Primed Authenticity: How Priming Impacts Authenticity Perception of Social Media Influencers

ABSTRACT

Though organizations increasingly collaborate with social media influencers, such as bloggers and videobloggers, little is known as to how the contextual cues related to sponsored content affect the authenticity perception of the social media influencers among audience members. This study explores how positive and negative priming of sponsored content shapes the authenticity perception of the vlogger among its audience members. Four different manipulation conditions were constructed to study a U.S. based travel vlog on Qualtrics, with data collected via Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. A theory-guided content analysis of 211 open viewer responses was conducted to compare perceptions of authenticity between the manipulation groups. The results verified the significance of priming: the same sponsored content can result in opposite reactions among the audience members depending on the positive/negative valence of the introductory text attached, highlighting the central importance of strategic communication related to the perception of sponsored content. The results also point out the importance of audience member engagement for experienced authenticity: The manipulation of audience participation with the vlog had a stronger effect on the perception of authenticity of the vlogger than the positive/negative valence of the introductory text.     

Sensitivity of Job Destruction to Vintage and Tenure Effects

Matching models with endogenous job destruction typically deliver excessively volatile job destruction and moderate volatility of vacancies. In our model, vintage and tenure effects promote the creation of new matches that are temporarily more productive, while reducing the survival of temporarily less productive matches. This cleansing effect produces a counter‐cyclical inflow into unemployment, removes the strong response of job destruction to productivity shocks, and generates a downward‐sloping Beveridge curve, as in the data. The model also generates more volatility in vacancies, the job‐finding rate, and labor‐market tightness.     

Pajala as a literary place: in the readings and footsteps of Mikael Niemi

This paper concerns the relationship between literature and tourism, with specific focus on the Swedish novelist Mikael Niemi and his influence on local tourism development in his home municipality of Pajala. Attention is paid to how the success of Niemi's breakthrough novel Populärmusik från Vittula has turned Pajala into a well-known ‘literary place’, at the same time increasing tourism in the region. This paper discusses the literary meanings of Pajala by comparing two alternative ways of comprehending the idea of ‘Pajala as a literary place’. Pajala is approached as (1) a stage for the local and regional identities represented in Niemi's novel, and (2) a re-produced real-world experience for ‘literary pilgrims’, tourists wandering in the footsteps of Mikael Niemi. This paper also discusses the contradictions and disharmonies between these two literary worlds and the implications that these may have for local development strategies based on literary tourism.     

Communication capability as an intrinsic determinant for information age

One of the prerequisites of the information society is advanced communication resources and skills made possible by new technology, services and infrastructure, and required of individuals and organisations alike. Approaching the subject through theoretical analysis as well as empirical study, this paper aims to answer questions concerning the required standards of communication capability and how such demands develop in the face of continually developing information technology. Areas discussed include the level of required skills and the penetration of modern technologies in Finland, one of the most advanced societies in the world in the use of information and communication technology. The indices used to describe these skills are also discussed. Finally, current developments pointing towards the information society are assessed from the viewpoint of marginalisation and future prospects.     

Ownership Structure and Accounting Method Choice: A Study of European Real Estate Companies

Companies can under IAS 40 Investment Properties choose between the fair value and the cost models. The fair value model arguably results in more relevant information but is also more costly to use. Based on studies suggesting that financial reports are a more important medium for communication with investors if ownership is dispersed, we hypothesize that the use of the fair value model is positively associated with ownership dispersion. We study European Real Estate firms and find support for this prediction. We also find a positive association between trade of shares and ownership dispersion, supporting the view that financial statements are less important if ownership concentration is high. Finally, we examine whether the choice depends on the identity of large owners. Companies with a financial company as the largest owner are somewhat more likely to choose the fair value model. Overall, the results indicate that accounting rules facilitating optional accounting policies have benefits.     

Detecting speculative bubbles in an IT-intensive stock market

Using a battery of unit root test procedures and cointegration analysis with alternative null hypotheses we find some evidence of speculative bubbles in the Finnish stock market for monthly data on industry portfolio stock prices and returns from the 1990s. When analyzing the time series behavior of stock market prices and returns against the development of certain macroeconomic fundamentals, the bubbles seem to be present especially in the information technology (IT) prices and only during the latter half of the decade. (JEL C22, G12)     

A note on the valuation of asset management firms

Market capitalization relative to assets under management is often used to value asset management firms. Huberman’s (2004) dividend discount model implies that cross-sectional variations in this metric are explained by cross-sectional differences in operating margins, and yet we find no evidence of this in our data set. We show that a superior model—inspired by the work of Berk and Green (2004)—includes also the level of fees as an explanatory variable. This approach dramatically increases the fit of our valuation model and casts doubt on the relevance of the so-called Huberman puzzle.     

The International Transmission of Monetary Policy in a Dollar Pricing Model

This paper analyses the international transmission of monetary policy in the case where all export prices are set in US dollars. “Dollar pricing” implies that the international effects of US monetary shocks are different from those of European shocks because of an asymmetric exchange rate pass-through to import prices. A dollar pricing model can explain the observed asymmetry in the transmission of monetary policy: US monetary policy affects US output more than European monetary policy affects European output. I also show that the current account is an important channel through which monetary policy affects welfare. The paper concludes that under dollar pricing a monetary expansion is a beggar-thy-neighbour policy.