Indian Institute of Management Kozhikode

BUSINESS RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

Submitted to: Prof. Arun Abraham Elias

Submitted By:
Raghav Rohila Section A PGP/15/039
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TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents
ABSTRACT...................................................................................................................................................... 3 INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH PROBLEM ............................................................................................. 4 STAKEHOLDERS MAP ................................................................................................................................... 5 TRANSFORMATION PROCESS:....................................................................................................................... 6 STUDY OF THE EXISTING LITERATURE ........................................................................................................... 7 RESEARCH OBJECTIVES: ................................................................................................................................ 9 RESEARCH QUESTIONS: ................................................................................................................................ 9 PROPOSED METHODOLOGY AND METHODS................................................................................................ 9 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ..................................................................................................................... 10 LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY ....................................................................................................................... 11 REFERENCES ................................................................................................................................................ 12

IMPACT OF SOCIAL NETWORKING

ABSTRACT
Purpose This paper is to explain the impact of social media in re-shaping individual relationships Design/ methodology/ approach The research is based on a study of college undergraduates of the millennial generation. The paper is not dominated by technical or econometric calculation as the research is targeted at both academic and non-academic readers studying the phenomenon of impact of social networking Findings - The paper provides a review of literature and theories impact of social media. This research has shown that with the growing power of internet, college students are turned on by the convenience of the Internets speed, display of availability, information, and support for multiple conversations. Research limitations/implications The impact of social media is limited to college undergraduates but not to a larger population e.g. business people and children. This area is out of the scope of this research paper. Social implications The paper evaluates the impact of social media on college undergraduates at different stages since its origin. This will give a better understanding of the demarcation of positive and negative terms and help formulate methodologies to be implemented to curb the negative effects of this phenomenon at different points. Originality/value This research is an attempt to know the growth of social media despite several negatives. Keywords: Applications, Facebook, Myspace, Friends reunited , Social networking sites. 3

INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

The digital age that we are now growing into has the ability to change how people communicate with others. This is best experienced in college undergraduates who are at the forefront of technological advances that are before them. A lot of factors are explored by college undergraduates that shape their personality and identifying characteristics through the online environment. The impact of social media was once very less because it was used only by the elite class but now have become the subject of popular culture, public interest and political debate Internet has played a great role in ways different people meet each other. This different mode of communication has led to different aspects of interaction, communication and coordination. People have experienced a shift in interactions among people to be practical and more convenient because of the network communication tools such as online chat, emails, text messaging and most importantly social networking websites such as Myspace and Facebook. The advancement in the computer technology and the shift in communication bring attention to the changing individual relationships that college undergraduates undergo. There have a lot of researches on the interactivity, interaction and collaboration among college undergraduates. This research has shown that with the growing power of internet, college students are attracted to the ease of speed, display of availability information and support for multiple conversations by the internet. The increase of use of communication technologies among college students but what is interesting is the link between the increase of communication technologies and the relationships among the college undergraduates.

STAKEHOLDERS MAP

Owners Financial Community

Government

Advertisers/ Investors

Social networking Sites

Activist Groups

Competitors

College undergraduat es

Customer associations and groups

Students' Parents

TRANSFORMATION PROCESS:

Friends Reunit ed

Friend ster

Linke dIn,M yspac e

Face boo k

Faceboo k( School )

Faceboo k (everyo ne )

SagaZ one

Input

Process

Output

Online Logging World

Social networking Sites

Effects of SNS

STUDY OF THE EXISTING LITERATURE

Social media includes web-based and mobile technologies used to turn communication into interactive dialogue. It is a configuration of people connected through interpersonal means such as friendship, common interests or ideas. The need for social media arouses because humans are societal and require relationships with other human beings in order to survive. The positive effects of social media lies in the criticality of psychological well-being of humans, this is still interesting to researches after being researched throughout the years. Most of the respondents report forming relationships online. The primary reason for using social media is it convenience, ease of use, privacy and ability to multitask by engaging in multiple things. In another study done in Hong Kong, the primary motivations of university students for using communication technologies were to express affection, being sociable and expressing encouragement. It is seen in research that communication technologies used by college students communicated considerably far more with peers than with relatives. This suggests a generation gap in the acceptance of the digital media. College students who travel long distances to pursue their academic hunt are seen to be more exposed to social media for meaningful interaction through conversation, persuasion and sharing of experiences. Studies report that social ties that are maintained thorough email, instant messaging or social networking sites show greater impact on closeness than via telephone and in person. College students are aware of the importance of meeting face to face interactions but communication technologies gives a sense of connectedness and allowance to share experience with one another as if they were meeting face to face. Critiques view that with a loss of strong bonds among members in the society, the Internet will limit the connections between central and peripheral actors in society and those on the peripheral structure will be less connected than ever before (Fisher, 2001, p.24).

Workman (2008) states most student affairs professionals and sociologists have worried that the trend would lead to a population of students who were isolated and unable to develop healthy offline relationships. Further it is said that the online interactions do not necessarily remove people from the offline world but may indeed be used to support relationships and keep people in contact even if the distances grow. Next question that arises is that does social networking strengthen or hinder socially awkward people? This is a crucial matter to get to know the plus and minus to push the topic onto the next question. The next question lies on the negation of real life commitments in a social environment because of social networking online life. Are people forgoing nights down the pub or dinner parties etcetera and staying in? Negating the real life aspect of a social meeting and is this effecting how, we as a social community, are losing our perspective of the benefits that real camaraderie and social interaction bring, is my main objective to answer. For most internet applications or services these days users are always concerned with the leakage of private information and that these services and applications make unaware users of this potential. Moving back onto the final question which is to know if there actually an effect of social networking on the standards of real-life social gatherings and do people feel uncomfortable or vulnerable in such close proximity to another person. The reference above asks similar questions and is a primary resource that leads to include this question in this proposal. It is an important issue relevance becomes pronounced as social networking and its effects grow in popularity.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES:
Effect of social media on societal relations Increasing trend of social media Setting social networking sites in the wider media literacy, online and communications context understand peoples use of sites Investigate concerns about privacy and safety

RESEARCH QUESTIONS:
Does social networking aid or hinder socially awkward people? Does social networking strip boundaries and/or morals commonly accepted in real life? Does social networking negate real life commitments in a social environment? Is trading your privacy for a free service and ease of communication worthy? Can social networking improve your social interaction or abilities? What is the future of social networking?

PROPOSED METHODOLOGY AND METHODS

This study will focus on the growing use of the communication technologies and look at the aspects of reshaping of individual relationships among the college undergraduates. The responses have been collected through secondary data and the research has not segregated any particular group to make it a general response, so the response can be from a female or a male and of any ethnicity from undergraduates of all backgrounds. Thus the research is based on the qualitative aspects.

Secondary data from the available research, census, and other reports shall be used to save cost and time, if the data is found to be reliable and accurate. The habits and actions of the college undergraduates have been researched on qualitative methods to primarily focus on human subjectivity. This is because the responses from research participants may be quite complex and not be anticipatable regarding their individual relationships or their communication habits.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The study is proposed to seek the effects of technological advances in communication especially the social networking sites on the individual relationships of college undergraduates. This is still a relatively fresh area of research considering the advent of new social networking sites and technologies and the scope of their advancement on the Internet. The concern here is the reason of using social networking sites and its effects on relationships in the offline world. Even with the advancements in the communication technologies and social networking sites, the findings of the research will significantly help in the analysis and understanding of response of college undergraduates communication with their family and friends in the new era of technology. This is also significant because as more and number of students are going off their home for academic pursuit and hence how they will communicate with their families and friends. The research will show if there is any relationship between communication done online and its direct impact on individual relationships. Also this will be useful for the social networking sites to know the increasing trends and market and what communication channels to focus on according to the popularity and what technologies are fading as the technology advances.

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LIMITATIONS OF THE STUDY

This study is conducted for only the undergraduate students and leaves rest of the population including the business people and the children. The phenomenon of increasing trend of communication technologies for social networking is quite prominent and more prominent among the college undergraduates who are at the forefront of the technology. Hence to limit the scope, only the trend of social networking in college undergraduates is studied here. Further, there are a lot of qualitative aspects related with the study including the non-segregation of respondents on the basis of gender, race, ethnicity etc... The qualitative nature can lead to multiple subjective opinions influencing the data. This can affect the results.

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REFERENCES

1.

Research Proposal For Dissatation by Daniel Wrigley

2. Fisher, D.R. & Wright. L.M. journal of Computer Mediated Communication 3. Kollock & Smith Communities in cyberspace

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