The Role of Ethical Evaluation of Corporate Social Responsibility in the Perception of Corporate Hypocrisy, the Intention of Opinioned Communication and Behavior toward a Firm

Corporate hypocrisy refers to publics\u27 negative perception of CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) as a result of ethical attribution of CSR to normative ethics, and thus can be a useful indicator of the disappointing and ineffective role of CSR programs geared toward raising publics\u27 goodwill toward a firm. However, scant scholarly effort has been made to explore the concept of corporate hypocrisy in relation to corporate issues and crises, publics\u27 ethical orientation, cultural and national influence, and polarized sentiments toward global business in the media landscape. These aspects collectively constitute the unpredictable, uncontrollable public opinion, in particular the opinion of the socially minded general public, and these aspects thus generate a turbulent business arena across the globe. To fill this void, this dissertation concurrently conducted two sets of research: one used a survey methodology on a real company\u27s CSR case and the other used an experimental method. First, Study 1 aimed to investigate how the perception of corporate hypocrisy connects publics\u27 ethical attribution of CSR to subsequent positive/negative opinioned communication intention and pro-firm behavioral intention. With special attention to deontology and consequentialism in normative ethics of philosophy, the current study was to empirically test a theoretical model of perceived corporate hypocrisy with two causal antecedents (i.e., the evaluation of self-orientation and other-orientation in CSR), and the mediating role of corporate hypocrisy between such antecedents and subsequent publics\u27 communication and behavioral intention toward a firm. Personal ethical orientation was suggested to moderate effects of corporate hypocrisy on dependent measures. Moreover, to explore the cultural and national effect in the theoretical model, this study compared U.S. and Korean data. To this end, a survey using a real company CSR case was conducted via Internet with a convenient sample (n = 603; the U.S.=406, Korea=256), including the general population (n=456) and a Northeastern university\u27s student and alumni population (n=147). Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to empirically test the hypothesized mediation model of corporate hypocrisy. The results indicate several key issues regarding the role of ethics on the strategic CSR communication. First, this study found sound measurement reliability and validity of the proposed four-item scale of four dimensions in ethical CSR evaluation (i.e., self-interested motives, self-interested outcomes, altruistic motives and altruistic outcomes). Further, this study also proposed a self-developed seven-item scales for deontology and consequentialism with acceptable reliability and validity as indicators of personal ethical orientation in the context of public\u27s ethical judgment of global business practices. The current study also found significant mediation effects of corporate hypocrisy between ethical CSR evaluation and publics\u27 communication and behavioral intention based on positive and negative opinions formed through CSR evaluation. Also, as assumed, personal ethical orientation and cultural/national difference were found to significantly moderate the role of corporate hypocrisy on dependent measures. Study 2 aimed to test the theoretical validity of the attitudinal and behavioral influence of personal ethical orientation (i.e., deontology vs. consequentialism) and media framing of CSR approach (i.e., self-oriented CSR vs. other-oriented CSR); an experiment study (n=603) was conducted online for study 2. For the U.S. samples, the university student and alumni population was recruited (n= 347), and for the Korean samples, the general population (n=256) was recruited via an online survey system. Study 2 also found significant effects of personal ethical orientation and media framing. Deontological publics were more influenced by media framing of CSR approach rather tha n consequentialist publics; more significant was the differing interaction effect across nationalities. The Korean samples were more prone to be affected by media framing of CSR approach depending on their ethical orientation than the U.S. samples. To summarize, across the findings of the two studies, deontological publics showed more ethically idealistic and rigorous traits whereas consequentialist publics displayed a more pragmatic and business-friendly inclination in CSR judgment. This result highlighted the role of virtue ethics perceived from corporate motives and outcomes of CSR, which can play a part in forming publics which have certain opinions toward global business and its CSR activities. Also, the findings indicated that these ethical traits can be related to the cultural and national background of publics targeted in the global market; thus CSR strategy should take the ethical and cultural traits of target publics into account. Limitations and suggestions for future research were discussed with implications for both public relations scholarship and practices

Antecedents of Microblogging Users’ Purchase Intention Toward Celebrities’ Merchandise: Perspectives of Virtual Community and Fan Economy

Over the last few decades, cross-fertilization between marketing and fandom studies in a mediated world has been rare, hindering the knowledge development for marketing practitioners in the Chinese fan economy context. The purpose of this study is to find and establish a conceptual framework that includes Online Interaction (OI), Parasocial Relationships (PSR) and virtual fan communities on Weibo, and how these contributory factors embedded in the interplay process of digital fandom practices in terms of enhancing fans’ Purchase Intention (PI) and media consumption behaviours toward the celebrities’ merchandise. Using an online survey instrument, this research collected 294 completed responses from fans who had online interactions with celebrities and engagement of virtual fan communities on Weibo. Key results and findings provided a clear framework of four antecedents based on the conceptual model and indicated that the high intensity of OI led to higher levels of the perception of PSR and the Sense of Virtual Community (SOVC). Increased PSR and the SOVC can be seen as significant positive predictors of the PI (a part of consumer identity construction as a fan) also. This study revealed the underlying mechanism of an emerging marketing genre, also provide useful implications of audiences’ digital marketing practices for marketers, celebrities and policymakers

Understanding Antecedents of Civic Engagement in the Age of Social Media: From the Perspective of Efficacy Beliefs

This study examines three efficacy beliefs-political self-efficacy, political collective efficacy, and knowledge sharing efficacy-as antecedents of social media use and civic engagement. Employing more than one thousand samples in Singapore, we empirically test (a) a conceptual framework that can provide an understanding of the relationship between the three types of efficacy and civic engagement and (b) the underlying mechanism through which the three types of efficacy beliefs affect civic engagement via social media. The findings suggest that knowledge sharing efficacy was found to play an important role in mediating the relationships between social media use and political self-efficacy, political collective efficacy, respectively, which, in turn, influences the social media use

OMAE2009-79960 NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF THE FLOW THROUGH AND AROUND A NET CAGE

ABSTRACT Structure and design of fish cages can be improved by the knowledge of the flow pattern around and inside the net cages. To address this problem, commercially available computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software is used to analyze this problem by calculating the drag and the flow velocity distribution around cylinders with different porosities. The results of these simulations are compared with the data from experiments which have been previously published. Aquaculture cages are very large structures that consist mainly of netting, which can be approximated by small cylinders connected at knots. But due to the large number of these cylinders (millions for a single salmon farming cage), it is computationally expensive to model the exact geometry. Bio fouling is another factor which is of particular interest as fouled nets(lower porosity) can significantly reduce flow of well-oxygenated water reaching the fish during normal rearing conditions. Therefore the numerical approach used to simulate the flow through and around the net cage is to consider it as a circular cylinder with a porous jump boundary. Drag coefficient and flow pattern are compared with available experimental data. Vertical cylinders are used for this study. Different porosities have been used for the simulations as for the experiments (0%, 75%, 82% and 90% open area) in order to simulate the impact of the fouling on the load of the net structures and the flushing of the cage. The results show that a porous jump with a pressure drop proportional to velocity squared has the best agreement with measured data

Social Media Posts on Samsung Galaxy Note 7 Explosion: A Comparative Analysis of Crisis Framing and Sentiments in Three Nations

This study explores the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 explosion crisis by analyzing posts on Twitter in three nations: the United States, Australia, and South Korea. Using the perspectives of generic frames, issue-specific frames, cross-national frames, and user sentiment on Twitter, this study analyzes 600 posts (200 from each nation). Results reveal that Twitter posts frequently framed the crisis using attribution, morality, and conflict frames. Posts about the explosion were more professional frame oriented than national frame oriented. Negative sentiment was dominant in Twitter posts about the explosion. Morality, corporate breakdown, and customer concerns were highly associated with negative sentiment. The results demonstrate how global users respond to a corporate crisis. Study implications and suggestions are discussed

The effect of bad reputation: The occurrence of crisis, corporate social responsibility, and perceptions of hypocrisy and attitudes toward a company

Based on attribution theory, this study examines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and media coverage of corporate reputation, crisis, and CSR history affect the attribution of corporate hypocrisy and subsequently shape attitudes toward a company. The study found that perceptions of corporate hypocrisy mediated corporate reputation and attitudes toward a company during a crisis. The study suggested that CSR might be utilized best when a company has a good reputation with no crisis, whereas corporate hypocrisy is perceived most when a bad reputation and/or a company crisis lead the public to infer ulterior motives in CSR. Theoretical and practical implications for corporate communication and effective CSR communication strategies are discussed

The impacts of ethical philosophy on the corporate hypocrisy perception and communication intentions toward CSR

This study investigates how perceptions of corporate hypocrisy from corporate social responsibility activities connect the public’s ethical philosophy to subsequent positive/negative opinion-sharing intention. With special attention to deontology and consequentialism in normative ethics of philosophy, the current study empirically tests a theoretical model of perceived corporate hypocrisy with two causal antecedents (i.e., individual moral philosophy of deontology and consequentialism), and the mediating role of corporate hypocrisy between such antecedents and the public’s subsequent communication intention (i.e., positive and negative opinion-sharing intentions) toward a firm. Results indicate significant mediation effects of corporate hypocrisy between personal ethical orientations and the public’s communication intention based on ethical attribution of crisis-related corporate social responsibility activities

Does Fear of Isolation Disappear Online? Attention-Seeking Motivators in Online Political Engagement

This study investigated the effects of fear of isolation (FOI) on political content consumption and creation in the context of online communication. Using more than 1,000 respondents from South Korea, the study empirically tested a theoretical model of FOI on political content consumption and expressions with two mediators (i.e., attention/status-seeking, and anonymity-seeking). Results indicated that FOI is related to seeking attention and status in political outlets also connected to anonymity-preference that leads to political expression. Implications for political communication scholarship and for practitioners are that voters’ political participations can be understood in a framework different from traditional focus on persuasion, political ideology, or demographics because—in today’s virtual and interactive media environment—users are more content consumers or community participants