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1 – 10 of 455
Open Access
Article
Publication date: 24 August 2020

Laura Rocca, Davide Giacomini and Paola Zola

Because of the expansion of the internet and Web 2.0 phenomenon, new challenges are emerging in the disclosure practises adopted by organisations in the public-sector. This study…

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Abstract

Purpose

Because of the expansion of the internet and Web 2.0 phenomenon, new challenges are emerging in the disclosure practises adopted by organisations in the public-sector. This study aims to examine local governments’ (LGOs) use of social media (SM) in disclosing environmental actions/plans/information as a new way to improve accountability to citizens to obtain organisational legitimacy and the related sentiment of citizens’ judgements.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper analyses the content of 39 Italian LGOs’ public pages on Facebook. After the distinction between five classes of environmental issues (air, water, energy, waste and territory), an initial study is performed to detect possible sub-topics applying latent Dirichlet allocation. Having a list of posts related to specific environmental themes, the researchers computed the sentiment of citizens’ comments. To measure sentiment, two different approaches were implemented: one based on a lexicon dictionary and the other based on convolutional neural networks.

Findings

Facebook is used by LGOs to disclose environmental issues, focussing on their main interest in obtaining organisational legitimacy, and the analysis shows an increasing impact of Web 2.0 in the direct interaction of LGOs with citizens. On the other hand, there is a clear divergence of interest on environmental topics between LGOs and citizens in a dialogic accountability framework.

Practical implications

Sentiment analysis (SA) could be used by politicians, but also by managers/entrepreneurs in the business sector, to analyse stakeholders’ judgements of their communications/actions and plans on corporate social responsibility. This tool gives a result on time (i.e. not months or years after, as for the reporting system). It is cheaper than a survey and allows a first “photograph” of stakeholders’ sentiment. It can also be a useful tool for supporting, developing and improving environmental reporting.

Originality/value

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this paper is one of the first to apply SA to environmental disclosure via SM in the public sphere. The study links modern techniques in natural language processing and machine learning with the important aspects of environmental communication between LGOs and citizens.

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 29 July 2022

Hao Zhang, Qingyue Lin, Chenyue Qi and Xiaoning Liang

This study aims to explore how online reviews and users’ social network centrality interact to influence idea popularity in open innovation communities (OICs).

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Abstract

Purpose

This study aims to explore how online reviews and users’ social network centrality interact to influence idea popularity in open innovation communities (OICs).

Design/methodology/approach

This study used Python to obtain data from the LEGO Innovation Community. In total, 285,849 reviews across 4,475 user designs between March 2019 and March 2021 were extracted to test this study’s hypotheses.

Findings

The ordinary least square regression analysis results show that review volume, review valence, review variance and review length all positively influence idea popularity. In addition, users’ in-degree centrality positively interacts with review valence, review variance and review length to influence idea popularity, while their out-degree centrality negatively interacts with such effects.

Research limitations/implications

Drawing on the interactive marketing perspective, this study employs a large sample from the LEGO community and examines user design and idea popularity from a community member’s point of view. Moreover, this study is the first to confirm the role of online reviews and user network centrality in influencing idea popularity in OICs from a social network perspective. Furthermore, by integrating social network analysis and persuasion theories, this study confirms the interaction effects of review characteristics and users’ social network centrality on idea popularity.

Practical implications

This study’s results highlight that users should actively interact and share with reviewers their professional product design knowledge and/or the journey of their design to improve the volume of reviews on their user designs. Moreover, users could also draw more attention from other users by actively responding to heterogeneous reviews. In addition, users should be cautious with the number of people they follow and ensure that they improve their in-degree rather than out-degree centrality in their social networks.

Originality/value

This study integrates social network analysis and persuasion theories to explore the effects of online reviews and users’ centrality on idea popularity in OICs, a vital research issue that has been overlooked.

Details

European Journal of Marketing, vol. 56 no. 10
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0309-0566

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 31 March 2020

Jean Kelso Sandlin and Monica L. Gracyalny

This study examined how audience characteristics and attitudes relate to their perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness of apologies by public figures posted on YouTube.

6348

Abstract

Purpose

This study examined how audience characteristics and attitudes relate to their perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness of apologies by public figures posted on YouTube.

Design/methodology/approach

Four hundred twenty-seven adult participants recruited through Amazon's Mechanical Turk completed an online survey via Qualtrics. Participants were randomly assigned to view two of four public figure apologies posted on YouTube.

Findings

Results indicated that audience fandom and perceived reputation and attractiveness of the public figure were related to perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness; and perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness were related to intentions of future support.

Research limitations/implications

“Sameness” between the public figure and audience did not garner a more favorable response to the apology, and this is not consistent with earlier studies. For race similarity, the results could have been a reflection of the low number of non-White participants. However, results could indicate that “sameness” is not as simplistic as demographic sameness, such as race, sex or age.

Practical implications

The authors’ findings elevate the importance of gathering and benchmarking pre-crisis attitudinal research to better equip and inform communication professionals for crisis response. In addition, the study suggests that a public figure's strong reputation and fanbase provide a type of inoculation, lessening reputational damage.

Social implications

The finding that perceived attractiveness relates positively to perceptions of sincerity and forgiveness is consistent with psychological research indicating attractiveness has many positive social implications – even in mediated communication.

Originality/value

Evidence suggests social media apologies matter. Communication professionals need to approach apology opportunities with a keen awareness that relational outcomes and intentions of future support can shift based on social media audiences' attitudes related to the public figure.

Details

Journal of Communication Management, vol. 24 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1363-254X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 28 November 2018

Lisa M. Young and Swapnil Rajendra Gavade

The purpose of this paper is to use the data analysis method of sentiment analysis to improve the understanding of a large data set of employee comments from an annual employee…

4285

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to use the data analysis method of sentiment analysis to improve the understanding of a large data set of employee comments from an annual employee job satisfaction survey of a US hospitality organization.

Design/methodology/approach

Sentiment analysis is used to examine the employee comments by identifying meaningful patterns, frequently used words and emotions. The statistical computing language, R, uses the sentiment analysis process to scan each employee survey comment, compare the words with the predefined word dictionary and classify the employee comments into the appropriate emotion category.

Findings

Employee responses written in English and in Spanish are compared with significant differences identified between the two groups, triggering further investigation of the Spanish comments. Sentiment analysis was then conducted on the Spanish comments comparing two groups, front-of-house vs back-of-house employees and employees with male supervisors vs female supervisors. Results from the analysis of employee comments written in Spanish point to higher scores for job sadness and anger. The negative comments referred to desires for improved healthcare, requests for increased wages and frustration with difficult supervisor relationships. The findings from this study add to the growing body of literature that has begun to focus on the unique work experiences of Latino employees in the USA.

Originality/value

This is the first study to examine a large unstructured English and Spanish text database from a hospitality organization’s employee job satisfaction surveys using sentiment analysis. Applying this big data analytics process to advance new insights into the human capital aspects of hospitality management is intriguing to many researchers. The results of this study demonstrate an issue that needs to be further investigated particularly considering the hospitality industry’s employee demographics.

Details

International Hospitality Review, vol. 32 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2516-8142

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 7 June 2021

Alessandro Lai and Riccardo Stacchezzini

This paper aims to trace subsequent steps of the sustainability reporting evolution in terms of changes in the organisation fields and professional jurisdictions involved. As…

6505

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to trace subsequent steps of the sustainability reporting evolution in terms of changes in the organisation fields and professional jurisdictions involved. As such, it highlights the (interrelated) organisational and professional challenges associated with the progressive incorporation of “sustainability” within corporate reporting.

Design/methodology/approach

The paper draws on Suddaby and Viale’s (2011) theorisation of how professionals reshape organisational fields to highlight how organisational spaces, actors, rules and professional capital evolve alongside the incorporation of sustainability within corporate reporting.

Findings

The paper shows organisational spaces, actors, rules and professional capital mobilised during the recent evolution of sustainability reporting, starting from a period in which there was no space for sustainability, to more recent periods in which sustainability gained increasing momentum beyond initial niches, and culminating in more integrated forms of sustainability reporting.

Research limitations/implications

Although the analysis is limited to empirical evidence collected by prior research and practice on sustainability reporting, the paper offers a view to imagine how the incorporation of sustainability within corporate reporting relies on and affects organisational fields and professional jurisdictions.

Originality/value

The paper offers a lens to interpret corporate and professional challenges associated with the more recent evolutions of sustainability reporting practice and standard setting. It also allows framing the papers accepted in the special issue on “new challenges in sustainability reporting” and concludes by suggesting an agenda for future research.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 29 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 31 July 2023

Daniel Šandor and Marina Bagić Babac

Sarcasm is a linguistic expression that usually carries the opposite meaning of what is being said by words, thus making it difficult for machines to discover the actual meaning…

2983

Abstract

Purpose

Sarcasm is a linguistic expression that usually carries the opposite meaning of what is being said by words, thus making it difficult for machines to discover the actual meaning. It is mainly distinguished by the inflection with which it is spoken, with an undercurrent of irony, and is largely dependent on context, which makes it a difficult task for computational analysis. Moreover, sarcasm expresses negative sentiments using positive words, allowing it to easily confuse sentiment analysis models. This paper aims to demonstrate the task of sarcasm detection using the approach of machine and deep learning.

Design/methodology/approach

For the purpose of sarcasm detection, machine and deep learning models were used on a data set consisting of 1.3 million social media comments, including both sarcastic and non-sarcastic comments. The data set was pre-processed using natural language processing methods, and additional features were extracted and analysed. Several machine learning models, including logistic regression, ridge regression, linear support vector and support vector machines, along with two deep learning models based on bidirectional long short-term memory and one bidirectional encoder representations from transformers (BERT)-based model, were implemented, evaluated and compared.

Findings

The performance of machine and deep learning models was compared in the task of sarcasm detection, and possible ways of improvement were discussed. Deep learning models showed more promise, performance-wise, for this type of task. Specifically, a state-of-the-art model in natural language processing, namely, BERT-based model, outperformed other machine and deep learning models.

Originality/value

This study compared the performance of the various machine and deep learning models in the task of sarcasm detection using the data set of 1.3 million comments from social media.

Details

Information Discovery and Delivery, vol. 52 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2398-6247

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 14 July 2022

Karlo Puh and Marina Bagić Babac

As the tourism industry becomes more vital for the success of many economies around the world, the importance of technology in tourism grows daily. Alongside increasing tourism…

6065

Abstract

Purpose

As the tourism industry becomes more vital for the success of many economies around the world, the importance of technology in tourism grows daily. Alongside increasing tourism importance and popularity, the amount of significant data grows, too. On daily basis, millions of people write their opinions, suggestions and views about accommodation, services, and much more on various websites. Well-processed and filtered data can provide a lot of useful information that can be used for making tourists' experiences much better and help us decide when selecting a hotel or a restaurant. Thus, the purpose of this study is to explore machine and deep learning models for predicting sentiment and rating from tourist reviews.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper used machine learning models such as Naïve Bayes, support vector machines (SVM), convolutional neural network (CNN), long short-term memory (LSTM) and bidirectional long short-term memory (BiLSTM) for extracting sentiment and ratings from tourist reviews. These models were trained to classify reviews into positive, negative, or neutral sentiment, and into one to five grades or stars. Data used for training the models were gathered from TripAdvisor, the world's largest travel platform. The models based on multinomial Naïve Bayes (MNB) and SVM were trained using the term frequency-inverse document frequency (TF-IDF) for word representations while deep learning models were trained using global vectors (GloVe) for word representation. The results from testing these models are presented, compared and discussed.

Findings

The performance of machine and learning models achieved high accuracy in predicting positive, negative, or neutral sentiments and ratings from tourist reviews. The optimal model architecture for both classification tasks was a deep learning model based on BiLSTM. The study’s results confirmed that deep learning models are more efficient and accurate than machine learning algorithms.

Practical implications

The proposed models allow for forecasting the number of tourist arrivals and expenditure, gaining insights into the tourists' profiles, improving overall customer experience, and upgrading marketing strategies. Different service sectors can use the implemented models to get insights into customer satisfaction with the products and services as well as to predict the opinions given a particular context.

Originality/value

This study developed and compared different machine learning models for classifying customer reviews as positive, negative, or neutral, as well as predicting ratings with one to five stars based on a TripAdvisor hotel reviews dataset that contains 20,491 unique hotel reviews.

Details

Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights, vol. 6 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2514-9792

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 1 August 2022

Qian Chen, Mats Magnusson and Jennie Björk

Firms increasingly rely on both external and internal crowdsourcing to capture ideas more broadly and enhance innovative problem-solving. Especially in internal crowdsourcing…

1560

Abstract

Purpose

Firms increasingly rely on both external and internal crowdsourcing to capture ideas more broadly and enhance innovative problem-solving. Especially in internal crowdsourcing, knowledge sharing that contributes to develop or further the understanding of the problem the idea is focused on solving can take place between critical employees, and in that way improve ideas generated by others. This far, most crowdsourcing practices have focused on identifying solutions to proposed problems, whereas much less is known about how crowds can be used to share problem-related knowledge. There is thus an untapped potential in leveraging crowds not just to generate solution-oriented ideas but also to share knowledge to improve ideas and even to reframe problems. This paper aims to explore the effect of problem- and solution-related knowledge sharing in internal crowdsourcing for idea development.

Design/methodology/approach

Data on ideas and comments were collected from an idea management system in a Swedish multinational company. The investigation captures the influences of the problem- and solution-related knowledge sharing on ideas based on content analysis and logistic regression analysis.

Findings

The results from this study show that sharing knowledge related to solutions in idea development impacts idea acceptance positively, whereas sharing knowledge related to problems in idea development has a negative effect on the likelihood of idea acceptance and these effects of knowledge sharing are moderated by the active author responses.

Practical implications

This research provides managerial implications for firms to deliberately manage knowledge sharing in peer communities in internal crowdsourcing, especially by providing suggestions on problem reframing and solution refining for ideas.

Originality/value

The results contribute to existing theory in terms of extending the view of crowdsourcing in ideation to include how crowds contribute to the development of the problem and the solution during the development of ideas and providing new insights on knowledge sharing in internal crowdsourcing based on problem-solving theory.

Details

Journal of Knowledge Management, vol. 26 no. 11
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1367-3270

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 5 November 2019

Anette Rantanen, Joni Salminen, Filip Ginter and Bernard J. Jansen

User-generated social media comments can be a useful source of information for understanding online corporate reputation. However, the manual classification of these comments is…

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Abstract

Purpose

User-generated social media comments can be a useful source of information for understanding online corporate reputation. However, the manual classification of these comments is challenging due to their high volume and unstructured nature. The purpose of this paper is to develop a classification framework and machine learning model to overcome these limitations.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors create a multi-dimensional classification framework for the online corporate reputation that includes six main dimensions synthesized from prior literature: quality, reliability, responsibility, successfulness, pleasantness and innovativeness. To evaluate the classification framework’s performance on real data, the authors retrieve 19,991 social media comments about two Finnish banks and use a convolutional neural network (CNN) to classify automatically the comments based on manually annotated training data.

Findings

After parameter optimization, the neural network achieves an accuracy between 52.7 and 65.2 percent on real-world data, which is reasonable given the high number of classes. The findings also indicate that prior work has not captured all the facets of online corporate reputation.

Practical implications

For practical purposes, the authors provide a comprehensive classification framework for online corporate reputation, which companies and organizations operating in various domains can use. Moreover, the authors demonstrate that using a limited amount of training data can yield a satisfactory multiclass classifier when using CNN.

Originality/value

This is the first attempt at automatically classifying online corporate reputation using an online-specific classification framework.

Details

Internet Research, vol. 30 no. 1
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1066-2243

Keywords

Open Access
Article
Publication date: 23 February 2022

Davide Giacomini, Diego Paredi and Alessandro Sancino

This paper aims to understand stakeholders' sentiments with respect to company policies in the water utilities (WU) sector and to explore if and how these sentiments could be a…

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Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to understand stakeholders' sentiments with respect to company policies in the water utilities (WU) sector and to explore if and how these sentiments could be a source for organisational learning.

Design/methodology/approach

This study investigates the use of social media in WUs’ and stakeholders’ reactions as a source of data for organisational learning. This paper relies on a mixed-methods approach based on sentiment analysis of Facebook (FB) pages and semi-structured interviews with sustainability managers from a sample of Italian WUs.

Findings

Findings show that WUs increasingly use FB mainly to promote and disclose environmental issues and as a source of information for organisational learning. A longitudinal analysis of environmental disclosure via FB reveals a growing trend of both companies’ posts and stakeholder interactions and significant differences among organisations in their ways of using information and knowledge obtained from social media.

Originality/value

Theoretically, this paper builds an original link between disclosure via social media and organisational learning processes. Empirically, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to identify the quantity and quality of environmental disclosure via FB and the related stakeholders’ reactions.

Details

Meditari Accountancy Research, vol. 30 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 2049-372X

Keywords

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