Suk Chong Tong and Fanny Fong Yee Chan
Based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses, this study revisits public relations (PR) and marketing practitioners' perceptions of PR function and its relationship with…
Abstract
Purpose
Based on both quantitative and qualitative analyses, this study revisits public relations (PR) and marketing practitioners' perceptions of PR function and its relationship with marketing function in the digital context.
Design/methodology/approach
An online survey targeting 234 PR and marketing practitioners was first conducted, followed by a total of 27 in-depth interviews with PR and marketing practitioners.
Findings
Results from the two phases of analysis show that both PR and marketing practitioners perceive market functions as sales-oriented, whereas media relations is interpreted as more of a PR function. Content marketing and influencer marketing via digital communication channels help to enhance the convergence of PR and marketing functions. PR and marketing practitioners believe that PR and marketing functions are integrative, and they are willing to work flexibly for both functions within workplaces.
Originality/value
This study presents a continuum of PR and marketing functions in the digital era that illustrates the role of digital communication in the convergence of PR and marketing functions. The results help to advance the theoretical discussion on both the functional (excellent PR practices and relationship management) and critical (the social role of PR in the participatory culture) approaches of PR in the digital context. Managerial implications are also discussed in addition to the theoretical contributions.
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Suk Chong Tong and Fanny Fong Yee Chan
With the growing popularity of digital engagement, this study explores the interrelationships among digital engagement, interactivity and engagement strategies from the…
Abstract
Purpose
With the growing popularity of digital engagement, this study explores the interrelationships among digital engagement, interactivity and engagement strategies from the perspective of practitioners.
Design/methodology/approach
Individual in-depth interviews were conducted with 27 practitioners who have been involved in marketing communication activities in Hong Kong.
Findings
It was found that practitioners interpreted digital engagement mainly from the cognitive and behavioral dimensions and organizations engaged with their target audiences with either transactional or transitional communications. Functional interactivity and medium interactivity were perceived as the basis of digital engagement.
Originality/value
This qualitative analysis enriches the extant literature in marketing and public relations by delineating the relationships between interactivity and the use of different levels of digital engagement strategies, as well as guiding practitioners in setting effective digital engagement strategies.
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Suk Chong Tong and Fanny Fong Yee Chan
Market-oriented relations has been regarded as a kind of public relations practices widely performed by the practitioners of public relations and marketing. This study attempts to…
Abstract
Purpose
Market-oriented relations has been regarded as a kind of public relations practices widely performed by the practitioners of public relations and marketing. This study attempts to discuss market-oriented relations in the digital era in which public relations and marketing practitioners' involvement in managing market-oriented relations was simultaneously related to their perceptions of interactivity effects, value of public relations and benefits of digital media usage in public relations practices.
Design/methodology/approach
A self-administrated online survey targeting 241 practitioners engaged in coordinating public relations activities in Hong Kong was conducted in 2017.
Findings
Structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis showed that practitioners' involvement in market-oriented relations practices had significant positive effects on their perceptions of interactivity effects, value of public relations and benefits of digital media usage. Practitioners' perceptions of interactivity effects and benefits of digital media usage were positively affected by their perceptions of public relations value, particularly public relations effectiveness. Clients' profitability and business intelligence, as well as interactivity effects in terms of involvement and perceived customization were practitioners' key concerns in managing market-oriented relations.
Originality/value
This study explores how practitioners of public relations and marketing perceived and practiced public relations in the digital era. Specifically, the conception of market-oriented relations in regard to the use of digital media was discussed in the proposed structural model.
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Suk Chong Tong and Fanny Fong Yee Chan
With the prevailing use of online communication platforms, this study revisits the definitions of trust in an online context. By exploring organizational online communications…
Abstract
Purpose
With the prevailing use of online communication platforms, this study revisits the definitions of trust in an online context. By exploring organizational online communications from a practitioners' perspective, a conceptual framework that illustrates the nature of trust and its relationship with dialogic communication between organizations and organizations' stakeholders in the digital era is proposed.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 27 in-depth interviews were conducted with public relations and marketing practitioners involved in coordinating organizational online communications in Hong Kong.
Findings
From the practitioners' perspective, stakeholders' online trust toward an organization, which is a hybridity of initial and rapidly evolving trust, begins with stakeholders swift and initial judgment of the organization according to category-based cues (including knowledge-based attributes of the organization, institutional cues, and particular attributes of online dialogic communication) available on online platforms and further develops over time. Practitioners regard the integration of online and offline communication platforms to be the most effective way to build trust in organization–stakeholder relationships in the digital era, while dialectical tensions can hinder trust formed in online communication.
Originality/value
Along with the proposed conceptual framework, this study advances the discussion of online trust in public relations practices from the practitioners' perspective. A qualitative approach provides rich descriptions that may help to enrich theories in public relations and communication management regarding the interplay of trust and dialogic communication in organizational practices in the digital era.
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The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of financial communication to investigate the process of communicating risk signals between listed companies and their individual…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to propose a model of financial communication to investigate the process of communicating risk signals between listed companies and their individual retail investors in initial public offerings (IPOs).
Design/methodology/approach
A survey study on individual IPO investors (n=212) in the Hong Kong Stock Exchange was conducted to examine how risk estimates of individual retail investors were affected by three factors of financial communication, namely organizational trust, organizational reputation and investors’ trust in the media specialists. Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted.
Findings
Respondents’ perceived risks of below-target returns and perceived risks of losses of principals were significantly affected by their perceived market risks. Respondents relied significantly on organizational trust to estimate their amounts of target returns and mitigate their perceived risks of losses of principals. Organizational reputation, which could be possibly reinforced by respondents’ trust in the media specialists, could enhance organizational trust.
Practical implications
Corporate communications practitioners should pay attention to the effect of perceived market risk on risk estimate. As organizational trust is a significant precondition of risk taking in IPOs, practitioners should rethink the effectiveness of financial communication in which organizational trust, organizational reputation and investors’ trust in the media specialists are interrelated.
Originality/value
There is a lack of research in financial communication from the organization-stakeholders perspective. This paper conceptualizes financial communication and provides insights to both scholars and practitioners in corporate communications on how significant factors of financial communication affect risk estimate in the financial market.
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Since the launch of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) in 2003, Hong Kong cinema is believed to have confronted drastic changes. Hong Kong…
Abstract
Purpose
Since the launch of the Mainland and Hong Kong Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) in 2003, Hong Kong cinema is believed to have confronted drastic changes. Hong Kong cinema is described to be dying, lacking creative space and losing local distinctiveness. A decade later, the rise of Hong Kong – China coproduction cinema under CEPA has been normalized and changed the once pessimism in the industry. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how Hong Kong cinema adjusted its production and creation in the first 10 years of CEPA.
Design/methodology/approach
Beginning with a review of the overall development, three paradigmatic cases are examined for reflecting upon what the major industrial and commercial concerns on the Hong Kong – China coproduction model are, and how such a coproduction model is not developed as smooth as what the Hong Kong filmmakers expected.
Findings
Collectively, this paper singles out the difficulties in operation and the limit of transnationality that occur in the Chinese context for the development of Hong Kong cinema under the Hong Kong – China coproduction model.
Originality/value
This is the author’s research in his five-year study of Hong Kong cinema and it contributes a lot to the field of cinema studies with relevant industrial and policy concern.
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Amir A. Abdulmuhsin, Rabee Ali Zaker and Muhammad Mujtaba Asad
Drawing on knowledge-based view, social exchange theory and leader-member exchange, this study examines how exploitative leadership (EL) influences knowledge management (KM), its…
Abstract
Purpose
Drawing on knowledge-based view, social exchange theory and leader-member exchange, this study examines how exploitative leadership (EL) influences knowledge management (KM), its processes, and further investigates the moderating role of organisational citizenship behaviours (OCB) on the relationship between EL and KM.
Design/methodology/approach
Using a quantitative approach, survey data were collected from 356 faculty members in Iraqi public universities, and the direct and moderating relationships were assessed through Hierarchical regression by PROCESS v.3.3 macros in SPSS.
Findings
The study found a significant negative impact of EL on KM, including its processes, especially on knowledge utilisation. The assessment also revealed that OCB has a significant moderating impact on EL, particularly its effect on knowledge creation.
Practical implications
The empirical insights of the study are valuable and precious for policymakers, managers and academics in education sectors of developing countries, to enrich their managerial and scientific performance through addressing EL behaviours while considering the moderating effect of OCB.
Originality/value
The relevance of the study stems from the scarcity of research on EL, while studies on the negative behaviours of leaders as a predictor of KM process failures are significantly limited. Additionally, studies on the moderating impact of OCB on the linkage between EL and KM processes remain limited. This study is one of the earliest studies that investigate these inter-relationships amongst EL, OCB and KM processes.
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Christopher von Koch and Magnus Willesson
The purpose of this paper is to review the literature that measures the concept of firms' information environment (IE) with focus on the validity of proxies used to measure IE.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to review the literature that measures the concept of firms' information environment (IE) with focus on the validity of proxies used to measure IE.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper reviews the IE literature using theoretically based categories and analyzes the contextual meaning and use of IE proxies. The review is based on a selection of 284 research articles from 51 journals between 2000 and 2018. A total of 37 different proxy measures of IE are found and analyzed with respect to causality based on categories and the use of IE variables as dependent, independent and control variables.
Findings
The study indicates that the IE measures are heterogeneous and there is a lack of consensus regarding their use. The different conditions used to study IE explain part, but far from all, of this heterogeneity. Furthermore, we find that the use of IE measures is only briefly discussed or motivated among the studies in the sample. These findings suggest a necessary discussion about causality in the use of IE as dependent, independent or control variables.
Originality/value
This study contains new and significant information on IE and IE proxy measures. It provides an extensive literature review and provides a novel typology to analyze IE.