Despite the current relevance of social media influencers in brand communication strategies, questions remain about the factors that determine their influential power and how this power affects follower behaviour. This research examines the role of emotional attachment and perceived information value in the process of influence that can lead followers to manifest behavioural intentions toward the brands endorsed by influencers. The results show that both factors act as determinants of followers’ perceived influence, which in turn predicts followers’ positive word-of-mouth (WOM) about recommended brands and purchase intention. In fact, perceived influence plays a mediating role in these relationships. Positive WOM and purchase intention are also significantly related. The findings contribute to a deeper understanding of the nature and effects of the persuasive power of social media influencers. Key implications for researchers and practitioners are discussed.
31 July 2022 in Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management
Prior confronting findings on the association between corporate social responsibility and profitability show that some aspects remain to be clarified about this binomial. Contributing to this body of research is particularly interesting in the case of the exporters to understand the role that corporate social responsibility may play in improving export performance. This study aims to determine the impact of firms' corporate social responsibility efforts on their export performance by examining innovation and the legal form of the organization as factors that could affect this relationship. Using data from 107 agri‐food companies, we found that corporate social responsibility has no direct effect on export performance. However, our results show that innovation serves as a mediator in this relationship. It was also found that companies that adopt associative legal forms (i.e., cooperatives) benefit more from their social responsibility practices than companies that adopt non‐associative legal forms.
This study aims to contribute to the existing debate on the impact of corporate social responsibility (CSR) orientation on different measures of business performance through the proposal of a conceptual model. Drawing on stakeholder theory, we conceptualize CSR as a broad and multidimensional construct with seven dimensions: employees, partners, customers, farmers, environment, community, and competition. We also extend the concept of business performance, which includes tangible variables, namely financial performance (FP) and export performance (EXP), as well as intangible variables, namely image and reputation (IR) and the satisfaction of relevant stakeholders (SS). The research context of this study is the agri-food sector in southeastern Spain. This sector has been the focus of attention of numerous researchers due to the relevance that social and environmental aspects have had in its development. To test the proposed model, the partial least-squares technique (PLS-SEM) was applied to data collected by means of a survey from a sample of 107 companies, which represent 81.4% of the turnover of the sector analyzed. The results show that CSR has a positive effect on financial performance, improves the volume and performance of exports, positively affects the corporate image and reputation, and increases the level of satisfaction of relevant stakeholders. Further research should examine the model from the perceptions of other stakeholders (e.g., customers, employees, and suppliers), using a longitudinal research design and exploring other contexts.
3 June 2020 in Journal of International Entrepreneurship