Marketing Research Report: Tech Reliance & Social Impact

This marketing research report examines the pervasive influence of smartphone technology on various aspects of modern life, including communication, social interaction, and consumer behavior. The study employs an exploratory research design, utilizing a quantitative data collection method through close-ended questionnaires distributed to a sample of Australian youths aged 21-35. The report analyzes survey results related to smartphone usage duration, preferred social media platforms, shopping habits, and online shopping portal usage. Findings reveal the increasing reliance on smartphones for communication, online shopping, and access to information, highlighting the significant impact of technology on daily routines. The report concludes with recommendations for businesses and marketers to adapt to the evolving technological landscape and emphasizes the need for responsible technology usage and sustainability.

Running head: MARKETING RESEARCH
Marketing Research
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Topic- The increasing reliance on technology in our daily lives for work, play,
Communication or leisure, & the impacts on modern social interaction’
Executive Summary
This research provides a detailed overview of how technology advances are shaping the world by
penetrating in every aspect of life. The report highlights the fact that growing use of technology
is creating enormous impact on people’s lives. In order to present and analyse the impact of the
analysis, a survey has been done to collect data from the chosen respondents in relation to how
they are using smartphone technology and how smartphone technology is meeting the purpose of
daily lives.

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Table of Content
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
1.2. Problem Statement................................................................................................................4
1.3. Research aim and objectives.................................................................................................4
2. Methodology................................................................................................................................5
2.1 Research Design....................................................................................................................5
2.2 Data collection.......................................................................................................................5
2.3 Questionnaire Design.............................................................................................................6
2.4 Survey Research....................................................................................................................6
2.5 Data Analysis.........................................................................................................................7
3. Recommendation.......................................................................................................................10
4. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................11
References......................................................................................................................................12

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1. Introduction
Technology is shaping up and certainly guiding human lives and technology has become
a significant part of life. The use of technology can be seen in several social, commercial and
cultural aspects. It is noted that right from connected homes to virtual workspace, tech
advancements have significantly influenced every sector across several verticals. It can be
mentioned that it can be quite difficult to ignore the effects of technology in daily life because
people are dependent on tech advancements for every minuscule operation. There is no denying
that tech advancements have influenced almost every industry or business, as almost 79% of
people tend to perform their official operation on virtual teams while only 94% of them seem to
be regular internet users (Cohen, Duncan and Thulemark 2015).
However, specifically digging into technology gives ways to smartphone revolution. The
use of smartphone has rapidly been growing across the world pulling the number up to 3.5
billion. This means almost every third person across the globe owns a smartphone. This growing
use of smartphone is significantly influencing and governing several aspects of people’s daily
lives. Firstly, it is worth stating that communication, due to smartphone technology, has been
easier than before. Likewise, access to information has also been easy than before. Secondly,
when considered from business perspective, it is noted that businesses today are probably having
the golden period because technology gave ways to marketers to reach the global market and
target the global consumers. However, the impact of smartphone technology on social and work
life is enormous. This research report identifies and investigates how smartphone technology is
influencing the daily lives, communication, leisure and modern social interaction.

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1.2. Problem Statement
In this context, Gustafson et al. (2011) mentioned that the mobile technology seems to be
having the most essential role in human communications and many studies have being performed
on the effect of communication. It is particularly noted that the use of internet has significantly
reduced the desire of teenagers and even the adults for face-to-face communication with their
family members and friends. However, it is worth mentioning that smartphone technology has
enormous positive impact on people’s lives. Smartphone technology provides optimum
opportunities for all to make lives easy. Access to information has now been an easy task; for
example, an individual is planning to book a hotel or a vacation, the person can search the places,
available hotels, best time to visit, pricing and all other important aspects about the visit to make
the plan more accurate and flawless (Røpke, Christensen and Jensen 2010). On the contrary, an
employee can get all work updates through the smartphone device. Therefore, it is important to
learn how smartphone is affecting all other aspects of daily lives including business,
communication and modern social lives.
1.3. Research aim and objectives
The aim of the study is to identify and investigate how smartphone technology is influencing
social and work life of people across the globe.
 To critically identify the emergence of smartphone technology in all aspects of life
 To investigate the extent to which smartphone technology is influencing people’s lives
 To evaluate the sustainability of the reliance on technology

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2. Methodology
2.1 Research Design
In order to identify and investigate the extent to which smartphone technology is
influencing people’s lives and all aspects associated with an individual’s life, an exploratory
research design has been used in the study. According to Myers, Well and Lorch (2010),
explanatory research design is defined a research which is used to investigate an issue and that is
not significantly defined. Exploratory research design is applied to have a better understanding of
the existing issue but this research design is not supposed to deliver conclusive results. Thus,
exploratory research design has been used to identify and investigate the impact of smartphone
technology on people’s lives. Evolution of smartphone technology is a decade-long context and
there have been many studies performed on the context. This study did not investigate or explore
new problem and instead it is centered on an existing problem –impact of smartphone
technology, exploring the context in detail but the study is not supposed to provide any
conclusive idea.
2.2 Data collection
To investigate how smartphone technology influences all aspect of people’s lives and to
perform the analysis, a primary research has been performed and thereby, primary data was
collected through primary data collection technique –quantitative data collection. According to
Schwartz-Shea and Yanow (2013), there are two different types of techniques of primary data
collection such as quantitative and qualitative data collection. Nonetheless, quantitative data
collection has been used in the study to collect data from a broad population size, while using a
qualitative data it would be challenging to gather data from a broad population. This happens

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because qualitative data is descriptive and depth in nature. Thereby, to avoid the hurdle of
dealing with broad size of population, quantitative data collection method has been applied to the
study.
2.3 Questionnaire Design
To collect the primary data, a close-ended questionnaire has been developed considering
the use of smartphone technology. One of the most significant concern that could affect how
people respond to questions that are whether the questions are posed as an open-ended questions,
where respondents provide a response in their own words or a close-ended question, whether
they are asked to choose from the given choice. Researchers have ensured that the order in which
questions are asked can significantly influence how people respond and this is followed by the
‘order effect’. To collect the data, almost 5 close-ended questions have been developed by
designing four to five choice of answers. Questionnaire has been distributed online among the
respondents.
2.4 Survey Research
To collect the quantitative data, a survey has been performed among the respondents who
took part in data collection method. However, the respondents have been chosen based on the
sampling method selected for the study.
Sampling method:
In general, there are two different kinds of sampling methods –such as probability
sampling and non-probability sampling method. However, in the present study, probability-
sampling method has been used because probability-sampling technique allows the researcher to

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select respondents on a random order and each respondent from the sampling frame can take part
in the data collection method.
Target population: To collect the data from the respondents, Australian youths falling
under the age group 21 to 35 years have been considered. Almost 150 respondents has been
considered for data collection but 100 responses have been considered for the analysis.
2.5 Data Analysis
1. For how long have you been using the smartphone?
Graph 1: People using smartphone
As stated above smartphone technology is a decade-long context and economically developed
nations were accustomed to smartphone technology due to both social and work purpose.
Findings indicate that almost 38% of the respondents have mentioned that they are using the
smartphone for almost 6 to 8 years, while almost 35% of the respondents have mentioned that
they are using the smartphone technology for 3 to 5 years. In addition, almost 13% of the

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respondents have mentioned that they are using the smartphone technology for more than 8
years. Thus, it is worth stating that the use of smartphone technology is rapidly increasing.
2. Which social media platforms from the following do you use often through your
smartphone device?
Graph 2: Social media platforms that people use
Above-presented findings indicate the fact that almost 19% of the respondents stated that they
use Facebook through their smartphone device, while another 19% of the respondents have also
stated that they use Twitter as the social media platforms. Almost 11% of the respondents have
stated that they use Whatsapp to communicate. Almost 13% of the respondents out of 100
respondents have stated they use Instagram but almost 26% of the respondents out of 100 have
mentioned the fact that they use all of the social media platforms. Based on the findings, it can be
mentioned that communication is one of the major reasons and drivers that fuels the growth of
smartphone technology across the globe.

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3. Which of the following do you prefer when it comes to shopping or purchasing goods?
Graph 3: People’s choice of shopping platform
Findings imply the fact that almost 45% of the respondents stated that they use online
platforms for shopping as they have easy access to online platforms due to their smartphone,
while almost 27% of the respondents out of 100 stated the fact that they shop offline and almost
28% of the respondents have stated that they use both platforms. The findings were quite
predictable because, smartphone provides optimum facilities for buying goods online.
4. Which of the following online shopping portal brands do you use through your
smartphone devices?

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Graph 4: Online shopping portal used by people
The survey findings indicate the fact almost 36% of the respondents have stated that they
use 36% of the respondents stated that they use eBay for online shopping, while almost 17% of
respondents have stated that they use Buyinvite.com and 13% almost of the respondent have
mentioned the fact that they tend to shop online. This finding clarifies the fact that due to
smartphone technology have made enormous impact on social life of people.
3. Recommendation
Even though the pace and use of smartphone technology is increasing but marketers have
to be more aware of the sustainability of such trends. Businesses and marketers have to become
more focused towards the sustainability and effective use. As access to such technology is
relatively high, there are chances that use of the technology will lose its purpose if there is no
proper governance and control over the same.

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4. Conclusion
In conclusion, it can be mentioned that the use of smartphone technology has been
increasing growingly and each sector or industry across the world is incorporating smartphone
technology. Findings of the analysis imply the fact that smartphone technology has provided the
ways for more effective and enhanced communication. Such easy communication also shaped
the business industry across the globe. Based on the existing pace of smartphone technology, it
can be mentioned that use of smartphone technology will go up in the coming decades.

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References
Cohen, S.A., Duncan, T. and Thulemark, M., 2015. Lifestyle mobilities: The crossroads of
travel, leisure and migration. Mobilities, 10(1), pp.155-172.
Gustafson, D.H., Shaw, B.R., Isham, A., Baker, T., Boyle, M.G. and Levy, M., 2011. Explicating
an evidence-based, theoretically informed, mobile technology-based system to improve
outcomes for people in recovery for alcohol dependence. Substance use & misuse, 46(1), pp.96-
111.
Myers, J.L., Well, A. and Lorch, R.F., 2010. Research design and statistical analysis. Routledge.
Røpke, I., Christensen, T.H. and Jensen, J.O., 2010. Information and communication
technologies–A new round of household electrification. Energy Policy, 38(4), pp.1764-1773.
Schwartz-Shea, P. and Yanow, D., 2013. Interpretive research design: Concepts and processes.
Routledge.