MAKING THE RIGHT IMPRESSION FOR CORPORATE REPUTATION: ANALYZING IMPRESSION MANAGEMENT OF FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS IN SOCIAL MEDIA

The concept of corporate reputation reflects the standing of a firm based on the public perception. Firms with high corporate reputation are better able to sustain superior performance. During the financial crisis, the corporate reputation of financial institutions has decreased resulting in a bad perception of the financial sector by the public. However, improving their corporate reputation is of major importance for financial institutions as they are heavily dependent on the trust of the market participants. Thus, managing the public perception about a financial institution is of critical importance. Therefore, firms can deploy organizational impression management tactics to influnce how the public perceives them. In this research, we obtained data from 54 corporate Twitter accounts of 36 financial institutions broadcasting more than 21,000 messages between October 2012 and June 2013 to the public. Thereby, we combine two former separately discussed theories in a single research approach and examine which organizational impression management tactics can be identified based on the social media messages regarding corporate reputation. The results indicate that based on the different dimensions of corporate reputation financial institutions deploy different organizational impression management tactics in social media to manage their reputation

It’s more about the Content than the Users! The Influence of Social Broadcasting on Stock Markets

Social broadcasting networks facilitate the public exchange of information and contain a large amount of stock-related information. This data is increasingly analyzed by research and practice to predict stock market developments. Insights from social broadcasting networks are used to support the decision-making process of investors and are integrated into automatic trading algorithms to react quickly to broadcasted information. However, a comprehensive understanding about the influence of social broadcasting networks on stock markets is missing. In this study, we address this gap by conceptualizing and empirically testing a model incorporating three dimensions of social broadcasting networks: users, messages, and discussion. We analyze 1.84 million stock-related Twitter messages concerning the S&P 100 companies between January and April 2014 and corresponding intraday stock market data from NYSE and NASDAQ. Our research model is constructed applying factor analyses and tested using a fixed effects panel analysis. The results show that the influence of social broadcasting on stock markets is driven by the message and discussion dimensions whereas the user dimension has no significant influence. Specifically, the influence of user mentions, financial sentiment, discussion reach, and discussion volume has the largest impact and should carefully be considered by investors making trading decisions

Responding to Customer Demand: Investigating Customer Agility of Financial Institutions

In turbulent environments firms have to constantly adapt their business to the changing environment to achieve profitability. Identifying changing customer demand and responding to it through the introduction of new products and services is an important capability of a firm. In this regard, the concept of customer agility has been discussed in literature as the capability of a firm to sense and respond to customer-based opportunities. In this study, we investigate this ability of financial intuitions and its effect on the firms’ performance. Therefore, we analyze the reaction of financial institutions on different banking trends in four countries based on Google Trends and financial data. The results show that financial institutions that are able to sense changing customer demand and quickly provide new services to its customers gain higher profits. Hence, information about customer needs should be monitored continuously by firms to establish competitive advantage

Social Media Management Strategies for Organizational Impression Management and their Effect on Public Perception

With the growing importance of social media, companies increasingly rely on social media management tools to analyze social media activities and to professionalize their social media engagement. In this study, we evaluate how social media management tools, as part of an overarching social media strategy, help companies to positively influence the public perception among social media users. A mixed methods approach is applied, where we quantitatively analyze 15 million user-generated Twitter messages containing information about 45 large global companies highly active on Twitter, as well as almost 160 thousand corresponding messages sent from these companies via their corporate Twitter accounts. Additionally, we conducted interviews with six social media experts to gain complementary insights. By these means, we are able to identify significant differences between different social media management strategies and measure the corresponding effects on the public perception. (C) 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

IS IT WORTH IT? DISMANTLING THE PROCESS OF SOCIAL MEDIA RELATED SALES PERFORMANCE

Social media platforms present unique possibilities for companies to interact with their customers and take up a key role in building relationships. A substantial body of research has demonstrated the impact of social media regarding, for example, brand awareness and corporate reputation. However, little is known concerning the financial Return on Investment from social media engagement and specific strategies to leverage it. To this end, the study draws on relationship marketing theory to develop and operationalise a research model, which understands objective firm performance in terms of sales as a result of relationship antecedents (i.e., corporate investment and dyadic similarity) mediated through the customer-perceived relationship strength. To test the assumed research model, we collect and analyse a dataset of over 1.5 million Twitter messages revolving around ten car manufacturers and measure the impact on new car registration volumes. The results of this study suggest that companies can increase their sales volume through greater relationship investment (i.e., by providing interest group-specific information) and by adopting a social media strategy that promotes the users’ relationship satisfaction (i.e., raises the share of voice within user messages)

Investigating Consumer Information Search Behavior and Consumer Emotions to Improve Sales Forecasting

Sales forecasting is an essential topic for organizations and accurate forecasts can help to establish competitive advantage. Organizations can integrate a variety of information sources into their forecasting process. In this regard, the information search behavior of potential consumers as well as their emotions about a brand are supposed to improve forecasts. In this study, we combine these two data sources to forecast sales figures of two large automobile manufacturers. We analyze data from Google’s search engine as well as microblogging data from Twitter to perform in-sample and out-of-sample analyses. The results show that the conjunction of these data sources allow superior sales forecasting in contrast to an individual consideration of information search behavior and consumer emotions. Hence, data about consumer information search behavior should be enriched with the emotional state of consumers to support organizational decision making

Increasing sales performance through social media activities

SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS PRESENT UNIQUE POSSIBILITIES FOR COMPANIES TO INTERACT WITH THEIR CUSTOMERS AND TAKE UP A KEY ROLE IN BUILDING RELATIONSHIPS. HOWEVER, LITTLE IS KNOWN CONCERNING THE FINANCIAL RETURN ON INVESTMENT FROM SOCIAL MEDIA ENGAGEMENT AND SPECIFIC STRATEGIES TO LEVERAGE IT. THE ANALYSIS OF OVER 1.5 MILLION TWEETS REVOLVING AROUND TEN CAR MANUFACTURERS SUGGESTS THAT COMPANIES CAN INCREASE THEIR SALES VOLUME THROUGH GREATER RELATIONSHIP INVESTMENT AND BY ADOPTING A SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY THAT PROMOTES THE USERS’ RELATIONSHIP SATISFACTION

Contribution of awareness information in virtual communities – the case of a financial institution

IN DISTRIBUTED WORK ENVIRONMENTS, IT IS A CHALLENGING ISSUE FOR ORGANIZATIONS TO SUPPORT THEIR EMPLOYEES IN STAYING AWARE OF ALL IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS IN THEIR WORK ENVIRONMENT. ACCORDINGLY, IN THIS STUDY WE DEVELOP AND EMPICALLY TEST A CONCEPTUAL MODEL TO ENHANCE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE INDIVIDUALS’ CONTRIBUTION BEHAVIOR OF AWARENESS INFORMATION. WE PROVIDE GUIDANCE FOR THE DESIGN AND EVALUATION OF INFORMATION SYSTEMS TO SUPPORT THE CREATION OF SITUATION AWARENESS