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| 2. |
- van Heerden, Gené, et al.
(författare)
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Do b2b bloggers believe blogs? : PR insights on blogger skepticism
- 2010
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Ingår i: Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal. - 1440-4389 .- 1839-8227. ; 10, s. 123-132
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Research and practice have given a lot of attention to blogs which illustrates that it is increasingly becoming an important PR tool. When blogs comment on the activities, products, services and technologies of organisations it becomes an important communications tool. Blogs can be used as credible professional communication but it can also be subject to the same type of skepticism that traditional mass media encounters. This article presents the responses of 333 international active bloggers in the business-to-business (B2B) environment. The responses to blogging ethics as well as their skepticism towards blogging are discussed. We adapted a skepticism scale initially used to measure skepticism towards advertising to reflect skepticism towards blogging. We then relate skepticism towards blogging with the blogger’s view on ethical issues. We also determine if skepticism varies among bloggers from different regions. The article concludes by identifying managerial implications and avenues for future research.
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| 3. |
- Pitt, Leyland, et al.
(författare)
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Are Business School Mission Statements Readable? Evidence from the top 100
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Strategic Management Education. - 1649-3877. ; 6:4, s. 1-16
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Mission statements are fairly ubiquitous, particularly among large organizations. Although opinions on mission statements are split among those in favor, those less so, and those that are cynical of them; they continue to be seen as an important element in strategy formulation. However, if they are to have a chance of achieving the desired positive outcomes that those in their favor highlight, they must first be readable and comprehensible to the targeted stakeholders. To investigate the readability of mission statements of business schools, the individual mission statements were collected of the business schools offering the top 100 MBA programs in the Financial Times rankings of 2009. A readability calculation tool was then employed to assess the readability of each of these mission statements. Results are reported, and the implications are considered, while limitations are noted and directions for future research are identified.
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| 4. |
- Pitt, Leyland, et al.
(författare)
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The social media release as a corporate communications tool for bloggers
- 2011
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Ingår i: IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication. - 0361-1434 .- 1558-1500. ; 54:2, s. 122-132
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This study examines the impact of a new communications tool, the Social Media Release (SMR), on bloggers. Specifically we seek to determine what factors will influence bloggers' intents to use SMRs or their components. Our global survey of 332 bloggers finds that bloggers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the SMR, and the use of SMRs by companies positively affect their decisions to use SMRs now and in the future. We also find that bloggers' current use of SMRs influences their decisions to continue using SMRs. Implications on the use of SMRs as corporate communications tools are drawn.
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| 5. |
- Steyn, Peter, et al.
(författare)
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The social media release as a public relations tool : intentions to use among B2B bloggers
- 2010
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Ingår i: Public Relations Review. - : Elsevier BV. - 0363-8111 .- 1873-4537. ; 36:1, s. 87-89
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- The Social Media Release (SMR) is emerging as a potentially powerful public relations tool in a world of social network media, particularly when targeted at influential bloggers. The research described here studies the factors that influence bloggers to use SMRs, using the Technology Acceptance Model as a theoretical framework, concentrating specifically on their perceptions of usefulness and ease of use.
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| 6. |
- Bal, Anjali S., et al.
(författare)
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You know you've got to, express yourself : A comparative study of self-expression through brand, women in six Asian nations
- 2011
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Ingår i: The Sustainable Global Marketplace. - : The Academy of Marketing Science. - 0939783363 ; , s. 165-
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Consumers express themselves in a multitude of ways; one expression mechanism is brand consumption. Self-expression can be an important driver of consumer preference and choice. Despite the importance of self-expression, additional research is needed as to how brands are used as a means of self-expression. Previous studies indicate that the importance of brands for self-expression can differ across cultures. This study explores how female consumers in six Asian nations differ in the extent to which they express themselves through the use of their favorite brands.
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| 7. |
- Berthon, Pierre, et al.
(författare)
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Advocating Avatars: The Salesperson in Second Life
- 2010
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Ingår i: Journal of Personal Selling & Sales Management. - 0885-3134 .- 1557-7813. ; 30:3, s. 195-208
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Interactive digital media are revolutionizing the marketing landscape. The virtual world is a dominant player in this new panorama, with exchanges in the virtual marketplace approaching $2 billion annually. While virtual, like real world, exchanges require buyers and sellers, there is little or no understanding of this disembodied sales process. The current study seeks to address this gap in knowledge by employing an ethnographic methodology in which researchers incarnate in Second Life to explore the personal selling process. Specifically, the various notions of the "self" that constitute the avatar salesperson are explored. Findings from this exploratory study suggest a relationship between the nature of the self and the type of exchange. From this, a conceptual model for the study of the virtual selling self is presented, propositions developed, and managerial implications for the virtual sales force suggested. © 2010 PSE National Educational Foundation
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| 8. |
- Berthon, Pierre, et al.
(författare)
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(Un)believable blogs : Blogs, Skepticism and Product Reviews
- 2010
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Ingår i: New Directions, New Insights. ; , s. 85-86
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Konferensbidrag (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Blogs (short for "web logs") are websites, owned and written by individuals ("bloggers"). While most blogs serve merely as a way for individuals to record and report their thoughts and activities and have little commercial or organizational impact whatsoever, a smaller number enable those with more expertise to commentate on advanced and specialized phenomena, subjects, industries, products, and services. In doing so they reach very large audiences and become very influential. Blogs have become important marketing communication devices in recent years, because, used effectively, they can be very helpful relationship management tools. Blogger credibility in particular is of crucial importance from a communication perspective -recent research has demonstrated strongly that blogger credibility plays a positive role in relational trust. It begins to answer the issue: to what extent are readers skeptical about the content of blogs? This is an important question, because, if general skepticism is low, then blogs will prove to be effective ways of communicating with broad publics. If it is high, then marketing communicators need to factor this into their use of blogs as tools of communication and persuasion. In this research, a scale to measure advertising skepticism (STA) is adapted to a blogging context. Belief in a communication is a function of the both the source of that communication (source credibility) and the specific content of the communication (content credibility). Because the STA scale focuses primarily on the informational aspect of advertising, we integrate this into a more generalizable causal model of skepticism toward blogging. We argue that an individual's overall skepticism toward blogs impacts on their skepticism toward the information contained in blogs, and the extent to which they believe blogs are credible. This in turn influences the frequency with which they then read blogs. This structure is then tested empirically.
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| 9. |
- Botha, E., et al.
(författare)
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How sociable? : An exploratory study of university brand visibility in social media
- 2011
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Ingår i: South African Journal of Business Management. - : AOSIS. - 0378-9098 .- 2078-5976 .- 2078-5585. ; 42:2, s. 43-51
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- Social media has changed both the way in which organizations and their brands interact with their customers and the way in which business gets done. Brands are attempting to utilize social media to reach existing customers, gain new ones and build or maintain credibility and reputation. More importantly, brands need to measure their visibility in the most popular social media relative to that of competitors. This study describes a tool for collecting brand visibility information by looking at the visibility of various South African university brands and their relative positioning from a social media perspective. Correspondence analysis is then used to portray the various university brands in a multi-dimensional space so that they can be contrasted with each other in terms of their visibility in social media. The findings indicate that South African university brands are not distinctly positioned in social media and that none of them seems to currently have a concerted strategy for engaging its stakeholders in a particular social media. This means that there are both opportunities for those who manage these brands, and also threats to these institutions for taking a laissez fair attitude to social media in these times when social media are coming to dominate the Internet in particular and media in general.
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| 10. |
- Botha, E., et al.
(författare)
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South African management literature over the past fifteen years : Content analysis of the three top South African management journals
- 2011
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Ingår i: South African Journal of Business Management. - : AOSIS. - 0378-9098 .- 2078-5976 .- 2078-5585. ; 42:4, s. 89-98
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- This article analysed 15 years, from 1996 to 2010, of research published in the three leading South African business management journals. The three journals chosen were the South African Journal of Business Management, the South African Journal of Economic and Management Sciences and Management Dynamics. Content analysis was used to compare five broad themes in the journals: firstly the nature of authorship was examined, and then the most published as well as most prolific authors were identified. Thirdly, the most prominent universities and departments were identified whereafter the research themes and disciplines of the articles and authors were analysed. Lastly, various manuscript characteristics were investigated. This article provides a clear picture of the evolution of South African management literature over the past fifteen years
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