What do people "like" on Facebook? Content marketing strategies used by retail bank brands in Australia and Singapore

Previous research has yet to examine the effectiveness of social media content strategies in the financial services sector. This study advances knowledge of content strategies used by retail bank brands by examining how the type of message, the post format and the source of the content influence customer engagement independently and interactively. A total of 541 posts from the Facebook pages of ten banks in Australia and Singapore are analysed using multiple regressions. Results suggest that in the Singaporean sample, persuasive-only content and mixed content lead to more likes and emoji responses, whereas informative-only content is effective in generating comments and questions. Furthermore, videos and third-party sources strengthen the relationship between informative-only content and customer engagement. In the Australian sample, informative-only content and mixed content are more effective than persuasive content in engaging customers. The findings support an integrated view of content design and highlight the importance of adjusting the content strategy to suit the utilitarian nature of banking services and engage high-involvement customers

Organizational identity and evolutionary duality of service firms in emerging markets

In this paper, we integrate social identity theory and institutional theory to emphasize the identity-based conceptualization of organizational forms and the change of social identity as the key to evolutionary changes. Theoretically, we develop the concept evolutionary duality, which is the coexistence of institutionalization and deinstitutionalization at the same time among firms with different identities. We test our hypotheses on a unique and comprehensive panel dataset including 3164 listed Chinese firms audited by the top100 largest auditors in China between 2002 and 2008. We find that audit firms with different organizational identities exhibit distinct trends of audit quality evolution during the sample period, based on their identity group’s legitimacy. We also find that the influence of organization identity is attenuated by some internal and external factors, such as the focal auditor's own market strength, the local government's ideology and the involvement of local partners

What is a retail brand - a systematic review of terms and definitions

Purpose – Although many scholars have acknowledged inconsistencies in the use of the retail brand term within the existing empirical literature, no one has conducted a systematic study to clarify the confusion of terms. Aiming at unifying the use of terms, this study aims to explore the terms that best express each retail brand concept, and discusses the definitions of proposed terms that can distinguish the connotation of different retail brand concepts. Design/methodology/approach – Through a systematic review, 463 articles were obtained, from which retail brand terms and their definitions were further extracted. Semantic analysis and content analysis were adopted to analyze terms and definitions, respectively. Findings – Semantically, the terms that best express four levels of retail brand concepts are own product brand, store brand, platform brand and retailer brand. Six key elements to distinguish different levels of a retail brand are identified through the content analysis of definitions, and on this basis, four proposed terms are defined. Originality/value – Noting that no study focuses on the conceptual confusion of retail brands in recent decades, the findings are expected to clarify the confusion of terms and unify the use of terms, hence facilitating the communication between scholars and the sharing of research results

Symbolic vs substantial corporate restructurings

Ph.DDOCTOR OF PHILOSOPH

Food waste in Australia and consumers' willingness to buy novel, value-added foods

This research explores consumers' willingness to buy novel, value-added food. Respondent-completed questionnaires from 330 Australians reveal that half of the sample are willing to buy value-added food. The survey indicates that helping farmers is the top ranking factor driving demand for value-added foods. There are significant differences in attitudes towards food waste and price sensitivity between respondents who are willing to buy a value-added snack product and those who are not willing or neutral about purchase. Surprisingly, moral concerns are not significant in distinguishing consumers who are willing to buy value-added foods from those who are not; hence, the authors find only partial support for the norm-activation model (Schwartz, 1977; Schwartz & Howard, 1981). Nonetheless, the survey findings are promising with regard to consumer acceptance of new, plant-based products and early adopters of innovation in the horticultural sector should heed the study's findings

How Do Corporate Social Responsibility Engagements Drive Consumer–Company Identification in Singapore?

Companies expend significant financial resources on corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to enhance their image. This study had two objectives. By drawing on three fundamental consumer values as moderators, the first aim was to discover how a company’s CSR engagement influences consumer–company identification (CCI) and consumers’ purchase intention for its products and services. The second was to uncover the type of consumer likely to identify with a company engaging in CSR activities. This study presents an exploratory analysis of social media postings by eight companies. An empirical study is conducted using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) based on survey data from 217 questionnaires collected in Singapore. This study is one of the first to consider what type of consumer would likely identify with a company performing CSR activities. Results show that local-community-focused CSR tends to influence the CCI of egoistic consumers, while environment-focused CSR activities, such as the creation of environmentally-friendly products, drive biospheric consumers’ identification. Broader humanity-focused CSR, such as fair-trade initiatives, significantly influences the CCI of egoistic consumers, but not of altruistic consumers. These findings demonstrate to other economies the significance of local and global companies’ CSR practices and how such activities should be aligned to the CCI of their customer base unique to the region

Unlocking corporate social responsibility in smaller firms: Compliance, conviction, burden, or opportunity?

There is a recognition that corporate social responsibility (CSR) by smaller firms could have greater social and environmental impacts if these engagements are meaningful. Small firms are players in the global eco-system as they supply to larger global firms as subcontractors or suppliers. However, do they practice CSR with a conviction or as a compliance measure? Using stakeholder theory, in-depth interviews were carried out with 31 firms in Singapore. We found that these firms in highly normative sectors practice CSR due to compliance in the interests of stakeholders. But in less-normative sectors, where regulations and norms are minimal, a majority of firms practice CSR out of conviction. All firms acknowledged that their businesses have a responsibility toward society and our results further revealed the importance of careful stakeholder involvement in these firms

Femtosecond laser-induced quantum-beat superfluorescence of atomic oxygen in a flame

Among different approaches to generate mirrorless lasing, resonant multiphoton pumping of gas constituents by deep-UV laser pulses exhibits so far the highest efficiency and produces measurable lasing energies, but the underlying mechanism was not yet fully settled. Here, we report lasing generation from atomic oxygen in a methane-air flame via femtosecond two-photon excitation. Temporal profiles of the lasing pulses were measured for varying concentrations of atomic oxygen, which shows that the peak intensity and time delay of the lasing pulse approximately scales as N and 1/N, respectively, where N represents the concentration. These scaling laws match well with the prediction of oscillatory superfluorescence (SF), indicating that the lasing we observed is essentially SF rather than amplified spontaneous emission. In addition, the quantum-beating effect was also observed in the time-resolved lasing pulse. A theoretical simulation based on nonadiabatic Maxwell-Bloch equations well reproduces the experimental observations of the temporal dynamics of the lasing pulses. These results on fundamentals should be beneficial for the better design and applications of lasing-based techniques

What determines the establishment of Chinese multinational enterprises' Asia regional headquarters?

Although regionalization has gained interests from many scholars, little research has been done to examine why MNEs set up regional headquarters out of their home country but within their home region. We develop a theoretical framework to examine the determinants of Chinese MNEs' Asia regional headquarters (ARHQs). We argue that the establishment of ARHQs is a logical choice based on Chinese MNEs' strategic intent of regional strategy. We differentiate two regional strategies: investing-regionalization with efficiency improvement as the strategic intent and trading-regionalization with legitimacy gaining as the strategic intent. Based on survey responses from 226 Chinese MNEs, we find that investing-regionalization in Asia would promote MNEs to build ARHQs, while MNEs would set up ARHQs when they have high trading-regionalization outside of Asia. In addition, we find that home-base regional integration and MNEs' international management capability will not only directly impact the establishment of ARHQs, but also moderate the relationship between trading-regionalization outside of Asia and the establishment of ARHQs

Exploring the role of reef-friendly, edible packaging in reducing plastic pollution: proposition of a conceptual model explaining purchase intentions

The aim of this paper is to highlight the ways in which the sustainable packaging industry, in conjunction with consumers, can help to reduce environmental damage to fragile ecosystems. We discuss several theoretical models that have been widely used to explain behavourial change. The literature review suggests that lifestyle segmentation, and concepts from the extended theory of planned behaviour and adoption of innovation literature provide rich explanations for why individuals are likely to purchase and adopt novel forms of sustainable packaging. We propose a model identifying several factors that influence purchase intentions and further research is recommended with a focus on market segments defined by sustainable lifestyles