The authors examine hypocrisy induction, a strategy for encouraging ethical behavior by making perpetrators realize that they are violating moral values when they use anonymous online venues to abuse unknown strangers. Two studies show that hypocrisy induction prompts study participants with interdependent self-construals, but not those with independent self-construals, to report favorable responses toward an online campaign for preventing cyberbullying. In addition, feelings of guilt mediate the moderating role of self-construal. Theoretical implications and ideas for future research are discussed.

Unethical behavior persists within many workplaces despite internal policies designed to prevent it. Recent research found that one reason such behavior persists is because perpetrators formed networks of complicity that protected them, propagated increased unethical behavior, and created toxic organizational cultures. To investigate how such networks could be disrupted, we conducted 74 interviews in organizations where unethical behavior had persisted and was disrupted. In the face of organizational failure to disrupt persistent unethical behavior, we found that employees formed their own networks that we called “networks of empowerment.” Two theories emerged for our data: social network theory provided a foundation for our findings while behavioral ethics helped explain why employees joined various networks. These networks evolved over time and took three forms. Whisper networks typically emerged first to warn others about perpetrators. If a leader emerged, whisper networks could evolve into transactional networks that used informal and formal procedures such as filing complaints against perpetrators to achieve organizational change. When societal norms supported problematic organizational behavior, transformational networks formed to span organizational boundaries and address broader issues that impacted organizations and society. Our findings contributed to the above noted theories and research on organizational change, ethical leadership, and whistleblowing.

This study used augmented reality (AR) to test the effects of perceived social presence, perceived media richness, media empathy and social capital on intentions to participate in prosocial, community-oriented behaviors in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, which appeared to be rife with fear. Specifically, a structural model was employed to assess the hypothesized relationships based on questionnaire data from 476 respondents, who were divided into high and low fear groups. The findings revealed that perceived media richness and social presence both had a significant influence on media empathy, which in turn affected users' perceptions of social capital. Social capital predicted users' community participation intentions, which included intentions to donate. The paths from perceived social presence and perceived media richness to social capital were not significant, and media empathy did not directly influence prosocial, community participation intentions. There were no significant differences between the high and low COVID-19 fear groups. Overall, this study confirmed the importance of leveraging media richness and social presence to create media content designed to prompt users to identify with those who are negatively affected by the cause, so that media empathy will be boosted. Media empathy should be increased in a manner that leads users to feel connected to a larger community, so that perceptions of social capital will be boosted and will lead to prosocial, community participation activities and donations to the cause.

Firms collect an enormous amount of user generated content (UGC), such as social media posts, to analyze consumers’ unfiltered opinions regarding brands and firms. A challenge in analyzing unstructured UGC is the lack of analytic frame. By adopting both unsupervised and supervised learning processes for using artificial intelligence (AI), we collected 680,410, tweets related to airline companies (United Airlines, Delta Airlines, Southwest Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Hawaiian Airlines) and analyzed 4961 retweets to predict user engagement levels on Twitter. Rooted in the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) perspective, the results of this study indicated that consumer sentiment was positive for United Airlines, Delta Airlines, and Alaska Airlines, whereas it was negative for Southwest Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. We also examined the effects of word count, gaps between the tweet generated date and the retweeted date, the number of the hashtag(s), and extracted topics on predicting the level of user engagement. Ultimately, this study provided a detailed guide to mangers on how to use an unstructured data analysis procedure incorporating both supervised and unsupervised learning processes.

Unethical behavior in newsrooms has come to public attention, and despite the glare of publicity, it persists. This research examines the question of why newsrooms provide a context conducive to persistent unethical workplace behaviors. We conducted 25 in-depth interviews with reporters, editors, anchors, producers, and news executives. Sexual harassment has been in the public eye, but our informants also described other unethical workplace behaviors such as bullying, discrimination, and incivility. Behavioral ethics emerged as a theoretical lens to help interpret our data. Five explanatory themes arose: 1) conceiving of work solely as creating journalistic content; 2) toxic rituals, rites of passage, and norms; 3) high power differentials and acquiescent behavior; 4) ineffective organizational mechanisms; and 5) a disruptive industry context. Networks of complicity enabled the bad behavior, and together with the themes, created a perfect storm that permitted unethical behavior to persist. Two paradoxes resulted: 1) the ethics paradox in which journalists had high ethical sensitivity in reporting but were blind to unethical behavior within newsrooms and 2) the power paradox in which journalists experienced role conflict caused by the need for initiative, courage, independence, and resistance to intimidation in reporting versus the dependence, obedience, and acquiescence required within newsrooms.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the question of why sex harassment persists in organizations for prolonged periods – often as an open secret.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth interviews were conducted with 28 people in diverse organizations experiencing persistent sex harassment. Data were analyzed using standard qualitative methods.FindingsThe overarching finding was that perpetrators were embedded in networks of complicity that were central to explaining the persistence of sex harassment in organizations. By using power and manipulating information, perpetrators built networks that protected them from sanction and enabled their behavior to continue unchecked. Networks of complicity metastasized and caused lasting harm to victims, other employees and the organization as a whole.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors used broad, open-ended questions and guided introspection to guard against the tendency to ask for information to confirm their assumptions, and the authors analyzed the data independently to mitigate subjectivity and establish reliability.Practical implicationsTo stop persistent sex harassment, not only must perpetrators be removed, but formal and informal ties among network of complicity members must also be weakened or broken, and victims must be integrated into networks of support. Bystanders must be trained and activated to take positive action, and power must be diffused through egalitarian leadership.Social implicationsUnderstanding the power of networks in enabling perpetrators to persist in their destructive behavior is another step in countering sex harassment.Originality/valueSocial network theory has rarely been used to understand sex harassment or why it persists.

Voice-activated, artificial intelligence-based assistants (voice AI assistants) have become an integral part of everyday life because they can be easily activated to complete numerous tasks. However, little is known about what motivates people to use them or how these motivations influence users' post-consumption evaluations and perceptions. This study develops measures to capture uses and gratifications related to voice AI assistants. It identifies five primary motivations for use-social interaction, personal identity, conformity, life efficiency, and information. Results show that the utilitarian motivations of life efficiency and information influence all postconsumption evaluations and behavioral intentions positively (i.e., users' attitudes, satisfaction, and intentions to continue using voice AI assistants). However, social motivations are also important. Social interaction and conformity motivations also influence user satisfaction, and the conformity motivation shapes individuals' intentions to continue using voice AI assistants. The findings further demonstrate that users' motivations influence perceptions of their voice AI assistants' roles. In keeping with the "Computers Are Social Actors" (CASA) paradigm, users motivated by social interaction are likely to perceive a voice AI assistant as socially attractive and as a friend, whereas users motivated by life efficiency are likely to perceive it as an assistant. Users motivated by information are more likely to perceive a voice AI assistant as technology, while those motivated by social interaction are less likely to do so. The implications of these findings are discussed, and recommendations for future research are provided.

Does a timer—displayed during an in-stream commercial to show viewers how long they need to wait—help relieve the ad irritation that viewers experience when they have to wait for a video to play? Likewise, does the skip-ad button that allows viewers to skip an ad after several seconds help lessen their irritation with the commercial? This research theoretically and empirically examined whether reducing temporal uncertainty (i.e., using a timer to let viewers know the ad length) in skippable advertising actually helped relieve viewers' ad irritation and reduce their likelihood of ad-skipping. Across two experimental studies, temporal certainty (e.g., the presence of the timer) during short commercials generally decreased ad irritation. In contrast, when a skip-ad button is displayed, temporal certainty during both short and long commercials increased ad irritation, which subsequently decreased advertising effectiveness. Also, the higher the ad irritation, the higher the ad-skipping rate. Theoretical and managerial implications of these results are discussed, and alternative solutions for reducing ad irritation are provided.

Native advertising is among the most ethically charged strategies of digital communications. The ethical controversies are inherent in native advertising's definition-paid advertising that is disguised to make readers think it is editorial content of digital publishers. Drawing on moral philosophy, the persuasion knowledge model, the social responsibility of the press theory, schema theory, and psychological reactance theory, this project demonstrated that consumers' perceptions of native advertising's deceptiveness increased advertising skepticism, irritation, and avoidance. In contrast, higher media trust resulted in lower perceived deceptiveness, skepticism, irritation, and avoidance. Thus, advertisers and online publishers will benefit from explicit disclosure of sponsorship that is responsible and transparent.

Public relations professionals strive to develop mutually beneficial relationships among key publics that will result in favorable organizational reputations, but crises typically threaten those reputations. Much of public relations crisis research focuses on how to respond after a crisis, but drawing on Expectation Violation Theory (EVT), this research focuses on the expectations of stakeholders before a crisis and how they process information during a crisis. Drawing from reputation management research in marketing, it conceptualizes corporate reputations as encompassing associations related to corporate ability (CA) and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Reputation management research generally has investigated reputations as strong on either CA or CSR, but this research examines the effects of a "hybrid" reputation, which is strong in terms of both CA and CSR associations. The results of an experiment reveal that stakeholders' responses during a crisis vary based on their expectations, how they perceive a hybrid reputation, and the crisis type. The study has theoretical implications regarding stakeholders' information processing during a crisis, and it provides public relations professionals insights regarding how to cultivate and protect an organizational reputation.

An increasingly competitive fundraising environment and the new media ecosystem have prompted nonprofit organizations to strengthen their digital marketing capabilities. Recently, a few nonprofits have used virtual reality (VR) technology in fundraising, which raises questions about its effectiveness. Does VR work, and if so, through what psychological mechanisms? Through a lab experiment, the usefulness of VR as a digital fundraising tool was investigated. Specifically, we compared the media effects of experiencing the same fundraising video on two different devices: (a) a head‐mounted VR and (b) a tablet. The results revealed that donation intention, perceived vividness, perceived interactivity, and social presence were all significantly greater with the VR medium than with the tablet medium. Next, we tested and successfully verified the mediation effect of social presence on donation intention. Finally, we verified that a viewer's sensation‐seeking tendency served as a moderator when the device type influenced donation intention. Specifically, the media effects of VR were stronger for high sensation seekers than for low sensation seekers. This study contributes to theory and research by verifying the VR fundraising effect and identifying the key role of social presence, and it also provides important managerial guidelines for media design in VR fundraising campaigns.

The advertising industry influences culture through its pervasive messages that reflect and shape culture and through the role that advertising practitioners play as cultural intermediaries. As such, the manner in which advertising practitioners confront ethical issues is important. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of practice, this paper examines how the perceptions, practices, and discourses of advertising practitioners in the Middle East and North Africa influence the advertising field's habitus and doxa. It demonstrates that understanding ethical problems is enhanced by examining them as macro, meso, and micro phenomena. However, that is not enough. Understanding how factors at the three levels interrelate, interact, and reinforce one another is critical to understanding the habitus. Underlying biases that shape the doxa can be explained by ideas central to behavioral ethics. A better understanding of the forces that shape the habitus and doxa with respect to ethics is key to moving toward a culture that encourages ethical advertising practices.

An important component of the consuming experience is a consumer’s sense of belonging or relatedness. This is true not only in traditional shopping contexts but also in a social media environment. Nonetheless, little empirical research has addressed how the sense of belonging that consumers experience during their brand-related activities in social media—feelings of “social relatedness”—influence the effectiveness of social media marketing programs. The present study explores, across various consumers who have different motivations to engage with brands, the mechanism that enables perceptions of social relatedness to contribute to consumer engagement and relationship building. The results of the study reveal that consumers’ perceived social relatedness moderates the effects of consumer motivation on engagement, consuming intention, satisfaction, affective commitment, and trust. The findings highlight the importance of fulfilling consumers’ need for social relatedness in the context of social media, especially for those who are motivated to engage in brand activities via extrinsic factors.

The present research examined how individuals’ cultural orientations influenced the relationship between their construal level and temporal distance. There were two studies in this research. In study 1, the relationship between culture and construal level was examined through the Behavior Identification Form. In addition, the influence of culture on temporal distance and individuals’ construal level was investigated by analyzing participants’ descriptions of their lives. In study 2, the three-way interaction between culture, temporal distance, and construal level frame of persuasive messages (desirability vs feasibility focused message) was investigated. A total of 503 (study 1 – 279 and study 2 – 224) students from two different countries (Korea and the United States) participated in the study. The findings revealed that individuals’ cultural orientations influenced their construal level and perceived temporal distance. Consistent results were found in an advertising context. When individuals from a collectivistic culture were in a proximal temporal condition, they tend to show a more favorable attitude toward the ad emphasizing the feasibility features of the product. The reverse was true for individuals from an individualistic culture.

This research suggests that consumer emotional intelligence (CEI) is an important construct in explaining why some consumers react destructively to conflicts in consumer-brand relationships whereas others approach them constructively. The results of the study show that (1) when encountering transgressions in relationships with brands, consumers low in CEI are more likely to respond to transgressions destructively than those who are high in CEI; (2) the effects of CEI on destructive responses are greater if a transgression affects consumers’ self interests rather than society’s interests; and (3) low CEI consumers are more likely to attribute negative intentions to the company and are therefore more likely to respond destructively than high CEI consumers.

Business education often renders students less likely to act ethically. An infusion of liberal learning in the form of behavioral ethics could improve this situation by prompting students to develop higher levels of professionalism that encompass ethics, social responsibility, self-critical reflection, and personal accountability. More specifically, teaching behavioral ethics, which draws upon psychology, sociology, and related fields, can improve students' ethical decision making in a manner that can lead to a more ethical climate in organizations and in society more generally. This article introduces key concepts of behavioral ethics, argues that teaching behavioral ethics can have a positive impact, discusses materials that can be used to teach those concepts, and addresses action-research approaches to assessing the effectiveness of the instruction. There is significant evidence, though preliminary and incomplete, that teaching behavioral ethics is a promising new approach for improving the ethicality of students' decisions and actions.