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When an audience mentally counterargues a spokesperson, the message is backfiring. In such cases, audience members are practically persuading themselves to take the opposite position advocated by the spokesperson. Yet spokespeople who are professional persuaders serving corporations often seem to instill counterargument. This paper examines the role of counterargument as the conduit through which a spokesperson's different message types affect a company during a crisis. The authors explore the paradox of spokespeople's (in)effectiveness by testing divides in research drawn from normative crisis communication theory, narrative persuasion theory and the theory of reporting bias.

Two controlled, randomized experiments are reported. Participants (total N = 828) watch video clips of media interviews of a company spokesperson fielding questions about a scandal.

In the first study, non-narrative information most effectively bolsters purchase intentions and reduces negative word-of-mouth. The effect is mediated by decreased counterargument. The second study replicates the results concerning on-topic narratives compared with spinning, while on-topic narratives and non-narratives perform equally well.

This study addresses conflicts between two distinct traditions of theory as well as between normative crisis communication and its frequent practice. Reducing counterargument matters in the context of non-narrative persuasion, and non-narratives can perform at least as well as narratives in crisis communication.

This study aims to investigate some factors that might drive Muslims in Indonesia to get involved in a French brands boycott movement by examining the moderating role of brand judgment and counterargument.

An online survey has been conducted to 1,063 respondents from all over Indonesia. The respondents are selected using the purposive sampling technique. The model is assessed using covariance-based structural equation modeling, which includes the assessment of measurement and structural model. An interaction moderation technique is applied to examine the effect of moderators on the structural model.

This study shows that the French brand boycott is strongly affected by consumer animosity, perceived efficacy and subjective norms. Moreover, this study also found that the effect of animosity on boycott intention is dampened by brand judgment and counterargument.

First, multinational companies are advised to be careful in creating a campaign. They should avoid sensitive words or the use of specific figures or places highly respected by Muslims. A sensitive campaign might spread hatred, and it is directly connected with the boycott movement based on history. Second, it is pivotal for multinational companies to focus more on product or brand values instead of controversial issues. Finally, multinational companies are also advised to strengthen brand love. When brand love is strong, it is difficult for them to stop patronizing the brand or even switch to other brands.

Prior studies’ findings are still inconclusive in explaining some factors that lead to the success of a boycott call-to-action. Therefore, this study contributes to boycott literature by revealing the importance of brand judgment and counterargument to moderate consumer animosity and boycott intention link.

Learning to teach subject matter topics that emerge as challenging for culturally and linguistically diverse students remains a key goal for prospective teachers. Teacher education needs multiple ways to guide preservice teachers (PSTs) for this work. One context for such teacher development is classroom-based teacher inquiry. I describe an innovation in teacher inquiry pedagogy that mentors PSTs in (a) mining multiple sources of knowledge for teaching challenging areas of content learning, (b) systematically analyzing knowledge gleaned from these sources, and (c) mediating through visual representations the overlapping, reinforcing, and sometimes conflicting ideas gleaned from sources, in order to advance conceptions and practice in content-based learning for diverse youth. I describe the pedagogy in practice, then use a case of one PST to illustrate how her knowledge evolved in learning to teach persuasive writing to early adolescent English language learners. It was in the knowledge sources interface, mediated by visual representations and written reflections, that this PST’s developing knowledge gained texture and depth.

In this paper, the authors aim to offer a cross-cultural comparison of the boycott intentions of university students in Canada with those of students in Korea.

The data were collected from students at Inje University and York University via self-administered questionnaire. A t-test found that Canadian students’ answers showed significantly greater scores in ethnocentrism, boycott attitudes prior to reading the target article and motivations related to self-enhancement compared to those acquired from Korean students. However, the motivation of counterarguments and the boycott intentions of Korean students’ toward Rogers, the parent company of Maclean’s magazine, showed significantly higher scores than those gained from Canadian students.

The boycott case used in the study is Maclean’s magazine, a Canadian news magazine, which published a controversial article called, “Too Asian? Some frosh don’t want to study at an “Asian” University”. A noticeable gap in each group of students’ boycott attitude and intentions toward Rogers, the parent company of Maclean’s magazine was found.

In the multiple regression analysis, the boycott motivation of self-enhancement was the most influential variable on boycott intentions. The boycott case examined in this paper is a practical case study of cross-national grouping as well as the perceptional difference of the locus of corporate accountability that comes from cross-cultural backgrounds.

Tests the effectiveness of three different types of service company employees as advertising spokespersons in an experiment involving print advertisements for a bank and a hotel. Reveals that front‐office employees functioned best as print advertising spokespersons and that CEOs were adequate and back‐office employees were least effective.

The purpose of this study was to test a method of teaching information literacy, using the Toulmin method of argumentation, to aid students in developing topics, evaluating sources and creating stronger arguments that avoided “myside” or confirmation bias.

The Toulmin method of argument analysis was tested in two related studies. A quasi-experimental comparison study in six sections of English composition courses was implemented at a small liberal arts college. A traditional one-shot session was compared to a flipped class, incorporating Toulmin argumentation. A Standardized Assessment of Information Literacy Skills (SAILS) test was administered and research papers analyzed using a rubric. A modified version of the Toulmin method, using images, was implemented in a two-unit information literacy course at a state university. Pretest and posttest information literacy test scores and research papers were analyzed.

The first study showed that the experimental group performed better on the rubric scores for research papers when results were adjusted by excluding the one honors section. The survey results from this study showed mixed results for the flipped classroom approach. The second study showed a statistically significant improvement in pretest and posttest scores from the information literacy achievement test and the research paper rubric analysis showed that instructional goals were at least partly met.

Further research in incorporating instruction in argument into information literacy instruction is indicated. These studies integrated the Toulmin method successfully but represent fairly unique situations and thus more studies are needed to assess the overall impact of using this method in the context of information literacy instruction.

This study was implemented with two different population groups and shows how instruction can impact different groups differently and can be adapted to increase its effectiveness.

The study highlights the value of collaborative assessment and of inclusion of critical thinking goals in information literacy instruction through instruction in argumentation using textual and visual means.

Most state-of-the-art approaches for the analysis of the process of travel decision-making follow Woodworth’s neo-behaviouristic S–R (stimulus–response) or S–O–R (stimulus–organism–response) model. However, within this model, scholars primarily focus on the S–R relationship, investigating specific decisions by describing or explaining an outcome as the result of an input of several stimuli. There is a lack of investigation into the “O” dimension of the S–O–R model. This paper aims to contribute towards closing of this gap by conceptually and holistically expanding existing models with new perspectives and components.

The authors base the conceptual process on a subjective/interpretative research paradigm, by combining outcomes from different theories and concepts into a new, more holistic approach; and challenging this approach by seeking counterarguments as well as supportive arguments at three conferences and workshops.

The paper expands the body of literature by positing a generic conceptual operationalization model focusing on the organism (“O”) domain of decision-making. To achieve this, and further to operationalize the S–O–R model, the paper proposes to integrate an M–O–A (motivation–opportunity–ability) approach.

The analysis of the body literature reveals that there is still a lack of analytical and especially workable models/approaches for the analysis of the process of tourist decision-making. The paper contributes to that discussion by offering an alternative and generic operationalization of the tourist decision-making process by inducing a theoretical framework from the deductions gleaned from a number of existing theories.

Today, there is the real possibility that self-management and workplace democracy will follow socialism into the dustbin of history. But the connection of self-management to socialism was misconceived from the beginning. Workplace democracy has its own roots in the historical struggle against slavery and against autocracy. The paper reviews the history of the theory of inalienable rights that applies not only against the self-sale contract and the political contract of subjection but also against of the self-rental or employment contract, today's contract of subjection for the workplace. The paper concludes with the current debate about corporate governance.

Successful social marketing campaign to promote COVID-19 vaccination for the unvaccinated relies on increasing positive reactions but also reducing negative responses to persuasive messages. This study aims to investigate the relative effects of narrative vs non-narrative public service announcements (PSAs) promoting COVID-19 vaccination on both positive and negative reactions. Using social media as a tool for disseminating marketing campaigns provides a great opportunity to examine the effectiveness of narrative PSAs on vaccination intention, especially among unvaccinated young adults, who were the target audience of the social marketing. This study explores the role of empathy and psychological reactance as underlying mechanisms.

An experiment involving unvaccinated young adults was conducted with a one-factor, two-condition (message type: narrative vs non-narrative) design.

Results indicated that the narrative (vs non-narrative) PSAs led to greater empathy. While no direct effects of message type emerged on psychological reactance or vaccination intention, results of a serial multi-mediator model confirmed that empathy and psychological reactance mediated the effects of message type on vaccination intention.

The study extends the understanding of narrative persuasion by examining an underlying mechanism behind narrative persuasion in a COVID-19 PSA. This study provides empirical evidence of the important role of empathy in processing narrative PSAs. Moreover, the current study expands narrative persuasion’s applicability to COVID-19 vaccination intervention messages for unvaccinated young adults, highlighting the effectiveness of narrative persuasion as a social marketing communication tool.

The purpose of this paper is to (n=472) examine how negative, user-generated content on Facebook impacts stakeholders’ perceptions of the organization.

At Phase 1, stakeholders’ perceptions about the organization – public relationship, corporate social responsibility, attitude toward the organization, and reputation of the organization were assessed. A week later, at Phase 2, participants were exposed to negative Facebook comments. This study employed the theory of inoculation as a way to bolster stakeholders’ attitudes to protect against attitude shift following exposure to negative, user-generated comments.

Paired sample t-tests indicate stakeholders’ perceptions of the organization – public relationship and corporate social responsibility significantly decrease after stakeholders read negative, user-generated content. The pattern of means supports the idea inoculation can prevent against attitude shift.

Strategic communication professionals should be aware of the impact negative posts can have and develop a strategy to respond to negative comments on Facebook.

There is limited experimental research examining the impact of negative Facebook posts on stakeholders. It extends current literature and provides practitioners with some guidance on the impact of negative, user-generated content.