Leveraging web scraping for collecting competitive market data: Case: A case study of an Airbnb rental unit in Helsinki
Ho, Hoang Phuong Thao (2020)
Ho, Hoang Phuong Thao
2020
All rights reserved. This publication is copyrighted. You may download, display and print it for Your own personal use. Commercial use is prohibited.
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020120726679
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:amk-2020120726679
Tiivistelmä
In recent years, web scraping has become a popular technique to gather large amounts of data from many sources.
The study focused on the exploration advantages of web scraping in the market research process for a small rental business. The business has existing market research that still contains several manual steps and limitations inaccuracy. The objective of this thesis was to introduce and examine how web scraping could support a small rental business in the market research process. The research framework for this thesis was a constructive research approach that helped to fill the gap between theoretical background and practical problem. The definition of web scraping was applied in the market research process, and the implementation process used both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
The thesis was carried out within the scope of a small rental business. The research applied qualitative research by having interviews with potential users of the case study, reviewed the existing market research process, and then analyzed the process's performance with web scraping. The interviews were adopted to collect the views of participants about the web scraper and their feedbacks.
By applying web scraping, the author was able to identify the advantages gained in time productivity and efficiency in the market research process. Moreover, the study presented the implementation of a simple web scraper with Python for small rental businesses. The implementation process was reviewed by potential users and adjusted to meet the case study’s needs better.
The study focused on the exploration advantages of web scraping in the market research process for a small rental business. The business has existing market research that still contains several manual steps and limitations inaccuracy. The objective of this thesis was to introduce and examine how web scraping could support a small rental business in the market research process. The research framework for this thesis was a constructive research approach that helped to fill the gap between theoretical background and practical problem. The definition of web scraping was applied in the market research process, and the implementation process used both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
The thesis was carried out within the scope of a small rental business. The research applied qualitative research by having interviews with potential users of the case study, reviewed the existing market research process, and then analyzed the process's performance with web scraping. The interviews were adopted to collect the views of participants about the web scraper and their feedbacks.
By applying web scraping, the author was able to identify the advantages gained in time productivity and efficiency in the market research process. Moreover, the study presented the implementation of a simple web scraper with Python for small rental businesses. The implementation process was reviewed by potential users and adjusted to meet the case study’s needs better.