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Consumers tend to form their perceptions about a company via two associations: corporate ability (CA) that centers on expertise in producing quality products and corporate social responsibility (CSR) that focuses on societal obligations. To date, investigations on the adoption of such association-based corporate communication strategies are yet to address the interactive and multi-source features of social media. Drawing theoretical insights from corporate associations and the warranting principle, the purpose of this paper is to fill the gap and examine the joint effect of association-based corporate posting strategy and corresponding electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) comment valence on social media.

A three (corporate posting strategy: CSR vs CA vs hybrid (CSR + CA)) by two (eWOM comment valence: positive vs negative) between-subjects experiment (n=193) was conducted.

The effect of corporate posting strategy on consumers’ CSR associations was found to be significant only when eWOM comment valence was positive. Significant main effects of both posting strategy and eWOM comment valence were found on CA associations, perceived corporate reputation, and purchase intention.

This study extends the theoretical framework of corporate associations to the interactive context on social media and provides empirical evidence for the effectiveness of association-based posting strategies when they are jointly presented with eWOM comments at different valence levels. Findings of this study also provide implications for business and communication professionals to communicate with consumers on social media more effectively.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how small and medium enterprises (SMEs) within an entrepreneurial community engage in cross-promotion on social media via Facebook. This paper specifically examines how SME community members leverage their horizontal and vertical ties to generate publicity, improve brand perceptions and drive traffic to themselves or community events.

This paper uses a qualitative approach, examining 1,025 Facebook posts from 27 members of an entrepreneurial community in the southeast USA to develop typologies of posting strategies, post purposes and post functions.

This paper finds that in the entrepreneurial community of interest, many members engage in cross-promotion via social media at various frequencies and with distinctive purposes. This paper identifies five distinct patterns of cross-promotion – quality signaling, traffic driving, community amplifying, hybrid cross-promotion and infrequent engagement. This paper also notes differences between cross-promotional strategies of vertical and horizontal partners.

This paper advances understanding of social media marketing and identifies key patterns of SME social media behavior. Although previous research has noted the importance of social media for SMEs, there has been little research regarding posting strategies being used by these firms. Further, to this point, there has not been a framework to understand how firms can use social media to cross-promote one another. This paper seeks to begin filling these gaps by providing a useful framework that can be used by SMEs in coordinating their social media posting strategies as well as by researchers studying SME cross-promotion.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the impact of post content, post media and post scheduling strategies on online engagement on Twitter in context of micro celebrities in Pakistan.

For this research, micro celebrities of Pakistan have been defined as the target population. Secondary data consisting of 464 tweets from walls of six micro celebrities belonging to both genders and diverse set of socio-political fields was collected. Tweedie estimation analysis was run to accept or reject the hypotheses. Mean values with standard deviations were utilized to analyze the different engagement patterns of dichotomous variables (content type, content language, mentions, hashtags, text, images, links, videos, hour of the day and day of the week) on online engagement.

Content type, content language, content length, hashtags, mentions, images, links, videos, hour of the day and day of the week have been found to have a significant relationship with online engagement on Twitter.

First, the study has been conducted in context of micro celebrities on Twitter. It did not include influencers on other social media networks. Second, study considered only quantitative aspects of engagement based on secondary data ignoring qualitative aspects of phenomenon due to time and methodology constraints. Third, study did not include link clicks as a measure of engagement as clicks data is not publicly available on the posts.

The study contributes significantly to find out valuable “micro celebrity” strategies in Pakistan. The study suggests micro celebrities to tweet soft content in Urdu language along with relevant hashtags and mentions to get higher engagement on their tweets. Further, tweets should contain maximum number of characters. Micro celebrities should not insert images, links and videos in their tweets as these media types result in lower engagement on Twitter. Micro celebrities should tweet at low hours and weekends.

As this study focuses on investigation of better engagement practices for micro celebrities, it will help general public to express themselves more effectively through social media.

First, this is the first study that investigates the online engagement model for micro celebrities. Second, the online engagement model designed in this study has yet not been investigated to best of our knowledge. The theoretical model combines multiple engagement factors discussed in previous studies conducted on Facebook, YouTube, Instagram and Twitter.

The Internet and social media have fundamentally transformed the ways in which individuals find jobs. Relatively little is known about how demand-side market actors use online information and the implications for social stratification and mobility. This study provides an in-depth exploration of the online recruitment strategies pursued by human resource (HR) professionals. Qualitative interviews with 61 HR recruiters in two southern US metro areas reveal two distinct patterns in how they use Internet resources to fill jobs. For low and general skill work, they post advertisements to online job boards (e.g., Monster and CareerBuilder) with massive audiences of job seekers. By contrast, for high-skill or supervisory positions, they use LinkedIn to target passive candidates – employed individuals who are not looking for work but might be willing to change jobs. Although there are some intermediate practices, the overall picture is one of an increasingly bifurcated “winner-take-all” labor market in which recruiters focus their efforts on poaching specialized superstar talent (“purple squirrels”) from the ranks of the currently employed, while active job seekers are relegated to the hyper-competitive and impersonal “black hole” of the online job boards.

Drawing on insights from social influence theory, the MAIN model of digital media affordances and the literature on the attention economy, this study aims to investigate how social media influencers’ community and content strategy contribute to follower engagement behavior in the presence of competition.

This study used a web-scraped data set of Instagram influencers. It measured community strategy using influencers’ number of followers, number of following and breadth of interest; content strategy using modality type and number of posts; competition using number of influencers operating in the same primary domain of interest; and follower engagement behavior using number of likes and comments. A negative binomial regression model was estimated to test the proposed hypotheses.

The findings reveal that elements of influencers’ community and content strategies, such as number of followers, modality type and number of posts, influence follower engagement behavior. Similarly, competition significantly influences follower engagement behavior both independently and by interacting with influencers’ community and content strategy.

The findings offer insight for brands to identify suitable influencers for partnerships. For instance, brands can judge influencers’ suitability for partnership based on how many followers they have, how many posts they share and how many competitors they have. Further, the findings offer insight for influencers on how they can drive follower engagement behavior by managing their social media community and content.

This study develops an integrated model of factors that determine follower engagement behavior for social media influencers. The findings emphasize influencers’ strategy as the primary driver of follower engagement behavior. Extant studies focus on followers’ motivation and perception to explain follower engagement behavior while the role of influencers’ strategy is underplayed.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a comprehensive metric for customer engagement in Facebook, the top social networking site.

The approach is conceptual and it makes operative customer engagement concept in the specific context that is Facebook.

In the new dynamic business environment fostered by Internet, where customer value goes beyond what the customer spends on a brand or a firm, firms will be able to fine-tune their customer engagement strategy by means of the metric results and its evolution.

The paper, which provides insight and a metric for customer engagement in Facebook, is a starting point for future conceptual and empirical research that might be conducted to further refine the proposed metric. The assessment of engagement achieved as a result of actions on Facebook will allow marketers to evaluate the efficiency of the action and, through its longitudinal evaluation, the fluctuation according to different posting strategies used, so managers can see whether engagement or disengagement is happening and then make decisions about which type of content generates better engagement.

The metric offered is unique, as it focuses on customer engagement on Facebook, and to the best of author’s knowledge, there is not any previous attempt to measure it.

This research examines the ways in which museums have utilised their Facebook platforms to communicate about climate and environmental-related challenges. The aim is to offer a snapshot of the phenomenon of museums as contributors to communicating climate-related topics and climate change education.

A content analysis of a purposeful sample of 10 museums’ Facebook postings was conducted. The study examines the themes and topics concerning climate issues that museums have posted and communicated about, the nature of the communication and an examination of responses from the audience.

This research reveals that not all museums in the study sample have communicated the different research-informed causes or contributors to climate challenges confronting societies today. There is also very little evidence of dialogic engagement with audience and the public-at-large. Most communication is still one-way focussing on the relaying of information.

This research highlights the roles of cultural heritage institutions such as museums in communicating climate change-related topics and the need to move towards a more dialogic mode of engagement with their audience. Museums have a role in serving as a trusted and inspirational space for public debates and community empowerment for dealing with climate challenges.

Social media are central to the creation and maintenance of social relations, including romantic relations. While much of the scholarship has examined how social media play a role in the initiation and maintenance of romantic relations, little is known about their role in romantic dissolution. This chapter fills this gap by examining the kinds of strategies young adults employ to cope with the aftermath of a romantic breakup complicated by Facebook. Based on qualitative analysis of 10 interviews with young adults, the authors propose a typology of Facebook coping strategies for romantic breakups. The typology includes seven types of coping strategies with 12 subtopics and 25 specific actions linked to the subtopics. The authors find that those coping with a breakup engage in erasing and avoiding breakup reminders and digital traces, as they perceive them as hurtful. They regulate their use of Facebook and limit Facebook communication with the ex. An important coping strategy used was to express their emotions via Facebook content, often aimed at the ex-partner. They also use Facebook to seek support and new information about the ex, including about potential new romantic interests. Others preferred to avoid information about the ex and either deleted the ex and their friends or chose to unsubscribe to updates. Coping strategies included preventative measures such as changing passwords, blocking the ex, and adjusting privacy settings. We found our participants engaged in both goal-directed and emotionally based coping strategies. Yet, the findings suggest a tendency to rely more extensively on goal-directed coping strategies by actively addressing the breakup stressor. We also note that coping strategies specific to Facebook are more likely to be used than traditional offline forms of coping. This exploratory study serves as a starting point to better understand the role that Facebook plays in mediating online behaviors following a romantic dissolution, such that these strategies can be subsequently evaluated in terms of usefulness in clinical coping recommendations.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a huge negative impact on the world’s hotel industry from the beginning of 2020. As a result of the pandemic, the majority of hotels around the world have decided to close temporarily. It examines the challenges faced by hotel managers and the strategies used to survive.

This research can motivate hotel companies around the world to better understand pandemic situations and develop effective anti-pandemic policies. Based on online in-depth interviews with 25 hotel managers, the findings shed light on the various challenges to hotels.

Findings have shown that the hotel industry has been able to adapt their business for the short term with post-COVID-19 strategies still having limitations. To survive the duration of the pandemic hotels have adopted strategies: reducing employees, promotions and discounts and changing the market segment, as well as levels of maintenance of hygiene and cleanliness. The hotel industry can implement opportunities toward change through government support, crisis management, cooperation with travel agencies and technology.

The current research is to determine the impact of COVID-19 and the adaptive strategies on the hotel sector in the Siem Reap province by the following objectives: (1) To analyse the impacts of COVID-19 in the hotel sector, (2) To identify adaptive strategies in dealing with COVID-19 in the hotel sector and (3) To explore post-COVID-19 strategies of the hotel sector after the COVID-19 pandemic. A qualitative method was employed in the research online and in-depth interviews were conducted with the owner and general manager.

The study suggests that hotels focus more on survival strategies for the short term, so the topic for future research could be to investigate details of strategies after the COVID-19 pandemic in order to research what the hotels' strategic solutions will be and how they will manage the operation after the COVID-19 pandemic for long-term strategies.

This study examines how top global brands changed their corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication on social media during a victim crisis, and how their CSR communication on social media influenced consumer sentiment.

Using 18,502 firms’ Facebook posts and their most relevant consumer comments from pre-pandemic and during-pandemic timeframes, this study integrates machine learning techniques (BERTopic) with human-based qualitative analysis to analyze CSR posts. It also measures the polarity and magnitude of consumer sentiment with Google Natural Language AI. We tested seven hypotheses using Hierarchical Linear Modeling (HLM).

The machine learning-based topic modeling analysis showed that firms increased CSR communications intensity on social media and they more intentionally chose different CSR communication strategies for different topics on social media during the victim crisis. The hypothesis testing results show proactive, accommodative and interactive strategies have a significant impact on consumer sentiment polarity and magnitude, and these effects are moderated by the level of interactivity and industry type.

(1) This study takes a dynamic view to examine the firms’ CSR communication on social media during a victim crisis. It used machine learning-based text analytics and found many interesting results on how firms changed their CSR communication topics and strategies on social media during the crisis. (2) It measures both consumer sentiment polarity and sentiment magnitude to conduct sentiment analysis. The results indicate that the CSR communication strategies have different impacts on the two sentiment components. (3) It integrates machine learning techniques with human-based qualitative analysis. It shows how researchers can gain the benefits of both approaches.

Effective post-disaster communication is essential for destination marketing organizations to encourage visitors following natural disasters. This research aimed to analyze the impact of two typical types of post-disaster communication messages – solidarity messages and testimonial messages – on post-disaster visiting intention. This research proposes effective communication strategies for post-disaster destination marketing.

For the case of Jiuzhai Valley, China, which experienced market recovery after two years of rebuilding following a 2017 earthquake, this study designed three contextual experiments based on post-disaster communication scenarios on the Internet and social media to test the causal chain between recovery message types and post-disaster visiting intentions. The data were analyzed using analysis of variance, independent samples t-tests, and the bootstrap method.

The results indicate that both solidarity messages and testimonial messages evoked higher visiting intention than the no-message group. However, solidarity messages (vs testimonial messages) were more effective when shared on the destination management organization's official account than when they were shared on an influencer's account, with their effects being mediated by the symbolic – as opposed to the hedonic – value of tourist behavior.

Destination management organizations should actively carry out marketing communication through the Internet and social media for areas that have experienced disasters. Crisis communicators should consider inviting popular social media influencers to visit the destination and share their experiences to enhance market confidence, while also paying more attention to the operation of official social media accounts.

This study sheds light on the use of the Internet and social media as tools for post-disaster marketing. By expanding on post-disaster communication theory, this study fills a research gap regarding the effectiveness of tourism marketing strategies after a crisis.

Despite successfully adopting building information modelling (BIM) for design and construction, its adoption in post-construction is critically lagging. This study aims to investigate the adoption of BIM for post-construction in Nigeria. Specifically, it aims to investigate the barriers hindering BIM adoption, propose strategies to facilitate its integration into the post-construction phase and examine the relationship between the barriers and strategies towards adopting BIM for post-construction.

This study employs a quantitative approach to gather numerical data on BIM perceived barriers among International Facility Management Association (IFMA) members. The study also develops strategies from an extensive literature review and combines them with insights from preliminary investigation. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics.

The top perceived barriers among the professionals are lack of BIM awareness, software availability issues and difficulties using new technologies. Institute training/workshops on BIM software for the professionals in the organisation, including BIM software courses in various related professional exams, and encouraging adoption of BIM from the grassroots, such as higher institutions, emerge as the top strategies. The findings further show a significant relationship between the barriers and strategies, emphasising the recognition that understanding barriers prompts the active development and implementation of strategies.

This study holds originality in its examination of the relationship between the barriers and strategies associated with BIM adoption in Nigerian Architecture, Construction, Engineering and Operation.

The advantages of offshoring are increasingly under scrutiny, and coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has advanced the debate, calling for a redefinition of firms' production location strategies. While attention has primarily focused on the relocation of second-degree strategies, such as back-shoring, near-shoring and further offshoring, there are also other alternatives, including home country-based domestic product and process innovations, and the development of new business activities. The objective of the authors' paper is to identify which factors influence decision-makers when they select and implement such post-offshoring strategic alternatives.

The authors consider 11 Italian manufacturing companies that implemented these strategies and analyze triggers, drivers, enabling factors and barriers of the decision phase, as well as content, governance mode and timing of the implementation phase.

Based on the collected findings, the authors suggest a set of propositions for further research. First of all, firms can simultaneously manage multiple strategies by adopting an ambidextrous approach through which to mitigate supply chain risks. They may integrate their domestic and international production activities, but the home country remains central for innovations and production of high-end products and Industry 4.0 technologies increases the probability of investing in their home country. At the same time, lack of competence induces selective near- and back-shoring, while full back-shoring is mainly a consequence of managerial mistakes. Competence availability acts as a barrier to relocation in the home country, inducing the implementation of either an insourcing strategy or a combination of insourcing and outsourcing.

The authors' work identifies post-offshoring as a dynamic process and provides insights into the post-pandemic scenario. The conceptual framework may represent a useful tool for company managers in re-evaluating their initial offshoring strategies.

The study aims to investigate how attribution theory in the context of pricing strategies can help tourism destinations recover from the negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The study adopted a qualitative research design using semi-structured interviews to address the lack of research in this area. Interview participants included tourists and tourism customers. The interview responses were then analyzed using “Nvivo” qualitative data analysis software to identify critical themes regarding applying attribution theory to pricing strategies.

The findings revealed that tourists prefer bundled and hedonic pricing strategies that integrate the service providers' pricing strategies' locus of control, stability and controllability. Tourists do not favor dual pricing strategies unless the reasons for price controllability or stability are justified. Tourists also prefer the controllable pay-what-you-want pricing strategy. Although tourists accept dynamic pricing, certain conditions related to price locus, stability and controllability must be met.

The research shows tourists prefer pricing strategies that give them control and flexibility, like bundled packages and pay-what-you-want models. Service providers should integrate pricing strategies that transparent costs and justify price fluctuations. While dynamic pricing is accepted if necessitated by external factors, tourists are wary of unnecessary price changes. Providers can build trust and satisfaction by explaining pricing rationale and offering controllable options like bundles.

The study contributes to the theory by applying attribution theory to the context of pricing strategies in tourism. It also provides innovative recommendations for tourism managers on how to use pricing strategies after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings offer new insights that extend beyond previous research.

This study aims to investigate whether the contract manufacturer (CM) should take the first-mover advantage in the end-product without supplying core components to the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) immediately, or should fully squeeze the benefit of the learning effect through an amplified production quantity by letting the OEM enter the end-product market early.

The authors propose a two-period model for a supply chain consisting of a CM and an OEM where the CM has four alternative entry strategies concerning it competition to the OEM in the end-product market. For each strategy, the authors derive the equilibrium solutions of the two firms using a backward approach. Comparison leads to the CM’s final choices among the four strategies.

For both CM and OEM, the monopoly and the first-entry strategies will be dominated by either the post-entry or the simultaneous-entry strategy, and thus, their preferred strategy is chosen from the latter two. Regarding the two firms choices between the post- and simultaneous-entry strategy, the CM prefers the post-entry strategy when the OEMs brand premium is at a moderate level, whereas the OEM prefers the post-entry strategy when its brand premium is low, and the learning effect can amplify the interval for the CMs adopting the post-entry strategy as well as changes the interval for the OEMs preference related to the two strategies.

This paper is the first one to explore the optimal strategy for a CM to maximize its profit in a co-opetitive supply chain situation with a CM and an OEM. The authors believe that our paper contributes to both literature and the market.

The environment of uncertainty that emerged due to COVID-19 brought the need for the creation of new policies and strategies. In this aspect, it has been observed that various recovery strategies have been adopted by policymakers. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the efforts of destinations for senior tourism and to determine the development and change in the academic studies and related strategies. The methodology was based on a literature review and examining policy documents linking senior tourism, tourism destinations, and post-COVID-19 strategies. In this vein, this study is exploratory and displays a conceptual foundation for future research.

Covid-19 pandemic have raised serious health concerns, work disruptions and job loss. Thus, Nigeria’s Covid-19 challenges can hinder project performance in the construction sector. By integrating the principle of sustainable construction, it can minimise the environmental and socio-economic impact of Covid-19. This research therefore aims at developing strategies to achieve sustainable project performance in the post-Covid era in Nigeria.

A qualitative research method was used. Data was collected from 13 stakeholders in the built environment. Percentages and thematic analysis were used to analyse data from the interviews.

The study reveals that stakeholders are encountering operational and financial challenges: Increased price of materials, labour and material shortage and project delays were key operational challenges. The financial challenges were related to increased construction cost, reduced profit and payment delays. To address these challenges, the study developed managerial, contractual and governmental strategies: Market survey and bulk purchase, remote working and adherence to Covid-19 protocols were among the key managerial strategies. For the contractual strategies: contracts reviews, smart contracts, working overtime and night shift were developed, while governmental strategies included provision of funds, loans and incentives for workers.

The study deduced that while environmental sustainability was employed to address the Covid-19 challenges, the economic and social aspects were found to be under-utilized. Therefore, the study concluded that a holistic application of environmental, economic and social sustainability themes while incorporating managerial, contractual and governmental strategies is significant for achieving sustainable project performance in the post-Covid era in Nigeria.

The purpose of this paper is to examine internationalising luxury fashion retailers’ entry and post-entry expansion strategies in mainland China.

The study adopts a pragmatic mixed-methods research approach, including a quantitative mail survey and qualitative face-to-face in-depth executive interviews.

Different from initial single entry methods, multiple methods are increasingly popular for luxury fashion retailers’ post-entry expansion in mainland China. Although directly controlled expansion strategies have become significant, local partnerships are still important and omnichannel distribution strategies are rapidly growing.

The findings were generated in mainland China only.

This work provides an understanding of luxury fashion retailers’ activities in the Chinese market from both macro and micro perspectives. It examines luxury fashion retailers’ initial entry strategies, as well as their post-entry expansion strategies in mainland China. Few studies in the area of international luxury fashion retailing have employed a mixed-methods approach with this number of participants.

Natural disasters often destroy hundreds of homes that leave victims homeless and leads to community displacement. In the USA, such disasters happen over 60 times per year. This leads to logistical and contractual nightmare for the planning agencies and political/community leaders required to provide shelter for displaced citizens. One of the most important challenges for the policy makers and aid providers is to make homes available to the homeless victims in as short a period as possible. Temporary shelter is costly and often excessively delayed. Also quality and long stay (more than four years for the Katrina victims) in temporary shelter affected victims both mentally and physically. The aim of this paper is to propose a strategic framework that assists responsible entities to provide housing to the disaster victims in a short period of time, for example to construct 200 homes in 30 days after disaster (representing a subdivision).

The main objective of this research is to perform feasibility study of implementing such a strategy that would enable agencies to provide better solutions for post disaster housing assistance. This paper mainly explains four phases that constitute the development of the strategic framework. The first two phases of the framework carry out pre‐disaster planning and establish relationships among the participating entities. Whereas, the third phase includes simulating post disaster processes identified in the previous phases to evaluate response trade‐offs. The last phase is about the real implementation of this strategy after disaster that also incorporates its outcomes and experiences into previously planned strategy.

It was found through second part of research, simulation studies, that such a strategy can be prepared before the disaster and activated when needed. This would drastically reduce the housing response time.

This would help in improving the strategy for future disasters. Successful execution would facilitate opportunities to reduce stress for the victims and encourage faster recovery.

The purpose of this paper is to show how Sarbanes‐Oxley is motivating corporate boards to bring heightened scrutiny for all aspects of the acquisition process, including valuation. This paper examines how in addition to the high‐tech M&A strategic objective, the decision on the post closing integration strategy should be considered as part of a target's firm valuation.

The paper argues that, within the high‐tech sector, the target firm characteristics in relation to the market are not sufficient for the basis of valuation. Planned management interventions, including the acquirer's management integration strategy decision, should also be considered. It further argues that intellectual capital retention, an important element of the target firm's valuation, is directly related to how closely the pace and degree of integration matches the acquirer's strategic objectives and the outcome of the due diligence.

Based on the findings from a set of interviews with M&A practitioners in the high‐tech field, due diligence, post closing integration planning and identity are viewed as important factors to the acquisition outcome. They appear not to be considered for the target firm valuation, which may result in an acquirer paying an excessive premium.

Finally the paper proposes a framework to guide high‐tech firms to select an integration strategy and its valuation impact in relation to the acquisition strategic objective, the due diligence outcome and the integration strategy.

The outcome of this project is raising the importance of due diligence and post integration strategy in relation to other factors that impact transaction outcome such as intellectual capital retention and valuation.