Generation Z's (gen z) sharing of personal information on social media is a growing phenomenon with significant ramifications. Existing research, however, focuses on examining the role of social and/or psychological factors and fails to consider how and when social, psychological, and organizational factors affect gen z's willingness to share personal information on social media. To fill this gap, we propose a conceptual model based on the tenets of sociometer theory, to understand the dynamics of gen z's willingness to share personal information while considering its process and boundary conditions. Using a sequential multi-study design, we conducted an experiment followed by a survey to test our hypotheses using data collected from gen z in India.Our findings show that when gen z feels socially isolated/anxious, they are more likely to share personal information on social media. The effect of social isolation on sharing of personal information increases when gen z fear that they are missing out on the rewarding experiences others are having, are engaged in repetitive negative thoughts and perceive their firm's privacy policy as transparent and ethical. Our findings provide a better understanding of why, how, and when gen z's are willing to share personal information on social media. We extend existing limited research on the psychological aspects of digital natives' interaction with modern technologies. Our results equip social media marketing and brand managers with the knowledge they need to increase gen z's willingness to share personal information.
Purpose
Keeping in mind the growing significance of online reviews, management of responses to the customer reviews – webcare – is becoming important in recent times. How a firm responds to online reviews can send a signal to the readers of the reviews contributing to their brand evaluations. From a strategic perspective, a firm should decide if they should respond to all reviews or respond to only a select few reviews. This study aims to provide an understanding of how exhaustive and selective webcare influence brand evaluations. It also explores the role of review balance and review frame, which potentially act as moderators, on such influences.
Design/methodology/approach
Three scenario-based experiments were used to manipulate the webcare strategy (exhaustive-selective) and the potential moderators (review balance and review frame). The 910 participants of the single-stage experiments were identified using an online panel managed by UK-based Prolific Academic.
Findings
Exhaustive webcare is found to be the most effective strategy for influencing brand evaluations in all conditions. Also, two interesting results were found, which can have practical implications. A selective negative strategy is as effective as an exhaustive webcare in almost all cases, and a selective positive webcare is as good as not having a webcare in nearly all cases. Changes in webcare effectiveness due to the influence of review balance and review frame were established.
Research limitations/implications
With the review reader perspective and focus on brand management, this study may trigger enquiries into effects of webcare strategies on brand evaluations and other outcomes such as word-of-mouth. The interaction effects of the various strategies adopted together on brand evaluation and loyalty have not been explored and would be of interest to academicians and managers.
Practical implications
Firms need to plan a careful resource deployment while responding to the online consumer reviews as responding to a select few reviews may yield the same effects as that of exhaustive webcare. Brand managers may find responding only to positive reviews futile, as it could be as good as having no webcare. Also, the strategy of responding to reviews needs to be adapted based on the online review platform where the set in which the review is read is different.
Originality/value
This is one of the few studies focusing on the effects of webcare on brand evaluations from a review reader perspective as against the dominant reviewer perspective. This research also presents hitherto unexplored effects of an exhaustive-selective webcare strategy on brand evaluations.
The objective of the study is to develop a parsimonious model to predict the box office success of a Bollywood movie before its release. A movie is considered successful if the revenue generated is greater than its budget, in other words, a Revenue to Budget Ratio (RBR) greater than 1. An original data set of 1698 Hindi movies released across a period of 13 years is used to identify the success factors of a movie in the Indian context. Predictive models are developed using traditional methodologies like multiple regression and logistic regression, as well as, contemporary approaches like regression trees and classification trees. The results highlight a unique mix of elements that a producer should consider to ensure the success of a movie in the highly competitive Indian movie market.
In 2011, Samjad, deputy CEO of Maledia Broadcasting Limited (MBL)—a new venture of the media group Maledia, based in Cochin, India—prepared to make financial projections to justify the feasibility of the new Malayalam news channel. He was faced with challenges of making estimates that made the project attractive yet practical and credible for the group that was conservative in their advertising sales approach. Set in an interesting industry like broadcasting, the case simulates a real-life situation that also provides a internal corporate context. With the help of the rich market data such as advertising spends, commercial time, competitive scenario in the region, students are expected to forecast revenue for the project. Students are also challenged to use benchmark data of competitors to estimate hurdle rate, capex and operating costs. Estimation of initial investments is also required to be made. Using the processed financial data and projections, students are required to prepare discounted cash flows (DCF) statements with net present value (NPV) and internal rate of return (IRR) for the broadcast channel project. They learn to build alternate scenarios to deal with decisions under uncertainty. The case provides several opportunities to discuss narratives and numbers, helping students of finance realize the value of analysing the company policies and values, business situation, market environment and competitive financial information in capital budgeting, and project finance beyond number crunching.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.