Michail Vafeiadis, Denise S. Bortree, Christen Buckley, Pratiti Diddi and Anli Xiao
The dissemination of fake news has accelerated with social media and this has important implications for both organizations and their stakeholders alike. Hence, the purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
The dissemination of fake news has accelerated with social media and this has important implications for both organizations and their stakeholders alike. Hence, the purpose of this study is to shed light on the effectiveness of the crisis response strategies of denial and attack in addressing rumors about consumer privacy when non-profit organizations are targeted on social media.
Design/methodology/approach
To test the hypotheses, a 2 (response type: denial vs attack) × 2 (privacy concerns: low vs high), between-group online experiment was conducted via Qualtrics.
Findings
The results indicated that one’s involvement level in the issue determines the effectiveness of the crisis response strategy. Data showed that attacking the source of fake news (as a crisis response) reduces the message’s credibility more than denying fake news. Furthermore, highly involved individuals are more likely to centrally process information and develop positive supportive intentions toward the affected non-profit brand. High issue involvement also predicted organizational and response credibility. Conversely, an attack rebuttal message increased the credibility of the circulated malicious rumors for low involved individuals.
Research limitations/implications
The findings suggest that issue involvement plays a key role in message perceptions of false information regarding consumer privacy in social media.
Practical implications
Practically, this study offers insights for organizations that are developing response strategies in the current environment of fake news. Findings from this study suggest that organizations need to consider the degree to which audiences are currently involved in an issue before deciding how aggressively to respond to perpetrators of fake news.
Originality/value
The present study examines the intersection of fake news and crisis management in the non-profit sector, with an emphasis on various response strategies and issue involvement. This is one of the first attempts to experimentally investigate how social media strategies can defend and protect non-profit reputation in the fake news era.
Details
Keywords
Virginia Harrison, Christen Buckley and Anli Xiao
This study examines the stakeholder’s experiences of two key groups: donors and donor-volunteers. The goals of this study are to (1) determine how donor experience affects…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines the stakeholder’s experiences of two key groups: donors and donor-volunteers. The goals of this study are to (1) determine how donor experience affects organization–public relationships (OPRs) and its antecedents for these two groups and (2) extend the OPR model by considering new potential supportive behavioral intentions arising from OPR outcomes.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from a survey of self-identified donors and donor-volunteers, multiple regressions were performed to establish the possible effects of experience and advocacy on OPRs.
Findings
Findings of this study support the idea that donation experience can be considered a potential antecedent for the OPR. The findings also support the idea that advocacy can be a valuable behavioral outcome resulting from OPR.
Practical implications
Nonprofits are ever seeking to better connect with their donor and volunteer supporters. This study helps to show the value of donation experience and the importance of cultivating advocacy behaviors among these supporters.
Originality/value
The study seeks to merge extant theory in communications and public policy to better understand the OPR model. Specifically, connecting OPR to the antecedent of donor experience and behavioral intentions like advocacy will help paint a stronger picture of donor–volunteer relationships with nonprofits.
Details
Keywords
Anli Xiao and Holly K. Overton
This study examines why publics support corporate social advocacy (CSA) by looking at their support as a form of collective action that is motivated by individuals' shared group…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines why publics support corporate social advocacy (CSA) by looking at their support as a form of collective action that is motivated by individuals' shared group efficacy, anger and politicized identity by applying the Social Identity Model of Collective Action (SIMCA).
Design/methodology/approach
This study adopted an online survey (N = 273), sampling US adults who supported a company's CSA effort.
Findings
The survey found that shared group efficacy with the company led to higher intention to participate in CSA, engaging in positive word of mouth (PWOM) and providing financial support for the CSA cause. Individuals' identification with the company and the CSA cause also predicted intention to support CSA and PWOM. Sharing CSA cause-related anger with the company negatively predicted PWOM.
Originality/value
This study is original as it investigated why and how people support for a company's CSA initiative by applying the SIMCA model. It extends the applicability of the SIMCA model to explain support for CSA. Moreover, this study enriches our theoretical understanding of CSA as it provides implications for why publics support CSA and how corporations can play a central role in gaining publics' support while taking stances on controversial issues.
Details
Keywords
This study examines how congruent moral conviction between an individual and a company impacts organization-public relationships (OPR). Using arguments from the Attribution…
Abstract
Purpose
This study examines how congruent moral conviction between an individual and a company impacts organization-public relationships (OPR). Using arguments from the Attribution Theory, this study also examines how individuals' perceptions of company motives impact the quality of the OPR. This study offers new understanding of what drives individuals' supporting behaviors regarding a company's advocacy efforts and how individual and company ethics contribute to OPR.
Design/methodology/approach
This study conducts an online survey (N = 267) to examine the role of moral conviction as a predictor of OPR in the context of corporate social advocacy (CSA). Four types of attributions are examined as a mediating variable.
Findings
Results indicate that moral congruency between an individual and an organization directly leads to stronger trust and power balance and that moral conviction positively predicts all four OPR dimensions through values-driven attributions.
Originality/value
This study is novel in its inclusion of the moral conviction variable examined in a CSA context, as the role of ethics, or ethical applications, has not been widely examined in this body of literature.
Details
Keywords
Ruobing Li, Michail Vafeiadis, Anli Xiao and Guolan Yang
Sponsored social media content is one of the advertising strategies that companies implement so that ads appear as native to the delivery platform without making consumers feel…
Abstract
Purpose
Sponsored social media content is one of the advertising strategies that companies implement so that ads appear as native to the delivery platform without making consumers feel that they are directly targeted. Hence, the current study examines whether prominently featuring corporate information on social media ads affects how consumers perceive them. It also investigates whether an ad's evaluation metrics on Twitter (e.g. number of likes/comments) influence its persuasiveness and consumers' behavioral intentions towards the sponsoring company. Underlying cognitive and affective mechanisms through which sponsored content operates are also investigated.
Design/methodology/approach
A 2 (corporate credibility: low vs high) by 2 (bandwagon cues: low vs high) between-subjects experiment was conducted.
Findings
The findings showed that corporate credibility and bandwagon cues can influence social media ad effectiveness. Sponsored content from high-credibility companies – evoked more favorable attitudes and behavioral intentions – is perceived as less intrusive, and elicits less anger than equivalent posts from low-credibility companies. Furthermore, it was found that bandwagon cues work via different pathways. For high-credibility corporations, a high number of bandwagon cues improved ad persuasiveness by mitigating consumers' anger towards intrusive sponsored content. Conversely, for low-credibility corporations high bandwagon cues enhanced ad persuasiveness, and this triggered more positive attitudes towards it.
Originality/value
This paper is the first to test corporate credibility and bandwagon effects in social media ads, while also exploring consumers' cognitive and affective responses to sponsored content. Implications for how companies with varying popularity levels should promote products on social media are discussed.
Details
Keywords
Xunzhuo Xi, Can Chen, Rong Huang and Feng Tang
This study aims to examine whether Chinese firms increase their concerns about analysts’ earnings forecasts following the split-share structure reform (SSR) in 2005, which removed…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to examine whether Chinese firms increase their concerns about analysts’ earnings forecasts following the split-share structure reform (SSR) in 2005, which removed trading restrictions on approximately 70% of the shares of listed firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Using data from 2002 to 2019, the authors empirically test the association between meeting or beating analysts’ earnings expectations and the implementation of SSR.
Findings
The authors find that firms are more inclined to meet analysts’ earnings expectations after the introduction of SSR. Further analysis shows that firms guide analysts to walk their forecasts down by manipulating third-quarter earnings, suggesting enhanced value relevance between analysts’ forecasts and third-quarter earnings management in the postreform period.
Practical implications
The findings reveal an undesirable side effect of SSR and suggest that policymakers and regulators should consider and carefully manage the complex relationships between firms and analysts.
Originality/value
In contrast to prior studies that predominantly focus on the positive effects of the reform, this study reveals the side effects of SSR and provides new evidence on the mechanisms of meeting or beating analysts’ earnings expectations.
Details
Keywords
Guocheng Xiang, Jingjing Liu and Yuxuan Yang
The modernization of China’s economy is an integral part of Chinese-style modernization. According to the principle of unifying…
Abstract
Purpose
The modernization of China’s economy is an integral part of Chinese-style modernization. According to the principle of unifying theoretical, historical and practical logic, theoretically explaining the modernization of China’s economy is both a political necessity and a higher scientific requirement.
Design/methodology/approach
Following this evolutionary line – from modes of production to the general economic development mechanism and then to patterns of economic operation and development – this paper employs the principal contradiction analysis method to offer an interpretation of China’s economic modernization from the broad Marxist political economy perspective.
Findings
In economic terms, “get organized” primarily refers to the development and mutual promotion of team-based and market-based division of labor organizations, as discussed by Karl Marx. “Get organized” (specifically the development of team-based division of labor organizations) acts as the engine of China’s economic modernization and serves as the historical logical starting point. Division of labor is the theoretical logical starting point for interpreting China’s economic modernization. The two of them are congruent, achieving the unity of theoretical and historical logic at the starting point. The development and mutual promotion of these “two types of division of labor” inherently generate the general mechanism of economic development first comprehensively discussed by Marx and Friedrich Engels, which involves the division of labor development and market expansion accumulating cyclically and reinforcing each other. This mechanism drives both the high-speed and high-quality development of China’s economic modernization.
Originality/value
The broad Marxist political economy paradigm facilitates explaining China’s economic modernization theoretically, historically and practically with unified logic. “Get organized” serves as both the engine and the realization mechanism of this modernization, with the Communist Party of China (CPC) consistently being the core force of this organizational effort.