Business Research Experience Report: Starbucks Corporation

This report presents a student's business research experience, focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of social media in business, specifically using Starbucks Corporation as a case study. The research explores the effectiveness of the learning experience, its usefulness for future career ambitions, and the methodology employed, which included analyzing the merits and demerits of social media integration in business operations like marketing and advertising. Findings highlight the significant role of social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, in enhancing brand awareness, customer communication, and employee recruitment. However, the report also acknowledges the challenges, including cyber security threats and negative customer feedback. The student concludes by emphasizing the importance of social media marketing and its potential for future business ventures, stressing the value of practical learning and its application in the real business world, including data gathering techniques, and insights into business trends.

Business Research Experience
Business Research Experience
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Business Research Experience
Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction……………………………………………………………….…….2
2.0 Effectiveness of learning experience…………………………………….……..2
3.0 Usefulness of the experience in future.........................................................…...3
4.0 How I conducted the research…………………………………………...……..4
5.0 Research Findings…………………………………………………………...….5
6.0 How the learning will be applied……………………………………….………6
Conclusion………………………………………………………………..…..6
References………………………………………………………...…………..7
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Business Research Experience
Business Research Experience
1.0 Introduction
Everyone would love to have an involving and interesting learning experience while
pursuing his studies. My personal experience while undertaking business research which was
very important to my coursework, future ambitions and career was to research the advantages
and disadvantages of social media on businesses. It was an effective encounter that I can keep
in my books of records having enabled me reach a higher handle in my coursework.
Additionally, having moulded my research skills and data analysis not forgetting problem
solving skills. (Tomlinson 2014, p.35) states that learning is not all about sitting in class and
being taught, a time comes when I had to get out of class and at the same time learn and build
my academic profile. I would therefore suggest that if such learning experience could have
been used on daily basis in instruction, learning could have been very much effective than it
is currently.
2.0 Effectiveness of learning experience
All encountered experience at personal level was very interesting. I cannot quote it to
any asset. I had never had a reproductive session like the one I did while doing business
research. Having imaginations in the recent years that a business research is something very
boring and tiresome was just another dream I realized. The experience I had can make me
write a whole novel. I liked everything that went all through the research up to the time I got
information and analysed and started making conclusions. I cannot actually quote the worth
of the study and the experience that, it cannot be measured because I know it turned my
academic life a new leaf.
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Business Research Experience
3.0 Usefulness of the experience in future
This learning experience would in future help me in establishing my job having
ambitions of establishing a big business firm. The lessons I learnt will help me devise
strategies that will fit my business or even apply them in the organizations I will work with.
The research has greatly changed my thinking and made me realize a lot of things which I
had not known before. This research was to help me go through my course work before I was
to do the final exams, so definitely I was to add 20% marks of the whole mark in the
coursework.
This research not only enabled me to succeed in my program but also, since I had
ambitions of becoming a great businessperson, helped me get skills which could help me in
future when I will be establishing my business. Having learned how social platforms can be
integrated with business, therefore, was such a wonderful experience. These experiences if
integrated with my educational experiences can greatly change the course of my life(Yunus,
Moingeon, and Lehmann, 2010).
4.0 How I conducted the research
To start with, I carried the research with the main objective of finding out the merits
and demerits, if there was, of social media to businesses. For this case, my business was
Starbucks Corporation. Conducting a research in this organization almost made me think of
opening a social media based business where all my product could just be advertised for free!
The project was very important having enabled me to be aware of the social networking
concepts and how they can be integrated into businesses to carry out various business
activities for instance marketing and advertising(Culnan, McHugh and Zubillaga, 2010).
Business research at Starbucks Corporation was not just a research but a learning process
which was to build up my course in Business Administration. Having studied for years and
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Business Research Experience
now being in a higher institution doing my final project can mean a lot when I say the project
was something I could not do without. It was, to sum up, a certain percentage of my grades to
enable me to complete my course.
5.0 Research Findings
The encounter started by selecting research subjects found it relevant to tackle the
issue of social media networks in business thought it was just a one-hour activity only to be
shocked that a lot was to be done. I formulated the research hypothesis from the research
problem. My scope was aimed at increasing awareness about positive and negatives sides of
social networks in Starbucks Corporation. Having learned that social networks, for instance,
Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram played a great role and were used as an effective technique
by organizations using them to share information about their products across all people.
According to the book written by (Mangold and Faulds, 2009), the number of people on
social platforms has been greatly increasing recently, organizations such as Starbucks
Corporation have been on the frontline of ensuring those social networks are put to maximum
use to promote their products. Through social media, Starbucks Corporation is capable of
communicating with its customers hence obtaining a higher competitive benefit. The
corporation uses social media advertisements to target people who like coffee and are
interested in other related products(Bolotaeva and Cata, 2010). Additionally, organizations
can also use social media networks to hire employees since the networks connect to people
across the globe(Kluemper and Rosen, 2009). These people can also be interviewed just by
the use of this networks. Social platforms have an advantage of free advertising. A company
just needs to create a Facebook page and start getting likes on every post they make. These
pages come to grow and have millions of followers most who act as a market base for the
company's products.
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Business Research Experience
However, on the other side, the networks also have a few challenges. For instance,
many organizations like Starbucks Corporation have suffered a substantial financial loss as a
result of criminals hacking their social networks(Molina and Martínez, 2010). Criminals have
devised new ways and strategies of accessing into Facebook pages of organizations for their
own benefits despite the measures these accounts have put in place. Additionally, most
people including customers may practice cyberbullying where they comment unhealthy
comments on the business' pages(Piotrowski 2012, p.367). These negative comments are
usually criticized and end up affecting the company's brand negatively.
6.0 How the learning will be applied
According to (Drucker 2012, p.45), many businessmen and women have been having
business ideas and capital but do not have the strategies on how to get to consumers and
make they know they are selling certain products. This plan will help me establish business in
the near future and be a businessman who utilizes resources efficiently. I ought to do more of
social media marketing since it is cheap and reliable. After I complete my education
Conclusion
In conclusion therefore, conducting my research to learn about social networks was an
eye-opener to my ambitions. This would help me one day integrate the experiences I learned
in my future business. This leaning was important in many ways, breaking the class
monotony was just one of them. I could now see the real business world that I used to study
in books. Having practiced the various techniques of gathering data and no had practiced
them was the second importance which enhanced the practical aspect of my education. The
research also helped me to appreciate the need for me to study my course as now I could see
how it applied to the outside environment. Business research has been one of my interesting
activities to me as a scholar. This has helped me at a personal level to increase my awareness
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Business Research Experience
about business trends as much as social marketing is concerned. Organizations should
employ social network methods to make customers know the products they are dealing with,
this is always free.
References
Bolotaeva, V. and Cata, T., 2010. Marketing opportunities with social networks. Journal of
Internet Social Networking and Virtual Communities, 2010, pp.1-8.
Culnan, M.J., McHugh, P.J., and Zubillaga, J.I., 2010. How large US companies can use
Twitter and other social media to gain business value. MIS Quarterly Executive, 9(4).
Drucker, P., 2012. Managing for results. Routledge.
Kluemper, D.H., and Rosen, P.A., 2009. Future employment selection methods:
evaluating social networking websites. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 24(6),
pp.567-580.
Mangold, W.G. and Faulds, D.J., 2009. Social media: The new hybrid element of the
promotion mix. Business Horizons, 52(4), pp.357-365.
Molina‐Morales, F.X. and Martínez‐Fernández, M.T., 2010. Social networks: effects of social
capital on firm innovation. Journal of Small Business Management, 48(2), pp.258-279.
Piotrowski, C., 2012. From workplace bullying to cyberbullying: The enigma of e-
harassment in modern organizations. Organization Development Journal, 30(4), p.44.
Tomlinson, C.A., 2014. The differentiated classroom: Responding to the needs of all
learners. Ascd.
Yunus, M., Moingeon, B. and Lehmann-Ortega, L., 2010. Building social business models:
lessons from the Grameen experience. Long range planning, 43(2-3), pp.308-325.
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