Women,unions, and social policy

We contend in this paper that the trade union role in social policy is expanding due to the debate on women's issues. The Centrale de l'enseignement du Québec is seen as a forerunner of this trend, with its policy positions on questions previously seen as personal. The method of promotion of these interests is also new, with caucusing and networking. The significance of these changes goes beyond unionized women workers and affects all women. Dr. Margaret Beattie is Professor adjoint at the Département de Service Social, Université de Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. Her most important publication is: Women and Factional Politics in a Teacher's Union, Atlantis: A Women's Studies Journal (Fall 1982).     

Extracting brand information from social networks: Integrating image,text, and social tagging data

Images are an essential feature of many social networking services, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter. Through brand-related images, consumers communicate about brands with each other and link the brand with rich contextual and consumption experiences. However, previous articles in marketing research have concentrated on deriving brand information from textual user-generated content and have largely not considered brand-related images. The analysis of brand-related images yields at least two challenges. First, the content displayed in images is heterogeneous, and second, images rarely show what users think and feel in or about the situations displayed. To meet these challenges, this article presents a two-step approach that involves collecting, labeling, clustering, aggregating, mapping, and analyzing brand-related user-generated content. The collected data are brand-related images, caption texts, and social tags posted on Instagram. Clustering images labeled via Google Cloud Vision API enabled to identify heterogeneous contents (e.g. products) and contexts (e.g. situations) that consumers create content about. Aggregating and mapping the textual information for the resulting image clusters in the form of associative networks empowers marketers to derive meaningful insights by inferring what consumers think and feel about their brand regarding different contents and contexts.     

Machiavellianism,social norms,and taxpayer compliance

This study is the first to examine the relationships among Machiavellianism, social norms and taxpayer intentions to fraudulently overstate their deductions. We theorize and empirically document that (a) high Machiavellian taxpayers report significantly less ethical social norms, suggesting that reported social norms are influenced by cognitive biases such as social projection and Machiavellian cynicism; (b) reported social norms are, in general, significantly associated with tax evasion intentions; (c) social norms partially mediate the relationship between Machiavellianism and evasion intentions. Our findings imply that experimental research that controls for key personality traits such as Machiavellianism will be necessary to test the effectiveness of potential interventions designed to enhance social norms and tax compliance. Our findings also raise questions regarding the validity of certain social norm measures used in recent studies, particularly in the case of high Machiavellians. In contrast to much prior research, gender was not associated with the likelihood of committing tax fraud in our multivariate models, suggesting that the higher levels of tax compliance often associated with females may be eroding.     

Religion,social class,and entrepreneurial choice

While considerable concern has emerged about the links between religion and economic growth, little is actually known about how religion and social class impact the decision making of individuals. Using institutional theory and social dominance theory, this paper examines the influence of religion and social class on individuals' occupational choices. Based on a large-scale database from India, this paper finds that while some religions are relatively conducive to self-employment, some others have a negative impact on self-employment choices. Furthermore, individuals belonging to social classes that are lower in the social hierarchy are less likely to be self-employed. The role of both religion and social class in influencing the likelihood of choosing self-employment suggests an important link between religion, social class, and occupational decision-making.     

Strategy,social responsibility and implementation

This paper correlates community service goals from 82 business firms with various organizational characteristics, including goals, niches, structure, context, and performance. The results demonstrate that community-service goals are positively correlated with prestige goals, assets goals, superior-design niche, net assets size, and performance on income to net assets. Community-service goals, however, were not significantly correlated with profit goals, low-price niche, multiplicity of outputs, workflow continuity, qualifications, or centralization, as expected.Kenneth L. Kraft received his D.B.A. from the University of Maryland in 1982. Over the past seven years, he has been teaching Strategy and Social responsibility at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. He recently assumed a position as Associate Professor of Management at Old Dominion University in Norfolk, Va. Jerald Hage is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Maryland at College Park who has for the past thirty years published books and articles in the area of organizations. His recent papers deal with a panel study of American plants and the factors that affect survival, the causes and consequences of automation, and the impact of innovation strategies on the nature of the plant. His most recent book (1988) is entitled The Futures of Organizations.     

Locating experts using social media,based on social capital and expertise similarity

Information and communication technologies boost knowledge activities, both within and across organizations, and in online communities. Determining how to effectively search for and find experts via social media has become a critical issue. Although social capital is a key driver of knowledge contribution, we have not addressed the issue of how to locate experts based on their social capital. Systems designed to locate experts typically recommend such experts based on keywords, thus failing to consider any semantic similarity between their areas of expertise and the problem domain (a.k.a., “expertise similarity”). The system designed and developed in this study recommends experts based on both their social capital and expertise similarity. We measure the social capital of experts based on their consultant service relationships and their friendships. We conduct a field experiment to evaluate user satisfaction and the system’s knowledge-contribution predictive capability. The results show that the proposed system is of high quality and delivers excellent information. Hence, users expressed their intention to use this system. In addition, the positive effect of social capital on the knowledge contribution is verified from the perspective of user behavior.     

Strategic partnerships,social capital and innovation: accounting for social alliance innovation

This paper focuses on innovation in the context of business–non‐governmental organization (NGO) partnerships for corporate social responsibility (CSR). While different aspects of business–NGO partnerships have been studied, the role of innovation and its potential implications for partnership outcomes have so far not been systematically explored. The paper defines innovation in simple and concrete terms and synthesizes from the literature what can be considered as critical ingredients to foster social alliance innovation. The paper posits in turn that these ingredients correspond closely to the conception of social capital and offers a consolidated framework that helps in probing around these ingredients and social capital in accounting for innovative partnership outcomes. The empirical part consists of a comparative analysis of six case studies of business–NGO collaboration in the context of CSR in the United Kingdom. The evidence presented makes it clear that strategic partnerships are more readily capable of innovation and that social capital as an umbrella concept is very promising in explaining the differential success and performance of social alliances and central to understanding the dynamics of social alliance innovation and value creation.     

Upgrade pricing, market growth, and social welfare

This paper studies the monopolist's dynamic pricing strategy when introducing successive generations of a durable product. We show that when consumers are semi-anonymous or exactly identified and the innovation is minor, the firm always offers an upgrade discount to former customers. However, the discount depends only on the quality of the old product. In contrast, for moderate and major innovations, the discount depends on the qualities and costs of both the old and the new products. The market growth rate affects the firm's pricing strategy only if consumers are anonymous; furthermore, the effect on prices depends on the discount rate and whether the market growth rate is high or low. For minor innovations, social welfare is maximized if consumers are anonymous. An interesting and paradoxical result is that, when innovations are moderate or major and consumers are semi-anonymous or exactly identified, price discrimination can actually lead to higher social welfare.     

Consumer responses to corporate social irresponsibility: The role of moral emotions,evaluations, and social cognitions

We investigate the mediating roles of moral emotions and attitudes between perceptions of corporate irresponsible actions, on the one hand, and consumer responses, on the other hand, and further examine their contingencies based on consumer social cognitions. Our findings show that, for corporate transgressions, multiple social cognitions (moral identity, relational and collective self‐concepts, and affective empathy) moderate the elicitation of negative moral emotions (contempt and anger) and overall evaluations (attitudes), which, in turn, lead to negative responses toward the company (negative word of mouth, complaint behaviors, and boycotting). Our study adds to extant research on corporate social irresponsibility by examining three generic reactions people have toward corporate social irresponsibility and demonstrating important boundary conditions. In addition, hypotheses are tested on a sample of adult consumers. Implications for communication by firms are considered.     

Corporate social responsibility,collaboration and depoliticisation

This article offers an engagement of the ethics of Badiou, one of the most significant representatives of contemporary continental philosophy, with the question of corporate social responsibility. First, this article displays an account of the complex ethical thinking of Badiou. Then, it seeks to show how Badiou's thought offers an important and distinctive critique of corporate social responsibility as ideology. Precisely, the two main features of the ideological discourse of corporate social responsibility are collaboration and depoliticisation. The Badiouan critique provides a performative efficacy against the seductions of corporate social responsibility discourse within the framework of a universalist ethics. Therefore, a Badiouan analysis argues that an ethical life is incompatible with corporate social responsibility.     

On fairness,efficiency and social structure

This paper presents an evaluation of economic efficiency and fairness, with a focus on the role of social relations in fairness evaluation. Defining fairness as the absence of envy, we introduce “switching costs” among individuals in the assessment of envy. When such costs depend on social relations, our analysis stresses the importance of social structure. When fairness is inconsistent with efficiency, we propose a measure of the cost of fairness. In a market economy, we show that fairness does not affect the validity of profit maximization. But it may require non-linear pricing. Implications of the analysis for policy are discussed.     

Non-profit organizations,entrepreneurship, social capital and economic growth

Traditional economic growth literature focuses mainly on the neoclassical approach. According to this view, firms try to maximize their benefits so that there is no place for non-profit organizations (NPOs). However, the activity of NPOs has a higher relevance in society, and it is necessary to analyze its effects on economic growth. These effects are not direct, but occur through other variables that directly promote economic growth, such as entrepreneurship activity and human capital, and through the improvement of education. We engage in an empirical analysis of these issues using data from 11 countries.     

Fear, guilt, and shame appeals in social marketing

This paper presents the results from a qualitative study of income support recipients with regard to how they feel about advertising which overtly appeals to their sense of fear, guilt and shame. The motivation of the study was to provide formative research for a social marketing campaign designed to increase compliance with income reporting requirements. This study shows that negative appeals with this group of people are more likely to invoke self-protection and inaction rather than an active response such as volunteering to comply. Social marketers need to consider the use of fear, guilt and shame to gain voluntary compliance as the study suggests an overuse of these negative appeals. While more formative research is required, the future research direction aim would be to develop an instrument to measure the impact of shame on pro-social decision-making; particularly in the context of close social networks rather than the wider society.     

Analyst coverage,corporate social responsibility,and firm risk

This article examines the empirical association between analyst coverage and corporate social responsibility (CSR) by investigating their simultaneous and causal effects, and its joint effects of CSR engagement and analyst coverage on firm risk. We find a positive association between the level and change of CSR engagement and the level and change of analyst coverage after considering simultaneity and causality. Based on the first‐difference approach, we further find that the change in analyst following from the previous year affects the change in CSR in the current period, whereas the change in CSR from the previous period does not influence the change in analyst following in the current period. Furthermore, we find that the change in CSR engagement as well as the interaction effect of changes in CSR and analyst coverage reduces the change of firm risk. When we examine the CSR strengths and concerns separately, analyst following does not significantly influence firms’ CSR strength but CSR concern activities decreases significantly as firms have more analyst followings. We further find the mediating role of financial analysts between CSR concerns (but not CSR strengths) and firm risk. We maintain that analysts provide indirect but additional social pressure to the firms to eventually reduce their irresponsible activities. Taken together, we interpret these results to support the stakeholder theory‐based conflict‐resolution explanation that considers CSR engagement as a vehicle to reduce conflicts of interest between managers and noninvesting stakeholders but not the overinvestment hypothesis that views CSR as a waste of valuable resources at the cost of shareholders.     

Founder CEOs,personal incentives,and corporate social irresponsibility

This study integrates organizational identity (OI) theory and upper echelons theory to explore the impact of CEOs’ founder status on corporate social irresponsibility (CSI). We theorize that compared with other CEOs, a founder CEO is more likely to generate a high degree of OI with the firm, which will drive the founder CEO to actively avoid CSI that may damage the positive image and long-term development of the firm. Furthermore, we argue that CEO duality and CEO ownership will strengthen the aforementioned relationship by increasing the possibility of founder CEOs generating a high degree of OI. Conversely, CEO underpayment will weaken the relationship between founder status and CSI by decreasing the possibility of founder CEOs generating a high degree of OI. We obtained empirical evidence in support of our arguments from a large Chinese private listed company dataset. Overall, this study’s theory and evidence clearly show that founder status and personal incentives can jointly shape CEOs’ CSI decisions, thereby providing useful insights for corporate shareholders and government agencies to better prevent and govern firms’ CSI.     

Impoverished consumers,Catholic social teaching,and distributive justice

Consistent with the goals of the special issue of Journal of Business Research, this paper examines the 1986 pastoral letter of the U.S. Catholic bishops titled, Economic Justice for All, and its impact on marketing practice for the last 25 years. The brief literature review places this text within the larger context of Catholic Social Teaching and marketing practice, teasing out four testable propositions for examining social and distributive justice. The evidence presented from a variety of secondary sources reveals a lack of sustained progress to meet the goals inherent in the bishops' appeal. To advance their arguments, modifications to the ways marketers are educated, incentivized, and reviewed are posited, with a final secular way of considering these principles.     

Images,reviews, and purchase intention on social commerce: The role of mental imagery vividness,cognitive and affective social presence

Images and textual reviews are central to social commerce sites. But little is known about the mechanism by which image quality and type of textual review (with personal experiences versus facts) impact consumer purchase intention on a social commerce page. We address this knowledge gap and use the stimulus-organism-response (S–O-R) framework to develop our conceptual framework. We hypothesize that image quality and type of textual review impact purchase intention through imagery vividness that functions as a stimulus. Further, imagery vividness impacts purchase intention positively in the social commerce context through social presence. Specifically, the effect of imagery vividness on purchase intention is likely to be serially mediated by cognitive social presence and affective social presence. We collect data by conducting two experiments using a social media post regarding fashion apparel for middle-aged women on Instagram and find support for our thesis.     

苏宁电器发布CSR报告 社会责任战略成型

3月15日,苏宁电器发布了《2009年企业社会责任报告》,在报告中,苏宁首次开发了具有行业特征和企业特质的社会责任战略模型,形成了以“阳光使命”为核心,价值使命、共赢使命、服务使命、员工使命、环境使命、和谐使命六大模块为分支的社会责任价值体系。     

American Glamour 2.0: architecture,spectacle, and social media

In this article, I argue that the layered notion of glamour, a term familiar from mid-twentieth-century film, architecture and popular culture, has increasing relevance in today’s hyperpublic world of social media, internet image-construction, and market segmentation. The creation and consumption of Hollywood images and slick advertising copy has long involved processes of narrative construction, projection, performance, and self-assessment that hold significant parallels for our culture of customized Instagram feeds, “Facebook envy” and other forms of digital communication, reception, and surveillance. Increasingly, contemporary public space is being shaped as a platform for the production and consumption of such data; a concomitant increase both in the development of techniques for surveillance and in the creation of defensible private spaces – both domestic and spiritual – creates new challenges for designers of both physical and online environments.