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This study aims to advance the understanding of both the challenges and the priorities facing Spanish universities undergoing the digital transformation era, to identify areas for improvement in university management, from a managerial point of view.

To analyze the importance and adequacy of various aspects related to digitalization, the authors use the importance–performance matrix, by surveying figures who have or have had a managerial position in the university, such as rectors and vice-rectors.

The results showed that the priority areas were related to strategic and financial management, knowledge management and the society and environment dimension. It all revealed imbalances, the most important of which were in the areas referring to attracting talent, sources of financing, strategic management and digitalization.

The study could benefit from considering or placing greater emphasis on alternative viewpoints, including those of external experts and administrative managers at public universities.

The practical implications relate to university management. In particular, the study highlights two issues that are a priority: attracting talent and training for university management as well as for data management. It follows from these results that legislative development and public funding should be directed towards adapting the training offer as well as the management structure and processes to the context of digitalization.

These results have implications for the public sphere, for decision-making related to the public funding that organizations receive from governments. Indeed, as the empirical results demonstrate, the proposed framework is effective not only in assessing the status of digitalization in the university but also in providing information on the most important aspects that need particular attention to achieve the desired future condition.

The novelty of this study lies in the analysis and evaluation of the digitalization process and how public universities are facing it, from the perspective of university management. Methodologically, the novelty lies in the use of the importance–performance matrix, which not only provides insight into the importance of different aspects to be analyzed but also provides information about their adequacy.

This study examined how audience characteristics and attitudes relate to their perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness of apologies by public figures posted on YouTube.

Four hundred twenty-seven adult participants recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed an online survey via Qualtrics. Participants were randomly assigned to view two of four public figure apologies posted on YouTube.

Results indicated that audience fandom and perceived reputation and attractiveness of the public figure were related to perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness; and perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness were related to intentions of future support.

“Sameness” between the public figure and audience did not garner a more favorable response to the apology, and this is not consistent with earlier studies. For race similarity, the results could have been a reflection of the low number of non-White participants. However, results could indicate that “sameness” is not as simplistic as demographic sameness, such as race, sex or age.

The authors’ findings elevate the importance of gathering and benchmarking pre-crisis attitudinal research to better equip and inform communication professionals for crisis response. In addition, the study suggests that a public figure's strong reputation and fanbase provide a type of inoculation, lessening reputational damage.

The finding that perceived attractiveness relates positively to perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness is consistent with psychological research indicating attractiveness has many positive social implications – even in mediated communication.

Evidence suggests social media apologies matter. Communication professionals need to approach apology opportunities with a keen awareness that relational outcomes and intentions of future support can shift based on social media audiences' attitudes related to the public figure.