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The extant literature on self-verification striving has primarily focused on employee recruitment and positive organizational outcomes, but there is insufficient research on its influence mechanism and boundary conditions. With taking charge as the mediating variable and authentic leadership as the moderating variable, this study aims to explore the relationship between self-verification striving and creative performance.

The authors collected 358 questionnaires from China. Linear regression was used to explore the influence mechanism and boundary conditions. Groups were classified by latent profile analysis, and differences among different groups were compared.

First, self-verification striving was significantly positively correlated with creative performance, and taking charge played a significant mediating role between them. Second, authentic leadership significantly positively moderated the relationship between self-verification striving and taking charge. Third, based on the willingness and action of self-verification striving, it was found that the taking charge and creative performance of the double high group was significantly higher than the high-medium group, while the double low group was significantly lower than the high-medium group.

First, this study makes up for the lack of influencing mechanism and inconsistency of research results between self-verification striving and employee outcomes. Second, the moderating effect of authentic leadership was proposed and verified, which enriched the universality of self-verification theory in Chinese context. Third, we found the differences in behaviors and outcomes among different groups, verified the uniqueness of self-verification striving in the Chinese context. It helps to explore the deep relationships that cannot be revealed by variables alone.

The purpose of this paper is to test whether self-verification striving serves as an individual difference antecedent of emotional labor and explore whether various emotional labor tactics acted as mediating mechanisms through which self-verification striving relates to employee outcomes.

The sample used in this paper consisted of supervisor–subordinate dyads working in six hotels in South Korea and used multi-level analyses and the Monte Carlo method to test the research hypotheses presented in this paper.

Self-verification striving was positively and directly related to job performance as well as two out of three forms of emotional labor (i.e. the expression of naturally felt emotions and deep acting). Self-verification striving also indirectly related to job satisfaction through the expression of naturally felt emotions and indirectly related to job performance through deep acting.

The findings of this paper suggest that organizations should consider self-verification striving as an employment selection criterion and provide training programs to help their customer service employees engage in appropriate types of emotional labor.

This paper is the first to explore the underlying mechanisms through which self-verification striving relates to employee outcomes. It also empirically bolsters the notion that expressing naturally felt emotions is an important means of authentic self-expression that positively contributes to job satisfaction. Further, the authors found that self-verification striving positively relates to job performance partially through deep acting. Moreover, they have shown that self-verification striving, as an individual differences variable, is an antecedent of different types of emotional labor.

Rather than viewing social network technology (SNT) as a mere tool to access a networked audience, we emphasize its role as both a means and a social actor to help verify people’s self-images in an online social context.

Drawing upon self-verification theory, this study investigates a mechanism of how users are willing to use SNTs continuously through the cognitive and affective reactions on two different SNTs. Structural equation modeling was used via data collected from 320 Facebook and 313 Twitter users.

Our results demonstrated that Facebook users regard it only as a useful tool for presenting self-images, while Twitter users are likely to feel an emotional attachment to technology as a social actor when ideal self-verification is gained, and that different types of SNTs create differential contexts for self-verification.

This study suggests a new lens to understand SNT’s role as a social actor in the self-verification process, further identifying the SNT context in which SNT takes different roles.

In a certain SNT usage context, users are attached to SNTs, suggesting SNT providers consider features that enable SNT users to fulfill their own self-verification motives.

This study explores the roles of SNTs from a self-verification perspective. Our conceptualization of technology as a self-verifying social actor can further extend existing discussions on the role of SNT in response to self-verifying needs, while also promoting the continued use of SNTs in the future.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interesting but largely unexamined impact of self-uncertainty on the persuasiveness of self-deprecating advertisement.

In the present research, the experimental design and survey methods are used to collect data. Furthermore, the ANOVA and bootstrap analysis methods are adopted to verify whether a self-deprecating advertisement is more persuasive for consumers experiencing self-uncertainty and explore the mediating role of self-verification.

Study 1 indicates that people experiencing self-uncertainty are more likely to engage in actual self-verification. Study 2 demonstrates that consumers experiencing self-uncertainty are more likely to purchase products in a self-deprecating advertisement (vs. self-enhancing advertisement), and actual self-verification motive underlies this effect. In Study 3, a novel boundary condition for the main effect–product type (hedonic vs. utilitarian) is found, and it further reveals that the impact of self-uncertainty on the persuasiveness of self-deprecating advertisement will attenuate when the advertised product is utilitarian.

This research reveals that self-deprecating advertising is more desirable for consumers who experience self-uncertainty. Based on the conclusions in this paper, the self-deprecating advertising is more attractive and desirable for consumers who are reminded about their personal uncertainties. Thus, marketers could employ self-deprecating (vs. self-enhancing) advertisement to promote products. For example, in order to promote the waterproof function of iPhone 12, Apple China released a self-deprecating advertisement of “Splash proof and water resistant. Don't worry, iPhone.”

First, this research not only sheds new light on the relationship between self-uncertainty and the persuasiveness of self-deprecating advertisement but also verifies the mediating role of self-verification motive in this relationship. Moreover, this research reveals that self-uncertainty is a significant factor in how people react to the self-deprecating advertisement. It is noteworthy that the self-uncertainty effect is more likely to be found when the advertised product is related to hedonic or experiential consumption as opposed to utilitarian consumption.

Purpose – The aim of this research was to test whether the motivations of self-enhancement and self-verification act independently and simultaneously, specifically in the context of the impostor phenomenon.

Design/methodology/approach – Using both self-report measures and salivary cortisol levels, I conducted a 2×2 experiment (N=106) in which status (high or low) was crossed with competition outcome (win or lose). The “low-status winner” condition served as a simulation of the impostor phenomenon.

Findings – Winners reported greater positive affect and less negative affect, indicating self-enhancement, but salivary cortisol levels were higher in participants whose status was disconsonant with the competition outcome (high-status losers and low-status winners), reflecting self-verification.

Research limitations/implications – A potential limitation was the omission of nicotine use as a control variable.

Practical implications – Results illuminate the dual public and private nature of the impostor phenomenon, in which normative expressions of happiness overlie deeper feelings of anxiety. A better understanding would benefit educators, employers, counselors, and therapists who work with high-achieving women and minorities as well as the women and minorities they serve.

Social implications – Findings suggest that efforts should be made to bolster the confidence of promising young women and minorities, with the understanding that, despite high levels of achievement, self-confidence and a sense of deservedness may be lacking.

Originality/value – Methodological advancements included the first laboratory simulation of the impostor phenomenon and the use of both self-report and physiological measures of responses to status situations. This was the first study capable of observing the motivations to self-enhance and self-verify simultaneously and independently of one another.

This paper aims to determine one explanation for how the self-brand connection is associated with brand loyalty through the brand experience. Brand experience should verify the self-brand connection by acting as a mechanism through which a self-brand connection is associated with brand loyalty.

Data were obtained from 317 adults through paid Facebook Boosting of an online survey and analyzed using structural equation modeling.

Analyses confirm that brand experience fully mediates the association between self-brand connection and brand loyalty.

Ensuring a positive brand experience is critical for brand managers opting to maintain consumers’ self-brand connections and brand loyalty. Causality suffered owing to the cross-sectional design of the study.

Self-brand connection is viewed as consumer-driven. However, by identifying the brand experience to verify the self-brand connection and as a factor that mediates the self-brand connection–loyalty relationship of consumers, brand experience is recognized as a new factor which brand managers can control to manage self-brand connections and brand loyalty.

This paper is the first to apply the self-verification theory to the self-brand connection–loyalty relationship by explicating brand experience as a mediator of this relationship. This paper argues self-verification is not context-specific and lived experiences with the brand, irrespective of context, establish consumer–brand relationships. This paper confirms the second-order factor structure of the brand experience scale (Brakus et al., 2009) as a mediator in this self-brand connection–loyalty model.

Organizations are replete with groups working on complex, interdependent tasks. To successfully perform such tasks, group members must possess diverse skills and perspectives and be able to integrate their differences. This dual requirement poses a challenge because members’ identities are typically intertwined with their diverse skills and perspectives, making group interaction a breeding ground for threats to members’ identities. We explain how identity negotiation processes, especially those associated with self-verification, provide a way for members to defuse the identity threats that can otherwise impede integration. We describe empirical research on the interplay among diversity, identity negotiation processes, and group functioning, and then compare self-verification and self-categorization approaches to managing group diversity.

In this chapter, we argue that beyond the self-enhancement motive (i.e., the desire for a positive identity), other identity motives play a significant, yet underspecified role in homogeneous and diverse groups. In particular, we explore how the desire for self-verification, belonging, and distinctiveness offer alternative and, at times, even contradictory explanations for findings typically attributed to self-enhancement. We also consider the ways in which these motives are influenced in homogenous and diverse groups and the effects they have on group processes and performance. Through our examination, we aim to stimulate research on the role of multiple identity motives in homogenous and diverse groups.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the effect of employees' self-efficacy on employees' organizational identification. Based on a self-verification perspective, this paper focuses on the mediating role of leader–member exchange social comparison (LMXSC) and the moderating role of perceived organizational justice.

The authors conducted a field survey (Study 1) of 207 employees recruited from multiple financial organizations and tested a moderated mediation model using Hayes's (2018) PROCESS macro. The authors conducted another scenario-based experiment (Study 2) using a sample of 151 employees recruited online to further establish causality in our model.

Results suggest that employees' self-efficacy is positively associated with their LMXSC, which, in turn, positively impacts employees' organizational identification. The positive relationship between LMXSC and organizational identification is stronger when employees' perceived organizational justice is higher. The indirect effect of self-efficacy on organizational identification through LMXSC is also strengthened by perceived organizational justice.

Managers are encouraged to develop employees' self-efficacy and to create a fair environment to promote employees' identification with the organization.

This research extends organizational identification literature by examining how and when employees' self-efficacy, a dispositional predictor, leads to employees' identification with the organization from a self-verification perspective.

This study aims to systematically evaluate the psychological factors of independent versus interdependent self-construal, self-evaluation motives of enhancement versus verification, and the mediating role of bridging and bonding social capital on consumers' positive and negative brand-related electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) sharing with in-group and out-group audiences.

The online survey was conducted with young adult consumers in the Netherlands (N = 322). Multiple regression analysis with PROCESS was used to test the hypotheses.

Consumers with independent self-construal are more likely to share negative eWOM, particularly via social messengers with in-group members. These consumers, however, tend to share positive eWOM on companies' social media accounts that reach out-group audiences including online strangers. Additionally, self-evaluation was the key motivation driving positive eWOM sharing with in-groups, while bridging social capital mediated the effects of self-construal on sharing negative eWOM.

The paper provides a more holistic understanding of the factors impacting the valence and intended audience for eWOM sharing. The findings advance eWOM research by differentiating positive and negative eWOM sharing in the context of intergroup communication.