Progress 08/01/18 to 07/31/21
Outputs
Target Audience:The research efforts during the course of the project were successful in reaching several target audience. First and foremost, a subset of small agribusinesses operating in South Carolina was reached through activities such as in-depth interviews, survey data collection, activities related to Agribusiness Digital Media Lab and workshops. The project was also successful in forming partnerships with local and state organizations such as Small Business Development Center, Chamber of Commerce, Palmetto Agribusiness Advocates and SC Advocates for Agriculture. These partnerships helped organize and coordinate presentations and workshops targeted towards local agribusiness community. Four undergraduate students and one graduate student were employed as research assistants during the project. The project was instrumental in providing specialized training related to social media and research techniques and thereby increasing their marketability and career options. Researchers interested in the topic and other academicians were reached through participation in professional meetings and conferences as well as by publications in conference proceedings. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The students in this project had many opportunities for training and professional development. All student working on the project were trained to think as research scientists, including scientific methods and ethics. These training exercises were conducted throughout the program and focused on research techniques related to data coding, data analysis, constructing graphs and writing research reports. Since the project required proficiency in logo design, social media planning and implementation, content creation, and content dissemination using various online platforms; students also received training in website development and Adobe Creative Suite. Majority of these training sessions were conducted by the PI and Research Associates. Additional training was further provided by the participation of students in the Minorities in Agricultural Natural Resources and Related Sciences (MANNRS) meetings and workshops. Students through MANNRS participated in workshops centering on presentation skills, resume writing,career development and research ethics. Students engaged in professional development by participating in various research symposiums organized at regional and national levels. These meetings provided ample opportunity for professional development and networking as well as opportunities to present their work to their colleagues. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Information related to the project and the results of the study were disseminated to the target audience in five different ways. The project team utilized online platforms such as website and social media as the primary channels to increase awareness about the project and to disseminate the results to the community. A project website was created to reach agribusinesses and create awareness about the social media assistance available for small businesses through the Ag-Business Digital Media Integration Lab. The website provided information about the various areas related to digital marketing in which training and assistance were available. The website also featured businesses that were being served through the project. In addition to the website, the project also maintained a Facebook page to connect and interact with local agribusinesses. Research results were also shared through a monthly newsletter 'e-Connect' that featured editorials on contemporary social media topics as well as highlighting and showcasing local businesses that are successfully implementing social media marketing. The newsletter was created and distributed in coordination with the Small Business Development Center in Orangeburg, SC Each month the newsletter was emailed to the members of small business community in South Carolina. Insights related to the effective use of social media platforms generated through this research were shared with the small agribusiness community through one on one training and community workshops. The project staff provided one-on-one training to individual agribusinesses that participated in the research through Agribusiness Digital Media Integration Lab. A total of 89 hours, fifty-four in person and thirty five virtual, were spent in training such businesses on content creation and dissemination, social media scheduling and insight interpretation. In addition to one-on-one interactions, larger workshops were conducted to increase the reach of the project. Training modules related to Digital Marketing, Social Media, E-commerce and Search Engine Optimization were developed and delivered through a series of six workshops targeted towards the small business community. These workshops were organized in coordination with other community organizations such as SCORE, Lexington Chamber of Commerce, and Small Business Development Center, Orangeburg. A Social media toolkit was also developed and distributed to training participants. Research results were shared with fellow academicians through conference presentations and publications. The PI presented papers related to this project at two conferences, and two students presented their individual works at the 77th Professional Workers Conference, Tuskegee, Al. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?
Nothing Reported
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
We began by conducting a literature search for articles related to the small business use of digital mediums for marketing activities. The literature review activities helped establish an a-priori definition of Social Media Engagement and identification of the research model delineating the factors that affect social media adoption by small firms. Using a grounded theory approach, we developed the network of relationships between our preliminary constructs, identify new constructs and control variables for inclusion in our study, and support hypotheses generation. We drew the sample frame for potential interviewees from a search of value-added businesses in the state of South Carolina who (1) maintain social media pages on media portals such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram (2) demonstrate appropriate and relevant levels of social media engagement and (3) agreed to participate in the study. The interviews focused on social media organization, responsibility, and outcomes to understand how social media is managed in these firms, resources allocated to social media marketing, and perceived consequences of social media usage by the business owners. Past studies and insights gathered from the interviews informed the theoretical research model. This research posits that small businesses differ in their utilization of social media engagement (SME) - superficial engagement or entrenched/continuous engagement. We define Superficial SME as the perfunctory use of social media,driven by mimetic tendencies, often characterized by rudimentary, limited, or sporadic utilization of social media features to engage customers. On the other hand, 'Entrenched' or 'Continuous' SME is characterized as contrived, structured, and continuing use of social media to foster and sustain customer engagement with the business. We also hypothesize that superficial vs. continuous engagement is based on technological factors, user characteristics, environmental influences such as competitive pressures. A survey instrument was constructed to test the research hypotheses and was pretested on 20 firms. The goal for pretesting was to increase the validity and reliability of our survey evidence. Through the pretesting process, we wanted to ensure that respondents interpret and answer questions in the way in which our research intends. Based on the results of pilot survey, changes were made to the questionnaire to improve interpretability and flow. The final survey resulted in 70 items to which sample units have to respond. The average time to complete the survey was 20 minutes. Qualtrics software was used to create the online version of the survey instrument. Access to the sample firms was obtained in three stages: a. During the data collection preparation stage companies incorporating social media into their business processes were identified. To identify companies incorporating social media into their business processes, research was conducted on the social media sites Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to verify whether the companies listed during the previous stages were using these media. b. Using the social media sites Facebook and LinkedIn as communication channels, during the second stage, a total of 294 messages were sent to people who were responsible for the use of social media in the selected companies to inform about the research project and request permission to gather information about their social media practices via survey. c. In the third stage, the businesses were contacted via email with a link to the survey. In the absence of an email address, the survey link was posted on the firm's social media page with a personalized message requesting survey completion. Reminder emails were sent every two weeks to encourage completion from unresponsive firms. Data Analysis and Results Two hundred thirty-two completed surveys were collected at the end of the data collection phase. After checking for completion and other errors, 219 valid survey responses constituted the final dataset. Thirty-two percent of businesses represented spices and condiments, 28 percent agritourism, 18 percent horticulture, 12 percent natural body care products, and 20 percent constituted of industries such as honey, poultry, bakery, etc. Data were analyzed using Structural equation modeling, a multivariate statistical technique using SPSS Amos software. The main findings of the study are: 1. Twenty-five percent of firms surveyed utilize an external social media agency, whereas the rest of the firms conducted social media marketing themselves. Firms that can afford to hire an external agency have a more entrenched engagement and better returns for their efforts. This observation underlines that a mature social media marketing program will provide increasing returns than a superficial one. 2. Firms that are more concerned about competitive pressures are allocating more resources for social media initiatives than others. Firms are choosing those social media platforms which they believe are favored by their target customers. 3. Facebook is the most preferred platform for connecting with customers; however, businesses varied in their engagement. Technology characteristics such as perceived relative advantage, compatibility, and observability of social media significantly affect adoption. Businesses are more likely to adopt social media for marketing purposes as there is no financial investment for daily use, and it doesn't compete with other promotional efforts or spending. Additionally, as social media results on customer acquisition become more visible, the small business operators increase their engagement with the platforms. Similarly, firms that observed benefits in the early stages of social media adoption continued emphasizing marketing through social media platforms than others for whom the benefits were not observable. 4. Adopter characteristics such as prior personal use of social media, innovative entrepreneurial orientation, and technological self-sufficiency also play an important role in engagement with social media marketing. A digital media lab was set up to provide assistance, education, and training to small agribusiness in South Carolina to improve the adoption and usage of social media platforms for marketing their products and services. Over the project period, eight firms received one-on-one assistance through the lab in the areas of social media strategy creation, campaign design and execution, content creation, cross-posting and, campaign measurement. Social media data for the client firms were analyzed for changes in customer traffic and customer reach as well as engagement. Additionally, a customer satisfaction survey was designed to capture the perceived effectiveness of digital assistance on the business. Analysis of the social media data of the client firms was very encouraging. All firms have significantly increased the customer following, reach as well as engagement for the posts. The survey data showed that all clients experienced increased social media self-efficacy after working with the project. Al clients also experienced an increase in sales attributable to their social media clients. Five clients recorded an increase in sales in the range of 51-75%, whereas three clients recorded a sales increase between 26-50%. Two of the clients are exclusively using Facebook as the point of sale after working with the lab. Additionally, each business would have spent an average of five hundred dollars per month to receive similar services from an outside agency. Over two years, each company has saved twelve thousand dollars in services received, resulting in approximately ninety-six thousand dollars saved for the eight businesses attributable to the project. Since business operators have achieved self-sufficiency in social media marketing, such savings are likely to continue in the future.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Singh, Renu and N. Bandodkar " Negative eWOM in the Restaurant Industry: A Concise Review of the Literature", Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings. Asheville, NC 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Finney, Marilyn " Social Media Adoption: A Case for Digital Assistance Program for Micro Agribusiness Enterprises in South Carolina", The 77th Professional Workers Conference, Tuskegee, Al 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Hugue, Tatiana "Evaluation of Small Business Utilizing Value Co-Creation Through Social Media", The 77th Professional Workers Conference, Tuskegee, Al 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Singh, Renu and N. Bandodkar " Utilizing Social Media as Innovation Sandbox: New Product Development Initiatives by Small Business Owners, Academy of Business Research, New Orleans, March 2020.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Project Website: https://www.agbusinessdmi.com/
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Progress 10/01/19 to 09/30/20
Outputs
Target Audience:The target audience for the project are small scale value added agricultural producers operating in South Carolina, academic and research community focused on issues related to digital technology and small business as well as undergraduate students being trained as research scientists. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided several opportunities for professional development to all members working on the project. Undergraduate and graduate student researchers received training in research methods including procedures related to literature review, exploratory research methods and laddering techniques for conducting interviews. All researchers working on the project had to complete the human subject research training prior to starting research work. Student researchers were also instructed in social media tools and processes including social media branding, content creation and data analytics. In addition to the social media assistance to small businesses, the project staff also provides training to the business owners in social media marketing. One on one sessions were conducted with each business owner to provide hands on training in content creation, post scheduling, cross posting and data analysis. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest?Findings originating from research activities are disseminated to stakeholders through presentations, newsletter, project website as well as social media. One presentation was made by the project staff during this reporting period. In addition to the above presentations, one online workshop titled "Tracking Social Media Data" was conducted for local businesses focusing on effectively using Social Media analytics. The workshop was attended by fifteen local businesses. The project extensively uses website and social media to connect with its audiences. The project website (https://www.agbusinessdmi.com) and facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/agbusinessdmi/) are primarily used to create awareness about the digital assistance available for small businesses through the Social Media Lab and to showcase team's work and success stories with stakeholders. A monthly newsletter is also published and disseminated to the small business community in coordination with Small Business Development Center. Monthly newsletters are archived on the project website. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?Activities in the next reporting period focus on data analysis and writing final project report.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
The main research goal for this period was to Operationalize the theoretical and measurement model depicting salient drivers and demotivators of social media use and the observable impact on firm performance (Project goal 1a and b) as well as to disseminate social media engagement strategies to the local small business community (Project goal 2). Additionally, the project evaluated the effect of social media assistance provided to small agribusiness firms on their business performance. New channels for disseminating research findings to small business community were also explored. Activities Related to Project Goal 1a and 1b Survey instrument was developed and pretested on 20 sample firms. Our goal with pretesting was to increase the validity and reliability of our survey evidence. When pretesting questionnaires, we are focusing on how people are answering our questions since there are a number of different processes our respondents may be experiencing when they are answering the survey questions. Through the pretesting process we want to ensure that respondents interpret and answer questions in the way in which our research intends. Pre-tests also provide the most direct evidence for the validity of the questionnaire data for most items. Pretesting of the survey was conducted by the PI. An appointment was set with each business and the business owner was asked to complete the survey. No additional directions were provided to keep the conditions similar to the final data collection phase. Both verbal and non-verbal cues were recorded by the PI as the respondent filled the survey. A few general questions were asked about the questionnaire before ending the pretest meeting. These questions included items such as -Was the questionnaire comprehensive? Did we adequately cover the topic (or how adequately was the topic covered)? -Are there any questions that the respondent expected that we would ask and that we didn't? -Are there any questions the respondent felt to be too sensitive or that may affect the response rate that we should consider deleting? - Was the questionnaire too long, too short, or about right? -Had the subject received the questionnaire in the mail, how likely or unlikely would they be at completing and returning the questionnaire to the researcher. Based on the results of pilot survey, changes were made to the questionnaire to improve interpretability and flow. The final survey resulted in 70 items to which sample units have to respond. The average time to complete the survey is 20 minutes. Qualtrics software was used to create the online version of the survey instrument. Non-probabilistic criteria was used to obtain the sample. In the absence of a valid sample frame, probabilistic method of sample selection is not feasible. Schumacker and Lomax (2004) note that 100 observations is the minimum sample size necessary to perform an analysis with structural equation models. Additionally, using the partial least squares analysis method, the sample should exhibit at least 10 elements for each relationship or path of the structural equation model studied. There is no consensus on how to calculate optimal sample size, and a general rule would be between 15 and 20 observations per variable, which results in a sample of between 190 and 260 agribusinesses to be researched. Access to the sample firms was obtained in three stages: a. During the data collection preparation stage companies incorporating social media into their business processes were identified. To identify companies incorporating social media into their business processes, research was conducted on the social media sites Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to verify whether the companies listed during the previous stages were using these media. b. Using the social media sites Facebook and LinkedIn as communication channels, during the second stage, a total of 294 messages were sent to people who were responsible for the use of social media in the selected companies to inform about the research project and request permission to gather information about their social media practices via survey. c. In the third stage, the businesses were contacted via email with a link to the survey. In the absence of an email address, the survey link was posted on the firm's social media page with a personalized message requesting survey completion. Reminder emails were sent every two weeks to encourage completion from unresponsive firms. Activities related to Project Goal 2 It has been the effort of the project team to disseminate project information as well as information related to best practices in digital media to the community. Over the research period, project website and project's social media page have been the main information channels. A monthly newsletter have been added as another source of information since last reporting quarter. The publication of monthly newsletter continues during the current reporting period as well. The newsletter features information about the project, a write-up informing businesses about an issue or technology effecting small businesses as well as spotlight on local agribusinesses. The newsletter is disseminated to small business community in coordination with Small Business Development Center. Monthly newsletters can be accessed from the archive section of the project website : www.agbusinessdmi.com In addition to the newsletter, the project staff is currently curating a social media toolkit for small businesses. The toolkit offers basic knowledge and resources for businesses looking for a "how to guide" to kick start or fine tune their social media strategy. The project team has been continuously working with agribusinesses over the reporting period through its Digital Media Integration Lab. With the addition of two new businesses, currently six client firms have been receiving assistance in social media branding, social media campaign organization, content creation and dissemination etc. By the end of the reporting period, 145 completed surveys were received which is below the expected number of data points for hypotheses testing. Data collection will continue in the current quarter to reach the desired dataset. Feedback from the client firms receiving social media assistance from the Digital Lab was also collected via a short survey. Feedback from client firms was very encouraging and showed a positive effect of social media assistance on firms' business. All firms have significantly increased the customer following, reach as well as engagement for the posts. The survey data showed that all clients experienced an increase in social media self efficacy after working with the project. Al clients also experienced increase in sales attributable to their social media client. Three clients recorded an increase in sales in the range of 51-75% whereas 1 client recorded sales increase between 26-50%. Information dissemination to the small business community is mainly through website, social media page and newsletter. The total reach of the project's social media page per month is approximately 1,174 with an average engagement across posts at 17.8%. The monthly newsletter is disseminated to approximately 350 small businesses via email each 15th of the month. Approximately 50% recipients opens the newsletter and 10% navigate to the project website.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Singh, Renu and N. Bandodkar " Utilizing Social Media as Innovation Sandbox: New Product Development Initiatives by Small Business Owners, Academy of Business Research, New Orleans, March 2020.
- Type:
Websites
Status:
Published
Year Published:
2020
Citation:
Project website : https://www.agbusinessdmi.com/
|
Progress 10/01/18 to 09/30/19
Outputs
Target Audience: Two groups of target audiences were reached during this reporting period. Firstly, one presentation was made to the academic community on the topic of online negative reviews. Secondly, a workshop was held in collaboration with SBDC Orangeburg, educating small businesses on the use of Google to expand their business. The research team extensively interacted with sixteen businesses to study their social media strategy. Additional four businesses continue to work with the Social Media Lab to strengthen their use of social media marketing. Changes/Problems:
Nothing Reported
What opportunities for training and professional development has the project provided?The project has provided several opportunities for professional development to all members working on the project. Undergraduate and graduate student researchers received training in research methods including procedures related to literature review, exploratory research methods and laddering techniques for conducting interviews. All researchers working on the project had to complete the human subject research training prior to starting research work. Student researchers were also instructed in social media tools and processes including social media branding, content creation and data analytics. All student researchers served as members of MANRRS (Minorities in Agriculture, Natural Resources and Related Sciences) and participated in monthly events focussed on career development. One undergraduate and one graduate student researcher presented at the 77th Professional Agricultural Worker Conference at Tuskegee University. How have the results been disseminated to communities of interest? Findings originating from research activities are disseminated to stakeholders through presentations, workshops, project website as well as social media. Three presentations were made by the research team in this reporting period. Singh, Renu and N. Bandodkar " Negative eWOM in the Restaurant Industry: A Concise Review of the Literature", Atlantic Marketing Association Proceedings. Asheville, NC 2019. Finney, Marilyn " Social Media Adoption: A Case for Digital Assistance Program for Micro Agribusiness Enterprises in South Carolina", The 77th Professional Workers Conference, Tuskegee, Al 2019. Hugue, Tatiana "Evaluation of Small Business Utilizing Value Co-Creation Through Social Media", The 77th Professional Workers Conference, Tuskegee, Al 2019. In addition to the above presentations, one workshop titled "Grow your Business Online" was conducted for local businesses focussing on effectively using Google analytics. The workshop was attended by twelve local businesses. The project extensively uses website and social media to connect with its audiences. The project website (https://www.agbusinessdmi.com) and facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/agbusinessdmi/) are primarily used to create awareness about the digital assistance available for small businesses through the Social Media Lab and to showcase team's work and success stories with stakeholders. A periodic 'Client Spotlight' post on social media showcases the success of local businesses that have benefitted from the project work. What do you plan to do during the next reporting period to accomplish the goals?In the next reporting period, the focus remains on collecting quantitative data to test our research model. 1. Sampling- Our research population includes all small businesses categorized as small businesses by the US-SBA in SC under a number of agri-based NAICS codes. Information from ReferenceUSA business database, SC Department of Agriculture and 1890 Extension will be utilized to construct our sampling frame of small value added agribusinesses in SouthCarolina. Multiple sources are proposed for sample frame identification in order to limit the overall sample frame error. A probability sample of 1200 small agribusinesses in SC will be drawn using a random sampling method. Considering a low response rate for email and mail surveys (32%-28%) firms are oversampled to provide a final dataset from 300 businesses or more. 2. Pre-Testing-The pilot questionnaire will be tested on a small sample to ensure scale reliability and validity. The questionnaire will be finalized in both an online and a physical survey format. 3. Data Collection- Identified respondents will be surveyed to collect primary data . 4. Digital Media Lab- The Digital Media Resource Lab will continue to cater to the digital communication needs of small businesses.
Impacts
What was accomplished under these goals?
During this reporting period, the research team focused on the specification of the research model (Goal1a and 1b). Since the study uses a mixed-method approach, an extensive literature review and semi-structured interviews with 16 businesses were conducted to inform the research design and identification of the variables for the quantitative research phase. Interviews with businesses focused on the usage, activity organization, time and effort, and perceived benefits related to their social media activities. Other topics explored in the interviews related to the role of competitive pressure and the entrepreneur's technological proficiency in determining social media adoption. Potential participants were selected from the small agribusiness database compiled by the research team over the previous reporting period. Potential interview participants were contacted through phone to request an interview with the research team. All interviews were conducted at the business address of each interviewee and were recorded with permission. The interviews lasted an average of an hour and 20 minutes. Interviews were transcribed by the research team and analyzed to draw common themes across the responses. Based on the qualitative data collected through interviews and extensive literature review conducted by the research team, a preliminary model of social media adoption is developed and will be tested in the upcoming research phase. The research team continues to provide social media assistance to small agribusinesses in the community through the Digital Media Lab. During this reporting period, services were rendered in the areas of social media profile development, social media campaigns, and content creation to four agribusinesses operating in South Carolina. The interviews rendered some valuable insights into the challenges faced by small businesses while implementing social media markting for their businesses. The insights gathered from the interviews can be summarized as follows: 1. 25 percent of firms interviewed utilizes an external social media agency whereas the rest of the firms conducted social media marketing themselves. 2. Although all firms perceived a relative advantage in maintaining a social media presence, some were more skeptical than the others. 3.Firms that are more concerned about competitive pressures are allocating more resources for social media initiatives than others. 4. Firms are choosing those social media platforms which they believe are favored by their target customers. 5. Relative advantage is an important factor in the adoption of technology-based innovations since the benefits resulting from social media adoption in business processes leads to their extensive use in the business. 6. Similarly, firms that observed benefits in the early stages of social media adoption continued with the emphasis on marketing through social media platforms than others for whom the benefits were not clearly observable. The qualitative data suggests that benefits from the use of websites and social media sites include an increase in awareness and inquiries, enhanced relationships with customers, an increase in the number of new customers, enhanced ability to reach customers on a global scale, and co-promotion of local businesses that enhance the image of small businesses in the region. However multiple factors influence the adoption process resulting in some firms using it in a superficial manner with little strategic focus where others have matured their adoption and have made its usage entrenched throughout the organization. Various micro and small businesses interviewed have social media pages and provide links to institutional information on social media but do not update this information or interact with the people consulting them. Only 62% of those with a facebook presence actively update information on their business profile pages. The updating period also varied in terms of frequency among businesses. Some businesses provide updated information almost bi-weekly, whereas others update only after every few months. This signifies that even if businesses are present on social media sites such as facebook, they may not be highly engaged with the digital medium. As mentioned earlier, one of the activities of the project is to provide social media counselling and training to local agribusinesses. A variety of social media topics are covered during these counselling sessions such as-channel choice, strategy planning, profile creation and branding, content creation, content publishing as well as research analysis. Four such businesses availed of these services in this reporting period. All businesses reported an increase in sales and new customer inquiries originating from social media marketing endevours.
Publications
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Hugue, Tatiana "Evaluation of Small Business Utilizing Value Co-Creation Through Social Media", The 77th Professional Workers Conference, Tuskegee, Al 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Singh Renu, and Bandodkar Nikhil, Negative eWOM in the Restaurant Industry: A Concise Review of the Literature , 2019 Atlantic Marketing Association Conference in Asheville, NC. September 25-28, 2019.
- Type:
Conference Papers and Presentations
Status:
Accepted
Year Published:
2019
Citation:
Finney, Marilyn " Social Media Adoption: A Case for Digital Assistance Program for Micro Agribusiness Enterprises in South Carolina", The 77th Professional Workers Conference, Tuskegee, Al 2019.
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