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Predatory publishing is a growing and global issue infecting all scientific domains. Predatory publishers create counterfeit, not (properly) peer-reviewed journals to exploit the open access (OA) model in which the author pays. The plethora of predatory marketing journals along with the sophisticated deceptive practices of their publishers may create total confusion. One of the many highly likely risks of that bewilderment is when peer-reviewed, prestigious marketing journals cite these pseudo-marketing journals. This phenomenon is called citation contamination. This study aims to investigate the extent of citation contamination in the peer-reviewed marketing literature.

Using Google Scholar as a citation gathering tool, this study investigates references to four predatory marketing journals in 68 peer-reviewed marketing journals listed in the 2018 version of the Academic Journal Guide by the Chartered Association of Business Schools (CABSs).

Results indicate that 59 of the 68 CABS-ranked peer-reviewed marketing journals were, up to late January 2021, contaminated by at least one of the four sampled predatory journals. Together, these four pseudo-journals received (at least) 605 citations. Findings from nonparametric statistical procedures show that citation contamination occurred irrespective of the age of a journal or its 2019 Journal Impact Factor (JIF). They also point out that citation contamination happened independently from the fact that a journal is recognized by Clarivate Analytics or not.

This study investigated citations to only four predatory marketing journals in only 68 CABS-listed peer-reviewed marketing journals.

These findings should sound an alarm to the entire marketing community (including academics and practitioners). To counteract citation contamination, recommendations are provided for researchers, practitioners, journal editors and academic and professional associations.

This study is the first to offer a systematic assessment of references to predatory journals in the peer-reviewed marketing literature.

This study, first, reviews the existing literature on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and, using communication theory, examines its impact on its readers’ decision-making processes. Second, this paper aims to propose some elements of eWOM communications that might be further researched.

A literature review of relevant academic articles produced 97 works related to social communication theory, eWOM and new artificial intelligence trends in hospitality. Thereafter, potential avenues for future research were explored.

The study results showed: valence, relevance, understandability and visual cues are the most important antecedents of message usefulness and the reader’s behavioral intentions; source credibility is the sender characteristic that most affects the reader’s behavioral intentions and consumer susceptibility to interpersonal influence is the receiver characteristic that most influences their attitudes and behavioral intentions. In addition, the study highlights four relevant aspects for future research. First, more research into online fake reviews is needed to better understand sender motivations. Second, companies should actively manage negative reviews. Then, the careful choice of platforms on which companies promote their products/services. Finally, the role of artificial intelligence in increasing the effectiveness of eWOM in the hospitality industry.

This paper integrates – grounded on communication theory – results from previous studies about the central elements of communication (message, sender and receiver) and discusses the main trends in hospitality-related eWOM. In addition, the paper examines the potential of specific eWOM elements as future lines of research, in particular: fake reviews, strategies for dealing with negative reviews, the eWOM platform used and artificial intelligence applications.

Este estudio, en primer lugar, revisa la literatura existente sobre el boca-oído electrónico (eWOM) y, utilizando la teoría de la comunicación, examina su impacto en los procesos de toma de decisiones de sus lectores. En segundo lugar, proponemos algunos elementos de las comunicaciones eWOM que podrían investigarse más adelante.

Una revisión de la literatura de artículos académicos relevantes produjo 97 trabajos relacionados con la teoría de la comunicación social, eWOM y nuevas tendencias de inteligencia artificial en hotelería. A partir de entonces, se exploraron posibles vías de investigación futura.

Los resultados del estudio señalaron: 1) la valencia, la relevancia, la comprensibilidad y las señales visuales son los antecedentes más importantes de la utilidad del mensaje y las intenciones de comportamiento del lector; 2) La credibilidad de la fuente es la característica del emisor que más afecta las intenciones de comportamiento del lector; 3) La susceptibilidad del consumidor a la influencia interpersonal es la característica del receptor que más influye en sus actitudes e intenciones de comportamiento. Además, el estudio destaca cuatro aspectos relevantes para futuras investigaciones. Primero, se necesita más investigación sobre las reseñas falsas en línea para comprender mejor las motivaciones del emisor. En segundo lugar, las empresas deben gestionar activamente las críticas negativas. Luego, la cuidadosa elección de las plataformas en las que las empresas promocionan sus productos/servicios. Por último, el papel de la inteligencia artificial en el aumento de la eficacia de eWOM en la industria hotelera.

Este artículo integra –con base en la teoría de la comunicación– resultados de estudios previos sobre los elementos centrales de la comunicación (mensaje, emisor y receptor) y analiza las principales tendencias en eWOM relacionadas con la hostelería. Además, el artículo examina el potencial de elementos específicos de eWOM como líneas futuras de investigación, en particular: revisiones falsas, estrategias para lidiar con críticas negativas, la plataforma eWOM utilizada y aplicaciones de inteligencia artificial.

Palabras clave: eWOM, Teoría de comunicación, Revisiones falsas, Revisiones negativas, Inteligencia artificialTipo de artículo: Revisión de la literatura

本研究, 首先, 回顾了现有的关于电子口碑（eWOM）的文献, 并利用传播理论, 研究了它对读者决策过程的影响。其次, 我们提出了一些可能需要进一步研究的电子口碑传播的要素。

对相关学术文章的文献回顾产生了97篇与社会传播理论、eWOM和酒店业新的人工智能趋势有关的作品。此后, 对未来研究的潜在途径进行了探讨。

研究结果显示。1）价值、相关性、可理解性和视觉线索是信息有用性和读者行为意图的最重要的前因; 2）来源的可信度是最能影响读者行为意图的发送者特征; 3）消费者对人际影响的易感性是最能影响他们态度和行为意图的接受者特征。此外, 该研究还强调了未来研究的四个相关方面。首先, 需要对网上虚假评论进行更多的研究, 以更好地了解发送者的动机。其次, 公司应该积极管理负面评论。然后, 谨慎选择公司推广其产品/服务的平台。最后, 人工智能在提高酒店业eWOM的有效性方面的作用。

本文以传播理论为基础, 整合了以往关于传播中心要素（信息、发送者和接受者）的研究结果, 并讨论了与酒店业相关的电子WOM的主要趋势。此外, 本文还研究了特定的eWOM要素作为未来研究方向的潜力, 特别是：虚假评论、处理负面评论的策略、使用的eWOM平台和人工智能应用。

关键词：eWOM, 传播理论, 虚假评论, 负面评论, 人工智能。

This article aims to elaborate the context-sensitive nature of credibility assessment by examining how such judgments are made in online discussion in times of uncertainty caused by Finland's intent to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in spring 2022.

The empirical findings draw on the qualitative content analysis of 3,324 posts submitted to a Finnish online discussion in February–March 2022. It was examined how the participants of online discussion assess the credibility of information sources referred to in debates on the NATO membership. It is assumed that the believability of the author of information is indicative of his or her expert power, for example based on the credentials of a scholar, while the credibility of information content, for example the provision of factual evidence is indicative of the source's informational power.

Political decision-makers, particularly the President of Finland were assessed as most credible information sources, due to their access to confidential knowledge and long-time experience in politics. The credibility assessments differed more strongly while judging the believability of researchers. On the one hand, their expertise was praised; on the other hand, doubts were presented about their partiality. Fellow participants of online discussion were assessed most negatively because information sources of these types are associated with low expert and informational power.

As the study concentrated on credibility assessments made in a Finnish online discussion group, the findings cannot be extended to concern the credibility judgments occurring information in other contexts.

The study is among the first to characterize the role of expert and informational power in credibility assessment in times of uncertainty.

Disinformation has become a latent risk for online audiences, specifically for minors who are commonly exposed to a wide variety of online content at a time they are developing cognitively and emotionally. This paper aims to offer insight on minors’ perception and the tools used by this age group to verify the content to which they are exposed while online.

Twelve focus groups were held in Spain between April and June 2021 with a total of 62 participants aged 11–17. Besides age, sex and socioeconomic group were variables taken into consideration to select the participants. A script covering the intended questions was used to structure the discussion.

Result analysis reveals that minors are excessively confident in their ability to identify false news and feel the need to share content with their online community as a means of participation in discussions or trending topics. Although WhatsApp family groups are seen as a source of misleading news, the study reveals that the family and traditional media (mainly television) act as sources of verification of fake news for minors. In general, minors opt for actions that require less initiative to contrast the content they consume on the internet.

This study produces new findings by further deepening the results of the first quantitative study on the relationship between minors and disinformation in Spain using qualitative method from conducting virtual focus groups.

As fake information has become the norm on the internet, it is important to investigate how skepticism impacts an individual’s attitude toward word-of-mouth (eWOM). This study examines eWOM skepticism via three dimensions: suspicion of motivation, suspicion of truthfulness and suspicion of identity. It investigates not only which of the three dimensions is more influential in eWOM situations but also the variations and relationships among these three. Furthermore, this study evaluates how an individual’s dispositional trust and perceptions regarding structural assurance can impact each dimension, which in turn affects the assessment of the eWOM messages’ credibility.

Using an online scenario-based survey, data were collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk from 195 participants in the U.S. PLS and cluster analysis were used to analyze the data.

The results reveal that the suspicion of identity play a major role in message credibility assessment and that people who are naturally less likely to trust others also hold higher suspicion of motivation and truthfulness. Further, structural assurance has significant negative effects on all three dimensions.

The findings highlight the importance of enhancing the protective measures on eWOM platforms and call for stricter regulations to prevent organizations from adopting deceptive eWOM propagandas.

This research contributes to the literature by exploring the impact of skepticism on eWOM message credibility assessment and helping to validate this newly created construct by considering eWOM skepticism as a formative construct.

The purpose of this chapter is to provide researchers a summary of some of the latest developments in item response theory (IRT), and to help these groups realize that psychometric tools can now be used for theory testing in addition to the traditional role of improving construct measurement. The author first reviews some of the fundamental tenets of classical test theory to contrast with IRT. He then describes recent advances in goodness-of-fit tests that have helped turn IRT into a model-testing tool. Finally, the author reviews several new test models that provide new flexibilities, summarizing summarize several examples of research that has used these new models in organizational research. At the end of this review, the author provides suggestions to help researchers better use these new IRT tools. Although there have been significant advances in IRT in the past decade, there has not been a systematic review of these developments. This review places those developments in context to provide readers a real appreciation of these breakthroughs.

Science is too important to be left solely to scientists, and so the public need to be involved in the design, funding, delivery and implementation of health research, and in discussions about the ethics of research. Since the 1960s, the United Kingdom and many other countries have included scientists from outside health care in various roles in health care research, as well as nonscientists, ordinary citizens, patients and carers. In the last 20 years, these roles have increased in number and range, but significant challenges remain in ensuring that research is always conducted in an ethical fashion. Errors arise when it is assumed that research is ethical because it has passed a single test rather than being subject to constant vigilance; when academic training on its own is regarded as sufficient to guarantee ethical conduct; when pontification about sophisticated dilemmas ignores fundamental matters of equity and helpfulness and when there is an absence of curiosity about the value positions of others (Boaz et al., 2016). We argue in this chapter that in every setting, citizens have the potential to contribute to ethical debates, whether they assist in establishing priorities for research funding, serve as research funding co-applicants, take the lay member places on Research Ethics Committees and Steering Committees, collect and analyze data or co-author academic papers.

This paper aims to explain the fundraising and valuation processes of startups and discuss the conflicts of interest between entrepreneurs, venture capital (VC) firms and stakeholders in the context of startup corporate governance. Further, this paper uses the examples of WeWork and Zenefits to explain how a failure of stakeholders to demand an external audit from an independent accounting firm in early stages of funding led to an opportunity for fraud.

The methodology used is a literature review and analysis of startup valuation combined with the Fraud Triangle Theory. This paper also provides a discussion of WeWork and Zenefits, both highly visible examples of startup fraud, and explores an increased role for independent external auditors in fraud risk mitigation on behalf of stakeholders prior to an initial public offering (IPO).

This paper documents a number of fraud risks posed by the “fake it till you make it” ethos and investor behavior and pricing in the world of entrepreneurial finance and VC, which could be mitigated by a greater awareness of startup stakeholders of the value of an external audit performed by an independent accounting firm prior to an IPO.

An implication of this paper is that regulators should consider greater oversight of the startup financing process and potentially take steps to facilitate greater independence of participants in the IPO process.

Given the potential conflicts of interest between VC firms, investment banks and startup founders, the investors at the time of an IPO may be exposed to the risk that the shares of the IPO firms are overvalued at offering.

This study demonstrates how startup practices can be extended to the Fraud Triangle and issue a call to action for the accounting profession to take a greater role in protecting the public from startup fraud. This study then offers recommendations for regulators and standards entities.

There are few academic papers in the financial crime literature that link the valuation and culture of startup firms with fraud risk. This study provides a concise explanation of the process of valuation for startups and highlights the considerations for stakeholders in assessing fraud risk. In addition, this study documents an emerging role for auditors as stewards of proper valuation for pre-IPO firms.

This paper aims to consider the impact of Michael Power’s (1997) Audit Society thesis for understanding the rise of audit logics in the virtual world.

The paper reviews some of the key concepts in Audit Society and discusses them with reference to the role of the user review.

The paper argues that user reviews are an illustrative example of Audit Society in the online world, with notions of independence, measurability and expertise being deployed to create a sense of comfort and trust.

The paper enhances our understanding of the impact of Audit Society on everyday lives with particular reference to the lives of the digital citizen.

This chapter introduces the aims, objectives and potential outreach of the handbook. The handbook is both a quest for insights from leadership theory and practice in the contemporary world and a manifesto for leadership training through a value-based approach to authenticity. Contributors in this handbook do not belong to the orthodox authentic leadership community. They offer varied, provocative views and personal case studies of leadership. Some endorse aspects of the concept of authentic leadership while developing new understanding of authenticity, others suggest that it is flawed; others offer fresh, challenging, leadership insights. The chapter concludes with a brief introduction to all chapters in the handbook.