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The aim of this study was threefold: to examine companies' e-mail handling performance, to ascertain whether companies' view corporate websites and respond to e-mail requests as mutually exclusive or complementary, and finally to gauge the strategic importance of retail investors.

The findings are based on an analysis of the corporate websites and e-mail handling performance of the 77 smallest companies listed on a South African stock exchange. A “mystery investor” approach was employed to measure companies' e-mail handling performance in terms of responsiveness, timeliness and relevance of responses. A disclosure score was calculated for each company based on a content analysis of corporate websites.

The opportunity for improvement exists, as evidenced in the fact that only 53% of companies responded to an e-mail request from a retail investor. The results suggest that corporate websites and the e-mail functionality are not used in isolation but as complementary. Although the results suggest that companies neglect retail investors, companies that provided a dedicated investor relations (IR) contact address prioritised both their corporate websites aimed to a wide range of stakeholders, as well as responding to an e-mail request received from a retail investor.

This study contributes to research on the association between one-way and two-way communication channels, aimed at retail investors. It is the first study to explore these relationships using data from the smallest companies listed on the stock exchange of an emerging economy.

Companies are adopting a more active role in managing their online reputations by using electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and often responding directly to customer reviews. Therefore, companies need to understand the effects of management responses to customer reviews. This study aims to explore whether it is worth responding to reviews and whether expressing gratitude enhances the effects of review responses.

This study uses customer reviews and management response data from a sample of 766 Spanish rural lodging establishments listed on Toprural (www.toprural.com). Analyses are undertaken with NVivo and SmartPLS.

Responding to negative reviews improves lodging establishments’ average ratings, but responding to positive reviews has no significant direct effect. Expressing gratitude in responses positively moderates the effects of review responses; this moderating effect is more significant for responses to negative than to positive reviews.

Previous research provides contradictory evidence about the positive outcomes of a company’s responses; it also does not address expressions of gratitude. This research provides evidence of the direct effects of management response quantity on ratings. It also expands current research on the content characteristics of these responses. The contextual setting for this research, rural tourism, is a key driver of sustainable rural development and a sector in which eWOM is especially relevant; thus, correctly managing the eWOM phenomenon becomes crucial.

Al objeto de mejorar su reputación online, las empresas progresivamente están adoptando un papel más activo ante las reseñas online de los clientes, ofreciendo respuestas online a dichas reseñas. Por tanto, es necesario que las empresas conozcan mejor los efectos de responder online. Este estudio examina si resulta beneficioso responder a las reseñas y si expresar agradecimiento potencia el efecto de responder.

A partir de datos sobre reseñas online de clientes y respuestas de la empresa, correspondientes a una muestra de 766 alojamientos de turismo rural de Toprural (www.toprural.com), se realizan análisis con NVivo y SmartPLS.

Responder a reseñas negativas mejora las puntuaciones medias del establecimiento en Toprural. Sin embargo, responder a reseñas positivas no tiene un efecto directo significativo. Además, expresar agradecimiento en las respuestas modera positivamente el efecto de responder. No obstante, esta moderación es más intensa en el caso de respuestas a reseñas negativas frente a las reseñas positivas.

La investigación previa aporta evidencia contradictoria sobre los efectos de la intensidad de respuesta empresarial a las reseñas online; además, no se ocupa de la expresión de gratitud en particular. Este estudio aporta luz respecto al efecto directo de la intensidad de respuesta sobre las puntuaciones online y amplía la investigación actual sobre las características de contenido de las respuestas. El marco de estudio, el turismo rural, se considera clave para un desarrollo rural sostenible y constituye un escenario donde el boca-oído electrónico es especialmente importante; en consecuencia, gestionar correctamente el fenómeno es crucial.

Palabras clave Boca-oído electrónico, Respuesta empresarial, Reputación online, Turismo rural

Tipo de artículo Trabajo de investigación

Relying on institutional theory and Oliver’s (1991) strategic responses framework, the purpose of this paper is to investigate the different strategies adopted by Spanish public universities to respond to institutional pressures for sustainability reporting.

Data were collected from a variety of sources, such as a series of email-structured interviews with key personnel from universities, a qualitative analysis of sustainability reports and a consultation of the website of each Spanish public university.

The findings reveal that Spanish public universities have responded to institutional pressures for sustainability reporting by adopting acquiescence, compromise, avoidance and defiance strategies. The variety of strategic responses adopted by Spanish public universities suggests that these organizations have not fully adhered to institutional pressures.

The results of this paper would be useful for practitioners since it tries to demonstrate whether universities, which are facing increasing institutional pressures and demands from stakeholders, have been developing sustainability reporting practices.

Universities have a remarkable social impact that could be used to promote sustainability practices. This paper investigates how these organizations can contribute to sustainability reporting as they should reproduce social norms.

The sustainability reporting context is in a phase of change. This paper tries to contribute to the accounting research by analyzing the extent to which universities are engaged in sustainability reporting. Relying on these premises, Oliver’s (1991) framework might be an insightful theoretical perspective to examine the responses provided by universities to institutional pressures.

The current management literature suggests that when employees engage in wrongdoing, managers typically respond with punishment. The emerging moral repair literature suggests an alternative to punishment: a reparative response that focuses on repairing harm and restoring damaged relationships. However, little is currently known about restorative managerial responses, including why managers respond to employee wrongdoing in a reparative versus punitive manner. The purpose of this paper is to examine a variety of cognitive and emotional influences on this managerial decision.

This study used a scenario-based survey methodology. The authors gathered data from 894 managers in sales and financial services contexts to test a set of hypotheses regarding individual-level influences on managers’ punitive versus restorative responses.

This study found that managers’ restorative justice orientation, retributive justice orientation, social considerations (e.g. when employees are relatively interdependent versus independent), instrumental considerations (e.g. when the offender is highly valuable to the organization) and feelings of anger influenced their reparative versus punitive responses.

Data are cross-sectional, so causality inferences should be approached with caution. Another potential limitation is common method bias due to single-source and single-wave data.

The findings of this study show that managers often opt for a restorative response to workplace transgressions, and this study surfaces a variety of reasons why managers choose a restorative response instead of a punitive response.

This study focuses on social order and expectations within the workplace. This is important to victims, offenders, observers, managers and other stakeholders. This study seeks to emphasize the importance of social factors, a shared social identity, social bonds and other relationships within this manuscript. This is an important component of organizational-focused restorative justice research.

This is the first study, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, to explicitly test individual-level influences on managers’ reparative versus punitive responses to employee wrongdoing.

Managing supply chains (SCs) for sustainability often results in conflicting demands, which can be conceptualized as sustainability tensions. This paper studies sustainability tensions in electronics SC contexts and the related management responses by applying a paradox perspective.

A single case study on the electronics SC is conducted with companies and third-party organizations as embedded units of analysis, using semi-structured interviews that are triangulated with publicly available data.

The study identifies tension elements (learning, belonging, organizing and economic performing) conflicting with general social–ecological objectives in the electronics SC. The results indicate a hierarchal structure among the sustainability tensions in SC contexts. The management responses of contextualization and resolution are assigned to the identified tensions.

Framing social–ecological objectives with their conflicting elements as paradoxical tensions enables organizations and SCs to develop better strategies for responding to complex sustainability issues in SC contexts.

The study contributes toward filling the gap on paradoxical sustainability tensions in SCs. Empirical insights are gained from different actors in the electronics SC. The level of emergence and interconnectedness of sustainability tensions in a larger SC context is explored through an outside-in perspective.

Advanced driving assistance system (ADAS) has been applied in commercial vehicles. This paper aims to evaluate the influence factors of commercial vehicle drivers’ acceptance on ADAS and explore the characteristics of each key factors. Two most widely used functions, forward collision warning (FCW) and lane departure warning (LDW), were considered in this paper.

A random forests algorithm was applied to evaluate the influence factors of commercial drivers’ acceptance. ADAS data of 24 commercial vehicles were recorded from 1 November to 21 December 2018, in Jiangsu province. Respond or not was set as dependent variables, while six influence factors were considered.

The acceptance rate for FCW and LDW systems was 69.52% and 38.76%, respectively. The accuracy of random forests model for FCW and LDW systems is 0.816 and 0.820, respectively. For FCW system, vehicle speed, duration time and warning hour are three key factors. Drivers prefer to respond in a short duration during daytime and low vehicle speed. While for LDW system, duration time, vehicle speed and driver age are three key factors. Older drivers have higher respond probability under higher vehicle speed, and the respond time is longer than FCW system.

Few research studies have focused on the attitudes of commercial vehicle drivers, though commercial vehicle accidents were proved to be more severe than passenger vehicles. The results of this study can help researchers to better understand the behavior of commercial vehicle drivers and make corresponding recommendations for ADAS of commercial vehicles.

The purpose of this paper is to show that mixed methods applied sequentially provide sufficient knowledge of topics under study.

This paper conducted an analysis of a real case using descriptive statistical and regression techniques.

The present study proposes the use of the so-called “sequential mixed-modes” in survey-based market research. This technique is based on the successive application of different information collection techniques (face-to-face, telephone and internet-based surveys); it offers four fundamental advantages: increased coverage rate; higher response rate; lower costs; and greater cooperation.

In addition to the normal limitations associated with conclusions derived from case studies, the data collection was carried out in only one autonomous community (Spain) and focussed only on one theme.

Firstly, it was found that data collection through mixed sequential modes substantially increases response rates in online surveys. This is particularly important as, in recent years, data collection through the internet has become almost standard market research practice. Secondly, the sample that resulted from the joint use of the three data collection modes more accurately reflected the distinctive features of the universe under study. A third recommendation is that the use of internet-based self-administered surveys is especially promising with individuals with a higher level of education and among students.

The decrease in the response rate is one of the greatest challenges of survey-based market research, given its impact on sample representativeness. This paper addresses this problem and exposes the advantages of the sequential use of mixed modes in the collection of information.

El objetivo de la presente investigación es mostrar que los modos mixtos aplicados de manera secuencial ofrecen un conocimiento adecuado de los temas objeto de estudio.

Se realiza el análisis de un caso real mediante técnicas descriptivas y regresión.

Este trabajo presenta los denominados “modos mixtos secuenciales” en la investigación a través de encuestas. Esta técnica se basa en la aplicación sucesiva de diferentes herramientas de recogida de información (encuestas presenciales, telefónicas y por Internet) y ofrece cuatro ventajas fundamentales; (1) aumento de la tasa de cobertura; (2) mayor tasa de respuesta; (3) menores costes; y (4) mayor cooperación.

Además de las limitaciones normalmente asociadas a los estudios de caso, la recogida de información se redujo a una única comunidad autónoma (España) y un único tema.

En primer lugar, se observa que la recogida de información mediante modos mixtos secuenciales aumenta de manera sustancial la tasa de respuesta en las encuestas online. Esto es particularmente relevante en la situación actual, pues la utilización de Internet casi se ha convertido en un estándar en la investigación de mercados. En segundo lugar, la muestra final obtenida como resultado del uso de tres modos de recogida refleja de manera más ajustada las características distintivas de la población objeto de estudio. Una tercera implicación es que el uso de encuestas online de carácter autoadministrado es especialmente prometedor en individuos de mayor nivel educativo y entre estudiantes.

摘要

本文的目的是要证明，按顺序应用的混合方法为研究的主题提供了充分的知识。

本文运用描述性统计和回归技术对一个实际案例进行了分析。

本文提议使用 “顺序混合模式” 来调查市场研究。这项技术是基于连续运用不同的信息收集技术(面对面、电话和基于互联网的调查) ，它提供了四个基础性优势: 增加覆盖率; 更高的回复率; 降低成本; 和更大的协作。

除了常见的案例研究所存在的局限性之外，本文的数据收集仅在一个自治社区(西班牙)进行，并且只集中于一个主题。

首先，通过混合序列模式收集数据，大大提高了在线调查的回复率。这一点尤其重要，因为近年来，通过互联网收集数据几乎已成为标准的市场研究实践。其次，联合使用三种数据采集模式所得到的样本更准确地反映了所研究社区的鲜明特征。第三个建议是，使用基于互联网的自我管理调查对调查教育水平较高的个人和学生群体具有很大的调查前景。

回复率的下降是基于调查的市场研究面临的最大挑战之一， 因为它大大影响了样本代表性。本文解决了这一问题，并揭示了在信息收集中顺序使用混合模式的优点。

Engaging in webcare, i.e. responding to online reviews, can positively affect consumer attitudes, intentions and behavior. Research is often scarce or inconsistent regarding the effects of specific webcare strategies on business performance. Therefore, this study tests whether and how several webcare strategies affect hotel bookings.

We apply machine learning classifiers to secondary data (webcare messages) to classify webcare variables to be included in a regression analysis looking at the effect of these strategies on hotel bookings while controlling for possible confounds such as seasonality and hotel-specific effects.

The strategies that have a positive effect on bookings are directing reviewers to a private channel, being defensive, offering compensation and having managers sign the response. Webcare strategies to be avoided are apologies, merely asking for more information, inviting customers for another visit and adding informal non-verbal cues. Strategies that do not appear to affect future bookings are expressing gratitude, personalizing and having staff members (rather than managers) sign webcare.

These findings help managers optimize their webcare strategy for better business results and develop automated webcare.

We look into several commonly used and studied webcare strategies that affect actual business outcomes, being that most previous research studies are experimental or look into a very limited set of strategies.

The aim of this paper is to explore the importance of individual learner differences and the effect differentiated instruction (DI) has on learners' levels of engagement.

The author carried out this research using a small-scale action research (AR) study.

The findings suggest that in acknowledging and responding to individual learner differences, especially interests, levels of learner engagement are positively affected.

This study’s key limitations were sample size, short-term study and potential teacher as researcher bias.

Recommendations were made for a further longitudinal study into the relationship between DI and language learner levels of engagement at University. An additional study into DI that looksbeyond language learning at HE, could add value to pedagogic approaches, which could make courses of greater intrinsic value to its students.

This research study aims to help fill a gap in the literature on the application of DI, as well as a unique perspective into its effect on learner engagement within a university context.

This article explores the value of engaging a hybrid learning strategy in a micro-enterprise setting when responding to a global pandemic. The research question asks: “Does a hybrid learning strategy enhance a micro-enterprise's response to extreme events?”.

A micro-enterprise owner–manager (OM) reflects on their experience running a business during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, which resulted in the complete decimation of the organization’s revenue stream in early 2020. Captured in conversation with an academic peer, these practitioner insights provide valuable case evidence relating to micro-enterprise response to extreme commercial events, such as a global pandemic.

The journey from initial survival-mode to emergent market opportunity recognition and subsequent growth is recorded. The paper contributes to the limited research on the impact of learning strategy plans on micro-enterprise crisis response strategies and provides insights into the value of engaging a hybrid learning strategy when responding to a significant external business shock.

Drawing from these insights, the authors offer a literature-informed framework from which to consider the dynamics of an adaptive strategic response in a micro-enterprise setting, offering a means through which micro-enterprises can plan for and respond to extreme events in the future.