Topic Title: Opportunities and problems of Social Electronic Commerce Course: Business Research HI6008 Student Name: SanuMaskey Student ID: OED8006 Holmes Institute, Brisbane Lecturer: David Ponton Table of Contents Introduction: 2 Topics: 2 Social Electronic Commerce in an Enterprise: 2 Strengths: 2 Weaknesses: 2 Hypothesis: 3 Social Media use in Business: 3 Strengths: 3 Weaknesses: 3 Hypothesis: 4 Knowledge of Using the Virtual Communities: 4 Strengths: 4 Weaknesses: 4 Hypothesis: 5 Driving Force of Social Media Commerce: 5 Strength: 6 Weaknesses: 7 Hypothesis: 7 Conclusion: 7 References: 8 Introduction: Following is the literature review of articles related to the topic of opportunities and problems of social electronic commerce, generally, the meaning of electronic commerce is the purchasing and selling goods and other items and the transfer of data or funds over the internet (Brown and Green, 2012). The transactions can occur among the businesses or the customers, the main aim of this service is to transfer data and services over secured networks quickly and efficiently. Social, economic commerce is a branch of electronic commerce in which social media platforms and networks used for the transfer of data between business and individuals. Topics: Social Electronic Commerce in an Enterprise: Strengths: The social networks are growing on the Internet day by day and have changed the ways in which we communicate with eachother. Many business organisationisseizing the opportunities provided by social electronic commerce and integrating them into their business. Many of the biggest organisations use social networks for hiring their staff and promoting their business activities. They engage in many different platforms of social media to promote their business; many businesses see social media as a tool to engage the customers easily and effectively (Turban, 2011). Social networking applications and web 2.0 provides great advancement in the text mining applications (Agarwal and Zhai, 2012). Many organisations use social media applications and networks for the buying and selling of products online; thisopportunity provides the business to buy and sell goods all over the world. Weaknesses: Although the social electronic commerce activities might be a big booster for many businesses in their activities, some firms see social electronic commerce activities as a time killing activities. They also think that engaging in social electronic commerce will be a threat to the security of data of the enterprise. The major issues and problems with social electronic commerce are temperaments of the consumer, business reputation at stake, data privacy, data security and the standard of information of the company on the social networks (Kim, Ferrin and Rao, 2008).These factors have a strong influence on the minds of the people as they assess the enterprise on their presence and popularity on the internet. Hypothesis: The popularity and the acceptance of the social networks are growing rapidly in the country, many of the top businesses are using social networking platforms for their businesses and individually as well. Many of the top online stores have created their apps on social networking sites, and they are using these sites to sell their products. Furthermore, many companies provide online platforms for people to buy and sell their goods like Ebay, Amazon, and Craiglist. Social Media use in Business: Strengths: The introduction of social networking sites and platforms has been one of the most exciting and innovative discoveries of the last decade. Many of the popular social networks have millions of visitors daily. Social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram are the most popular sites on the internet. The main reason for the popularity of these sites for individuals and businesses is the amount of data available on these sites (Agarwal, 2011). The businesses use these networks for buying and selling of their products, and they also use many of the multimedia networks for advertising their business and products. Because many business organisations can use the facility of target marketing provided by these social networking sites to target their market in the world and devise and made their ads according to the preferences and needs of the audience in the market (Yang et al., 2006). The volume and connection of the data on the social networks also provide help in data analysis and data mining. Weaknesses: The social networking sites and networks are a desperate measure for a business to advertise their content as compared to many traditional means of advertising data. Many see the social networking sites as a way to earn money and quick popularity. That’s why many people see social media as just another place of entertainment, the biggest grievance of the people that are against social media advertising is that they see the ads on social media that they did not pay too see. Many people feel manipulated on social media because they feel that their information is out in the open (Clemons, 2009). People that use social media platform feel that they subjected to unnecessary information that they don’t want to see, but they still have to (Cole and Griffith, 2007). Hypothesis: Social media platforms have been growing in numbers in the recent past, and many of the social networking sites provide great opportunities for businesses to use the facilities of social media to market their business. But the major issue with social networking sites that must be solved is the quality and abundance of irrelevant data on the internet. Businesses love doing their business activities on social media and engaging with their customers through social media, but the major issue for many business organisations is that they found their data to be insecure on social media sites. This issue can be solved if the social media sites provide data security to the business organisations. Knowledge of Using the Virtual Communities: Strengths: The abundance and the amount of knowledge present on social media are difficult to calculate, and the willingness of people to share knowledge through social media platforms like blogs, Facebook and Twitterare immense. The motivation behind sharing of data and information on the social media of many people is to engage in communication with other people to increase the business and human relation aspects between eachother (Chiu, Hsu and Wang, 2006). With the help of this sharing many businesses take advantage, they like the users to review their products in the market and the services of the business to get a better understanding of the perception of the business in customers minds. Many people have gained a lot of popularity and fame by writing authentic and knowledgeable blogs and posts on the Internet. These social media communities also represent the real communities of the country as many people see the behaviour of social media communities of one country as their representation (Menneke et al., 2007). Social media sites allow the users to communicate and share information with eachotherallover the world without any hassle. The social media and virtual communities allow the users to make their communities and enable them to communicate and interact with like minded people. Many pages and groups on social media sites allow the users to communicate with eachother to communicate regarding their likenesses and interests. It enables the users to make their business more innovate and grow their customer base according to the advice of the like-minded people. Weaknesses: Virtual networks need a lot of resources and techniques to work; it is very difficult to integrate virtual networking systems into a business. Furthermore many young people share their information on the social networks and upload their private pictures on social networks.Moreover, they make comments and write stuff on the internet which is inappropriate and unacceptable for other users. This posting of personal information can backfire when parents and the employers of the person see them (Barnes, 2006). People spend most of their time on social networks and media and may of the businesses misuse the customers on the internet by engaging the customers into various scam offers that lure the customer to spend their time and money to earn a reward (Subramanyam et al., 2008). The major issue with social media sites is the security of data as most of the data of the users is available for everyone to see and misuse on the internet. Hypothesis: Social and virtual networks have a long lasting future especially in this day and age of technological advancements where technology is improving day by day. The significance and importance of these networks are for businesses and individuals are very important. Many of the top business organisationsuse social media platforms to promote and increase the scope of their business, and the customers and employees of the business are using social media platforms to engage and communicate with the companies easily through social media platforms. The social networking sites must improve their performance by improving the design and model of the social media sites. Driving Force of Social Media Commerce: Strength: Social media commerce is the most emerging field in networking today; it is an engaging and interesting e-commerce platform for the businesses and the customers. It is due to the increase in popularity of various social media sites like Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook. The interest among the users of social media is increasing in using these sites for buying and selling of goods. This biggest reason for a customer to use an e-commerce social site is the quality of the design of that site and the interacting social capabilities of that site (Liang et al., 2011). Social commerce has become popular in the recent years due to the introduction of the websites and their apps on mobile devices, many users of the mobile devices prefer using the sites on them as it gives them better opportunities in interaction and engaging with other people on the site. People can buy and sell products all over the world with the use of these social e-commerce sites and the social e-commerce sites communities are engaging in trade all over the globe (Kim and Srivastrava, 2007). The social e-commerce sites provide great opportunities for the businesses to improve the productivity and performance of their businesses by using the social e-commerce sites to market and sell their products on the site. Weaknesses: Social e-commerce sites provide not a lot of assurances to the customers who want to buy and sell a product about the person on the other side that they are dealing. The major issues and problems with the social e-commerce sites are the authenticity of the data available on these sites. These sites do not take any authority of the goods and commodities available on their sites, which can have undesired results for the consumers. Many scammers use these social media sites to promote their businesses that have bad intentions (Liang, 2014). Social networking sites have many issues and problems as there are many scammers who are misusing the social e-commerce sites. The issues with social e-commerce websites are with their framework and the model of most of the sites. The social e-commerce has a lot of problems with the data security and the authenticity of goods and services on social e-commerce sites. Hypothesis: Social e-commerce and social media sites are increasing in number, and the popularity of social media sites and they have introduced the possibilities of new business models, which will help e-commerce. The social e-commerce sites use web 2.0 technologies and infrastructures to assist the communications and sharing of services and products online. The social networking sites are not only a great platform for big organisations, but it also provides a great opportunity for the entrepreneurs to carry out their business activities. The researchers of e-commerce have a lot to look forward to increasing the facility of social e-commerce sites even more. With a better model and framework, social e-commerce can improve the user interactions and experience by providing a new and improved model and framework of e-commerce. Conclusion: It concluded that social e-commerce is a facility for businesses and individuals that want to sell and buy goods online. There are no limitations for the users of social e-commerce users to buy and sell goods. Anyone can use the social e-commerce website to sell and promote their products by marketing their products. There are some issues and flaws with social e-commerce sites that must be addressed to improve the performance and experience of the users of social e-commerce sites. Entrepreneurship businesses can also take benefits of the facilities provided by social e-commerce websites to promote their business. References: Agarwal, C.C. (2011) 'An Introduction to Social Network Data Analytics', Social Network Data Analytics, March, p. 15. Agarwal, C.C. and Zhai, C. (2012) Mining Text Data, Springer Science & Business Media. Barnes, S.B. (2006) 'A privacy paradox: Social networking in the United States', Free Reviewed Journal, vol. 11, no. 9, September. Brown, B. and Green, N. (2012) Wireless World: Social and Interactional Aspects of the Mobile Age, Springer Science & Business Media. Chiu, C.M., Hsu, M.H. and Wang, E.T.G. (2006) 'Understanding knowledge sharing in virtual communities: An integration of social capital and social cognitive theories', Decision Support Systems, vol. 42, no. 3, December, p. 16. Clemons, E.K. (2009) 'The complex problem of monetizing virtual electronic social networks', Decision Support Systems, vol. 48, no. 1, December, p. 10. Cole, H. and Griffith, M.D. (2007) 'Social Interactions in Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Gamers', CyberPsychology &Behavior, vol. 10, no. 4, August, p. 8. Kim, D.J., Ferrin, D.L. and Rao, H.R. (2008) 'A trust-based consumer decision-making model in electronic commerce: The role of trust, perceived risk, and their antecedents', Decision Support Systems, vol. 44, no. 2, January, p. 10. Kim, Y.A. and Srivastrava, J. (2007) 'Impact of social influence in e-commerce decision making', Proceedings of the ninth international conference on Electronic commerce, August, p. 9. Liang, T.P. 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