How to measure the variables? (construct) & What is a sampling of this search?

Abstract:

Social media is the gathering place of a large pool of consumers. It serves as an archive for consumer data and a tool for disseminating information to increase market share. The majority of the literature claims that using social media in an organizational setting improves customer connections, however, social media can also be used to gather information. Few research has previously examined how social media affects the availability of information. Consequently, this study looked at how social media affects the availability of knowledge. Additionally, it was discovered that social media usage in organizations is positively influenced by elements including interactivity, trust, and institutional pressure. This study clarified the true significance of social media and its advantages for knowledge acquisition. The findings would encourage and direct organizations to use social media for information gathering, which is crucial for understanding clients, rivals, and the market in order to create strategies for boosting corporate performance.

1. Introduction:

Organizations are using social media to improve their social network salience, enhance interest in their organizations, and build relationships with the online public. The relationship developed through social media not only brings customers closer to the organization but also helps organizations to get more information about the market trends, customers’ needs, and wants (Parveen et al. 2015). These benefits associated with social media make it grow as an important strategic tool among organizations (Gomez Vasquez & Soto Velez 2011). Regardless of the existing debate on the advantages and disadvantages of social media, investments in these technologies are growing high (Leader Chivée & Cowan 2008). it is important to know the benefits associated with social media usage in organizations. Even though investments in these technologies are growing high, the most important thing is that organizations must use social media effectively and strategically to gain its full potential. For organizations to use social media effectively there should be certain factors that influence and supports the usage in organizations. Therefore this study identifies the factors that influence social media usage among organizations. Furthermore, academic research that investigates the impact of social media on organizations is quite limited (Schultz et al. 2012). Generally, social media usage in organizations are related to the enhancement of relationship with customers but one of the most important impacts of social media usage is the improvement in information accessibility; organizations can easily obtain information about their potential customers, their tastes, their wants from the conversations on social media sites. Organizations can also obtain information about the activities, brand sentiments, and tactics of their competitors by becoming fans of the Facebook pages of their competitors. Organizations can also gather general information about the market, new trends, and industry information through social media. Moreover, organizations can also easily deliver organizational information to the public in a timely manner (Parveen et al. 2015). However, not many previous studies have investigated the impact of social media on information accessibility. Therefore this study attempts to fill up this gap. The following section presents the literature review and the theoretical underpinnings of the study. Subsequently, the methods used to conduct the study are explained which is then followed by the description of the data analysis, findings, and discussion.

1. Research problem:

Sharing personal information on social media can have serious consequences, including loss of control over our information, targeting by advertisers, increased risk of identity theft and fraud, becoming susceptible to cyberbullying and online harassment, and what might be the biggest risk of sharing personal information on social media which is getting targeted by stalkers and predators

• Loss of Control Over Personal Information Once you post something online, it can be difficult to take back or control who has access to it.
• Targeting by Advertisers is the potential for advertisers and data miners to use that information to target you with ads and other marketing materials.
• Increased Risk of Identity Theft and Fraud Personal information shared on social media can be a goldmine for hackers and scammers looking to commit fraud. Some common tactics include:
• Impersonation: : your personal information, such as your name, address, phone number, and date of birth to try to convince a bank or credit card company that they are you.
• Phishing scams: the information you share to send you emails or messages designed to look like they’re from a legitimate website or company.
• Malware: the information you share to send malware (malicious software) such as viruses or spyware disguised as links or attachments in emails or messages.

Identity theft is a serious problem, and it can take a long time and a lot of effort to recover from it.

Cyberbullying and Online Harassment are the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person, and they can be as damaging as any form of traditional bullying

1. Research Importance:

Being cautious and selective about what you post and with whom you share it is the first piece of advice for protecting your personal information on social media. This includes keeping private or sensitive information, such as financial information or religious beliefs, to yourself. Think carefully before sharing any information publicly because it can be seen by anybody and might be used in ways you didn't intend.

• Enable two-factor authentication layer of protection works as a second barrier, blocking hackers from getting access even if they know your credentials
• Use privacy settings to control who can see your information review your privacy settings regularly and adjust them as needed to ensure that you are comfortable with who has access to your information.

• Common privacy settings on social media include:

• Friend/follower privacy: This setting allows you to control who can see your posts and other information on your profile
• Location privacy: You can choose to make your location visible to everyone, visible only to your friends or followers, or not visible at all
• Search privacy: Some social media platforms allow you to control whether or not you appear in search results

When clicking on links or downloading attachments, proceed with caution. These could include malware or other threats to your personal information. Before clicking on any links or attachments, exercise caution and confirm their authenticity.

1. LITERATURE REVIEW:

Social media covers a wide variety of web-based technologies that enable users to contribute to, as well as consume information. These social media tools can be established anywhere with an Internet connection, and they should be considered by marketers, advertisers, and content creators as a basic part of their communications because social media affects all aspects of the Internet and transforms the role of the Internet in people’s lives (Akar & Topcu 2011; UnicersalMcCann 2008). Organizations should consider using social media mainly because of the changing trends among consumers. According to Mangold and Faulds (2009), marketing managers should recognize the power and critical nature of the discussions that are being carried on by consumers via social media. They illustrated the nature of the current trend as that the Internet has become a mass media vehicle for consumer-sponsored communications. It now represents the number one source of media for consumers at work and the number two source of media at home (Rashtcy et al. 2007). As the trend is changing more favorably towards social media among consumers, social media also provides various advantages to organizations. Social media can assist organizations to create an online resource containing the accumulated wisdom of the organization, by allowing knowledge to be codified, searched, and shared (Cairncross 2001; IBM 2007). Organizations can gain information about their consumers and their target markets which enable them to produce and tailor the goods and services according to the customer needs. More and more often, businesses are investing in resources that integrate social data into their existing customer database information as part of customer relationship management (CRM) upgrades (Trainor 2012; VanBoskirk et al. 2011). As it can be seen social media is a growing phenomenon and perhaps the latest user-led innovation to emerge from the World Wide Web and Web 2.0 technologies. However, research on the organizational use of social media is new and few (Akar & Topcu 2011). Therefore this study aims to identify the factors influencing social media usage and its subsequent impact on the informational accessibility of organizations.

Theoretical framework:

• Interactivity and Social media usage:

Previous studies have found that the design and implementation of computing systems considers the successful interaction between a human and a computer as a key factor (Lee & Kozar 2012). Among the various design characteristics, interactivity stands out as a key and distinguished factor that impacts users’ response to new technologies including websites (Agarwal & Venkatesh 2002; Jiang & Benbasat 2007). Social media is considered interactive media. It enables two-way communication rather than one-directional transmissions or distributions of information to an audience (Mayfield 2008).

• Trust and Social media usage:

Trust is one of the important factors that were investigated by previous researchers. According to McKnight and Chervany (2002), Mcknight et al. (1998) described two types of institution-based trust – situational normality and structural assurance. Situational normality refers to the belief that success is anticipated because the situation is normal. Whereas Structural assurances refer to the belief that favorable outcomes are likely because of contextual structures, such as contracts, regulations, and guarantees. the organizations post a lot of information about their organization, products, services, and other promotional activities. So there might be a need for structural assurance in social media to use it and reach a large audience. Therefore the impact of trust (structural assurance) on social media usage is examined in this study.

• Top management support and Social media usage:

Numerous studies have shown the relationship between top management support and technology adoption (Chong & Chan 2012; Ramdani et al. 2009; Low et al. 2011). Some of the issues related to social media are that social media usage by employees might affect productivity, as employees spend more time wasting on social media sites. Reputation management is critical when using social media, dissatisfied customers or employees can post information about the organization that might affect the reputation of the organization (Shirky 2008; Zyl 2009). , top management support can be an important factor in the use of social media.

• Entrepreneurial orientation and social media usage:

entrepreneurial orientation is considered an important asset for firms competing in the electronic environment (Colton et al. 2010). Entrepreneurial orientation is defined as the methods, practices, and decision-making styles managers use to act entrepreneurially. These include processes such as experimenting with promising new technologies, being willing to seize new product-market opportunities, and having the predisposition to undertake risky ventures (Lumpkin & Dess 1996). Thus, the established three key elements of this construct are innovativeness, proactiveness, and risk-taking (Covin & Slevin 1991; Wiklund 1999).

• Institutional pressure and social media usage:

Institutional pressure refers to the pressure that emanates from institutional environments that can induce firms to adopt shared norms and routines (DiMaggio & Powell 1983). They categorized institutional pressures into normative, mimetic, and coercive pressures. The agents that may exert pressure include a firm’s key customers, suppliers, competitors, and the government (Ke et al. 2009). Based on the interviews that were conducted prior to the survey to identify the key influential and impact factor of social media, the two constructs of institutional pressure are considered for further investigation in this study.

• Social media usage and information accessibility :

The construct system usage continues to be developed and tested by IS researchers (Gelderman 1998; Goodhue & Thompson 1995; Guimaraes & Igbaria 1997). Based on DeLone and McLean's IS success model, in order to investigate the usage of social media in organizations, the informed effective use of social media was considered, as this was an important indication of technology success, which in turn has an impact on organizations (DeLone & McLean 2003). The growth of various information technologies is providing various informational benefits to organizations. Mirani and Lederer (1998), in their study divided the Informational benefits into information access, information quality, and information flexibility. One of the most important impacts of social media usage is the improvement in information accessibility; organizations can get information about their potential customers from conversations on social media sites. Similarly, they can also obtain information about their competitors and the industry directly and easily via social media (Parveen, et al. 2015). Even though social media provides an improvement in informational accessibility, studies investigating this relationship are very limited. Therefore this study attempts to examine the relationship between social media usage and its impact on information accessibility.

Hypotheses:

H1: Interactivity of social media positively influences social media usage

H2: Trust on social media positively influences social media usage

H3: Top management support positively influences social media usage

H4: Entrepreneurial orientation positively influences social media usage

H5: Institutional pressure positively influences social media usage

H6: Social media usage will have a positive impact on information accessibility
 

Transcribed Image Text:

Interactivity Trust Top Management Support Entrepreneurial Orientation Institutional Pressure Social Media Use Impact on information Accessibility Interactivity Trust Top Management Support Entrepreneurial Orientation Institutional Pressure Social Media Use Impact on information Accessibility

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

To measure the variables in your study you would need to operationalize each construct Heres a suggested approach for measuring the variables Interactivity of social media This construct can be measur... View the full answer