The effects of power on consumers’ evaluation of a luxury brand's corporate social responsibility

This paper examines how power affects consumers’ responses to corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives of luxury brands. The results of three studies show that high‐power individuals evaluated a luxury brand's CSR campaign more positively than low‐power individuals. High‐power individuals viewed CSR activities as being more fluent than low‐power individuals. This study further demonstrates that power influences consumers’ responses to nonluxury brand's CSR activities. Low‐power individuals, who are more receptive to warmth, evaluated nonluxury brand's CSR more favorably rather than high‐power individuals.     

How does ad relevance affect consumers' attitudes toward personalized advertisements and social media platforms? The role of information co-ownership,vulnerability, and privacy cynicism

Consumers' responses to the use of their personal data for personalized advertising by platform providers are paradoxical. Drawing from psychological ownership theory and the collective information boundary, this study examines how the social relevance and personal relevance of ads impact consumers' attitudes toward advertisements and social media platforms. Basing on 350 responses, we confirm that perceptions of information co-ownership and feelings of vulnerability play a serial mediating role in the positive relationship between ad relevance and consumer attitudes. Specifically, ad relevance increases consumers' perceptions of social media platforms as co-owners of their personal information, which in turn reduces feelings of vulnerability and improves their attitudes toward personalized advertisements and social media platforms. Privacy cynicism negatively moderates the indirect effects of information co-ownership perceptions on two attitude variables mediated through feelings of vulnerability. Our research findings provide a new perspective on the personalization–privacy paradox and offer platform providers new insights into improving their personalized advertising performance and user–platform relationships.     

Information overload and fake news sharing: A transactional stress perspective exploring the mitigating role of consumers’ resilience during COVID-19

The spread of fake news in social networks has become a major concern for various sectors of society, including retail and service providers, some of whom have suffered from decreasing sales due to misinformation consumers shared online. The current COVID-19 crisis has added to the surrounding hysteria, as fake news during crises can heighten negative behavioural responses in consumers, such as irrational panic buying or taking false medical precautionary measures. In fact, driven by the ubiquitous social media landscape, the dissemination of misinformation and the overarching overabundance of information have been major challenges of the pandemic. Given that current research offers little insight into the processes behind the sharing of fake news among consumers and that research on consumer-centred mitigating mechanisms is missing, this study explores the relationship between information overload, fake news sharing, and the overlooked concept of consumers' resilience as a potential shield as viewed through the lens of the current crisis. Structural equation modelling is applied to cross-sectional data from 241 social media users. Drawing from theories of transactional stress and psychological resilience, it is demonstrated that information overload leads to an increased likelihood of fake news sharing by increasing consumers' psychological strain. Furthermore, the study shows that consumers' resilience has the power to mitigate the drastic effects of this negative chain of influence by inhibiting each of the processual components. The results have important implications extending beyond crises. Measures should be taken to enhance consumers’ resilience amidst technology-induced stressors while altering the information environment confronting consumers.     

Determinants of green electricity adoption among residential customers in Germany

The label ‘green electricity’ is commonly used to refer to power generated from various renewable natural sources (e.g. wind). The present article develops hypotheses on the effects of eight attitudinal and perceptual characteristics of residential electricity consumers on their propensity to adopt a green electricity supplier. The hypotheses are tested empirically with data generated by means of a standardized telephone survey of 267 household electricity customers of a German regional power supplier. Questionnaire answers are augmented with information derived from the supplier's billing system on a participant's actual annual electricity consumption. Measurement and structural relationship models are obtained via Partial Least Squares analysis. Regardless of a person's level of actual power consumption in the recent past, propensity to adopt green electricity is most strongly influenced by general consumer attitudes towards environmental protection issues and social endorsement of green power use by close social contacts. In the subsample of participants with low actual electricity consumption, the propensity to purchase green energy is significantly positively affected by the weight an individual attaches to electricity prices in supplier selection decisions and the person's belief that his current electricity supplier takes over social responsibility. In contrast, in the subsample of respondents with high actual electricity consumption consumer's willingness to adopt green electricity is significantly enhanced by the degree of perceived dissimilarity among power company offerings. The identification of factors influencing the adoption of green electricity offers both practical implications for marketers of utilities and contributes to the academic knowledge base of a service domain characterized by increasing societal importance.     

Modeling consumer engagement on social networking sites: Roles of attitudinal and motivational factors

This paper reports on a study that seeks to assess an extended typology of consumer social networking engagement behaviors. Drawing on uses and gratifications theory, this study assesses consumer engagement with social media, where consumer engagement incorporates consumer responses to marketing communications. The paper argues that certain motivations for social media use serve as antecedents to general attitudes toward social networking sites, which subsequently affects attitudes toward marketers' social networking sites. These attitudes then influence subsequent consumer engagement behaviors. The results show that social facilitation motivation, participating and socializing motivation, and information motivation positively influence consumers' general attitudes toward social networking sites, which had a strong effect on their attitude toward marketers' social networking sites. The relationship between attitudes toward social networking sites and engagement with social networking sites was mediated by attitudes toward marketers’ social networking sites also mediated. The current study brings together the online advertising perspective and the consumer motivation/gratifications perspective of using social media in branding and marketing into a conceptual model that holds up to empirical testing. The paper ends with a discussion of some limitations of the study and proposes avenues for future research.     

Do social media platforms develop consumer panic buying during the fear of Covid-19 pandemic

There is inadequate understanding of how social media can shape fear and consumer responses in the manner of consumer panic buying while Covid-19 is spreading across the world. Through taking a social constructionism position this research focused on what people think and feel at an individual and collective level on the role of social media to create panic behaviour. Data have been collected from thirty-four consumers who have minimum one active social media account. These participants are contacted through telephonic interview due to maintaining the social distancing. Findings reveal that uncertainties and insecurities proof, buying as persuasion, product unavailability proof, authorities' communication, global logic, and expert opinion are some of the causes on social media platforms that developed the situation of consumer panic buying during Covid-19 crises. Furthermore, the unprecedented level of real-time information on Covid-19 at users' fingertips can give them the tools they need to make smart decisions, but also make them more anxious about what is to come; experts say that may lead to panic buying or stockpiling of products. The study has tried to develop understanding about how social media generates social proof and offers a window into people's collective response to the coronavirus outbreak and shapes panic buying reaction. The study has provided a consumer panic buying theory based on the results of this study and on existing theories, such as global capitalism/information society risk society, social influence, and social proof. These theories help to understand how global logic is built due to the use of social media and how different social proofs are generated which developed the behaviour of consumer panic buying due to Covid-19 pandemic.     

Do We Follow the Leader or the Masses? Antecedents of the Willingness to Pay Extra for Eco‐Products

This paper reports on an experiment that tests for the existence of peer effects in consumers' willingness to pay (WTP) for sustainable products. More specifically, we investigate whether the premium for an eco‐labeled laundry detergent is sensitive to receiving information about the premium paid by other members of one's social group. The information manipulations in the experiment test for two distinct types of social influence, i.e., conformist and payoff‐biased transmission. We find strong empirical evidence for a conformist transmission. Participants informed about the positive premium paid by the majority of their peers reported a higher premium than individuals not receiving any information. This result shows that previous studies on the WTP for sustainable products, which explain premiums by attitudinal measures and sociodemographic traits, unwarrantedly provide an under‐socialized account. The inclusion of social influence variables significantly increases the explanatory power of the model.     

The effects of marketer- and advocate-initiated online service recovery responses on silent bystanders

Dissatisfied customers increasingly voice their complaints on social media. These negative comments and subsequent responses are an important information source for potential customers. In a consumer-empowered era, these responses not only originate from marketers, but are often articulated by engaged brand advocates. In this study we investigate the effect of both marketers' and advocates' responses to service failures on bystanders' favorable and unfavorable brand-related reactions. Specifically, two scenario-based experiments (n₁ = 731; n₂ = 361) were conducted in which specific webcare response types and sources were systematically manipulated. Results show that companies are particularly effective in enhancing bystander-brand relationships by means of credible and accommodative responses and sometimes even with credible, defensive responses. Most importantly, however, brand advocates can help the company to increase favorable brand-related outcomes with accommodative responses and mitigate unfavorable outcomes with web-specific defensive responses.     

The role of consumers' network positions on information-seeking behavior of experts and novices: A power perspective

Results from two studies demonstrate that depending on consumers’ network positions (peripheral or central), experts and novices behave differently when seeking information about their networks or products related to those networks. Experts in central network positions (vs. peripheral) seek more network-related information, while novices in the same positions seek more product-related information. In contrast, experts in peripheral network positions (vs. central) seek more product-related information, while peripheral novices seek more network-related information. Findings also suggest that desire for power (social or personal) mediates these relationships. Given the importance of social networks in consumer decision making, this research demonstrates the influence and importance of consumer's network position on information-seeking behavior of experts and novices.     

Adverse effect of social media on generation Z user's behavior: Government information support as a moderating variable

Social media emerged as a primary source of information among young users, but its severe effect on mental state due to information overload, still an area of concern for the researchers. Generation Z users' addiction to the mobile phone/gadgets is increasing with a rise in social media and consequently their behavioral outcomes have transformed completely. Nowadays behavioral issues including stress, fatigue, ‘fear of missing out’ and ‘phubbing’, anxiety etc. rising each day but the relationship among these issues and information overload is less examined. The social media users are unable to filter the trustworthy information due to its enormous size and thus role of information support from government becomes essential. The current study extends the S-O-R theory exploring relationship between the stimulus of enormous information on the responses generated among the Generation Z such as social media fatigue, ‘fear of missing out’, ‘phubbing’ and anxiety. The findings from a sample of 319 users belonging to Generation Z suggest that social media platforms need to understand user's compulsive usage that is resulting into fatigue and consequently anxiety. The role of government information support on reducing fatigue and anxiety is found to be positive. The relationship between ‘fear of missing out’, ‘phubbing’ and anxiety is found significant and shows presence of partial mediation. The study offers significant theoretical and practical implications. It is significant for the service providers and social media platforms to advance interfaces with minimum fatigue for the users and offers information support to the users to reduce stress caused by information load.     

Social isolation and social anxiety as drivers of generation Z's willingness to share personal information on social media

Generation Z's (gen z) sharing of personal information on social media is a growing phenomenon with significant ramifications. Existing research, however, focuses on examining the role of social and/or psychological factors and fails to consider how and when social, psychological, and organizational factors affect gen z's willingness to share personal information on social media. To fill this gap, we propose a conceptual model based on the tenets of sociometer theory, to understand the dynamics of gen z's willingness to share personal information while considering its process and boundary conditions. Using a sequential multi-study design, we conducted an experiment followed by a survey to test our hypotheses using data collected from gen z in India. Our findings show that when gen z feels socially isolated/anxious, they are more likely to share personal information on social media. The effect of social isolation on sharing of personal information increases when gen z fear that they are missing out on the rewarding experiences others are having, are engaged in repetitive negative thoughts and perceive their firm's privacy policy as transparent and ethical. Our findings provide a better understanding of why, how, and when gen z's are willing to share personal information on social media. We extend existing limited research on the psychological aspects of digital natives' interaction with modern technologies. Our results equip social media marketing and brand managers with the knowledge they need to increase gen z's willingness to share personal information.     

The role of involvement: Investigating the effect of brand's social media pages on consumer purchase intention

This study examined the influence of consumer's brand familiarity and the information quality of social media content on their involvement with a brand on the brand's social media pages. Also studied were the influence of involvement on consumer's attitude towards the brand's social media page and the effect of their attitude on future purchase intention from the brand. The results indicated that both brand familiarity and information quality had significant effects on a consumer's involvement with a brand on its social media page, yet the brand's social media content had a greater influence on a consumer's involvement with the social media page. Further, involvement with a brand's social media led to a positive attitude towards the brand's social media page, which in turn influences future purchase intention from the brand. However, the involvement did not directly influence future purchase intention from the brand. The results suggest the significant importance of quality of social media content.     

Parents' perceptions of the sensitivity of their children's personal information and willingness to share with social media marketers: Implications for sharenting

Many stakeholders such as parents, companies, and policymakers play a role in children's online privacy. This study explores how parents who have at least one child age 10 and younger perceive the sensitivity of their children's personal information and willingness to share it with social media marketers. Survey results of 418 parents indicate that a variety of types of children's information is perceived as sensitive, with certain information (e.g., videos, photos) that parents readily share via social media as highly sensitive. Findings also suggest that fathers and single parents are more likely to perceive their children's information as sensitive and yet are more willing to share it. This research contributes to the consumer welfare literature on children's privacy by providing a baseline of parents' attitudes regarding their children's data, extending prior research that has examined adults' perceptions of the sensitivity of their own information and willingness to share with social media marketers.     

Customer Participation in Virtual Communities for Local High Streets

Customers increasingly substitute personal interaction on high streets with digital participation in retail-related virtual communities (VC) and social shopping sites. This work investigates the potential adoption of a VC to the high street to strengthen its competitive position. We assess customers' motives for participating in such a VC and its effect on customers' intention to visit the high street. We field an online survey with 402 participants that builds upon uses and gratifications theory. Our results suggest that receiving and sharing information are the most influential drivers of high street VC participation, which, in turn, leads to favorable behavioral responses.     

The dyadic structure of exchange partners' governing-agency social capital and opportunism in buyer–supplier relationships

Extant literature on opportunism examines its antecedents in dyadic relationships in business networks. With firms also developing relationships with government agencies, these connections can influence firms' propensity for opportunism in business exchanges. This study investigates how the governing-agency social capital on both sides of the buyer–supplier relationship affects firms' opportunism tendency toward their counterparts. In particular, we divide the governing-agency social capital of both parties into two dimensions: the asymmetry of governing-agency social capital and joint governing-agency social capital. We postulate that both the asymmetry of governing-agency social capital and joint governing-agency social capital promote the focal firm's propensity for opportunism through dyadic power and network power, respectively. Moreover, we propose that both dimensions interact to magnify each other's impact on the focal firm's propensity for opportunism. We test the hypotheses using 322 matched data of buyer–supplier dyads in China. Empirical results provide support for the research hypotheses.     

Trainees' perceived knowledge gain unrelated to the training domain: the joint action of impression management and motives

Trainees' knowledge gains represent an important outcome in human resource development. In this research, we tested a model examining the joint influence of social desirability (impression management, self‐deception) and motives (need for power, need for approval) on trainees' self‐reported knowledge gain. We conducted a study with respondents who reported information related to individual differences and took a training program and reported their knowledge gain in domains that were both related and unrelated to the training program. Trainee unrelated knowledge gain was a function of the joint influence of individual predispositions (to impression manage or engage in self‐deception) and motives (need for power, approval). Our findings suggest that impression management and self‐deception are insufficient to influence respondents' reports of unrelated knowledge but do yield predictable patterns when examined with respondents' motives. We discuss these results and implications for human resource development research and practice.     

“I follow what you post!”: The role of social media influencers’ content characteristics in consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs)

The purpose of this research is to examine the underlying mechanisms through which social media influencers' (SMI) content characteristics (information, design, and technology quality and creativity) influence consumers' online brand-related activities (COBRAs) (consume, contribute, and create) through parasocial relationships and wishful identification. Grounded in the integration of the two-step flow theory, social influence theory, and power theory, a conceptual model is proposed and empirically tested using a sample of 263 social media users who had followed at least one social media influencer on social media. We analyzed the data using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) and necessary condition analysis (NCA). The results reveal that three of the four dimensions of SMI's content characteristics, namely design quality, technology quality, and creativity are significant predictors of parasocial relationships. Design quality and creativity are significant predictors of wishful identification. Parasocial relationships and wishful identification are also identified as significant predictors of COBRAs. The results of NCA analysis also identify the proposed content characteristics as necessary factors required to foster COBRAs. This study offers valuable insights into how social media influencers can position themselves to be more effective in promoting brands and products through the curation of their social media content.     

To Share and Protect: Using Regulatory Focus Theory to Examine the Privacy Paradox of Consumers' Social Media Engagement and Online Privacy Protection Behaviors

Consumers' personal information often informs retailers' marketing efforts in terms of creating value in the online marketplace. This study examines four factors related to consumers' social media engagement and online privacy protection behaviors. Regulatory focus, social exchange, and marketing relationship theories explain the online consumer personal information share-and-protect model developed. Consumers aged 18–64 years across the United States participated in this survey research. The results suggest that while personal privacy violation experience and perceived secondary control of one's personal information are influential antecedents, privacy concerns and trust in social media websites mediate each of these respectively. The findings suggest that promotion- and prevention-related behaviors regarding personal information align with the orientation of the antecedents, indicating that regulatory focus theory shows promise for examining the privacy paradox. We conclude by developing a matrix that integrates regulatory focus and social exchange theories to guide future research.     

Key quality factors affecting users' perception of social networking websites

PurposeThe main aim of the present study is to evaluate the quality factors of websites and their effect on users' perceptions about quality in the context of social networking websites.Design/methodology/approachThis is an applied study conducted as a field survey. A conceptual framework of website quality is proposed and empirically tested that combines quality factors and users' overall perception about quality. Based upon conceptual frameworks in the areas of information systems and using responses from 300 users, a seven factors scale has been validated and data were used to test the conceptual model. To test validity of conceptual framework, confirmatory factor analysis was conducted and regression analysis was performed to examine the suggested hypotheses in the conceptual framework.FindingsIn this study, six different significant factors namely efficiency, entertainment, community drivenness, privacy, user friendliness, efficiency and navigability were identified to be significant for the service quality of social networking websites. Using the survey conducted in the statistical sample, only the factor of web appearance was identified as less important for social networking website users.Practical implicationsFindings from this research provide a set of essential and desired quality factors that social networking website developers can use to improve the quality of existing websites in turn increasing its numbers of users, thus bringing benefits to the company. Second, this study shows how perceived quality has a direct and profound effect on the degree of consumer perception about website quality.Originality/valueThis study, expanding a conceptual model, tries to identify the set of service quality factors for social networking websites. The information of these quality factors as a major predictor of consumers' quality perception provides social networking websites management an initial point for making successful quality management practices for their e-commerce.