Assignment 1 – Essay Structure
1) Choose a research topic that falls in your research area of interest
2) Based on this research topic please create a problem statement (one page)
3) Based on the problem statement please create a purpose statement (250- 300
words)
4) Choose the research approach that best "fits” to the investigation of the above
research topic. Explain this approach as well justify your selection by stating.
why you have chosen this approach over the other.
Aristide Touwindsida ZONGO
R2112D13456130
Research Methods (53571)
Evangelos Tsoukatos
14/05/2023
Research Title: The customer relationship in digital era in a country like Burkina Faso.
Research problem
Nassir (2015) believes that in today's global economy, social media and technological
advances have changed the way businesses interact with their clientele. With new forms of
communication and IT practices, companies seek innovative practices for maintaining their
consumer loyalty.
For example, people rely on reviews and comments on Trustpilot or Quora when they want to
buy a product or a service. They care about such reviews because they believe in their
reliability.
I can even relate to the fact that many of us have already considered reviewing the comments
on an online shop (in AliExpress or Amazon) before purchasing. We wanted to be sure that
such a vendor is reliable. We rely on the people who have already experienced a purchase
process with him. If they were not satisfied or if the vendor misbehaved somehow, they would
tell it in the reviews.
Malthouse et al (2013) had already emphasized that with the rise of vast social networking
platforms, the customer is no longer limited to a passive role in his or her relationship with a
company. In addition to having more information about competitive products available
anywhere on mobile devices, customers can easily express and distribute their opinions to
large audiences, and companies are likely to find it increasingly difficult to manage the
messages that customers receive about their products/services (e.g., Schultz, Malthouse, and
Pick 2012). The net effect has been to increase the power that consumers have (see Labrecque
et al. (2013)).
While we know that formally internet has changed the customer relationship, the context of
Burkina Faso as many other African countries with similar environment conditions is
important to analyses in the way that such countries are developing economies with a young
population, a high illiteracy rate, high IT illiteracy rate and a low internet coverage rate
(21,6% according to DatarePortal ). Therefore, we are tempted to believe that such
characteristics have or do not have an impact on the customer relationship in Burkina Faso.
Indeed, the low internet coverage can hinder some disappointed or satisfied customers from
posting reviews and many businesses are not on the internet. The lack of a relevant platform
for reviews led to the creation of a Facebook group in 2018 called ‘’CONSOM’ACTIONBF’’ as a local platform where people can post on any entity no matter the size and the scope.
While much research has been conducted at the global level, less authors have explored the
specific case of developing countries like Burkina Faso where the environment is different
from developed countries.
Purpose statement
From my perspective, exploring this topic is intended to investigate the impact of some
factors (like IT literacy rate, internet coverage literacy rate etc.) on the customer relationship
in Burkina Faso.
IN general, more the customer has the possibility to drive your company to bankruptcy by
revealing ill-treatment and scandals from your company, more you care about his satisfaction
because you know that this challenge your company viability.
This research will consist of using qualitative and quantitative methods to better understand
the topic.
Qualitative methods will consist of grounded theory to understand what authors have written
about the change introduced by the internet in customer relationship and what are such
changes at a formal level.
Then we will use qualitative methods through surveys addresses to customers and business
owners in Burkina Faso.

The questionnaire to customers will consist of asking them if they have already
reviewed local companies (google stars, Facebook stars, inbox messages, email, social
media posts comments, interactions etc.). Any way that they may have used to give
their appreciation towards a vendor.

As far as business owners are concerned, they will be requested to say how often they
receive reviews and by which platform (Social media accounts inbox and comments,
search engines, websites, Google My Business) and if people are using private or
public ways to show their satisfaction or dissatisfaction.
This will help measure the impact of the internet on customer relationships in Burkina.
Women and men aged from 18 to 50 years will be the targets of the questionnaires.
Research Method
Regarding the above research topic, a quantitative method is relevant to conduct successful
and meaningful research. Quantitative methods can be case studies, correlational or
experimental. The following techniques can be utilized in a quantitative method: experiments
Questionnaires, Surveys, and Database reports.
Gorard (2003) assumes that all researchers read and use the research of others. Therefore, they
need to develop what Brown and Dowling (1998) refer to as a 'mode of interrogation' for
reading and using research results. If they do not have any understanding of research
techniques involving numbers then they must either accept all such results without question, a
very dangerous decision, or ignore all such results, a very foolish decision.
Gorard then emphasizes the role of numbers in research by using quantitative methods.
Specially for this topic we will use questionnaires to measure the following:
•
How often people make reviews and in which platforms.
•
How often business owners receive reviews and in which platforms.
Such data will help us picture the extent of change made by the internet in customer
experience in Burkina Faso’s context. As stated by Cuesta (2013), data analysis helps “to
explain the past and predict the future.”
Gerson (1998) recalls us that customer service is the critical factor for success in business.
Your customer service must be better than your competitors if your business is to attract and
retain customers. Remember that the greatest profits result from customer retention, loyalty
and repurchases rather than new customer acquisitions.
References
DATAREPORTAL , DIGITAL 2023: BURKINA FASO retrieved from
https://datareportal.com/reports/digital-2023-burkina-faso
Facebook, CONSOM’ACTION-BF retrieved
from
https://www.facebook.com/groups/286430085525582
Cuesta, Hector. Practical Data Analysis, Packt Publishing, Limited, 2013. ProQuest Ebook
Central, http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/UNICAF/detail.action?docID=1507840.
Created from UNICAF on 2023-05-14 02:01:05.
Gerson, Richard. Beyond Customer Service: Keeping Customers for Life, Course Technology
Crisp, 1998. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/UNICAF/detail.action?docID=3116963.
Created from UNICAF on 2023-05-14 01:54:35.
Gorard, Stephen. Quantitative Methods in Social Science Research, Bloomsbury Publishing
Plc, 2003. ProQuest Ebook Central,
http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/UNICAF/detail.action?docID=436502.
Created from UNICAF on 2023-05-14 01:41:19.
Malthouse, Edward & Haenlein, Michael & Skiera, Bernd & Wege, Egbert & Zhang,
Michael. (2013). Managing Customer Relationships in the social media Era: Introducing the
Social CRM House. Journal of Interactive Marketing. 27. 270–280.
10.1016/j.intmar.2013.09.008.
Nasir, Suphan. (2015). Customer Relationship Management Strategies in the Digital Era.
Customer Relationship Management Strategies in the Digital Era. 1-322. 10.4018/978-14666-8231-3.