Shenghua Zha

Social media competitive analysis and text mining: A case study in the pizza industry

Abstract Social media have been adopted by many businesses. More and more companies are using social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter to provide various services and interact with customers. As a result, a large amount of user-generated content is freely available on social media sites. To increase competitive advantage and effectively assess the competitive environment of businesses, companies need to monitor and analyze not only the customer-generated content on their own social media sites, but also the textual information on their competitors’ social media sites. In an effort to help companies understand how to perform a social media competitive analysis and transform social media data into knowledge for decision makers and e-marketers, this paper describes an in-depth case study which applies text mining to analyze unstructured text content on Facebook and Twitter sites of the three largest pizza chains: Pizza Hut, Dominos Pizza and Papa Johns Pizza. The results reveal the value of social media competitive analysis and the power of text mining as an effective technique to extract business value from the vast amount of available social media data. Recommendations are also provided to help companies develop their social media competitive analysis strategy.

An Investigation of Communicative Competence of ESL Students Using Electronic Discussion Boards

Abstract This study focuses on the use of electronic discussion boards with elementary-aged English as a Second Language (ESL) students. The purpose of the study is to investigate students’ communicative competence in a computer-mediated communication environment. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used to analyze 956 messages posted by 28 ESL students to the electronic discussion board during a six-week period of time. Changes were found in children’s use of language for social purposes and appropriate use of language in different social and cultural settings. Recommendations for teachers include the design of online discussion activities and future considerations of peer assistance in language learning.

The Effects of Instructional Implementation on Learning With Interactive Multimedia Case-Based Instruction

Interactive, multimedia cases with technology supports present new ways of teaching and learning in teacher education. In this mixed-methods, naturalistic study, the authors investigate how and what participants learn from multimedia cases and, in particular, how instructional implementation affects learning outcomes from multimedia cases. Multimedia cases with technology supports were implemented in 20 different higher education courses with varying University of Missouri—Columbia instructional modes involving 251 pre-service and practicing teacher education students from four different universities. Results indicate that how multimedia cases are integrated into courses makes a difference in case-based learning outcomes and that these differences are evidenced in both quantitative and qualitative data. Overall, significant learning occurred for all instructional implementation groups with one exception—limiting use of cases to context for additional course assignments was not effective. Implications for teacher education are explored.

Enhancing social media competitiveness of small businesses: insights from small pizzerias

Social media provide an online platform for enterprises to engage existing customers and attract new customers. Although social media can be easily set up at no cost, however, due to limited human and financial resources, many small businesses find it challenging to compete against large enterprises in social media use. While more and more small businesses have jumped on the bandwagon of social media in recent years, few studies investigated the social media strategies that can help small businesses to survive and even thrive against large competitors in the social media arena. Therefore, we studied 32 small pizzerias in a mid-size U.S. city in terms of their social media use for business. Our study found that small pizzerias emphasizing social media use on community relations and social responsibility tend to be more successful in attracting and engaging local customers. This study also sheds light on both effective strategies and successful practices of social media use by small pizzerias. The insights and recommendations identified from this study can help small businesses to enhance their social media competitiveness against large enterprises.

An exploratory investigation of social media adoption by small businesses

Social media has become an online platform for businesses to market products/services and to manage customer relationships. While more and more small businesses have jumped on the bandwagon of social media in recent years, we found that only a limited number of published articles are currently available regarding the decision-making factors for social media adoption by small businesses. To understand why and how small businesses (i.e., small non-manufacturing enterprises) in the U.S. adopt social media, and for which business purposes, we conducted a case study using an approach that combined literature review, interviews, and cross-checking social media sites. In particular, we interviewed 27 small businesses as our cases in a mid-size U.S. city in terms of their social media adoption for business purposes. This study revealed some novel insights and developed a decision support model composed of factors critical to successful social media adoption by small businesses.