Brand-related social media influencers as spokespersons after a corporate greenwashing crisis implications of parasocial interactions and wishful identification on the perception of the brand image

IF 3.4 3区 管理学 Q2 BUSINESS
Zoe Olbermann , Holger Schramm
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

Corporate crisis communication, like many other areas of strategic communication, is becoming increasingly relevant on social network sites (SNSs). This change has created a new type of spokesperson: social media influencers (SMIs). These individuals are already known as brand ambassadors, and their role in this function has so far been studied primarily in the context of marketing. Our study examines the use of SMIs as spokespersons after a corporate greenwashing crisis, focusing on their perceived similarity to stakeholders - a critical factor identified for the effectiveness of other spokespeople in strategic communications. In a one-factor, two-level between-subject design online experiment (N = 183), we manipulated the similarity and can show that it promotes parasocial interactions between stakeholders and SMIs. This psychological involvement results in a more elaborate processing of the crisis communication, which increases the perception of hypocrisy and consequently leads to a worse evaluation of the brand. In contrast, if the perceived similarity leads to a wishful identification with the SMI, a positively biased processing presumably takes place, which benefits the brand evaluation. Due to a direct positive effect of similarity on the brand image and a stronger indirect effect via wishful identification, the use of SMIs in crisis communication is generally beneficial, but also a more complex topic due to the reactions they trigger among stakeholders.
品牌相关的社交媒体影响者在企业洗绿危机后作为代言人的副社会互动和一厢情愿的认同对品牌形象的感知的影响
企业危机沟通,像许多其他领域的战略沟通一样,在社交网站(sns)上变得越来越重要。这种变化创造了一种新型的代言人:社交媒体影响者(SMIs)。这些人已经被称为品牌大使,到目前为止,他们在这一职能中的作用主要是在市场营销的背景下研究的。我们的研究考察了在企业漂绿危机后smi作为代言人的使用,重点关注他们与利益相关者的感知相似性——这是确定其他代言人在战略沟通中的有效性的关键因素。在一项单因素、两水平的受试者间设计在线实验(N = 183)中,我们操纵了相似性,并可以证明它促进了利益相关者和SMIs之间的准社会互动。这种心理上的参与导致了对危机沟通的更复杂的处理,这增加了对虚伪的感知,从而导致对品牌的更差的评价。相反,如果感知到的相似性导致对SMI的一厢情愿的认同,则可能会发生积极的偏见加工,这有利于品牌评估。由于相似性对品牌形象有直接的积极影响,以及通过一厢情愿的认同产生的更强的间接影响,在危机沟通中使用smi通常是有益的,但由于它们在利益相关者中引发的反应,这也是一个更复杂的话题。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
8.00
自引率
19.00%
发文量
90
期刊介绍: The Public Relations Review is the oldest journal devoted to articles that examine public relations in depth, and commentaries by specialists in the field. Most of the articles are based on empirical research undertaken by professionals and academics in the field. In addition to research articles and commentaries, The Review publishes invited research in brief, and book reviews in the fields of public relations, mass communications, organizational communications, public opinion formations, social science research and evaluation, marketing, management and public policy formation.
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