Ideal Types of Online Shoppers – A Qualitative Analysis of Online Shopping Behavior

Due to the growing popularity of online shopping, there is a growing demand for understanding the motives and behaviour of online shoppers. This study aims to increase this understanding by examining online shopping behaviour from the perspective of UTAUT2 theory integrated with self-efficacy and risk avoidance components. The thematically analysed data from 31 participants highlights the unique aspects of online shoppers by grouping them into ideal types, presenting the data as extensively as possible. An ideal type is an analytical construct used to ascertain similarities and deviations to concrete cases in an individual phenomenon. This study discovered five ideal types of online shoppers: Conservative Shoppers, Rational Shoppers, Hedonistic Shoppers, Spontaneous Shoppers and Van-guard Shoppers. The main theoretical contribution of this study are the formed ideal shopper types enriched with practical implications for online shop providers on how to best meet the needs of each ideal type. The purpose of the ideal types is not to categorize online shoppers under one category but rather help to understand regularities of different types of online shopping behaviour. This under-standing is beneficial for online shop providers as well as for academics interested in studying online shopping behaviour from the information systems point of view

Negatiiviset asiakaskokemukset ja diplomatia

Tässä artikkelissa kerrotaan, kuinka negatiivisten sidosryhmien edustajat verkossa eritellään toisistaan ja milloin organisaation tulisi osallistua negatiivisiin asiakaskokemuksiin liittyviin keskusteluihin digitaalisissa ympäristöissä. Lisäksi tarkastellaan miten niin sanottu kuuntelemisen arkkitehtuuri hyödyttää organisaatioita negatiivisen viestinnän yhteydessä. Kappaleen lopussa annetaan myös viisi diplomatiaan pohjautuvaa neuvoa negatiivisen viestinnän kohtaamiseen.peerReviewe

Stakeholder anger - negative engagement towards organizations online : a literature review

Sidosryhmien vihaa ja sitoutumista organisaatiota kohtaan on tähän mennessä tutkittu melko vähän erityisesti online-ympäristöissä tapahtuvan viestinnän näkökulmasta. Lisäksi niin kutsutulle negatiiviselle sitoutumiselle ei ole aiemmin annettu tarkkaa määritelmää. On myös mahdollista, että kaikissa organisaatioissa ei ole totuttu käsittelemään vihaisia sidosryhmiä. Edellä mainittuihin lähtökohtiin nojaten tämän teoreettisen tutkimuksen tarkoituksena oli havainnollistaa negatiivista sitoutumista ja samalla osoittaa, mistä syistä johtuen sidosryhmät kääntyvät organisaatiota vastaan muuttuen samalla hateholdereiksi. Tutkimus toteutettiin integroituna kirjallisuuskatsauksena ja siinä pyrittiin yhtäältä tarkastelemaan mitä edellä mainituista aiheista tähän mennessä tiedetään ja toisaalta millaisia uusia näkökulmia voidaan nostaa esille. Tutkimuksessa käytetty englanninkielinen aineisto oli julkaistu vuoden 2000 jälkeen ja se oli saatavilla sähköisessä muodossa. Vertaisarvioidusta, sidosryhmävihaa käsitelleestä artikkelikirjallisuudesta (24 kpl) saatujen tulosten perusteella organisaatioon kohdistuvan vihan takana oli monia syitä, jotka nousivat esille sekä online- että offline-ympäristöissä. Lisäksi organisaation rooli sidosryhmävihaan johtavien syiden takana vaihteli pienemmästä suurempaan. Organisaatiota kohtaan koettujen negatiivisten kokemusten ja itse negatiivisen sitoutumisen välillä esille nousi erilaisia sidosryhmien tunnetilojen ja käyttäytymisen muotoja. Tutkimuksen perusteella voidaan tehdä se johtopäätös, että hateholdereilla on todellista valtaa online-keskusteluissa ja asiat leviävät käyttäjien välillä negatiivisina huhuina. Hateholdereiden negatiivinen sitoutuminen voi kasvattaa muidenkin online-käyttäjien vihaa organisaatiota kohtaan ja negatiivisia asioita jaetaan näin ollen julkisesti lisää. Niin kutsutuilla trollaajilla on myös vaikutuksensa negatiivisen sitoutumisen prosessiin, erityisesti esille nousseiden asioiden luotettavuuteen. Organisaatioiden täytyy tarkkailla hateholdereita sekä omista toiminnoistaan verkkoympäristöissä julkisesti levitettäviä asioita. Samalla niiden tulee pystyä ottamaan kritiikin keskelläkin osaa keskusteluihin, joita niistä käydään.Stakeholder anger and different engagement behaviors of stakeholders are relatively new search topics, especially in the context of communication within online environments. Besides, negative engagement behavior has not been conceptualized as a phenomenon in the earlier studies. It is also possible that some organizations lack the ability to deal with stakeholder anger. In these circumstances, the aim of this thesis was to create a comprehensive model concerning the process of negative engagement online and visualize how stakeholders become hateholders. This qualitative, theoretical study was implemented as an integrated literature review and it explored what is already known on the topic and what new insights could be added. The literature included in this thesis was published after year 2000 and written in English. It was also available in electronic format. Findings of the 24 peer-reviewed articles on anger were associated with multiple organizational issues. The issues emerged both on- and offline and presumably led to stakeholder anger. The organization’s role and level of involvement in the issues varied from non-existent to high. There were also many stakeholder behaviors occurring between the experienced issues and actual interactive, negative engagement behavior. The research shows that anger activates stakeholders to the negative engagement behavior. The negatively engaged stakeholders or hateholders have real power over public conversation by utilizing negative electronic word-of-mouth. Hateholders’ negative engagement could be a potential issue among online users and spread to commonly shared anger towards organization. The trolls also influence the negative engagement process, especially its reliability. Conclusively, organizations must be able to monitor hateholders and issues discussed online. At the same time they must be able to take part the discussion, even if facing criticism

Viestinnän strateginen monitulkintaisuus : vaihtoehtoinen ratkaisu sidosryhmien odotustenhallintaan?

Artikkelissa kerrotaan, mistä strategisessa monitulkintaisuudessa (Strategic ambiguity) on kyse, ja avataan, kuinka viestinnän ammattilaiset voivat hyödyntää sitä sidosryhmien odotustenhallinnassa. Strategista monitulkintaisuutta on havaittu esimerkiksi organisaatioiden tavoitteissa ja suunnitelmissa, joissa sen on huomattu mahdollistavan eriävien näkemysten ja erilaisten ryhmien toimimisen sulassa sovussa. Monitulkintaisuutta on yleisesti pidetty negatiivisena viestinnän elementtinä, ja sen tarkastelu laajemmassa viestinnän kontekstissa on ollut vähäistä tai se on määritelty suppeasti epäselvyydeksi tai läpinäkyvyyden puutteeksi. Artikkelissa esitellään, miksi organisaatioiden tulisi kiinnittää huomiota ristiriitaisiin sidosryhmien huoliin.peerReviewe

Ethical Hateholders and Negative Engagement. A Challenge for Organisational Communication

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Hateholders and Brandjacking : Negative Engagement of Customers and Stakeholders

Social and real-time media allow customers and other stakeholders to easily voice their opinions online when brands or organisations fail to meet their expectations. Such outbursts, which are often addressed through corporate public relations and crisis communication, are labelled negative stakeholder engagement. This study focuses on negative stakeholder engagement behaviour on the social media platform Twitter. Data collected from discussions on two telecommunication companies’ Twitter accounts, one in Finland and the other in Australia, are used to illustrate the different forms of negative engagement behaviours.peerReviewe

What Drives Negative Electronic Word-of-Mouth Online?

The online environment has highlighted the role of negative experiences and emotions by enabling fast and widespread publicity. Recent research has introduced both word-of-mouth and engagement as central concepts relating to negative communication online. In the field of public relations, the previous literature has mostly addressed negative engagement through individual topics such as reputation and crisis communication, but there has been little attention to the different forms it takes. By utilizing recent literature on word-of-mouth (WOM), negative word-of-mouth (nWOM), and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication, we propose negative electronic word-of-mouth (neWOM) as a rising phenomenon of urgency for organizations. A form of negative engagement, it potentially spreads faster and further, causing problems for targeted organizations. Building on a previous understanding of the motives driving negative engagement online (e.g., anger, frustration, irritation), we map the different motives often associated with negative engagement. To illustrate these in practice, we use content analysis to sample online customer discussions and customer complaints in social media in the context of three telecommunications service providers in Finland. Our preliminary results show that venting and revenge stand out as the main motives for neWOM. We call for a more strategic approach to tackling customer complaints and highlight the need to monitor negative engagement online. We conclude with five propositions to guide future research on the topic and propose that a central aim of PR in the online environment should be to keep stakeholders from morphing into hateholders by monitoring and participating in online discussions.peerReviewe

Towards a typology of negative engagement behavior in social media

现有的关于用户参与的文献往往关注其概念的积极层面，而不是它的消极维度。然而许多品牌的互动在本质上是消极的。本研究以12429条推文为样本，运用多重扎根理论方法(MGT)，研究社交媒体中的负面参与行为类型。分析表明，以品牌或服务供应商为关注对象的负面参与行为可分为(a) 负面参与的表现形式; (b)负面参与的情绪强度。负面参与行为被确认为四类, 包含‘写负面评论’、‘为寻求公正而引发的抱怨行为’、‘报复行为’和‘激烈抨击’。本研究的结论是，如果服务供应商想要有效地处理和回应不同形式的消费者情绪，了解社交媒体中不同类别的负面参与是必不可少的。Extant literature on consumer engagement has focused on positive manifestations of the construct, rather than on its negative dimension. Yet, many brand interactions are negative in nature. The purpose of this conceptual study is to develop a typology of negative engagement behavior in social media by using the multi-grounded theory (MGT) approach on a sample of 12,429 tweets extracted from Twitter. The analysis shows that negative engagement behavior with a brand or service provider as the object focus or target can be categorized according to (a) the manifestation of the negative engagement and (b) the emotional intensity of the negative engagement. Four categories of negative engagement behavior (NEB) were identified. These include negative review writing, justice-seeking complaining, retaliation acts, and firestorming. The study concludes that an understanding of the different categories of negative engagement in social media is essential if service providers are to effectively address and respond to different forms of consumer sentiment.peerReviewe

Trust but verify? Examining the role of trust in institutions in the spread of unverified information on social media

This study aims to investigate the association between trust in institutions and the reasons for sharing unverified information on social media. Specifically, this study explores the role of perceived self-efficacy in detecting misinformation and the motivation to authenticate information in online contexts. We draw on a sample of 2600 respondents, mainly Generation Z and Millennials (ages between 15 and 30). The findings show a blinding side of trust, revealing a positive association between trust in institutions on social media and reasons for sharing unverified information. Trust in institutions is positively associated with perceived self-efficacy in detecting misinformation. We suggest that the positive correlation between trust in institutions and perceived self-efficacy in detecting misinformation implies an overconfidence effect – i.e., individuals may overestimate their ability to assess information based on their belief that a source (institution) is trustworthy. This arguably represents a tendency to divert attention away from the accuracy of the information and explains the positive indirect association between trust and the likelihood of sharing unverified content. Moreover, trust is negatively associated with individuals' motivation to authenticate information, suggesting that individuals may rely on information utility rather than engage in critical thinking and verification. This study contributes to understanding the spread of misinformation on social media by highlighting the role of trust in institutions and its association with individuals' reasons for sharing unverified information. It also emphasizes the importance of perceived self-efficacy in detecting misinformation and the motivation to authenticate information as mediating mechanisms.</p

Brand Hijacked : Why Campaigns and Hashtags are Taken over by Audiences

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