Business Value of Using Social Networking and E-commerce in Academic University Settings - Research Paper Example

Investigating the Business Value of Using Social Networking & E-commerce in Academic Settings: A Case of KSA of the : Name of the University: Date: Table of Contents Table of Contents 2 Chapter 1: Research Background and Research Questions 3 Chapter 2: Literature Review 5 2.1 Social Media 5 2.2 Business Value of Using Social Media by Universities 7 Chapter 3: Research Methodology 8 References 12 Chapter 1: Research Background and Research Questions With the evolution of digital era and internet usage, not only companies but also universities or academic institutions need to seriously consider customizing the communication techniques to its target audience (Voss & Kumar, 2013). According to Voss & Kumar (2013), although academic institutions like universities and colleges should focus on providing quality education to students but to run the educational institute, authority needs source of revenue. Therefore, universities need to attract students to take admission and use the admission fees to not only provide quality education to admitted students but also improve academic infrastructure of the universities such as state of art classroom, video conferencing, well equipped library, qualified professors, research publication etc. Li & Bernoff (2008) pointed out that universities cannot afford to avoid social media such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn etc when it comes to promoting educational courses to students or develop intra campus communication network. Li & Bernoff (2008) conducted research on American university students and found that more than 90% of them are associated with social networking sites like Twitter, Orkut, Hi5, Facebook, LinkedIn etc and they spend more than 15 hours/week on Facebook and more than 7 hours/week watching YouTube videos. Voss & Kumar (2013) pointed out that concept of e-commerce being used by companies like eBay, Amazon might not be applicable to universities due to two reasons, 1- universities are being respected for its academic pedagogy and there is very little chance that student will accept the out and out business oriented e-commerce transformation of universities and 2- e-commerce companies auction or sell products but it is not possible in case of universities due absence sellable item or buyers. In such context, M. Thomas & H. Thomas (2012) and Voss & Kumar (2013) pointed out universities can use Twitter and other social media to gain business value in multi perspective manner such as, mechanism 1- exploring the course offering to students at individual level and engaging them in the classroom through interactive teaching through YouTube videos, video tutorials being uploaded in Facebook page, mechanism 2- universities can attract students to enrol in the academic course via advertising of different issues like course offering, admission notices, key benefits that student can get after enrolment in the academic program of the university, qualification of teachers in the university, alumni meeting, course structure, one to one interactive session with educational coordinator who can clarify queries of prospective students etc. Now question is that whether arguments of M. Thomas & H. Thomas (2012) and Voss & Kumar (2013) are applicable to KSA university or not. By following mechanism 1, KSA University can improve course understanding among students while by following mechanism 2, KSA University can achieve business value by admitting more students which will drive subsequent revenue generation for the University. Surprisingly, till now, KSA University has not tried much to explore using social media networking as business value generator but also very previous researchers conducted research on how KSA University can use social media networking in order to garner business value. Therefore, gap in the literature has been created and such gap has influenced the researcher to take up this study conduct research on how KSA University can utilize Twitter and other social media in order to generate business value. With such intention, the researcher has selected topic “Investigating the Business Value of Using Social Networking & E-commerce in Academic University Settings: A Case of KSA University.” It is not the fact that the research findings of this paper will only fulfil gap in the literature but from empirical value aspect, findings of the research paper can also be used by KSA University to design social media strategy and drive financial revenue growth by attracting students to take admissions. Research Question: How KSA University can drive business value by optimizing use of social networking sites and deciding a formidable social media strategy? What are the probable business value drivers for KSA University while going for designing social media strategy? Research Objectives: To understand how KSA University can drive business value by optimizing use of social networking sites and deciding a formidable social media strategy. To identify probable business value drivers for KSA University while going for designing social media strategy Chapter 2: Literature Review 2.1 Social Media With the invention of Facebook in 2004, the era of social networking started and with the advent of time, other social networking sites like Twitter, Orkut, Hi5, LinkedIn etc were introduced to people across the world. Kwong (2007) pointed out that social media offers reversible benefit to both students and academic universities such as, 1- students need not to pay money while using social media sites like Myspace, Twitter, Orkut, Hi5, Facebook etc hence they can access freely academic videos and course brochures being uploaded by university on YouTube, 2- universities can promote their educational offering to large set of social media using students in low cost manner while it is not only costly but also practically improbable that the University would be able to communicate their course offering to every students in the target group manually. Features like “Groups” and “Events” are present in most of the social media sites and Universities can use these features as marketing tool to advertise or execute activities regarding course offering, admission notices, key benefits that student can get after enrolment in the academic program of the university, qualification of teachers in the university, alumni meeting, course structure, one to one interactive session with educational coordinator who can clarify queries of prospective students etc (Kwong, 2007; Voss & Kumar, 2013). Consideration of research works of Voss & Kumar (2013) reveals the fact that students tend to reliable information and resolve course related queries prior taking admission to a particular university. These students often find it confusing to verify the credibility of course structure, placement facility, academics quality, quality of teaching in the university before joining a particular university. In such context, they tend to seek information regarding the University from peer groups, online educational blogs, social media groups etc. In modern era, social media works on web 2.0 technology and offers opportunity to users to communicate with each other through voice calling, text chatting, communication via group discussion etc. According to Voss & Kumar (2013), multiple content platform and media convergence facility decreases cost for companies while promoting offerings via social media platform. In simple words, low cost of social media marketing provides opportunity to marketers to experiment with tone, layer and format of advertisement, discussion forums in social media websites due to low financial risks. By media convergence, companies can upload promotional video on Twitter, Orkut, Hi5, Facebook, and Myspace etc in order to attract customers while these social networking sites earn sponsorship money from companies (Kwong, 2007). Li & Bernoff (2008) were one of the first researchers who analyzed business model of social networking. They proposed “groundswell” model in order to explain how social media works as a social wave that can sweep the market. According to Li & Bernoff (2008), in previous occasions, marketers earn business value by communicating product/service information to customers in one way manner through TV commercials, print advertisements or PR activities but customers did not get the chance to communicate their feedback to customers. The situation changed after the advent of social media where customers can send their feedback to marketers through web blogging, social networking group discussion, online contest, knowledge sharing through video chatting etc. As a result, markets got the chance to use the customer feedback to customize product offerings and drive business revenue by meeting customer requirements in real time manner. Voss & Kumar (2013) used the “groundswell” model of Li & Bernoff (2008) in academic universities and tried to explain how social media can help universities to admit more students and promote the brand. 2.2 Business Value of Using Social Media by Universities Scholars and researchers put significant effort to realize the potential benefits of measurable values of social media when it is being used in business context. Dutta (2010) and Anderson (2011) came up with multifaceted perspectives of social media when it comes to engage customers and influence them to take purchase action. Unfortunately, most of the previous researchers illustrated the application of social media in universities but none of them tried to analyze the problem. However, Dutta (2010) and Anderson (2011) identified results of social media marketing among customers such as customers can visualize the marketer, customers get the chance to voice their opinion, engaging with product offering, developing relationship with peer group, checking authenticity of claims by marketers, experience the branding effort of marketers etc. In universities, social media can be used by authorities in dual manner in order to drive business values. Business Value Driver 1- universities can use social networking sites in order to promote course offering, admission notices, price benefits or academic benefits of enrolment in the academic course of the universities, interactive session with student coordinators etc. As part of social media strategy, universities can upload video of different benefits being offered in the universities on YouTube attach the URL to social networking pages. A discussion forum in the social networking site can also be created which will help the applicants and students to clarify their doubts regarding admission in the universities. As a result, students and applicants will get to know much about the universities and university gets the chance to influence admission decisions of students. Subsequently, chance of student admission gets increased for the university and revenue earning scope for the university also gets increased (Voss & Kumar, 2013). Business Value Driver 2- universities can also commercialize or earn revenue by providing training and video tutorials through social networking sites. There are students, researchers and even business clients who are comfortable with online training and video tutorials and are not ready to enrol in classroom based educational program. As Anderson (2011) mentioned that companies can promote their brand and develop loyal customer base by targeting right set of social networking users. Similarly, by commercializing the educational offerings and targeting right audience, universities can also drive business value (M. Thomas and H. Thomas, 2012). In the final paper, the topic will be further discussed and the researcher will try to use the theoretical arguments for addressing the research question in context KSA University. Chapter 3: Research Methodology According to Saunders, Lewis and Thornhil (2009), researcher can conduct research by using three types of methodologies such as quantitative research methodology, qualitative research methodology and mixed approach. In this research, the research will use mixed approach or triangulation approach in order to address the research problem in comprehensive manner. As part of research triangulation, hypothesis will be developed on the basis of qualitative analysis of secondary data of previous research works of research scholars while validity of the hypothesis will tested by quantitative analysis of primary data collected from questionnaire survey of students of KSA University and open ended interview of university Staff. Secondary data will be collected from academic peer reviewed journals, books, print sources, online journals, websites etc while primary data will be collected from students and staff of KSA university through close ended questionnaire and open ended interview. Social media groups will be formed in order to facilitate primary data collection process and for ethical perspective, permission of group members will be taken prior to primary data collection process. Convenience sampling will be used as part of non-probabilistic sampling to decide sample size for questionnaire survey. Statistical techniques will be used for data analysis and hypothesis testing. Chapter 4: Time horizon for the Research Months Month 1 Month 2 Month 3  Week Numbers  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Activities     Research problem identification     Research proposal development and submission     Developing literature review based on secondary data     Developing questionnaire and collecting primary data Data analysis     Writing final report Revising & submitting final report     References Anderson, D. J. (2011). The foray into social media: a clinician, and skeptic, sold. Frontiers of Health Services Management, 28(2), 23-27. Dutta, S. (2010). What’s your personal social media strategy? Harvard Business Review, 88(11), 127-130. Kwong, V. (2007). Reach out to your students using Myspace and Facebook. Indiana Libraries, 26(3), 53-7. Li, C., & Bernoff, J. (2008). Groundswell: Winning in a world transformed by social technologies. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press. Saunders, M., Lewis, P., & Thornhil, A. (2009). Research methods for business students. (4th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education. Thomas, M., & Thomas, H. (2012). Using new social media and Web 2.0 technologies in business school teaching and learning. Journal of Management Development, 31(4), 358-367. Voss, K. A., & Kumar, A. (2013). The value of social media: are universities successfully engaging their audience? Journal of Applied Research in Higher Education, 5(2), 156-172. Read More