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Technological innovations provide huge opportunities to expand and revolutionize the scope of products and services offered. This is particularly true for tourism, which is undergoing significant changes due to the development of new technologies. The level of technology diffusion depends on several factors like the exchange of information among peers, and the attitude and shared perception among the contributors. The aim of the study is to explore the diffusion of technology in tourism with a specific focus on the social media discourse around new technologies. Thus, the paper investigates the level of interest in these new technologies analysing the information exchange occurring between individuals on Twitter in order to explore the influence of reciprocal networking.

To capture the attitudes expressed in the industry, the study analyses the ongoing discourse on Twitter as a proxy for the participants “interest in new technologies. Through a social network analysis of the tweets and retweets conducted over a period of nine months, the research maps the level of information exchange about the diffusion of new technologies. Moreover, the sentiment analysis provides an interesting overview of the individuals” attitudes towards the awareness or the adoption of new technologies.

Our analysis has provided several insights: (1) the information network on blockchain in tourism consists of participants who change very quickly over time (high turnover of accounts); (2) some contributors have an extremely important role in influencing the flow of information in the system (information centralization), they can have a generalist (discussing several topics) or a specialist (focusing on a specific topic) behaviour and this strategic choice influences their network's structure; (3) these central nodes also have an impact on the definition of positive and negative sentiment towards a topic (sentiment influencer).

The paper contributes to the literature on technology diffusion, by focusing on one of the preconditions of diffusion that is the shared positive attitude towards technological innovation. More specifically, we adopt a network-based approach, which is useful to explain the level of information exchange and the public discourse that can impact the shared perception and attitude towards technological innovation. The study also highlights the role of knowledge brokers in influencing this public discourse. Future studies can deepen the association between positive perception, higher levels of information exchange and increasing usage of specific technologies. Our results also suggest further exploring the opportunity to combine social media data and other sources of information to shed more light on the technological innovation diffusion processes.

This paper shows how practitioners can benefit from the analysis of information exchange about new technologies in tourism adopting a network perspective with the aim of understanding the level of influence among contributors. Moreover, the increasing interest in blockchain technology and the potential combination between social media data and other sources of information can offer promising insights.

The present study explores the level of technology diffusion through the analysis of information exchange on social media (Twitter). Furthermore, the dynamics of individual user behaviour offers a better understanding about media effects.

While previous research is focused on the users' perception towards the development of new technologies in tourism, the aim of this study is to investigate the dynamics behind the level of diffusion of information and awareness about these new technologies, which still represents an unexplored area of research.

The rise in industrialization, economic development and urbanization has altered the composition of atmospheric air. Air pollutants have significantly impacted Pakistan's urban areas, resulting in the lowest air quality index readings. To understand disinclined behavior such as using air purifiers and wearing masks, this study aims to explore the relationship between individual personality traits and mass media effects.

This study used a cross-sectional survey with a model based on previous theories. Data from 2,000 adults were self-administered and analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

PLS-SEM confirmed six hypotheses, revealing mass media's direct and mediating roles in promoting critical psychological perceptions for protective behavior. The empirical results indicate that neuroticism, agreeableness and openness traits reinforce adherence behavior by intensifying threat perception.

This paper highlights significant implications for media campaign planners and provides more precise and comprehensive theoretical guidance. In the context of environmental challenges like smog, the findings illustrate how an understanding of personality traits can improve the efficacy of public health interventions through adherence to behaviors like mask-wearing and air purifier use. Addressing individual psychological characteristics when creating mass media campaigns to encourage public adherence to health protection measures related to environmental hazards.

Despite health campaigns and awareness, public compliance with measures like mask-wearing and air purifier use remains minimal. This study explores untapped mass media effects based on individual personality traits to understand this behavior.

This case study aims to simulate the learners’ thoughts about the earnest comprehension of sustainable brands with zero waste policy. It will further prompt them to anatomize the growth strategy of a sustainable brand, as it delineates the challenges faced by a woman ecopreneur. In response to these causative conundrums, the incumbent would be able to develop an understanding on the evolving landscape in context to the association between meeting consumer expectations, brand positioning and its channelization towards growth and revenue generation. Furthermore, the learners will be able to analyse the stages of product life cycle of a sustainable product and recommend an effective strategic plan to meet the consumer expectations and achieve desired growth by the application of Kano model.

Thenga was a home-grown brand from Kerala (God’s own country) founded by Maria Kuriakose, a native of Kerala in 2019. Unlike other brands, which were using coconut as a source of flesh, water and oil, Kuriakose came up with an idea of using the tossed shells of coconuts which eventually used to end up at landfills. These shells were crafted into aesthetics by the team of Thenga while adhering to the zero-waste policy. The brand gained momentum with the overwhelming positive response from the natives of Kerala and carved a way across the boundaries of Kerala, gradually reaching to every corner of India. Kuriakose thought of scaling the brand in the international boundaries as well. Within no time, the brand was a success. However, over the time, the brand was confronted with two broad dilemmas. First, non-uniformity in the sizes of the products, especially in bulk orders where maintaining uniformity was essential. The customers complained that there was no uniformity in the size of the products because for gifting purposes, they wanted all the products to look alike. And second, selecting the stringent quality shells because the ones exposed to sun for a very long time were not ideal for crafting the products due to the cracking of the shells, thereby affecting their durability. It became difficult addressing to these complex issues because the shells were nature’s creations. These issues were very different from the managerial dilemmas. Would the perspectives of management provide a solution? Kuriakose had to find a way out in the long term for the survival of the brand especially during its growth phase.

The case study is relevant for students in disciplines of entrepreneurship, green marketing, brand management, corporate social responsibility and strategy. It is designed for advanced MBA/PGDM and capstone courses. The case study also addresses the elements of customers’ perceptions towards innovative products and can be used as an addition for marketing courses dealing with strategies to improve the awareness and adoption of sustainable products.

Teaching notes are available for educators only.

CSS 4: Environmental management.

This research aims to examine the ways and the extent to which social media platforms undermine the spiral of silence by facilitating the expression of diverse voices and opinions.

Semi-structured interviews were conducted with members of closed groups focused on non-consensus topics.

Facebook closed group members perceive the media as isolating and portraying their issues negatively. However, these groups offer support, inclusion and non-judgmental opinion-sharing space. Consequently, members feel more comfortable discussing and sharing the topic outside the group, indicating a slight trend of challenging and undermining the spiral of silence through social networks.

The study faces challenges in comparing diverse groups due to unique circumstances, complex needs and societal attitudes. Each group stands alone, potentially yielding slightly different findings.

Social media challenges and undermines the spiral of silence, as these opinions are shared with the wider society and can even find their way back to mainstream media outlets. Thus, social media platforms play a significant role in disrupting the spiral of silence and facilitating the expression of diverse opinions that may have been previously suppressed.

This research emphasizes the critical role of social media in shaping public opinion and its interaction with the broader media landscape, illustrating a circular process where social media disrupts the spiral of silence by facilitating the expression of previously suppressed diverse opinions, which can then potentially influence mainstream media.

This study adds value by exploring how social media platforms can challenge and undermine the spiral of silence, enabling the expression of diverse, marginalized and underrepresented opinions in society. It highlights the role of social media in shaping public opinion and discourse, challenging the dominance of traditional media. Its originality emanates from its revelations concerning the legitimization of conversational topics, which may consequently affect media agendas.

This study explores whether media coverage of Chinese food safety guide consumer behaviour and determines its impact.

Using data from the China Family Panel Studies, this study implements unsupervised machine learning methods to quantitatively identify themes in news media coverage of food safety across various provinces and regions. Based on these findings, this study examines the impact of coverage of food safety on consumer behaviour related to FAFH.

We find that media coverage of food safety in the restaurant sector significantly decreases household expenditure on FAFH relative to total expenditure. While negative coverage substantially decreases expenditure on FAFH, non-negative coverage significantly increases it. Reports of food safety incidents outside consumers’ province are negatively correlated with expenditure on FAFH, whereas reports within province significantly increases such spending. Further, the negative impact of media coverage on FAFH spending is less pronounced among higher-income families, households headed by individuals with high educational levels and those with low sensitivity to newspaper information. A robust government information infrastructure also mitigates this negative impact.

The findings have important policy reference value for promoting the healthy development of catering and other life services by improving news reporting and the regulatory system.

This article employs machine learning methods to identify news reports related to food safety in the catering industry quantitatively and incorporates them into the study of household consumption in China. Consequently, this not only fills a gap in the existing literature but also provides a new perspective for interdisciplinary research in economics, sociology and computer science.

This paper aims to examine the British Broadcasting Corporation’s (BBC) portrayal of the May 2022 Monkeypox outbreak in the West. The Monkeypox outbreak and the outcry from African journalists on some Western media outlets’ use of black people to portray the Monkeypox outbreak informed the present study to investigate, through empirical evidence, whether Western media portrays Africa negatively.

The paper opted for the content analysis method. The news recordings from BBC News analysed for this study were archived videos on Monkeypox retrieved from Blob of Broadcast, an on-demand audio and video streaming service in the UK.

Findings indicated that videos were the most used visuals by the BBC to depict the Monkeypox outbreak in the observed period. Findings also revealed that Black was the prevalent skin tone used in depicting those affected by the outbreak, while White was the prevalent skin tone used in depicting the scientists interviewed for their expert knowledge and at the forefront of the Monkeypox outbreak.

The paper includes implications for Western media outlets on how to portray Africa and its people.

This paper fulfils an identified need to investigate how Africa is portrayed in Western media through empirical evidence.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of CEO social media celebrity status on credit ratings and to determine whether potential threats on the CEO celebrity status negatively moderate the above association.

The authors collected tweets for 874 CEOs from 513 unique S&P 1500 firms. A panel data analysis was conducted on a panel with 4,235 observations from 2009 to 2020. We then tested the hypothesis with the ordinal logit model.

The empirical findings confirmed that CEO social media celebrity status is positively associated with corporate credit rating outcomes. Our path analyses revealed that CEOs with higher social media celebrity status have less incentive to conduct risk-taking behaviors and thus benefit credit ratings. When the rating agencies perceive potential threats to CEO celebrity status, including CEO myopia and CEO overconfidence, the association between CEO social media celebrity status and credit rating is weakened.

This study provides an in-depth understanding of CEO social media perception on credit ratings for firms' managers and capital market participants. Findings can help managers and firms improve their strategies for leveraging social media to release credit constraints. The debt market participants could adopt the CEO social media celebrity status and its concerned threats to setting debt contracts with an adequate price.

This is likely to be the first study that examines the effect of CEO social media celebrity status on credit ratings. The findings of this study also reveal that social media certificated celebrity CEOs tend to be capable of enhancing firm revenue and have lower risk-taking incentives, unlike mass media certificated celebrity CEOs.

This chapter explores how the capacity of different sectors of the government influences which topics are prioritized in the legislative agenda. We focus on the complex and challenging topic of agriculture and the environment in Brazil and analyze how it's framed in both the media and the legislature. Our analysis shows that, in normal circumstances, the governmental actors with the highest state capacity prevent threatening topics from entering the legislative agenda, biasing it toward the status quo. However, we find that the media can act as a tool for sectors with lower capacity to bring their priorities to the forefront and trigger a legislative response.

In the past few years, research focusing on misinformation, referred to broadly as fake news, has experienced revived attention. Past studies have focused on explaining the ways in which people correct it online and on social media. However, fewer studies have dealt with the ways in which people are able to identify fake news (i.e. fake news literacy). This study contributes to the latter by theoretically connect people’s general social media use, political knowledge and political epistemic efficacy with individuals’ fake news literacy levels.

A diverse and representative two-wave panel survey in the United States was conducted (June 2019 for Wave 1, October 2019 for Wave 2). We performed cross-sectional, lagged and autoregressive regression analyses to examined how social media us, people’s political knowledge and political epistemic efficacy are related to their fake news literacy.

Results suggest that the more people used social media, were politically knowledgeable and considered they were able to find the truth in politics (i.e. epistemic political efficacy), the more likely they were to discern whether the news is fake. Implications of helping media outlets and policy makers be better positioned to provide the public with corrective action mechanisms in the struggle against fake news are discussed.

The measurement instrument employed in the study relies on subjects’ self-assessment, as opposed to unobtrusive trace (big) digital data, which may not completely capture the nuances of people’s social media news behaviors.

This study sheds light on how the way people understand politics and gain confidence in finding political truth may be key elements when confronting and discerning fake news. With the help of these results, journalists, media outlets and policymakers may be better positioned to provide citizens with efficient, preemptive and corrective action mechanisms in the struggle against misinformation.

Recent literature highlights the importance of literacy education to contest fake news, but little is known about what specific mechanisms would contribute to foster and reinvigorate people’s fake news literacy. This study helps address this gap.

The peer review history for this article is available at: https://publons.com/publon/10.1108/OIR-03-2024-0140

This study aims to investigate the role of negative media coverage of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues in deterring tax avoidance. Inspired by media agenda-setting theory and legitimacy theory, this study hypothesises that an increase in ESG negative media coverage should cause a reputational drawback, leading companies to reduce tax avoidance to regain their legitimacy. Hence, this study examines a novel channel that links ESG and taxation.

This study uses panel regression analysis to examine the relationship between negative media coverage of ESG issues and tax avoidance among the largest European entities. This study considers different measures of tax avoidance and negative media coverage.

The results show that negative media coverage of ESG issues is negatively associated with tax avoidance, suggesting that media can act as an external monitor for corporate taxation.

The findings have implications for policymakers and regulators, which should consider tax transparency when dealing with ESG disclosure requirements. Tax disclosure should be integrated into ESG reporting.

The study has social implications related to the media, which act as watchdogs for firms’ irresponsible practices. According to this study’s findings, increased media pressure has the power to induce a better alignment between declared ESG policies and tax strategies.

This study contributes to the literature on the mechanisms that discourage tax avoidance and the literature on the relationship between ESG and taxation by shedding light on the role of media coverage.