University Business Research: Social Electronic Commerce Report

This business research report delves into the multifaceted world of social electronic commerce. It begins by establishing the importance of social e-commerce in today's competitive market, emphasizing both its advantages and limitations. The report outlines the project's objective, scope, and research questions, which focus on identifying opportunities, problems, and risk mitigation strategies within the realm of social commerce. A comprehensive literature review explores the opportunities presented by social electronic commerce, such as increased sales and user engagement, alongside the challenges, including the spread of misinformation and trust issues. The report then details the research methodology, including the research philosophy, approach, data collection methods, sample size, and data analysis techniques. The report also addresses the reliability, validity, and limitations of the research. Finally, the report concludes with a discussion of the strategies that can be implemented to reduce risks in social commerce and highlights the importance of corporate social responsibility.

Running head: BUSINESS RESEARCH
Business Research
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................3
Project Objective.............................................................................................................................3
Project Scope...................................................................................................................................4
Research Questions and justification...............................................................................................4
Literature Review............................................................................................................................8
Introduction......................................................................................................................................8
First: Opportunities of social electronic commerce.........................................................................9
Second: Problems of social electronic commerce.........................................................................12
Third: Strategies to reduce risks in social commerce...................................................................15
Conclusion....................................................................................................................................16
Research Methodology:.................................................................................................................16
Research Philosophy:.....................................................................................................................16
Research Approach:.......................................................................................................................17
Method of Data Collection:...........................................................................................................17
Sample Size and Sampling Technique:.........................................................................................18
Data Analysis Method:..................................................................................................................19
Reliability and Validity of the Findings:.......................................................................................19
Research Limitation.......................................................................................................................20
Timeline.........................................................................................................................................20

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Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................21
Reference.......................................................................................................................................22

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Introduction:
In the highly competitive market in which most of the organizations operate today, the
importance of social electronic commerce cannot be overstated. While this can be advantageous
in more than one way, it is not free from limitations and risks as well. Hence, in order to collect
and analyse the data needed for exploring sufficient knowledge regarding the opportunities and
risks of using social e-commerce in business, it is important to develop comprehensive
knowledge about the research methodology to be selected.
Project Objective
The aim of the current research project is to discuss about the matters related to that of
opportunities and problems that are associated with the use of the social electronic commerce.
Social Electronic commerce or social commerce is a form of promotional activities related to e
commerce business, which is dependent upon social media form of marketing. With rising
popularity of social media platforms and digital form of communication, e-commerce business
firms use the same in order to communicate with customers. Through the form of social
interaction, it is possible for the business organization to reach out to the customers and
communicate about details related to product and service. This time of social Electronic
Commerce was introduced in the year 2005 by Yahoo, where online collaborative shopping tools
are used as one of the effective medium to improve upon the total sales volume.

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Project Scope
The importance of current project is due to the fact that it will provide the research
methodology guidelines for investigative opportunities and drawbacks that are associated with
social Electronic Commerce. The purpose of the research project will also be justified by the fact
that it will help to improve upon the intervention techniques that can help to deal with the
drawbacks that are associated with that of implication of social Electronic Commerce. The result
of the research work will help business organization to prevent the misuse of social media
marketing, which can comprise up on the brand reputation by misuse of the public forums.
Research work will also aim to highlight upon the gaps that are associated with that of the
existing literature, thereby ensuring about the fact that it will be possible to make most use of the
social media platforms in matters related to that of promotional strategies of the e-commerce
platforms.
Research Questions and justification
It is important for every research to frame effective research questions, which will help to
address the issue related to the research topic. Framing of the Research question is the initial part
of implementing blueprint for research method. Research question also establishes link between
the research hypothesis and Research aim. In order to develop strong Research question it is
important to properly manage the pre existing ideas related to the research topic.
Following are the questions of the research work that is provided along with prescriptive
justification:
What are the opportunities that are associated with social Electronic Commerce?

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With the increase in the popularity of social media platforms and growing number of
users from all parts of the globe, it is widely believed that social media platforms are one of the
effective medium of communication. Social form of interaction is Highly Effective in matters
related to sharing product and service information. As mentioned in the existing literature, social
media platforms provides opportunity establish an effective relation between the users and the
service providers. This can help the business organization to understand the demand of the
customers thereby bringing about change in the business and marketing plan.
Nevertheless, it is important to widen the opportunity that is associated with that of the
social media websites. The social aspect of online shopping can provide a wide range of
opportunity for the customers to get details and review feedbacks about the products they are
willing to purchase. With the help of the above mentioned Research question, it is possible to
improve upon the opportunity of social media communication that is one of the essential to
manage with social media marketing. As mentioned in the portion of literature review proper
utilization of social resources is essential due to the fact that it can help in the process of making
buying decisions. As the customers are able to gain knowledge about the product of their choice,
it is easily possible at them to make decisions related to that of brand choice.
What are the problems that are associated with that of social electronic commerce?
It is mentioned in a literature review that the use of social Electronic Commerce is
usually associated with some drawbacks. This is mainly due to the facts that, the popularity of
social media network also provide the opportunity to misuse the same. Spreading of false news
and information is often common. With the help of the above mentioned that question it is

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possible to identify all the drawbacks that are associated with the application of social Electronic
Commerce.
It is important to mention in the context that trust issue is one of the major causes of
concern for use of social media platform as a source of business communication. Due to the fact
that there is an opportunity of spreading false information, it is not possible for the customers to
rely or trust upon the information that they get through the social media platforms. As the
problems related to social Electronic Commerce and highlighted up on, it is possible to
implement solutions to prevent the misuse of the social media platforms. The risks that are
mentioned within the review section are also a major concern that can lower the reputation of the
business. Hence, by addressing this question it is possible to address the issues related to
security, which can leak vital information related to that of the social Electronic Commerce.
What are the strategies that need to be implemented in order to reduce the risk of social media
commerce?
This is the final and the most important question of the investigation, which will aim to
implement proper solutions related to the misuse of the social electronic commerce. This
question will help to address issues related to raising the security level for preventing the misuse
of social media platforms. It can also help to investigate up on the ways that will be implemented
to raise the Awareness of the business stakeholders while dealing with matters related to use of
social Electronic Commerce in business communication process. It will be also possible to
address the issue related to corporate social responsibility, which will help to maintain ethical
standard.

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With proper level of justification that is provided for the research questions, it is possible
to implement appropriate research methods. This can help to address the issues related to the use
of social Electronic Commerce.

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Literature Review
Introduction
The advance in social media application development caused the new
paradigm of e-commerce represented in the social commerce. Social media
applications facilitate on-line shopping activities of products and services.
Business organizations have to develop their websites on social media,
according to consumer preferences to facilitate their transaction in the social
context. Social commerce brings e-commerce to the social media context
and the social media at the same time could be transferred to the e-
commerce website. Although social commerce mainly refers to practicing e-
commerce activities within the social media context. Social commerce is
mainly dedicated to the social activities as collaboration, information sharing
and networking (Huang & Benyoucef, 2015).
The social interaction of users is due to the wide spread of the social
networking sites. Consumers are free to join the social groups of their choice,
communicate, share information, knowledge and practices with each other.
This social interaction influences the buying behavior of users according to
the perceived information from their friends. The social commerce
empowered buyers over the sellers. The social support is likely to increase
the social commerce activities and influence more buyers, as users make
informed contributions among social groups. These interactions are analyzed

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by business organizations to know the buyers' attitudes and predict their
future activities (Hajli & Sims, 2015).
This report mainly focuses on the opportunities and challenges of the
social electronic commerce. It consists of three parts, the first part discusses
the possible opportunities of social electronic commerce, the second part
analyses the possible problems of social electronic commerce. The third part
introduces strategies to reduce risks in social commerce.
First: Opportunities of social electronic commerce
The increasing number of social media applications created many
opportunities for organizations to developed business models based on the
concept of electronic commerce (e-commerce). Social commerce provides a
marketplace for users to sell their products on line. Many companies use the
social commerce as, Yahoo, eBay and Amazon, as they got the opportunity
of user participation to create value from the social networks. The social
commerce provides a user centered environment, which creates social
interaction as it motivates the users to shop together, which create
advantage to the seller represented in increased sales volume, higher level
of user engagement and creates strong relations between the organization
and the customer
(Huang & Benyoucef, 2015).

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Social commerce encourages organizations to provide high quality
products, increase the effectiveness of their advertising campaigns and
analyze users'preferences to predict the future trends of the market. The
social media changed both of the consumer and the companies' roles as the
electronic word of mouth marketing has developed. As the word of mouth
marketing changed the way the consumers behave is also changed (Jim, et
al., 2015).
The key to successful social commerce is the social influence of the
customers. As the social support from other encourages the user influence to
the product. This influence is the driver of the customer decision of buying
the product (Wanga & Yu, 2017).
As a social marketplace, social media encourage users to share
information and experiences about shopping products which affects the
decisions of their peers.Information sharing between consumers on social
media takes place before and after shopping online. It can take the form of
rating recommendation or review of the seller or the product. There are a
variety of activities that could take place in the social media marketplace as
pre-shopping activities, the decision making of shopping and evaluation
after-shopping. Accordingly organizations can benefit from these activities in
creating their business strategies to improve their performance (Lin, et al.,
2017).
 Social aspect of online shopping