Shortcomings have been identified in the use of cybermetrics applied to industry in general and, in particular, the design and generation of advanced market reports, focussed particularly on the electronic market (both offline and online). Use in other sectors of industrial activity is still rare and minimal. The fact that, more often than not, it is commercial companies that carry them out prevents access to certain content (due to industrial property issues).
Advanced market reports (both offline and online) on the internet are based exclusively on information provided by users about products or brands (in other words, focused on web data mining), so in reality the end of the chain is being evaluated (consumption and opinion), forgetting the creation and dissemination processes, for which Cybermetrics provides indicators and processes to obtain clean data. Therefore, the general aim of this project is to develop and validate (for its future application) a model of cybermetric analysis focussed on a sectoral analysis of the Spanish online market for its internationalisation, focussing on the presence, consumption and web impact of companies, products and brands. Additionally, the aim is to identify the factors that influence the webcasting of products, brands and companies by sectors and that condition the market. Research work with a theoretical and conceptual study of the model of analysis aims to identify:
Catalogue of cybermetric indicators which makes it possible to measure the dimensions and categories identified in the existing study of scientific and professional literature.
A series of source selection criteria will be defined.
Direct method (hit count estimates) and obtained through the source API, if this is accessible.
Subsequently, and to validate the provisional model, products, brands, people and companies (URLs) will be gathered from two Spanish sectors that are not interconnected, such as wine and fashion. They will form part of the object of study, using them as examples, in addition to all of the information required to be able to apply the indicators. From there, measurements will be taken by obtaining, for each URL, all of the indicators from all sources established in the previous stages. The raw data will be statistically analysed in order to discover its properties and relationships. Furthermore, different predictive models will be studied (both linear and parametric) to be able to determine the possibility of accurately predicting future trends from current data. With all of the above, the results of the research will be reached. In other words, a final optimised model of cybermetric analysis of products, brands, people and companies of the Spanish online market.
This project is funded by Spain’s Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness.
Project reference: CSO2013-46138-P