Research Report: Analyzing Social Media in Business Operations

This research report investigates the impact of social media on business functions, exploring both its advantages and disadvantages. The report begins with an introduction highlighting the increasing use of social media in business, followed by a clear definition of the project objectives and scope. A comprehensive literature review examines existing research on the topic, focusing on the case of McDonald's and the benefits of social media for communication and advertising. The research employs both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, detailing the research design, data collection methods, and analysis techniques. The report addresses research questions related to social media's impact and explores research limitations, including industry-specific applicability and potential biases in responses. A detailed time schedule outlines the research plan, and the conclusion summarizes key findings, emphasizing the varied perspectives across different industries regarding the use of social media for marketing and internal communication. The report concludes by suggesting that food and hospitality industries are among the heaviest users of social media tools.

Running head: RESEARCH 0
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

RESEARCH 1
Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Project Objective:.......................................................................................................................2
Project Scope:.............................................................................................................................2
Literature Review:......................................................................................................................2
Research Questions/Hypothesis:................................................................................................4
Primary questions:..................................................................................................................4
Secondary Questions..............................................................................................................4
Research Design and Methodology...........................................................................................4
Qualitative research................................................................................................................4
Quantitative research:.............................................................................................................5
Research Limitations:.................................................................................................................7
Time Schedule (Research plan):................................................................................................7
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................8
Reference List............................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
Social media and networking is on one of the major part of the life of the people. And thus
businesses are using this network for marketing their products and communicating with the
customers. It is the result of technological advancement in the communication and
technology business. It has been analysed that social media networking and communication is
used by the companies and this provides them with some of the benefits as well as the
disadvantages (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010).This is the research report that discusses about the
research plan that has been used to conduct the research over the topic.
Project Objective:
Objectives of the research discusses about the main theme of the research around which the
research or the study revolves.as far as this case is considered, it is the research that deals
with social media networking and its benefits and disadvantages to the business. The study
provides the information about the social media engagement of the organizations along with
the benefits and the disadvantages of the use of social media networking in the business
functions:
Project Scope:
The scope of the research deals with analysing the benefits and disadvantages associated with
using social media networking in business functions. This research provides the future
researchers about the idea of the functions in which the social media networking is used by
the companies (Smith & Zook, 2011). The companies can take better measures to avoid the
disadvantages. It also helps in gaining knowledge regarding the business use of social
networking so that it can be incorporated in most of the companies that are linked with fast
food industry.
Literature Review:
As far as the literature review that has been discussed is considered, it has been analysed that
the literature provides various aspects of social networking. The literature mainly talks about
the company called McDonalds as the case so that the benefits and advantages of the social
networking in different functions can easily be understood (Leonardi, Huysman & Steinfield,

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2013). Many researchers have suggested that technology is part of the life of the people as
well as of the businesses. The main function that requires technological advancement is
communication of businesses with the customers as well as among each other. It has been
argued in the literature hat social media is the tool that allow the companies to avail so much
of facilities such as interaction with the people, communicating the information, posting the
das, sharing knowledge etc. the tool of social networking has changes or altered the whole
scene of business communication these days (Rennie & Morrison, 2013). E. It allow the
companies to have two way communication such that the companies post their information
the online portals and the customers provide their review on that information thus completes
the communication between the company and the customers. There are various benefits that
the company enjoys because of social networking use in its functions such as more customers
attraction, more market presence, better communication etc. the case of McDonalds suggest
that it is the company that uses social networking to a great extend its functions. The major
use of social networking sites are in communication function of the business. McDonalds is
also using the social media tools as the advertising medium and thus gaining many benefits
out of it (Gronum, Verreynne & Kastelle, 2012). As far as the other side of use of social
media is considered, it has been analysed that there are different disadvantages as well that
the companies are experiencing because of the use of social media in their functions. This is
because some of the campaigns by McDonalds have failed when the company has failed to
target the audience with better strategies of social marketing. It has been analysed that any
wrong step on social media by the company can affect the image of the badly. McDonalds
has faced such issues but has succeeded in gaining its brand name again. Other disadvantages
that have been discussed by different researchers are the resources or the technical skills
required by the employees (Gensler, Völckner, Liu-Thompkins & Wiertz, 2013). It is
required by the companies to hire the resources having a particular type of skills so that they
can handle the activities of social media networking in the functions. There are some issues
that have been found on which the research is needed. The literature or the study does not
provide the benefits and disadvantages into different industries.

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Research Questions/Hypothesis:
There are some questions that need to be answered and thus the research needs to be
conducted by implementing the following methodology. Some of the research question for
this research is:
Primary questions:
1. How social media impact on the functioning of the company?
Secondary Questions
1. What are the advantages of using social media?
2. What are the disadvantages of using social media?
Research Design and Methodology
Qualitative research:
Qualitative research is the research that needs to be conducted in order to gain the knowledge
about the views and the opinions regarding the topic. It is the exploratory research that
studies about the reasons behind the topic.
Process:
 Determination of research question
 Studying the literature review
 Generating the hypothesis
 Data collection
 Data analysis
 Evaluation
 Results
Reliability and validity: As afar as the qualitative research is concerned, it has been analysed
that these researchers are not that reliable because it does not involve and figures of data to
justify. It may have greater validity as the perception of the sample is taken in order to
conduct the research. Reliability of the research can be enhanced by taking the data from the

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reliable sources such as from the companies that are using the social media networking as
tool.
Sampling and sample size: The sampling method that has been used in this research is
stratified sampling in which a company from 4 of the industries are selected and from every
company 50 employees are selected to conduct the research. So, the total sampling size is
400.
Data collection: as the data needs to be collected from the employees from different
companies so it is not possible to conduct interviews and thus it is required to fill the
questionnaires sent through e-mail (Edmonds & Kennedy, 2016).
Data analysis: the data has been analysed by understanding the relationship between the
industry and the benefits and disadvantages.
Variable specifications: there are two types of variables in the research, the first is the
dependent variable that is advantages and disadvantages of social media and the independent
variable in the research is the type of industry, this is because the type of industry affects the
benefits that the industry or the company can gain because of social media use.
Quantitative research:
Quantitative research is the research that deals with figures and data. It is the study that
results in quantifying the issues discussed and to generate the numerical data to take ait the
result from the study. It does not look for the reasons but quantify the elements such as
opinions, attitude, perception etc.
Process:
Both the type of researches that is qualitative and quantitative follows the same basic steps in
order to conduct the research. It has been analysed that the study involves following steps:
 Determination of the hypothesis
 Designing of the research
 Select the sample
 Data collection
 Analysis of data

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 Evaluation of the data
 Conclusion of the research
Research instruments:
Research instruments include the methods in which the data is being collected by the
researchers. The instrument that involves in this research is questionnaire. The questionnaire
has some closed and some open questions that determines about the different aspects. The
observation method has also been used to observe that data from the reports of the company
that provides the idea about the increase in sales because of social media.
Data analysis process:
Data has been analysed by process of relationship analysis. The analysis of the data is done
by making the relationship graph between the benefits of the social media and the impact of
the industry on the same. The graph of different industries have been made together so that
dependency of industry can be analysed the benefits or the disadvantages achieved in the
company.
Sampling and sample size: as far as the sampling technique is considered, it has been
analysed that like the qualitative analysis, stratified sampling is gain used in this research as
well (Kirson, et al. 2013). This helps in involving different companies with different
industries and also the employees from each of the selected company. There are four
industries or the companies that have been selected and 50 employees from every company
are selected. The total sample size is 200 employees.
Reliability and validity: the research that has been conducted by quantitative method r more
reliable than the qualitative methods. This is because the research of quantitative methods
includes figures that are more reliable than the theoretical concepts.
Research Limitations:
This is the part of the research proposal that includes the limitations of the research (Ngai,
Tao & Moon, 2015). It has been analysed from the above research that it does not include all
the industries. Thus the result that has been concluded from the study cannot be implied on

RESEARCH 7
any of the industry. It has been observed that industry is independent variable that has its
impact on the benefits and the disadvantages experienced by the company from social media
use thus the results that are being concluded may be industry specific and it cannot be
assumed for any of the industry. Another limitation that has been associated with the research
is that it is not necessary that every individual or the employees that has been considered in
the sample will revert to the questionnaire sent by the e mail. It may also be possible that the
employees have not consciously filled the questionnaire. It may be possible that they do not
have any idea about the figures that how much their company is benefited of disadvantaged
by the social media thus lack of information of the respondents is another limitation.
Time Schedule (Research plan):
Activities involves in the research plan:
1. Development of research questions: It is the stage where the research questions are
being framed. It has been analysed that the research questions are the major objectives
of the research.
2. Designing of the research: It is the stage here all the methods and the techniques that
are being used in the research to collect the data and the other things are being
decided.
3. Data collection: It is the stage or the phase of the research that deals with actually
conducting the research or collecting the data.
4. Data analysis: It is the stage where the data that has been collected is sorted down and
analysed to take out the conclusion.
5. Results: It is the stage where the actual conclusion is being framed after analysing the
whole data.
6. Limitations: It is the stage where the research limitations are being mentioned so that
it becomes easy for the other readers to use and imply the conclusion or the results in
further researches.
Activity Time (in months)
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Development of
research questions

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Research design
Data collection
Data analysis
Conclusion
Limitation findings
Conclusion:
It has been conclude from the qualitative research that most of the respondents from food
industry and hotel industry suggests that social media can be used s the tool for marketing
while the IT industry and most of the respondents from financial and IT industry suggests
that social media is good for internal communication. It has been analysed from the answers
of the employees that food and hospitality industry are among more use of these tools also
getting disadvantages. As far as the quantitative report has been considered, it has been
analysed that food and hospitality industry is enjoying more befits of social media technology
but also experiencing more number of disadvantages and the major disadvantage is the
impact on brand image of the company by the negative reviews of the people. The
relationship between the industry and the impact of social media is also found to be intense.
Reference List
Edmonds, W. A., & Kennedy, T. D. (2016). An Applied Guide to Research Designs:
Quantitative, Qualitative, and Mixed Methods. Sage Publications.

RESEARCH 9
Gensler, S., Völckner, F., Liu-Thompkins, Y., & Wiertz, C. (2013). Managing brands in the
social media environment. Journal of Interactive Marketing, 27(4), 242-256.
Gronum, S., Verreynne, M. L., & Kastelle, T. (2012). The role of networks in small and
medium‐sized enterprise innovation and firm performance. Journal of Small Business
Management, 50(2), 257-282.
Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and
opportunities of Social Media. Business horizons, 53(1), 59-68.
Kirson, N. Y., Weiden, P. J., Yermakov, S., Huang, W., Samuelson, T., Offord, S. J., ... &
Wong, B. J. (2013). Efficacy and effectiveness of depot versus oral antipsychotics in
schizophrenia: synthesizing results across different research designs.
Leonardi, P. M., Huysman, M., & Steinfield, C. (2013). Enterprise social media: Definition,
history, and prospects for the study of social technologies in organizations. Journal of
Computer
‐Mediated Communication, 19(1), 1-19.
Ngai, E. W., Tao, S. S., & Moon, K. K. (2015). Social media research: Theories, constructs,
and conceptual frameworks. International Journal of Information
Management, 35(1), 33-44.
Rennie, F., & Morrison, T. (2013). E-learning and social networking handbook: Resources
for higher education. Routledge.
Smith, P. R., & Zook, Z. (2011). Marketing communications: integrating offline and online
with social media. Kogan Page.