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Drawing on media richness theory and a framework of interpersonal communication goals, this study investigates how and why the IT industry's top managers use communication media to achieve their interaction goals in e-leadership.

A qualitative research approach is applied to understand top managers' communication media use and interaction goals. The empirical data were gathered through semi-structured interviews with 33 top managers from large IT companies and analysed using theory-guided thematic and ideal-type analyses.

Top managers were categorized into three types, based on their communication goals through face-to-face communication. Relationship-oriented top managers pursued relational and communal goals, whereas task-oriented ones wished to achieve instrumental and communal goals. Task- and relationship-oriented top managers pursued relational, instrumental, and communal goals. This study indicates that communal, instrumental, relational, and self-presentational goals influence managers' communication media selection.

This study brings new knowledge to the management communication research field. It expands the framework of interpersonal communication goals by identifying communal goals as a new category, in addition to existing instrumental, relational and self-presentational goals. This study suggests that media richness theory could be advanced by recognizing that a broader set of communication goals – including communal, instrumental, relational, and self-presentational – influences managers' communication media selection.

This study examines the functions of informal communication in organizations. Informal communication can be characterized as any interaction within an organization in which two or more individuals assume personal roles rather than their professional roles and in which employees do not intend to solve work-related problems. Despite its central role in organizations, a comprehensive understanding of the specific functions of informal communication within workplace dynamics is lacking.

We reviewed existing literature to identify the functions of informal communication and then surveyed employees (N = 1,380). We asked them to indicate their agreement with statements measuring the functions of informal communication that we derived from the literature.

Using exploratory factor analysis, we identified four core functions: stress management and recreation, nurturing private relationships, fostering a sense of belonging and connectedness and facilitating information exchange and coordination. We then examined how these core functions related to job-related and sociodemographic characteristics. Our findings underscore the importance of informal communication in organizations, particularly in facilitating the development and maintenance of social relationships as well as information exchange and coordination, both of which play critical roles in organizational success.

This study is among the first to systematize the functions of informal communication in organizations and to empirically extract core functions that can be used for further research. It is also highly relevant to practitioners of organizational management and organizational communication.

The COVID-19 lockdown severely impacted organizations in the cultural and tourist business as their products all of a sudden “disappeared”. This study aims to explore if and how the unexpected and disruptive nature of the pandemic accelerated the development of new communication strategies on their social media.

The study draws on data from 24 midsize cultural institutions and tourist attractions in Denmark over the first two months of the lockdown in 2020. Approximately 900 posts on Facebook were collected and analyzed through the netnographic method. The analysis followed a two-layered qualitative approach. First, open coding to identify typologies and enable a comparison with established strategies from the literature review. Then, an exploratory examination was conducted across the typologies.

Nine different content categories were identified in the data and subsequently assessed and discussed in relation to the literature on strategies and dialogic intentions. This resulted in the emergence of two new overarching strategies: hope and host.

While hope is particularly relevant in crisis situations, the utilization of employees in the host role presents an opportunity for further development and engagement. Further, the results call for future research that breaks with the traditional quest for ideal strategies for the benefit of exploring the notion of “strategic doers”.

The identification of the hope and host strategies, along with the analysis of content categories and their alignment with various strategic intentions, contributes to the existing knowledge in this field. Further, the classic perception of engagement as driven by explicit interaction and dialogue is also challenged.

Integrating anxiety and uncertainty management (AUM) theory and theory of organizing, this study aims to contribute to the knowledge management literature by examining the interdependent and bidirectional nature of knowledge transfer between expatriates and host country nationals (HCNs). Specifically, the authors investigate how receivers’ cognitive response to senders’ behaviors during their interactions becomes an important conduit between senders’ behaviors and the successful transfer of knowledge.

The authors used the actor partner interdependence model to analyze data from 107 expatriate-HCN dyads. The authors collected the responses of these expatriate-HCN dyads in Shanghai, Taipei, Hong Kong, Vietnam, South Korea, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia and India.

Receivers’ interaction anxiety and uncertainty, as a response to senders’ relationship building behaviors, mediate the relationship between senders’ relationship building behaviors and successful knowledge transfer. When senders are expatriates, senders’ communication patience and relationship building behaviors interact to reduce the direct and indirect effects of both receivers’ interaction anxiety and uncertainty. However, when senders are HCNs, the moderation and moderated mediation models are not supported.

The study contributes to the knowledge management literature by investigating knowledge transfer between expatriates and HCNs using an interpersonal cross-cultural communication lens. The authors make refinements to AUM theory by going beyond the sender role to highlighting the interdependence between senders and receivers in the management of anxiety and uncertainty which, in turn, influences the effectiveness of cross-cultural communication. The study is also unique in that the authors underscore an important yet understudied construct, communication patience, in the successful transfer of knowledge.

The a priori identification and development of army personnel competencies are necessary to enable effective and efficient responses to rapidly changing climate conditions. Accordingly, this study aims to identify the performance requirements of a military flood responder and the competencies (knowledge, skills and abilities) required to perform it.

Using an abductive approach, the authors conducted both secondary and primary research to generate a validated framework of performance criteria and competencies for army personnel responding to floods. This literature review integrated both the peer-reviewed academic literature and public sector grey literature. Using the critical incident technique, the authors then conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 members of the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) who had previously been tasked with flood response operations. Participants were asked about the tasks required while conducting flood response operations. Interview transcripts were then content analysed to identify themes regarding those tasks, and the competencies needed to perform those tasks were then extracted and contrasted with the literature review findings. Inter-rater reliability for the analysis was established via iterative discussion between the two co-authors.

The primary data reinforced and expanded the list of performance expectations that the authors deductively identified from the integrated literature review, adding granularity to each. It also identified competencies (including both hard and soft skills) and highlighted previously neglected contextual antecedents of military flood response effectiveness.

though knowledge saturation was achieved from the 15 interviews conducted, further research with larger samples could more deeply ground the evidence discovered in this study. Nevertheless, the competencies identified in this paper could serve as a starting guide to staffing and/or training interventions targeted at improving these competencies for personnel responding to flood scenarios.

The theoretical findings also have immediate practical relevance to training for flood response operations. In particular, the subtle challenges in competency crossover from military operations to flood response operations may facilitate not only more efficient, targeted training (that could improve the effectiveness of army personnel involved in humanitarian roles), but could be applied to the selection of army personnel as well. This study may also help provincial/municipal operators and emergency planners by better communicating the strengths and limitations of army personnel in addressing civilian military cooperation for humanitarian operations. Thus, the findings of this research study represent an important first step in prompting attention to the strategic human resource planning studies required to make all responders more efficient and effective in their respective division of labour within the humanitarian domain.

Peering a little beyond these research findings, human-induced climate change is expected to continue increasing the frequency of such events (IPCC, 2021), and a timely, national force is likely to be increasingly required for Canadians impacted by major disasters stemming from natural hazards when local resources become overwhelmed. Yet, there is some concern from the CAF that increasing responsiveness to disaster operations will affect their military readiness (Leuprecht and Kasurak, 2020). One can indeed envision a paradox whereby the CAF is both a “force of last resort” while increasingly becoming a “first choice for domestic disaster and emergency assistance”. The practical implications from this research also suggest that military personnel, while fully capable of successfully conducting flood response operations, may become overburdened and less able to adopt yet greater capacity and training for other additional humanitarian work. Nevertheless, the competencies highlighted by participants can help inform the next flood response operation in Canada.

Most literature in the field of emergency response focuses on cooperation between civilian and military resources and other strategic-level themes. The findings address critical granularity missing at the operational and tactical levels of humanitarian assistance and disaster relief research. The authors also draw implications beyond the military context, including for local/regional governmental players (operators and emergency planners) as well as for volunteers in flood response roles.

The purpose of this study is to examine how the pandemic impacted on business-to-business (B2B) cooperation and coordination, as well as on firms' financial and operational performance, from the B2B context in the era of knowledge economy.

With the help of social network theory, coordination theory and existing literature, a theoretical model was developed conceptually. Later, the conceptual model was validated using structural equation modelling technique with consideration of 712 respondents from different firms who are engaged in managing B2B relationships on behalf of their firms.

The study found that the COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable moderating impact on the relationship between B2B cooperation and coordination with B2B relationship satisfaction. The study also highlighted that there is a degradation of financial and operational performance of firms due to the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on their B2B relationship management.

There is a challenging and ever-evolving global economy caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Although it is argued that the pandemic has accelerated the growth of some online firms, it has also had a catastrophic effect, culminating in many firms failing. This study has developed a new business model which helps in improving financial as well as operational performance of the firms in post COVID-19 scenario, especially in the era of knowledge economy.

This is a unique study as this study (1) develops a unique theoretical model with high explanative power, (2) demonstrates how digital reliance and new business model help the firms in post COVID-19 pandemic and (3) adds to the body of literature in the domain of digital reliance, knowledge economy and B2B relationship management.

Self-presentation has emerged as a pivotal marketing strategy for service providers seeking to craft virtual images in the peer-to-peer (P2P) accommodation sector. However, the literature lacks an understanding of conversational self-presentation, which offers more informal and personal communication.

Drawing upon social interaction theory and uncertainty reduction theory, this study explores the impact of conversational self-presentation and its interplay with space sharing and review ratings on customer purchases.

Utilizing the fixed effects model on a panel dataset comprising 498,817 observations from Airbnb, we discover a positive association between conversational self-presentation and customer purchases. Furthermore, our analysis reveals that space sharing reinforces this positive effect, while review ratings tend to diminish it. A deeper mechanism analysis indicates that perceived authenticity plays a mediating role in the relationship between conversational self-presentation and customer purchases.

This study highlights the importance of conversational communication in enhancing host–guest relationships under information asymmetry. However, the proposed model can be extended to other accommodation-sharing platforms in various regions, identifying whether cultural differences exist in explaining the importance of conversational self-presentation.

Marketers are suggested to build a harmonious customer–brand relationship and achieve superior performance through effective online communication.

This study adds valuable insights to the literature about self-presentation, social interaction and customer behavior by revealing the significance of conversational self-presentation in driving the growth of P2P accommodation businesses.

This study aims to present the evaluation of a competency-based online professional development training program, PhD Progression, tied to a digital badge system, created to support PhD students across fields.

This study took place at Boston University, a large, nonprofit, Carnegie Classified R1 research-intensive institution located in the northeastern region of the USA. Through internal campus collaborations, the authors developed a PhD core capacities framework. Building from this framework, the authors designed the first learning level of the program and ran a pilot study with PhD students from various fields and at different stages of their PhD. Using surveys and focus groups, the authors collected both quantitative and qualitative data to evaluate this program.

The quantitative and qualitative data show that the majority of the PhD student participants found the contents of the competency-based training program useful, appropriate for building skills and knowledge and therefore relevant for both their degree progress and their future job. Gaining digital badges significantly increased their motivation to complete training modules.

This type of resource is scalable to other institutions that wish to provide self-paced professional development support to their PhD students while rewarding them for investing time in building professional skills and enabling them to showcase these skills to potential employers.

This study demonstrates, for the first time, that tying a digital badging system to a competency-based professional development program significantly motivates PhD students to set professional development goals and invest time in building skills.

The objective is to identify the effects of suspicion as well as knowledge gaps, especially in noninterpersonal contexts. This study aims to propose a robust framework for future research. The overarching goal is to foster a comprehensive understanding of consumer suspicion, its implications and its potential avenues in the ever-evolving field of consumer behavior.

Based on a focused review of the literature, this study synthesizes the effects of suspicion in interpersonal and noninterpersonal contexts to unveil its importance for consumer behavior.

The cognitive, affective and behavioral effects of suspicion are identified. Furthermore, a discernible imbalance is observed, as the predominant focus on interpersonal consumer contexts leaves a significant gap in the comprehension of how consumers navigate and perceive suspicion in noninterpersonal interactions. This topic is important especially in an era dominated by complex brand interrelationships and digital touchpoints. Also, the operationalization of the suspicion construct in a plethora of studies seems to be suboptimal, suggesting a need for improvements with respect to its dynamic nature. In this regard, this review provides insightful directions to advance research in the abovementioned domains.

The synthesis of the findings of the empirical articles did not focus on variations in consumer suspicion across different cultures or regions. In addition, the dynamic nature of suspicion and the evolving landscape of consumer behavior mean that findings and implications may require periodic reassessment to maintain relevance. Also, this review did not delve into the methodological diversities across the studies examined.

This review offers marketers and businesses critical insights into the consumer suspicion dynamics. By understanding these nuances, companies can tailor strategies to mitigate suspicion and optimize consumer relationships.

Through synthesizing the effects of suspicion and providing avenues for future research, this study significantly contributes to consumer behavior literature.