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Internet fraud is an epidemic that costs US$7.1 billion as of 2007. The advent of the internet and proliferation of its use makes it an attractive medium for communicating the fraud, particularly through the use of e‐mail. This paper aims to explain how victims of online fraud can be influenced by judgmental heuristics and cognition when they make nonnormative or sub‐optimal decisions.

The paper will analyse the content of 14 recent fraud e‐mails to explain how victims of online fraud can be influenced from a psychological perspective, using theories of bounded rationality, judgmental heuristics and cognition.

The paper suggests that e‐mail fraudsters, whether intentionally or not, employ specific methods that correspond closely to how the human mind works within a context of bounded rationality. These methods have a propensity to exploit psychological blind spots in victims caused by selective perception and post‐decisional dissonance, as well as sub‐optimal or nonnormative responses in automatic behaviour due to the common use of heuristics (for example, representativeness, availability and affect) when making decisions in complex task environments.

Considering the current and widespread problem of online fraud, this paper is expected to inform and prepare internet users against such deception by offering a better understanding of how fraudsters can psychologically influence the way victims and potential victims make their decisions.

Provides a comprehensive and critical analysis of work done in the field of industrial diffusion, adoption and communication. Suggests that work done in the diffusion of industrial markets is a slow process, and highlights the problems of conditional and causal‐factors in its examination. Presents a summary of those firms thought to be likely to be innovators.

Explores UK audience reception data provided by the Broadcasting Audience Research Board (BARB) and questions it with regard to new technology. Discusses technological innovations with reference to changing from passive to interactive television viewing, and notes developments to remote control television, teletext, video recorders, computers, cable television and micro‐TVs. Puts forward the development of new technology and spotlights its possible growth areas but does warn that, at present, new technology is still at the innovation stage. States also that video recorders and remote control equipped televisions are presently in an early stage of development and use. Assesses types of households and selects four for questionnaire use. Gives tabular typology for types and illustrates these in depth. Concludes that technology is affecting audience receptivity to commercial breaks on television, and that media planners and commercial advertisers must regard current audience data as inconclusive.

This paper argues that it is possible to make a scientific analysis of the process of persuasion as a function of the language used in any social interaction rather than merely the context in which that interaction takes place. In other words, persuasion is a rhetorical as much as a sociolinguistic phenomenon and persuasive language in itself constitutes a distinct register or style of speech.

The aim of this paper is to describe the opportunity for public relations professionals in the new communications environment

The authors developed a point of view, and conducted secondary research to confirm and supplement it.

The communications environment has changed. The new climate requires organizations to engage in a two‐way dialog with their constituencies. “Push” communication has lost effectiveness. In this environment, people trained in public relations are in a unique position to take the lead in forming communications strategies for their organizations or clients.

This work is based on the authors' personal views of the current communication environment, and is supported by the views of many of the leading players in the public relations world.

This study seeks to develop previous research into value branding by investigating potential misalignments between brand identity as intended by the brand owner, and the way in which the brand image is perceived by young consumers.

Kapferer's model was used to create a detailed brand identity for a value fashion brand. A survey of 150 business students provided a map to identify any gaps between the intended and perceived brand image. Theoretical concepts underpinning the paper include value branding and the relationship between brand identity and brand image.

A marked difference was observed in the way in which value brands are intended and how they are perceived; these misalignments may have significant implications. In particular, young consumers' perceptions of value brands' fashion content could create barriers during decision making. However, the relationship facet indicates potential for developing lifelong loyalty from the sample.

The research provided a visual map of perceived brand image to allow comparison between identity and image. A longitudinal study could identify how attitudes might change throughout the purchasing life of the sample group.

It was found that the brand owner needed to develop and effectively communicate the reflection element of brand identity to improve the perception of how the typical customer is viewed by others.

The relationship between brand identity and brand image is particularly important in the value fashion sector. Although some research has been undertaken in this field, it mainly relates to how corporate brands are perceived, while this study focuses on the product level.

This paper aims to study the decision‐making processes of Portuguese tourists traveling to South America and Africa destinations by developing a conceptual framework that focuses on information sources, motivations, perceptions, satisfactions, and behavioral intentions.

The study applies a structural model that looks to explain the factors behind decision making and the relationships present. The relationships are observed in detail through the application of a categorical principal component analysis.

The results of the empirical study show that behavioral intentions precede emotional and cognitive satisfaction, which in turn, are explained through perceptions and motivations. Tourists perceive tourism destinations as places of leisure although little information is available on existing facilities and core attractions.

The study has the restriction of being limited to the Portuguese tourists. However, these findings open paths for further investigation, namely extending to other destinations and to tourists with different motivations.

This study contributes to the overall understanding of the decision‐making processes of tourists. Specifically, the decision processes is assess by considering two stages: the pre‐purchase stage and the post‐purchase stage. These two phases were analyzed in order to understand how people decide to travel to a certain destination.

Dynamism has been the key to the success and popularity of social media, and users always try to adapt to the available new changes. Continuous growth in the access and reach of social media in the past decade has enabled the users to make a calculative assessment of their social media usage. Social currency is a phenomenon that helps the customer in their evaluation of social media usage. However, this concept is still in its infancy phase, and there have been hitherto no studies to understand the influence of social currency dimensions on Indian users. This paper aims to study the dimensions of social currency for a better insight into social media usage of Indian customers.

Data were collected from 384 respondents from the biggest residential university in Varanasi through a structured questionnaire using the snowball sampling technique. Responses were taken on a seven-point Likert scale. Responses were analyzed by the factor analysis method using the maximum likelihood estimation model.

The result of this study empirically demonstrated that six dimensions, i.e. conversation, information, utility, affiliation, advocacy and identity, constitute the social currency of the user while browsing social media sites. It was also found that among the factors described above, advocacy emerged as the most influential dimension of social currency for Indian users, followed by identity and affiliation.

The findings have various managerial implications for the firms that want to have a significant social media presence. These findings can help marketers to design a tailored social media campaign for Indian users in an efficient manner by successfully incorporating the aforesaid social currency dimensions in their strategy.

This study also reflects the societal impact of the dimensions of social currency on Indian users, as any change in the usage of social media can have a long-lasting effect on the mood of the people. The influence of the social currency dimension differs significantly in the context of Indian users compared to the existing literature, as they give more value to the behavioural aspect of the social currency (advocacy, identity and affiliation), strengthening the sense of belongings among the members.

This paper highlights, for the first time, the level of influence social currency dimensions have on Indian users, as there have been hitherto no studies to understand the influence of social currency dimensions on Indian users. Another significant contribution of this research is the empirical validation of the social currency determinants. Thus, this study may contribute to the social media strategy of the firm for Indian users by incorporating the social currency dimension, as discussed in the study.

Employing the cognitive mediation model, the study aims to examine a moderated-mediation mechanism of social media news use contingent upon elaboration on political knowledge through fact-checking – specifically, the interaction effect of social media news with elaboration on fact-checking.

The moderated-mediation model is tested using panel survey data collected during the 2016 USA presidential election (N = 1,624 at Wave 1; N = 637 at Wave 2).

The findings reveal that social media news users are frequent visitors of fact-checking websites. Results also suggest that those with increased social media news use and cognitive elaboration on news content are more likely to visit fact-checking sites, which contributes to increased political knowledge.

The results of the current study, especially in the era of social media environment where various information is overflowing, suggest an important role of individuals' responsibility as democratic citizens given that people's cognitive elaboration and surveillance efforts, which tries to think about important public issues they consume through media, could strengthen a positive pathway toward informed citizens.