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1 – 10 of over 11000Simplice Asongu, Jacinta Nwachukwu, Stella-Maris Orim and Chris Pyke
The purpose of this paper is to complement the scant macroeconomic literature on the development outcomes of social media by examining the relationship between Facebook penetration…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to complement the scant macroeconomic literature on the development outcomes of social media by examining the relationship between Facebook penetration and violent crime levels in a cross-section of 148 countries for the year 2012.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical evidence is based on ordinary least squares (OLS), Tobit and quantile regressions. In order to respond to policy concerns on the limited evidence on the consequences of social media in developing countries, the data set is disaggregated into regions and income levels. The decomposition by income levels included: low income, lower middle income, upper middle income and high income. The corresponding regions include: Europe and Central Asia, East Asia and the Pacific, Middle East and North Africa (MENA), Sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America.
Findings
From OLS and Tobit regressions, there is a negative relationship between Facebook penetration and crime. However, quantile regressions reveal that the established negative relationship is noticeable exclusively in the 90th crime quantile. Further, when the data set is decomposed into regions and income levels, the negative relationship is evident in the MENA while a positive relationship is confirmed for Sub-Saharan Africa. Policy implications are discussed.
Originality/value
Studies on the development outcomes of social media are sparse because of a lack of reliable macroeconomic data on social media. This study primarily complemented three existing studies that have leveraged on a newly available data set on Facebook.
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GuoQiong Ivanka Huang, Yun Victoria Chen and IpKin Anthony Wong
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize a dyadic theoretical model which takes social-oriented and individual-initiative drivers into account and illustrates a mechanism…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to synthesize a dyadic theoretical model which takes social-oriented and individual-initiative drivers into account and illustrates a mechanism between social commerce intention and its antecedents in the hospitality industry. To understand tourist social commerce behaviors, the current study puts forward a comprehensive model and investigates the impact among social support, social capital, participant involvement and social identification on tourist propensity to engage in social commerce with behaviors such as to like, share, post reviews and make purchases.
Design/methodology/approach
The current research draws on social exchange theory and social penetration theory to study how social-oriented drivers (i.e., social support and social capital) and individual-initiated drivers (i.e., participant involvement and social identification) could better explain tourists’ social commerce intentions. Structural equation modeling was performed based on a sample of 569 hotel guests from 61 hotels in Macau.
Findings
Results reveal that social capital mediates the relationship between social support and social commerce behavioral intention. This chain of relationship is moderated by social identification in that the more a hotel guest identifies himself/herself as an in-group member of an online community, the more likely he/she would engage in social commerce behaviors.
Practical implications
The diffusion velocity of marketing effect is manifested through customers’ social commerce intentions and behaviors, which helps managers to identify the importance in maintaining a supportive atmosphere to nurture intimate member-to-member and member-to-provider relationships.
Originality/value
The present study enriches the social penetration theory and social exchange theory by showing how both individual and social perspectives could jointly influence hotel guest propensity to post likes and comments and to reserve hotel rooms, as means to build more intimate relationships with the members within a virtual community.
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Wen Gong, Rodney L. Stump and Zhan G. Li
This study aims to investigate the role and effect of national culture on social networking web sites (SNWs) use and access across countries while controlling for socio-economic…
Abstract
Purpose
This study aims to investigate the role and effect of national culture on social networking web sites (SNWs) use and access across countries while controlling for socio-economic factors, specifically networked readiness, level of education and mobile penetration.
Design/methodology/approach
Hofstede's multidimensional framework serves as the conceptual basis for the study. Hierarchical regressions are conducted to test the hypothesized effects of cultural dimensions beyond that of the control variables on the penetration of SNWs using a secondary dataset for 36 countries.
Findings
The results provide supporting empirical evidence linking three of Hofstede's cultural dimensions to nations' SNWs use and access.
Research limitations/implications
Limitations include the use of secondary data for a limited number of countries. Only three social-economic variables were included as controls on the relationship between culture and SNWs access and usage. Future research will benefit from examining other cultural frameworks (such as Hall's classifications) and potential factors such as a nation's demographic composition and their roles in adoption and diffusion of the SNWs. Further research is needed to validate the results by including more nations and employing time-series data of social media penetration and diffusion.
Practical implications
Managerial implications are discussed with respect to formulating more effective online marketing strategies for brand engagement and promotional media choice by accommodating for cultural differences.
Originality/value
The paper's original contribution stems from the fact that little can be found in the literature about the influence of national culture on the use of social media. It attempts to establish the importance of understanding cultural impact on consumers' SNWs adoption behavior across countries.
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Stefano De Paoli and Jason Johnstone
This paper presents a qualitative study of penetration testing, the practice of attacking information systems to find security vulnerabilities and fixing them. The purpose of this…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper presents a qualitative study of penetration testing, the practice of attacking information systems to find security vulnerabilities and fixing them. The purpose of this paper is to understand whether and to what extent penetration testing can reveal various socio-organisational factors of information security in organisations. In doing so, the paper innovates theory by using Routine Activity Theory together with phenomenology of information systems concepts.
Design/methodology/approach
The articulation of Routine Activity Theory and phenomenology emerged inductively from the data analysis. The data consists of 24 qualitative interviews conducted with penetration testers, analysed with thematic analysis.
Findings
The starting assumption is that penetration testers are akin to offenders in a crime situation, dealing with targets and the absence of capable guardians. A key finding is that penetration testers described their targets as an installed base, highlighting how vulnerabilities, which make a target suitable, often emerge from properties of the existing built digital environments. This includes systems that are forgotten or lack ongoing maintenance. Moreover, penetration testers highlighted that although the testing is often predicated on planned methodologies, often they resort to serendipitous practices such as improvisation.
Originality/value
This paper contributes to theory, showing how Routine Activity Theory and phenomenological concepts can work together in the study of socio-organisational factors of information security. This contribution stems from considering that much research on information security focuses on the internal actions of organisations. The study of penetration testing as a proxy of real attacks allows novel insights into socio-organisational factors of information security in organisations.
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Xueqin Lei, Hong Wu, Zhaohua Deng and Qing Ye
The purpose of this research is to investigate how postpartum mothers conduct self-disclosure on social media may obtain social support and therefore improve their depressive mood.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this research is to investigate how postpartum mothers conduct self-disclosure on social media may obtain social support and therefore improve their depressive mood.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors extract variables of self-disclosure by manual coding postpartum mothers' 835 posts from a parenting social media in China. The ordinary least squares model and the binary logistic regression model are used to test the proposed hypotheses.
Findings
The study suggests that both mothers' superficial level disclosure and personal level disclosure positively affect online social support received, and the effect of personal level disclosure on social support is much greater than that of superficial level disclosure. Online social support received is related to the content of the post and reduces mothers' depressive mood. The authors further find that the association between personal level disclosure and depressive mood is fully mediated by social support.
Research limitations/implications
The data are collected from a parenting social network. Although it is the major parenting social media with the most users in China, the generalizability of this model and the findings to other social media need additional research.
Practical implications
This study offers implications for researchers and practitioners with regard to social media uses and impacts, which also has important implications for policy and interventions for the mental health of mothers.
Originality/value
This paper makes theoretical contributions to the literature of social penetration theory and social support by (1) dividing self-disclosure into superficial level disclosure and personal level disclosure according to the intimacy of self-disclosure; (2) empirically investigating the direct effect of online self-disclosure on social support and the mediating effect of social support between online self-disclosure and mothers' depressive mood.
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Dimitra Karantzeni and Dimitris G. Gouscos
The purpose of this paper is to research the key role of eParticipation and social media in the construction and diffusion of a European identity for European citizens, as a…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to research the key role of eParticipation and social media in the construction and diffusion of a European identity for European citizens, as a valuable means of acculturalisation, through the creation of a common sense of belonging and self-identifying with the European ideals.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper argues that the limited success of current EU institutions' communication strategy and eParticipation initiatives could be partly attributed to a communication gap between the means currently used on the one hand, and the preferences of targeted audiences on the other.
Findings
This communication gap is demonstrated by combining empirical data on EU eParticipation initiatives addressing young people, young citizens' involvement in EU affairs, the penetration of social media on young citizen groups and the social media presence of EU political entities.
Research limitations/implications
These empirical data could be enriched with more detailed statistics, and monitored across time to identity advancements and changing trends.
Practical implications
The paper proposes, therefore, that the focus for eParticipation instruments be redirected to social media due to their comparative advantages as regards their great visibility, their notable level of penetration into current social groups and their potential of targeting specific audiences and becoming an integral part of these audiences' everyday life.
Originality/value
The paper believes this approach can contribute to improving eParticipation ventures in terms of their actual appeal to young citizens and contribution to the construction and diffusion of a European identity.
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Petros Parganas, Roman Liasko and Christos Anagnostopoulos
Professional football clubs currently strive for a number of concurrent goals, ranging from on-field success to profit maximization to fan expansion and engagement. The purpose of…
Abstract
Purpose
Professional football clubs currently strive for a number of concurrent goals, ranging from on-field success to profit maximization to fan expansion and engagement. The purpose of this paper, theoretically informed by the social penetration theory, is to analyze the economics behind such goals and examine the association between team performance, commercial success, and social media followers in professional team sports.
Design/methodology/approach
A data set relating to 20 European professional football clubs that combines financial (revenues and costs), sporting, and digital-reach measures for three consecutive football seasons (2013/2014 to 2015/2016) was used. In addition, to elaborate on this data in terms of a descriptive study, the study constructs a range of correlation statistical tests and linear modeling techniques to obtain quantitative results.
Findings
The results indicate that all the three main sources of club revenues (match-day, commercial/sponsorship, and broadcasting) are positive drivers for Facebook followers. Staff investments (staff costs) are also positively related to Facebook followers, albeit to a lesser extent, while higher-ranked clubs seem to follow a constant approach in terms of their revenues and cost structure.
Originality/value
This study seeks to bridge the communication and sport economic research, providing evidence that Facebook followers are part of the cyclical phenomenon of team revenues and team performance. In doing so, it initiates a debate on the relationship between the digital expansion of a football club and its sports and financial indicators.
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Giacomo Ciambotti, Matteo Pedrini, Bob Doherty and Mario Molteni
Social enterprises (SEs) face tensions when combining financial and social missions, and this is particularly evident in the scaling process. Although extant research mainly…
Abstract
Purpose
Social enterprises (SEs) face tensions when combining financial and social missions, and this is particularly evident in the scaling process. Although extant research mainly focuses on SEs that integrate their social and financial missions, this study aims to unpack social impact scaling strategies in differentiated hybrid organizations (DHOs) through the case of African SEs.
Design/methodology/approach
The study entails an inductive multiple case study approach based on four case SEs: work integration social enterprises (WISEs) and fair trade producer social enterprises (FTPSEs) in Uganda and Kenya. A total of 24 semi-structured interviews were collected together with multiple secondary data sources and then coded and analyzed through the rigorous Gioia et al. (2013) methodology to build a theoretical model.
Findings
The results indicate that SEs, as differentiated hybrids, implement four types of social impact scaling strategies toward beneficiaries and benefits (penetration, bundling, spreading and diversification) and unveil different dual mission tensions generated by each scaling strategy. The study also shows mutually reinforcing mechanisms named cross-bracing actions, which are paradoxical actions connected to one another for navigating tensions and ensuring dual mission during scaling.
Research limitations/implications
This study provides evidence of four strategies for scaling social impact, with associated challenges and response mechanisms based on the cross-bracing effect between social and financial missions. Thus, the research provides a clear framework (social impact scaling matrix) for investigating differentiation in hybridity at scaling and provides new directions on how SEs scale their impact, with implications for social entrepreneurship and dual mission management literature.
Practical implications
The model offers a practical tool for decision-makers in SEs, such as managers and social entrepreneurs, providing insights into what scaling pathways to implement (one or multiples) and, more importantly, the implications and possible solutions. Response mechanisms are also useful for tackling specific tensions, thereby contributing to addressing the challenges of vulnerable, marginalized and low-income individuals. The study also offers implications for policymakers, governments and other ecosystem actors such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and social investors.
Originality/value
Despite the growing body of literature on scaling social impact, only a few studies have focused on differentiated hybrids, and no evidence has been provided on how they scale only the social impact (without considering commercial scaling). This study brings a new perspective to paradox theory and hybridity, showing paradoxes come into view at scaling, and documenting how from a differentiation approach to hybridity, DHOs also implemented cross-bracing actions, which are reinforcement mechanisms, thus suggesting connections and synergies among the actions in social and financial mission, where such knowledge is required to better comprehend how SEs can achieve a virtuous cycle of profits and reinvestments in social impact.
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Hsi-An Shih and Nikodemus Hans Setiadi Wijaya
The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the links among team-member exchange (TMX), voice behavior, and creative work involvement.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize the links among team-member exchange (TMX), voice behavior, and creative work involvement.
Design/methodology/approach
A total of 260 employees were participants in this study. All were alumni of a Business School in Indonesia. Data were gathered at two time points four months apart. Hierarchical regression and bootstrapping analyses were conducted to find the effects of TMX on voice behavior and creative work involvement.
Findings
Results from the analyses showed positive effects of TMX on both voice behavior and creative work involvement. A positive effect of voice behavior on creative work involvement was found. The results also exhibited a partial mediating effect of voice behavior on the relationship between TMX and creative work involvement.
Practical implications
The findings point to the importance of maintaining TMX quality in work teams for enhancing employee voice and creativity. Organizations may need to develop members’ reciprocal relationship skill in teams and maintain the roles of team leaders to develop the quality of TMX. It is also suggested that the practice of self-management teams may enhance the quality of TMX and voice behavior of employees.
Originality/value
This paper offers new insight on how levels of TMX may impact on members’ voice behavior and creative work involvement. Longitudinal data may provide a more accurate prediction of the links among TMX, voice behavior, and creative work involvement.
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Marjolein Lips‐Wiersma and Colleen Mills
Current spirit at work literature often assumes spirituality needs to be introduced to the workplace. This paper offers an additional perspective, arguing that spirituality is…
Abstract
Current spirit at work literature often assumes spirituality needs to be introduced to the workplace. This paper offers an additional perspective, arguing that spirituality is already present, as many individuals have spiritual beliefs but struggle to articulate or enact these beliefs at work. Exploratory narrative research revealed frequent references to a lack of safety in expressing spirituality at work. The question is why and how do individuals silence their spiritual expression. This paper explores this question and presents a model that captures the ongoing experiential nature of spirituality and proposes that decisions about spiritual expression in the workplace are complex meshes of stimulus, decision‐making and action cycles (SDAs) that are embedded in the individual’s sensemaking, interpersonal relationships and group dynamics. Findings are explained through different theoretical lenses such as diversity management, social identity theory, social penetration theory and affective sensemaking theory.
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