Designing and validating an online marketing-based commercial soft technology model

The purpose of present study is to design and validate a commercial soft technology model based on online marketing. This is an applied research with a mixed approach. In the first phase, a qualitative approach was used and after a comprehensive review of the literature, the opinions of the experts were discussed. The population of the study consisted of experts in the field of technology and marketing, especially online marketing, with a theoretical saturation of 14 individuals selected by purposeful sampling. In the second phase, the validity of the model extracted from the qualitative stage was investigated using a quantitative approach and a survey. The research instruments in the qualitative part of the study was interview, and questionnaire in the quantitative part. Data analysis was done in qualitative part through thematic analysis, and in quantitative part through structural equation modeling (SEM). After designing the initial model, 390 questionnaires were randomly distributed among local and international online marketing practitioners, people active in hard and soft technologies, university professors, and students familiar with soft business and online marketing technologies. Reliability and validity of the interviews were assessed using inter-subject agreement and seven-stage validity. The reliability and validity of the questionnaire were assessed using Cronbach's alpha coefficient and content validity. The findings of the study revealed the identification of 26 concepts and 5 categories including: soft business technology, market analysis, smart commerce, customer- centric technology, and online marketing. The findings in the quantitative phase confirmed the correlation between structural model components.