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The purpose of this article is to discover how false information has been received through mobile instant messaging services (MIMS), Facebook and Twitter and what sociodemographic factors have a stronger influence on the perception of the democratic effects generated by the disinformation on the citizens of three countries.

To do this, an online survey (n = 3,019) was developed for citizens of Spain (n = 1,015), Germany (n = 1,001) and the UK (n = 1,003). The sample is stratified according to the gender, age, income and ideology of the respondents.

The results show that the reception of false information is high in all three countries, especially on Facebook. Additionally, we found that the country of origin, genre, age and ideology influence the reception of disinformation in MIMS, but not in the rest of the platforms. Considering disinformation's effects on citizens, we observe how, in general terms, those surveyed perceive disinformation effects with a medium-low intensity. In this way, citizens do not believe that false information causes substantial changes in their thinking. An increase in mistrust has been detected toward social media and mainstream media, which are not considered reliable sources of information. At this point, the respondents' country of origin, income and ideology are conditioning factors.

This research provides some relevant trends that help to better understand how disinformation is received on digital platforms in three countries with different political and social traditions, as well as the effects that it has had on citizens and the sociodemographic and political factors that have a greater incidence.

This study examines the effect of social media marketing on voting intention applying a combination of fuzzy logic methodology and a multidimensional panel data model.

The study adopts a multidimensional panel data method that includes several fixed effects. The dependent variable is a multifaceted construct that measures the participants’ intention to vote. The independent variables are electronic word of mouth (eWOM), customisation (CUS), entertainment (ENT), interaction (INT), trendiness (TRD), candidate’s perceived image (CPI), religious beliefs (RB), gender and age. The grouping variables that signify fixed effects are employment status, level of education, mostly used social media and religion. First, the significance of said fixed effects was tested through an ANOVA process. Then, the main model was estimated, including the significant grouping variables as fixed effects.

Employment status and level of education were significant fixed effects. Also, eWOM, ENT, INT, CPI, RB and gender significantly affected participants’ voting intention.

Being based on a questionnaire that asked participants about how they perceive different aspects of social media, the present study is limited to their perceptions. Therefore, further studies covering the voters’ behaviour in action could be efficient complements to the present study.

The findings could guide the political parties into prioritizing the aspects of social media in forming an effective campaign resulting in being elected.

The findings have the potential to help the public in making better informed decisions when voting. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate applications for social media which are beyond leisure time fillers.

Fuzzy logic and multidimensional panel data estimates are this study’s novelty and originality. Structural equation modelling and crisp linguistic values have been used in previous studies on social media’s effect on voting intent. The former refines the data gathered from a questionnaire, and the latter considers the possibility of including different grouping factors to achieve a more efficient and less biased estimation.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of CEO social media celebrity status on credit ratings and to determine whether potential threats on the CEO celebrity status negatively moderate the above association.

The authors collected tweets for 874 CEOs from 513 unique S&P 1500 firms. A panel data analysis was conducted on a panel with 4,235 observations from 2009 to 2020. We then tested the hypothesis with the ordinal logit model.

The empirical findings confirmed that CEO social media celebrity status is positively associated with corporate credit rating outcomes. Our path analyses revealed that CEOs with higher social media celebrity status have less incentive to conduct risk-taking behaviors and thus benefit credit ratings. When the rating agencies perceive potential threats to CEO celebrity status, including CEO myopia and CEO overconfidence, the association between CEO social media celebrity status and credit rating is weakened.

This study provides an in-depth understanding of CEO social media perception on credit ratings for firms' managers and capital market participants. Findings can help managers and firms improve their strategies for leveraging social media to release credit constraints. The debt market participants could adopt the CEO social media celebrity status and its concerned threats to setting debt contracts with an adequate price.

This is likely to be the first study that examines the effect of CEO social media celebrity status on credit ratings. The findings of this study also reveal that social media certificated celebrity CEOs tend to be capable of enhancing firm revenue and have lower risk-taking incentives, unlike mass media certificated celebrity CEOs.

The purpose of this study is twofold. The first objective is to examine the impact of the halal beauty supply chain (HBSC) on sustainable operational excellence (SOE). The second objective is to investigate Post-SARS-CoV-2 mitigation strategies executed by halal beauty companies in Malaysia.

The questionnaire was distributed via an online survey, and data were analyzed from 143 beauty firms and their supply chains. This study used a structural equation modeling technique to test the validity of the research model and hypotheses.

This study found that halal transportation, halal manufacturing, halal packaging and post-SARS-CoV-2 mitigation strategies had a significant and direct effect on SOE. The halal procurement was the only predictor that affected the SOE when the post-SARS-CoV-2 mitigation strategy was computed as a moderator in the research model.

Consumers have the right to determine what is a good product by researching it before purchase and consumption. Muslim customers must pay attention and seek information on how the product is manufactured and distributed using sustainable materials according to Shariah law. This is because consumers are responsible for both themselves and others. Companies must view consumer awareness of product qualities as a business opportunity. Halal beauty companies should frequently execute risk mapping and mitigation strategies to decrease risk, improve revenues and attain sustainable business objectives.

Although the HBSC encompasses numerous complicated areas, such as strategic marketing, operations, as well as behavioral and Shariah compliance, there is a deficiency of literature on how firms mitigate risk in the halal supply chain. This study proposes a framework for a HBSC that achieves and leverages SOE.

The modern high-choice news environment has changed the way people consume news. We examined the structure of news repertories, the role of news trust (and cynicism) in shaping news repertoires, and the effects of different news repertoires on political participation in the South Korean news environment, where news portals function as major news sources.

We conducted a two-wave national survey of adults in January and February 2022 with a three-week time interval. Latent profile analyses and latent profile regression were employed.

Four major news repertoires were identified: news portal-concentrated, portal and TV combination, all except print and SNS, and platform omnivores. Trust in mainstream news media was found to be high in the following order: platform omnivores, all except print and SNS, portal and TV combination, and portal-concentrated repertoires. Cynicism about mainstream media was found to be higher among the users of portal-concentrated repertoire than those using the other three repertoires. Those who rely mainly on news portals for news (i.e. portal-concentrated) were less likely to participate in politics.

This study provides comprehensive insights into how audience perceptions of trust and cynicism toward mainstream news media shape news consumption patterns in today’s high-choice media environment. In particular, the findings of this study illuminate the function of news portals as a substitute platform for those who exhibit lower trust and higher cynicism toward mainstream news media.

This paper aims to investigate the mechanisms through which social media news consumption across different platforms leads to opinion polarization in society. To this end, the authors draw from cultivation theory to examine whether social media news consumption imparts a mainstreaming or resonance effect. Media consumption imparts a mainstreaming effect if frequent users, regardless of their social identity, develop homogenous attitudes about issues, whereas resonance is at play if there is a differing cultivation effect on various social groups depending on their relatability of life experiences.

The authors conduct the study in the developing context of India, using a population survey dataset from 2019. Regression-based mediation and moderation analyses were carried out to test the hypotheses.

The findings reveal that resonance is the most prominent mechanism through which social media news consumption cultivates opinion polarization, contrary to the mainstreaming effect imparted by television. Further, WhatsApp use was found to strengthen the polarizing effect of overall social media news consumption, while YouTube use weakened the cultivation of polarization.

The paper unearths how social media news consumption influences the opinion polarization of various social groups differently. The authors also find the differential effect of specific platform use. These findings have the potential to inform policymakers and developers about how to mitigate the detrimental effects of platform-based political persuasion.

This study offers significant contributions. First, the authors explain social media-induced polarization using the novel theoretical lens of cultivation. Second, the authors find that social media and television news consumption differ in their polarizing effects. Third, the authors find that while WhatsApp use amplifies the polarizing effect of social media news consumption, YouTube use weakens it.

Social media sites facilitate electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication among consumers of diverse cultures and ethnicities. Based on the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), the present research proposes a conceptual framework for minority consumers' engagement in eWOM associated with the mainstream culture. The model incorporates social capital and social interaction as key factors that affect cross-cultural eWOM communication between minority and mainstream consumers. This research also aims to explore the responses of minority consumers to eWOM communications originating with members of the majority group.

A structural equation modelling (SEM) procedure was applied to data collected from social media (Facebook) users (N = 539) from two minority communities: Israeli Arab and Israeli Ultra-Orthodox Jewish minorities.

The findings show that: (a) minority consumers' engagement with eWOM is indirectly related to social capital, (b) this relationship is mediated by minority consumers' attitudes and their subjective norms regarding eWOM engagement with dominant cultural groups, (c) social interaction of minorities with the dominant culture enhances the influence of social capital on eWOM engagement and (d) behavioural engagement with eWOM varies across cultural minorities, depending on the minority group’s unique cultural characteristics.

The findings have managerial implications for practitioners who use social media in their marketing and business activities, as they demonstrate that the effectiveness of eWOM communication is contingent on the cultural characteristics of the ethnic minority consumer groups being targeted by managers.

The present research contributes to the theory of consumer engagement by demonstrating that engagement is contingent on the intercultural social context in which eWOM is communicated.

Credible influencers play a key role in shaping the views and preferences of social media users. However, many influencers intentionally use disinformation (e.g. false narratives) to deceive users and gain their trust. This can have serious repercussions, not only for the firms that associate with these influencers but also for users. Further, and alarmingly, many influencers who use disinformation can sustain their credibility over time. This research explores how influencers use disinformation to establish long-term credibility on social media.

Drawing on self-presentation theory, we use an in-depth qualitative case study to address our research question, primarily relying on archival data obtained from multiple sources.

Our findings suggest that three stages of self-presentation are required to establish influencer credibility based on disinformation: backstage (preparing to deceive), experimentation (testing deception), and frontstage (launching deceptive ideas on a large scale). We also find that when fraudulent influencers simultaneously weaponise a counterculture and mindfully encase disinformation, users view them as highly credible.

We offer practical suggestions for regulating fraudulent influencers, including enacting fact-checking procedures, using IT artefacts as reliability signals, and building awareness programmes to develop vigilance in social media communities.

We contribute to self-presentation theory by adding experimentation as a critical stage in developing disinformation that works for long periods. We also contribute to the literature at the intersection of social media influencers and disinformation research by revealing why social media users believe in fraudulent influencers.

This study aims to investigate the use of voluntary disclosure on mainstream social media platforms to examine strategic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the influential factors and institutional pressures organisations faced when making disclosures on social media during the pandemic.

A two-stage qualitative approach was adopted. Stage one used content analysis to examine voluntary disclosures made by international organisations on social media during the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stage two comprised semi-structured interviews with individuals who were involved in the decision-making process around the social media disclosures.

This study’s findings reveal significant changes in disclosure practices due to COVID-19-related pressures. In addition to the utilisation of social media for signalling conformance with new pandemic-related norms and connecting with stakeholders, the evidence also reveals how organisations made use of strategic responses to COVID-19-related institutional pressures.

The findings reveal how social media was used as a means of timely voluntary disclosure during the examined crisis. The findings can inform the development of organisational guidelines and policies for the use of social media as a disclosure medium.

This study reveals how organisations used voluntary disclosure on social media as a strategic response to institutional pressures and the COVID-19 pandemic; this context is under-researched. The study also extends the application of the strategic response framework regarding voluntary disclosure via social media.

Assessing performance art has shifted toward an audience-centric approach, with various factors impacting audiences’ holistic experiences in a theater. Existing theater marketing research has predominantly focused on servicescapes, leaving a research gap regarding audiences’ spatial experience within theater buildings.

To address this gap, this case study collected crowdsourced data from mainstream social media platforms, including rating scores, textual reviews and reviewer-uploaded photos. The aim was to explore to what extent the theater architecture design impacted audiences’ theatrical experience. The old and new facilities of the case study theater were compared, and a series of quantitative and qualitative techniques were applied for data analysis, including statistics, content analysis, sentiment analysis and thematic analysis.

The study identified five major themes in social media review: the show, architectural design and attributes, staff and service, neighborhood and amenities, and financial consideration. Comments about theater architecture constituted a substantial portion of reviews, with seating comfort, intimacy and stage visibility being frequently discussed features. Seven subthemes related to architectural design emerged as key contributors to audiences’ spatial experiences, including aesthetics, design and spatial configuration; the bar and lobby; the new facility; seats; sets and stage; acoustics; and intimacy and atmosphere.

The study places the individual experiences of audience members as central and uses an inductive approach to analyze their self-generated data. The research results offer valuable insights into theater design and confirm the belief that architectural design has a significant impact on the overall theatrical experience of audiences.