Effects of Innovation in Marketing Research on Corporate Citizenship and Business Continuity Management

Introduction

The main objective of this study was to determine the effects of innovation in marketing research on corporate citizenship and business continuity management. The study was guided by the research topic as the main objective. This research adopted a descriptive research design and the research population consisted of organizations that have adopted innovative technology. In this study, interview method was adapted to engage properly with the respondents. In addition, the descriptive statistics such as percentages and frequency distribution were used to analyze the demographic profile of the participants. In order to describe the data, the study used means of each variable. The findings of the research were that businesses majorly rely on technology and it is important for these businesses work hand-in-hand with the IT experts to ensure the smooth running of operations.

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Background of the Study

In essence, Business community management (BCM) is a very crucial part of a business sense in most cases, a business cannot do without it. It can be defined as a strategy that enables an organization to recognize certain problems that disrupt the flow of operations. It also enables in solving the problems through an effective resource framework that brings the operations back to normal in the shortest period possible (AT&T. , 2004). A comparison between the 19th-century businesses and the 21st-century businesses shows a difference in innovation. First, in the 19th century, innovation was not a term that could be used a lot in businesses. This is because, management stack to what they knew as efficient and due to lack of interest in technology and innovation, they used the outdated methods of doing business. Second, businesses in the 19th century used to focus a lot on information technology departments, meaning the IT department was the backbone of the company if the computers and software collapsed (Thomas, 2005). However, it was not always the case since not all IT departments could handle technological failure.

To curb the problem, innovators came up with a recovery strategy that ensured the business was well covered just in case a problem came up. Unfortanelty, this strategy did not cover all areas of the business thus brought about business flaws. Therefore, the business recovery strategies were advanced into business continuity management. It is an all rounded plan that focuses on the strategy that comes up in a business (Ramsey, 2004). Use of IT in BCM is important since communication is efficient and it makes the mission and vision of the company clear to every staff and non-staff member when dealing with an upcoming challenge to the business. It can be easy to prevent attacks to parts of the system if the right innovations are used to track intrusions (Barnes, 2001.

Overview of the Study

Data can be collected and assessed using a systematic method for the proposed hypotheses that is; the chosen topic of the effects of innovation in marketing. There will be the use of interviews and stratified sampling. Ethical issues will be put in mind as well as the cons of the study will be listed.

Interview Guidelines

Use of an interview guide will be the best method to use. This is because, the interviewer will be able to capture reactions from the interviewee, ask for clarifications where needed, understand the individuals more and gain more information from the respondents. The interview will use research questions that can also be formed as a questionnaire. A questionnaire can be defined as a set of structured questions used to collect primary data from respondents. Data collected is quantitative but the main aim will be to collect both qualitative and quantitative data. Therefore, the interview will use very structured questions but simply to ensure all is captured. The first step will be to prepare the questions, focusing on the topic of discussion. While conducting the interviews, the interviewer will listen carefully to the respondent and ask for clarifications where necessary. After the interview, the interviewer will review the responses and compare them with the diverse views.

Point of focus will be on the advantages of market research and BCM (Myers, & Newman, 2007, pp.26) while writing the research questions. The interview will entail close-ended and open-ended questions with follow-up questions to exhaust on the information required for the research. There will be the use of indirect questions to ensure that the true data (opinion) is recorded. Before conducting an interview, the interviewer must request to conduct the interview. He should ensure that most times the interviewee is talking to ensure data is captured are required. After the whole process is over, the interviewer will do an analysis of all the data collected and capture both qualitative and quantitative information.

Sample Design

The sample design to be used is the stratified random sampling because, it ensures the population size sampled is fair and not chosen at random, therefore, increasing the validity of the research findings as discussed by (Creswell, 2014). The sample size entails organizations that have adopted technological innovations to streamline operations. The population is heterogeneous with diverse socio-demographic characteristics thus it will be divided into small sizes. Later stratification will take place to obtain representative samples.

Trustworthiness of the Study

Guba (2015) nurtured four credibility queries that any scholar needs to adopt regardless of his or her hypothesis. The questions are as follows; (1) How can a scholar authenticate certainty in his or her results or how do we know if the results are sincere? (2) How do we know or ascertain the applicability of the conclusions of the study in other locations or with other plaintiffs? (3) How can one know if the outcomes would be recurring always with the same respondents in the same circumstance? (4) how do we determine the findings are from the respondents and the researcher is not biased? Wallendorf and Belk (2013), adding to Guba's ideas, raised the fifth question regarding Guba's original questions. The question is; (5) how do we know the results are not false from the respondents?

The questions mentioned by Guba (2015) and Wallendorf and Belk (2013) should be used by every scholar when conducting a research. As Lincoln and Guba (2016) and Schwandt et al. (2007) and Wallendorf and Belk (2013) disputed that, each study methodology has its own way of solving the mentioned questions. For instance, Lincoln and Guba (2016) appealed that, optimistic scholars have established a strategy for the named questions projected and the answers match the ontological and epistemological theories of the optimist viewpoint. The optimistic conditions involve inner rationality, exterior rationality, dependability, and impartiality, but these are not applicable for evaluating the thoroughness of real-life inquest as it makes diverse ontological and epistemological notions (Lincoln & Guba, 2016; Wallendorf & Belk, 2013). For instance, according to Lincoln and Guba (2016), optimistic researchers assume particular experience and analysis of results is based on a particular experience, while scientists consider several idealisms as a substitute justification for public life.

Therefore, in this study, the purpose of truth depends on the results obtained from the interviews conducted. It will take into account the five research question addressed by Guba (2015); Wallendorf and Belk (2013). There shall be honest questions used to determine the level of truth of collected data based on the interview questions. Relevance shall be used to ensure that the results can apply to another group (Montaquila, Brick, & Curtin, 2010). This will help in making conclusions on other groups in the whole population. Data consistency will be used to determine dependability. Neutrality shall be used to prevent biases towards respondents while reliability shall be used to obtain believable information from respondents. More so, actual data is what should be used for analyzing and no interference with it. The collected information should be detailed enough with no signs of biases.

Table 1: Scaling questions on the importance of innovation

Anchoring Vignettes

The point is to compare respondents self-analysis to their hypothetical assessments and to use the data to adjust the format. Anchoring vignettes have been used frequently in political science research to improve comparability among assessments of attitudes and preferences in self-report questionnaires (King & Wand, 2007). The method tries to assess RS via the presentation of short descriptions of hypothetical persons (vignettes) that vary systematically in the latent traits represented in the inventory. Respondents are requested to rate the persons described in the vignettes on an item similar to those used for the respondents' self-descriptions, adopting the same response format and rating scale.

Relying on respondents' ratings of the persons in the vignettes, one can infer how respondents translate anchor levels into the 5-point Likert rating scale. Since every subject rates the same set of vignettes, these can be used as fixed anchor points to equate responses across respondents and thus correct their personality descriptions. Using Item Response Theory (IRT) terminology, the potential variability on vignette ratings can be conceived as thresholds varying within subjects, translating latent trait levels into ordered categorical responses (here from 1 to 5). Since the persons in the anchoring vignettes are constant across subjects, the variance in vignette ratings can be interpreted as an indicator of individual differences in response styles, which can be used to estimate PDIF. To account for PDIF, respondents' self-ratings are recorded in comparison with their ratings on the vignettes using a nonparametric recoding algorithm (King et al., 2004; Tandon, Murray, Salomon, & King, 2003).

The key benefit of using anchoring vignettes is that an external source of data (i.e., distinct from the substantive descriptive information enclosed in self-ratings) is used for estimating...