Leping You and Jie Jin
Facilitated by social media, employee activism is on the rise, often in response to organizations' own socially irresponsible behavior. Given that digital employee activism is a…
Abstract
Purpose
Facilitated by social media, employee activism is on the rise, often in response to organizations' own socially irresponsible behavior. Given that digital employee activism is a vital yet underexplored research arena, the purpose of this study is to propose and test a theoretical model for understanding this phenomenon.
Design/methodology/approach
A survey was launched on Dynata, a US-based consumer panel company. A total of 657 representative full-time employees working at different levels of positions participated the survey to indicate their perceptual and behavioral responses to organizational social irresponsibility.
Findings
Moral obligation was a significant factor in mediating the relationship between organizational social irresponsibility and digital employee activism. Ideological psychological contract adds supplemental weights moderating the mediation effect on digital employee activism.
Originality/value
This study, based on social regulation theory, explores the rise of employee activism in response to organizations’ socially irresponsible behavior. The study identifies moral obligation and ideological psychological contract as the driving forces behind digital employee activism. This study advances digital employee activism scholarship by incorporating the normative lens of moral obligation and ideological psychological contract.
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This study developed and tested a consumer relations model to determine linkages among brand identity, reputation and value congruence with positive Word-of- Mouth (WOM…
Abstract
Purpose
This study developed and tested a consumer relations model to determine linkages among brand identity, reputation and value congruence with positive Word-of- Mouth (WOM) intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
An intercept survey was conducted during which 350 participants were asked about their perceptions of the store from where they are most likely to purchase coffee among options including multi-national corporations (MNCs) that have global brand identity and small to medium enterprises (SMEs) with local brand identity.
Findings
Reputation and value congruence were positively related to positive WOM intentions. Unexpectedly, respondents indicated more positive WOM intentions toward SMEs than MNCs.
Research limitations/implications
The findings suggested that value congruence and reputation are positively associated with WOM intentions. Yet, consumers indicated greater WOM intentions toward SMEs than MNCs, which implies that SMEs may be unique and have the ability to create more emotional attachment between businesses and consumers.
Practical implications
To promote consumers' positive WOM intentions, corporate/brand communication practitioners need to build a favorable reputation through effective communication that externalizes organizational values among consumers and includes companies' commitment to the communities in which they operate.
Originality/value
Like SMEs, MNCs should build quality relationships with the local community where they conduct business. Also, based on definitions of values and values congruence in the research literature, an original five-item scale of value congruence was developed and validated to measure the congruence between consumers' personal values and their perceptions of a company's values in the context of consumer relationship management.
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Jie Jin and Leping You
As less is known about how internal communication can influence employees’ whistleblowing intention, this study aims to explore how participatory communication, organizational…
Abstract
Purpose
As less is known about how internal communication can influence employees’ whistleblowing intention, this study aims to explore how participatory communication, organizational listening and organizational responsiveness influence employees’ external whistleblowing intention.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey was conducted with 657 employees across various industries in the United States.
Findings
The results revealed that participatory communication, organizational listening and organizational responsiveness can fulfill the organization’s relational contract with their employees. As a communication-charged outcome, the fulfillment of employees’ relational psychological contract is associated with a lower intention to blow the whistle externally.
Originality/value
This study is among the first to examine internal communication strategies, namely, participatory communication, organizational listening and organizational responsiveness, as the antecedents of employees’ relational psychological contract and external whistleblowing intention.
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Jaanika Meriküll and Pille Mõtsmees
The purpose of this paper is to study gender differences in wage bargaining by comparing the unexplained wage gap in desired, realised and reservation wages.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study gender differences in wage bargaining by comparing the unexplained wage gap in desired, realised and reservation wages.
Design/methodology/approach
The notion of desired wages is applied, which shows workers’ first bet to potential employers during the job-search process. A large job-search data set is drawn from the main Estonian electronic job-search site CV Keskus.
Findings
It is found that the unexplained gender wage gap is around 20 per cent in desired wages and in realised wages, which supports the view that the gender income gap in expectations compares well with the realised income gap. The unexplained gender wage gap is larger in desired wages than in reservation wages for unemployed individuals, and this suggests that women ask for wages that are closer to their reservation wages men do. Occupational and sectoral mobility is unable to explain a significant additional part of the gender wage gap.
Originality/value
The paper adds to the scarce empirical evidence on the role of the non-experimental wage negotiation process in the gender wage gap. In addition, the authors seek to explain one of the largest unexplained gender wage gaps in Europe, the one in Estonia, by introducing a novel set of variables for occupational and sectoral mobility from a lengthy retrospective panel.
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Longshan Chen, Leping Yuan and Zhangxiang Zhu
This study aims to explore the value co-creation for developing cultural and creative virtual brand communities (CCVBCs) by developing a conceptual framework based on the…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to explore the value co-creation for developing cultural and creative virtual brand communities (CCVBCs) by developing a conceptual framework based on the stimulus-organism-response framework, social cognition theory (SCT) and social exchange theory (SET).
Design/methodology/approach
The proposed conceptual framework was developed from a comprehensive review of the related literature. This study tested and validated the proposed framework using partial least square structural equation model based on the data collected through a survey.
Findings
First, perceived hedonic benefit was positively affected by content personalization, user interaction design and technological innovation. Perceived social benefit and perceived self-achievement benefit were positively affected by user interaction design and technological innovation. Second, user content creation behavior was affected by perceived social benefit and perceived self-achievement benefit; user browsing behavior was significantly affected only by perceived hedonic benefit, and interaction behavior was significantly affected by perceived hedonic benefit, perceived social benefit and perceived self-achievement benefit. Third, perceived social benefit and perceived self-achievement benefit partially mediated the relationship between user interaction design and interaction behavior. As for the influence of technological innovation on interaction behavior, however, and the influence of user interaction design and technological innovation on content creation behavior, both perceived social benefit and perceived self-achievement benefit had complete mediation.
Originality/value
This study found that the characteristics of developing CCVBCs affected perceived benefit in participating in the value co-creation process. The results contributed to the value creation research by enriching the understanding of user value co-creation in developing CCVBCs.
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Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is highly prevalent in the United States, yet is largely culturally invisible. This study examines what people know about their illness, both before and…
Abstract
Hepatitis C virus (HCV) is highly prevalent in the United States, yet is largely culturally invisible. This study examines what people know about their illness, both before and after diagnosis, and the relationship to race. The data are from in-depth interviews in 2004 with 53 persons, mostly white or African American, with HCV in the southeastern United States. The respondents have varying educational backgrounds, family incomes, and possible modes of transmission of HCV. Regardless of whether the diagnosis of HCV came as a surprise, respondents had a range of reactions including fear, shock, sadness, and ambivalence. Knowledge of the disease postdiagnosis varies as some people have expert knowledge, moderate knowledge, or inaccurate to no knowledge of the disease. Minority respondents have less knowledge of HCV than whites. This racial disparity in knowledge has profound implications for people with HCV and the larger society.
Jennifer J. Guerra and Debra Franco
Millions of children face food insecurity in the United States. Schools play a major role in addressing the problem of food insecurity through the National School Lunch Program…
Abstract
Millions of children face food insecurity in the United States. Schools play a major role in addressing the problem of food insecurity through the National School Lunch Program and the School Breakfast Program which provide meals to children at little to no cost. During the COVID-19 pandemic, schools abruptly closed leaving students without their primary source of nutrition. This chapter highlights responses from federal, state, and local agencies. Additionally, responses from local organizations and school districts are discussed. The researchers review a partnership built to address emergency food relief after the school closures. Data from an impact and need study conducted by the South Texas community partnership demonstrate gaps in programs which left the most vulnerable populations in severe need of assistance. This study reinforces the need for and importance of community partnerships to identify and address gaps in the current programs.
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Longshan Chen, Leping Yuan and Zhangxiang Zhu
This paper aims to examine the motivation for consumer participation in value cocreation and its impact on value cocreation behavior within cultural and creative virtual brand…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to examine the motivation for consumer participation in value cocreation and its impact on value cocreation behavior within cultural and creative virtual brand communities.
Design/methodology/approach
Through an in-depth analysis of the psychological needs of the users of short videos, the motivations for user participation in value cocreation are categorized based on the self-determination theory, and six theoretical models are proposed for the impacts of participation motivation on the different levels of value cocreation behavior. Our research hypotheses are validated by conducting a regression analysis based on the 277 valid responses collected.
Findings
Ranked from highest to lowest by the degree of impact, the motivational factors that have significant positive impacts on browsing behavior are altruistic motivation, information motivation, social motivation, and hedonic motivation. The motivational factors that have significant positive impacts on member interaction behavior are achievement motivation, hedonic motivation, social motivation, and brand identity, while the motivational factors that have significant positive impacts on content creation behavior are achievement motivation, altruistic motivation, information motivation, and social motivation.
Originality/value
This current paper enriches the research on the consumer’s value cocreation behavior in virtual brand communities and provides constructive relevant platform manager’s suggestions for increasing user participation.
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This paper aims to provide a description of the language of advertising in socialist Czechoslovakia (1948-1989) and to offer an understanding of its nature. It focuses on…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to provide a description of the language of advertising in socialist Czechoslovakia (1948-1989) and to offer an understanding of its nature. It focuses on significant linguistic characteristics of the discourse and on the means of argumentation and persuasion.
Design/methodology/approach
Linguistic investigation of the grammar and pragmatics of language used and content analysis studying the lexical level of ads while also considering the broader context in the way of discourse analysis.
Findings
The paper shows that statements are the most frequent utterance type across all the decades and appeals, which one could associate with a direct and strong addressee orientation (and, perhaps, authoritarian system, too), are only present marginally. Concerning what is advertised, the promotion of manufacturer/seller is frequent compared to specific products. A category of product type was relatively important, especially in the 1950s and 1960s. Unlike capitalist advertising, socialist promotion shows also instances of socio-educational and state-political promotion.
Originality/value
As no such study was conducted so far, this paper shows that Czechoslovak socialist advertising constructed an imagination that was very much dependent on consumerism just like advertising in Western capitalist countries, and at the same time, it was reflecting specific socio-political circumstances.
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Akansha Mer and Amarpreet Singh Virdi
The study aims to propose a conceptual Bhartiya (Indian) model of workplace spirituality (WPS) in non-profit organisations (NPOs) in the context of burnout and resilience by…
Abstract
The study aims to propose a conceptual Bhartiya (Indian) model of workplace spirituality (WPS) in non-profit organisations (NPOs) in the context of burnout and resilience by synthesising the concepts of the east and the west. The researchers have kept an open approach by exploring various dimensions of WPS by reviewing the extant literature of both the east and the west. The researchers delved into Bhartiya (Indian) scriptures to identify the concepts that have similarity with the dimensions of WPS so that it may further assist in facilitating those dimensions in NPOs. Furthermore, to propose a conceptual Bhartiya model for NPOs, the researchers synthesised the literature pool of Bhartiya studies on WPS. They examined how WPS decreases burnout and leads to resilience. The study’s findings reveal that concepts from Bhartiya scriptures such as Karm Yog (Nishkam Karm, self-abnegation, swadharm), parasparam bhavayantaha, loksangrah, daivi sampat and kritagyata are instrumental in facilitating the constructs of WPS. Meaningful work is facilitated through karm yog; sense of community is facilitated through parasparam bhavayantaha and loksangrah; and alignment with organisational values is facilitated through daivi sampat and kritagyata. The findings further suggest that WPS is an antidote to burnout and an enabler of resilience.