University Business Informatics Case Study: Social Media Critique

This document presents a case study critique of the article "How Large U.S. Companies Can Use Twitter and Other Social Media to Gain Business Value" by Culnan, McHugh, and Zubillaga. The critique evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the research, focusing on the authors' unified technology acceptance model and the social media theory. It highlights the longitudinal nature of the study, the evaluation of virtual customer environments, and the use of experimental comparisons. The critique also points out weaknesses such as potential discouragement of social media usage and inconsistencies in information. Discussion points include the significance of the social media theory and the impact of ignoring critical information. The paper covers components like absorptive capacity and community building, emphasizing the importance of social media for business value creation. The document analyzes the use of social media platforms by businesses and provides a comprehensive overview of the research.

Running head: BUSINESS INFORMATICS CASE STUDIES
Business informatics case studies
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Paper: How Large U.S. Companies Can Use Twitter and Other Social Media to Gain
Business Value
Summary
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).
The authors of the article have assessed and reviewed the literature and discussed the
various theories and models along with the strengths and weaknesses required to meet the criteria
for conducting a successful research. The authors also interpreted the findings for understand
how the research has shed light on the fact that the social media platforms have created
convenience for sustaining value creation in business. The use of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram,
etc. have assisted in developing a virtual client based framework through which customers are
attracted and kept them knowledgeable about the products and services delivered by the
organization (Heinrich and Riedl 2016). These are basically the platforms that are used to engage
with the customers and make them become a party of the forums and communities handled by
the company website. This would also make them subscribe to the website, remain connected
with the company and know about the services that they could purchase. The authors have done
the synthesis and create a unified model to carry out the research successfully. Finally, the
authors will be providing guidelines to implement social media strategies in business and ensure
value creation all throughout.

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Strengths
 After studying the article, it can be stated that the authors have successfully managed the
important components and created a unified technology acceptance model and also about
the social media theory.
 The authors of this article have developed a number of models for defining the ways
people think about using social media usage in business for the purpose of value creation.
This has helped in gaining the best responses of people through the survey process and
authenticated results are obtained.
 The whole article was thoroughly checked by the authors to evaluate the psychology
behind the utilization of social media platforms to enhance client response towards
business. This could be beneficial for conducting researches in the future and assess the
market size and conditions too with ease and effectiveness.
 The research study, being longitudinal, has allowed collection of data during various
stages of the research such as during the evaluation of project feasibility, making progress
through implementation of social media and finally post social media usage about the
gaining of value (Liu and Li, 2014).
 There have been constant evaluations of the sources, which needed proper knowledge of
the models and formulate the social media theory.
 One of the major thing that has been assessed while studying the research article is that
the virtual customer environment and its ability to create value has been identified and it
showed comparisons between the activities supported and sources from which, value has
been obtained.

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 The analysis of data was done too by presenting the use of social media platforms within
different industries and also the departments that have used the social media channels.
The comparison has brought varying results and it showed that the intensity of social
media usage is quite good and noteworthy.
 The experimental comparisons have further helped in improving the relevance of the
social media theory based on the major constructs including the social influence, effort
expectancy and improving conditions to bring something innovative and valuable for the
company.
 The general problem areas have been understood properly, which has stated how
effective social media can be from the business perspective in enhancing the value
creation process in business (Stone and Woodcock 2014).
 Because of focusing on the maintenance of authenticity and relevance of the research, the
authors have not used any past or existing researches; rather shed light on the new
research aspects to obtain greater value through comparisons made fort the experimental
data and information too.
 In few cases, the data and information are presented in tables and graphs for easily
understanding the purpose of research and accomplish the objectives conveniently too.
Weaknesses
 One of the major weaknesses of the journal article is that it has shed light on both the
advantages and disadvantages of using social media, which might sometimes discourage
other businesses to ignore the fact about social media usage in business for value
creation.

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 There were contradictions between the opinions and views of people responsible for the
assessment of the journal article like while other aspects of the article regarding social
media usage and analysis of data were found; the authors totally ignored this fact that not
being able to identify such information
 There have been various models and theories constructed, still the information in few
cases seemed unauthenticated and irrelevant, which might not justify the research
outcomes to be deduced in the later part.
 In Spite of such analysis, discussions and experimental comparisons, there are lots of
gaps due to which, the researcher paper does not create any scopes for knowledge
acquisition and innovation aspects all throughout.
 There were few theories and constructs that were missed by the researcher while
reviewing the paper and this can be vital for understanding the behaviors of people
regarding use of social media in business as well.
Discussion points
Does the social media theory is of any significance while conducting the research and deriving
possible results through much analysis and interpretation?
The authors of the article stated that the research aspects have been covered sensibly; still there
were some findings that have been ignored by them. What might be the cause of ignoring such
critical information by the researcher?
A critical reflection should have brought much experience in knowledge and skills about how the
market conditions are influenced with the use of social media platforms in business

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The research paper also discussed about the various components like absorptive capacity and
community building and the approaches adopted by different businesses all over
The research has covered most of the relevant information and the sources are derived from
authenticated websites, which makes it quite appropriate and effective for conducting research in
the future as well and understand the significance of using social media for business value
creation.

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References
Heinrich, L.J. and Riedl, R., 2016. Understanding the dominance and advocacy of the design-
oriented research approach in the business informatics community: a history-based examination.
In Enacting Research Methods in Information Systems (pp. 143-179). Palgrave Macmillan,
Cham.
Helfert, M., 2008. Business informatics: An engineering perspective on information systems.
Journal of Information Technology Education: Research, 7, pp.223-245.
Liu, K. and Li, W., 2014. Organisational semiotics for business informatics. Routledge.
Stone, M.D. and Woodcock, N.D., 2014. Interactive, direct and digital marketing: A future that
depends on better use of business intelligence. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing,
8(1), pp.4-17.