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This study aims to determine how the most sustainable brands in Italy and Spain developed communication and awareness-raising actions during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether these companies were truly involved in raising public awareness of the pandemic. The authors specifically focus on sustainable companies, as health communication is considered to be an important corporate social responsibility task.

To answer these questions, the authors have used data on the social media activity (Twitter and Instagram) of these brands in Spain and Italy, extracting the posts and associated hashtags that each of them has published throughout the pandemic to be processed using social network analysis and visualization techniques.

The detailed analysis of both the levels of activity and the content of the messages provides interesting insights into the communication models of the companies and the influence of factors such as time, country and the specific social media platform used.

The authors analyze the communication of the most sustainable businesses on social media during the pandemic, adopting a highly innovative approach. The particular originality of this study lies in the parallel analysis of two different countries that were simultaneously shaken by the pandemic in very similar circumstances. This study also presents a novel use of graphical representation tools in terms of companies’ behavior for health communication on social media.

El objetivo de esta investigación es determinar cómo las marcas reconocidas como las más sostenibles en Italia y España han desarrollado acciones de comunicación durante la pandemia del Covid-19 y si estas empresas se han involucrado realmente en la sensibilización pública de la pandemia. Nos centramos específicamente en las empresas sostenibles dado que la Comunicación en Salud se considera una tarea importante de responsabilidad social corporativa.

Para responder a estas preguntas, hemos utilizado datos de actividad en medios sociales (Twitter e Instagram) de estas marcas en España e Italia, extrayendo los posts y hashtags asociados que cada una ha publicado a lo largo de la pandemia para procesarlos usando técnicas de análisis y visualización de redes sociales.

El análisis detallado tanto de los niveles de actividad como del contenido de los mensajes permite obtener conclusiones interesantes sobre los modelos de comunicación de las empresas y la influencia de factores como el tiempo, el país y el medio social concreto utilizado.

Analizamos la comunicación realizada por las compañías más sostenibles en medios sociales durante la pandemia, adoptando un enfoque muy innovador. La particularidad de este estudio radica en el análisis paralelo de dos países diferentes que fueron sacudidos simultáneamente por la pandemia en circunstancias muy similares. Este estudio también conlleva un uso novedoso de herramientas de representación gráfica en términos del comportamiento de las empresas para Comunicación en Salud en medios sociales.

本研究的目的是确定在意大利和西班牙被认为是最可持续发展的品牌在Covid-19大流行期间是如何开展传播行动的, 以及这些公司是否真正参与了提高公众对该大流行病的认识。我们特别关注可持续发展的公司, 因为健康传播被认为是企业社会责任的一项重要任务。

为了回答这些问题, 我们使用了这些品牌在西班牙和意大利的社交媒体活动数据（Twitter和Instagram）, 提取了每个品牌在整个大流行期间发布的帖子和相关标签, 并使用社交网络分析和可视化技术进行处理。

通过对活动水平和信息内容的详细分析, 可以得出关于这些公司的传播模式以及诸如时间、国家和所使用的特定社交媒体等因素的影响的有趣结论。

我们分析了最可持续的公司在大流行期间在社交媒体上进行的传播, 采取了一种非常创新的方法。这项研究的特殊性在于对两个不同国家的平行分析, 这两个国家在非常相似的情况下同时受到大流行病的冲击。这项研究还包括在社交媒体上对公司健康传播行为的图形表示工具的新颖使用。

The purpose of this study is to review and analyze the status of word-of-mouth (WOM) research in the business-to-business (B2B) context and discuss and identify new possible future directions.

A systematic review was conducted and 36 articles on B2B WOM were collected to evaluate the current state of the literature and clarify possible future research directions.

This thematic analysis categorize these articles into three themes: WOM generation, WOM usage and reference marketing. Under each theme, the authors reveal research findings unique to B2B research and different from business-to-consumer (B2C) WOM research. This study identifies several research questions that should be addressed by future research.

Both academic researchers and business practitioners recognize that WOM plays an essential role in B2B marketing. However, no review paper focuses on WOM in the B2B context. Findings in the B2C WOM literature suggest that WOM substantially influences firms’ performance, but that managers cannot simply attempt to extrapolate B2C findings to the B2B arena. By synthesizing and assessing prior research on WOM in the B2B context, this study contributes to a better understanding of the B2B WOM phenomenon and facilitates future research on this topic.

The study aims to investigate the usage of diversity and inclusion (D&I) signals in communications for employer branding through digital channels made by European companies.

A quali-quantitative content analysis approach was employed to detect the usage of D&I signals of the top 43 European companies ranked in the 2021 Refinitiv Diversity and Inclusion index. These signals were organized according to Plummer's Big 8 diversity's dimensions. A correlation analysis was conducted to verify a relationship between D&I initiatives and digital communication for employer branding on corporate websites and LinkedIn. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the D&I dimensions' pervasiveness in digital communications and relevance on LinkedIn.

The results show that the correlation exists only between D&I initiatives and communication on the corporate website, while LinkedIn is still underused in this field. The most pervasive and relevant D&I dimensions for European companies are “Gender” and “Sexual Orientation”.

This paper enriches employer branding research by providing original insights into the use of D&I dimensions in digital communications.

In the most recent years, social, innovative, economic and political changes in the European context have characterized consumers' behaviours. The paper aims to understand if the use of electronic commerce differs in a situation characterized by uncertainty.

An innovative approach to categorising online consumer behaviour considers the self-determination theory and basic psychological needs in an uncertain scenario. The research is based on a quantitative analysis obtained by clustering algorithms on a sample of 1,000 digital users in European countries. A structured questionnaire was administered online and distributed through the leading online social platforms and direct mailing.

The results show online activities during changes in consumer behaviour patterns and retailers' strategies. This research will allow online retail managers and practitioners to obtain important information to help them define appropriate customer-oriented strategic actions to enhance value in the electronic context for both customers and firms.

The innovation of this research approaches the categorization of online consumer behaviour by exploiting the self-determination theory in an uncertain scenario. Precisely, the novelty of this research is to highlight three detailed categories of electronic commerce consumers, namely, unwilling, halfback and digital, to collect, store and disseminate information about these categories of Online Consumers Behaviours.

Social initiatives must disclose their results to access support. However, there is no theoretical consensus about how to do it. It is still necessary to understand the value creation in social initiatives because they may or not have economic goals. However, these goals serve to make the social ones feasible. This study aims to cut this Gordian knot by providing measures aligned to the value theory but developed by the social lens. It offers a non-economic-focused approach to dealing with assessment complexity and with multiple stakeholders’ needs for information.

A consolidation research path is suggested by three composed measures built upon tested and reliable scales. These value measures are discussed through narratives from Portuguese investors and social entrepreneurs in a mixed-methods design. Content analysis and online survey provided data for descriptive statistics, exploratory factor analysis and Cronbach's alpha test.

The analyses supported the value measures. Thus, they allow an effective way to assess and report the social value created. It also highlighted a potential use in preventive and corrective approaches helpful for several organizations that pursue social goals.

The measures were tested based on social entrepreneurs' opinions. Future studies can include beneficiaries' opinions, allowing comparisons that can help to set more realistic goals and better investment criteria.

The relationship between investors and initiatives can improve, boosting their impact on society. The measures can highlight prioritization choices that influence the way value is created. Hence, they serve as a sensemaking from a holistic standpoint.

Employer branding is a topic that has gained relevance in the organisational world. Currently, organisations need to differentiate themselves, and one of their biggest challenges is the search and retention of talent. One of the factors that have been associated with attracting talent is employer branding. However, studies that explore the relationship between this, corporate reputation and the intention to apply for a job are scarce. As such, this study aims to analyse the mediating role of corporate reputation in the relationship between employer branding and the intention to apply for a job offer.

To achieve the goals, data were collected from 225 Portuguese adults. The response rate was 75%. Based on a survey, respondents reported their perceptions of employer branding of a specific organisation, and they rated the organisation’s reputation and their intention to apply to that organisation.

The results showed that employer branding (interest value; social value; economic value; development value; application value) positively influenced an organisation’s corporate reputation, which, in turn, increased an individual’s intention to apply for an employment offer in that organisation.

The present study is a contribution to the literature on employer branding, as it reinforced the importance that employer branding and corporate reputation play in the intention of applying for a job offer.

Based on the case study of an SME company in the United Kingdom (which we will call SweetStar Cloud), this paper examines the attempts of the company to achieve significant strategic change. The company is attempting to move from being a tradition managed service provider of information services towards becoming a significant influencer in the market for digital services in the UK. As part of a knowledge transfer partnership (KTP), a local UK University has been closely involved in developing this new strategic direction and it is well poised to present and analyse the story. From the use of tried and tested strategic tools, including Porter's generic strategies and segmentation and targeting, the company has also embraced digital-specific approaches for developing partnerships with clients, developing pilot projects and experimenting with its use of social media. At the heart of this research is an analysis of the move from push marketing towards models of attraction. This paper aims to explore how traditional strategic tools are still applicable in the digital era alongside new tactical approaches in the digital sector. This aim has led to an approach to business that is responsible, in terms of moving away from a traditional push-selling model to one of partnership with customers at a strategic level. Strategy in dynamic markets often highlights responsiveness as a key success factor. The ability to respond (a response-ability) requires more agile companies. As SweetStar Cloud has developed its strategy, it has focused in achieving this more effective ability to respond through a more collaborative approach. In this sense, agile response-ability converges with business responsibility, as new abilities in communication, cooperation and trust development become key.

This study aims to identify the propensity for clients (legal and natural persons) to adopt peer-to-peer (P2P) short-term insurance policies as opposed to traditional and/or centralized short-term.

In this paper data was collected through a survey of 102 sampled short-term insurance clients using convenience sampling. The TAM2 questionnaire was adapted to evaluate the intention to adopt a P2P insurance policy.

The findings of this study shed light on the factors influencing the adoption and (dis)continuation of short-term insurance products, both traditional and digital, among South African consumers. The results demonstrate that perceived usefulness, ease of use, trust, risk perception and subjective norm play crucial roles in individuals' intention to use or (dis)continue the use of these insurance products.

The study's findings provide actionable insights for practitioners in the short-term insurance sector, with a focus on marketers and e-commerce professionals. These insights emphasize the need to prioritize user-friendly design and trust-building measures in the development of P2P insurance systems. Additionally, practitioners should consider harnessing the power of social influence and carefully balancing innovative features with familiarity in their marketing efforts. These strategies are poised to enhance the adoption and competitive positioning of P2P insurance solutions amidst the evolving landscape of digital transformation.

This study makes a substantial contribution by employing the technology acceptance model (TAM) in a novel and unconventional manner. It not only explicates the intricate dynamics governing the adoption and discontinuation of short-term insurance products, encompassing both conventional and digital alternatives, within the South African consumer milieu but also extends its purview to infer the reasons behind the limited widespread adoption of the digital counterpart, despite its superior value proposition compared to the traditional offering. The findings elucidate the critical determinants shaping individuals' decisions in this dynamic market segment. This research enhances the global discourse on insurance adoption with a unique South African perspective and furnishes insurers and marketers with empirically grounded insights to optimize their strategies and cultivate substantive connections with their target demographic.

Using data from a continuous and ongoing cross-sectional web survey on hospitalisation service experiences in two Italian regions, the authors used multilevel and multivariate logistic regression models to identify factors related to users' demographics, emotional and informative support, technical and physical aspects of the provision, influencing satisfaction and willingness-to-recommend, before and during a crisis.

The value-in-use, defined in terms of a positive or negative value given by the experience with services, can be evaluated by users and influenced by the context of provision. The authors tested whether and how the value-in-use of services changed in a context of crisis. This study is applied to the healthcare sector during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) epidemic, by evaluating the impact of the pandemic on hospitalisation experience.

Overall, analyses of 8,712 questionnaires found a greater value after the pandemic spread. In a time of crisis, technical and informative aspects of care were found to be most valued by patients that may recognise the extraordinary professionalism of workers during the crisis.

This study empirically suggests that context can affect the evaluation of value-in-use by patients during unprecedented circumstances, producing additional value-in-context.

These findings imply that during critical periods where there is less scope for expressions of gratitude and appreciation towards front-line workers, user-reported data can be used for motivating professionals and increase resilience. These results reiterate the need to continue collecting and reporting the service users' voices, including as activity within plans for managing challenging situations.

The level of healthcare system distress, due to the COVID-19 epidemic, positively affects patients' propensity to recommend, which the authors suggest is driven by healthcare services' feelings of reverse compassion. These findings imply that during critical periods where there is less scope for expressions of gratitude and appreciation towards front-line workers, user-reported data can be used for motivating professionals and increase resilience, which can have positive social implications. These results reiterate the need to continue collecting and reporting the service users' voices, including as activity within plans for managing challenging situations.

Research based on the intersection of theoretical and empirical research regarding value-in-use, value-in-context and service quality measured through user experience is scarce, in particular in the healthcare sector. The authors' findings set the direction for future research on the influence of context on value creation and value creation's perception by users, on the concept of reverse compassion and on reverse compassion's impact on organisational well-being, particularly in times of crisis.

Customer loyalty is of growing interest to many service firms due to the many tangible and intangible benefits it offers them. However, building customer loyalty is challenging for many service firms. This study aims to examine the impact of corporate reputation on customer loyalty. It also assesses the moderating role of the firm's country of origin in this relationship.

Survey research design was used to collect data from 367 universal banks' customers. Data were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings shed light on several crucial aspects of corporate reputation that influence customer loyalty. Specifically, signals of corporate social responsibility, corporate credibility, product attributes and relationship marketing were found to have a substantial impact on customer loyalty. Additionally, the study uncovers a noteworthy insight that the firm's country of origin plays a moderating role in the relationship between corporate reputation and customer loyalty, particularly in the context of the banking sector.

This research stands out due to its utilisation of signalling theory, making it one of the pioneering works in the bank brand management literature. It presents a comprehensive corporate reputation framework and its profound implications for customer loyalty. Furthermore, the study underscores the significance of considering the strength of the country-of-origin effect in shaping customer loyalty relationships.