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This article explores how digital exclusion measured by citizens' occasional social media use and their skeptical social media attitude may affect their satisfaction with democracy (SWD), which is critical for public engagement and democratic stability in Europe.

This study employs multilevel regression to test the hypotheses proposed in the context of Europe and uses cross-level data sources. Individual-level data, including social media use frequency and attitude and SWD, come from the 2012, 2014 and 2016 Eurobarometer surveys. Country-level data are derived from multiple pre-existing datasets.

The empirical results suggest that digital exclusion measured by occasional use and skeptical attitude are negatively associated with the likelihood of SWD. Additionally, the negative effect of a skeptical attitude increases in importance over time. Finally, although government transparency can mitigate the negative effect of a skeptical attitude, its role in mitigating the negative effect of occasional use is effective only in countries with moderate or low transparency levels.

This study preliminarily explores the direct, changing and conditional impacts of digital exclusion in social media on SWD. It also deepens our understanding of digital exclusion by differentiating between its physical and motivational aspects, which relate to public engagement and equity and then comparing their relative importance.

The future is often portrayed as rational, logical, and informed by the continuing achievements of the scientific and technological revolution. In similar ways, our own time was seen as marked by such advances by futurists of earlier decades. But at the end of the twentieth century, resistance to the claims of mainstream science and technology has grown to an extent unanticipated in these earlier appraisals. This essay argues that such resistance is liable to flourish in the twenty‐first century, and that understanding why this should be the case is important for studies of the future. In particular, this essay takes up the Fortean approach. This approach examines areas of human experience that are “damned” by mainstream science, and also examines the processes and strategies adopted both by those effecting the damnation, and those challenging it. The case being made is that although we can expect many of these damned phenomena to remain excluded – deservedly so in some cases – this will not always be the case.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how levels of trait professional skepticism (i.e. professional skepticism based on personal traits) and different experiences with a specific hypothetical client (i.e. positive, negative, or none) affect audit judgments.

The paper is based on an experiment with auditing students, with one manipulated variable and one measured variable.

The results show that initial expectations are driven primarily by client experience except when none is present (then driven by trait), but the experience has greater influence on low trait skeptics. Participants who are more skeptical are more sensitive to fraud evidence at the evidence evaluation stage.

The study uses student participants which reduces generalizability of the results to other populations. However, students are advantageous participants for examining pure trait skepticism unaffected by audit experience.

The paper examines audit judgments at multiple stages of the audit decision‐making process to determine the impact on each stage. The results of this paper support concerns that audit quality is affected both by trait professional skepticism and prior client‐specific experiences.

Presents some of the main results from a comprehensive survey among Danish librarians and their activities within, and attitudes towards, the Danish Union of Librarians. Analysis of librarians’ responses to the survey indicates that both occupational setting and age play a significant role in forming attitudes among members. The age structure appears to have the greatest significance. The employment of different statistical tools, like factor and cluster analysis, make it possible to classify librarians as either sceptical or loyal in relation to their union. The two groups differ with regard to activities, age, employment, and general professional orientation. The groups also differ in relation to how they perceive their union ought to prioritise its services. The future for all the Danish unions probably depends on how successful they are in creating loyalty and satisfaction among members. This task seems to be difficult because the members differ much in relation to an individualistic and a communalistic view of the profession in society.

Consumer-perceived review attitude determines consumer overall information adoption and is a core part of consumer’s online-shopping. This study aims to focus on factors that could influence consumer review attitude and can be used by marketers to shape individual information perception.

The study used the questionnaire method to collect data from online shoppers and the modelling of structural equations as an empirical approach to analyse the data.

The findings demonstrate that both systematic and heuristic cues impact the reviewer’s credibility and perceived website attitude differently, which, in turn, influence review attitude. Review characteristics, such as factuality, consistency and relevancy, have a positive relationship with reviewer credibility, while only review consistency and relevancy appears to have a relationship with review attitude. Website characteristics such as reputation, familiarity and social interactivity positively influence the website attitude, which positively influences review attitude. Apart from this, review skepticism has a significant negative relationship with review attitude.

This study could help to foster a positive attitude towards online reviews. Digital marketers need to motivate trusted reviewers to post consistent, fact-based reviews. Further improving the overall website reputation and interactivity could bring a positive attitude towards the reviews. Also, digital marketers must filter and avoid contradictory reviews or reviews that have a bipolar message and reviews expressing numerous emotions to enhance review relevance and consistency.

The current study addresses the need to understand the formation of consumer review attitude through both review and website characteristics using heuristic – systematic model. The paper captures the complex process undergone by the consumer to decipher review attitude and thereby extend the understanding of consumer information processing.

When corporations adopt a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program and use and name it in their external communications, their members should act in line with CSR. The purpose of this paper is to present an experiment in which the consistent or inconsistent behavior of a CEO was studied.

In this experiment the authors offered materials about an organization that has an extensive program on sustainability. In the consistent condition the authors presented a CEO who traded in his sports car for a hybrid car (which actually happened), whereas in the inconsistent condition the authors presented material in which the CEO kept his sports car.

The hypotheses were not supported. Inconsistent behavior did not lead to a significantly different attitude towards the company or lower purchase intentions.

The sample consisted of students who were maybe not familiar with the particular company, the CEO of the company and/or with the sustainability programs of the company. The materials developed in the experiment might be too weak.

Although the expected results were not found, the authors certainly think that consistent behavior of the CEO and other organizational members might decrease skeptical responses of stakeholders when they are confronted with CSR communication.

This paper aims to study the effects of two different types of state skepticism prompts, as well as the effect of the trait of professional skepticism on auditor cognitive performance in a hypothesis-testing task. It examines the effect of a professional skepticism prompt, based on the presumptive doubt view of professional skepticism, as well as the effect of a cheater-detection prompt, based on social contracts theory.

Seventy-eight audit students and 85 practising auditors examine an audit case and determine the evidence needed to test the validity of a management's assertion in a Wason selection task. The experiment manipulates the presence of a professional skepticism prompt and the presence of a cheater-detection prompt. The personality trait of professional skepticism is measured with Hurtt's scale.

The presence of a professional skepticism prompt improves cognitive performance in the sample of students, but not in the sample of auditors. The presence of a cheater-detection prompt has no significant effect on performance in the student or auditor sample. The personality trait of professional skepticism is a significant predictor of cognitive performance in the sample of students but not in the sample of auditors.

Results suggest that increasing the states of skepticism or suspicion toward the client firm's management may have no incremental effect on the normative hypothesis testing performance of experienced auditors. However, actively encouraging skeptical mindsets in novice auditors is likely to improve their cognitive performance in hypothesis testing tasks.

The study is the first to examine the joint effects of two specific types of state skepticism prompts, a professional skepticism prompt and a cheater-detection prompt, as well as the effect of the personality trait of professional skepticism, on auditor cognitive performance in a hypothesis-testing task. The study contributes to the literature by bringing together the psychology theory of social contracts and auditing research on professional skepticism, to examine auditors' reasoning performance in a hypothesis-testing task.

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between audit partner perfectionism traits and audit quality in Egypt, emphasizing the mediating role of professional skepticism.

A mixed-methods approach was used, combining a questionnaire and scenario-based questions for audit partners with secondary data from audited financial statements. The relationships between study variables were tested using structural equation modeling.

Results denote a significant indirect effect between partner perfectionism traits and audit quality through their professional skepticism. Perfectionism has a significant positive impact on partner professional skepticism, and skepticism influences audit quality.

This study offers opportunities to enhance financial reporting quality, allowing investors to confidently allocate financial market resources. Audit firms can consider the personality traits of auditors in the selection process, team formation and designing training programs. Regulators can use these findings to consider the role of personality traits and attitudes in audit quality when developing regulations and quality assurance systems in Egypt.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, no studies have examined the effect of partners’ perfectionism traits on professional skepticism and audit quality, especially in Egypt. By examining audit partners, who shape the tone at the top and are accountable for reputation, this study adds a novel dimension to understanding the impact of their qualities on audit outcomes. Moreover, combining survey and secondary data allows us to link these qualities with audit quality, objectively testing our hypotheses.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how corporate reputation interacts with corporate social responsibility (CSR) fit and affects stakeholders’ skeptical attribution (SA) of CSR motives, as well as their attitudes, supportive communication intent and purchase intent. This study proposes that a high-fit CSR program does not necessarily engender more favorable outcomes, nor does it stimulate SA. The study proposes the effects of CSR fit differ by corporate reputation. For bad-reputation companies, low-fit is anticipated to generate more desirable CSR outcomes than high-fit initiatives.

Two experiments were conducted. The first experiment employed a randomized 2 (CSR fit: high fit vs low fit) × 2 (good reputation vs bad reputation) × 2 (Industry: food retailing and insurance) full factorial design to examine the suggested hypotheses. The second study employed a randomized 2 (CSR fit: high fit vs low fit) × 2 (good reputation vs bad reputation) full factorial design with consumer samples to replicate the conceptual relationships among variables in the first study.

While reputation plays a dominant role in influencing stakeholders’ CSR-related responses across both CSR fit situations, a SA partially mediates the relationship between reputation and stakeholder reactions. CSR fit interacts with reputation, and influences the partial mediation process through SA; under a bad reputation condition, low-fit CSR engenders less SA and results in better stakeholder reactions. A similar tendency was found with supportive communication intent and purchase intent. High-fit CSR initiatives by a negative reputation company engendered the weakest supportive intent and purchase intent. For a reputable company, across both CSR fits, respondents displayed generally very positive attitudes toward, greater intent to support, and intent to purchase from the company.

The study findings provide useful and empirically supported logical explanations of why high-fit CSR programs sometimes cause backlash effects, despite the general consensus that such initiatives generate positive outcomes. This study offers an alternative and more relevant perspective to conceptualize the complexity of anticipating CSR outcomes.