What Advertisers Need to Know About Promotion in the Arab World: Technology and Media Perspectives

There is little doubt that globalization has and continues to have a significant impact on business activities worldwide. The impact of globalization was made possible mainly by advances in technological innovation including the area of global communication. Among the many regions that have been significantly impacted by globalization is the Arab world. The purpose of this paper is to provide answers to the following questions: (a) What technological innovations related to advertising and promotion are dominating the Arab world?; (b) What is the media landscape as it relates to advertising and promotion in the Arab world?; (c) What media outlets are being consumed by Arab consumers?; and (d) What are the most effective media outlets in reaching the Arab consumer? Arguments have been made that the growth of mobile phones, Internet technology, and multimedia devices such as iPods and PlayStation Portables has contributed to the trend of youth moving away from traditional media platforms such as television. While this finding has been supported in research for some regions of the world, this paper studies whether it holds true for the Arab population.     

The Role of Social Mechanisms in Demand and Supply Integration: An Individual Network Perspective

In many industries, including retail, increased complexity of marketing strategies needs to be met with increased efficiency in product delivery, requiring integration across demand and supply facing functions of the firm. For frontline logistics employees (FLEs) of manufacturing firms who are delivering and marketing products in retail stores daily, the ability to understand both the marketing and supply implications of their actions is essential. Despite the importance of cross‐functional integration at the retail frontline, little logistics research has explored how logistics frontline employees interact with managers and each other to integrate knowledge and information. The purpose of this research is to examine the antecedents to cross‐functional integration across demand and supply functions in multiple social networks of the FLE. Mixed methods, including social network analysis, structural equation modeling, and analysis of variance, are applied to test social capital theory hypotheses regarding the impact of relational embeddedness and social mechanisms, socialization and shared interpretation, on individual demand and supply integration across friendship, key enabler, and ideation networks of the frontline employee.     

What we know about anticonsumption: An attempt to nail jelly to the wall

Despite burgeoning academic interest in anticonsumption, a lack of definitional clarity and overlapping constructs beleaguer the pertinent literature, preventing research in the field from reaching its full potential. This paper aims to strengthen the foundations for advancing knowledge in this fragmented field by (a) undertaking a thorough systematic review of literature; (b) charting the scope of anticonsumption literature based on network analysis and attempting to delineate overlapping areas; (c) providing an integrated framework of anticonsumption research, including antecedents, moderators, and consequences; and (d) suggesting a set of specific research propositions that will enable the field to move forward. Toward these aims, we analyzed 120 anticonsumption papers revealed in the literature review, identifying a number of important anticonsumption-related topics that warrant further investigation. Moreover, we suggest a research framework which reveals antecedents, causal sequences, and consequences of anticonsumption. Finally, a research agenda based on this integrated framework indicates promising areas for future research.     

Social Media as the Missing Link: Connecting Communities of Practice to Business Strategy

Communities of Practice (CoP) have long been considered powerful Knowledge Management (KM) mechanisms. CoP, however, are often viewed independently from organizational goals and structures, as they are primarily seen as a means of individual knowledge sharing and learning. In this article, we argue that CoP supported by social media have great potential to contribute to organizational goals, such as business strategy. We seek to support this statement through an embedded case study that includes 54 CoP within a prominent multinational engineering firm. This investigation explores the extent to which CoP contribute to business strategy. The paper's contribution is in providing five guidelines for practice that outline how CoP can be best designed to contribute to business strategy and how social media can serve as the “missing link” to execute those guidelines.     

A Social Exchange Perspective on Business Ethics: An Application to Knowledge Exchange

An extensive body of literature in sociology and anthropology has shown that different societies have developed different structures for exchange of items such as goods, status and information. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate how social exchange theory can help illuminate many of the underlying bases of different ethical perspectives in debates about social exchanges. Social exchange theory is applied to three common types of knowledge exchange – R&D joint ventures, commercial intellectual property exchange and academic exchange. Two key factors that underlie different ethical perspectives are shown to be differences in structures for social exchange and differences in views of the alienability of knowledge from its originator.     

What and how to communicate about a corporate brand with the consumers: An exploratory study

The present exploratory study investigates the differential impact of various relevant corporate brand associations on consumers' cognitive (product attitude and purchase intention) and affective responses (affective corporate commitment) in the three sectors, namely durables, services and fast moving consumer goods. The findings reveal that corporate brand associations can be categorised into two categories – universal associations, which are influential in all the sectors, and sector-specific associations, which have a differential effect on consumers in different sectors. Thus, this study reveals that corporate branding is important to consumers in all the sectors, but a single corporate brand story does not work in all the sectors. Further, corporate associations do not always have a positive effect on the consumers; under certain circumstances, these might either have no effect or have a negative effect on the consumers. Finally, there are two routes by which corporate brand associations can influence consumers – by affecting their cognitive responses or by influencing their affective responses towards the company. The recognition of the important corporate brand associations in the three sectors, and the routes (cognitive or affective) through which these associations influence consumer choices would enable marketers to develop more sophisticated corporate communication strategies.     

Response to advertising on online social networks: the role of social capital

The objective of this study is to analyse the marketing value obtained from developing and maintaining social relationships through online social networks (OSNs). We propose and test a structural model that considers a number of antecedents to response to advertising, namely social capital, social status and sociability. Data was gathered through the administration of a structured online questionnaire to a sample of 274 OSN users. Results show that social capital derived from participating in OSNs has a positive impact on social status and sociability; in turn this has a positive impact in response to advertising. This study advances theory by analysing the impact of bonding and bridging social capital on both social status and sociability. Additionally, it examines the impact of both of these constructs on response to advertising. The confirmation of the significance of social capital gained through participation in OSNs and its impact on response to ads provides support for the notion that the relationally oriented and marketing‐oriented management of OSNs are compatible. These findings are of great relevance for the appropriate management of company presence on OSNs.     

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.     

An Empirical Study of the Determinants of Foreign Investment in China: A Western Australian Perspective

The literature, regarding the determinants of inward foreign direct investment (FDI) in China, emphasizes national or regional inward FDI, and largely depends on secondary data. This study reports findings from the analysis of primary data provided by 43 managers of Western Australian companies that are either operating or planning to invest in China reveals market size, labor cost, and business ethics were important factors for promoting foreign investment to the Chinese marketplace; while gender, organizational size, and networking have potential to play a significant mediating role in investment decisions. These exploratory observations are a departure point for further investigations.     

How to Become Central in an Informal Social Network: An Investigation of the Antecedents to Network Centrality in an Environmental SCM Initiative

Environmental supply chain management (SCM) initiatives often evolve as informal, grassroots efforts that are driven by policy entrepreneurs at lower management levels in an organization. These individuals usually are not in positions of power or authority to convince others to support the initiative. They thus rely on central positions in informal networks to gain access to and influence over other employees to be better able to sell these initiatives. This study examines how individuals arrive at positions of centrality within the networks surrounding environmental SCM initiatives. Linking social network theory and social capital theory with findings from the organizational behavior and environmental arena, the study investigates how an individual's proactive personality and commitment profile—affective, normative, and continuance commitment—might affect network centrality through the mediating role of championing behavior. Investigating the implementation of an environmental SCM initiative at a multinational enterprise, the authors identified a 90‐actor social network surrounding the initiative. The results provide evidence that championing behavior fully mediates the relationship between commitment and network centrality and to a lesser extent between proactive personality and network centrality. These findings suggest that championing behavior can enable an actor to become more central in social networks. Further, the results indicate that in an environmental SCM context, engendering the right type of commitment is a much more important driver of championing behavior than the proactive personalities of individual actors. This finding suggests that even employees who do not have proactive personalities can champion environmental initiatives and become central within the informal networks that surround these initiatives, if they strongly desire to support the initiative and believe that the initiative will lead to positive change.     

How managerial responses to online reviews affect customer satisfaction: An empirical study based on additional reviews

This study investigates the internality of managerial responses (MRs) to online reviews on the responded customers' (i.e., customers who have posted an initial review and then being responded by the company through an MR) satisfaction. By utilizing the data of additional reviews (ARs), an innovative social media module for customers to express follow-up opinions that complement their initial reviews, we examine the impact of MR treatment on the customers' AR valence. We leverage the insight that the observability of MR at the time of the responded customer posts an AR is a crucial condition to the impact of the MR, and thus regard the observability of MR as an exogenous treatment for model identification. Fixed effects models with extensive control variables are proposed to estimate the MR treatment effects. The results show that MRs have significant positive impacts on customers' satisfaction in ARs. Further explorations show that the positive impacts are mainly due to the positive effects of MRs on nonpositive initial reviews (MR-Ns), suggesting that MR-Ns are an effective management tool for customer complaints. Moreover, this study identifies MR delay as a boundary condition for the internality of MRs because MR delay negatively moderates the positive impacts of MRs. Therefore, companies should promptly respond to customers' negative opinions in their reviews. This study is among the very first to clearly identify the internality of MRs on the responded customers’ satisfaction. We show that the existing results on the externality of MRs are not directly applicable to the internality of MRs, highlighting the novelty of this study. The obtained new insights provide practical guidelines for companies to adjust their intervention strategies on e-commerce platforms.     

When memes program the genes: What managers need to know about the emerging genetic revolution

Many industries and their offerings have fallen victim to managerial shortsightedness. Firms often believe they are invincible and see themselves as immune to threats from seemingly unrelated technologies. There seemed to be no apparent link between bound paper books and the emerging internet, no discernible ties between the video rental business and streaming technologies, and no obvious connections between photography and cellular phones. When these associations were established by means of other, newer technologies, major incumbent firms such as Barnes & Noble, Blockbuster, and Kodak came crashing down. CRISPR is the technology of the moment, one that will enable the programming of evolution. While we might think about gene editing in terms of cures for diseases, its repercussions will impact almost every domain of human and planetary development, and sooner than one might think. In this installment of On The Horizon, we adopt an evolutionary perspective to understand the impact of the genetic revolution on firms regardless of industry.     

The Unexplored Potential of Hope to Level the Playing Field: A Multilevel Perspective

A multilevel view of social change is presented in which socially responsible organizations, society, and high-hope individuals interact in support of hopefulness – thereby leveling the playing field. Suggestions are made about future research and the roles of organizations and society in eliciting hope in organizational and societal cultures.     

An analysis of social media marketing strategy and performance in the context of fashion brands: The case of Taiwan

This study examines the social media strategy and performance of fashion brands. Drawing upon the resource-based view, the study explores the influence of entrepreneurial orientation, innovation orientation, and market orientation on social media strategy and performance. Analysis was conducted using data on 207 Taiwanese fashion brands. These data were collected from a mail survey. Structural equation modeling and fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis were used to test the empirical relationships proposed in the research hypotheses. The results indicate that social media strategy affects performance; entrepreneurial orientation and innovation orientation affect social media strategy; entrepreneurial orientation positively affects performance; and innovation orientation and market orientation positively affect performance.     

An Empirical Investigation of the Relationship Between Change in Corporate Social Performance and Financial Performance: A Stakeholder Theory Perspective

Stakeholder theory provides a framework for investigating the relationship between corporate social performance (CSP) and corporate financial performance. This relationship is investigated by examining how change in CSP is related to change in financial accounting measures. The findings provide some support for a tenet in stakeholder theory which asserts that the dominant stakeholder group, shareholders, financially benefit when management meets the demands of multiple stakeholders. Specifically, change in CSP was positively associated with growth in sales for the current and subsequent year. This indicates that there are short-term benefits from improving CSP. Return on sales was significantly positively related to change in CSP for the third financial period, indicating that long-term financial benefits may exist when CSP is improved.     

从“行商”到“坐贾”:基于商业集群视角的分析

按照经营方式的不同,商人可以分为"行商"和"坐贾"两种,"行商"的历史要早于"坐贾"。根据商业集群形成的模型,本文分析了在不完全信息条件下商人由"行商"向"坐贾"转变的原因:消费者的最优选择是从商业集群处开始搜寻理想的商品,坐贾的出现进而形成商业集群,可以有效降低行商因机会主义行为给消费者带来的损失。     

以眼还眼：职场排斥对沉默行为的影响

本研究基于社会互动视角,探讨职场排斥与沉默行为的过程机制,在此基础上提出一个调节的中介模型,特别是工作投入和感知凝聚力的中介作用和情绪智力的调节作用。通过213名员工的三阶段时间滞后调查分析,结果显示：职场排斥正向影响沉默行为;工作投入和感知凝聚力在职场排斥与沉默行为关系中发挥中介作用;情绪智力调节职场排斥与工作投入之间的关系,调节职场排斥和感知凝聚力之间的关系;此外,情绪智力调节“职场排斥-工作投入-沉默行为”和“职场排斥-感知凝聚力-沉默行为”这两条中介路径。     

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.     

Notes to self: the visual culture of selfies in the age of social media

This paper explores the cultural fascination with social media forms of self-portraiture, commonly known as “selfies,” with a specific interest in the self-imaging strategies of young women in their teens and early 20s. Ubiquitous on social media sites like Facebook, Tumblr, Flickr, and Instagram, the selfie has become a powerful means for self-expression, encouraging its makers to share the most intimate and private moments of their lives – as well as engage in a form of creative self-fashioning. Popularly regarded as a shallow expression of online narcissism, the selfie is both adored and reviled; yet it flourishes as one of the most effective outlets for self-definition. Through a critical engagement with a history of feminist representational politics, this paper explores the political urgency at the heart of the selfie phenomenon, and contemplates whether the urge to compulsively self-image is mere narcissism, or a politically oppositional and aesthetic form of resistance.