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The present study examines the mechanisms of the halo effect and the scepticism effect as alternative explanations for the association between a firm's corporate social responsibility (CSR) engagement and consumers' perceptions of its tax behaviour. The authors conduct two experimental studies to examine the impact of a company's CSR domain on consumers' perceptions of its tax practices (Study 1) and the impact of a company's CSR engagement and tax practices on consumers' evaluations of that company (Study 2). It was found that consumers' perceptions of a firm's tax practices critically depend on CSR domains. Specifically, when inferring tax perceptions from CSR engagement, consumers factor in their perceptions of the greater direct reputational benefits that firms derive from external CSR engagement (environmental and philanthropic CSR) compared with those they derive from internal CSR engagement (activities focused on intraorganisational stakeholders). Suggestions for managerial implications and future research are also discussed.

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how peer-to-peer word-of-mouth (PPWOM) conversations evolve over time because of the dynamic social nature of the community in which they take place. Design/methodology/approach This study analyzed PPWOM conversations in an online community website for new and expectant mothers. Two data collection phases were undertaken during a four-year period. In phase I, messages were collected for a one-month period from five different bulletin boards (i.e. cross-sectional data) and at two points in time (i.e. semi-longitudinal). In phase II, a full longitudinal study was conducted, and the complete text of all messages of a newly formed bulletin board was captured for a nine-month period. The corpus of messages was examined in line with the basic tools of ethnomethodology and conversation analysis. Findings This research developed a typology of PPWOM genres and showed that these genres change over the community lifespan. The findings confirmed that the levels of social cohesiveness and the interaction communicative motives are the main factors that distinguish different PPWOM genres. Research limitations/implications This research has offered a new perspective into the study of PPWOM, and hopefully it will serve as a starting point for a broader dialogue regarding the social context in which PPWOM is exchanged. Originality/value In contrast to traditional word-of-mouth research, this study demonstrated that PPWOM conversations go much beyond the exchange of functional information, and instead serve numerous social and emotional goals.

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