Collaborating Beyond Borders: The Role of Social Ties in International Eco-Innovation Partnerships

We examine the impact of international social ties on international eco-innovation partnerships. Promoting eco-innovation partnerships or collaboration is crucial for environmental sustainability, which has been a global, pressing concern in the last decade due to the detrimental effects of global warming, climate change, and greenhouse gas emissions. This type of collaboration can be facilitated and enhanced by international knowledge spillovers through interpersonal networks. While previous studies explore the role of inter-organizational collaborative networks on different innovation outcomes at a regional level, there is a research gap regarding the impact of social ties across countries on international collaboration, especially within the context of eco-innovation partnerships. Our findings suggest that more socially connected countries are more likely to partner in eco-innovation activities. Our study advances our understanding of the role of social ties in facilitating collaborative eco-innovation efforts and expands the knowledge on cross-regional interpersonal networks and their implications for socio-economic outcomes

Get a Word in Edgewise: Post Character Limit and Social Media-Based Customer Service

In this paper, we study the role of extending character limits on firm responses on social media. By leveraging a natural experiment setting: the unexpected increase in post character limit on Twitter, we empirically investigate the impact on the linguistic styles of social media-based customer service responses. Using a Regression Discontinuity in Time Design and leveraging a panel dataset, our results suggest that extending character limits influences firm to change the linguistic styles in their responses which could influence consumers' perceptions. Our results show that extending post-character limits significantly reduces the readability ease of firm responses, on average, while increasing the concreteness and personal closeness scores of these responses, on average. We show that these changes were effective in influencing customer satisfaction

Ride-Sharing Services and Environmental Sustainability: An Empirical Investigation of UberX Entry and Gas Emissions

On-demand ride-sharing services, such as Uber and Lyft, promote themselves as an innovation that solves old transportation problems and as sustainable transportation systems that reduce traffic congestions and environmental impact. Despite the increasing studies that examine the societal and economic impact of on-demand ride-sharing services, little is known on the environmental impact of these services. Using data collected from 46 Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the United States, we employ difference-in-differences framework to investigate the impact of the entry of an on-demand ride-sharing service, UberX, on gas emission levels. The results suggest an increase in the maximum levels of gas emissions after the introduction of UberX

Essays on Social Media-Based Customer Service

Providing good customer service that maintains customer relationships has always been a valuable and important aspect of a firm’s marketing strategy. Through effective implementations of customer complaint management strategies that address customers’ requests and complaints, firms can enhance brand image, maintain customer satisfaction, and, ultimately, increase a firm’s economic performance. With the advances in mobile technologies and the internet, social media platforms, such as Twitter and Facebook, emerged as new channels for customer service and relationship marketing offering a transparent and convenient method for customers to engage and interact with firms, as well as view firm responses to customers’ complaints. This public and open communication brings both opportunities and challenges for firms delivering customer service on social media. Therefore, one of the biggest challenges for firms is to identify opportunities while avoiding risks. In this dissertation, I examine how events or changes that are external to firms could influence their social media-based customer service efforts. Exogenous or external shocks can have a profound effect on how firms manage customer complaints and requests on social media. Building on the literature on organizational responses to service requests and customers’ evaluations of perceived justice, I empirically investigate the impact of a brand crisis on social media customer relationship management (social CRM) efforts by examining how a brand crisis affects three dimensions of social CRM efforts: informativeness, timeliness, and attentiveness. I then extend this study to further examine how the changes in the social CRM efforts mediate the negative impact of the brand crisis on customer satisfaction. Furthermore, and building on psychology-based linguistic theories, I examine the effect of the unexpected change to Twitter’s post character limit, a platform design feature, on social media-based customer service. Extending post character limits may instigate changes to the linguistic styles of firm responses on social media platforms to influence consumers’ perceptions. In addition, I examine the effectiveness of the linguistic style changes on customer satisfaction. This research contributes to our understanding of the unique nature of social media platforms and the dynamics of customer service delivered on these platforms. The results provide useful insights for practitioners and social media managers