Online Engagement and the Role of Digital Influencers in Product Endorsement on Instagram

Abstract

The article aims to analyze the forms of engagement generated from the endorsement of products by digital influencers on Instagram, considering the characteristics of their online posts. A qualitative approach was used to investigate digital influencers’ posts based on semiotic image analysis and the critical incidents technique. The results reinforced that digital platforms enable distinct forms of engagement by establishing new configurations that affect relationship marketing and promotion strategies. In particular, on Instagram, the development of engagement can involve four participants who play different social roles, expanding the process of value co-creation.     

The Influence of B to B Social Media Message Features on Brand Engagement: A Fluency Perspective

Purpose: Social media is increasingly drawing the attention and interest of business-to-business (B to B) organizations. Yet, B to B organizations remain cautious in their social media pursuits, in part based on a stated lack of understanding for best practices. The purpose of the current work is to take initial steps to address this challenge by identifying specific social media message features that influence online users’ engagement with B to B organizations.

Methodology/Approach: This work examines the Twitter feeds of the top 50 social B to B brands (as reported by Brandwatch in 2015) to examine the effects of message features (hashtags, text difficulty, embedded media, and message timing) on user engagement, captured in terms of Twitter likes and retweets.

Findings: We argue that message features that enhance fluency (e.g., images) should enhance engagement. In contrast, those that disrupt fluency (e.g., hasthags) should result in lower levels of engagement. Consistent with these predictions, we find that hashtags and text difficulty correlate to lower levels of engagement whereas embedded media in the form of images and video correlate to higher levels of engagement. Also consistent with the proposed fluency framework, we find that tweets from B to B organizations generate greater engagement on evenings and weekends.

Research Implications: This research applies a fluency lens to identify specific message features that influence online engagement. In doing so, it highlights fluency as a powerful construct for understanding the drivers of B to B social media brand engagement. More generally, this work suggests fluency as a valuable conceptual lens for developing effective B to B social media strategies. This research also speaks to the complexity of B to B social media strategies – organizations must go beyond content and platform decisions, to also consider the specific features of the message.

Practical Implications: Social media is becoming more and more important to B to B organizations and is as yet an underutilized engagement tool. The current work offers initial strategies regarding message features that business practitioners can incorporate into their content development strategies to strengthen engagement. Specifically, efforts should be made to attain high levels of fluency in B to B social media content development.

Originality/Value/Contribution of the Paper: The current work offers initial insights as to the importance of understanding not only how social media topics/content influence engagement, but also the influence of message features (e.g., hashtags, embedded media). In doing so, it highlights fluency as a novel conceptual lens for developing more effective B to B social media strategies. Finally, it draws on actual tweets from leading B to B brands to examine the proposed influence of message features on engagement.     

网络服务场景对顾客契合的作用机理:一个非递归模型

网络服务场景是在线顾客和企业交互的第一线,也是网络商店吸引顾客和保留顾客的重要营销手段.从顾客信任的视角,构建非递归模型揭示网络服务场景对顾客契合的作用机制.在此基础上,采用实验法收集数据,利用结构方程模型验证理论假设.研究结果表明:网络服务场景中的审美诉求、功能布局和财务安全因素均有助于促进顾客契合和网络信任,但是审美诉求对顾客契合的直接影响不显著,其主要通过网络信任间接作用于顾客契合;网络服务场景因素刺激下的顾客契合和网络信任之间呈非递归关系;顾客经验对网络服务场景和顾客契合,以及网络服务场景和网络信任之间的关系均具有调节作用.     

Influence of Organizational Form and Customer Type on Online Customer Satisfaction Ratings

In this paper, we explore the impact of the organizational form (company‐owned versus franchised) and the type of customer (nonbusiness versus business) on online consumer‐generated satisfaction ratings in the hotel industry. Our empirical study deals with 6,348 TripAdvisor reviews regarding stays at one of 134 hotels of a plural form chain located in a Western European country. Our main finding reveals that the type of customer moderates the relationship between organizational form and customer satisfaction; business travelers having higher satisfaction with franchised hotels than company‐owned hotels in terms of satisfaction. We discuss the implications of these findings for the management of plural form chains.     

Like,Share, Retweet: Testing Competing Models of the Theory of Planned Behavior to Predict Slacktivism Engagement

ABSTRACT

Token support for social causes has been increasingly studied and commented on in recent years. Campaigns such as the Livestrong bracelet, the pink breast cancer ribbons, the Kony 2012 video, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, and the Facebook profile picture modifications for marriage equality and support for Paris after the terrorist attacks in November 2015, have been coined “slacktivism” and those who engage in such activities “slacktivists”; however, little empirical research has been done on the topic. Most of the research and commentary on slacktivism focuses on social media activity online. This research tests competing models of the theory of planned behavior in predicting an individual’s slacktivism engagement from their attitudes, norms, perceived behavioral control, and behavioral intention. The results suggest that although the theory may be a plausible representation of the data, behavioral control may not be important in the context of engaging in slacktivism.     

垄断对顾客购买行为的影响分析

顾客购买行为指顾客满意和顾客忠诚。在静态古诺模型中加入顾客忠诚度这个变量,分析了垄断对顾客忠诚度的影响,从数学的角度证明了垄断与顾客忠诚度负相关;同时提出了垄断系数,以刻画不同竞争环境,并构造了顾客忠诚度关于顾客满意度的函数,以此针对不同产品分析顾客忠诚度和顾客满意度之间的关系。     

The Influence of Servant Leadership on Restaurant Employee Engagement

Servant leadership is a leadership philosophy which addresses the concerns of ethics, customer experience, and employee engagement while creating a unique organizational culture where both leaders and followers unite to reach organizational goals without positional or authoritative power. With employees viewed as one of the greatest assets for organizations, maintaining loyal, productive employees while balancing profits becomes a challenge for leaders, and drives the need to understand employee engagement drivers. Thus, the purpose of this study was to qualitatively explore servant leadership from the perspective of employees. Participants were 11 employees from a servant leadership led restaurant who took part in two focus groups. The modified van Kaam method (Moustakas 1994) contributed to data analysis, which examined employee responses for comparison and assessment. Several themes emerged including servant leader experience, servant leader traits, the impact of servant leadership, the application of servant leadership, and limited employee attrition. The themes revealed servant leadership positively influences employee engagement while contributing to employee loyalty to the workplace. Based on the servant leader experience, participants were more committed, built healthy work relationships, and actively participated in achieving organizational goals. Findings are discussed in light of current research and practical applications are provided.     

The Influence of Religiosity on Consumer Ethical Judgments and Responses Toward Sexual Appeals

This research explores the influence of religiosity on consumer perception of, and response toward, sexual appeals. The first study (survey, national sample; n = 423) examines the relationship between religiosity and consumer response toward sexual appeals using causal modeling. Study 1 finds that high intrinsic religiosity consumers exhibit more adverse ethical judgments toward the company’s use of sexual appeals and these judgments, in turn, result in inferior attitudes and purchase intent toward the advertised brand. To confirm and expand on these findings, the second study (experiment, young adult sample; n = 216) examines the influence of intrinsic religiosity on consumer response toward both sexual and nonsexual appeals. The results show that sexual appeals elicit inferior (superior) ethical judgments, attitudes, and purchase intent among consumers high (low) in intrinsic religiosity. In contrast, nonsexual appeals elicit (un)favorable responses from consumers who are (low) high in intrinsic religiosity.     

积分对电子商务网站客户忠诚度影响研究

积分作为电子商务网站一种客户激励措施而在业内广泛应用。通过建立结构化方程模型,设计积分便利性和积分优惠程度的指标,应用AMOS软件运行分析,结果发现积分使用便利性和积分优惠程度对客户忠诚度具有正向影响。针对目前行业内积分应用出现的问题,提出积分设计原则：积分容易获取、降低积分使用条件、加大积分优惠程度。     

利己/利他公益广告诉求对亲社会性消费行为的影响研究

目前消费者在面对公益广告时,态度与行为存在明显的不一致性.本文从态度-行为差异视角分析利己/利他导向的公益广告诉求对个体亲社会性消费行为的影响,并进一步探究自我控制在两者间的中介作用.结果表明:利己导向的广告诉求对个体态度的影响要弱于利他导向的广告诉求,但对于个体行为倾向的影响却强于利他导向的广告;利他导向广告诉求背景下被试的自我控制水平明显弱于利己导向的广告诉求背景下的被试,但是自我控制对个体亲社会性消费的态度与行为未产生显著影响;自我控制的中介作用未得到证实,表明公益广告在激发个体自觉性方面未能产生理想效果.文章在上述结论的基础上提出了一些关于公益广告管理的建议.     

品牌社群对顾客价值感知和创新的影响研究

近年来,品牌社群作为消费者群体性虚拟组织迅猛发展,为我们解读顾客价值提供了重要途径。文章认为,品牌社群的特征影响着顾客价值感知和顾客价值创新。通过实证分析可知,品牌社群技术性及品牌社群参与性等对顾客价值感知有正向影响,品牌社群共同意识、道德责任感及品牌社群技术性对顾客价值创新有正向影响。品牌社群运营者可以通过提高品牌社群技术性、促进成员的共同意识、道德责任感和参与性等方面做出行动,以促使成员更好地感知焦点品牌的顾客价值并且参与价值创新,品牌企业也可以通过关注和引导品牌社群的发展增强企业的竞争力。     

商业友谊对关系品质和顾客忠诚的影响之研究

过去友谊的探讨只停留在社会性方面,很少论及它在商业活动中的经济性交换特性,所以相关理论未推广至商业环境,因此,顾客在消费过程中与服务人员建立的朋友关系即商业友谊的探讨将有助于弥补和完善这一缺口和理论。本文将对商业友谊这一重要的营销关系进行探讨,并通过以美容院为研究对象的实证研究,分析它与关系品质和顾客忠诚的影响,揭示商业友谊对服务性企业的重要性。     

顾客满意水平对顾客行为影响研究的评述

企业界和理论界对顾客满意度及影响顾客满意的因素进行了大量的研究 ,但对于不同满意水平对顾客行为影响的研究却涉足较少。本文对欧美等西方国家在此方面的研究进行了较详实的总结和概括 ,并进行了评述 ,提出应将顾客满意水平当成一个连续变量来考虑顾客行为 ,同时也应当考虑中介变量在顾客满意水平与顾客行为间的调节或控制作用。     

员工—配偶工作家庭边界分割偏好匹配对员工工作投入的影响机制研究

依据个体—环境匹配理论和平衡理论,基于320份员工与配偶的配对问卷调查数据,采用多元回归分析、响应面分析以及块变量分析方法,探讨了员工—配偶工作家庭边界分割偏好不同匹配/不匹配类型对员工工作投入及情感平衡的影响。结果表明:员工—配偶工作家庭边界分割偏好匹配有利于提高员工的情感平衡和工作投入水平;而员工—配偶工作家庭边界分割偏好不匹配则会降低员工的情感平衡和工作投入水平。具体而言,当员工—配偶工作家庭边界分割偏好匹配时,员工边界分割偏好高—配偶边界分割偏好高对员工情感平衡和工作投入的正向影响更强;当员工—配偶工作家庭边界分割偏好不匹配时,员工边界分割偏好低—配偶边界分割偏好高对员工情感平衡和工作投入的负向影响更强。无论员工—配偶工作家庭边界分割偏好是否匹配,情感平衡均在其对员工工作投入的影响中起中介作用。     

顾客参与创新过程中授权对消费者创造力的影响研究

文章从顾客层面出发,探讨了顾客授权对消费者创造力的影响,同时加深了对顾客参与构念的理解。通过两个实验,利用不同情景和处理方法,对文中所提假设进行了验证。认为顾客参与创新过程中,相对高的顾客授权会提升产品新奇性,削弱产品功能性。同时,内在快乐和经济奖励会调节以上作用。     

电子商务客户忠诚影响机理及提升途径研究

电子商务对客户忠诚产生了很大的影响,一方面客户转移成本减低,忠诚度下降,另一方面客户忠诚的建立、维持成本增加。通过分析研究,客户忠诚的形成主要取决于电子商务技术和现代商务管理两个主要因素。针对电子商务客户忠诚形成的机理,提出了技术要以商务活动为中心,关注商务活动交易链条的每个环节,实现技术与商务的有机融合才能实现电子商务客户忠诚的观点,并进行了相关具体途径的阐述。     

第三方物流服务对客户物流成本影响的实证研究

供应链物流服务对于提升客户企业的竞争力,提高经营绩效具有重要的影响,特别是中国的企业,如何通过第三方良好的物流服务,强化供应链物流成本管理是当今企业在发展过程中的重大课题。本文在对以往物流客户服务管理进行理论回顾和归纳的基础上,针对中国企业的背景,利用多元回归分析探索了各种第三方物流服务影响因子对委托客户企业供应链物流成本管理绩效的影响,提出物流服务内容上的增值程度和物流服务水准上的贡献程度对于委托客户企业实现良好的供应链物流成本具有较高的影响,从而揭示了当今中国第三方物流如何从效率和效能两个方面入手提供良好的客户物流服务。     

Is It Who You Know? Entrepreneurs and Bankers in Sao Paulo, Brazil, at the Turn of the Twentieth Century

This article examines the trust-producing mechanisms investorsand financiers used in São Paulo, Brazil, to determinewhere to invest their money in the late nineteenth and earlytwentieth centuries. The coffee boom that began in the 1880sspurred bursts of new domestic business development that transformedSão Paulo into Brazil's industrial leader. Using shareholderand director data from an array of business sectors, this articledemonstrates that early development (1856–1905) of theinstitutions that provided business finance was accompaniedby highly personal relationships between financier and entrepreneur.By the early twentieth century (1906–1920), rapid economicgrowth and business diversification rendered these personalconnections inadequate and hence less important to businessfinance. Investors and directors concentrated their energiesand their money, abandoning the practice of forming broad connectionsin general—and connections to a bank in particular—andturned to the stock market instead. By providing an alternativeto personal forms of trust production, the rise of impersonalintermediation promoted the significantly broadened market forcorporate business formation that underwrote São Paulo'seconomic transformation.