External pressure or internal culture? An innovation diffusion theory account of small retail businesses’ social media use

COVID-19 put unprecedented external pressure on small businesses to adopt or increase use of social media while not all small businesses are internally ready for this rapid change. This study investigated the roles of external pressures and organizational culture of openness and learning in driving small retail business owners'/managers' social media use decisions by impacting their perceived usefulness and barriers, based on the innovation-decision process model from the diffusion of innovations theory and the theory of reasoned action. An online survey with structured measurements was administered to 411 U.S. small retail business owners/managers. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that external pressures positively influenced small business owners'/managers’ perceived usefulness and barriers and social media use intention. In addition, the culture of openness and learning positively influenced the perceived usefulness while mitigating the perceived barriers, thereby directly and indirectly influencing the social media use intention. Theoretical and managerial implications are discussed.     

数字档案库参与“非遗”保护发展路径探析——以岭南传统艺术影像档案库为例

针对新时代非物质文化遗产传播和保护面对的现实问题，对非物质文化遗产传承和保护的数字化路径进行深入分析，对岭南传统艺术影像档案库参与非物质文化遗产保护和传承的实践研究得出，新时代的非物质文化遗产传播与保护应当充分运用数字化技术，借助新媒体平台为非遗保护传承赋能。通过创建非物质文化遗产数字化档案库的建设等多种方式，让数字化技术应用到非物质文化遗产的传承和保护当中。     

Digital marketing communication in global marketplaces: A review of extant research,future directions,and potential approaches

Digital marketing communication, that is, communication through digital or electronic media among businesses and consumers, is growing rapidly, especially during the COVID-19 era. We propose a framework for analyzing digital marketing communication along four major dyads, business-to-consumer (B2C), business-to-business (B2B), consumer-to-consumer (C2C), and consumer-to-business (C2B). We review and summarize, for researchers and practitioners, the literature during 2000–2021 in these dyads along four major components: goals; channels, media, and platforms; content; and responses. We find that extant research in digital marketing communication pertains mostly to a specific, national level rather than a global level, despite the porousness of national boundaries for digital marketing. We derive important insights, identify key research gaps and questions in each of the dyads along these dimensions. We suggest approaches to address these research questions under three major components: substantive issues, data, and methods. These approaches can offer the insights that managers need to better formulate digital marketing strategies in local and global contexts.     

All hype or the real deal? Investigating user engagement with virtual influencers in tourism

Virtual influencer (VI) marketing has become increasingly prevalent on social media with the evolving landscape of digitalisation. However, the use of VIs in tourism has received limited attention in the literature. This study examines salient source and content attributes that stimulate Instagram users’ engagement with VIs in a tourism context. An online discrete choice experiment was designed using key attributes (i.e. source realness, image composition and caption discourse) identified from online focus groups. Survey responses from 309 adult Instagram users in Australia were analysed through discrete choice modelling. The findings indicate that humanlike VIs are preferred over 3D animated VIs and the least preferred influencers are 2D animated VIs. Instagram posts from humanlike VIs that combine images of tourism settings with rational messages attract the most engagement from the audience. Theoretical and practical implications are provided with recommendations for how tourism practitioners can harness VI marketing effectively.     

Drivers of eWOM engagement on social media for luxury consumers: Analysis,implications, and future research directions

The rapid industrialization and growth across the world have fostered the consumption of luxury fashion brands. Electronic word-of- mouth on social media (eWOM) is fast becoming an effective and germane strategy to engage luxury consumers through posting pictures, sharing reviews, and communicating information on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Extant research has not examined the antecedents and drivers that lead to eWOM behavior. We leverage self-congruity theory and through its focal lens, our study addresses this research gap through a survey conducted with 453 consumers in Mexico, Latin America's fastest growing market. Our results indicate that need for status, susceptibility to normative influence, and luxury brand involvement, moderated by authentic pride and social media influencers lead to eWOM behavior on social media. We also demonstrate that luxury brand involvement and susceptibility to normative influence mediate the relationship between need for status and eWOM behavior on social media. The study provides important implications to managers and researchers by suggesting long-term actionable strategies for growth that can help luxury firms develop a sustainable competitive advantage over rivals and competitors.     

A study on motivation differences among traditional festival visitors based on demographic characteristics,case study: Gol-Ghaltan festival,Iran

Villages and cities have a growing tendency to share their culture and nature with tourists by developing events. This article aims to identify motivational factors influencing visitors' attendance in traditional festivals and then analyzing significant motivation differences among visitors based on their demographic differences. The statistical sample is domestic tourists who visited the 8th Gol-Ghaltan Festival, Iran in 2015. The convenience sampling method has been used and 287 acceptable questionnaires were acquired. Factor analysis has determined six important motivational factors, including “Gol-Ghaltan and Family,” “Cultural Exploration,” “Socialization,” “Supporting Local Community and Heritage,” “Event Novelty,” and “Escape.” Most of these factors are coinciding with previous literature on cultural events except first and fourth factors. Results of T-test and ANOVA show that visitors in various demographic groups have significant differences in the motivational factors. Finally, in accordance with the findings of the research, practical suggestions are presented for managers and marketers of this event.     

Neo-colonialism and greed: Africans’ views on trophy hunting in social media

Existing studies on the trophy hunting controversy in recent years have largely represented the anti-hunting views of the Western public, while overlooking the opinions of African people. This study taps into Africans’ social media narratives to illuminate the racially, politically, and historically charged context in which trophy hunting occurs in Africa. Data were collected from the Facebook pages of three major social media players with a predominantly African followership, namely, BBC News Africa, News24.com, and NewsDay-Zimbabwe. The dominant pattern was resentment towards what was viewed as the neo-colonial character of trophy hunting, in the way it privileges Western elites in accessing Africa’s wildlife resources. However, the West’s passionate criticism of violence against animals was viewed by participants as overblown, and as evidence of their (Westerners') higher regard for animals than for African people. Interestingly, trophy hunting was not objectionable from an animal rights perspective, but as a consequence of its complex historical and postcolonial associations. In addition, criticism was directed at African politicians who were perceived as allowing wildlife exploitation to satisfy their own greed. In this instance, far from tourism being a facilitator of intercultural understanding and peace, it appears to reproduce images and wounds of a colonial past.     

Determinants of energy use in the informal food sector

Although enterprises in the informal food sector require energy to transform, cook and process food, energy-use patterns in this sector are not well understood by policymakers and the local-level authorities who regulate their trading activities. This paper reviews relevant literature and presents empirical data collected in Rwanda, Senegal and South Africa on the use of traditional and modern energy sources by informal food sector operators. Our sample includes male- and female-operated enterprises in the urban centres of three African countries where the informal food sector is important, not only for providing the convenience of affordable and readily prepared meals, but also as a source of income for women and men in developing countries. Multiple fuel-use and energy-stacking strategies are common among informal food enterprises and policy needs to acknowledge this if it is to intervene in ways that will benefit both enterprises and regulators.     

The more others care,the more you share? – Social contagion as a stardom trigger of social media superstars –

Emerging superstars on social media platforms reshape the media landscape. This research analyses social contagion as a stardom trigger of social media superstars (SMS). We argue that in addition to serving as a quality indicator, the number of observed consumers of SMS performances also indicates the suitability of discussing the SMS performances with others. We experimentally manipulated the number of previous views of a YouTube video and find that a high number of previous views significantly increases the perceived quality and the video’s discussion suitability even when holding all objective video characteristics constant. We discuss implications for aspiring SMS and (online) marketers.     

Secrets to design an effective message on Facebook: an application to a touristic destination based on big data analysis

The objective of this research is to identify which are the key variables for designing a message in a social network that can be used by an advertiser to generate Positive/Negative Engagement. The message’s design variables have been classified into four main groups: (i) Message Tools (presence of text, images, video, labels, applications, interactive games and events calendar or others), (ii) Appropriate Message Structure (length and intelligibility), (iii) Informative Cues (links to the brand, orientation towards the product or the brand, topics relevant to the audience, and a remuneration’s promise) and (iv) Persuasive and Emotional Cues (emotional signals, valence, endorsement and influencer mentions). The focus has been a tourist destination: Brand Spain that is advertised through Facebook. A content analysis was carried out and regression analysis with optimal scaling was used on 180 Spain brand’s publications; 57,626 audience reactions to such publications; and 1361 audience comments on the Brand Spain Official Fan Page. According to our results, from the four blocks of predictive variables, only two of them are useful to predict Positive/Negative Engagement: (i) the use of Message Tools (videos), and (ii) the use of informative cues (relevant topics, links on posts, and post’s orientation towards product).