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When the spread of online health rumors on social media causes public concerns, the public is calling for action. However, little study has investigated how Facebook reaction icons (expressing feelings function) affect online users' behavioral intentions (intention to trust and share) toward online health rumor posts. The current study addresses this gap by focusing on the effect of Facebook reaction icons in two conditions: Facebook reaction icons' presence (versus absence), and Facebook reaction icons' emotional valence (positive versus negative versus neutral). Moreover, the authors also investigated the interaction between Facebook reaction icons' emotional valence and online health rumor posts' framing headlines (gain versus loss).

The authors used a 7 (Facebook reaction icons: Love, Like, Haha, Wow, Sad, Angry and no icon) × 2 (Facebook framing headlines: gain and loss) between-subjects design, analyzing 507 samples from online users with one-way ANOVA and MANOVA.

Results show that online health rumor posts without Facebook reaction icons are more likely to negatively change online users' behavioral intentions than the posts with Facebook reaction icons; negative reaction icons (Sad and Angry) lower online users' behavioral intentions than positive reaction icons (Love and Like). Further, the incongruency effect of interaction (i.e. positive reaction icons with a negative message) would have more negative effects on online users' behavioral intentions than the congruency effect (i.e. positive reaction icons with a positive message).

This study has rich contributions to theoretical and practical implications for the Facebook platform and Facebook users to apply Facebook reaction icons against online health rumor posts.

Through two experiments, this study assessed source and message effects of Instagram-based pro-veganism messages.

Experiment 1 (N = 294) examined effects of organization (brand vs nonprofit) and message types (egoistic vs altruistic) on consumer responses to Instagram-based pro-veganism content. Experiment 2 (N = 288) examined effects of source type (celebrity vs noncelebrity) and message valence (positive vs negative) on consumer responses to Instagram-based pro-veganism content.

Results demonstrated significant main effects of organization type, with consumers indicating more positive attitudes and higher credibility toward the brand. Significant main effects of message type were also found, with altruistic messages eliciting higher perceived information value than egoistic messages. Subjective norms had moderating effects on attitude toward the organization, while attitude toward veganism had moderating effects on perceived information value. Results also indicated significant main effects of message valence on perceived information value of pro-veganism Instagram posts and significant interaction effects of the two manipulated factors on intention to spread electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) about pro-veganism.

Implications for use of Instagram-based health marketing communication about veganism were discussed. Specifically, organizations looking to use social media to influence attitudes and behavioral intentions toward health issues should seek to reach their target audiences through selecting endorsers and messages that will optimally present the health issue in a relatable and engaging way.

Firms employ various forms of disclosure to demonstrate commitment to and involvement in sustainable supply chain management (SSCM) practices. This research provides guidance to firms employing framing strategies when communicating their SSCM with external stakeholders like consumers as part of their supply chain transparency efforts.

The authors employed a middle-range theorizing approach to understand the context of SSCM practices and mechanisms of variously framed communication methods to disclose sustainability information to consumers. The authors conducted two experiments in an e-waste recycling context, studying how sustainable information disclosed to consumers using attribute framing and goal framing can affect consumers' attitudes. The authors also examined the moderating role of consumers' environmental involvement.

Results suggest that when attribute framing is used, firms should avoid framing the attribute from a negative valence. When goal framing is used, messages with consequences stated as “avoid loss” yield the most substantial effect. Additionally, framing effects are more significant for consumers with higher-than-average environmental involvement.

The authors’ results contribute to the ongoing theorization of SSCM by providing contextual understanding of how to communicate sustainability information. Corroborating evidence from marketing, framing effects are found to be context specific, thereby elucidating the framing literature more fully to the SSCM context. The authors extend this literature by studying attribute framing and comparing the effectiveness of all possible goal framing combinations of valence and gain/loss perspective in the SSCM communication context.

Mortgage lenders often combine a variety of framing strategies when developing mortgage advertisements. To date, these frames have mostly been studied separately. This paper, however, studies the combined framing effects of message valence, specificity, and temporality on consumers' mortgage decision-making.

A mixed methods design was used. First, 13 unique print ads collected from a Canadian newspaper were analyzed for content. Second, a 2 × 2 × 2 scenario-based experiment with 400 undergraduate participants examined the framing effects of valence, specificity and temporality on attitudes toward the mortgage advertising message, the product advertised, and the brand, as well as on consumers' behavioral intentions toward the advertised mortgage product.

The content analysis suggests that combined framing does exist in print ads. A positive message with a fixed term and a specific interest rate were the most commonly used frames. The experiment revealed that, for behavioral intentions, the main effect of the message temporality was significant. The effects of advertising a long-term mortgage on behavioral intentions were more favorable than those of advertising a short-term mortgage.

This research provides a combined framing model for designing advertising strategies for the financial services industry to market complex financial products, such as mortgage loans to consumers. This is relevant to lenders when designing a persuasive package or ads for potential customers.

This study is the first of its kind to investigate the effects of combinations of message frames on consumers' mortgage decision-making, while also advancing the understanding of message framing theory for the financial services industry.

This study examines the effects of employees' personal social media posts on external publics' online engagement and offline word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions about a company. Specifically, it investigates how employee post characteristics including valence and content and employer reputation jointly influence publics' online and offline behaviors.

A 2 (post valence: positive vs. negative) × 2 (post content: organization-related vs. job-related) × 2 (employer reputation: good vs. bad) between-subjects experiment was conducted. Participants were asked to view a stimulus social media post created by a fictitious company employee, reflecting one of the eight experimental conditions on a random basis. After viewing, they were requested to report their online engagement intentions (i.e., “like,” “share” and “comment”) with the post and offline WOM intentions about the company.

The experimental results showed that participants expressed more “like” intentions when they viewed a positive post than a negative post. Further, they were more likely to “comment” on a job-related post as opposed to an organization-related post. In addition, a significant interaction effect between post valence and employer reputation on publics' online engagement was found, which in turn influenced their offline WOM intentions about the company.

This study is among the first empirical attempts to examine the effectiveness of employees' personal social media posts on external publics' online and offline behaviors. The experimental findings highlight the importance of managing employee relations from a corporate reputation perspective.

This study investigates how media brand knowledge, defined as a structural feature of the message, influences emotional and attentional responses to, and memory of, news messages.

Self-reports, facial electromyography (EMG) and electroencephalography were used as indices of emotional valence, arousal and attention in response to 42 news messages, which varied along the valence and involvement dimensions and were framed with different media brands varying along the familiarity and credibility dimensions.

Compared to the no-brand condition, news framed with brands elicited more attention. The memory tests indicated that strong media brands override the effect of involvement in information encoding, whereas details of news presented with Facebook were not well encoded. However, the headlines of news framed with Facebook were well retrieved. In addition, negative and high-involvement news elicited higher arousal ratings and corrugator EMG activity. News framed with familiar and high-credibility brands elicited higher arousal ratings.

Relevant for both brand managers and audiences, the findings show that building credibility and familiarity both work as brand attributes to differentiate media brands and influence information processing.

The results highlight the importance of media brands in news reading: as a structural feature, the brand is used as a proxy to process the message content. The study contributes by investigating how the type of source influences the reception and encoding of the mediated information; by investigating the emotional effects of brands; and by confirming previous findings in media psychology literature.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how consumers respond to online word of mouth (WOM) with different valence (i.e. what does it say) and from different sources (i.e. who said it) in an important emerging economy, China.

Theory with experiments.

The authors find that Chinese consumers seek confirmatory information and pay greater attention to WOM that agrees with their initial attitude. Consumers with a high (vs low) need for cognition are more likely to rate WOM from far (vs closer) social distance as more impactful on themselves. For public-consumption products, the consumers are influenced more by “who said it” (source) than by “what does it say” (valence). The reverse holds for private consumption.

The paper could be extended to other online behaviors. It can also be extended to empirical testing using market data.

Since Chinese consumers tend to focus on online information that is consistent with their initial attitude, it can be more difficult for either the seller or third-party website to utilize online WOM as a persuasive tool in China than in other countries. Firms may also customize their online strategies based on product category. For products that are consumed in private, WOM content is more important than source. If the firm wants to facilitate consumer interaction and influence, greater attention should be paid to make the content easy to access and utilize.

Due to the explosive growth of e-Commerce in China, many global and Chinese firms rushed to set up online communities to facilitate information exchange among consumers. Our findings indicate that the impact of these communities may have been overvalued. Chinese consumers are influenced by online information, but if the majority of the online messages are from anonymous strangers, consumers tend to discount their credibility.

Our study represents an earlier effort to predict, and test, how online WOM can be associated with the specific cultural and market environments. It provides direct implications for both consumer behavior and firm strategy.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a model to test whether the combined effects of valence and objectivity/subjectivity of online review have an effect on consumer judgment and whether e-WOM platforms have a moderating effect.

In total, 480 respondents participated in online experiments with a four (positive+objective, positive+subjective, negative+objective, and negative+subjective online review) by two (marketer-generated vs consumer-generated brand community web sites) between subject design.

The experiment showed that: an objective negative online review was rated higher in terms of message usefulness compared to the other types of online reviews; positive reviews, whether they are objective or subjective, were rated higher in terms of attitudes toward and intention to purchase the reviewed product, and the effects of online reviews moderated by e-WOM platforms on consumer judgment were supported.

The present study, based on an established theoretical foundation, will help the research community to gain a deeper understanding of the combined effects of online review valence and attributes on consumer judgment and whether user-generated web community is better for consumers to consult product experience.

The findings of this study can provide interested firms with useful strategies and tactics to enhance users’ acceptance of online reviews in terms of who operates the web sites.

With increasing use of consumers’ online reviews, the present study proposed and tested a comprehensive research model integrating both the valence and objectivity/subjectivity of online review, which has rarely been addressed in previous research.

Word-of-mouth (WOM) literature has identified the roles of source and message in WOM influence, but the relationship between them is yet to be investigated. The purpose of this paper is to explore this relationship by examining the mediation of message on the impact of perceived source characteristics from the perspective of the receiver. The paper also considered the mutual relationships between source characteristics and message quality.

A quantitative survey of prospective students was conducted to empirically examine the proposed conceptual model. A sample of 509 respondents was analysed using structural equation modelling.

The findings suggest the significant impact of expertise, trustworthiness, homophily and opinion leadership of the WOM source on the judgement of message quality and the indirect effects on WOM influence mediated by the message quality. The results also indicate the moderating effects of receiver involvement and the valence of the message on the impact of message quality.

The findings of this paper can inform the strategic development of WOM marketing. A deeper understanding of source characteristics and the role of the message may enable marketing practitioners to better target appropriate influencers for seeding programmes that stimulate WOM communication about their brands or products.

This study examines how the receiver’s evaluations of message content mediate the relationship between source characteristics and WOM influence. Source and message are two elements of communication which are processed when people receive information. However, nascent research examines their effects on each other. This research contributes to the understanding of this relationship through an empirical examination of the direct effects of primary source characteristics on perceived message quality.

This study empirically assesses the perceptions the public has of employees and their organization following a [re]tweet, and the additional potential ameliorating effect of a disclaimer distancing the organization from the individual employee's social media presence.

A fully crossed 2 (disclaimer vs. no disclaimer) × 2 (positive vs. negative valence post) × 2 (post vs. retweet) experiment exposed participants (N = 173) to an employee's personal tweet. Resultant perceptions of both the poster (i.e., goodwill) and the poster's organization (i.e., organizational reputation) were analyzed using planned contrast analyses.

Findings reveal audiences form impressions of individuals based on both tweeted and retweeted content. Perceptions of both the poster's goodwill and the poster's organization were commensurate with the valence of the poster's tweets, stronger when posts were original tweets rather than retweets, and there was a significant interaction effect between valence and [re]tweet. Disclaimers did not significantly affect perceptions, suggesting employers may be better served by asking employees to omit reference to their employer on their personal social media accounts.

This research contributes to understanding how employee and organizational reputation are affected by employees' personal social media content. Results suggest that even when a disclaimer explicitly seeks to distance an employee from the organization, audiences still see the employee as an informal brand ambassadors of their organization.