Masters of Business Administration

Course: MBA 333B: RESEARCH

METHODOLOGY

Research Proposal for CIA-1

Submitted By:
Shivam Singla
1828620
MBA-V

Under the Guidance of

J Joseph Durai Selvam

Institute of Management
CHRIST (Deemed to be University), Bengaluru
 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Today, buyers swing to the Internet for reviews on everything, from hotels to restaurants,

plumbers to contractors—and, truly, even board-affirmed plastic specialists. In country like

India, 40% of the people always go online and check information regarding restaurants,

health professionals and doctors. A recent survey claimed that people begin their search for

information with Google and they gather information not only from these search engines

rather they try to go to numerous review sites. As the internet is an unregulated source, so it

becomes difficult for the people to know which reviews they can trust on. Most of the sites do

not even bother about that the customer who is giving the review is actually its customer or

not. Notwithstanding these difficulties, in the event that you are proactive in dealing with

your reputation and find a way to address abusive postings when they are made, the Internet

can be a significant instrument to help build your business. In the event that you neglect to

manage your reputation, in any case, another person will—maybe a disappointed previous

employee, or a competitor—and the professional reputation that you have buckled down to

create might be destroyed or tarnished. In this paper, we are going to do the research on

estimating the affect of management responses on reviews by the customers in the hotel

industry and how this will help in developing good reputation of the organization.
 CONTENTS

SR PARTICULARS
No.

1. INTRODUCTION
a) About the study
b) Problem Statement

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

3. REVIEW OF LITERATURE

4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
a) Research Design

5. Assumptions & Hypothesis

6. SCHEDULE OF THE STUDY & BUDGET

7. REFERENCES
1. INTRODUCTION
a) About the Study
User-created online surveys have been consistently picking up validity according to
buyers, and today they are a basic segment of the customer decision making process.
with popularity and reach of online review platforms growing rapidly, firms are under
increasing pressure to maintain a flawless online reputation. It is very difficult to deal
with the negative reviews because unlike offline word-of-mouth, they persist online and
firms can neither opt-out from being reviewed altogether nor selectively delete them.
To oversee troublesome surveys, firms frequently resort to faulty practices like audit
review requesting positive audits in return for advantages, undermining lawful activity
against negative commentators, and utilizing non-disparagement provisions in deals
gets that stipulate fines if customers compose negative reviews. we demonstrate that
the effect of the executive reactions is bigger for analysts that are bound to have perused
them. A reviewer's inclination to read management reactions is outside a hotel's control,
and is along these lines probably not going to be corresponded with in secret moves the
hotel made to enhance its appraisals. Now, the problem here originates for the hotels
that on which reviews they should respond and which they can ignore. Moreover, they
have to select the various sites also where they can go and respond to the reviews as
multiple sites are there where the consumers can post their reviews, so depending upon
the popularity of the website the decision is to be taken.

b) PROBLEM STATEMENT:
The present study proposes to understand the importance of managing the online
reputation management in the hotel industry.

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

The proposed study focuses on the two main objectives that are as follows:
 To estimate the impact of management responses on the ratings of hotels that

respond to reviews.

 To understand how the ratings of the hotels differ on different websites.

 To study the effect of management review responses on hotel reputation.

 3. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Online Reputation Management is the path by which organizations can manage content of

individuals on internet viably, in request to shield their reputation. A lot of companies are

confused how they can effectively control and execute ORM. The reason behind this

incapability is deficiency of understanding regarding what it includes, and how it can affect

the companies (Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). 'Truly, organizations could control the

information accessible about them through deliberately set press declarations and public

relations managers. Today, in any case, firms have been progressively consigned to the

sidelines as simple onlookers, having neither the information nor the shot or, once in a while,

even the right – to adjust freely posted remarks given by their clients' (Kaplan and Haenlein,

2010). Organizations have no notification ahead of time or time to reflect.

For the time being, the critical job of the Social Media for the life of numerous individuals is

one of the primary purposes behind organizations to pay regard for this moderately new

marvel (Kaplan and Haenlein, 2010). Be that as it may, organizations need to perceive that

the results of the ascent of Social Media are critical, particularly for the notoriety of

organizations. As per (Kietzmann et al, 2011); 'with the ascent of Social Media, it creates the

impression that corporate correspondence has been democratized. The power has been taken

from those in advertising and open relations by the people and networks that make, share,

what's more, devour websites, tweets, Facebook sections, films, pictures, etc'.

This procedure is quickened by cell phones, which are of incredible significance

for getting to these Social Media stages (Anderson and Wolff, 2010). Presently, nearly

everybody with an appropriate association with the Internet approaches different types of data

by the utilization of the World Wide Web; the worldwide market turns out to be totally

straightforward. Along these lines, costs so as to gain admittance to data, called exchange and
intermediation costs, almost vanished. The international market becomes almost transparent,

due to the free access to information, which strengthens the customer empowerment.

So as to complete a basic writing survey about the learning in this region, a

classification of existing online reputation the management literature review will be

completed by an idea driven approach. The ideas will be resolved so as to arrange the system

of the review. In managing client attacks; online reputation management can be isolated in

three ideas/stages. Stage one: before a customer attack; prevention against a possible

customer attack. Stage two: during a customer attack; the reaction of the company on a

customer attack. Stage three: after a customer attack; the learning and evaluation part after a

customer attack. User-generated online reviews have been continuously gaining credibility in

the eyes of consumers, and today they are an essential component of the consumer

decision making process (Chevalier and Mayzlin, 2006; Luca, 2011). An Identification

concern emerges if hotels that receive the board reactions all the while embrace other

reputation management strategies such as posting fake reviews. Strikingly, the indication of

such predisposition can likewise be negative. if the hotels choose to stop posting false

reviews when the choice of specifically reacting to buyers becomes available to them, the

ATT we will be one-sided downwards. Along these lines, while this kind of inclination is a

worry, its bearing will rely upon whether the board reactions and audit misrepresentation

are substitutes or supplements.

 4. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

a) RESEARCH DESIGN

Research Design
“Research Design is the plan and structure of investigation so conceived as to obtain
answers to research questions.”

Nature of Research
Conclusive Research and Causal Research design is used for study. To be of maximum
benefit, a Causal study must only collect data for a definite purpose and includes cause
and effect relationship. Your objective and understanding should be clear and specific.
It is a kind of survey method. To determine causality, it is important to observe variation
in the variable assumed to cause the change in the other variable(s), and then measure
the changes in the other variable(s).
All the reviewing websites will be visited and the major reviews and responds by the
management will be collected to come up with a solution.

5. Assumptions and Hypothesis

Assumptions
 We assume that majority of the persons publish their reviews on the
various sites to create awareness regarding the experience they had
after visiting a particular restaurant.
 We also assume that the reviews posted by the various customers
affect the goodwill and sales of the organization.
Hypothesis
 Whether analyzing reviews affect the reputation of the business.
 Whether analyzing reviews do not affect the reputation of the
business.

6. SCHEDULE OF THE STUDY & BUDGET

COSTING AND BUDGET:

TABLE: BUDGET PROPOSAL FOR THE PROJECT

COSTS VALUE

PERSONNEL 4000

FRINGE BENEFITS 1000

TOTAL DIRECT EXPENSES 2550

TOTAL INDIRECT EXPENSES 1800

TOTAL PROJECT EXPENSES 9350

SCHEDULE:

TABLE: SIMPLIFIED TASK LIST FOR THE RESEARCH PROJECT

TASK Completion in
Weeks
A Literature 1
Review
B Select 2
Organizations
C Select 4
Participants
D Data Collection 5

E Data 7
Interpretation
F Write up 8
Research
G Write up the 10
limitations for the
study

7. REFERENCES

Anderson, C., & Wolff, M. (2010, September 20). The web is dead. Long live the Internet.

Wired Magazine. Armano, D. (2009). Six social media trends for 2010. Harvard Business

Review.

Kietzmann, J., Hermkens, K., McCarthy, I., & Silvestre, B. (2011). Social media? Get serious!

Understanding the functional building blocks of social media. Business Horizons, pp. 54, 241-

251.

J. A. Chevalier and D. Mayzlin. The effect of word of mouth on sales: Online book reviews.

Journal of marketing research, 43(3):345–354, 2006.