Research Project: Opportunities and Challenges of Social Commerce

This research project investigates the opportunities and challenges of social electronic commerce within the Australian restaurant sector. It begins with an introduction to social commerce and its significance, followed by the project's objectives, which include identifying the advantages and disadvantages of social media marketing in the industry. The scope encompasses the impact of online marketing on Australian restaurants and includes a comprehensive literature review, exploring the use of social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and the influence of social capital. The project poses primary and secondary research questions focused on the advantages, disadvantages, and factors influencing the adoption of social media marketing in Australian restaurants, as well as potential strategies for improvement. The methodology involves qualitative research, including interviews with restaurant managers. The project also addresses limitations, offers conclusions, and provides references and an appendix. The core focus is on how social electronic commerce impacts business performance, brand image, and marketing strategies, while also considering potential issues like privacy and misleading information.

Running head: RESEARCH PROJECT
Business Research Analysis
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author’s Note:

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................................................................3
2. Project Objectives........................................................................................................................3
3. Scope of the Project.....................................................................................................................4
4. Literature review..........................................................................................................................5
5. Research Questions......................................................................................................................9
Primary question..........................................................................................................................9
Secondary question......................................................................................................................9
6. Design and methodology of the current research......................................................................10
Qualitative method.....................................................................................................................10
Quantitative method...................................................................................................................10
7. Limitations of the research........................................................................................................11
9. Conclusion.................................................................................................................................12
References......................................................................................................................................13
Appendix........................................................................................................................................15

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1. Introduction
Social electronic commerce includes the use of social media and online media to promote
a business in context of different industries. E-commerce transaction is the vital way of using
social electronic commerce. In the year 2005, Yahoo introduced this term that is the social
commerce. However, a range of online collaborative shopping tools is involved in the social
electronic commerce to promote a business via online (Turban et al.. 2017). Australian
restaurants use social electronic commerce to meet their business objectives. Application of the
social electronic commerce gives the customers a platform to express their viewpoints regarding
the service of an organization on the company website. This will help the Australian restaurant
sectors to develop their strategy based on the customer feedback. This assignment deals with the
opportunities and problems of social media electronic in context of Australian restaurant sectors.
However, both positive and negative impacts of social electronic commerce will be discussed in
this section.
2. Project Objectives
The aim of this current project is to reveal the opportunities and threats regarding the
application of social electronic commerce in context of Australian restaurant sectors. However,
in the recent years, Australian restaurants use the E-commerce to meet the demand of the
growing population. In order to develop their marketing campaign social electronic commerce is
a unique way in the modern era (Hajli et al., 2017). In this current study, the previous articles
regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the social media e-commerce have been analyzed
to shed light over the popularity of e-commerce Australian restaurant sectors. A critical

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evaluation of the various aspects of social electronic commerce has been analyzed in the current
study.
Analysis of the literature review has been done in this section, which gives the possible
recommendations based on the issues of application of social electronic commerce in Australian
restaurant sectors. However, by increasing the awareness among the restaurant sectors the
misleading of the information via social electronic commerce can be mitigated. This will
improve the brand image as well as the business promotion strategy of Australian restaurant
sectors.
 To identify the advantages of the application of social electronic commerce in context of
Australian restaurant sectors
 To identify the issues regarding the application of social electronic commerce in context
of Australian restaurant sector
 To recommend possible ways in order to improve strategies of social electronic
commerce to prevent the misleading of information
3. Scope of the Project
Application of the social media marketing or online marketing is considered as the
modern way of the promotional campaign in the Australian restaurant sectors (Kasemsap, 2017).
Use of the social media marketing has been increasing with the enhancement of the digitization
as the organizations try to make a connection with the large population to establish their
communication process. Such emergence of online marketing gives scope to the restaurant
sectors to develop their marketing strategy and to expand their market share in a new market
segment. New restaurants in Australia use the digital marketing and exhibit new recipe and their

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service through social media marketing. As a result, the audience is able to give their feedback
regarding the service and products as well a new ideas to the restaurant sectors
This present study gives a brief overview of the impact of social media marketing on the
restaurant sector in Australia. However, the negative aspects of the social media marketing are
also described in this study besides its positive aspects. As a result, the restaurant sectors get an
idea of the negative impact of social electronic commerce. Based on the drawbacks of social
media marketing the restaurant sectors are able to develop the new strategy to improve the
application digital marketing (Qiang et al., 2017). On the other hand, the scope the current
project also highlights the opportunities that can be received by the Australian restaurant sectors
through the application of social media marketing. Therefore, the literature review includes
articles that are published after 2012 and include current information on the selected topic.
4. Literature review
Social electronic commerce is an online business practice that enables the users to
improve their experience regarding the online shopping via different social media. However,
electronic commerce gives a platform to the users to review the products and to search a variety
of products via online. According to Ayob, Wilson-Evered & McGrath, (2017), there is a
difference between the social commerce and the social shopping as social commerce refers to the
assimilation of the online vendors while social shopping refers to a virtual group that is
developed by the online shoppers.
Every organization needs a clear idea about the use of social media marketing and its
impact on the business. As commented by Kim et al., (2017), Facebook and Twitter are the
popular examples of social media used by the maximum business sectors. However, the business

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opportunities reach to the restaurant owners by the application of such media, as a result, they are
able to develop the new business tool to enhance their online marketing. However, any business
can communicate with their customers via social electronic commerce and get details of their
profitability regarding their products.
According to the survey report, it has been found approx 54% of the young generation
has an intention to take a snap of their food while eating in any food sector (Chung et al., 2017).
Therefore, it is very common in the people to post the picture of food products that they have
eaten any restaurant on their social media along with reviews. However, this is a big part of the
Australian culture based on which the use of social media marketing has been increasing rapidly.
Such popularity of the social media in Australia enables the food and restaurant sectors to use
this as a marketing tool to promote their business.
Social capital is an important element of social electronic commerce, which is a network
of the individuals those are active users of social media. People share pictures along with the
reviews regarding the quality of food that is tasted by them in any restaurant. This helps other to
enhance their awareness about the service of such food sectors and an interest grows within them
for such restaurant sectors. However, this increases the popularity of the Australian restaurant.
According to Qiang et al., (2017), Integra is one of the popular social media used in Australia
and advertisement of the Australian restaurants is very common in this media.
As per the statistical data the Australian restaurants, those are active on the social media
sites have increased their sales by 20% in comparison to those restaurants, which are not active
in the social media marketing. According to the survey, the Australian restaurants those do not
use the social media marketing have decreased their sale by 10% and have started to use the

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social media marketing. However, statistical data reveals that 71% of the Australian consumers
prefer to take information via social media and give their feedback regarding the service
(Kasemsap, 2017).
Maximum brands of the hospitality sectors are using the social media marketing in
Australia. On the other hand, the employees of the hospitality sectors also prefer the application
of social media in the business sectors to promote the business. As stated by Rahimi et al.,
(2017), social electronic commerce has a major role to improve to develop the business and to
attract the guests in the restaurant sectors. In order to improve the brand value of a business
social electronic commerce plays an important role in Australian hospitality sectors. Application
of the social media marketing leaves a positive impact on the customer's mind and the marketing
strategy becomes enriched with its application. Market researcher and the strategy makers reveal
that Australian restaurant sector can reduce their operation cost by investing in the social media
application. However, the social media cuts the advertisement cost of product promotion. In the
traditional marketing the promotional campaign is costly rather than social electronic commerce
and its also time-consuming.
According to Horská et al., (2017), the success of social media application is based on the
policies that are taken by the restaurants to use social media marketing. Application Zomato,
which is a food-based social media app present in the mobile, is beneficial for the Australian
food sectors. However, through this app, the restaurants are able to give detail information in
their menu along with their product price. Hence, the consumers get detail information and
become interested to purchase food products.

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As argued by Raghavan, Desai & Rajkumar (2017), there are some barriers besides the
opportunities for social electronic commerce in the business sectors. However, it is difficult for
the restaurants to communicate with the people who are not habituated with the digital
application. Therefore, the privacy of the information is a major issue of social media marketing
as information regarding the organization may be damaged through the electronic commerce.
Therefore, personal information of the users may be disclosed by the use of social media
application. Misleading of the information is another negative aspect of social electronic
commerce. On the other hand, an impulsive behavior of the consumers develops through the
application of social media marketing in Australian sectors that often compel the customers to
buy unhygienic food products from the food sectors. Apart from these network related issue also
affects the flow of the social media marketing in the context of Australian restaurant (Tan et al.,
2017).
Literature problem
The entire literature review reveals both the positive and negative impact of the social
electronic commerce in Australian restaurant sectors. However, there is little account of the
factors of social media marketing in restaurant sectors. In a literature review, critical evaluation
is necessary (Wang, Pauleen & Zhang, 2016). In this current literature review section, proper
critical evaluation is required based on the impact of social electronic commerce in Australian
restaurant sectors.
Gaps opportunities
This current literature review highlights on the advantages and disadvantages of the
social electronic commerce in context of Australian restaurant sector. However, some major

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barriers to application of social media marketing in hospitality sectors are also discussed in this
section. Hence, the gap of the literature is there is no suggestion about the improvement of social
media marketing in business context. Based on this gap the further research can be carried out,
which brings a new opportunity for the future researcher over this topic.
Hypothesis
Hypothesis 1:
The social electronic commerce is effective for the Australian restaurant sectors to
improve their business performance.
Hypothesis 2:
The social electronic commerce is less effective to maximize the business performance
of the Australian restaurant sectors.
5. Research Questions
Primary question
 What are the advantages and disadvantages of social electronic commerce in Australian
restaurant sectors?
Secondary question
 What are the factors of using social media marketing in Australian restaurant sectors?
 What are the possible recommendations to improve the application of social electronic
commerce in Australian restaurants?

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6. Design and methodology of the current research
Qualitative method
The qualitative method focuses on the interview process. However, the reliability and
the validity are the prime areas of the qualitative method as the collected information should be
confidential (Abed, Dwivedi & Williams, 2015). Probability sampling technique is selected in
this method. Therefore, 3 managers from different restaurants of Australia are selected for the
interview and considered as the sample size. Data has been collected by conducting the
interview of concerned persons through the qualitative method. In this methodology, threat and
opportunities of social electronic commerce are the independent variables. On the other hand,
the effect of social electronic commerce on Australian restaurants is the dependent variable.
Quantitative method
Positivism philosophy, deductive approach, and descriptive design are selected in the
quantitative method. The descriptive design focuses on the analysis of existing theories and
concept (Turban, Strauss & Lai, 2016). Questionnaires are considered as the research
instrument in the quantitative method. Probability sampling process has been taken and 25
employees of two different Australian restaurants are considered as the sample size. The
quantitative method includes survey as the data collection method. The collected data has been
represented through using tables, graphs, and charts. In order to measure the validity and
reliability, the bias should be discarded and diplomatic feedbacks from the participants are
excluded.

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7. Limitations of the research
Many limitations have occurred while conducting a research. However, the short time
frame is a major barrier to this research. The researcher was not able to gather the information
properly due to lack of time. On the other hand, due to lack of financial support the researcher
was not able to access the paid journals. Therefore, some journals were not valid these are
excluded. On the other hand, some articles are not currently published as a result these are
discarded while collecting information. Apart from this, some journals provide irrelevant
information that is not reliable, which is a big limitation of the current study.
8. Research plan
week 1 week 2 week 3 week 4 week 5 week 5 week 6 week 7 week 8 week 9 week 10
Milestones
Introduction
Development of the design of
problem statement
development of research
objectives
Establishmnet of structure
Literature review design
Designing of the Analysis
Methodology
Create a design of research
approach
Detection of sampling tool
and sample size
Desigining the primary
research
Aligning the primary and
secondary collected data
Findings and analysis
Use of data development tool
Data reprsentation
Analysis of data
Conclusion
Summary of the entire
research

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Figure 1: Gantt chart
(Source: Researcher)
9. Conclusion
The above piece of work reveals the opportunities and threats of the social electronic
commerce in the context of restaurant sectors in Australia. However, it has been found that the
social media marketing is a modern technology that enables the Australian restaurant sectors to
improve their promotional practice and to meet the current need of the target market. Application
of different apps is an effective approach for the business owners to communicate with their
customers and provide product details to them. However, there are some drawbacks of the social
media marketing besides its advantages. One of the most important is the breach of
confidentiality of the personal as well as the organizational information. Therefore, network
issue is another issue that hampers the continuity of the social electronic commerce.