Perspectives on humor in recruitment advertising on the Internet

Abstract This study explores the phenomenon of humor in advertising in the context of recruitment advertising and answers the research question: How can humor in recruitment advertising on the Internet be approached from communication perspectives? The study is positioned on humor in advertising literature, particularly incongruity theories of humor, and it approaches the context of recruitment advertising by utilizing employer brand message conceptualization. Motivation for the study was to understand poorly investigated phenomenon of humor in recruitment advertising; observations were collected in a small company’s Internet communication channel. Theoretical motivation was rooted in the lack of earlier studies on humor in recruitment advertising within the literature of humor in advertising. Earlier studies on humor in advertising have been dominated by experimental quantitative studies, and this study provides methodological novelty by using a mixed methods research approach. The study had different data collection methods: A between-subject experimental design with a quantitative approach and case studies with content analysis and qualitative analysis methods. The phenomenon were investigated on different empirical levels (both recruitment ads and recruitment campaign) and collecting evidence from a setting of a small company’s Internet communication channel. The dissertation is based on a compilation and published research papers, three journal articles and one book chapter, which are able to create new perspectives related to the phenomenon of humor in recruitment advertising. A framework on humor in recruitment advertising on the Internet will be developed by focusing on different communication perspectives: investigating the use of humor in the employer brand message, the job seekers’ response to humor, moderator (this study: congruence) effects of humor, and the managerial challenges and opportunities of humor. The potential of humor was identified as working as a device for a person-organization fit and offering the potential for social media marketing by increasing the sharing intentions of recruitment ads. The challenges of humor are related to negative intermediate advertising effects and negative word-of-mouth. This dissertation contributes to the advertising literature by developing new research approach on humor in recruitment advertising and extending the body of research on humor in advertising empirically in recruitment advertising on the Internet.Tiivistelmä Tämä tutkimus tarkastelee huumorimainonnan ilmiötä rekrytointimainonnan kontekstissa ja vastaa kysymykseen, miten huumoria rekrytointimainonnassa voidaan lähestyä viestinnän eri näkökulmien kautta Internetissä? Tutkimus on asemoitu huumorimainonnan kirjallisuuteen, erityisesti huumorin inkongruenssiteoriaan ja se tarkastelee rekrytointimainonnan kontekstia hyödyntäen työnantajan brändiviestin määritelmää. Tutkimuksen lähtökohtana ovat yksittäiset havainnot olemassa olevasta mutta vähän tutkitusta ilmiöstä, huumorista rekrytointimainonnassa pienen yrityksen Internet-viestintäkanavassa. Huumorimainonnan kirjallisuudesta puuttuvat toistaiseksi huumoria rekrytointimainonnassa käsittelevät tutkimukset. Aikaisempia huumorimainonnan tutkimuksia ovat hallinneet kokeelliset kvantitatiiviset tutkimukset. Tämä väitöskirja on menetelmällisesti uutuusarvoinen, koska tutkimuksessa lähestyttiin ilmiötä monimenetelmätutkimuksen kautta. Tutkimuksessa käytettiin erilaisia tiedonkeruumenetelmiä: kokeellisia tutkimusasetelmia kvantitatiivisella lähestymistavalla ja tapaustutkimuksia, jotka hyödyntävät sisällönanalyysia sekä kvalitatiivisia analyysimenetelmiä. Ilmiötä tutkittiin sekä rekrytointimainoksien että rekrytointikampanjan empiirisillä tasoilla ja aineistoa kerättiin pienen yrityksen Internetin viestintäkanavasta. Väitöskirja koostuu yhteenveto-osuudesta sekä julkaistuista tutkimuspapereista, kolmesta journal-artikkelista ja kirjan kappaleesta, jotka tuovat kukin eri näkökulmia huumoriin rekrytointimainonnassa. Tutkimuksen tuloksena rakennetaan viitekehys rekrytointimainonnan huumoriin Internetissä. Se keskittyy viestinnän eri näkökulmiin: määrittelee huumorin osaksi työnantajabrändiviestiä, tutkii työnhakijoiden vasteita huumoriin, huumorin moderaattori (tässä tutkimuksessa: kongruenssi)-vaikutuksia sekä huumorin käyttöön liittyviä liikkeenjohdon haasteita ja mahdollisuuksia. Huumorin potentiaali tunnistettiin siinä, että huumori testaa henkilön ja organisaation yhteensopivuutta ja tarjoaa mahdollisuuksia markkinointiin sosiaalisessa mediassa lisäämällä muun muassa aikomuksia rekrytointi-ilmoituksen jakamiseen. Keskeiset haasteet liittyvät mainonnan negatiivisiin vaikutuksiin ja negatiiviseen word-of-mouth-ilmiöön. Tämä väitöskirjatyö kontribuoi mainonnan kirjallisuuteen kehittämällä uuden tutkimusnäkökulman huumoriin rekrytointimainonnassa ja laajentamalla huumorimainonnan tutkimusta empiirisesti rekrytointimainontaan Internetissä

The boundaries of a small company’s human voice:insights into dark humour in internet recruitment advertising

Abstract This study develops a framework on how a small company’s human tone of voice involving dark humour can be communicated in Internet recruitment advertising. A case study approach with an abductive logic provided a synthesis of the different recruitment communication perspectives [sender, message, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)] and a dark humour tone of voice used in a small company’s Internet recruitment advertising in a holistic framework. The developed framework was able to demonstrate the dynamics related to a tone of voice based on dark humour from different communication perspectives in Internet recruitment advertising, and the process of how the limits for an acceptable human tone of voice are formed. Further, the study proposed a new definition for eWOM in recruitment advertising which included a human tone of voice as a relevant aspect of eWOM. For managers, the boundaries of the human tone of voice, in this case dark humour, should be handled as it might become an irritating employer brand message element and might negatively affect the construction of a positive and consistent employer image

Joking with customers in the service encounter has a negative impact on customer satisfaction:replication and extension

Abstract Previous research has indicated that employee joke-telling in the service encounter can have a negative impact on customer satisfaction, particularly with respect to perceived overall message relevance as a mediating variable. The present study is an attempt to examine if these results would be replicated in service encounter settings with other characteristics. Two experiments were conducted, and the previous pattern was reproduced: customer satisfaction was reduced when employees told jokes compared to when jokes were not told. The results also indicate that employee joke-telling reduced both perceived relevance and positive affect, and that these two variables mediated the association between employee joke-telling and customer satisfaction. The results should be seen in contrast to several humor studies in an advertising context showing that humor-comprising ads can have positive effects on the receiver. One main reason for the differences is that a service encounter typically includes also other elements than humor in the employee’s communication with a customer, and that employee humor usage attenuates the customer’s attention to and comprehension of those other elements

Service encounters with virtual agents:an examination of perceived humanness as a source of customer satisfaction

Abstract Purpose: Firms have begun to introduce virtual agents (VAs) in service encounters, both in online and offline environments. Such VAs typically resemble human frontline employees in several ways (e.g. the VAs may have a gender and a name), which indicates the presence of an assumption by VA designers – and by firms that employ them – that VA humanness is a positively charged characteristic. This study aims to address this assumption by examining antecedents to perceived humanness in terms of attribution of agency, emotionality and morality, and the impact of perceived humanness on customer satisfaction. Design/methodology/approach: A questionnaire was distributed online to participants who had been interacting with existing VAs, and they were asked to focus on one of them for this study. The questionnaire comprised measures of antecedents to perceived humanness of VAs, perceived humanness per se and customer satisfaction. A structural equation modeling approach was used to assess associations between the variables. Findings: Attributions of agency, emotionality and morality to VAs contributed positively to the perceived humanness of the VAs, and perceived humanness was positively associated with customer satisfaction. Research limitations/implications: Additional humanness capabilities should be explored in further research. Practical implications: Firms using VAs in service encounters should make attempts to maximize perceived VA humanness, and this study shows that it may be beneficial if such attempts comprise signals that VAs have agency, emotionality and morality. Originality/value: By examining VAs in terms of a set of fundamental human capabilities, the present study contributes to existing research on human–VA service encounters, which to date has focused on more superficial VA characteristics (such as if the VA has a face and gender)

Responsible service employee behaviour and its impact on customer satisfaction during the coronavirus crisis

Abstract The purpose of this study is to explore a set of mechanisms that mediate the influence of the impact of responsible service employee behaviour on customer satisfaction during the Covid-19 pandemic. A questionnaire was distributed online to UK residents who were instructed to recall and focus on either one very dissatisfying or one very satisfying face-to-face service encounter with an employee during the Covid-19 pandemic. A structural equation modelling approach was used to analyse the associations between the hypothesized response variables. The main finding was that the impact of responsible employee behaviour in service encounters on customer satisfaction was sequentially mediated by perceptions of employee morality and perceived employee humanness. A more parsimonious mediation model comprises only employee morality as a mediator. The attributions of morality to employees are important in a setting in which new social norms guide interpersonal behaviour and in which the violation of such norms can have serious health implications. This study adds empirical evidence to the emerging discourse in the service and retail literature on the implications of the Covid-19 pandemic. It also contributes to the literature on customers’ moral reactions in commercial settings, and to the literature in which perceived humanness is seen as a relevant characteristic of human employees. The results imply that responsible employee behaviour should be encouraged not only from the perspective of the well-being of customers and employees, but also from a business point of view

Jokes in the store and its effects on customer satisfaction

Abstract This study assesses the impact of employee use of jokes embedded in face-to-face conversations with customers. Our main finding — derived from experiments in which employee use of jokes was manipulated — was that jokes reduced customer satisfaction. This reduction occurred regardless if jokes were related or unrelated to the employee’s overall message. Our results also indicate that the use of jokes had a negative impact on perceived message relevance, and that perceived relevance mediated the link between employee use of jokes and customer satisfaction. In addition, our results show that no joke usage vs. joke usage did not produce different emotional responses. This suggests that the impact of jokes on affect is attenuated when jokes are embedded in conversational content

B2B brands on Twitter:engaging users with a varying combination of social media content objectives, strategies, and tactics

Abstract The objective of this research is to increase understanding about B2B company-led user engagement on social media content. Building on hierarchy-of-effects (HoE) theory, we explore how the world’s leading B2B companies use content objectives (why), strategies (how), and tactics (what) on Twitter. We first integrate B2B advertising and social media research on companies’ content objectives, strategies, and tactics. Then, using qualitative analyses, we examine the existence of objectives, strategies, and tactics in the most engaging tweets (N = 365) of the worlds’ ten leading B2B brands, covering five industries, in 2017. Finally, we quantitatively examine how the use of diverse objectives and strategies differs between the most engaging tweets (N = 318) and least engaging tweets (N = 229) of the companies in 2018. The companies use objectives, strategies and tactics that relate to creating awareness, knowledge and trust, interest, and liking in the majority of their most and least engaging tweets, and express preference, conviction and purchase aspects much less. Differences exist in general, industry-wise, and company-wise. The study is a rare attempt to integrate the extant B2B advertising and social media research, and compare the most and least engaging B2B social media content

Stories in co-creating corporate brand identity

Purpose Storytelling is a natural way for humans to express ourselves — we have always told stories to each other (e.g. Shankar et al. 2001; Green 2006; Kent 2015). It is part of our cultures as an entertainment but also as means to pass e.g. knowledge and values (Spear & Roper 2016). Well-told stories and great myths (Holt 2004, 28) can raise emotions (Burke 1969, 55–59; Green 2004; Green 2006) and engage listeners to use their senses (Hiltunen 2002, XVI). Among organization researchers, storytelling has been studied as a part of organizational identity formation already for long (Boje 1991; Coupland & Brown 2004; Johansen 2014) but the subject is still relatively new for marketing researchers. There are modest signs that stories can be used to build the corporate brand identity (Janssen et al. 2012) and the identity formation is constant different stories acting as the fuel for the process (Coupland & Brown 2004; Johansen 2014). Even though companies are recommended to arise and lead conversations between stakeholders and the brand (Golant 2012) storytelling is not fully understood or investigated yet in corporate brand identity context. In this paper, we aim to explore how stories told by different stakeholders can support the co-creation of corporate brand identity

Playfulness in online marketing:challenges and opportunities

Abstract This article explores different challenges and opportunities of using humour and playfulness in online marketing. Humour has been investigated intensively in marketing, especially in advertising, yet there is little knowledge of the challenges and opportunities in online marketing faced by practitioners. This study analyses key studies conducted in the context of a unique case: a Finnish research project exploring humour as a strategic tool for companies. These studies can provide emerging insights of humour in online marketing which are relevant for practitioners: humour as a transformational appeal, individual differences related to humour appreciation, role of storytelling and playfulness in blogging and challenges related to use of humour such as credibility

The contradictory role of humor in international competitiveness and innovativeness

Abstract This study explores the relationships among the use of different types of humor (affiliative, aggressive, reframing, and coping humor)—both among immediate co-workers (“ingroup”), and with actors external to the firm (“outgroup”), international competitiveness, as well as innovativeness. An exploratory study based on survey data suggests that humor, when connections exist, is negatively related to international competitive potential and performance. Whether or not these negative effects emerge, depends on with whom and which type of humor is used. However, the situation is not straightforward: innovativeness is positively related to international competitiveness, and to innovativeness, humor types relate in different ways, some positive, some negative. Overall, humor seems to play a relevant, but challenging-to-manage role especially in settings where borders—organizational or national—are crossed: Humor that works as a lubricant for innovation processes, does not necessarily work directly in advancing international competitiveness