Search results

This paper aims to explore the extent, nature and communication potential of companies’ use of three popular social media platforms (Facebook, X and LinkedIn) to report on sustainability.

Qualitative methodology through the use of the netnography approach was adopted to evaluate the use of social media for sustainability communication by the Top 50 ASX companies. Content analysis of all company posts determined those with social and environmental content. A thematic analysis was performed using the global reporting initiative (GRI) framework to examine the nature of the reporting. The media richness framework was used to measure the communication potential of the social media platforms for sustainability communication.

The results indicated that the extent of sustainability posts on social media represented less than 20% of total social media posts. The nature of posts by the Top 50 ASX companies was higher on social issues than on environmental issues, which is contradictory to many previous studies. The study also found that while the social media platforms afforded high levels of media richness, most companies failed to exploit the platforms’ full potential to disseminate sustainability information.

This work provides both empirical and theoretical contributions to the ongoing debate concerning the use of social media for sustainability communication. The paper extends Lodhia et al.’s (2020) study of social media use for legitimation purposes and adapts Lodhia’s (2004) media richness framework to social media for sustainability reporting. It adds empirical insights into social media’s communication potential and value for communicating sustainability information.

The extent and nature to which organisations use social media to disclose their sustainability performance has significant practical implications for a variety of stakeholders. The results reveal to these stakeholders and the companies themselves the level of utilisation of social media along with the potential that can be harnessed. These results can potentially improve the quantity, timeliness and usability of sustainability reporting using social media platforms.

The study provides valuable evidence to increase understanding of the sustainability social media communication landscape, which organisations can potentially leverage to communicate their messages. Additionally, sustainability awareness is increased across various demographics by disseminating sustainability information to the wider public. This study will assist policy-setters in developing guidance for using social media for sustainability reporting.

This study extends existing literature, particularly the Lodhia et al. (2020) study, which has primarily focused on examining sustainability content in the media with limited exploration of the communication potential of social media platforms to communicate sustainability content.

This paper aims to investigate the extent of personal privacy concerns expressed by university students in Vietnam while using TikTok, the influence of peer interactions and social norms on privacy attitudes and behaviors and the strategies used by university students in Vietnam to mitigate privacy risks on TikTok.

A qualitative approach using semi-structured interviews was used to gather data on the following: the degree to which Vietnamese university students express concerns about their personal privacy while using TikTok; how peer interactions and social norms influence privacy attitudes and behaviors; and the strategies these students use to mitigate privacy risks on the platform.

Findings indicate that although university students exhibit a relatively low level of concern regarding their personal privacy on TikTok, peer influences and societal norms significantly shape their attitudes and behaviors on the platform. Moreover, students use several strategies to mitigate privacy risks, such as selective content sharing and refraining from engaging with unknown links.

These insights provide valuable implications for the development of targeted interventions and educational initiatives aimed at fostering a more privacy-conscious TikTok user community among university students in Vietnam.

This research fills a critical gap in the existing literature by focusing on the influence of social norms and peer influences on privacy attitudes and behaviors on social media platforms. While prior studies have explored various factors impacting privacy concerns on social media, the role of social dynamics has been understudied. Moreover, the research specifically addresses the lack of investigation into privacy concerns on TikTok, a platform rapidly gaining popularity among younger demographics.

Social media has revolutionized marketing communication (MC). Rugby is South Africa’s most professionalized sport, leading the industry in its business management structure as well as its high-performance achievements. However, below the professional level, local rugby clubs face a large disparity compared to their professional counterparts, often relying on volunteers or part-time employees to manage the organizations. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate how non-professional rugby clubs use social media as a MC tool.

The study was exploratory, and a cross-sectional sample of twelve organizations was selected and employed a multiple case study approach. Club managers responsible for MC or social media participated in semi-structured interviews. The qualitative data analysis software, ATLAS.ti, facilitated the researchers’ use of an inductive approach to develop codes and themes for further analysis.

The findings revealed a high level of adoption of social media by the multiple cases (i.e. rugby sports club respondents), with only slight variations in the usage of specific social media applications (viz., Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and WhatsApp). The sports clubs perceived that employing social media added substantial value to their MC. There were six emergent themes related to the organization’s perceived benefits from adopting social media MC, namely: brand awareness, relationship-building, player recruitment, attracting sponsors, storytelling, and information sharing.

The study makes a novel contribution in terms of how rugby clubs use social media as an MC tool. The paper advances scant knowledge and awareness of the relationship between South Africa’s sports marketing and social media. The conclusions will aid non-professional sports organizations in enhancing the effectiveness of their social media marketing by ensuring that their objectives and target audiences are well-defined.

This study aims to examine the main factors that influence the adoption of social media marketing (SMM) by small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Indonesia and how the influence of social media marketing on the performance of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. This research can provide input for teaching, public policy toward digital infrastructure and influence public attitudes toward digital involvement in business. This implication is in line with the findings of this research, which bridges theory and practice and has the potential to influence economic growth and quality of life.

The data collection method used is a survey method by distributing questionnaires to MSME actors. The number of samples in this study was 234 respondents. This study was analyzed using the Structural Equation Model (SEM) with the help of SmartPLS software.

The results of this study indicate that marketing through social media has an effect on the performance of MSMEs. MSMEs need to adopt digital media considering the rapid development of digital technology today to be in line with the demands of business development. Using social media platforms, consumers can instantly connect with new products, services and brands with ease.

This article provides a significant and original contribution to the literature by examining the influence of social media marketing on the performance of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia. This report provides new insights into the adoption and impact of SMM in the Indonesian context, where internet and social media use is very high.

This study aims to investigate the use of voluntary disclosure on mainstream social media platforms to examine strategic responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines the influential factors and institutional pressures organisations faced when making disclosures on social media during the pandemic.

A two-stage qualitative approach was adopted. Stage one used content analysis to examine voluntary disclosures made by international organisations on social media during the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stage two comprised semi-structured interviews with individuals who were involved in the decision-making process around the social media disclosures.

This study’s findings reveal significant changes in disclosure practices due to COVID-19-related pressures. In addition to the utilisation of social media for signalling conformance with new pandemic-related norms and connecting with stakeholders, the evidence also reveals how organisations made use of strategic responses to COVID-19-related institutional pressures.

The findings reveal how social media was used as a means of timely voluntary disclosure during the examined crisis. The findings can inform the development of organisational guidelines and policies for the use of social media as a disclosure medium.

This study reveals how organisations used voluntary disclosure on social media as a strategic response to institutional pressures and the COVID-19 pandemic; this context is under-researched. The study also extends the application of the strategic response framework regarding voluntary disclosure via social media.

Social media have been associated with social benefits and enhanced psychological well-being among non-disabled individuals; the purpose of this study is to examine whether social media may have similar benefits for young neurodivergent adults with autism, anxiety, or attention-deficit and hyperactivity disorder who may experience communication differences. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this first-of-its kind study explores the nature of social media use and related psychological well-being among neurodivergent college undergraduates.

This qualitative study is part of a larger effort. The authors surveyed undergraduates with and without disabilities at U.S. higher education institutions on their social media use and psychological well-being. A total of 131 students responded, including 24 neurodivergent individuals, the results of which are reported elsewhere. Participants were 18–25 years old, of varied genders and racial/ethnic backgrounds; for neurodivergent adults, questions focused on social challenges. From the survey, a sample of five neurodivergent individuals was drawn for this small-scale, exploratory interview study.

This paper reports descriptive statistics from survey results to contextualize analysis of students’ social media use (e.g. purposes, practices, benefits and harms). Students used mainly Instagram, TikTok and YouTube to promote well-being primarily through engaging positive relationships and positive emotions. Students reported several benefits of using social media to develop their disability identity and few harms.

Understanding the impact of social media use on undergraduates with disabilities could help us not only improve services as teachers, counselors and other helping professionals who support young adults to leverage their everyday technologies-in-use but also address digital equity issues.

This study aimed to examine the impact of perceived risks of COVID-19 and users’ intention to continually use social media for COVID-19 information, thereby revealing social media users’ perceptions and behaviors regarding the pandemic.

The Health Belief Model was used to develop the research model. Data were collected from social media users in Korea using an online survey.

The findings showed that social media users’ intention to continually use social media for COVID-19 information explained 46.5% of the variance in their perceived severity, perceived susceptibility, perceived benefits, and perceived barriers. The degree of impact and relationships varied across the constructs. Two age groups were examined, and it transpired that perceived risks and perceived use were more highly recognized by young users than old users.

This study focused on Korean social media users, providing valuable insights but limiting its generalizability. The proposed research model and methodology can include participants from various countries or cultures to enhance global relevance and diversified perspectives on how perceived risks impact social media use for health information.

This study’s findings can be used to provide tailored health information services to those with different levels of perceived risks, social media use, and different age groups.

This study adopted the Health Belief Model to understand users’ perceptions of COVID-19 information on social media and examined users’ intentions to continue using social media as a channel for COVID-19 information.

The purpose of this study is to propose a research model based on the stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) model to explore whether social media affordances and media richness as environmental stimuli to learners’ involvement elicited by massive open online courses (MOOCs) can affect their learning persistence in MOOCs and, in turn, their learning outcomes in MOOCs. This study further examines whether demographic variables can moderate the relationship between learners’ learning persistence in MOOCs and their learning outcomes.

Sample data for this study were collected from learners who had experience in taking MOOCs provided by the MOOCs platform launched by a well-known university in Taiwan, and 396 usable questionnaires were analyzed using structural equation modeling.

This study proved that learners’ perceived social media affordances and media richness in MOOCs positively influenced their cognitive involvement and affective involvement elicited by MOOCs, which concurrently expounded their learning persistence in MOOCs and, in turn, uplifted their learning outcomes in MOOCs. The results support all proposed hypotheses and the research model, respectively, explains 70.5% and 61.8% of the variance in learners’ learning persistence in MOOCs and learning outcomes. Besides, this study showed that learners’ usage experience moderated the relationship between learners’ learning persistence in MOOCs and their learning outcomes.

This study uses the S-O-R model as a theoretical groundwork to construct learners’ learning outcomes in MOOCs as a series of the psychological process, which is affected by social media affordances and media richness. Noteworthily, while the S-O-R model has been extensively used in previous literature, little research uses the S-O-R model to explain the media antecedents of learners’ learning persistence and learning outcomes in MOOCs. Hence, this study enriches the research for understanding how learners value their learning gains via using media features to support them in MOOCs.

This study aims to explore the use and perceptions of social media among university students before and during their transition from high school to higher education.

This exploratory, cross-sectional study uses an online survey of 312 undergraduate students at a large public research university in the USA.

Active participation was prevalent for connecting with peers, while passive use was high when learning about university-related topics. While at university, social media was most useful for finding campus events and connecting with classmates, but least effective for connecting with instructors. Most participants experienced meaningful change in their social media use from high school to university, which is often attributed to personal growth. Social media intensity correlated weakly but positively with usefulness and sense of belonging.

The study’s sample from a single university limits generalizability. While similar institutions might show comparable results, variations due to student demographics and differing institutional practices could emerge. The retrospective approach for reporting high school behaviors also poses a limitation. Future research could longitudinally follow students from university search to enrollment and attendance.

The study recommends universities adjust social media strategies by prioritizing social content, using student ambassadors and customizing feeds. Universities should support students both online and offline, recognizing diverse pathways to belonging.

This study examines the transition period by asking university students to retrospectively reflect on high school experiences and also report current experiences. It also offers insights into student perceptions of whether their social media use has changed in meaningful ways.

This paper aims to examine the strength characteristics of a stressful event (i.e. novelty, disruption, and criticality) as factors that drive people’s social media use for seeking different types of supportive resources (i.e. emotional, appraisal, informational, and instrumental support) to facilitate emotion-focused and problem-focused coping. We further assess the impact of different types of social support obtained via social media use on people’s coping effectiveness.

Our study uses an online survey collecting data at two points in time from 291 social media users during the COVID-19 pandemic. Structural equation modeling was used for data analysis.

Empirical results reveal the usefulness and limitations of social media use as a coping mechanism. All three event strength characteristics influence people’s social media use for both emotion-focused and problem-focused coping. Event novelty motivates people’s pursuit of informational support on social media, event disruption drives social media use for seeking all four types of support, and event criticality motivates social media use for seeking emotional and informational support. However, only emotion-focused resources – emotional support and appraisal support – are found to significantly affect people’s coping effectiveness.

Our study contributes to a better understanding of the role played by social media when people cope with a stressful event. Applying the three characteristics of event strength allows us to identify people’s need for different supportive resources depending on how they perceive the event. Our analysis of the main and mediating effects of the four types of social support shows that not all types of social support can significantly enhance users’ coping effectiveness.