The hero’s journey: how social entrepreneurs take indirect and direct actions to address societal challenges

L’emprenedoria social com a mètode innovador per afrontar els reptes socials ha esdevingut cada vegada més popular en les darreres dècades. La investigació teòrica sobre aquest fenomen ha estat especialment fèrtil atès que se situa al nexe entre l’emprenedoria i la creació de valor social, cosa que ha obert àmplies vies per a noves investigacions. Aquesta tesi es basa en les literatures sobre emprenedoria i emprenedoria social, proporcionant nous elements sobre el paper de les pràctiques discursives indirectes dels emprenedors socials i les seves accions directes per fer front als reptes de la societat. Utilitzant conceptes teòrics de la literatura sobre moviments socials, crowdfunding i identitat social, els diferents capítols d’aquesta tesi examinen les tàctiques de marc motivacional de les empreses socials, les apel·lacions cognitives i emocionals en les narratives emprenedores en entorns prosocials i la interacció entre la identitat social i l’acció emprenedora en el cas de comunitats marginades. En aquesta tesi s’utilitzen metodologies qualitatives i quantitatives per investigar empíricament aquestes pràctiques indirectes i accions directes dels emprenedors socials i les seves empreses. Aquesta tesi desenvolupa el coneixement sobre l’àmbit de l’emprenedoria social al centrar-se específicament en les estratègies per fer front als reptes socials a través del marc motivacional, les apel·lacions cognitives i emocionals i l’emprenedoria social interna i, amb això, pretén fer una contribució tant teòrica com pràctica.El emprendimiento social como método innovador para abordar los desafíos sociales se ha vuelto cada vez más popular en las últimas décadas. La investigación teórica sobre este fenómeno ha sido particularmente fértil, ya que se sitúa en el nexo entre el emprendimiento y la creación de valor social, lo que ha abierto vías para exploraciones novedosas. Esta tesis se basa en la literatura sobre el emprendimiento y el emprendimiento social, proporcionando nuevos elementos sobre el papel de las prácticas discursivas indirectas de los emprendedores sociales y sus acciones directas para abordar los desafíos sociales. Utilizando conceptos teóricos de la literatura sobre movimientos sociales, crowdfunding e identidad social, los diferentes capítulos de esta tesis examinan las tácticas de marco motivacional de las empresas sociales, las apelaciones cognitivas y emocionales en las narrativas empresariales en entornos prosociales y la interacción entre la identidad social y la acción empresarial en el caso de comunidades marginadas. En esta tesis se emplean metodologías cualitativas y cuantitativas para investigar empíricamente estas prácticas indirectas y acciones directas de los emprendedores sociales y sus emprendimientos. Esta tesis desarrolla el conocimiento sobre el campo del emprendimiento social al enfocarse específicamente en las estrategias para encarar los desafíos sociales a través del marco motivacional, las apelaciones cognitivas y emocionales y el emprendimiento social interno y, con ello, tiene como objetivo hacer una contribución tanto teórica como práctica.Social entrepreneurship as an innovative approach to tackle societal challenges has become increasingly popular in the past decades. Theoretically, research on this phenomenon has been particularly fruitful as it is situated at the nexus of entrepreneurship and social value creation, which has opened up ample avenues for novel explorations. This thesis builds on the entrepreneurship and social entrepreneurship literatures by providing insight into the role of social entrepreneurs’ indirect discursive practices and direct entrepreneurial actions to address societal challenges. Drawing on theoretical concepts from the literature on social movements, crowdfunding, and social identity, the different chapters of this thesis examine the motivational framing tactics of social enterprises, the cognitive and emotional appeals in entrepreneurial narratives in prosocial settings, and the interaction between social identity and entrepreneurial action in the case of marginalized communities. In this thesis, qualitative and quantitative methodologies are employed to empirically investigate these indirect practices and direct actions of social entrepreneurs and their ventures. This thesis further develops our knowledge about the social entrepreneurship field by specifically focusing on the approaches to address societal challenges through motivational framing, cognitive and emotional appeals, and insider social entrepreneurship and, therewith, aims to make both a theoretical and practical contribution

The role of omnichannel tendency in digital information processing

Purpose – Nowadays some consumers consider themselves as “omnichannels” – they combine both physical and digital channels expecting a seamless shopping experience – since they view their shopping process from a multiple-channel viewpoint. Giving that situation, the aim of this paper is to test the role of consumers’ omnichannel tendency (omni-tendency) in the information processing in the digital channel. Design/methodology/approach – Based on the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), emotions as well as utilitarian and hedonic experiences are proposed to understand consumer attitude towards the digital store. Through a survey, data were collected from 284 digital shoppers. PLS path modelling and PLS-MGA were used to test the research hypotheses. Findings – The results confirm that emotions positively affect the evaluation of the experiences, which in turn improves the attitude towards the digital store. Focusing on the differences among consumers, the findings show that for consumers with low omni-tendency the emotions are key to improve the evaluation of their experiences. Moreover, regarding the attitude, consumers with more omni-tendency follow the central route to process the information; and consumers with less omni-tendency follow the peripheral route. Originality/value – This paper contributes to the literature in three ways. First, this research includes the study of omni-tendency, as a consumer trait, in the information processing developed in the digital channel, ignored in the literature. Second, this work contributes to information processing theories in digital context confirming, specifically the applicability of ELM into the omnichannel context. This offers support to the application of traditional theories to explain new phenomena. Third, and in line with the previous contribution, this work goes a step further in understanding ELM theory by including other constructs –the omni-tendency and emotions– to explain the information processing in the digital context

Alter ego, state of the art on user profiling: an overview of the most relevant organisational and behavioural aspects regarding User Profiling.

This report gives an overview of the most relevant organisational and\ud behavioural aspects regarding user profiling. It discusses not only the\ud most important aims of user profiling from both an organisation’s as\ud well as a user’s perspective, it will also discuss organisational motives\ud and barriers for user profiling and the most important conditions for\ud the success of user profiling. Finally recommendations are made and\ud suggestions for further research are given

A Literature Review on Persuasive Communication: Utilising Elaboration Likelihood Model to Understand Consumer Engagement on Social Media Platforms

The public’s consumption of social media has experienced a significant increase. This trend encourages marketers to use social media platforms to market their business and boost consumer engagement. Though studies have been conducted on the public’s consumption of social media and several theories anticipating consumer behaviour, motivation, and technological adoption have been developed, research into the relationship between marketing and promotional communications and consumers’ attitudes and choices has been limited. For example, the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM), which is a reasonable and viable model capable of explaining disposition and conduct in influential marketing communication, has remained unnoticed by researchers. The purpose of this study was to ascertain whether persuasive messages used in social media marketing could effectively increase consumer engagement (CE) using ELM. This research employed the search terms ‘elaboration likelihood model, consumer engagement, and social media’ on a Scopus-indexed academic database, dated from 2018 to 2023. A total of 16 articles were selected following a screening stage. The administered systematic literature review suggests that ELM provides a hypothetical direction to arranging online entertainment content angles (i.e., focal and fringe signs) and recognising the variables that influence consumer engagement. A greater understanding of how to build consumer engagement on social media platforms through ELM can give insight into developing effective strategies for marketers. Future research can use the current study to improve research on social media and consumer engagement by using and expanding ELM

Joining forces:investigating the influence of design for behavior change on sustainable innovation

Design is a significant driver of behaviour change, enabling, encouraging or discouraging particular practices from taking place. Despite design’s clear influence on behaviours, no overarching framework exists for the effective implementation of Design for Behaviour Change (DfBC) in professional and public contexts. This paper takes a first step to synthesizing current models and approaches of DfBC, covering the thematics of ecological sustainability, safety, health and well-being, and social design. The review is supported by a range of case studies that illustrate the role of DfBC as a driver for sustainable innovation for small and medium size businesses (SME). The objective is to develop a better understanding of how to stimulate ecological and social innovations in SMEs that enable lasting behaviourchange. The findings of the review highlight opportunities and challenges for the effectiveimplementation of sustainable innovation through DfBC, in particular the lack of a holistic evidence base of the current understanding and application of DfBC

A theoretical and practical approach to a persuasive agent model for change behaviour in oral care and hygiene

There is an increased use of the persuasive agent in behaviour change interventions due to the agent‘s features of sociable, reactive, autonomy, and proactive. However, many interventions have been unsuccessful, particularly in the domain of oral care. The psychological reactance has been identified as one of the major reasons for these unsuccessful behaviour change interventions. This study proposes a formal persuasive agent model that leads to psychological reactance reduction in order to achieve an improved behaviour change intervention in oral care and hygiene. Agent-based simulation methodology is adopted for the development of the proposed model. Evaluation of the model was conducted in two phases that include verification and validation. The verification process involves simulation trace and stability analysis. On the other hand, the validation was carried out using user-centred approach by developing an agent-based application based on belief-desire-intention architecture. This study contributes an agent model which is made up of interrelated cognitive and behavioural factors. Furthermore, the simulation traces provide some insights on the interactions among the identified factors in order to comprehend their roles in behaviour change intervention. The simulation result showed that as time increases, the psychological reactance decreases towards zero. Similarly, the model validation result showed that the percentage of respondents‘ who experienced psychological reactance towards behaviour change in oral care and hygiene was reduced from 100 percent to 3 percent. The contribution made in this thesis would enable agent application and behaviour change intervention designers to make scientific reasoning and predictions. Likewise, it provides a guideline for software designers on the development of agent-based applications that may not have psychological reactance

The impact of emotionally negative online reviews on consumer purchase intentions

Online reviews are an important factor influencing consumers\u27 purchasing decisions. However, there is no literature to explore the mechanism of emotional negative online reviews on consumer purchasing behavior. The research results enrich the theory of user information behavior, and have practical significance for merchants\u27 precision marketing and customer relationship management. Based on ELM theory and regulation focus theory, using the method of situational experiment, from the two paths of peripheral situation perception and core cognitive processing, explore the influence of regulation focus on consumer purchase intention under the stimulation of emotional negative online reviews effect. The research results show that: under the stimulus of negative emotional online reviews, prevention of targeted consumers is mainly affected by the emotional arousal of the edge path, and positively affects purchase intention through emotional response; promotion of targeted consumers is mainly affected by the perception of the central path The influence of effort positively affects purchase intention through cognitive response; among them, emotional response has a greater leading role in purchase intention

Ambiance Factors, Emotions, and Web User Behaviour:a Model Integrating and Affective and Symbolical Approach

The present paper addresses the efficiency of manipulating music in a merchant website, and it:- proposes a review of the literature on ambiance factors in advertising & shopping behaviour, capitalizing on it to:- propose a theoretical framework that enhances our understanding of the web-user behaviour in specific ambiance factors such as music, with a specific attention devoted to his loyalty, & affiliation behaviour;- a model of is proposed.Ambiance Factors; Emotions; Fit & Symbolism; On-line Behaviour