Twitter: A Case Study

This case study analyzes the mission, strategies, behavior standards, and values of Twitter based on the Ashridge Sense of Mission Model. It also examines Twitter's decision-making process and its competitive advantage in the global market.

Running head: TWITTER: A CASE STUDY
TWITTER: A CASE STUDY
Name of the student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Question 1
Ashridge Sense of Mission Model is a statement of mission or pursuit which had been
created, developed and formulated by Ashridge Strategic Management and Research Center
which has been and is extensively used by entrepreneurs and corporate professionals in defining
the statements of the missions of their enterprise (Babnik et al., 2014). Ashridge Sense of
Mission Model suggests and exhibits four dimensions of mission namely purpose of the
enterprise, strategies of the enterprise (both financial and non-financial), values and behavioral
standards of the respective enterprise. Ashridge Sense of Mission Model is absolutely necessary
for any organization or enterprise because the four dimensions mentioned in the Model is
important and significant components for the respective organization which is opting for a strong
mission for its bright future in the fierce global competitive market. The respective answer is a
discourse, an introspection, an analysis and an interpretation of missions and strategies taken up
by the United States of America based world renowned micro social media platform Twitter and
argument weather the mission taken up presently by the Twitter is weak or strong as far as the
global market structure and functioning is considered. The respective answer has utilized the
fiscal and financial statements of Twitter for the last four years and other important sources to
carry out the required analysis and interpretation. The application, discourse, analysis and
interpretation of mission of Twitter on the basis of Ashridge Sense of Mission Model are
mentioned thereafter.
Purpose
The purpose of the knowledge sharing micro social networking platform Twitter, which
is a United States of America based company, has been well analyzed and interpreted by the

2TWITTER: A CASE STUDY
Ashridge Sense of Mission Model. The intention of the respective discourse is to provide
adequate and correct strategic outline to the Twitter for the enhancement of its business,
including its management arena as well as well-being of its employees.
According to the business reviews and overview of the Company Twitter, it has been
comprehended that the very basis of existence of the company relies on its objectives it offers to
the customers. The main objective of the company Twitter is to provide the society with the
power and an egalitarian and open social media platform to exchange, discuss and share
information in quick, swift and reliable manner irrespective of any sorts of geographical,
geopolitical, social and other barriers (Megele, 2014). Twitter, through its various unique and
remarkable services, intends to cater to the needs of the global mammoth market outside. It is
evident that the customary and secondary users of Twitter are varied and come from different
walks of life. Certain users create Twitter account to discuss and share information about various
topics of interest and knowledge sectors. Entrepreneurs, business tycoons and advertisers too are
users of Twitter who have successfully utilized and are still utilizing the prolific platform to
share and exchange their business information, product and marketing information to millions of
people across globe within a very short time (Murthy, 2018). Therefore, the purpose of the
company lies in its power to provide a knowledge sharing platform targeting the whole globe,
which is the sole reason for its existence.
Strategy
Strategies are certain plans and policies that provide Twitter certain ideas to enhance its
business and its position in the global competitive market. Strategies that are customarily
included are ways by which accessibility of market can be increased for products of Twitter.

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Strategies throw light on the ways by which placing, pricing, promoting, advertising and
manipulating the target customer groups by Twitter can be executed. A reasonable magnitude of
research, development and technological innovation team has been appointed by Twitter to
improve and enhance itself in the market (Mark & Parker, 2011). Twitter provides mobile
advertising exchange services through a platform named twitter MoPub exchange bringing in
buyers and sellers and provide them with a market platform which is one of the reasons for
earning revenue of Twitter. Twitter has also recently launched Twitter Software application that
enables users with microblogging services. The launch of the latest software has led Twitter to
29% year-on-year increase of $758 million in Quarter 3 of 2018. Business strategies taken up by
Twitter such as data licensing has helped twitter to generate $109 million revenue (up to 29%
increase). (Bharadwaj et al., 2013).
Behavior Standards
Behavior Standards of an enterprise is generally considered to be code of conduct and
behavior guidelines that clearly states people what to do and what not to do while working for
the respective enterprise. To arrest the emotional power of an organization, there is a need for
philosophical and moral standards of behavior which is an important aspect in the mission
statement of an organization. Twitter has declared itself to be committed to maintain an
optimistic and inclusive experience for every individual. Twitter has been recently launching a
warning of cleansing off fake accounts which has led to a decrease of 19% of its market share.
However, such initiative was a strategy taken up by Twitter to attract genuine users and retain
political neutrality to avoid any kind of complications. (Puschmann & Burgess, 2013). Being a
platform which respects as well as exhibits free thoughts, expressions and speech, breach of
freedom of speech and expression is considered catastrophic failure of twitter. Twitter has

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formulated Hateful conduct policy that prohibits any user, a community or an enterprise to
exhibit hatred, bigotry, prejudice and intolerance against an individual, a community or an
enterprise and is committed to combat such incidents. The hateful conduct policy came into
significance mainly during the US presidential elections in 2016.
Values
Values of an organization lie in the beliefs, morals and ethical principles that shape the
organization. The values of an enterprise give way to its behavior standards as well as corporate
responsibilities. There are certain core and intense values taken up by Twitter which is
internationally proclaimed and standardized. Twitter is morally obliged to communicate freely to
the world without any fear or hesitation, reach every individual in the world, acknowledge
different perspectives and build a strong innovative team for technological and other innovations.
Twitter is committed to acknowledge and respect an individual and his/her opinion, grow any
business through a simple yet effective way keeping in mind that personality and passion of an
individual and a community is significant and important. Twitter is internationally known of
having been transformed from a company measured by its growth to a company measured by its
value. Twitter, rather than focusing on quantitative growth by increasing number of users, is
focusing on qualitative growth by catering to the needs and preferences of the present and the
current users it has, through various policies, strategies and promotions. The company has been
recorded in adding 12 million new users in 2017 which is a lower growth of 4%. It currently
consists of 330 million users (Laudon & Traver, 2016).
The argument which is intended to specify whether Twitter’s sense of mission is strong or weak
declares that the sense of mission of Twitter is strong and approaches to the concept of

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sustainable development. Twitter’s annual revenue in 2016 was $2.53B, a 14.5% increase from
2015 and twitter’s annual revenue in 2017 was $2.443B, which showed a relatively sharp decline
of 3.41% from 2016 (Twitter, 2016). However, on 2018, the annual revenue report of twitter
showed $3.042B, a strong 24.52% increase from 2017, the reason behind it being different
strategies like data licensing, introducing Twitter software as a support to new and budding
entrepreneurs (Twitter 2017). Twitter, which has been suffering from poor growth of the users
for several years of its commencement, is observed to be growing by not increasing the number
of users, rather by increasing the quality of services they provide to their already existing users,
increasing the goodwill of the company that might as well attract prospective users in future
positively in the long run (Twitter, 2018).

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Question 2
Decision making is considered to be one of the core areas of a business or an enterprise.
The future of the business and its performance in the market depends on the decision making
strategies and policies of the business. Strategic decision making is a process which is wide-
ranging, diverse and unique in its own respect that requires a multidisciplinary approach to
introspect, comprehend, analyze, interpret and formulate. There are varieties of decision making
theories that includes casual decision theory that talks about principles of rational choice and
consequences of that choice, evidential decision theory that consists of irrational thinking as it
approaches to be choosing the best option conditional that might provide with the best outcome.
The third decision making theory is game theory which is a mathematical study of strategic
decision making allowing the concepts of conflict and co-operation between the rational decision
makers. Bayesian theory is another decision making theory that has its basis on the concept of
probability which uses reasoning with a probability rhetoric of the result being either true or false
(Gal, Stewart & Hanne, 2013).
By analyzing and interpreting the decision-making theories which are stated above, it is clear
that Twitter has been following an emergent strategy in its decision-making process. Emergent
strategy of strategic decision making means strategies that are open to new, latest and innovative
ideas and venturing into unexpected and virgin routes which are yet to be explored. Certain
strategies that have been taken up by twitter are content focused approach strategies where
twitter has customized advertisements by locations as well as user preferences according to their
race, gender and professional aptitudes, which is an evidence of the core competence of social
networking platforms. Twitter has differentiated streaming services (focusing on sports,
entertainment and infotainment) from other social networking platforms that make it different

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from its other competitors, thereby taking up emergent strategy to enhance itself in the global
platform. With the advent of Smartphone and androids in the global market, The increasing live
streaming of various entertainment and infotainment packages and performances on social media
platforms such as Twitter, there has been news of denouncement of television sets even at
average and below average households. Data licensing is another form of emergent strategy
taken up by twitter which enables the users the mammoth database of tweets in lieu of certain
fees , thereby, distinguishing itself from its peers (such as Facebook and Pinterest). Data
licensing has helped twitter to increase its revenue at a considerable magnitude over the years.
Under the news-focused approach of emergent strategies of twitter, it can be speculated that even
though news-focused approach would not generate much revenue than content-focused approach
initially, the customary reason being revenue-sharing agreements between Twitter and other
news providing channels, in future, twitter could largely attract more users if it takes up
strategies that focuses on news, including premium, urgent and most trending news which is the
need of the hour in global context. It is also to be noted that twitter has taken up its most
customary strategy which is unique from any other social media platforms, which is introduction
of micro blogging and micro browsing through its unique hashtag, which has subsequently
generated conservation of time, energy and manpower by making an individual smarter, faster,
more efficient and more powerful (Chae, 2015). The most intriguing factor of Twitter is the
whole world has been scrutinized with varieties of information, from Hollywood to Stock
Exchange in just a few clicks. The concept of micro blogging has been first introduced to the
world by Twitter (Mirabeau & Maguire, 2014).
There is plethora of reasons behind twitter’s competitive advantage in the fierce global market.
One of the most obvious and primary reason is twitter’s massive platform which is unprejudiced

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and open to all (from students, housewives, politicians, filmstars to business tycoons and
academicians). Even though twitter has certain restrictions regarding the word limit of any tweet
or messages, however, twitter has shown massive flexibility in case of posting, managing,
sharing and exchanging information. Twitter’s algorithm and infrastructure helps in providing
latest information within a few moments through its unique hash tag which has been a trademark
as well as an identity of Twitter which has subsequently helped Twitter to be in a better position
in the market in the zone of competitive advantage. Innovative technological teams that have
been working relentlessly to bring new features and applications on behalf of Twitter for budding
entrepreneurs and digital marketing experts have made Twitter remain in a competitive
advantage along with its peers in the world market (Kane et al., 2015).

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