This study investigates the role of consumer–brand congruence and consumer–celebrity congruence in the formation of consumer attitudes toward brands and their impact on behavioral intentions within the context of corporate social advocacy (CSA) involving controversial celebrities. Using a U.S. sample drawn from a Qualtrics panel (N = 372), the results of mediation analyses indicate that attitude toward a brand positively mediates the effects of consumer–brand congruence on consumers’ behavioral intentions, including purchase intention, brand preference, and boycott recommendation. The consumer–celebrity congruence moderated the indirect effect of consumer–brand congruence on brand preference and boycott recommendations, but not purchase intention. The findings of this study contribute to the CSA literature and practices by highlighting the role of consumers’ congruence with a controversial celebrity in determining consumers’ behavioral responses to CSA. When brands practice CSA, consumer–brand congruence rather than consumer–celebrity congruence could play a more important role in shaping consumer behaviors.

Purpose: Using the theory of planned behavior (TPB) as a theoretical framework, this study investigates individual level psychological determinants of individuals word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions as a way to support corporate social advocacy (CSA).Design/methodology/approach: An online survey (N = 505) using a Qualtrics panel was conducted.Findings: Individuals' attitudes towards WOM, subjective norms, and self-efficacy was positively associated with their positive WOM intention, whereas perceived controllability over WOM behaviors was not associated with WOM intention. Age was negatively associated with WOM intention.Originality/value: This study is one of the early attempts to test individual level factors in shaping individuals' WOM intention in response to CSA. This study also employed recent TPB argument and tested the role of self-efficacy and perceived controllability on behavioral intentions in the context of corporate communication. The findings of this study offer theoretical and practical insights to corporations when developing CSA campaigns and designing CSA messages.

The purpose of this article is to examine hospital social responsibility practices using a content analysis method. It selected a sample of 522 hospitals in U.S. and collected data from hospitals’ official websites. Significant emphasis is found to be placed on CSR practices associated with marketplace activities that are mostly stakeholder-driven. Non-profit hospitals had stronger awareness on the actions of being a socially responsible organization. The results also confirm significant relationship between active CSR programs and hospital. The findings shed light on hospital social responsibility and provides a unifying conceptual basis that explains how hospitals in U.S execute CSR programs.

An experiment was conducted with the goal of determining how mood and arousal influence the way consumers process ad information in a search engine result page (SERP) environment. By focusing on the relationships among mood, arousal, and search ad snippet length, the study shows that mood and arousal states influence information processing (heuristic vs. systematic) on search pages both independently and jointly. Using the heuristic-systematic model, the present research explains how information processing modes triggered by mood and amplified by arousal shape the processing and evaluations of search ads with different snippet lengths. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.

There is a dearth of research regarding family adoption in the advertising field, neglecting a highly important topic that is often relegated to the margins of communication research. Grounded in social learning theory and framing theory, this study uses a textual analysis to examine persuasive appeals, dominant frames, and media representations in public service announcements focused on the adoption of children from foster care. Findings suggest that the messages broadcast to viewers paint a portrait of the foster care system that is not representative and could potentially discourage some would-be parents from adopting. This research looks to inform social work professionals and advertising practitioners about how to strategize and then shape future campaigns that encourage system support.

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a federal ban on sports betting was unconstitutional and a clear violation of the 10th Amendment (Liptak and Draper 2018). The ruling overturned the Profe...