Growth of SMEs: Social Media and Customer Review - Builder Depot

This research project investigates the opportunities for growth of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through social media and customer reviews, focusing on Builder Depot Limited. The report begins with an introduction outlining the research background, aims, objectives, research questions, rationale, and significance. The methodology section details the qualitative research approach, inductive approach, and interpretivism philosophies employed, along with the use of secondary data collection methods. The literature review explores the existing body of knowledge on the topic. The data analysis and findings chapter examines the challenges faced by Builder Depot, the factors contributing to growth, and the theoretical models used. Finally, the report proposes a growth strategy, offering recommendations and conclusions based on the research findings. The research highlights the importance of social media presence and customer feedback for SME success, offering valuable insights for entrepreneurs and businesses seeking to leverage these tools for growth. The report emphasizes the challenges of market-led, partnership, and resource-led approaches and the importance of adapting to technological changes.

RESEARCH PROJECT

Table of Contents
Chapter 1: Organisation Identification (INTRODUCTION)...........................................................3
Research background..............................................................................................................3
Aim and objectives.................................................................................................................3
Research question...................................................................................................................4
Rationale.................................................................................................................................4
Significance ...........................................................................................................................4
Chapter 2: Data collection and Analysis (RESEARCH METHODOLOGY).................................6
Chapter 3: LITERATURE REVIEW...............................................................................................9
Chapter 4: DATA ANALYSIS AND FINDINGS.........................................................................15
Chapter 5: GROWTH STRATEGY PROPOSAL (Recommendation and Conclusion)...............20
Conclusion............................................................................................................................20
Recommendation:.................................................................................................................21
REFERENCES .............................................................................................................................23

TOPIC: Opportunities for growth of small medium enterprises by social media and customer
review – A study on Builder depot Limited.
Chapter 1: Organisation Identification (INTRODUCTION)
Research background
The research will cover about opportunities for the growth of small and medium sized
enterprise by social media and customer review. The small and medium sized businesses are
enterprises which have only 250 employees working. Also, as per a research there are only 5.7
million small medium enterprises operate under UK (Antony, Vinodh and Gijo, 2016). This
research will lay emphasis on growth opportunities for small medium enterprises like Builder
depot Limited.
The company Builder depot Limited is an enterprise which is a leading merchant of
Timber. Also, this enterprise serves building materials and related products at astounding trade
price to attract more customers. The company due to their unbelievable price variations attaining
support of customers. They are now establishing their social media presence for attaining growth
in international market. The customers make transactions with Builder depot reviews and
provide feedback comment on their official website. This provides aid to the company in
attaining trust of customers by establishing a good social media presence and feedback from
satisfied customer. This report will lay focus on challenges face by company through social
media and customer review which hinders their growth. Along with this, all possible factors will
be determined in context of customer review for the company Builder depot. The theoretical
framework will also be address for challenges in attaining opportunities for growth of Builder
depot limited. Recommendations for overcoming these challenges will be expressed to foster
company Builder depot towards growth (Fini and et.al., 2018).
Aim and objectives
Aim : “To investigate opportunities for growth of small medium enterprises in regard to social
media and customer review aspects – A study on Builder depot Limited”
Objectives :
 To comprehend about challenges face by Builder depot in context of social media and
customer review which hinders growth of small and medium-sized business.

 To analyse the possible factors for growth of business by social media and customer
review on Builder depot Limited to increase profitability by 15%.
 To identify theoretical models used to address challenges in achieving growth
opportunities for Builder depot Limited within a year.
 To recommend ways to overcome these challenges to attain growth in the company
Builder depot Limited.
Research question
11 What is the challenges face by Builder depot in context of social media and customer
review which hinders growth of small and medium sized business ?11 What are the possible factors for growth of business through social media and customer
review on Builder depot Limited ?11 What are the theoretical models which is used in addressing challenges in attaining
growth opportunities for Builder depot Limited ?11 What are the suggestions for overcoming challenges in achieving Builder depot Limited
growth ?
Rationale
Social media is nowadays becoming essential for companies. Social media is that concept
which adapts chances to companies to enhance their business through online marketing. Thus, it
is platform to helps companies to create their identity and attract new customer towards their
products and services by using various promotional techniques. The trend of social media is
contributing a lot to success of business enterprise. This research topic is chosen for gaining
knowledge of challenges which hinders company to attain opportunities of growth. The
academic interest of researcher is also a reason to select this topic of research. The scholar need
to enhance their knowledge in growth of small and medium sized enterprises. Also, academic
interest aligns scholar to select this topic of research which help them in getting grades (Mensah,
2017).
Significance
This research is important for businesses which are mainly dealing in small and medium
sized firm which help them in gaining opportunity for growth and their success. Also, this
research is helpful for scholars and other people which are associated with this academic

research. The research able to make scholar learn about importance of social media for small and
medium sized enterprise along with it they will learn about challenges and the ways to overcome
it. This research report will play an efficient role for development of scholar career in context of
social media. The problems which the company is facing through social media marketing is by
grabbing the opportunities through technology. As due to continuous changes in technology they
failed to reach to large number of people through such techniques. Thus, it results in distracting
the mind of interest and they are not stick to accurate methods. Also, this research will be helpful
for entrepreneurs who are currently planning to establish social media presence. They get to
know about challenges and ways to overcoming those helps them in advance to be prepare for
situations occur on their social media websites. The major challenges which the company are
facing are relating to market led approaches. Partnership and alliances and also resource led
approaches which resulting in bringing more opportunists if they are used in right way. But if the
planning and procedure are not effective it brings challenges to the company (Elliott, 2017).

Chapter 2: Data collection and Analysis (RESEARCH METHODOLOGY)
Research methodology under a research project can be defined as the systematic plan for
conducting and completing the research. Research methodology is of crucial importance for a
research project as this is the part which defines the manner in which the study has been
conducted with identification of the research type, design, approach and philosophies (Flick,
2015). The RM clearly states to the researcher the method of data collection and implementation
of the specific tools for analysis the data and to reach effective outcomes for research project and
present the finding to others who read or refer the research study.
Research type:
For making a research project there are basically two research type which includes
qualitative and quantitative research type. The qualitative research type is one where the no
numeric data and collected rather theoretical information is gathered to conduct the research
project. For the quantitative research type the consideration is made on numeric figures and data
where the use of tools and techniques is done for interpretation of data and reaching to the
outcomes of the research (Flick, 2015). In the present research project qualitative research type
have been selected to conduct the research over investigating the growth opportunities available
to SME in respect to social media and analysing the review of customer in such products and
services. The reason behind selecting this type is that the topic suggest use of qualitative data as
the opportunists can be detected through investigating and exploring factors present in
international market and there is no relevance to us numeric data which can justify the research
for the chosen topic (O'Leary, 2017).
Research approach:
For a research project the research approach can be understood as developing a
hypothesis over the topic of study and then to establish a pattern over conducting the research for
reaching the conclusion of the research and present finding to the outsiders. The research
approach that are generally used in the research project are inductive and deductive approaches.
Under the inductive approach the new theories are developed over the research topic and they are
generalised to conduct the research (Research Approach, 2019). Under the deductive approach
the validity of the theories and assumption/hypothesis made is checked. The inductive approach
used for qualitative research type rather deductive is used under the quantitative research type.

For the present research project inductive approach is used and rationale behind is that
qualitative research type has been selected for the study which had led to development of
research question related with reteach topic and conducting a research project (Patten and
Newhart, 2017).
Research philosophies:
For a research study research philosophies plays a vital role as it assist in dealing with the
sources, nature and knowledge development it can be defined as the belief about the ways in
which data over a phenomenon shall be collected, analysed and used to present the findings. The
research philosophies under a research project assist the researcher in formulation of the beliefs
and assumptions over the research topic (Research Philosophy, 2019). It can be positivism and
interpretivism. The positivism philosophies is highly structured and includes collection of sample
form large sample. Under the interpretivism philosophies where small sample are collected and
then investigation is conducted in qualitative manner (Flick, 2018). For the present research
project interpretivism philosophies have been selected in order investigate the data in thematic
manner without use of any mathematical tools rather with the use of small sample size the
qualitative investigation is conducted to reach to effective conclusion of the research topic.
Data collection:
The data collection for a research project can be defined as those sources from which
relevant and significant information over the research topic is gathered and presented in systemic
way to extract effective finding and reaching to a conclusive outcome for the research project.
The data for research project is collected through primary and secondary method. The primary
data is collected through survey, questionnaires, observation and interviews form the selected
participants. The secondary data is collected from the books, journals and articles written by
authors and writers over the similar subject matter of the research. For the present research only
secondary research have been adopted for collection of data. Thus, in this research secondary
method is used to gather information relevant to that topic. By this method the data to be
collected on the bases of authors and also the accurate information are to be gather accordingly.
For collection of data key words used in search includes social media influence, consumer base,
growth opportunists of Builder depot, feed backs and suggestions by consumer of builder depot.

This had resulted in given sites such as owler.com, duedil.com, the bx.com, marketingdive.com
in context of Builder Depot (Kumar, 2019).
Objectives Data sources/Websites
Objective 1 Data used has been provided by websites such
as: government databases and administrative
data
Objective 2 Data used has been provided by websites such
as: online articles about business environment
and competition, articles about challenges
faced by companies online, marketing and
trade journals
Objective 3 Data used has been provided by websites such
as: official website of Builder Depot, surveys
available online regarding social media and
how this can increase the profitability, online
business magazines
Data analysis:
The data analysis of the data collected is done through the use of statistical tools for the
research are evaluated through, Excel, project management and others (Kumar, 2019). For the
qualitative research there is no numeric data is collected so analysis of data is done in thematic
manners where, table, graphs, charts are used to present the research outcome in effective way.
Thus, data is to be analysed, inspected, collected and organised to present the research in more
accurate manner and there are more chances to get more accurate results by applying these
methods with presenting respondents of all the responses in tables and then creation of charts and
graphs to analyse them and present the outcome for each single responses for all questions asked
in questionnaire (Smith, 2015).
Ethical consideration:

The ethical consideration for the research can be stated as the authenticity of the data
collected by the researcher. For the secondary data it must be made sure by the researcher that
only significant and authentic books, journals or article have only been refereed to collect the
data and information over the given research topic of identification of business growth
opportunities. There is no presentation of the false/fake or unauthentic data have been made in
the present research project by the researcher. This makes the research study more reliable and
ensures that the outcome of the research are worth considering in other research or for
knowledge enhancement (Walliman, 2017). For the primary data collection method the ethical
consideration is required as taking consent from the respondents and give them complete and
proper information over reason and use of the data collection without infringement of any basis
personal human rights of participants.

Chapter 3: LITERATURE REVIEW
Theme 1: Latest trend of social media and customer review in context of growth of business
According to Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan, (2015) examined that the latest trends
which is used by company to enhance the customer towards their products and service are
relating to promoting their business through online marketing of their products and services. As
advertising is the best way to attract the customer towards their services and also interact with
them personally by providing the feedback reviews which had to be filed by customers through
such availability of products. Through such feedback they can solve the issue which is to be
raised by customers at the time of utilizing such products. Customer spend more of their time
through surfing through social media and also they are more attracted if they see such services
which are provided by company through online such as home delivery of products, offering more
discount on such products and also timely delivery of such products which is to be needed and
demanded by company at any time. If company uses more innovative technique to attract their
interest for longer term this result in bringing more customer towards the products. As innovative
and creative methods is more important if they are to be unique and different from others and
customer demand such products which are unique and less in use by other customers.
Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan, (2015) criticised that company had to spend more of
their earning by promoting their products through bring innovation in advertisement or
promotional scheme. As there are more chances of using such technique in negative way. As
customers sometime avail such facility by ordering their products through online and at the time
of delivery, they can cancel such products which result in bringing more loss to the company. As
they already invested in such products by customer demand and customer return such products
by using it or raising negative feedback of not getting the appropriate products. Thus, this results
in facing more losses to the company by using the social media platform to enhance their
products in market through online marketing.
Ismail, (2017) suggested that if company produce such products according to their needs
and demand in the market and also fulfil their needs by producing the unique concept which
attract their interest for longer term than their review is to be termed to be positive. As it is
important to get the positive feedback from the customer because other people usually prefer
such sites by viewing their ratings and other services which are provided by company in

effective way. Thus, it resultant in enhancing more customers by fulfilling their demand in more
productive way to get more accurate results through such services which are provided by the
company. Social media had the power to attract the public towards their scheme thus company
had to make the best strategy to attract the customer towards their products at is the best way to
expand their business into international market and also the customer review are to be enhanced
in more productive way to gain advantages for longer time period.
The PESTLE analysis help them to get the review and feedback of customer about the
organization performance in the market. It helps them analyse the external environment and
adopt changes according to their requirement.
Particulars Description
Political factor  The government support the social media to advertise or
promote the product and services on their official sites
without any restrictive policy or rules and regulations which
ultimately support the business to grow in the global market
(Bauer, 2016).
 It also helps the small business to get the global customer
without any restriction on purchasing the items. But the same
time due to the changing policies, rules and regulation of
government they also have to face many challenges while
importing and exporting the goods.
Economic factor  The company provide their goods and services by using the
social media like Facebook, twitter etc. to advertise the
services (Aderounmu and Adepoju, 2019). It provides the
unique URL service to the small size business which help to
maintain the demand of the product and services in market.
 The increasing inflation rate and change in exchange rate
affect the business of Depot Builder limited company.
Social factor  On the social media, people from the different nation are free
to choose the product and services according to their choice

which make them free to buy the product. It also removes the
biases and increase the sales of the company in international
platform.
 But the social media only provide the visual satisfaction
rather than to physical satisfaction of the product and many
times the product are not same as shown on the social media
application or sites.
Technological factor  The technological factor such as advance tools and
techniques, social media help the company to promote their
business in the market. But when the technical problem are
arisen than it is difficult to manage the work.
 It provides online platform for promoting and marketing the
business like the social media explore the business on wide
range (Baporikar 2019). The social media such as Facebook,
twitter, whatsapp are the most usable device which
influences the behaviour of customer and explore the
information about the business.
Legal factor  The rules and regulations regarding the trade policy via
online sites help the small businesses to grow in the market.
 The changing regulation such as internal and external trade,
changing employment law create problems for the small and
medium-sized business to operate their business function.
Environmental factor  The usage of social media in promoting and marketing of
goods and services reduces the usage of paper and protect
the environment.
 But the same time it increases the usage of mobile phones,
tablets, computer and laptops which increase UV rays and
affect the environment.
Theme 2: Impact of social media and customer review on business of Builder depot Limited