AjustificationoftheResearchmethodology

1、2. A Justification of Research Methodology2.1. Identification of Study RequirementThe main research objective of this paper is to analyze the modern social business management strategies and to construct them into a standardized framework within an international context. It is expected to help to en

2、terprises to holistically analyze and management their integrated social business organization, in order to achieve further business success. To achieve the above target, some data, information and relevant empirical analysis are required to support further study. The data and information required a

3、re generally qualitative ones that related to the companys understanding about social business, how they integrate daily business with social media, what is their most concerned issues and what the major problems are for the companies in this moment. The core aim to collect these information is that

4、 they are needed for further justifying the necessity of this research task and inspiring the new framework construction work with the demands and experiences of the current practitioners. 2.2.Research Method Selection and Justification2.2.1 Introduction to “Research Onion” Decision-making Strategy

5、In order to effectively acquire useful data as above and to systematically conduct the project research, the selection of appropriate research methodologies have to be considered. This selection shall be conducted according to the REME Onion, which is presented by Saunders et al in 2003, as Figure2.

6、 The first layer of the research onion presents the choices of research philosophy, which are respectively positivism, interpretivism and realism. The second layer clarifies the research methodologies into two main categories, which are inductive and deductive research approach. The third layer carr

7、ies the various of research strategies, such as interview, case study, experiment, survey, grounded theory, action research and ethnography. The fourth layer shows the choices of time time horizons like cross-sectional, and longitudinal. Last but no the least, the core stands for the actual data col

8、lection and analyze action.2.2.2 The Choice for Research PhilosophyAs to the first layers, positivism stands for the philosophy approves that the possibility to observe and describe reality from an objective viewpoint. On the other hand, an interpretivist believes that it is necessary to understand

9、differences between humans in our roles as social actors. A positivism research typically emphasis the observation and experiments should be objective and repeatable, while an interpretivism research normally select qualitative, non-quantitative methods as its main choice, because it admit that peop

10、le on different stance can have a different point of view, and the result can hardly be explicitly measured.This study mainly focus on the analysis of social business as a commercial trend and a business management strategy. It is a analytical science study, in which most of the concerned questions

11、are non-quantitative ones. So that, this study should be defined as a interpretivism study.2.2.3 The Choice for Research ApproachThe second layer describe the choice between inductive approach and deductive approach. A deductive approach indicates that the study should be conducted from general to s

12、pecific. Firstly, a theory should be developed from previous study; and then one should drive a hypothesis from the theory; after that, relevant observation should be made, which is better to be repeatable; at last, one may obtain a confirmation of the hypothesis. On the other hand, a inductive appr

13、oach indicates that the study should be conducted from specific observations to general findings. The observation from social phenomenons and reactions should be made first; and then patterns can be concluded from the above observations; based on the patterns, one shall create a hypothesis and explo

14、re it; at last a theory can be formed from the hypothesis.As what have been presented in the above section, social business study is at the frontier of the technology tendency and management method innovation. Although a number of institution are also started to study how to solve this issue. Howeve

15、r, most of the processes that they have published only concerned about some specific role or ability as social business, such as the process for social media analysis, but lack of a systematic and standardized process to guide the overall decision making and system management. As a consequence, a in

16、ductive study, which aims to systematically conclude a framework for social business management from current practices and trends, is a preferable choice. Based on the above decision, this core processes of this study shall be organized in the following way: after the definition and justification of

17、 overall research methodologies, the core data concerned and the theoretical findings that relevant to social business management shall be collected and analyzed; after that, based on the inspirations from literature and interviews, the author may construct a standardized framework for social busine

18、ss management in an international context, and a proposal based on WMG shall be conducted, in order to further demonstrate the standardized framework of social business.2.2.4 The Choice for Research StrategyThe third layer carries different kinds of research strategies. For different type of study w

19、ith different data type requirements, the selection of most fitted strategy can be various. The figures of most practiced strategies shall be demonstrate as below(Thomas Hanne):Surveys: the main goal of surveys is finding patterns in data. It is a practical strategy for inductive and empirical study

20、(Thomas Hanne). By collection data and information from a group of population, one can systematically evaluate and statistic the data, especially which were not expected. And then interpret these finds into result. The typical techniques for conducting surveys are respectively observation, measureme

21、nt, questionnaires, interviews and literature research. The researcher can choose one or more technique to conduct the survey. Experiments: the main goal of experiments is to test hypothesis. It is normally involved in positivist, deductive and quantitative research(Thomas Hanne). The typical proced

22、ure of an experiment is as follow. Firstly, the researcher need to formulate a certain hypothesis. And then, one needs to collect evidences through carefully designed experiments in order to test the hypothesis based on the evidence. Some typical techniques, like benchmarking and statistical signifi

23、cance test are widely used in experiments.Case studies: the main of conducting a case study is to study the characteristics of a real life instance(Thomas Hanne). This strategy is normally be applied in interpretivist, inductive, empirical and qualitative research, in order to better prove a certain

24、 theory with qualitative data. A typical procedure of case study can be describe as below. Firstly, the researcher should select an instance for study. And then this case shall be analyzed and interpreted in a systematic way. After the data collection and analysis, the researcher shall read into the

25、se data in order to better prove a theory, or to observe some new findings. Discussions, interviews, questionnaires and mere observations are the most common techniques to apply in a case study.Ethnography: ethnography is a systematic way to study people and culture. Normally, it is for more time co

26、nsuming then surveys or case studies, because the ethnographers shall deeply involved in the lives of their study objective in order to induct cultural phenomena(Lewis, 1985). Due to the time limitation, it is not possible for this study to consider this option.Grounded theory: grounded theory is a

27、data driven research methodology in the social science. Through systematically observation, analysis and construction of data, the researcher expects to observe the interrelationship of different categories of collected data, and finally tries to develop a theory out of the data collected(Creswell,

28、2003). Unlike positivist research, a study using grounded theory usually start with relevant qualitative data collection, or mere questions. As the data is reviewed, concepts and common elements can be extracted, in order to guide more data to be collected and reviewed. The above procedure must be r

29、epeated several times, with more and more data being included and re-reviewed, until the basis of a new theory is formed. As a consequence, a study based on grounded theory shall include several data collection and observing stages, which requires a long study time frame. Due to the time limitation

30、and availability of essential data, grounded theory can hardly be a suitable option for this study. For this paper, as what has been discussed above, It can be categorized as an interpretivist, deductive study, with main concentration on qualitative data and empirical analysis. To match those five m

31、entioned strategies, apparently conducting surveys is the most suitable choice as the main research strategy. The reason to exclude the others shall be explained as below. As the above paragraphs, ethnography and grounded theory should be excluded, mainly because and resource limitation. Experiment

32、should be excluded because this study do not emphasis quantitative research, nor does it a positivist one. Case study will not be include as main research approach because its main fitting area is inductive research. Based on the above detailed arguments, for the third layer, survey is the final cho

33、ice as main research strategy. 2.2.5 The Choice for Time HorizonAccording to the fourth layer, this study shall choose between longitudinal research and cross sectional research. The main approach for cross sectional research is to measure variables in a shorter period of time, so as to view these m

34、easurements as contemporaneous (Baltes, Reese, & Nesslroade, 1988; and Creswell, 1998). While, for longitudinal research, repeated observations are made of a same sample over a very long period. This period can be as long as several decade. Both cross sectional research and longitudinal research

35、 can contribute well to these study. Through cross sectional research, the researcher can discover the technology or management trend within the whole industry, on a special time spot. Also it can be used to conclude and analyze the best practices between different companies, in order to inspire a m

36、ore systematic framework for social business management. On the other hand, longitudinal research can be utilized to study the ROI of social business integration over a relativity long period. However, a major problem for social business study field is that this technology and management tendency is

37、 still on the frontier, so that few researchers, including me, can have enough time to conduct longitudinal research and to analyze the history data of a company, when the concept of social business itself is a new-born trend. As what the most researcher in this field have done, cross sectional rese

38、arch shall be chosen as a preferable strategy.2.2.6 The Choice for Data Collection MethodAs what has been discussed above, the main choice for research strategy is Surveys. There are several typical data collection techniques for survey, such as observation, questionnaires, interviews, or gathering

39、from other literature(white paper and published reports). For each kind of methodology, it have its advantages and disadvantages, depending on the particular circumstances. In this research section, using literature (white paper and published reports) and conducting interviews are the two main sourc

40、es to collect data and information, based on the features of the research objectives. The reason for exclude questionnaires is that questionnaires are normally used for gathering quantitative data, or to gather opinions within in a fixed structure. The field of social business relatively new so that

41、 open-answer questions are more valuable for this study to learn how modern companies integrate with social media technology and what are their most concerned issues. More detailed reason to choose these research methodologies and data source shall be demonstrated in the next paragraphs.2.2.6.1. Lit

42、erature sourcesWith regard to the literature, it refers to the write papers and survey reports published by the consulting institutions and companies, such as Social Media Examiner and Altimeter Group. The white papers contains a majority of quantitative information that required by this study. Some

43、 core data that is concerned by this study is listed as below:l What percentage of companies have realized the significant value that social media can have for their business?l What percentage of companies have integrate social media with their business?l What percentage of companies are satisfied w

44、ith the return of investment on social media?l What are the problems that the companies are mostly concerned about in terms of social business?The answers to the above questions can be used to further justify the necessity of the research task and to identify the “gap” that the new framework of soci

45、al business management may fulfill, in order to tweet the companies to increased success. The reason why the author prefer to collect the above data from the secondary sources, rather than collect them by his own survey, is that the author believes that with a significantly larger sample base, the r

46、esearch findings provided in the published reports are more reliable and convincing. After all, as a current student, the author is not able to get access to that many companies to survey their management strategies. Fortunately, most of the required data has already been researched and published by

47、 different institutions. Taking one of the main source of data, “ The 2014 Social Media Marketing Report”, as an example, with a sample base of 2887 participants from all around the world, and mature research methodologies, the findings of the survey can of great value to this study.However, when de

48、cide to use secondary data, the validity of the data shall be inevitably questioned. In order to guarantee the data is validate and authoritative, the author has checked the authority of all of the reports provider before citing its data. Also for one piece of data, there can be more than one source

49、 to support it. Moreover, the author has always conducted two interviews with the social media manager in two companies as a complementary research to further back-up the validity of the secondary data in use. 2. Sources from interviewIn respect of the interview that has been conducted, it aims to i

50、nvestigate how companies nowadays understand and implement social business and how are they operating social business in two or more different counties, besides act as a complementary research to examine the secondary data gained from published reports. The companies that accepted the invitation of interview are namely YF Education Group & Skyline-career Consultant. Th