Organizational legitimacy of emerging multinational enterprises: An individual perspective

Drawing on the information processing perspective from psychology, the study builds and tests a conceptual model to explain how the country-of-origin image (COI) and media coverage are associated with the organizational legitimacy of emerging multinational enterprises (EMNEs), and how the relationships are moderated by the education level of individuals in a developed host country. This study investigates the relationships by highlighting the multidimensional nature of these concepts. Our findings suggest that affective COI is positively associated with both pragmatic and sociopolitical legitimacy, economic COI is positively associated with pragmatic legitimacy, and political COI is positively associated with sociopolitical legitimacy. The findings also demonstrate that media influence legitimacy; however, the extent to which media influence legitimacy depends on individuals’ education levels. These findings advance our understanding of organizational legitimacy and its antecedents, providing new insights into strategies for building legitimacy in foreign countries.     

Examining the relationship between negative media coverage and corporate social responsibility

This study investigates the relationship between negative media coverage and corporate social responsibility (CSR). We suggest that CSR can compensate for the loss of legitimacy in a firm only when it receives negative media coverage of a given magnitude. Using a sample of Chinese listed firms, the results suggest that in relation to CSR, negative media coverage has an inverted U-shaped curve. When we explore two industrial-level boundary conditions, we find that this nonlinear relationship is more pronounced in firms with higher industrial concentration and dynamism. The results are robust after controlling for endogeneity. This study contributes to CSR and communication literature by deepening our understanding of the nonlinear impact of negative media coverage on firms.     

Legitimation of a heterogeneous market category through covert prototype differentiation

The literature on market category formation provides insufficient insights into how entrepreneurs address the need for collective legitimation of a market category while simultaneously managing tensions between heterogeneous practices. Through a study of the Autism@Work market category, this article shows that covert prototype differentiation constitutes a distinct construct that explains how entrepreneurs in heterogeneous market categories can strengthen category legitimacy while supporting the practices that they perceive as appropriate, without triggering conflicts related to category heterogeneity. The article also provides insights into how market category legitimacy is perceived by entrepreneurs and the antecedents and implications of such perceptions.     

News media and insider trading profitability: An emerging country perspective

We test news media's disciplining by dissemination role and predictive power in insider trading related issues with a large and novel dataset on Chinese firms between 2008 and 2017. We find that more media coverage is associated with significantly lower level of insider trading profitability, which confirms the disciplining by dissemination role of media documented in the developed market. However, as a new evidence to the media and insider trading literature, we also find that media's negative tone has a positive correlation with future insider trading profitability, which is consistent with the media predictive power argument. In addition, we find that media's predictive power is amplified by a firm's good governance structure and low level of information asymmetry. Our study shows news media's effectiveness in predicting opportunistic insider trading in China.     

Charts and demand: Empirical generalizations on social influence

Social influence on consumer behavior has long been a subject of academic research in various scientific fields. According to research by Salganik, Dodds, and Watts (2006), music demand is a function of social influence between consumers. Market concentration tends to increase when information on demand becomes publicly available. In addition, stochastic agglomeration caused by social influence decreases the predictability of market success. These heavily cited findings challenge traditional market research and provide important insights on the impact of social media and sales charts. We test the stability of their results by replicating the study on music demand in a slightly different setting. We further investigate the generalizability of findings by probing other product categories and different phases of purchase decisions, i.e., interest, consideration, and actual demand. Across all categories and across all dependent variables, we are able to replicate the direction of the effects. We do, however, consistently obtain smaller effect sizes than reported in the original paper.     

The paradox of new venture legitimation within an entrepreneurial ecosystem

The current rise in research on entrepreneurial ecosystems notes that many questions are still unanswered. We, therefore, theorize about a unique paradox for entrepreneurs trying to establish legitimacy for their new ventures within and beyond an entrepreneurial ecosystem; that is, when pursuing opportunities with high levels of technological or market newness, entrepreneurs confront a significant challenge in legitimizing their venture within an entrepreneurial ecosystem, while those entrepreneurs pursuing ventures using existing technologies or pursuing existing markets have a much easier path to garnering legitimacy within that ecosystem. However, the diffusion of that legitimacy beyond the ecosystem will be wider and more far-reaching for those pursuing the newer elements compared to those using existing technologies or pursuing existing markets, thus, creating a paradox of venture legitimation. Prior research outlines approaches for new venture legitimacy but it is unclear when these approaches should be applied within and beyond an entrepreneurial ecosystem. To address this paradox, we integrate ideas from the entrepreneurship and innovation literature with insights from the legitimacy literature to describe how different types of venture newness employ different legitimation strategies which results in different levels of legitimacy diffusion beyond an ecosystem. We conclude with a discussion of our concepts and offer suggestions for future research efforts.     

The differentiated effect of advertising on readership: evidence from a two-sided market approach

In this paper, we empirically analyze the French print media market by modeling the existence of a reciprocal effect between the size of the readership and the amount of advertising. For this two-sided platform, we measure the cross-effects of advertising on the readership and periodical popularity on advertising. By estimating a structural model of simultaneous demand equations, we quantify some crucial elements in designing pricing and product-differentiating strategies. We measure the impact of advertising on reader demand and find in the data that it has opposite effects depending on whether the publication presents informational or entertaining content. By taking into account the market interactions, we compute price and advertising elasticities. Our results show that advertisers targeting a specific category of the audience would choose its corresponding periodicals and would trade off the size of the readership for these periodicals and the advertising insert price changes. Also, advertising campaigns aimed at reaching a broader spectrum of the population should focus on popular titles and on titles for which demand is inelastic to ensure a more consistent impact of the campaign. Finally, for magazines with low price demand elasticity on the readers’ side, editors’ revenues could be improved by increasing prices. These combined effects should allow a publisher to generate positive margins from both sides of the market, for certain content categories.     

On the (Re)Construction of Corruption in the Media: A Critical Discursive Approach

Although corruption has become a hot topic in organizational research, few studies have examined how it is socially constructed. To partially bridge this gap, the present paper takes a critical discursive perspective on the representation of corruption in the media. The empirical focus is on the media coverage of a corruption scandal that revolved around two instances of formal corruption charges and successive acquittals. Based on the analysis, the paper exemplifies how the media makes sense of and gives sense to controversial activities in response to changing and at times contradictory information. In particular, the paper highlights interplay between four dominant discourses—transgression, political, public scapegoating, and individualistic—that that were mobilized throughout the media coverage. These discourses were intimately linked with wider dynamics between problematizing and restorative media framings and thus provided crucial means of reconstructing and reformulating the (il)legitimacy of the reported activities throughout the scandal. While the findings are context specific, this study suggests that similar interplay and dynamics are important aspects of media sensemaking around controversial activities related to corruption.     

Legitimacy and accelerated internationalisation: An Indian perspective

This paper extends the institutional theory perspective by examining the strategic behaviour of founders of smaller service firms in a key emerging economy—India. Building on accelerated internationalisation and legitimacy literature in the emerging market context, we provide a new perspective, emerging market aggressiveness, which explains why founders/managers are not always passive recipients of their environment. Their selections of locations are dependent on the vision and stretch goals of the founder and their ability to gain legitimacy quickly to move that vision to a reality. They do not appear to be limited by their potential liabilities of newness, foreignness, emergingness or outsidership. They adopt committed modes of entry from the outset to build their legitimacy and reduce their liability as an outsider. Using a qualitative multiple case study approach, we demonstrate that managers are able to use proactive, planned and unplanned strategies simultaneously, in order to quickly prepare themselves to take advantage of transient international opportunities, ahead of their competitors in advanced markets.     

Strategic Commitment and Timing of Internationalization from Emerging Markets: Evidence from China,India, Mexico,and South Africa

In a study of 257 new ventures from China, India, Mexico, and South Africa, we find support for the mediating effect of strategic early internationalization on international sales intensity. We argued that when new ventures from emerging markets internationalize early and with commitment, the legitimacy they acquire helps them overcome liabilities of newness and foreignness. We develop a typology of international new ventures that, based on strategic intent and timing of internationalization, distinguishes strategic early internationalizers from persistent, serendipitous, and long‐term internationalizers. We show that strategic early internationalization accounts for over half of the explained variance in international sales intensity and either fully or partially mediates the effects of managerial knowledge and market orientation on international sales intensity.     

Institutional forces in adoption of international joint ventures: Empirical evidence from British retail multinationals

In this study, we used institutional theory as a lens to understand the factors that influence the adoption of international joint ventures. Drawing on case evidence from British retail multinationals, we found MNEs adopting IJVs to manage a range of host market institutional pressures and to build legitimacy in foreign markets. Normative institutional legitimacy with customers, property agents and employees emerged as particularly salient for MNEs in our retail cases. The findings further indicated that IJV-derived legitimacy is central to market entry and development objectives. Finally, contrary to institutional theory's central assumption that MNEs seek to conform to institutional pressures, we find IJVs enabling MNEs to practice non-conforming responses, including negotiating and altering local social norms.     

Investigating the impact of social media images’ value,consumer engagement,and involvement on eWOM of a tourism destination: A transmittal mediation approach

Tourism organizations use social media to promote their destinations and attract new customers. However, there is a challenge in how tourism organizations can choose or create social media images to successfully attract consumers' attention, induce their engagement with the destination, and motivate their eWOM behavior. This study aims to identify and test the direct and indirect factors related to social media images of tourism destinations that could predict eWOM. Using the Stimulus-Organism-Response (S–O-R) as an umbrella framework, we integrated Ducoffe's model and the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), to study the role of social media destination images' features (entertainment, informativeness, irritation, credibility, personalization, and incentives) on consumer's perceived value and eWOM through consumer engagement and involvement. Using a survey research method, we collected data from 307 individuals and tested the proposed structural model using the PLS-SEM-based transmittal mediation approach. The findings supported the proposed relationships providing valuable theoretical and practical implications.     

Communicative Dynamics and the Polyphony of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Network Society

This paper develops a media theoretical extension of the communicative view on corporate social responsibility by elaborating on the characteristics of network societies, arguing that new media increase the speed and connectivity, and lead to higher plurality and the potential polarization of reality constructions. We discuss the implications for corporate social responsibility of becoming more polyphonic and sketch the contours of “communicative legitimacy.” Finally, we present this special issue and develop some questions for future research.     

Media Coverage and Firm Valuation: Evidence from China

Drawing on both a managerial discipline perspective and an information intermediary perspective, we explore how media coverage of a firm’s controlling shareholder influences firm valuation in corporate China. Using 366 listed family firms in China from 2003 to 2006, we find that firms in which controlling shareholders receive more neutral media reports enjoy higher valuation, whereas negative media reports on controlling shareholders impose adverse effects on firm valuation. Interestingly, favorable media coverage of the controlling shareholders does not enhance firm value. Further analyses reveal that ownership structure and audit quality moderate the relationship between media coverage and firm valuation. Our study complements the emerging literature on the monitoring role of the media on the stock markets.     

媒体关注、产权性质与上市公司融资约束——基于Heckman两阶段模型的实证检验

基于信息不对称理论和声誉理论,文章以2010-2014年沪深两市5988个观察样本为研究对象,采用Heckman两阶段模型实证检验了媒体关注对上市公司融资约束的影响机理,探讨了不同产权性质情况下媒体关注对融资约束的影响差异。研究结果显示：媒体关注与上市公司融资约束呈负相关关系,媒体关注可以缓解企业的融资约束程度;正面媒体报道可以降低企业的融资约束程度,而负面媒体报道则会加剧企业的融资约束程度;媒体关注对不同产权性质企业融资约束的影响存在差异。具体而言,相对于非国有企业而言,媒体关注对国有企业的融资约束缓解程度更大。     

A mediation model between dimensions of social capital

Our paper contributes to the growing research by examining the interrelations between the dimensions of capital and their effects on the international market share of multinational companies in the global contractors industry. Previous works on social capital have failed to study the interrelationships between its dimensions or have proposed models with direct relationships. The current study proposes a multiple mediating model and tests the mediation. In particular, we posit that the relational and resource dimensions play a mediating role in the structural dimension-international market share relationship. A variance-based structural equation modeling (Partial Least Squares) has been applied to a sample made up of 225 global contractors. Our analysis lends support to the importance of the central positions of a firm and their influence on international market share. Moreover, mediation hypotheses posit how the relational and resource dimensions play a critical mediating role in the structural dimension – international market share relationship. Analysis of the data suggest that the dimensions of social capital are interrelated in such a way that the relational and resource dimensions: (a) fully mediate the effect of centrality (structural dimension) on the international share market and (b) exert significant influence on the international market share of each company.     

Determinants of Store Brand Share

Private labels or store brands have witnessed considerable growth in the last few decades, especially in grocery products. However, market shares of store brand vary considerably across categories, markets, and countries. A natural question of interest to academics and practitioners is what factors influence store brand market shares. Drawing on a utility framework, we develop 21 consumer, manufacturer, retailer, and product-market characteristics that can influence store brand share. We test the empirical generalizability of the effect of these determinants through a meta-analysis of data from 54 individual and aggregate market studies. Twenty of the 21 determinants show significant, empirically generalizable effects. We discuss the key findings, their implications, and directions for future empirical research.     

Children’s media socialisation: parental concerns and mediation in Iran

Children’s media socialisation, parental concerns, and mediation styles have been studied mainly in the US and Europe. The present research aims to extend media socialisation theory by investigating children’s media behaviour and parental concerns and mediation styles in Iran, and then to compare the findings with the research based on parents in Western countries. Based on in-depth interviews with parents from Iran, we put forth propositions and a media socialisation model. We find that parental concerns and behaviour are influenced by their cultural practices and expectations, government regulations, and media dominant in the local region.     

Is Positive Always Positive? The Effects of Precrisis Media Coverage on Rumor Refutation Effectiveness in Social Media

While providing an unparalleled platform to enable consumers to share information easily with others, social media also threatens organizational control of information and increases risk when organizations become the focus of harmful rumors. Denials, or statements refuting rumors, are able to reduce consumers’ belief in and intention to share rumors. However, the evidence of their effectiveness is not uniformly supportive. Although scholars have highlighted the importance of identifying the moderators for rumor refutation effectiveness, media, as one of the essential infomediaries to shape consumers’ perceptions about firms, was largely overlooked in literatures. This study, therefore, explores the extent to which effective rumor refutation is a function of precrisis media coverage. Drawing on the literature in expectancy violation and media influences on social perceptions, we assessed the influence of precrisis media coverage on rumor refutation effectiveness in a scenario-based experiment. The findings suggest that the tenor of media coverage moderates the relationship between the quality of refutation arguments and refutation effectiveness. When the media coverage is positive, high-quality refutation arguments will not result in significant lower levels of belief in, and intentions to share, the rumor than low-quality arguments. This study contributes a clearer understanding of rumor refutation effectiveness, as well as furnishing important insights regarding the value of media coverage and reputation.