Exploring the role of online User-Generated Content (UGC) on micro-

enterprises: A case study of Saudi women micro-entrepreneurs.

A study submitted in partial fulfilment

of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Science in Information Systems

at

THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD

by

Arwah Alsaad

September 2016

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Abstract

Background: The literature reveals the growing roles of online user-generated content (UGC)

which provide new source for business transformation in large firms. Several motives drive

many firms to leverage UGC. On the other hand, with the increasing use of web 2.0 technologies

by micro-scale businesses, a significant amount of UGC is available and free. Therefore,

strategic use of UGC could be adopted in comparison to strategies of large businesses. There is

an increasing demand on micro-enterprises to utilize the values of online content due to the

enormous opportunities that could be achieved from UGC's roles. This study conducted in an

effort to contribute to micro-entrepreneurs and understand how to leverage UGC.

Aim: This study aimed to investigate the extent to which micro-enterprises are using and

practising online user-generated content (UGC) strategies to promote their businesses; ;

concentrating on a case study of Saudi women micro-entrepreneurs.

Methods: Both questionnaire and semi-structured interview developed based on the theoretical

findings in UGC literature which used for formulating questions. The questionnaire piloted on

five micro-entrepreneurs then sent to 200 Saudi women micro-entrepreneurs and only 95

responses received. The interviews conducted with only 10 participants. However, descriptive

and thematic approaches were used in data analysis.

Results: Findings revealed the respondents actively involved in UGC platforms through user

engagement strategy. However, greatest number of participants was utilized UGC on limited

number of social media platforms. Results reflect Instagram popularity among participants and

avoid effective presence through multiple platforms. Further, majority believed UGC’s roles

provides opportunity to promoting brands and build trust, while customer stickiness agreed as

the lower element affected by UGC. However, barriers to capitalize UGC included lack of useful

content and lack of e-commerce culture among their customers. Finally, they agreed on lack of

ability in proper use of analytical and marketing tools for e-business growth.

Conclusions: Research comes up with evidences that online UGC plays imperative roles for

the development of micro-enterprises such as large firms. It confirmed the importance of

developing active presence as UGC strategy for growth. Future work could include more

selection of micro-enterprises.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my supervisor Dr Christopher Foster for his enormous guidance and

support throughout my research study. This was a major guidance, he provided to me throughout

the entire semester.

I would also thank my parents who always support me all the time. Without their motivation and

prayers, this project would not have materialized the way it has.

Finally, I would like to sincerely oblige to those who helped me and spared their valuable time in

filling up the questionnaires and participated during interviews.

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شكر وتقدير

هلل أوال الذي أنعم علي بنعمة العقل و الدين والقائل في محكم التنزيل "وفوق كل ذي علم عليم " أشكره و الشكر

أحمده فهو المنعم والمتفضل قبل كل شيء.

أن حققت لي ما أصبو إليه,و سهلت التحاقي بالجامعة و هيأت لي كل ظروف االبتعاث وأعنتني على "أبي"شكرا

. تغلب التحديات بعد هللا

"أمي" على الدعوات التي لمست أثرها, شكرا على دعمك وتشجيعك إياي طيلة فترة ابتعاثي وال أحصي لك شكرا

فضال.

الشكر موصول إلى من رافقوني المسيرة , إخوتي "سعيد , سعد, وليد " كنتم سندي وقوتي ومالذي وخير عونا لي

بعد هللا.

اإلهداء

ب إليه كل ما , أبي و أمي األصل الذي ينس المرحلة العلمية هذه إنهائيلم يألوا جهدا في الى أولئك المخلصين الذين

.. إلى من ألهمني حب الكفاح في دروب العلم سعد.. إلى الكريمة وقلب الوالد الثاني سعيدإلى اليد .أنا عليه بعد هللا.

. إلى إخوتي الصغار.. الى أحبتي وكل من ساهم في الروح الطيبة و األخ المخلص وليد.. الى أملي المتجدد أحالم .

...سائلة المولى أن يلقى النجاح عإليهم جميعاً أهدي ثمرة جهدي ونتاج بحثي المتواضاتمام هذه الدراسة .. ..

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Table of Content

ABSTRACT .......................................................................................................................................................... I

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..................................................................................................................................... II

TABLE OF CONTENT ........................................................................................................................................ IV

LIST OF FIGURES ............................................................................................................................................ VII

LIST OF TABLES .............................................................................................................................................. VII

1. CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................................. 8

1.1 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT ...........................................................................................................................8

1.2 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY ............................................................................................................................9

1.3 RESEARCH AIM AND OBJECTIVES .....................................................................................................................10

1.3.1 Research Aim ..................................................................................................................................10

1.3.2 Research Objectives .......................................................................................................................10

1.4 RESEARCH QUESTIONS ...................................................................................................................................11

1.5 RESEARCH STRUCTURE ...................................................................................................................................11

2. CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW ........................................................................................................ 13

2.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................13

2.2 TERM DEFINITIONS: WHAT IS USER GENERATED CONTENT (UGC)? .......................................................................13

2.3 THE GROWING ROLE OF ONLINE UGC ..............................................................................................................14

2.4 USE OF ONLINE UGC BY LARGE FIRMS .............................................................................................................15

2.4.1 Strategies for Using onlineUGC ......................................................................................................15

2.4.2 Impacts of online UGC ...................................................................................................................17

2.4.3 Potential Disadvantagesof Online UGC ..........................................................................................20

2.4.4 conclusion .......................................................................................................................................21

2.5 USE OF ONLINE UCC BY MICRO-ENTERPRISES ...................................................................................................22

2.5.1 Opportunities for Micro-Enterprises in using UGC .........................................................................23

2.5.2 The Limitations of Using UGC in Micro-Enterprises........................................................................24

2.6 MICRO-ENTREPRENEURS ON SOCIAL MEDIA: A CASE STUDY OF SAUDI WOMEN ENTREPRENEURS ...............................26

2.7 CHAPTER CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................27

3. CHAPTER THREE – METHODOLOGY ............................................................................................................. 28

3.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................28

3.2 RESEARCH OUTLINE ......................................................................................................................................28

3.3 RESEARCH APPROACH ...................................................................................................................................29

3.4 RESEARCH METHODS ....................................................................................................................................29

3.4.1 Mixed Method ................................................................................................................................29

3.4.2 Qualitative Method ........................................................................................................................30

3.4.3 Quantitative Method ......................................................................................................................30

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3.4.4 Justification for Mixed Method ......................................................................................................31

3.4.5 Research Design .............................................................................................................................31

3.4.5.1 Questionnaire Design .......................................................................................................................... 32

3.4.5.2 Semi-Structured Interview Design ....................................................................................................... 33

3.5 DATA ANALYSIS METHODS .............................................................................................................................34

3.5.1 Descriptive Analysis ........................................................................................................................34

3.5.2 Thematic Analysis ...........................................................................................................................35

3.6 RECRUITMENT OF PARTICIPANTS ......................................................................................................................36

3.7 ETHICAL ASPECTS..........................................................................................................................................37

4. CHAPTER FOUR – FINDING AND RESULTS ................................................................................................... 39

4.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................39

4.2 DESCRIPTIVE ANALYSIS ..................................................................................................................................39

4.2.1 Demographical Statistics ................................................................................................................39

4.2.2 UGC Usage by Saudi Women Micro-Entrepreneurs .......................................................................42

4.2.3 The Effect of UGC on Saudi Women Micro-Entrepreneurs .............................................................45

4.2.3.1 Data Reliability Test using Cronbach’s Reliability ................................................................................ 46

4.2.3.1 Data Analysis Using Frequencies and Percentages ............................................................................. 46

4.2.4 Barriers Effecting Saudi Women Entrepreneurs .............................................................................50

4.2.4.1 Data Reliability Test using Cronbach’s Reliability ................................................................................ 50

4.2.4.2 Data Analysis Using Frequencies and Percentages ............................................................................. 50

4.3 THEMATIC ANALYSIS .....................................................................................................................................51

4.3.1 UGC Usage by Saudi Women Micro-Entrepreneurs .......................................................................52

4.3.2 The Effect of UGC by Saudi Women Micro-Entrepreneurs .............................................................53

4.3.1 Barriers Effecting Saudi Women Entrepreneurs .............................................................................54

4.4 CHAPTER CONCLUSION ..................................................................................................................................57

5. CHAPTER FIVE – DISCUSSION ...................................................................................................................... 58

5.1 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................................................58

5.2 DISCUSSION OF THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS:.......................................................................................................58

6. Chapter Six – Conclusion and Future Work ................................................................................................. 65

6.1 CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................................65

6.2 RESEARCH CONTRIBUTION ..............................................................................................................................66

6.3 RECOMMENDATION ......................................................................................................................................66

6.4 RESEARCH LIMITATION ..................................................................................................................................67

6.5 FUTURE WORK .............................................................................................................................................68

7. References .................................................................................................................................................. 69

Appendix A: Ethical Approval Form ............................................................................................................... 70

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Appendix B: Ethical Approval Letter ............................................................................................................... 78

Appendix C: Consent Letter ............................................................................................................................ 79

Appendix D: Questionnaire ............................................................................................................................ 81

Appendix E: Interview Questions .................................................................................................................... 83

Appendix E: Access to Research ...................................................................................................................... 84

Appendix G: Confirmation of Address after Completion ................................................................................. 85

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LIST OF FIGURES

FIGURE 2-1: KEY FACTORS (VARIABLES) THAT DRAWING FROM UGC LITERATURE ....................................................................21

FIGURE 3-1: DEDUCTION AND INDUCTION RESEARCH METHODS ..........................................................................................29

FIGURE 3-1: RESEARCH DESIGN .....................................................................................................................................31

FIGURE 4-1: RESPONDENTSAGE GROUP..........................................................................................................................40

FIGURE 4-2: RESPONDENTS EDUCATION LEVEL .................................................................................................................41

FIGURE 4-3: BUSINESS EXPERIENCE ................................................................................................................................41

FIGURE 4-4: RESPONDENTS PROFILE STATISTICS ON SOCIAL MEDIA ......................................................................................42

FIGURE 4-5: MOST POPULAR SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM IN TERMS OF USERS’ INTERACTION ..............................................................43

FIGURE 4-6: SOCIAL MEDIA POST PER DAY FROM RESPONDENTS ...........................................................................................43

FIGURE 4-7: SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDBACK/COMMENTS MADE BY ONLINE USERS ..........................................................................44

FIGURE 4-8: TYPES OF COMMENTS OR FEEDBACK MADE BY ONLINE USERS ON SOCIAL MEDIA .....................................................49

LIST OF TABLES

TABLE 3-1: RESEARCH OUTLINE .....................................................................................................................................28

TABLE 4-1: CRONBACH’S ALPHA RELIABILITY TEST FOR THE ROLES OF UGC ..............................................................................46

TABLE 4-2: THE PARTICIPANTS’ LEVEL OF AGREEMENTS ON THE ROLE OF UGC TO PROMOTE ...........................................................46

TABLE 4-3: THE PARTICIPANTS’ LEVEL OF AGREEMENTSON THE ROLE OF UGC TO IMPROVE ...............................................................47

TABLE 4-4: THE PARTICIPANTS’ LEVEL OF AGREEMENTSON THE ROLE OF UGC IN ECONOMIC VALUE ......................................................48

TABLE 4-5: THE PARTICIPANTS’ LEVEL OF AGREEMENTSON THE ROLE OF UGC TO MAINTAIN CUSTOMER ................................................49

TABLE 4-6: THE PARTICIPANTS’ LEVEL OF AGREEMENTSON THE ROLE OF UGC TO BUILD TRUST ...........................................................49

TABLE 4-7: CRONBACH’S ALPHA RELIABILITY TEST FOR BARRIER EFFECTING SAUDI ENTREPRENEURS WOMEN ..............................50

TABLE 4-8: THE PARTICIPANTS’ LEVEL OF AGREEMENTS ON THE LIMITATIONS AFFECTING USING UGC ..........................................50

TABLE 4-9: PATTERNS OF THE INTERVIEWS IN UGC’S STRATEGIE .........................................................................................52

TABLE 4-10: PATTERNS OF THE INTERVIEWS IN UGC’S ADVANTAGES ...................................................................................53

TABLE 4-11: PATTERN OF LIMITATIONS IN USING UGC ......................................................................................................53

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1. Chapter One – Introduction

1.1 Background and Context

Evidence suggests that increased use of online user-generated content (UGC) and

user innovation are among the most important factors for business success. The

extant literature has focused on the significant motives that drive many large firms to

use UGC. The term UGC simply refers to an Internet content created and published

by online users as described by Wang and Rodgers (2010). It is growing quickly due

to the development of easy procedures provided by web 2.0 technologies (Dong &

Wu, 2015). UGC is increasingly available for manufacturers and service providers

and allows them to build valuable insights for future products and/or services based

on customers' preferences. It can help to understand what users are looking for to

design new products instead of the traditional surveys which are costly and time-

consuming (Wang, Youn, Azarm & Kannan, 2011). Additionally, users’

participation has now become key inputs for product innovation process. According

to a study conducted by Hippel (2005) about the trend of Democratizing Innovation

demonstrated that customers could innovate and develop the products/services for

themselves according to their selections on web 2.0 platforms.

In order so, there has been a wide applications of using UGC by organizations. They

turned the use of online user communities and direct communication to a permanent

business strategy for competition. Firms now make use of online feedback and

innovation from users in order to shape their future products or services. Numerous

studies have been attempted to investigate the business value that derived from

utilizing what consumers have written. Extant studies demonstrate that UGC’s roles

have been extended to include more than opening up to customer. Promoting

products, innovations, enhancing profits, maintaining customer stickiness to brands

and increasing e-loyalty have been recognized as considerable impacts of UGC

among large businesses.

On the other hand, due to the revolution of using social media as business platform,

many small-scale businesses entered to e-business field. Therefore, the strategic use

of online data could be adopted by the smallest size of these businesses (i.e. micro-

scale enterprises). This comes from that many micro-enterprises who increasing use

of web 2.0 technologies. They are involved in e-business activities to achieve several

business objectives. This raises the need to explore whether online data, feedback

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and innovation from users used effectively from micro-entrepreneurs to shape their

future products/services.

This study investigates the potentials and limitations of the micro-businesses and

what the possible UGC strategies that might be used. Moreover, the effect of UGC to

enhance their businesses will be explored. However, to apply this aim, Saudi women

micro-entrepreneurs have been selected as a sample for those entrepreneurs.

1.2 Significance of the Study

The use of online data to build insights for business transformation by large firms is a

widespread phenomenon in the world. On the other hand, advances of information

technologies have been enabled small-scale businesses to enrol into the competition

with large firms in market. There are increasing number of micro-entrepreneurs

using e-business solutions today. Mehta and Anand (2012) argued that micro-

entrepreneurs increasing use of social media for marketing propose. The issue related

to what the challenges they may face and what opportunities to create considerable

value for their business.

This study will explore these potentials and limitations in terms of how they using

online UGC. This research outcome may contribute to help them to solve their

challenges on the market to build insights and therefore achieve competitiveness.

Previous studies conducted on small business demonstrate that a high competition,

difficulty of customer satisfaction and imitation of products/services are the most

challenges (Mehta & Anand, 2012). Therefore, the effective use of online data may

help to investigate what customers really need. Leveraging the use of online data

plays a vital role for business successful such as what large firms do with UGC

strategies.

In Saudi Arabia, there is a big wave of using of social media by businesswomen as

business platform. Now, female entrepreneurship using social media is the motes up-

to-date trend due to social acceptance of micro-entrepreneurs on social sites as

professional business (Nieva, 2015). With rapid change in communication

technology, the new form of profitable marketing tools such as UGC obtain a vast

amount of feedback regarding businesses in the Kingdom. As a result of this, the

growing phenomenon of using new technologies by Saudi women micro-

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entrepreneurs have raised the questions on how and why they use online UGC. For

example, what UGC strategies that should be learned to make the effective use from

social media content. Further, UGC provides a real-time resource regarding

consumer feedback about their up to date marketing trends. Saudi women micro-

entrepreneurs can also use these available resources to modify their strategies and

develop more customer-oriented features.

The importance of this study is to explore how UGC is being used by Saudi women

micro-entrepreneurs by investigating their potentials and limitations to use online

data and customer feedback. It is obvious that the using of new technologies such as

social media open the doors for micro-entrepreneurs. However, this study will

explore if they encounter problems with online content and what they need to adopt

innovation approaches to run their business successfully for a long time. Recent

studies showed the requirement to explore what the skills needed for micro-

entrepreneurs on using UGC particularly as Fischbach and Guerrero (2015) argued.

1.3 Research Aim and Objectives

1.3.1 Research Aim

The aim of this research is to investigate the extent to which Saudi women micro-

entrepreneurs are using and practising online user-generated content (UGC)

strategies in order to build useful insights to promote their businesses.

1.3.2 Research Objectives

The objectives of the research are as follows:

To review different roles of UGC and its impacts on large firms through

literature review, in order to apply the findings in the context of micro-

enterprises.

To investigate whether micro-entrepreneurs are using online UGC, social

media content, and user innovation.

To examine the behaviour of micro-entrepreneurs who use UGC strategies

(e.g., if they are using any tools).

To investigate whether micro-entrepreneurs have enough capabilities to

manage UGC, and whether they are able to use large companies’ UGC

strategies to promote their businesses.

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To investigate advantages for using UGC by micro-entrepreneurs to build

insights and enhance products and/or services they provide, concentrating on

the Saudi perspective.

To investigate challenges that micro-entrepreneurs face from UGC through

different social media.

Thus the research objectives are focusing on whether micro-entrepreneurs can

innovate the way they use online UGC. UGC is a vital area; therefore, this research

will highlight the importance of online data specifically on Saudi women micro-

enterprises.

1.4 Research Questions

In order to investigate how successful Saudi women entrepreneurs use online data to

promote their business, this proposed research is going to answer the following

questions:

1- How are Saudi women entrepreneurs using and practising online UGC

strategies?

2- What is the extent to which micro-enterprises benefit from online UGC,

particularly for Saudi women entrepreneurs?

3- What are the limitations of Saudi women micro-entrepreneurs to utilize the

value of online UGC?

This research will focus on studying the behaviour of Saudi women micro-

entrepreneurs toward different roles of UGC. The focus is on three aspects; their

strategies to utilize UGC, advantages from UGC and the barriers to achieve value of

UGC.

1.5 Research Structure

This dissertation is composed of six chapters that summarized as follows:

Chapter 1: Introduction

The first chapter initiates with discussion around the research background and

context. This chapter also provides justifications about the significance of the study.

It concludes with aim, objectives and list of research questions to achieve answers.

Chapter 2: The Literature Review

Literature review around UGC and user innovation communities will be conducted.

Review of UGC literature will attempt to highlights studies on UGC strategies,

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impacts and challenges to draw main framework of this research to be basics for

collecting and analysing data from entrepreneurs. Then, moving to review what the

opportunities and challenges of micro-scale enterprises to build insights from the

previous studies concentrating on Saudi businesswoman context. It concludes with

theoretical findings to use as key variables for structure the questions to lead onto the

empirical work in next chapter.

Chapter 3: The Methodology

This chapter involves detailed research outline and research approach. It discusses

both methods, quantitative and qualitative. Methods of data analysis descriptive and

thematic analysis approaches also discussed. Finally, it presents the ethical issues.

Chapter 4: Findings and Results

In this chapter, the achieved quantitative and qualitative results from the collected

data will be highlighted.

Chapter 5: Discussion

This chapter provides a detailed discussion on the results. The discussion will be

conducted by comparison of the findings with literature review.

Chapter Six: Conclusion

This chapter presents a summary of the whole research with highlighting the most

significant findings that contributed to answer research questions. Finally,

recommendations, limitations and further work will be discussed.

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2. Chapter Two – Literature Review

2.1 Introduction

The role of online user-generated content (UGC) has occupied a wide range of the

current literature as a considerable factor for business transformation. Studies on

UGC are common in academic field from large business perspective. However, it

could be argued that there have been few studies in extant literature focusing on

UGC’s roles in micro-businesses. Therefore, this study adopts theoretical

understandings of UGC importance on business companies. This chapter starts by

reviews literature regarding to the strategies used by large firms on UGC. Followed

by discuss the effect of UGC on large business. The chapter finished by addressing

the opportunities and limitations of micro-enterprises to utilize UGC for their

ventures.

2.2 Term Definitions: What Is User Generated Content (UGC)?

User Generated Content (UGC), also known as Consumer-Generated Media (CGM),

defined as created and uploaded media content by users (Moens, 2014). Haven, Li

and McHarg (2007) used Forrester's definition of UGC: “User-generated content is any

type of message, communication, or media that is created by individuals and freely

accessible to anyone for informational or entertainment purposes” (p.2). It produced by

users of any website rather than publishers of website or their staff. The advent of

web 2.0 technologies has provided the opportunity to its users to leverage the

concept of online UGC by communicating directly and sharing ideas together

through several platforms. This activity allows to distributing insights between

consumers of particular product/service in order to exchange their experiences and

feedback (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). UGC could takes many shapes such as

product/services reviews, question-and-answer forums, social media posts, images,

videos and guest comments (Espejo, 2007).

According to Wang and Rodgers (2010), another related concept has been emerged

in terms of online advertising, UGC takes form of Electronic Word-of-Mouth

(eWOM). eWOM is a particular type of UGC which defined as “any positive or

negative statements made by potential, actual or former customers about a product or

company, which is made available to a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet”

(Hennig‐Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004, p.39). The literature has

discussed various types of eWOM such as viral advertising and viral marketing and

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its roles to influence behaviour toward products/services. Moreover, UGC term used

to describe online user community that support sharing media content between users

such social media. Social content involved sharing media that aimed to share

knowledge, experiences or marketing (Lieb, 2012).

UGC's definitions above will be used in current research in order to understand the

role of the publicly available information that generated by users for micro-scale

enterprises.

2.3 The Growing Role of Online UGC:

The growing use of online user community has enabled UGC to play a vital role on

various business outcomes. An increasing number of studies have begun to

demonstrate the growing role of UGC (Chevalier & Mayzlin, 2006). Initially,

literature has shown effect of UGC on different participants ranging from consumers,

marketers and business owners. The role of UGC initiates as consumer-to-consumer

communication tool that contribute for product/service promotion. Many scholars

hold the view that the role of UGC has developed form communication tool and

product promotion to influence eventually on online purchasing behaviour. Riegner

(2007) examined UGC role from the similar perspective as interpersonal

communication tool to investigate its impacts on purchase decisions. He found that

participating in online discussions lead to positive increase in consumer purchase

decisions.

On the other hand, UGC’s role has begun takes another turn in online markets. In

addition to the significant role of UGC on consumers' behaviour, UGC in turn effect

on marketing strategies by business managers, marketers and developers. According

to study conducted by Ho-Dac (2012), he takes into consideration its role to

influence marketers directly. Ho-Dac pointed out that UGC is dramatically

influencing marketers and developers for product development process. They use

UGC in order to accelerate process of product development and eventually provide

customers with better products. Moreover, O'Hern et al., (2011) turned the focus of

their research on UGC's roles from “consumer-to-consumer” to “consumer-to-

developer” tool. This means direct interaction between consumer and developer;

therefore this would enhance product innovation and development. The process of

allowing consumers to participate through giving suggestions for new product

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directly to developers referred to the concept of User Innovations as described by

Hippel (2005).

UGC significantly changed market landscape through consumers' contribution. In

addition to its growing role from product promotion to product innovation process,

the recent studies showed that the singular focus of UGC's role has expanded from

influencing consumers only to affecting on developers. Therefore, this research will

explore how micro-enterprises influenced by growing role of UGC. This research

examines the extent to which micro-enterprises affected by UGC’s role for various

business activities.

2.4 Use of Online UGC by Large Firms

The fact that customers are turning to each other has become the focus of attention

by most of the companies. The increasing use of social media provides opportunities

for individuals to publish ideas and remove the obstacles to share public expression.

This have been enabled many large businesses to obtain usefulness of valuable

information generated in user innovation community (Haven, Li & McHarg, 2007).

However, companies realized that the opening up to customers is associated with

some challenges.

This section discusses strategies that established by companies to leverage value of

UGC. In addition to review the roles of UGC on different aspects of business and

discussion on UGC disadvantages.

2.4.1 Strategies for Using Online UGC

Indeed the advances of information technologies promote large volume of UGC and

innovation which provide new sources for business transformations (Dong & Wu,

2015). As a result, many large firms seek to adopt the most effective UGC platforms

to achieve useful insights. They involved in various innovation activities promote

UGC around their businesses. (O'Hern et al., 2011; Droge, Stanko & Pollitte, 2010;

Di Gangi, Wasko, & Hooker, 2010).

There are wide applications of promoting the presence of UGC in user community

because at present companies believed that customer heavily rely and trust on

consumer-generated media more than content produced by marketers (MacKinnon,

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2012). UGC created by local and public customers of any company’s goods not from

the company staff (Van Dijck, 2009).

Many firms involved in various user engagement strategies to leverage UGC (Dong

& Wu, 2015; Bolin Olsson & de Vries, 2015). Simpson (2015) argued that using

UGC as User-marketing strategy is the most technique that supports the healthy

presence of brands. Koltz (2015) defined this strategy as any marketing campaign

that encourages public to post any advertising content through social media and

recommendation sites. User-generated marketing strategy illustrated briefly by

example in study conducted recently by Bolin Olsson and de Vries (2015). They

found that Doritos attempted to get consumers' attention to become more involved in

the brand. Doritos adopt creative strategy of using UGC to improve brand through

video submission by consumers. With the help of user marketing strategy, Doritos

became able to save the huge production costs and got additional YouTube video

views. This resulted in enlarge their market values, brand values and consumer

perceptions towards them. Another User-generated marketing that can be explained

by example of famous car company Ford. In 2009, it had imposed one of user

marketing strategies named as “Fiesta Movement” by elected 100 people who are

active in social media and loaned them (Wilson, Guinan, Parise, Weinberg, 2011). In

this campaign, Ford achieved a lot of generated reviews from them over six months

through social media. As a result, Ford obtained over 11 million user-generated

reviews and got their perceptions towards Ford.

According to Haven and McHarg (2007), many firms provide social communication

platform on their sites to encourage customers to provide their feedback. An effective

informal strategy to promote UGC through user community by means of informs the

customers that the firm listens and takes into account their suggestions. Firms such as

Starbucks had adopted this strategy by creating “My Starbucks Idea” platform which

make significant impact on customer feelings toward Starbucks (Kaplan & Haenlein,

2010). It imposed reward participation strategy on the ideas that voted by most

number of users to be implemented. Some firms tend to leverage content through

participate in existing consumer-driven communities and think as customer rather

than marketers. This effort resulted in create unique value through co-creating with

consumers (Prahalad & Ramaswamy, 2004).

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Another practice now to promote UGC is using “hashtag” tool available in social

media due to it links users directly to firms easier than ever before (Yohn, 2016).

Recently, there has been renewed interest in using “hashtags” by businesses

companies. Many firms now realized the opportunity to expand UGC around their

brands. However, little research exists that studying the strategic use of hashtag tool

in social media (Brooke, 2016). However, firms engaged in UGC to increase search

visibility through search engine indexing (SEO) around brand and create strong

brand community for marketing purposes (Xing & Lin, 2006).

On the other hand, technical and funds capabilities of firms enable to use advanced

mining techniques on online data to capture and generate valuable knowledge about

customer expectations. Firms promote their businesses through relying on business

analytical tools to capture large-scale of raw User-generated data and mining the

content (Gupta & Gupta, 2016). For example, Amazon uses its products reviews

feature as main source of UGC to be analysed and produced potential purchase

decisions (Mudambi & Schuff, 2010). However, types of mining tools used on UGC

are beyond the scope of this research.

Generally, the most strategies have been found effective by firms were about

promote UGC through interact directly with customers. In order so, this research

attempt to investigate how micro-scale businesses, particularly who run their

business through social media, could promote and encourage users to interact about

their products/services.

2.4.2 Impacts of Online UGC

The literature around UGC showed that there is growing understanding by online

companies about UGC’s roles to influence consumers’ purchase decisions. This

section attempts to review the effect of UGC to achieve advantages on several

aspects as:

2.4.2.1 Product Promotion

The importance of UGC could be clarified through its power to effect on consumer

perception toward particular product/service. Prior studies focused UGC’s role on

product/service promotion (Wang & Rodgers, 2010). According to study conducted

by O'Hern, Rindfleisch, Schweidel and Antia (2011), they found substantial

18 | P a g e

evidences on UGC contribution for product promotion. The previous research

suggested that the power of UGC mainly adopted on its contribution to draw

attention on particular product. Moreover, the power of UGC via word-of-mouth

enables to reduce the cost in order to promote product. In order so, many companies

facilitated direct interactions among customers on its platforms to provide better

knowledge sharing about product. Users become excited to purchase specific product

due to high number of consumers involved in discussion to share their experiences.

2.4.2.2 Product Improvement and Innovation

Extant UGC studies provide evidences around the impact of online interaction in

improving products/services. Effectiveness of UGC toward improving products has

been exemplified in a study done recently by Dong and Wu (2015). User can post,

vote and comment for improvement ideas about products and many firms tend to

select ideas that are more relevant. A useful example when user posts his idea to

enhance look of Inspiron laptops in Dell's user community “IdeaStorm”, which is

dedicated to generating ideas. He asked to improve the look by removing the rubber

from screen and some users support his idea and left comments. Dell responded

quickly to his idea to improve the look and announced about this user innovation in

IdeaStorm. This case has shown that the necessity to engage customers with the

product providers.

The emerging studies in innovation domain provide evidences that the customers

contribute significantly to produce new product specifications. UGC recognized as a

significant source of innovation (Nambisan, 2002). Jespersen (2010) suggested that

customer involvement for new product development represents key factor for

innovation. Many firms exploited online user-generated ideas for wide range of

products/services to obtain customers satisfaction eventually. “MyStarbucksIdea.com”

and “IdeaStorm.com” are online communities lunched to enable customers to engage

into their product development. Dong and Wu (2015) found that many firms initiated

strategy of using UGC to obtain new insights. They examined how firms could be

able to drive the innovation value through “online user innovation communities

(OUICs)”.

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2.4.2.3 Economic Value

Turning to the evidences on economic impact that demonstrate UGC's roles extended

to include more than opening up to customers. According to Goh, Heng, and Lin

(2013) the former UGC studies documented the economic role of UGC through

influencing purchase decisions. This effect appears in the ability of user community

to influence consumer attitudes. Mudambi and Schuff (2010) justified that due to

UGC perceived trustworthy and credible as it generated by consumers. Prior

examinations of UGC showed proof that user community content led to positive

growing in purchase expenditures (Ceballos, Crespo, & Cousté, 2016). Dhar and

Chang, (2009) demonstrated that there is a positive correlation between the volume

of UGC and future sales. It found that UGC campaigns resulted in affecting product

sales path (Tang, Fang, & Wang, 2014). eMarketer (2013) reported that 67% of

product sales are based on UGC and 92% of users read the online reviews before

they make any purchase.

According to study conducted on Amazon.com by Chen, Wu and Yoon (2004), they

found that number of customer reviews positively linked with sales. They provide an

evidence of the effect of customer feedback and recommendations on Amazon.com

sales. Chevalier and Mayzlin (2006) demonstrated the positive impacts on online

book sales by reviews on both Amazon.com and Barnesandnoble.com.

2.4.2.4 Maintain Stickiness

In order to achieve economic impacts, many firms have realized the prominence of

maintaining customer stickiness to the website. The opportunity to discuss directly

about products/services has considerable impacts for both sides; consumers and

providers. The presence of interactions around particular product has effect to bring

attention toward providers. Therefore, encourage people to talk about product/service

increase the curiosity and thus may lead to repeat visits to the site. Kumar and

Benbasat (2006) demonstrated that the existence of customers reviews contribute

positively to improve social presence in addition to the usefulness of the website.

Mudambi and Schuff (2010) argued that “Reviews have the potential to attract consumer

visits, increase the time spent on the site (“stickiness”), and create a sense of community

among frequent shoppers”(p. 169). However, customers attracted to sites that have

more details and/or experiences. According to study conducted by Mudambi and

Schuff (2010) to measure what makes customer reviews valuable on particular

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product. They suggested that valuable UGC might depend on the depth of customer

reviews for experience product such as Digital Devices. Customers might attract to

more details by other customers as much as possible.

2.4.2.5 Brand Trust

Another implication is that UGC could evoke positively a deeper level of

involvement and therefore build brand loyalty. Engaging in user communities has

greatly influence on brand trust as well as e-loyalty (Laroche, Habibi, Richard &

Sankaranarayanan, 2012). They argued “Such communities could enhance brand loyalty

through brand use and impression management practices” (p.1). According to Yoo,

Sanders, and Moon (2013), they found that customer participation through eWOM is

influencer on consumer behaviour and enhancer of social presence. Therefore, it

increases e-loyalty among customers. Muniz and O’Guinn (2001) argued that

involvement in communities positively influence customer loyalty due to it support

generating perceptions toward brand in addition to build social structure between

consumers and marketers.

In general, the beneficial impacts of UGC can be up to the nascent brands of micro-

enterprises through adopting creative strategies. This research will attempt to

answers the question whether micro-entrepreneurs could achieve the usefulness of

UGC on their business such as large firms or not.

2.4.3 Potential Disadvantages of Online UGC

2.4.3.1 Resource-consuming tool

In contrast, UGC could be time and resource-consuming tool for firms due to heavily

focus on tracking non-beneficial UGC (Naik, 2015). Involving many users to create

additional content increase efforts which may cause resource consumption on non-

valuable data. Firms need to be committed to strategic goals of using UGC.

Moreover, using UGC in terms of user contributions, firms may fall in unclear and

inappropriate advices by users. Regarding to user innovation, there is evidence that

users' solutions for product improvements could hinder innovation activities. O'Hern

et al., (2011) carried out their research to explore negative impacts of user

contributions on innovation. They suggested that solutions influenced negatively due

to lack of knowledge. “Solution-centric UGC should be more difficult for the core team to

manage and may actually hamper product development, because of the difficulties that the core

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team faces in evaluating and integrating solutions that were created by users with limited

knowledge of the norms and processes that guide its work.” (p. 15).

2.4.3.2 Uncertain quality

Due to the free tools provided by web 2.0 technologies, the availability of UGC is

rapidly increased. The prospect to post different kinds of experiences is easy task to

do, therefore; it result in increased the possibility to deploy negative comments. As a

result, significant drawbacks of the generated negative experiences raised challenges

on marketers (Funk, 2008).

Finding negative comments posted by users is assuming significance for

entrepreneurs. Di Pietro, Di Virgilio and Pantano (2013) suggested that negative

feedback should take into account by marketers. They argued that negative

comments effect on firms in terms of negative reputation in market. For this reason,

marketers should determine percentage of users who post content that may add value

and influence their businesses, thus preventing associated risks (Wollan, Smith &

Zhou, 2010).

2.4.4 Conclusion

Based on UGC literature findings above, this research comes up with summery in

Figure 2-1 below. In order to achieve research objectives, all the concepts introduced

above from large firms perspective summarized as key variables for empirical study

on the effect of UGC on micro-enterprises.

Figure 2-1: Key factors (variables) that drawing from UGC literature

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2.5 Use of Online UGC by Micro-Enterprises

Extant studies provide significant indicators on the successful use of new information

technologies by Small and Medium Sized Enterprises (SMEs) which play vital role

for its growth and competitiveness on markets (Qureshi, Kamal & Wolcott, 2010).

However, in this research, the focus shifts on the effective using of new technologies

on the smallest of these SMEs, which are micro-enterprises. Micro-enterprises

defined as “informal, have less than five employees and very little assets.” (Perks &

Struwig, 2014, p.171). It could be argued that the available technology platforms

promise these micro-enterprises to success in market. Micro-entrepreneurs have easy

access to online user communities. There is no doubt that the micro-entrepreneurs

involved in using social media recently (Mehta & Anand, 2012). However, how they

use online content is the main issue in this research.

According to literature above, it is evident that UGC turned into an imperative part in

e-businesses. UGC related to any type of business and form a crucial element for

success (Haven & McHarg, 2007). Adopting UGC by those enterprises seems to be

essential strategy. Micro-entrepreneurs should found and analyse the relevance data

in an effort to achieve useful insights. Data that relevant to their business might be

available from several sources such as product/service reviews, competitors' profiles

and social tags. Therefore, the way of those entrepreneurs to use online data and

interact with their customers might affect their business positively as large

businesses.

The previous section has shown why and how companies leverage the usage of

UGC. The discussion also presents that there are several motives led to utilise UGC

tools in companies. Using UGC strategy in order to increase sales, obtain customer

feedback for improving and innovating product/service specifications, maintain

stickiness and improve reputation are the most important factors to use UGC as key

business element. It might be noted that UGC with straightforward strategies are

available for micro-entrepreneurs, however, it would be difficult to realize how they

could achieve insights through it. The following section attempts to define the

opportunities of entrepreneurs on UGC and would answers the questions of this

research.

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2.5.1 Opportunities for micro-enterprises in using UGC

Small start-up businesses with limited resources and technical expertise could

innovate the approaches they use on online data, user innovation and social media by

means of simple strategies. Micro-entrepreneurs may adopt large businesses' views

toward online content. In terms of UGC, O'Hern et al., (2011) categorized it as form

of “consumer-to-developer communication tool” which allows to customer to provide

solutions directly to developer. In case of micro-scale business, entrepreneurs have

opportunity to play the role of developers. Hultman and Hills (2011) suggested that

available information and low funds required to implement simple strategies on UGC

becomes a beneficial tool for entrepreneurs who are looking to engage with

consumers.

There are a limited number of studies focused on how UGC could effect on micro-

scale enterprises. In 2015, Fischbach and Guerrero processed a study that aimed to

explore UGC's role on mobile business entrepreneurs “business on wheels” which is

small and nascent business. They found that UGC plays vital roles in the

development of micro- businesses. The study described effective use of social media

content as critical procedures to establish nascent brands. It suggested that promote

brands' reputation through utilize interaction platform with customers solve high

competition challenge which was agreed by most entrepreneurs. In addition to that,

skills for adopting social media marketing strategies may add value on their business.

The research investigated challenges that faced by entrepreneurs in developing their

nascent brands and evaluated impacts of UGC on brand familiarity.

Nam and Kannan (2014) found that practitioners could use content from user-

generated keywords; ''social tags'' to evaluate brand performance. They argued, “the

social tagging creation process is similar to the brand recognition or brand recall

test.”(p.28). The study suggested simple strategy used by brand managers to track

and assess their brand familiarity through fast and easy tool. In order so, UGC might

be used as measurement tool or "proxy" by micro-entrepreneurs with limited

capabilities to evaluate user feedback about their ventures as well as customer

stickiness to their brands. Fischbach and Guerrero (2015) found that understanding

consumers' thoughts or feelings within UGC becomes a necessary role in the survival

of the company.

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Additionally, Nambisan (2002)defined UGC as vital source of innovation. Therefore,

UGC could turn micro-enterprises to “user-centered innovation” approach which

transfers product providers from closed-development process into lead user

innovation (Hippel, 2005). Entrepreneurs could utilize user communities that provide

platforms for new source of innovation build on UGC (Di Gangi, Wasko, & Hooker,

2010). This provides opportunity for micro-entrepreneurs to track users' posts,

comments and innovations on these communities.

Lingelbach, Patino and Pitta (2012) described the entrepreneurs as more likely to

adopt technologies that provide communities around new ideas in order to shape

their future products. According to Droge, Stanko and Pollitte, (2010), they found

that tracking virtual communities such as blogs have positive influence on new

product development. Liu (2006) suggested that UGC act as a measurement of future

products/services demands. This provides proof that UGC is a powerful technique

for define the demands on new product and measure consumers' preferences.

However, in terms of analysing UGC, the emerging new tools for social media

content analysis provide significant opportunities to build insights. Most of

entrepreneurs today adopt social media as business platform. Social platforms have

created the chance for entrepreneurs to connect directly with their audience.

Moreover, they could use automated content notification tools as simple strategy to

monitor UGC such as Google Alerts (Pikas, 2005).

Indeed, the previous findings resulted in that UGC is an outstanding opportunity for

entrepreneurs as their businesses are growing significantly within social media.

2.5.2 The Limitations of Using UGC by Micro-Enterprises

The limitations of micro-entrepreneurs to utilize UGC should be investigated. This

research will explore the challenges in order to understand why micro-entrepreneurs

could not leverage using of UGC and achieve competitiveness. Entrepreneurs need to

overcome some challenges that are holding the success of their business. Related

literature in limitations of micro-businesses area has outlined considerable number of

challenges facing entrepreneurs (Qureshi et al., 2010). This section addresses the

most difficulties of entrepreneurs particularly on using UGC.

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2.5.2.1 Lack of Marketing Skills

A significant element that cause the entrepreneurs to make inefficient use of

available online data is they lack to important business skills. Entrepreneurs may

miss out the opportunity of using UGC as marketing tool due to the lack

development of marketing skills such as lunch UGC campaigns. Survey that

conducted by the National Small Business Association has demonstrated that the

most entrepreneurs are lacking plans for marketing campaigns to support their

business (Pofeldt, 2013). Mukherjee (2009) found that lack of marketing skills works

as impediment to the success of women entrepreneurs particularly. According to

Hultman and Hills (2011), they argued that the marketing courses would affect

positively on entrepreneurs' success. Fischbach and Guerrero (2015) confirmed on

that learning marketing skills todays become necessity in the application of UGC for

entrepreneurs.

2.5.2.2 Lack of Resources

Another considerable element is that entrepreneur wears many hats due to the limited

resources. Micro-entrepreneurs carry out a range of different activities as they

provide product/service, product development, monitor customer interactions and

manage technology. In terms of insufficient capital, Qureshi et al., they argued that

due to restricted funds in micro-enterprises they are lacking to invest in state-of-the-

art technologies. Faherty and Stephens (2016) demonstrated that small number of

staff, limited budget, time and capacity are the main barriers for innovation in micro-

enterprises. As a result, Fischbach and Guerrero (2015) found that marketing and

social media strategies become an afterthought due to the limited resources what act

as barriers to capitalize UGC.

2.5.2.3 Lack of IT Skills

IT skills might be the most underappreciated skills among entrepreneurs. Numerous

studies suggested that micro-entrepreneurs lacked possession of essential technical

knowledge. Qureshi et al., argued that they unaware of IT capabilities and how it

affect to grow their business. Learning the basic technical skills by entrepreneurs

could limit exposure to risk of failure in in micro-business (Perks & Struwig, 2014).

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2.5.2.4 Lack of UGC Quality

Micro-entrepreneurs may not able to trigger the process of generating customer

feedback or eWOM on their businesses due to the challenges discussed above.

Online UGC that available in their sites and across social media might be inadequate

to promote business due to lack of participation (Sutter, 2015). Therefore, there

might be lack of user interaction quality around their businesses. This could hinder

their ability to capitalize from UGC.

2.6 Micro-Entrepreneurs on Social Media: A Case Study of Saudi

Women Entrepreneurs

As social media today provide wide opportunities to initiate small business, many of

Saudi women micro-entrepreneurs adopted it as business platform and gained its

advantages. In order to achieve the research objectives and explore micro-scale

business owners’ use of UGC, this research has selected the case of Saudi women

entrepreneurs who are involved in UGC through social media.

Saudi Arabia is witnessing the growth of a new generation of the women

entrepreneurs on social media platforms; it draws a large number of them to apply

Instagram especially to embark on business (Alghamdi, 2015). According to Al

Ghamdi and Reilly (2013), Saudi women find social media a valuable opportunity

for creativity in the world of entrepreneurship. They argued, “The majority of the Saudi

women entrepreneurs seem to be using social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook and

Instagram to target as many interested users as possible.” (p. 1). Alghamdi (2015)

provided evidences that social media platforms is an effective enabler technology for

Saudi businesswomen and help them to overcome many barriers related to socio-

cultural, religious and governmental issues. With the high proportion of social media

users in Saudi Arabia, very large market of interested and knowledgeable online

customers have been created (Al Saud & Khan, 2013). Due to these opportunities,

competition developed and several Saudi brands emerged, such as AB Saudi brand

which owned by the most famous woman through social media called Afnan Albatel.

She succeeded to take advantage of UGC of which exceeded five millions users to

build her brand and open its branches around Saudi Arabia.

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As a result, the new wave of women entrepreneurs who adopted new technologies

had raised questions of how they use UGC. For example, examine if they able to

make effective use of social media content strategies. Previous studies presented the

necessity to investigate needed skills of social media for entrepreneurs.

Therefore, to improve the condition of using UGC by Saudi women entrepreneurs

several issues should be considered. In addition to explore the ways to control the

customer interactions, developing social discussions and building insights from

customers' reviews.

2.7 Chapter Conclusion

Based on roles of UGC on business from previous literature, there is a growing

necessity for small start-up enterprises to leverage UGC in attempt to develop their

nascent business. Fischbach and Guerrero (2015) suggested that UGC becomes

increasingly more effective for micro-entrepreneurs to develop their ventures and

achieve competitiveness. They pointed out that the motives to promote UGC may not

vary with large companies. Although that UGC could play vital role on small

ventures, however, it might be noted that not much has been done to study how

entrepreneurs adopt UGC. There is a gap in existence literature on what ways that

UGC strategies could be used by micro-enterprises. For this reason, there is an urgent

need from academic researchers to establish guidelines on using UGC strategies.

However, this study will focus on the opportunities and challenges of micro-

entrepreneurs to develop their ventures from UGC point of view.

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3. Chapter Three – Methodology

3.1 Introduction

It becomes necessary for Saudi women micro-entrepreneurs to set up their social

presence through leveraging UGC for prospective customers. According to survey

conducted recently by Alghamdi (2015), she found that most of them had used social

media as business platform to overcome various barriers. Therefore, their strategies

to use UGC through social media should be investigated. In doing so, both

qualitative and quantitative approaches used in an attempt to explore the strategies

used, advantages of involving in social media and their problems they face.

This chapter provides the approaches by which this study conducted to answer

research questions (How are Saudi women micro-entrepreneurs using UGC?).

3.2 Research Outline

To ensure that the methods adopted in this study help to achieve the desired

objectives, research outline was designed in Table 3-1 below to guide research

process. The table illustrated proposed research agenda which drawing from the

factors addressed in literature review and research questions. It could be noted that

outline adopted taxonomy approach under the advantages and drawbacks of UGC.

According to Jarvinen (2000), using taxonomies help researcher to focus on

particular aspects of the research and clarify representation of the results.

Table 3-1 Research Outline

Research Questions Objectives Method Results

-How are Saudi women entrepreneurs using

and practising online UGC strategies?

-What is the extent to which micro-enterprises

benefit from online UGC, particularly for

Saudi women entrepreneurs? In regards of:

1. product promotion

2. Product improvement and innovation

3. Economic value

4. Maintain stickiness

5. Build brand trust.

What are the limitations of Saudi women

micro-entrepreneurs to utilize the value of

online UGC? in regards of:

1. Lack of marketing skills

2. Lack of IT skills

3. Lack of resources

4. Lack of UGC quality

- To investigate

whether online UGC

and social media

content used by

micro-entrepreneurs.

-To investigate what

opportunities and

limitations of using

UGC by micro-

entrepreneurs to

build insights

concentrating on

Saudi perspective.

Quantitative

Research

Approach

and

Qualitative

Research

Approach

-Finding extent of

using UGC

strategies by Saudi

women micro-

entrepreneurs to

promote their

business.

-Finding key

lessons for

potential

entrepreneurs to

leverage UGC.

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3.3 Research Approach

A review of the current literature that deeply discussed roles of UGC in previous

section provide clear findings of UGC use in large firms. However, to meet research

aim and answer research questions, research outline above will be used to go deeply

and investigate these roles from micro-enterprises perspective. Many theories

concluded that UGC has dramatic impacts on various business aspects. In order so,

applying both deductive and inductive approaches more appropriate as shown in

figure below.

Figure 3-1: Deduction and Induction Research Methods

Source: (Social Research Methods, n.d)

According to Bryman and Bell (2015), researchers could suggest and test a specific

hypothesis from existence theories of a particular area then comparing the results to

accept or reject the hypothesis. Similarly, this research also used a mix approach both

deductive and inductive. The reason to apply both approaches is to test the

hypothesis that “UGC is helpful tool for micro-scale enterprises and could play vital role

to build insights and shape their future products/services”. This will be examined to find

out whether micro-entrepreneurs attempted to capitalize on interaction through UGC

in order build useful insights for their ventures or not. However, it is also inductive

as it is not have totally clear idea in the case of micro-entrepreneurs; therefore, an

observations used to further contributing to theory (Blaikie, 2000).

3.4 Research Methods

3.4.1 Mixed Method

The research aim is seek to identify opportunities and challenges of micro-

entrepreneurs particularly centering on how they use UGC to promote their ventures.

This research focuses on a sample of Saudi women entrepreneur who run their

business using web 2.0 technologies. This research is comprised of a mixed method

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approach which employs a collection of different data forms as defined by Creswell

(2013). The combination of a qualitative as well as a quantitative method for data

collection will be used through use of semi-structured interviews and questionnaires.

The findings of this study contribute to add value for developing strategies to

optimize UGC use in doing business generally for micro-entrepreneurs and Saudi

women micro-entrepreneurs particularly. In order so the positive effects of UGC

could be further heightened and negative impacts can be eliminated.

3.4.2 Quantitative Method

The research includes quantitative approach which aims to collect data from

participants in order to generate a statistical results as defined by Bryman (2015). For

this method, the use of questionnaires will enable to evaluate using of UGC through

collection of numerical data from micro-entrepreneurs. Quantitative method intended

to provide statistical analysis about potential positive impacts of UGC on such small

business. Furthermore, questionnaire designed to obtain obstacles they faced from

using UGC. This method used to narrow research area to the key elements of

research as illustrated in research outline above. It consists of specific questions on

the effect of UGC for various business aspects such as product promotion as well as

the challenges that act as a barrier to obtain those impacts.

3.4.3 Qualitative Method

The research also combines qualitative method. Creswell (2013) defines qualitative

methodology as “Open-ended questions” which provide researchers depth details of

what happened. According to Bogdan and Biklen (1997), the qualitative approach

helps the researcher to achieve aspects of the subject that cannot be obtaining by

quantitative methodology. Therefore, it would be beneficial to investigate views

about UGC using open questions. Qualitative approach used to achieve clear

understanding on the perceptions about UGC from micro-entrepreneurs. This is

useful for research objectives by obtaining their valuations on UGC roles. In doing

so, roles of UGC in micro-scale businesses will be captured and analysed. As this

research focuses on perceptions, limitations and experiences on UGC by micro-

entrepreneurs, qualitative method is useful approach to understand how they behave

toward using UGC. It will take form of semi-structured interviews.

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3.4.4 Justification for Mixed Method

The aim to choose combination methods is that using one method might be not

efficient to investigate UGC aspects on micro-enterprises. According to Bryman

(2015), using mixed method enables researchers to get better understanding and

obtain detailed investigation of research area. Mixed research approach help to

ensure the robustness and consistency of results (Neuman, 2002). Another reason is

that interviewers' number might be limited, distributing questionnaires would expand

data collection to larger number of respondents. In addition, because of time

constraint, using questionnaire methodology may save the time consumed by

interviews. Mixed method solves the difficulty of asking open questions through

interviews with entrepreneurs all around Saudi Arabia and contributes to obtain as

many responses as possible. Regardless number of respondents, questionnaire

provide answers for specific questions while interviews allow for depth

conversations. Therefore, mixed method able to mitigate bias from researcher as well

as obtain statistical evidences. In this regard, questionnaire will be performed first in

order to make the theme of study and understand reasoning from more general to

more specific, also known as top-down approach and then qualitative interviews to

understand more specific observation from participants in face-to-face encounter.

These results can be easily combined in analysis for complete insight to detect their

results toward initial research questions.

3.4.5 Research Design

Methods of the research followed the design shown below:

Figure 3-2: Research Design

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The starting point was selection appropriate research design followed by distributing

questionnaires and actual interviews to the allocated participants.

3.4.5.1 Questionnaire Design

Quantitative data will be collected by means of using questionnaires. Using a self-

administered questionnaire is a cost effective tool for this type of research

(Blumberg, Cooper & Schindler, 2014). Questionnaire designed based on variables

on Figure 2-1 which informed by comprehensive literature review on different

aspects of UGC utilization in businesses. Critical review on research questions

provides a baseline for several questions in identification of gap within the literature

that required to address. The questionnaire divided into four sections (Appendix D).

First section consists of demographic characteristics including: age, level of

participants' education and there is no need for gender question since this study focus

on female entrepreneurs. In addition to years of experience in business. Ssecond

section designed to achieve answers for research question: “How UGC used and

practiced by Saudi women micro-entrepreneurs to build insights for their

business?”. To obtain answers, this section combines of five closed questions related

to their strategies on UGC.

Third section consists of five subsections depending on taxonomies that have been

derived from literature in chapter two by using "Likert Scale" style. This help to

measure what entrepreneurs do with UGC on five-point scale (Burgess, 2001). These

subsections designed particularly to achieve answers for research question: “What

are the opportunities/advantages of using UGC for micro-scale business?” In this

section, the importance of using UGC to promote small business listed based on five

taxonomies in Table 1. These taxonomies used as key variables of questionnaire.

Under each element, different statements asked to explore entrepreneurs' insights

about the importance of UGC. Five-point scale allows to participants to choose one

of the options range as: "strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, and strongly

disagree" which will be replaced into numerical data for analysis purpose as "5, 4, 3,

2, and 1" respectively (Allen & Seaman, 2007).

Finally, the last section consists of challenges that may act as barriers to capitalize on

UGC. Again, this section designed in order to answer research question: “What are

the limitations of micro-entrepreneurs to utilize the value of UGC?” The entrepreneurs

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asked on degree of agreement on list of questions using five-point scale approach.

The key variables in this section based on elements in Table 3-1.

The questionnaire is an online survey which designed by using Google Form tool.

The link copied and then distributed to the participants. First page combines of

information sheet and consent letter. Then participants asked to agree on their

participation before filling questionnaire. It translated to Arabic language to be

understood by participants from Saudi Arabia and the English version was sent to the

department.

Pilot testing:

According to Blumberg at al. (2014), test questionnaire before using it to collect data

from elected sample size is a good practice to ensure data quality. Pretesting helps to

identify questions which make no sense for the participants or can cause problems

which lead to a biased answer. Therefore, after the questionnaire designed, it was

piloted on five micro-entrepreneurs to ensure the statements are easy to understand

and clear after translated to Arabic. The piloting stage resulted in that some

statements were not clear enough to understand. Once the piloting process

completed, the questionnaire updated based on required modifications and link was

sent to target group. I found the participants as discussed in the Recruitment of

Participants section below.

3.4.5.2 Semi-Structured Interview Design

Second technique used for this study was semi-structured interviews. The reason to

use this type of interview due to it does not limit the questions to the specific points

that give both researcher and participant to discuss details in one subject (Bryman,

2015) . For example, the question related to the limitations of using online data can be

not limited to the specific types of problems. It helps researcher to reveal more about

barriers that did not appear in literature. Many scholars hold the view that the

interviews enable to collect reliable data and deep understanding about the research.

Bryman (2015) argued that interviews contribute to achieve research objectives by

means of expanding the questions with participants. This method conducted through

conversations among number of entrepreneurs who achieve success in business.

Therefore, semi-structured interviews useful in the Saudi micro-entrepreneur context

where practices and challenges might be different to large organizations.

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The data collection completed by means of in depth interviews that translated to

Arabic for a fixed number of entrepreneurs. Some interviews conducted through

telephone due to inability of the participants to interviews face-to-face. The

interviews used to gather more information about the use of online data by micro-

enterprises. Additionally, it used to evaluate participants agreement on number of

UGC roles in their business and if they perceive usefulness of UGC or not.

Interview Guide Preparation:

To design interview guide, Merriam and Tisdell (2015) argued that preparing a list of

topics that need to be discussed with participants before initiating interview will

reminds researcher to main areas that should be covered. In doing so, interview guide

was developed from research outline above which was informed by comprehensive

literature review that helps to understand different roles of UGC. Firstly, the

participants asked about web 2.0 technologies they used to support their business. In

addition, they were asked to express their experiences/strategies about the content

that produced by users and how they perceive the usefulness of UGC. Third part

focuses on the perception of interviewers about UGC roles. Questions built on five

taxonomies asked with more details on each aspect during interview. Finally, they

were asked about limitations to utilize UGC A detail interview questions attached in

the Appendix E.

Conducting Interviews:

The ten open-ended discussions conducted in Arabic and lasted between 30-40

minutes. The interviews were begin with introduce researcher and purpose of study.

After obtain their agreement, guide of interview questions used. During interviews,

the voice recorder was used to get exact and full answers. Recording technique was

very useful since these conversations need to store as transcripts then translated from

Arabic for further analysis.

3.5 Data Analysis Methods

3.5.1 Descriptive Analysis

Quantitative method used to support the purpose of analysing data and examine roles

of UGC in micro-enterprises with the help of descriptive approach. Cohen, Manion

and Morrison, (2013) stated that descriptive analysis is useful technique to present

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statistical data as data visualization. It used to make data more understandable with

the assistance of graphical analysis (O’Leary, 2014). In addition, the software used

for most social science research “Statistical Package for the Social Sciences, SPSS”

used in order to analyse that statistical data. Data gathered from questionnaires

analysed by various measures as following:

1. Frequencies to represent value of respondents participated in particular questions.

2. Mean to represent value that measure average of agreement of each statement.

3. Standard deviation to measure the distinctions between answers for each statement.

4. Cronbach's Alpha Coefficient to measure the scale of data reliability.

3.5.2 Thematic Analysis

The analysis of qualitative data takes the form of interviews' content analysis. For

this purpose, thematic analysis approach was used. Thematic approach helps

researcher to extract the core themes from transcripts of interviews (Minichiello,

Aroni, Timewell & Alexander, 1990). Dey (2003) suggested that categorizing

qualitative data as previous step of analysing the content is an essential to facilitate

search for particular themes or patterns and achieve better understanding. After

complete, transcript and translate the interviews, the analysis stage begin. Thematic

approach is incorporates several stages to identify themes as shown below:

The first stage is to code each transcript. Bryman (2015) defined coding as “a process

whereby the data are broken down into their components parts” (p. 11). Therefore, the

transcripts coded and classified under each research questions. In doing so, coding

stage followed following questions:

1. QUESTION 1: How are Saudi women entrepreneurs using and practising online UGC

strategies?

2. QUESTION 2: What is the extent to which micro-enterprises benefit from online UGC,

particularly for Saudi women entrepreneurs?

3. QUESTION 3: What are the limitations of Saudi women micro-entrepreneurs to utilize

the value of online UGC?

4. QUESTION 4: Anything else you want to say?

The next stage was to add names to the coded transcripts by giving label to each part.

Minichiello, et al., (1990) argued that labelling codes should be named properly and

described the concepts in questions as:

1. Answer to QUESTION 1 is labelled by: “Strategies”.

2. Answer to QUESTION 2 is labelled by: “Advantages”.

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3. Answer to QUESTION 3 is labelled by: “Limitations”.

4. Answer to QUESTION 4 is labelled by: “Other”.

Next step, the labelled answerers were assessed again with more focus. The purpose

is to organize the data into categories. Further labels were used under:

1. “Advantages” as: “Product promotion”, “Improvement and innovation”, “Economic

value”, “Maintain stickiness”, “Build Trust” and “Other”.

2. “Limi