Resisting media marginalisation: Black women’s digital content and collectivity

ABSTRACT

Based on analysis of 23 interviews, this paper examines how social media and online content is implicated in the collective, resistant and transnational media experiences of Black women in Britain. It contributes to scholarship concerning race and the virtual marketplace by examining tensions between the countercultural, communal and commercial qualities of Black women’s online experiences. Drawing upon theorising of the oppositional spectator gaze of Black women, and narratives of technology consumption, we unpack how Black women’s digital activity can enable them to navigate the hegemony of US content, their marginalisation in British mass-media, and situate them within a Black experience that transcends Britain’s borders. Our work illustrates how Black women’s online encounters can be a source of resistance, Black digital commentary and community, as well as being subject to corporate co-optation. We conceptualise such online experiences as being shaped by transnational dimensions of the relationship between race, media and markets.     

Drivers of brand community engagement

Brand community engagement is evolving as a prominent relationship marketing variable that yields promising outcomes for the firms. Drawing upon the relevant premises of social exchange theory, this paper proposes a theoretical model portraying the role of online brand community based benefits (experience based and self-esteem based) and the community relationship investment in predicting the levels of brand community engagement.Data collected through a survey questionnaire technique from 925 members of the firm created online brand communities was employed to test the measurement and structural theory using confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling respectively. The empirical results reveal that the customers’ experiential and self-esteem based benefits drive their brand community engagement. The perceived community relationship investment of the members also drives their brand community engagement positively. The sequential structural model also supported a positive impact exerted by brand community engagement on brand community commitment and brand loyalty. Additionally, it is observed that the focal brand ownership moderates the effect of community benefits and community relationship investment on brand community engagement.This study contributes to the nascent academic research on online brand communities and to the existing understanding of the brand community managers in managing customer engagement in online brand communities, thereby of profound theoretical and managerial relevance.     

Peer-to-Peer Value Through Social Capital in an Online Motor Neuron Disease Community

Millions of people affected by disability or chronic disease access social support and information through online health communities. These communities of common interest flourish on the Internet, with participants creating peer-to-peer value through social support and information exchange. This study observes a community of people affected by motor neuron disease creating value for themselves and each other within an online health community. The community is studied through the lens of social capital theory, a construct borrowed from the field of sociology that contributes to our understanding of why people gravitate towards these online communities for support and information. The results contribute increased awareness of how peer-to-peer value is created within online health communities and highlight the need for marketers to understand the implications of such communities on consumer behavior as it relates to health care.     

Social corporations under the spotlight: A governance perspective

A series of new legal statutes for profit-seeking social ventures has emerged across geographic and institutional settings. Extant studies commonly do not make a clear distinction between these ventures. Such confusion leads to blurriness in research design and methodology, thereby limiting the relevance of findings. Moreover, researchers, entrepreneurs, and policymakers often lack a clear view of the unique organizational and governance aptitudes these ventures call for, to sustain and grow over time. Thus, this study has two objectives: (1) to clarify the panorama of novel companies that legally commit themselves to a social mission, gathered under the term “social corporation,” by providing a comprehensive typology of these organizations and (2) to identify the governance capabilities that social corporations develop to be sustainable and avoid mission drift in the long run. Our analysis of corporate-governing documents leads us to classify social corporations into three types: hard-law, soft-law, and bylaw. In addition to this typology, our multiple case study uncovers five key governance capabilities of social corporations related to performance, conformance, and responsibility—the main pillars of organizational governance. Overall, our work contributes to a better understanding of novel forms of social entrepreneurship emerging on the market. More important, it casts light on the governance processes that characterize them.     

Exploring the use of content analysis methodology in consumer research

Content analysis is a viable way to thematise consumer experiences. The purpose of this review study is to examine the use of content analysis in consumer research (1977–2017). The authors explore how content analysis has been used. The reviewed studies address consumer experiences. The results show that qualitative content analysis is not used as a method in its own right; it is more often applied as a supplement to quantitative testing. There is also a lack of rigorous reporting of methodologies in many studies. The systematic review provides four propositions, content analysis studies: 1) vary in execution and reporting; 2) have a tendency towards methodological vagueness; 3) do not apply content analysis as a sole method; 4) are versatile. The study can also serve as point of departure for novice researchers wishing to engage with content analysis research. We suggest that further research is needed to explore the use of qualitative methodologies in consumer research.     

Scale Development and Validation for Measuring Online Engagement

Although the construct of online engagement has received considerable attention in the consumer behavior literature, academic research lacks clear conceptualization and rigorous measurement of the construct within social media. Further, a lack of consensus remains with regard to the conceptualization and operationalization of engagement in the marketing literature. This study develops and validates a 16-item online engagement scale comprising four factors: conscious attention, affection, enthused participation, and social connection. Strong evidence supports the reliability of the multidimensional conceptualization, as well as its convergent and discriminant validity. The scale offers a framework for future research investigations in an increasingly important area.     

试析当前我国社区矫正本土化的困境与路径选择——以无锡市为例

社区矫正试点工作的开展在探索我国刑罚制度的改革与完善、建设社会主义和谐社会等方面都起到了极为重要的推动作用。社区矫正在我国八年的探索成果非凡。与此同时也面临着严峻的本土化困境,如社区矫正运作体制不健全、缺乏法律支持、社会认可度低、资源缺乏、内容行政化等。应从建立专门的社区矫正机构、构建多方位的社会支持网络、运用社会工作理念等方面来推动社区矫正的未来发展。     

Shopping motives as antecedents of e-satisfaction and e-loyalty

Abstract

Customer loyalty is fundamental to the profitability and survival of e-tailers. Yet research on antecedents of e-loyalty is relatively limited. This study contributes to the literature by investigating the effect of motives for online shopping on e-satisfaction and e-loyalty. A structural equations model is developed and tested through data from an online survey involving 797 customers of two UK-based e-tailers focussing on hedonic products. The results suggest that convenience, variety seeking, and social interaction help predict e-satisfaction, and that social interaction is the only shopping motive examined with a direct relationship to e-loyalty. Data also show that e-satisfaction is a strong determinant of e-loyalty. These findings are discussed in the light of previous research and avenues of future research are proposed.     

Inside your social media ring: How to optimize online corporate reputation

Although it is well accepted that corporate communication has a direct impact on corporate reputation, little is known about the link between firms’ social media communication strategies and the formation of firms’ reputations in an online environment. This article contributes to this body of knowledge by studying the impact of social media communication strategies on firms’ reputations. The setting for our study is the hotel industry. The results offer insights regarding the challenges of developing online communication strategies that affect corporate reputation.     

Should new online stores invest in social presence elements? The effect of social presence on initial trust formation

Online shopping has become increasingly popular in business development and the number of new online stores is ever increasing. Many of these online stores, however, fail. Research has indicated that one of the biggest reasons why these online stores fail is because of consumers׳ lack of trust. One solution that has been proposed is for online retailers to increase their level of social presence.This study investigates the impact of social presence, in its extreme form of online chat boxes, on initial trust formation for an online retailer. An experimental design was used and a structural equation model is tested using PLS-SEM (partial least square based structural equation modeling). Social presence was found to not only influence initial trust in the website, but also participants׳ enjoyment and perceived usefulness of the site. Therefore even though managers might think that there is no ROI in their investment in social presence, it still has a notable impact on consumers׳ perception of an online retailer they have not seen or used before. This is especially relevant to new online stores.     

Transplanting Social Capital to the Online World: Insights from Two Experimental Studies

The recent proliferation of computer networks has stimulated the emergence of thousands of online communities. Facebook, which has grown to 175-million users in five years and recently surpassed megasite MySpace to become the world's largest social networking site, is a classic example. As the importance of online communities continues to grow, a good understanding of their success factors for building and sustaining a community becomes crucial.

In this article, we apply social capital theories to examine the interactions among individuals and trust building at the initial development of an online community. Specifically, we postulate that offline social capital can be transplanted into an online community (small or large) to foster the development of trust and social norms that make a community thrive. We conduct two experimental studies: one in the context of real-world, small-scale online communities, and the other in the context of computer-simulated large-scale online communities. Results from these studies provide strong support for our proposition. We interpret these results and discuss their implications and contributions to theory and practice.     

From the self to the screen: a journey guide for auto-netnography in online communities

Supported by the previous literature, the author explores the method of auto-netnography, delimiting and differentiating its scope and boundaries. This article contributes to the literature with a Journey Guide for Auto-Netnography that can be used in online communities in social media by practitioners, organisations and scholars. That guide is constituted by six elements: (1) the traveller, (2) the map, (3) the routes, (4) the learning, (5) the telling and (6) the safety of the trip. The article also advances the literature by identifying and discussing the novel concept of brand auto-netnography. For illustrative purposes, the author uses an example of his own efforts to perform an auto-netnographic study in the context of a presidential candidate’s Facebook community; the author was the candidate’s campaign manager.     

The role of social conventions in the diffusion of open source software: Implications for service industries

In information and service products such as open source software, increasing returns occur on the production or supply side, as well as network externalities on the demand side. For open source software, the social community element needs to be integrated with the framework of increasing returns. This paper attempts to show that social conventions, and social herding behaviour are fundamental to the growth of the open source software. Such social conventions legitimise value and provide identification in the global online community and have important implications for service industries in general.     

在线品牌社群社会资本对消费者品牌幸福感的影响机制研究

文章从社会资本的视角，探讨在线品牌社群对消费者品牌幸福感的影响机制。基于680份有效问卷，运用偏最小二乘法对假设进行检验。研究结果表明：在线品牌社群社会资本会通过促进社群幸福感（社群主观幸福感、社群心理幸福感和社群社会幸福感）进而促进品牌幸福感；在社群幸福感内部，社群社会幸福感会促进社群心理幸福感，而二者都会促进社群主观幸福感；在线品牌社群访问频率在社群主观幸福感与品牌幸福感之间起到正向调节作用。研究结论丰富了在线品牌社群和品牌幸福感理论，且对品牌建设实践具有指导价值。     

Relationships among Perceived Organizational Core Values, Corporate Social Responsibility, Ethics, and Organizational Performance Outcomes: An Empirical Study of Information Technology Professionals

This study is an extension of our recent ethics research in direct marketing (2003) and information technology (2007). In this study, we investigated the relationships among core organizational values, organizational ethics, corporate social responsibility, and organizational performance outcome. Our analysis of online survey responses from a sample of IT professionals in the United States indicated that managers from organizations with organic core values reported a higher level of social responsibility relative to managers in organizations with mechanistic values; that managers in both mechanistic and organic organizations which were perceived as more socially responsible were also perceived as more ethical; and that perceived ethical attitudes and social responsibility were significantly associated with organizational performance outcome measures. Our article discusses research premises, conceptual framework, hypotheses, research methodology, data analysis, recommendations for further research, and conclusions.     

Predicting customers’ intentions to check in on Facebook while patronizing hospitality firms

Within the last decade, the introduction of Web 2.0 has created many opportunities for hospitality organizations. Facebook has become one of the most influential and powerful social media platforms. However, limited efforts have been made to explore customers’ intentions to check in on Facebook while visiting hospitality companies. Based on motivation theory, this study developed a research model containing two main categories of variables: (1) extrinsic factors (i.e. social influence, external rewards, and Cyber community utility) and (2) intrinsic factors (i.e. presenting oneself, perceived enjoyment, and altruism), and suggested that these potential variables can directly influence customers’ behavioral intention to check in. Data collected from 490 respondents in Taiwan were tested against the research model using the structural equation modeling approach. The results indicated that all the proposed variables (i.e. social influence, external rewards, Cyber community utility, presenting oneself, perceived enjoyment, and altruism) were the critical components significantly influencing online customers’ intention to check in on Facebook; the proposed model accounted for 70.7 % of the variance. The findings of this study will not only help hospitality and tourism practitioners in understanding the perceptions of potential customers, but also provide insights into research on technology’s influence on hospitality.     

Historical social network analysis: Advancing new directions for international business research

Despite repeated calls for incorporating history in IB research, progress has been slow. The few existing IB studies utilizing historical approaches have relied mostly on historical narrative approaches. In addition, there is little methodological guidance on how to use historical methodologies in IB research. This article will highlight a growing methodological approach for consideration, one that demonstrates intersections across multiple disciplines through use of varied techniques, historical analysis and social network analysis (SNA) and source-bases (varied archival sources). This study will demonstrate the richness obtained from utilising historical source collections and the additional perspectives on transnational networks that can be obtained from analysing networks over longer periods. Specifically, we argue that the use of historical mixed methods SNA is suitable in addressing calls for contextual, longitudinal, multilevel, and processual explanations of IB phenomena.     

Segmenting consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) toward marketing practice: A partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach

The way consumers make decisions across online and offline channels according to their perceptions of retailers׳ marketing practices is not well understood in the current literature. A few empirical studies have examined consumer decision-making styles (CDMS) and marketing practice among online and shopping mall consumers. This research endeavors to understand CDMS as market segments on the perception of marketing practice across retail channels. A total of 315 online and paper–pencil-questionnaires were collected to conduct the statistical analysis for the measurement and structural model using the partial least squares (PLS) path modeling approach, a structural equation modeling (SEM) technique. Six consumers׳ characteristics–perfectionist, brand consciousness, price conscious, fashion conscious, recreational and impulsive shoppers–were assessed in respect of retail products, price, advertising and retailing across-channels. The study contributes to retailing management by enabling it to implement effective retail segmentation and cross-channel strategy according to CDMS. The study limitations and implications are discussed.     

Corporate Social Responsibility in the Blogosphere

This paper uses social network analysis to examine the interaction between corporate blogs devoted to sustainability issues and the blogosphere, a clustered online network of collaborative actors. By analyzing the structural embeddedness of a prototypical blog in a virtual community, we show the potential of online platforms to document corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities and to engage with an increasingly socially and ecologically aware stakeholder base. The results of this study show that stakeholder involvement via sustainability blogs is a valuable new practice for CSR communications and stakeholder engagement. It also opens new horizons for communicating CSR issues to key constituencies online.     

Discussing Brand Information on Social Networking Sites: Implications for Global Brand Marketing

Due to the proliferation of information that global brands disseminate on social networking sites (SNS), how to induce SNS users to discuss such information is a topic deserving intensive research efforts. In recent years, scholars have begun to explore the topic from several perspectives. However, there is still a lack of conceptual theorization and empirical verification with more comprehensive probing into the psychological processes through which SNS users become motivated to engage in discussing brand information provided by brand marketers. The current study, based on integrative reconfiguration of relevant theories and a large-scale survey, develops and validates a theoretical model to explicate the key determinants in this regard. Data were obtained from 1518 respondents, who have been active SNS users for at least one year. Confirmatory factor analysis and structural equation modeling facilitate validation of the model. According to the research findings, affective attitude is a stronger factor than instrumental attitude in predicting the discussion behavior of SNS users relative to brand information intentionally designed and disseminated by brand marketers. Additionally, past behavior in discussing online business news, alongside subjective norm and perceived behavioral control, exercises significant effect on such behavior. Most noteworthy, identity construction generates the greatest impact on behavioral intention and actual behavior among SNS users to discuss brand information that brand marketers provide to them. In general, the current study contributes to making better use of SNS for global brand marketing.