How does dataveillance drive consumer online payment resistance?

Purpose This study aims to examine the effect of dataveillance on resistance towards online payment. Using a moderated-mediation framework, the study also investigates the mediating effects of perceived privacy and security concerns and how these mediating effects are moderated by corporate credibility, consumer scepticism and consumer empowerment. Design/methodology/approach A scenario-based experimental design was performed to examine the proposed hypotheses. Analysis of covariance and PROCESS macro were used to examine the hypotheses by analysing 312 collected responses. Findings The results indicated the dataveillance positively affects consumer resistance towards online payment. The results also suggested that corporate credibility and consumer scepticism significantly moderates the association between dataveillance and resistance towards online payment. Practical implications The findings of this study will help online retailers to reduce consumers’ perceived privacy and security concerns, thereby reducing consumers’ resistance towards online payment. Originality/value Theoretically, the study contributes to privacy, consumer behaviour, online payment and cognitive-motivational-relational theory literature.

End-to-end sustainability: trade-offs, consumers’ perceptions and decisions beyond B2C interfaces

Purpose This study aims to examine the extended effects of corporate (ir)responsibilities in supply chains. More specifically, the authors compare the impact of social and environmental initiatives and failures in the reputational capital of supply chain partners. The authors investigate how (and if) companies’ decisions to prioritize different sustainability dimensions in their supplier selection processes (i.e. sustainability trade-offs) affect consumers’ perception of corporate image, corporate credibility-expertise, attitude towards the firm and word-of-mouth. Design/methodology/approach The authors conducted three behavioural vignette-based experiments with 562 participants from the USA, relying on analysis of variance and t-tests analyses. Findings Results show that consumers perceive social irresponsibility cases as more severe than environmental ones in suppliers’ operations, penalizing buyers’ corporate image, corporate credibility-expertise and word-of-mouth. Corporate image, attitude towards the firm and word-of-mouth also have significant differences between social and environmental trade-offs. Statistically significant differences were also found between scenarios that portrayed the discovery of an irresponsible action and ones that reinforced the previous irresponsible practice in companies’ suppliers. Practical implications When types of irresponsibility practices are presented, the discovery of child labour and modern slavery conditions in suppliers damage how consumers perceive the company on corporate image and their attitude towards the organization and how they will spread word-of-mouth, reinforcing the importance of considering sustainability issues when making supplier selection decisions. Originality/value The study contributes to the understanding of how companies are perceived by their consumers regarding irresponsible practices and their impact on firms’ supplier selection decisions. Furthermore, data suggests that consumers might hierarchize sustainability dimensions, perceiving social irresponsibility cases as more severe than environmental irresponsibility ones.

When polarization hits corporations: the moderating effect of political ideology on corporate activism

Traditionally, it has been argued that companies should maintain a neutral stance on issues of a social or political nature, especially controversial ones. However, in recent years, corporations have begun to adopt clear positions on sensitive and polarizing social and political issues. This new phenomenon, called corporate activism, is beginning to gain prominence in corporate strategies, which now extend beyond business objectives and sometimes may go against the beliefs held by many customers. To date, studies aimed at identifying whether these types of actions benefit or harm companies are scarce, and none of them have focused on consumer perceptions. Adopting the latter approach, this work identifies the antecedents and effects of corporate activism, and the influence that political ideology can have as a variable moderating these effects. Analysis of a sample of 1,521 individuals representative of the Spanish population using a structural equation model yielded the following results: (i) institutional and corporate credibility and authenticity act as antecedents of corporate activism, (ii) when credibility in institutions diminishes, consumers perceive that corporations should be more involved in social and political affairs, even when controversial or polarizing, (iii) reputation and brand equity are considered effects of corporate activism, and (iv) political ideology acts as a variable moderating these effects, in such a way that individuals with a more conservative ideology do not appreciate that companies that get involved in activist initiatives will enjoy positive consequences on their reputation and brand equity, while individuals with more liberal views do perceive such positive effects. These findings help companies to guide their strategic decisions, especially those related to corporate social responsibility (CSR), as well as help governments and institutions to understand the social changes that are taking place and understand the role that consumers expect corporations to play today.

RESEARCH ON THE AUTHENTICITY OF ACCOUNTING INFORMATION BASED ON BLOCKCHAIN AND ERP SYSTEM

The authenticity of accounting information is related to the issue of corporate credibility, and is increasingly valued by the state. With the development of IT, technologies of the new era have emerged, and these technologies have been gradually applied to the field of accounting and have achieved good responses. Because of the current financial fraud and other problems of enterprises, the article proposes that blockchain technology and ERP system can be used to improve the authenticity of accounting information in preventing tampering and internal control, and gives suggestions on both the enterprise and national levels.

Influence of CSR awareness on Consumer Behavior through Trustworthiness: The New Approach

The goal of this research is to measure level of customer awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Georgian society and to study the influence of CSR awareness on consumer behavior through trustworthiness (one of the dimensions of corporate credibility) by revealing the correlations between customer awareness and corporate trustworthiness, customer willingness to be involved in CSR initiatives and customer purchase intentions. The descriptive research was carried out and data were collected based on the survey of 915 respondents located in Tbilisi, Georgia. The relationships between variables have been studied by using multiple regressions technique. This article provides data that lead to a new conceptual model and point the importance of elevating the level of customer CSR awareness in achieving corporate credibility goals.Beyond it, customers’ inclination to purchase products from those companies who care about their long-term interest has been revealed.

The role of corporate credibility and bandwagon cues in sponsored social media advertising

PurposeSponsored social media content is one of the advertising strategies that companies implement so that ads appear as native to the delivery platform without making consumers feel that they are directly targeted. Hence, the current study examines whether prominently featuring corporate information on social media ads affects how consumers perceive them. It also investigates whether an ad's evaluation metrics on Twitter (e.g. number of likes/comments) influence its persuasiveness and consumers' behavioral intentions towards the sponsoring company. Underlying cognitive and affective mechanisms through which sponsored content operates are also investigated.Design/methodology/approachA 2 (corporate credibility: low vs high) by 2 (bandwagon cues: low vs high) between-subjects experiment was conducted.FindingsThe findings showed that corporate credibility and bandwagon cues can influence social media ad effectiveness. Sponsored content from high-credibility companies – evoked more favorable attitudes and behavioral intentions – is perceived as less intrusive, and elicits less anger than equivalent posts from low-credibility companies. Furthermore, it was found that bandwagon cues work via different pathways. For high-credibility corporations, a high number of bandwagon cues improved ad persuasiveness by mitigating consumers' anger towards intrusive sponsored content. Conversely, for low-credibility corporations high bandwagon cues enhanced ad persuasiveness, and this triggered more positive attitudes towards it.Originality/valueThis paper is the first to test corporate credibility and bandwagon effects in social media ads, while also exploring consumers' cognitive and affective responses to sponsored content. Implications for how companies with varying popularity levels should promote products on social media are discussed.

Examining the effects of advertising credibility on brand credibility, corporate credibility and corporate image: a qualitative approach

Purpose This paper aims to use signalling theory to examine the concept of advertising credibility and its effects on brand credibility, brand image, corporate credibility and corporate image. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative approach was used. Ten interviews and four focus groups were conducted among participants drawn from the London area. The data was analysed using thematic analysis. Findings The findings suggest that advertising credibility is defined using terms like accurate, caring, competent, complete, convincing, ethical, honest, impressive, promising, reliable and warranted. The findings also suggest that advertising credibility has a positive effect on brand credibility, brand image, corporate credibility and corporate image. However, these effects are lower when the brand and corporation have different names than when they have similar names. The dissimilarity of names can also provide some benefit, especially when brands or firms are faced with a crisis. The findings also illustrate that the theoretical model used in this study is valid, and suggest that advertising credibility has positive effects on other constructs. Originality/value Advertising credibility has received little attention in the literature. There is also little attention on its effects on other credibility constructs. This study minimises these gaps by conducting qualitative research to explore the effects of advertising credibility on brand credibility, corporate credibility and corporate image.

How Corporate Social Advocacy Affects Attitude Change Toward Controversial Social Issues

The current study reveals that a corporate statement on a controversial social issue is effective in changing an individual’s attitude toward the issue depending on how much the issue is relevant to the individual’s goals and/or if the corporate statement is supported by other corporations. Advocacy fit, corporate credibility, the bandwagon heuristic, and position advocated were varied in a fully crossed 2 × 2 × 2 × 2 experiment ( N = 677). The relevance of the controversial social issue to each participant’s goals and values was also considered. Findings indicate that the fit of an issue mattered for attitude change when the issue was relevant to one’s goals. The number of corporations that agreed with the corporate statement affected attitude change when the issue was relevant to each participant’s goals and values. Corporate credibility did not have any significant effect on whether individuals changed their attitudes. Implications and directions for future research are discussed.