Selling trust in cyber space: social networking service (SNS) providers and social capital amongst netizens in South Korea

Abstract

Apart from excessive bonding amongst co-ethnics, social capital studies have sparsely discussed the negative effects of social capital, including excessive collective actions towards downward social mobility (e.g. imprisonment of social and political elites). As Bourdieu has noted, social capital can conflate problems of upward social mobility through various glass ceilings in the reproduction of elite power groups. However, it is also important to notice that less fortunate groups can debunk the dominant elite social network by participating excessively in social networking service (SNS) platforms, where they exchange distorted information about the elites to organize collective actions towards their downward social mobility. Gleaned from the recent cases of ferry sinking and candlelight vigilance in South Korea, SNS providers can sell trust in cyber space that can be easily transformed into social capital for collective character assassinations, political demonstrations, and economic sabotages at workplace. Based on the big data gathered from Naver, one of the leading SNS providers in South Korea, we find that Naver provides SNS users with a rare opportunity to encounter myriad opinion groups who will over time converge into one or two similar opinion groups that can be easily mobilized towards collective actions. Selling trust in cyber space on the internet and mobile devices is a unique commercial development in South Korea and its neighbouring countries, including Japan and Taiwan.     

Affective commitment and customer loyalty in crowdsourcing: antecedents,interdependencies, and practical implications

Crowdsourcing, the outsourcing of previously internal processes within the corporate value chain to an external crowd of people, has become increasingly popular in retail. In applying this practice, retailers aim not only at improving the effectiveness and efficiency of their value creation process, but also at increasing the affective commitment and loyalty of their customers. Surprisingly, the effects of crowdsourcing on affective commitment and customer loyalty, and the factors influencing these objectives have hardly been researched. This paper closes this research gap. Through expert interviews and experimental studies, it comes to the conclusion that especially satisfaction with the crowdsourcing process and sense of virtual community are relevant factors impacting affective commitment and customer loyalty. The paper concludes with recommendations for optimizing these factors in retail practice.     

Factors affecting attitudes and behavioural intention towards social networking advertising: a case of Facebook users in South Korea

This study examined factors (e.g., ad values and social networking advertising characteristics) influencing consumers' attitudes and behavioural intention towards three types of social networking advertising (SNA) on Facebook – home page ad, social impression ad, and organic impression ad. Findings demonstrate that peer influence had the most significant impacts on attitude and behavioural intention across all types of SNA. The significant interaction term of invasiveness and privacy concern indicates that both attitude and behavioural intention were diminished, particularly when perceived invasiveness and privacy concern were high simultaneously. In addition, results suggest that attitudes towards the ad played a mediating role between SNA characteristics and behavioural intention. Lastly, among the types of SNA, consumers preferred organic impression ads that featured friends' names on their newsfeed more than paid ads located on the sidebar of their Facebook pages.     

Exploring the drivers of customer engagement behaviours in social network brand communities: towards a customer-learning model

Customer learning is regarded as a process that alters either individual cognition or the outcomes of socialisation. Understanding how the learning process works enables a brand firm to identify a customer’s latent needs. Prior studies have primarily focused on effectively positioning brand knowledge in the minds of customers, but that linear learning process does not apply to the interactive and proactive social media setting. Based on the uses and gratifications perspective, this study proposes a customer-learning model and analyses 373 online questionnaires using partial least squares structural equation modelling. The empirical results confirm that learning motivation and collaborative learning are two core components of customer learning that have positive influences on satisfaction, which in turn has a positive influence on customer engagement behaviours (CEBs) and loyalty. In addition, learning motivation is the driver of collaborative learning. Finally, CEBs also have a positive influence on loyalty. This study also concludes that the social network brand community is an informative customer-learning platform that is characterised by interactivity, collaborative learning and co-creation. Theoretical and managerial implications are also discussed.     

Effect of social support on customer satisfaction and citizenship behavior in online brand communities: The moderating role of support source

Customers often join online brand communities to seek support from others when they encounter product problems. Some customers who receive good social support exhibit customer citizenship behavior. This study develops a theoretical model to investigate how social support influences customer citizenship behavior through customer satisfaction with firms in online brand communities. Moreover, the moderating role of support source (i.e., firms vs. other customers) is measured. The research model is tested by using the Partial Least Squares technique. The results show that informational and emotional support significantly affects the customer citizenship behavior of providing feedback to the firm, recommendations, and helping other customers through customer satisfaction in online brand communities. Moreover, informational and emotional support from firms and other customers exert different effects on customer satisfaction.     

Perceived corporate social responsibility and job satisfaction in grocery retail: A comparison between low- and high-productivity stores

The relationship between corporate social responsibility (CSR) and job satisfaction is underexplored in the retail sector. We aim to fill this gap by unpacking these constructs to analyse their interrelationships. Moreover, conceptualising productivity as a contextual factor able to generate multiple stressors for retail employees, we compare the CSR-job satisfaction relationship between low- and high-productivity stores. We argue that CSR strategies effectively contribute to maintaining high job satisfaction in both retail contexts. Working on a sample of 708 grocery retail chain employees, we apply structural equation modelling and multigroup regressions to test our hypotheses. The results show that CSR positively influences job satisfaction. In detail, internal CSR benefits job satisfaction more than external CSR. CSR strategies effectively work to strengthen job satisfaction even in high-productivity stores. These findings contribute to the debate about the employees’ job satisfaction management in busyness and high-productive retail contexts.     

微信群中知识贡献中心性形成的前因因素和影响后果：基于调节焦点观点的探讨

微信群是知识传递的重要方式,越来越多的企业开始使用微信群进行内部工作管理。不同于传统知识网络的形成,在微信群中每个人都可能是贡献知识的中心,然而微信工作群还存在种种问题,如成员并非总愿意去贡献知识。如何形成这种知识网络使得人们成为贡献知识的中心,同时将其转化为企业创新绩效,并没有实证研究进行相关探讨。文章基于调节焦点理论,探析了不同目标导向（促进型和防御型）的成员会对知识网络核心的形成有着不同的影响。这种影响并非一成不变的,而是受到任务相似性和任务模糊性的影响。同时,在微信群中形成的知识贡献中心性还将对企业创新绩效起促进作用。文章通过搜集一家大型连锁酒店的5个工作微信群、共116家店长的数据,通过实证研究得到的结果支持了提出的大部分假设。     

When social intrusiveness depletes customer value: A balanced perspective on the agency of simultaneous sharers in a commercial sharing experience

A major pattern of non‐ownership consumption is “simultaneous sharing,” whereby customers simultaneously share the same resource in either a virtual or physical setting. However, little research examines the actual value that consumers derive from such a group‐based commercial experience. By integrating the literature on customer value and the psychology of autonomy, this study proposes a theoretical model of the simultaneous sharing experience that balances the benefits and social intrusiveness of sharer agency. Based on data that were collected from members of a collaborative platform dedicated to flat sharing and analyzed through structural equation modeling, social intrusiveness is found to be a pervasive phenomenon that strongly impairs customer satisfaction, whereas communal benefits, as reflected by enjoyment, companionship, informational guidance, and emotional support, enhance it. As a major antecedent of both communal benefits and intrusiveness, perceived homophily nourishes satisfaction, however, customer age may reduce the buffering influence of perceived homophily on intrusiveness, whereas an additional positive effect on communal benefits is associated with the sharer social integrative motive. We discuss the implications of this study for customer experience and commercial sharing consumption research.     

Particularistic and system trust among small and medium enterprises: A comparative study in China's transition economy

Guanxi, a type of particularistic trust observed in Confucian societies has mostly been viewed as a static phenomenon. It is not clear how the role of guanxi changes over time during institutional transitions. This field study of twenty one small and medium enterprises (SMEs) located in two large cities in Western China examines the changes in SME behaviors since the beginning of economic reforms in 1979. Based on neo-institutionalist trust perspectives, the article argues that the role of guanxi also arose from the paucity of market system trust created by the absence of well-established market institutions during China's transition from a centrally planned to a market economy. Guanxi became relatively less important when market system trust based on well-established institutions was firmly established. Regardless of past practices, the dynamics of institutional transitions leading to the establishment of system trust inevitably reshapes managerial as well as business behaviors, with adaptation occurring to the new rules of the market economy.     

How institutions affect CSR practices in the Middle East and North Africa: A critical review

This systematic literature review integrates the Varieties of Institutional Systems (VIS) framework and Patchwork Institutions lens to unpack how institutional heterogeneity in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) impacts the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Our review of 154 articles published between 1995–2017 extracts the variegated nature of institutions in MENA countries and sheds light on how country-specific institutional forces affect CSR. Doing so, we take the first step to move away from a monolithic understanding of the institutional effects on CSR in MENA, acknowledging the role that collective actors play in shaping the institutional realities affecting CSR.     

Effect of community relationship management,relationship marketing orientation,customer engagement,and brand trust on brand loyalty: The case of a commercial bank in Thailand

Business uncertainty due to the COVID-19 pandemic has brought financial and banking industries under stress. This study examines brand loyalty (BL) in the Thai banking industry by integrating community relationship management (CoRM) (4Cs model), relationship marketing orientation (RMO), customer engagement (CE), and brand trust (BT). It analyzes how a Thai commercial bank used four success factors to create new client acquisition, business efficiency, long-term relationships, and BL. We use quantitative data and structural equation modeling (SEM) to identify variables influencing the BL of 1650 customers of a Thai commercial bank. We found CoRM and RMO's key success factors indirectly affected BL by mediating CE and BT. These results may improve sustained performance effectiveness in the banking industry now and in the future.