on
using this tool for enhancing awareness in the market. Further, it has assisted every business to
attract large number of customers and in turn, it is possible to grab the range of opportunities.
Factors contributing to the process of successful research question selection are:
Interest: I find opportunity to conduct research on Social Media to improve Customer
Relationship Management. I was also interested in knowing the use of social media in managing
customer relations. Moreover, social media tools are well used in marketing field. Before
selecting this topic I have carried out a comparative study on the social media used by Apple and
Samsung. Further it was found that Samsung is more actively involved in social media activities
in order to communicate with all its customers. Apple is using social media tools such as
YouTube to inform people about its new products and services. On the other side of this,
Samsung use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to stay in touch with customers and develop a
better relation with them. This has developed my interest with regards to the topic under
investigation.
Curiosity: Being a management student, I am curious about knowing the impacts of social media
in every field of management; therefore, I have chosen this topic for the present research
investigation. I was very eager to know what that kind of impact Facebook and Twitter have on
customer relationship management of Samsung. Apple is one of the biggest brands in the world
and facing intense competition from Samsung but they totally avoided to use Facebook and
Twitter as CRM tools. This developed my curiosity to know whether it is because of the use of
Facebook and Twitter enabled Samsung to develop good and long lasting relation with its
customers to reach in such position.
Aim and objectives;
To determine how social media can impact customer relationship management within Samsung.
To recommended ways through which Samsung can improve its customer relationship
management.
1.3 Justify your choice of research question
4

All the research questions have been selected by considering the nature of study. Further, main
stress is on assessing the impact of social media in enhancing the customer relationship
management which has been accomplished by forming different type of questions. All the
questions are based on social media and the ways through which Samsung can enhance its social
media practices with the motive to enhance customer relationship management.
Scope of study
The present study will only focus on the impact of social media sites Facebook and Twitter on
customer relationship management of Samsung. Since free access to social media enabled
researcher to connect with intended organisation and investigate their activities with their
customers on social sites. This study will focus on Samsung operation in London and researcher
have the opportunity to visit Samsung store to investigate how the organisation uses the above
stated social networking sites and what kind of information it shares with customers or vice-
versa. Rather than making this study too broad by focusing in all across UK, this study will be
based on London and that will help researcher to complete full project within reasonable time
limit.
Rational of the study
The rationale behind carrying out this research is to understand the role of social media in
improving customer relationship management (CRM). Previous studies has shown that in order
to survive and grow in situation of such intense competition, businesses are required to adopt
effective CRM practises and the benefit of such practises is that they make customers loyal
towards a particular brand (Buttle, 2009) . Further, it can be stated that with the passage of time,
the market has become highly competitive. If, better relationship is not developed between a
brand and its customers then its long term profitability gets affected. Strong relation with
customers helps them to stay loyal and not to opt for the products and services offered by any
other market players.
Moreover, according to Dutta et al (2011) existing CRM practises such as communicating with
customers through Email and letter are not enough to increase the brand awareness and support
in improving customer experience in 21st century as a result of change in communication
methods between person to person. This study prove that a fast and more reliable method of
communication is necessary for the company to stay connected with their customer and social
media can be an optimum solution for this problem. However, previous studies focused on
customer relationship management and its effect on the business, but there is no particular study
carried out that can show how Facebook and Twitter can help businesses to build a strong
relationship with their customers.
As a result this study will help business like Samsung in understanding how the use of social
media such as Facebook and Twitter can help them to improve their customer relationship
management.
Research questions
5

What is the significance and benefits of using Facebook and Twitter in customer relationship
management?
Do customers use social media or email more frequently to communicate with Samsung?
Do customers ask more about software or hardware related question?
What is the Length of time taken by Samsung to respond customer’s queries?
LO 2: Literature review
2.1 Conduct research to find literature review relevant to research question
Software and hardware
Hardware comprises of any physical device which is used with the computer system. This
includes the physical parts of a computer system. In contrast to this, software is defined as
installation of a collection of code to the hard drive of computer. Commonly, it is known as
programs which comprises of electronic instructions (DeMicheli and Sami, 2013). These
instructions provide direction to the hardware for performing certain tasks. As per the views of
Sucaet and Waelput, (2014), hardware and software are interconnected and interdependent
(Sucaet and Waelput, 2014). Wu and et.al., (2014) state that software systems are divided into
two categories namely, application software and system software. System software assists
computer hardware (Wu and et.al., 2014). In contrast to this, application software enables the
users to perform tasks such as web browsing, word processing etc.
Significant benefit of Customers Relationship Management
Customer relationship management (CRM) can be defined as the action plan and strategies
which organization implements in order to interact with customers and analyse their need and
demand. One of the main aims behind using CRM is to build and enhance business relationship
with all the customers (Wagner and Zubey, 2006).
This helps business to get aware of the changing market trends and needs of customers.
Companies use tools such as television, newspapers and magazines to interact with all its
customers. Further, it can be stated that advertisement of mobile company’s new products and
offers are being displayed on these media (Gupta and Lehmann, 2005). The result of this is that
more and more people become aware and are encouraged to buy particular products. It can be
also stated that cost of using traditional tools of advertisement is very high but it can make a
great impact on the mind of customers. (Note: Remaining part covered in appendix 2)
Social media as CRM tools
Social media
Social media refers to the collective online communication channels which are used for the
purpose of community based interaction and input. It also finds use for content sharing. Kumar,
(2010) explored different types of social media. These include social networking, social curation,
micro blogging, social bookmarking etc. some prominent examples of social media are facebook,
twitter, Google plus, Pinterest etc. as per the views of Libai and et. al., (2010) social media has
become an integral part of marketing. Organizations use it as a tool for promotion of their
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