Chris Archer-Brown

Examining the information value of virtual communities: Factual versus opinion-based message content

Abstract Social customer relationship management (SCRM) is an evolving discipline which uses technology as a communication channel. It is under-researched and is lacking in its use of traditional marketing principles to inform practice. We shed light on the type of content that is most valued in virtual communities (VCs), where search for information is a primary source of gratification. Contrary to findings from advertising research, our findings indicate that informational content is more highly valued. This is the first time such measures have been used to evaluate effectiveness of new media techniques. We discuss critical implications for brands hoping to develop or enhance customer relationships in these increasingly important channels. Specifically, we offer practical advice on how best to create content which may be valued by consumers seeking information.

Online service failure and propensity to suspend offline consumption

Many retailers have expanded their businesses by adding Internet sales channels. There are many advantages of such multi-channel business operation, however, these may be offset by an overlooked negative consequence of cross-channel shopper activity – poor service online may lead customers to suspend consumption in a companys offline channels. Support is found for this proposition, and an investigation into the influence of purchaser characteristics and purchase criticality on propensity to engage in such behavior is conducted. The study makes contributions to understanding cross-channel customer behavior and developing implications for future research as well as management practice.

Conspicuous political brand interactions on social network sites

Acquiring “Likes” for a political party or candidate’s Facebook pages is important for political marketers. For consumers, these “Likes” are conspicuous, making their political affiliation visible to their network. This paper aims to examine the roles of the undesired social-self and visibility (conspicuous vs inconspicuous) in predicting consumers’ intention to “Like” political brands. The authors extend knowledge on the undesired social-self and transference of theory from general marketing to a political domain and provide practical advice for political marketers engaging social network sites.,The authors gather data from two surveys run with Facebook using electorates in the run up to the UK 2015 and US 2016 elections (n = 1,205) on their intention to “Like” political brands under different visibility conditions.,Data support the theorized relationship of the undesired social-self with social anxiety intention to “Like” when “Liking” is conspicuous. However, data also indicate that all users – irrespective of proximity to the undesired social-self – prefer to “Like” inconspicuously.,The research is limited by the generalizability of the specific context and the use of self-report measures.,Political marketers should reconsider promoting conspicuous consumption for that which is more inconspicuous.,The authors provide the first examination of the undesired social-self in driving behaviour under different visibility conditions. Furthermore, the authors challenge the extension of existing knowledge of the self-concept within political marketing, based on the “norm” for consumers’ to avoid disclosing political views publically.

Vacation Posts on Facebook: A Model for Incidental Vicarious Travel Consumption:

Vicarious consumption of travel is ubiquitous. However little is known about the psychological processes this initiates or the potential for resultant behaviors beyond direct steps toward patronage. We address this gap through developing and testing the incidental vicarious travel consumption model (IVTCM), which draws from well-established knowledge of the self-concept and compensatory consumption. In the context of vicariously consuming idyllic vacation posts on Facebook, the model identifies the following: individuals’ travel-related self-discrepancies may become active, leading to feelings of dejection, initiating five possible compensatory consumption behaviors (Direct, Symbolic, Dissociation, Escapism, Fluid). A sequential mixed-method design (total n=860) provides support for the IVTCM. The primary contributions of the paper are as follows: first the IVTCM can be used to understand different forms of vicarious travel consumption. Second, specific understanding on the impact of idyllic vacation posts is contributed, furthering knowledge on the role of social media within tourism.

Strategic knowledge management and enterprise social media

Purpose This paper aims to examine if (and how), enterprise social media (ESM) can be understood as a strategic knowledge management phenomenon to improve organizational performance. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses intellectual capital theory and its functional building blocks to organize different types of the ESM platforms, based on secondary data. It then connects these findings to the underling intellectual capital tenets to introduce a conceptual model that explicates how ESM impacts strategic knowledge management, and vice versa. Findings This paper concludes that ESM provides a unique complement to traditional strategic knowledge management. The authors argue that ESM differs substantially from other contexts in which intellectual capital has been applied, and extend intellectual capital with three appropriate dimensions (human, social and structural capital). Given the potentially disruptive nature of ESM, this framework helps firms understand the nature of the changes that are needed. Originality/value The paper provides the first review of the business needs that are served by the software functions and management processes under the ESM banner. This original contribution takes the intellectual capital and strategic knowledge management discussions from their usual high levels of abstraction and relates them to the real world of ESM, focusing on outcomes. Its unique “Intellectual Capital Framework for the Socially Oriented Enterprise” includes distinct, testable propositions that provide a practical approach to strategically planning, implementing and optimizing ESM.

“I Can’t Wait to See This”: An Exploratory Research on Consumer Online Word-of-Mouth on Movies: An Abstract

The success of a movie is often determined by its opening weekend performance (Earnest, 1985; Epstein, 2005; Gong et al., 2011). Using the most effective movie advertising tool, studios release trailers early in advance aiming to build heavy pre-release buzz which will in turn drive audiences to the cinema on the opening weekend. While pre-release movie buzz has proved to be instrumental in influencing box office performance, most electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) research on movies is limited to the quantitative measurement of WOM metrics (e.g. volume, valence) (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2015; Liu, 2006), overlooking other significant information that could offer insight on early audience perceptions.

Going Under the Needle for Your Brand: Tattooing as the New Market Medium

This conceptual paper proposes Carnival as a relevant and useful theory with which academics and practitioners can better understand concepts such as consumer generated advertisement and how to better engage consumers in positive brand communications. We propose that the Internet can provide the necessary conditions for modern day Carnival to take place. Consumer generate advertising is becoming an increasingly popular form of caricature and ridicule. Individuals in society with traditionally low societal power have access to the Internet and are able to upload videos and caricatures mocking brands, politicians and individuals. Prior to the Internet, individuals would not have had access to the mass distribution capabilities of YouTube, Facebook, My Space and more. Russian philosopher and theorist Mikhail Bakhtin (1895–1976) explores themes related to communication and protest through the concept of carnival. In today’s society, similar themes are increasingly prevalent in modern communication channels, specifically the Internet. With the increasing popularity of consumer- generated content related to brands, consumers often engage in mass public dialogues like those originally developed and discussed by Bakhtin.

Celebrating the Pleasure Seekers: A Centenarian Faces the YouTube Generation

The first movie trailer was produced in 1913 for the musical ‘The Pleasure Seekers’ and was shown at the end of the main films. One hundred years later, the movie trailer itself has become part of the art form and is a highly anticipated part of the experience. Trailers have their own reviews, specially-composed music and are nominated for awards (Doperalski 2012). However, in recent years, trailer makers have had to adapt to one of the Internet’s most disruptive influences: the ‘social’ revolution, where the Top 10 Trailers viewed on YouTube in 2012 exceeded 200 m and with much viewer-generated discussion (e.g. Skyfall 21 m views 16 k comments).

Yo Krispy Kreme, I don’t ‘Like’ your donuts’: An empirical investigation into complaint management in the context of social media

Social media is now an integral part of consumer’s lives and has unsurprisingly attracted the attention of marketers who are now trying to decipher the most effective ways to create value through these channels (Pagani and Hofacker 2011). At present marketers engage with consumers in three ways: (1) targeted advertising; (2) encouraging C2C sharing of brand related content; and (3) direct interactions through ‘fan pages’. The present research focuses on Social Customer Relationship Management (SCRM) focusing on consumers’ complaints on brand fan pages. This is of key concern to firms as any complaints will be publicly visible and are likely to affect the attitudes of other consumers who read them and even more if these are shared as through WOM (see Swan and Oliver 1989). Large companies, such as Nestle have experienced disasters that resulted from unsuccessful handling of customers’ complaints on social media (Lonescu-Somers and Enders 2012). When faced within a publicly visible complaint social media, marketers must make a choice of how to respond. Through in-between groups experiment (n = 200) it is the aim of this paper to test which is the best response to a complaint (leave visible, delete, reply, or encourage further consumer discussion). The following will provide a review of relevant literature.

Sorting the Wheat from the Chat: Influence in Social Networks

The volume of response received by a post in a virtual community depends on a range of factors, not simply its content. This paper proposes a conceptual model, derived from extant literature, which predicts the level of response an individual post receives and infers its influence in the community.