The Social Media Perception and Reality – Possible Data Quality

Deficiencies between Social Media and ERP

Mirona Ana-Maria Popescu

, Mouzhi Ge

and Markus Helfert

Faculty of Entrepreneurship, Business Engineering and Management, University Politehica of Bucharest, Romania

Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk University, Czech Republic

School of Computing, Dublin City University, Ireland

Keywords: Data Quality, ERP, Social Media, Business Intelligence Solutions.

Abstract: With the increase of digitalisation, data in social media are often seen as more updated and realistic than the

information system representations. Due to the fast changes in the real world and the increasing Big Social

media data, there is usually certain misalignment between the social media and information system in the

enterprise such as ERP, therefore there can be data deficiencies or data quality problems in the information

systems, which is caused by the differences between the external social media and internal information

system. In this paper, underpinned by the work of ontological data quality from Wang and Wand 1996, we

investigate a set of data quality problems between two representations - Social Media and ERP. We further

discuss how ERP system can be improved from the data quality perspective.

1 INTRODUCTION

Nowadays -in the area of big data- data exploration

and social media are offering a constant data feeds

that represent real world phenomes. Based on the

social media data, data analysis has begun to be part

of the social media system. These can be observed as

a reflection of the real world. At the same time, data

in social media is often seen as more realistic than the

real world representation. Facebook's organic reach is

steadily decreasing, so a system should have the

pressure to create content that is relevant to their

consumers. In this paper we examine the variation

between real world and its representation in social

media.

Over the last decade, many researchers and

practitioners have emphasised the importance of data

quality (Ge and Helfert 2007). Data quality has

become a critical concern to the success of

organisations. Numerous business initiatives have

been delayed or even cancelled, citing poor-quality

data as the main reason (Ge et al 2017). Ge et al. 2017

further point out that despite the sizeable body of

literature available, relatively few researchers have

tackled quantifying the conceptual definitions. The

literature provides numerous definitions and

taxonomies of data quality dimensions analysing the

problem in different contexts. Also, literature

provides us with numerous case studies, investigating

data quality in practice. Research as well as industrial

discussions (such as Gartner 2017) with practitioners

identified that firms may lose upwards of 10% of

revenues due to poor operational data, together with

other serious consequential effects relating to tactical

decision making and strategy generation. A report

from The Data Warehouse Institute estimated that

data quality problems costs US business $600 billion

a year (5% of the American GDP) in postage, printing

and staff overhead costs alone, whilst the majority of

the senior managers in those companies affected

remained unaware (Ge and Helfert 2013).

Wand and Wang (1996) have developed a data

quality model based on the differentiation between

internal and external view. The external view is

concerned with reflection of real world facts. In

contrast, the internal view addresses the construction

and operation necessary to attain the required

functionality in information systems, given a set of

requirements which reflect the external view.

Underpinned by this model, therefore, social media

can be seen an external view of the real world. The

internal view can be described as an information

system that combines data collection, storage

management tactics and analytical tools to provide

comprehensive and competitive process of planning

and decision-making in an organization. The entire

198

Popescu, M., Ge, M. and Helfert, M.

The Social Media Perception and Reality – Possible Data Quality Deﬁciencies between Social Media and ERP.

DOI: 10.5220/0006788801980204

In Proceedings of the 20th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2018), pages 198-204

ISBN: 978-989-758-298-1

organizational context requires rigorous planning,

standardization of procedures and optimization of

existing resources.

In this paper, we demonstrate the propositions,

using one of the typical information systems,

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). ERP platform

enables companies to improve the most important

metric: sales, profits, costs, quality of products and

services, customer satisfaction. Promoting improved

organizational performance, it plays a crucial role in

the production and processing of knowledge

management. Improvements are seen in

organizational activities, decisions, products,

services, processes and relationships, which will lead

to improved organizational performance.

Furthermore, implementing Business Intelligence

Solutions in ERP will help the processing of

knowledge management, research and development

by extracting information already processed by the

other information systems implemented by the

organization.

Due to the fast changes in the real world -reflected

via Big Social media data-, there is always a

misalignment between the representation in social

media and the enterprise information system such as

ERP. Caused by the difference between the social

media and internal information system, there are

usually data deficiencies or data quality problems in

the information systems.

Underpinned by the work on Data Quality from

Wand and Wang (1996), we examine with this paper

the various viewpoints between two representations,

on the one hand side ERP and on the other side the

view offered by Social Media. In this paper, we

expand this ontological concept with the perception

Social Media can provide, in form of a social media

create “reality” or perception. We then propose a set

of data quality deficiencies resulting from an

ontological view on information system. To identify

a set of criteria for a real-world system to be properly

represented by an information system. Based on this,

they identify possible representation deficiencies that

can occur during system design and data production.

The remainder of the paper is organized as

follows: Section 2 conducts a literature review on

social media and information systems. Section 3

discusses some typical social media system from the

digital marketing perspective. Section 4 provides and

overview on the ERP system. Based on Section 3 and

4, section 5 summarises possible data deficiencies

between social media and ERP systems.

2 RELATED WORK

Wamba (2017) developed a theoretical model to

determine if the internal and external factors have a

role in adopting social media in an organisation. The

model is examined utilizing cross-sectional

information gathered from various working

environments in various geographic districts. The

outcomes reveal the presence of particular selection

practices for various gatherings inside the general

example. These discoveries sustain the

implementation of social media into a workspace.

Carr (2017) analyses the impact of Social Media

on an enterprise and how it can be utilized to

accomplish generous business execution upgrades.

Jinno (2017) outlines the consequences that consists

in actualizing endeavour asset arranging adequacy

from the viewpoint of execution strategy and

operational viability. With ERP Systems,

organizations can institutionalize their business forms

and oversee them all the more viably and

productively. Irani (2017) outlines online

networking/Web 2.0 in building information sharing

abilities. Restrictions and further research into the

utilization of online networking/Web 2.0 are

discussed. Dezdar (2017) describes the innovation

factors and hierarchical factors. It conceptualize an

incorporated connection between ERP execution

benefits, ERP venture factors, ERP framework

factors, and hierarchical factors in a single model.

The examination demonstrated that ERP framework

quality, ERP seller support, and client preparing and

instruction had positive association with client

fulfilment and ERP usage benefits appropriately.

Alimam (2017) gives another point of view, one

that underpins the claim that economical views are

important. Aloini (2016) studies the evolution of ERP

systems from a social point of view and also a

collaborative one by taking into account the

suitability. There highlight the advantages and

impediments and proposed a framework. He et al.

(2016) provides the perspective to organizations in

order to improve their strategies regarding social

media. ERP systems have an impact on the absorptive

capacity of a firm, except the e-commerce ones. The

existence of social media is strong related to this

capacity. It is based on the work by Loukis (2016).

Leonardi (2015) outlines the significance of a data

rich informal community to the production of

information. It is based through firms' web-based

social networking activities. Lam (2016) discusses

the hypothetical and administrative ramifications

from the point of view of operations administration.

The paper describes three interrelated objectives. It

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199

gives a hypothetical structure, in light of the idea of

affordances, to estimate the potential ramifications of

online networking use for sorting out. Second, it

surveys existing grant via web-based networking

media and arranging, featuring web-based social

networking dispersion, utilize, and its suggestions for

hierarchical procedures of correspondence,

coordinated effort, and learning sharing. Third, it

depends upon the affordance viewpoint and existing

grant with a specific end goal to express a motivation

for future research via web-based networking media

and arranging, pushing for an enhancement of the

marvels under examination and for more noteworthy

assorted variety and inventiveness in the

methodological methodologies.

3 SOCIAL MEDIA - EXTERNAL

VIEW

3.1 Google

We are experiencing a technological trend heading

towards total personalization. That is why the

expression 'data is more important than gold’ is

becoming more and more valid. Not only social

networking messages or site banners are personalized

by remarketing campaigns, but also searches on

Google. Newsletters display dynamic parts based on

people's behaviour, and more recently, websites adapt

to the context of the visit. Provides multiple audience

creation and usage capabilities, easily managed from

either Google Analytics or Google Adwords, tracking

data from multiple people's platforms - Youtube,

Gmail, Search, or the Display Network (GDN).

Google Announces Attribution, a platform for a

concept that promises to revolutionize digital

reporting, identifying the effectiveness of each digital

touch used by people in online businesses. It is more

than obvious that if a social network did not directly

generate a desired action on the site, certainly this will

influence that action indirectly.

3.2 Facebook

It provides access to very detailed data about people

and their interaction in the social network, create

audiences with those who have seen videos on

Instagram, with those who have interacted with the

Facebook page, or subscribers to the newsletter, see

messages specific to people who have dropped out of

the order book page or another step in the shopping

process. Provides the most accurate segmentation of

subscribers, and if brands automate 'customer care'

processes between email marketing platforms and

CRM applications, their subscribers receive more

relevant and smarter messages for their automatically

sent interests without human intervention.

It can be determined by a mix of human behaviour

and the process of purchasing a product / service

offered by a particular brand. Digital budgets should

be determined by these factors and not by the

calculated availability of profit, as is often the case.

Digital instruments, channels, banners, and figures

are the means by which we interpret human

behaviour. Therefore it is essential to match as best as

possible specific messages to the audiences.

However, without having data about the people we

are following, it is almost impossible to find out what

they intend to do. Using data is a tactic that draws us

close to the essence of marketing. Thus, we have

considered social media as an external view and the

relationship between this external view and ERP is

described as follows.

Figure 1: External view from Social Media.

4 ERP SYSTEM - INTERNAL

VIEW

An ERP system requires a large data volume to track

precisely the process undertaken by a company and

offers a financial report, as well as gives a proper

program to its development. Each progression in a

business procedure expects clients to enter or refresh

information in an ERP system. This is highlighted in

Figure 2.

ERP system allows the company to organize and

pursue investments in research and development

projects. Thus, ERP for commercial field could

underlie the entire process of decision management in

the company, where it will be implemented, it can

provide managers the most effective way to analyse

different scenarios and achieve the most efficient and

effective products and services through investments

in market research on customer preferences, in order

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200

Figure 2: Information Organisation in ERP.

to support the ideals of corporate social responsibility

and investment in research on developing new

products and services according to the real needs of

the market at the present time, inspired by market

research conducted.

Entering information in a convenient and exact

way is usually done by users of the ERP system. This

procedure of gathering information is frequently

manual, tedious, where mistakes can occur. Since

ERP underpins end-to-end forms, more information

is expected to guarantee accuracy. For instance, to

make a client record in ERP, it is not enough to set

the economic component of the client record and it is

needed also the sell part, the repository, the

commerce, and so on. As the entered data volume

grows the number of possible errors increases. These

glitches, appear later in the process, can cause

enormous damages and lie at the base of numerous

information quality issues in the company.

Since each procedure has a budgetary effect, all

information quality issues in the long run stream

down to the accounting department group. The data

that come from consumers into the ERP helps the

company to understand the needs of the clients and

the actions that should be developed. Data that comes

from consumers about the company or its services /

products is an essential factor in its development as a

brand and in consolidating its position on the market.

The review indicates an assessment of a product,

service or location, or an artistic creation by a person

who has found a particular interest in the subject.

Some critical analysis does not necessarily require

specialist training for the evaluator. Reviews and

comments by users who bought the product are the

most important source of information from those who

have bought and used the product. Based on the

review, we are able to provide quality information

that can be composed by respecting the following

rules:

 To know where and for whom the review is

written.

 To show the writer’s point of view as clear as

possible. A review of product should under no

circumstances end in a vague, indefinite note,

and it must reveal the writer’s position that

remains in the mind of the reader (liked or not)

but not in an explicit way, but from the weight of

those pluses or minuses.

 The written information should be original.

 To write smart (but reasonable, not to make

smart).

 Not to praise or accuse for free.

 Accept the possibility of differences of opinion.

 Provides the context in which the review

appears: if it is part of a wider research, a hobby

or a contest, an express request from someone

interested in reactions etc.

 Express the writer’s opinion. The review itself is

a way of reflecting, ordering someone’s thoughts

and weighing the pluses and minuses to finally

make a conclusion.

 A form of rating: the specificity of the review is

that at the end of it you are allowed - even

indicated - to give a note after your own

evaluation system.

5 DATA QUALITY DEFICIECIES

BETWEEN SOCIAL MEDIA

AND ERP

Integrating the components of social media with ERP

systems were considered of critical importance in

comparison with combining social media websites

with ERP. The retail marketing and reputation

management are influenced by the advantages given

when integrating social media in ERP systems. The

capacity to incorporate with outer web-based social

networking devices on the general population web

does not weigh intensely on the determination

procedure for ERP. However, the appropriation of

web-based social networking capacities to

incorporate cooperative and correspondence

capabilities is seen with significance yet isn't viewed

as a noteworthy influencer. There are two essential

advantages of social usefulness installed in ERP; to

streamline and convey inside the undertaking and also

to record business process-es to help lean activities.

Data quality can impact the competitiveness and

economic activity that refers to the value of the

relationship with the data with quality and the success

of a business. To further highlight the focus of this

The Social Media Perception and Reality – Possible Data Quality Deﬁciencies between Social Media and ERP

201

paper, we have demonstrated the social media

perception and the representation from ERP system in

Figure 3. Wand and Wang (1996) further detailed

four types of representing a real-world system, which

are interpreted as follows:

 Proper Representation: The representation of a

real-world system (we consider it as Social

Media in this paper) is based on the mapping

each of its valid states to at least one valid state

that corresponds to the information system and

vice versa.

 Incomplete Representation: The mapping from

Social Media to ERP must be thorough (i.e., each

of the states in RW is mapped to IS) in order to

represent a real-world system by using an ERP.

 Ambiguous Representation: If there is more than

one real-world state mapped into the same state

of the information system, then the

representation is not right and the information is

not enough in order to assume which of the

Social Media state is expressed.

 Meaningless States: It is not mandatory that

the mapping from Social Media to ERP be

thorough concerning ERP. In any case, when this

circumstance exists, there are legitimate states in

ERP that cannot be mapped back to a state in

Social Media.

Figure 3: Social Media perception (adapted from Wand and

Wang 1996).

By considering the four types of possible data quality

problems proposed in Wand and Wang in 1996. We

have found a set of data quality problems that are

caused by the misalignment between social media and

ERP systems as shown in table 1 in the appendix. We

found that data quality management in ERP is not just

about fixing data or improving quality within a single

business application or process, but also about taking

a more expansive and forward-looking enterprise-

wide approach. This should involve addressing

cultural issues, initiating both short and long term

process and procedural improvements by a step-by-

step, incremental approach, whilst ensuring that the

data conforms to appropriate specifications or

requirements.

It can be seen that there cannot be a “one size fits

all” remedy to embedding organisational

improvements in ERP systems, but rather to identify

appropriate solutions to fit individual situations and

circumstances. One accepts that data quality

problems are not created intentionally by people, but

more by the failure of the surrounding processes

whether these are system related or individual related

involving lack of education, training, personal

developments or purely the person being placed in a

position for which they are not suited. This research

has major practical implications which leads to a

further key theme, that of aligning robust theoretical

and academic concepts, within the operating

environment of a real-life ERP, in order to implement

sustainable data quality improvements. It is also

recognised that research in this specific area may

have implications for other functional sectors where

process improvements programmes can be applied.

6 CONCLUSIONS

In this paper, we have validated the ontological data

quality view that are proposed by Wand and Wang in

1996, where data quality deficiencies are caused by

the misalignment between real-world perception and

information system representation. In order to study

this misalignment, we have instantiated the real-

world perception as social media, which can be

considered as reflection of the real world. On the

other hand, information system representation is

illustrated by the ERP system.

Based on the observation of the differences

between social media and ERP systems, we have

concluded a table that contains possible data duality

deficiencies that are caused by misalignment between

Social Media and ERP. Based on the results, this

paper has also discussed the indications of data

quality management in ERP systems. As a future

work, we plan to further investigate how to

improvement the data quality in the ERP systems, and

how to proactively prevent possible data quality

deficiencies.

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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

This work was supported, in part, by Science

Foundation Ireland grant 13/RC/2094 and co-funded

under the European Regional Development Fund

through the Southern & Eastern Regional Operational

Programme to Lero - the Irish Software Research

Centre (www.lero.ie)

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203

APPENDIX

Table 1: Possible Data Quality Deficiencies between Social Media and ERP.

DQ Deficiencies

Perception of Social media

Representation in ERP

Possible Data quality

problems

Incomplete

Representation

The user would rely more on the reviews

from the other users to choose this product,

which is more important than the product

description itself

Only included the essential

information about the product

Missing the reviews

The user relies on the product’s

description, relevant for his decision to

acquire or not the product.

This information may consist of

functionalities, features.

Missing data regarding

the product

Ambiguous

Representation

The product has a description based on

vague phrases or their construction is not

precise and the customer is not able to

understand what the product offers.

The description made by the

company’s specialists has multiple

meanings or the content is not

precisely.

Data with various

meanings and

imprecise.

The quality of the product is described

very equivocal. The customer remains

with a lot of questions unanswered.

There is offered information about

the product’s characteristics, but

the terms used are too complex or

they are giving the text different

connotations.

The quality data is

unclear.

Meaningless

Representation

The product description does not match to

the product itself or has no relevance for it

in the customer’s opinion.

The description was mismatched

by the system or the person in

charge of writing it.

The description of a

product is linked to

another product.

The product’s price is not an amount of

money that will confuse the customers and

make him even think that the company

which is selling it is not a serious one.

There are displayed strings or

special characters.

Data in a wrong format.

Proper

Representation

The customer finds all the information

needed about a product.

The customer’s reviews are

available next to the product and

the description of it is complete and

detailed reaching all the important

point.

The good communication and data

transmission between the suppliers and the

sellers give the actual availability of a

product to satisfy the customer.

The status regarding the product

availability is always up to date

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