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How to effectively manage information flow continues presenting challenges for effective responsive strategies in communication, reflecting the magnitude and impact of a data-driven and strategy-oriented market environment globally. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to discover how concerns related to the rise of social media have affected communication leaders’ operational and managerial practice from an international perspective. The overarching aim is to better understand these concerns in order to contribute to effective responsive strategies in communication practice in the future.

The authors relied on data from an international online survey of public relations and communication professionals in multiple countries who were asked their perceptions and behaviors concerning the impact of information flow and the digital revolution on their practice. ANOVA analyses and hierarchical regression models were used to identify the heterogeneity across five clustered groups of countries.

Results confirmed a strong desire among communication professionals in multiple countries to learn more about information management in practice. Results identified the overall patterns of responsive strategies that have been widely adopted by public relations professionals in specific country clusters across the globe. In order to better manage social media and the digital revolution, all five of the surveyed country clusters indicated that it is effective to integrate more social media strategies and to train employees in social media.

The research has explored the importance surrounding information management in an era of widespread digital content, including how concerns in this area have affected strategic decision-making in communication practice. Equally important, the authors provide a more global perspective on this critical topic by analyzing communication professionals’ perceptions in grouped country clusters. Results of the research have identified the similarities and differences in responsive strategies to cope with information flow concerns across grouped country clusters.

This research aims to examine how source of funds (paying with company’s funds versus personal funds) affects buyer’s judgments of price fairness and via these judgments, buyer’s response to prices.

A scenario-based experiment is used (N = 200). To test the hypotheses, the authors run moderated mediation regression analyses with the help of the PROCESS macro.

Drawing on fairness heuristics theory, the authors hypothesize and find that relative to when paying with personal funds, when paying with company’s funds, the perceived price difference plays a less significant role, whereas the perceived social acceptability of the pricing practice underlying the price difference plays a more important role in shaping price fairness judgments and, via these judgments, buyer’s response to prices.

The findings generate advice for companies that serve both the business and personal segments (e.g. airlines and hotels). Buyers in the personal segment typically pay with their own money. To persuade these buyers that a price is fair, it is crucial to show that the price represents a good deal for them. Buyers in the business segment often pay with company’s fund. Companies have more flexibility in charging different prices, but they should make sure that the reasons for the price difference are socially acceptable.

This research shows how the relative role of price difference versus social acceptability in price fairness judgments varies as a function of source of funds and how an inconsistency between price difference and its economic impact affects price fairness judgments.

This study aims to address the following questions: What is enduring about consumer behavior on social media given that digital and social media (DSM) technologies change rapidly? Why do millennials use social media to the extent they do? The authors’ review revealed that a prevailing theoretical approach that may help answer these questions is inadequate. The technology acceptance model (TAM) from information systems was grafted into marketing to explain consumer technology adoption. TAM predicts Facebook adoption effectively, as demonstrated in the authors’ first study, but does not go beyond that in explaining the why’s behind its use. In a second study, the authors used the means-end approach (MEC) complementarily to unearth the why’s of millennials’ use of Facebook.

The authors used a mixed-methods design combining the structural modeling of TAM with the probing one-on-one interviews and laddering of MEC.

The authors found that the laddering process both widened and deepened TAM’s scope. It not only confirmed the importance of the TAM attributes, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness, but it also revealed others, in determining adoption. It was also able to dig deeper from these to uncover a mesh of fundamental values that millennials used Facebook to satisfy, such as belongingness, pleasure, social acceptance and inner harmony, in their quest for inner and relational contentment. The authors also found negative aspects that kept consumers away, such as its lack of privacy and the overwhelming nature of unwanted video in its feed, tying these back to important values.

The authors build on prior exploratory work relating to DSM use and uncover psychological drivers of consumer behavior on social media, by blending TAM in a consumer context, and the MEC approach. The TAM-MEC framework used here offers a technology-independent template for other DSM research, by focusing on how and why consumers use media socially.

Managerially, the authors discuss the building of sustainable marketing strategy on enduring consumer values rather than on transient attributes or technologies. The authors also discuss potential areas of vulnerability for Facebook, such as its increasing use of video and live content, which creates negative consumer sentiment and which may drive consumers to competitors.

By blending the quantitative TAM and the qualitative MEC, something that has not been done before in marketing, this research provides trustworthy answers to the research questions. In so doing, this study also contributes some cohesion to the fragmented DSM research field, as called for recently in prominent journals, by anchoring DSM study in well-established theories in marketing.

As an important group of internal stakeholders, communication professionals carry the responsibilities to communicate with multiple groups of audience and foster trusted and satisfied relationships, both internally and externally. However, while busy with taking care of various stakeholders, the trust–satisfaction perception of communication professionals is underrated. Therefore, this paper aims to shift the investigation of the trust–satisfaction relationship from general employees to this unique group of communicators. By incorporating three key factors in an institutional environment (i.e. job engagement, leadership performance and organizational culture and support), the authors further investigate the moderated mediating effects of those factors on the trust–satisfaction relationship.

A national online survey of communication professionals working and living in the USA was designed to test the trust–satisfaction relationship. Surveyed communication professionals were asked to evaluate their own perceptions on various institutional factors. A conceptual moderated multiple-mediation structural model was proposed and tested to identify the impact of a complicated institutional environment on the perceived trust–satisfaction relationship.

Results confirmed a strong positive impact of trust in organization on communication professionals' perceived job satisfaction. Results also confirmed the mediating effects of job engagement and communication leaders' performance on such a trust–satisfaction relationship. The authors' moderated mediation analysis indicated the important role of organizational culture in this complicated institutional environment and its indirect impact on the trust–satisfaction relationship.

The research explored several important factors within a complicated institutional environment and their potential impact on trust–satisfaction relationship. More significantly, the authors focused on one unique group of internal stakeholders, communication professionals, by analyzing how these institutional factors affect their very own perceptions. Even though communication professionals carry the responsibilities of acting as the communication and strategy facilitators on behalf of their organization, their perceptions on trust and satisfaction are equally important and deserve more attention. Results of our research promote the understanding of the complicated mechanisms within corporate communication for an enhanced trust–satisfaction relationship between communication professionals and their organization.

The COVID-19 pandemic has generated a significant impact on several aspects of public relations practice. By adopting the theoretical framework of adaptive leadership, this research is designed to explore how an organization’s top leadership can support related adaptive action in strategic communication. Particularly, we hope to explore whether the application of adaptive leadership could facilitate a higher level of communication transparency as well as deliver a sense of caring and empathy in COVID-19 communication.

An international online survey was designed and conducted for this study. The first sample consists of 776 full-time communication professionals in the United States of America with 435 women (56.1%) and 341 men (43.9%). The second sample consists of 268 full-time communication professionals in Canada, with 110 women (41.0%) and 158 men (59.0%). The two samples were merged into the final sample of 1,044 for the data analysis.

Results confirmed that the perceived impact of the COVID-19 pandemic increased communication professionals’ challenges in building trust. It also drives adaptive changes in their coping actions in strategic communication. More importantly, the top leadership within the organization played a key role in this adaptive leadership environment by demonstrating commitment to transparency in COVID-19 communication and delivering a sense of empathy during the pandemic.

This study contributes to our understanding of strategic communication in times of crisis, such as the COVID-19 global pandemic, by focusing on the adaptive nature of communication leadership. More importantly, our study confirms the important roles of two leadership attributes (i.e. the sense of empathy and the commitment to communication transparency) in supporting adaptive leadership, which eventually influences trust building.

The rise of a professional career presents women in today's public relations profession an intense challenge in balancing professional and family responsibilities. Therefore, this study is motivated to investigate female public relations professionals' perceptions of work–family conflict in their daily life. Specifically, the authors focused the research on women working in the professions of communication and public relations in the United States.

An online survey was designed and conducted in the United States. The final sample includes 512 women working full-time in public relations and communication. In addition, the authors pre-specified several demographic quotas in sampling design in order to recruit a diverse group of female professionals nationwide.

The findings of this research study confirmed that female professionals have to constantly make changes to their plans for family activities when there is a conflict due to work-related duties. Such impact is particularly intense for professionals in the age bracket of 31–40. They have to use a wide variety of coping strategies to manage the work–family conflict. Findings in the present research study confirmed the critical role of mentoring in providing extra support and to help junior female professionals find coping solutions. Effective mentor–mentee networks can be established and used as valuable resources to support women in managing work–family conflict.

By investigating current female professionals' perceptions on work–life conflict and their adoption of relevant coping strategies in the workplace, this research provides solid evidence that organizations should dedicate efforts in providing strong support in programs and policies and makes the options available to female professionals at all levels. The present research highlights the importance of building mentor–mentee relationships as an effective supportive approach when managing work–family conflict.

This study is motivated to investigate the ethical challenges facing public relations professionals in today's digital communication environment. Specifically, the authors focused the research on the new ethical challenges in digital practice, the resources relied on when encountering ethical challenges and public relations professionals' efforts in seeking trainings on communication ethics.

An international online survey was designed and conducted in Canada and the USA. The final sample includes 1,046 respondents working full time in the profession of public relations and communication. In addition, the authors prespecified several demographic quotas in sampling design in order to recruit a more representative sample.

The research found nearly 60% of surveyed professionals reported that they faced ethical challenges in their day-to-day work, and there is a wide range of ethical challenges in digital practices. Results also revealed that professionals use various resources to deal with ethical issues. Those resources include ethical codes of practice of professional associations, ethical guidelines of their organizations and their personal values and beliefs. As common as experiencing ethical challenges, over 85% of surveyed professionals reported that they have participated in communication ethics training. However, only 30% of participants indicated that their ethics training took place in the past year.

The research provides solid evidence that the digital communication environment generates more ethical challenges, while it creates new ways of delivering content in corporate communications. Professional associations and organizations shall dedicate efforts in providing timely ethics training to PR professionals at all levels of leadership within and beyond corporate communications.

This research is motivated to explore communication professionals' understanding of the digital changes brought by the Industry 4.0 revolution and how such changes may affect the strategies and skills expected in effective communication management. A specific focus of the research is to define the concept of Readiness for Industry 4.0 in communication and propose a theoretical framework to address the key dimensions of Readiness for Industry 4.0 as related to communication management.

A mixed research design was employed to fulfill the goal of this research. First, the authors took a grounded theory approach in proposing, conceptualizing and constructing the concept of Readiness for Industry 4.0 by reviewing a wider literature on technology and communication. As part of the conceptualization process, the authors proposed five dimensions which encompass the complexity of building capacity in communication practice to effectively manage changes associated with Industry 4.0. Second, the authors used a qualitative research method, in-depth interviews, to gain insights from 16 senior communication professionals working in South Korea.

The study’s interview results confirmed the challenge in finding a universal definition of Readiness for Industry 4.0, even though the interviewed senior communication professionals have widely recognized the changes in the workplace brought by the Industry 4.0. Our interviewees agreed that their mindset is ready for the changes. However, they addressed the need for communication professionals to continue to learn and build their knowledge and skills from multiple perspectives. More specifically, skill sets and knowledge in cognitive analytics, data management, technology literacy, sense making skills for digital transformation and digital competencies in crisis management are desired and necessary.

This research advances theory building in communication management by addressing the importance of digital competencies in the workplace. By proposing a theoretical framework to explain the Readiness for Industry 4.0, this article contributes to our knowledge of digital transformation and its impact on effective communication. Moreover, by having deep conversations with industry leaders who are in the forefront of managing the challenges associated with technology advancement, this article enriches its practical implications by linking the discussion to the proposed theoretical framework.

The purpose of this paper is to motivate by the desire to better understand the interplay between cultural perceptions, both at the national and the organizational levels, and leadership effectiveness in corporate communication practice. In doing so, the research presented in this paper systematically compared views on communication leadership from senior communication executives in two different national cultures: England and Singapore.

A series of in-depth interviews with the same interview guide were carried out in two leading cities of selected cultures (London and Singapore). A purposive sampling strategy was used to recruit participants for this study. Finally, 20 senior communication executives (n=11 in London and n=9 in Singapore) participated in this study. All interviews ranged from 60 to 90 minutes and were recorded and fully transcribed.

Results suggest that communication executives believe that communication leadership should be treated as a multi-faceted influencing and learning process. Results also reveal that effective leadership qualities go beyond the national cultural boundaries. A more convergent view emerged on communication leadership.

Communication executives should definitely tailor their leadership initiatives to fit the different cultural mechanisms that underlie organizational structures across cultures. Although the author agrees that communication strategies should place a great emphasis on the social dimension of cultural values in a given society, leadership initiatives, and actions should also be carried out to embrace the organizational structure and culture.

The study provides insights into the impact of cultural orientations on the effectiveness of communication leadership. It is important and unique to confirm that organizational culture inserts a more profound influence on the application of leadership skills if compared to the national cultures.

The purpose of this paper is to review and understand the underlying structure of price perception, to recognize how cultural factors influence price perception, and to develop and empirically test a model of cultural differences and price perception.

This project gathered data from both China and the USA. Using the LISREL 8.52 program, a proposed model was tested and modified in order to obtain a parsimonious underlying structure explaining cultural influences on consumers' price perceptions.

Results of the data analysis show that culture factors do have significant effects on price perception. Internal reference price has a consistent and negative effect on the overall price perception of both goods and services purchase and durable and non‐durable goods purchase. However, the significant associations between price perception factors and overall price perception were only found in the services and non‐durable goods purchase but not in the durable goods purchase.

This study helps international marketers understand the cross‐cultural consumer behavioral differences in general and the price perception differences in particular. It also provides a series of guidelines for international pricing strategy and international promotion strategy on an operational level.

Theoretically, the paper integrates the solid base of work on domestic pricing from the Lichtenstein et al. study on price perception as well as work on culture from anthropology and sociology, international business, international marketing, and Hofstede's culture theory.