Is seeing believing? : The effects of document cloud links on perceptions of credibility of news articles

News media consumption is migrating online, cutting into the business model of traditional news media at a time it has continued to struggle to reverse a decades-long drop in its perceived credibility among consumers. DocumentCloud was created to help news media publish and annotate source materials online as a supplement for online articles. This research studied whether DocumentCloud could boost credibility perceptions among online consumers of news media, and, if so, with what type of message. It theorized that the mere presence of links would boost credibility perceptions of the accompanying articles. Three different groups of subjects were tested for effects: a control group, those shown links with a basic message, and those shown links with an educational message. Building upon research in credibility, cognitive processing, and media literacy, this study found slight improvements in credibility perceptions when subjects were shown an educational message with the links, with more pronounced effects seen among subjects who had less formal education

More is not always better: The impact of value co‐creation fit on B2B and B2C customer satisfaction

Organizations increasingly rely on customer involvement in the value creation process (i.e., co-creation) to enhance customer satisfaction and differentiate themselves from competitors. While past research has largely indicated that more co-creation is beneficial, some have suggested yet not empirically validated that excess co-creation may negatively impact customers. Applying the service-dominant logic, two studies (B2B and B2C customers) offer insight into the appropriate levels of the co-production and value-in-use dimensions of co-creation. For both B2B and B2C customers, polynomial regression and surface plot analyses indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship between value co-creation and satisfaction, establishing that more co-creation is beneficial only up to a point. As such, we inform managers of factors that can cause the relationship between co-creation and satisfaction to peak and then turn negative. Further, customer expertise and process enjoyment moderate this relationship for B2C (but not B2B) customers, thereby offering ways to mitigate the negative effects of excess co-creation for end-customers. The studies also highlight the importance of value co-creation “fit” between the customer\u27s expected and experienced levels of co-creation. Interestingly, positive misfit (i.e., excess co-creation) retains a stronger negative influence on customer satisfaction than negative misfit (i.e., insufficient co-creation) for both B2B and B2C customers