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Segmenting Voters by Motivation to Use Social Media and Their Lifestyle for Political Engagement
Abstract
Segmentation in political marketing seems to be a very useful tool and takes new instructions in the age where the social media is playing a crucial role for political parties. This research uses market segmentation theory in the field of politics through the study of behavior and motives of voters/social media users. Based on a structural equation model there are strong indications for two segments greatly influenced by politicians’ marketing on social media as far as behavioral results of active participation, word of mouth, and voting goals. The results revealed that information, entertainment and activism are positive motivation mechanisms for political engagement. Further, to follow actively and to vote politicians with the information motive appears to perform as a generic construct affecting overall. These results assist political marketing consultants to apply the suitable strategy campaign through social media and gives new directions for more depth research on this.
... As a crucial part of contemporary politics, political marketing is practiced by political parties, candidates, and political movements (Lees-Marshment 2014). These entities engage in multiple marketing activities, including advertising (i.e., Falkowski and Cwalina 2012;Gordon et al. 2012;Fowler et al. 2021;Coppock, Green, and Porter 2022), branding (i.e., Farrag and Shamma 2014;Nielsen and Larsen 2014; Jungblut and Johnen 2022; Newman and Newman 2022; Farhan and Omar 2023), segmentation (i.e., Dermody and Hanmer-Lloyd 2005a;Murray and Scime 2010;Preko, Agbanu, and Feglo 2020;Mochla, Tsourvakas, and Stoubos 2023), and social media marketing (i.e., Baines et al. 2011;Jackson 2011;Ganduri, Reddy, and Reddy 2020;Reveilhac and Morselli 2023). This practice-based growth has also led political marketing to be scholarly expanded. ...
... Thus, we revealed five topics commonly studied in the relevant literature, including advertising, branding, usage, social media, and segmentation. These are the topics related to both marketing field and political science that are often studied within the political context (i.e., Lees-Marshment 2014; Falkowski and Cwalina 2012;Gordon et al. 2012;Farrag and Shamma 2014;Nielsen and Larsen 2014;Preko, Agbanu, and Feglo 2020;Fowler et al. 2021;Coppock, Green, and Porter 2022;Jungblut and Johnen 2022;Newman and Newman 2022;Farhan and Omar 2023;Mochla, Tsourvakas, and Stoubos 2023). This leads scholars in both fields to appreciate the roles of each other in modern politics, making the sub-discipline (political marketing) fragmented (Perannagari and Chakrabarti 2020). ...
Political marketing, a marriage between politics and marketing, is a dynamic and relatively young field. Thus, it adheres to frameworks that are borrowed from other disciplines to comprehend and explain voting behavior. This makes the field more complex and fragmented. Also, this field is under-researched and in its nascent stage, notwithstanding the current increase in academic research. Therefore, it is difficult for researchers to build on prior acquired knowledge and further the field’s research. Accordingly, the current
study provides a systematic review of the extant literature by utilizing the systematic literature review (SLR) methodology, which provides a thorough evaluation of the relevant literature, yielding multiple benefits. A total of 36 papers covering 20 reputed peer-reviewed journals from 2002-2023 were selected for analysis to identify theoretical perspectives, reveal main topics followed by research gaps, recommend future research avenues, and provide a comprehensive understanding. Our analysis revealed that papers
striving to comprehend various facets of voting behavior utilized five different theoretical perspectives and were grouped around five topics. The results are hopefully expected to galvanize further research in this field from the theoretical as well as from a practice-oriented perspective by providing multiple actionable inputs for the relevant subject.
... In scientific research on social media, the most important behavioral approach. In the world users' motivations are mainly examined, without quantitative analysis (Mochla et al., 2023;Abeza, 2023). Similarly, in research in Poland, the authors focus on the analysis of Internet users' behavior (Gąsior, 2016;Noga, 2023). ...
... They often utilize this innovative tool for various reasons, including monitoring social behavior, interacting with citizens, promoting election campaigns, and attracting voters. Social media can be considered an important tool, especially for collecting and analyzing information about the voter market and segmenting voters (Mochla et al., 2023). Accordingly, this study recommends future research focus on social media as a significant tool with relationshipbuilding potential within the political marketing context. ...
Sosyal medya son zamanlarda siyasi bağlamın önemli bir parçası haline gelmiştir ve hem seçmenler hem de politikacılar tarafından aktif olarak kullanılmaktadır. Bununla birlikte, mevcut literatür, seçilen araştırma konuları veya ilgili makalelerde benimsenen metodolojiler nedeniyle politikacıların sosyal medya kullanımı etrafında oluşmuştur. Bu nedenle, seçmenlerin bakış açısını yansıtmakta eksik kalmaktadır. Bu doğrultuda, mevcut çalışma genç seçmenlerin politikacıların sosyal medya kullanımına ilişkin algılarını keşfetmeyi amaçlamaktadır. Bunun için sosyal medyayı aktif olarak kullanan, sosyal medyada politikacılarla etkileşime giren ve paylaşımlarını takip eden 18 katılımcıyla derinlemesine görüşme yapılmıştır. Daha sonra, verileri analiz etmek için nitel içerik analizi tekniğinden yararlanılmıştır. Bulgular, genç seçmenlerin sosyal medyayı kullanan siyasetçileri samimiyetsiz, yenilikçi, sosyal olarak uyumlu ve iletişim konusunda yetkin olarak gördüklerini göstermektedir. Sonuçlar, siyasetçilerin sosyal medya kullanımının genç seçmenler tarafından nasıl algılandığını ortaya koyarak ilgili boşluğu doldurmak suretiyle mevcut literatüre katkıda bulunmaktadır. Dolayısıyla bu çalışma, gelecekteki araştırmacıları, politikacılara seçmen davranışını etkilemek ve yönlendirmek için sosyal medyayı nasıl daha etkili kullanacaklarına dair kılavuzlar sunmak yerine, seçmenler lehine pratik sonuçlar sunmaya teşvik etmektedir.
... Other studies have evaluated issues concerning authenticity, competence, and ordinariness of political candidates in marketing of such candidates (Ceccobelli and Di Gregorio 2022) as well as political microtargeting and segmentation of voters by motivations to use social media for political engagement (Baviera, Cano-Orón, and Calvo 2023;Mochla, Tsourvakas, and Stoubos 2023). Other scholars have investigated political marketing and lobby as well as how the military uses marketing tenets for engagement during conflicts (Baines and O'Shaughnessy 2014;Harris and McGrath 2012;Yarchi, Samuel-Azran, and Bar-David 2017). ...
This study investigates how the US and Australian Departments of Defence used social media platforms for branding, perception management and to curb online firestorms as well as how their citizens reacted to these political branding techniques during the Afghan troops' withdrawal and evacuations. The study analyzed 11,460 tweets and replies from the US and Australian DoDs. Results show that the US and Australian DoDs strategically used their tweets to communicate professionalism, military efficiency and exceptional-ism, information and clarification, duty, commendation, commiseration, and support for mental health. Findings further demonstrate that there was a significant association between the US and Australian DoDs' counterinforma-tion (inoculations) and tweets approving of both the withdrawal and evacuations. The study uncovers that the branding efforts of the US and Australian DoDs during the Afghan withdrawal and evacuations were successful as their high reservoir of trust moderated the short-and long-term effects of the online firestorm.
Purpose
All presidential and legislative candidates want to be the winner. However, they do not know the determinants of voters' reasons for making choices. This study aims to investigate the role of education level, political party brand reputation, religiosity brand personality and e-WOM on voters' decisions with implications for voters' loyalty.
Design/methodology/approach
The survey method was used to collect data from 1206 respondents who have the right to vote through offline and online using Google forms shared on social media platforms—data analysis using Structural Equation Modeling using the SmartPLS 4.0 program.
Findings
The results showed that Brand Reputation of Politics can encourage brand Religious Personality and e-WOM. Brand Religious Personality is a factor that causes the decision to vote. However, the level of education is not a determining factor for Brand Religious Personality and e-WOM. In addition, brand religious personality, e-WOM and Decision to vote can mediate Brand Reputation of Political loyalty.
Practical implications
The findings from this study can help political parties and candidates develop strategies tailored to voters' needs and increase their chances of winning elections.
Originality/value
The novelty in this study is the development of a model that has never been tested before that uses factor sources from marketing science literacy such as Brand, e-WOM and Loyalty. This study also used moderation variables namely choosing decisions, e-WOM, and religious brand personality. The object of this research was conducted in Indonesia, which is included in the list of developing countries but has never been done in any country. The analysis tool uses the new SEM-PLS version 4.0, so it has a level of novelty and implications that are important for political marketing.
Social media has been a part of election campaigns for more than a decade. In this special issue, we combine longitudinal and cross-national studies of social media in election campaigns, expanding the time span as well as number of countries compared to former comparative studies. The four papers present examples of longitudinal studies, covering multiple election cycles from four different countries: Australia, the United States of America, Denmark, and Italy. By including the countries mentioned, we focus on countries considered to be “first movers” when it comes to the digitization and internetization of the political life. As such, they are “most similar cases.” However, they also have different political systems: the United States and Australia are characterized by a Westminster system dominated by a few large parties and a tradition of strong confrontation between government and opposition, whereas Denmark and Italy are multi-party systems with a tradition of collaboration and coalition governments. Technologically, the four countries might be similar, but politically and in terms of media systems, they differ; the United States is characterized by a commercialized American media system with little role for public service broadcasters, Denmark has very strong public service media, and Australia has elements of both these systems. Finally, Italy represents a Southern European media system with traces of clientelism as well as public service media. Thus, studies of the four countries form a diverse yet solid set of cases for exploring the growing (and changing) role of social media in national elections.
Despite the widespread and rising popularity of structural equation modeling (SEM) in psychology, there is still much confusion surrounding how to choose an appropriate sample size for SEM. Currently available guidance primarily consists of sample-size rules of thumb that are not backed up by research and power analyses for detecting model misspecification. Missing from most current practices is power analysis for detecting a target effect (e.g., a regression coefficient between latent variables). In this article, we (a) distinguish power to detect model misspecification from power to detect a target effect, (b) report the results of a simulation study on power to detect a target regression coefficient in a three-predictor latent regression model, and (c) introduce a user-friendly Shiny app, pwrSEM, for conducting power analysis for detecting target effects in structural equation models.
Consumer-brand engagement on social media is a widely studied research topic with high relevance for marketing practitioners. However, the discipline is affected by a conceptual divergence and limited understanding of applicable research methods. The purpose of this article is to review the extant empirical research in the marketing literature that investigates consumer engagement with brands on social media, provide an overview of the research methods employed, and suggest implications for future research. Through systematic review of 66 published studies, this article aims to explore what methods are used to empirically investigate consumer engagement with brands on social media and asks how these methods have evolved over time. The study categorises the current research and demonstrates the evolution of research methods and themes from 2011 until 2019. This literature review revealed three observations: (a) low methods’ diversity, (b) dominant reliance on visible social media metrics and (c) negative aspects of consumer brand engagement as an emerging theme. The insights developed and the observed trends can be helpful in shaping future research and practice in the field of consumer brand engagement.
The Internet has evolved into a ubiquitous and indispensable digital environment in which people communicate, seek information, and make decisions. Despite offering various benefits, online environments are also replete with smart, highly adaptive choice architectures designed primarily to maximize commercial interests, capture and sustain users’ attention, monetize user data, and predict and influence future behavior. This online landscape holds multiple negative consequences for society, such as a decline in human autonomy, rising incivility in online conversation, the facilitation of political extremism, and the spread of disinformation. Benevolent choice architects working with regulators may curb the worst excesses of manipulative choice architectures, yet the strategic advantages, resources, and data remain with commercial players. One way to address some of this imbalance is with interventions that empower Internet users to gain some control over their digital environments, in part by boosting their information literacy and their cognitive resistance to manipulation. Our goal is to present a conceptual map of interventions that are based on insights from psychological science. We begin by systematically outlining how online and offline environments differ despite being increasingly inextricable. We then identify four major types of challenges that users encounter in online environments: persuasive and manipulative choice architectures, AI-assisted information architectures, false and misleading information, and distracting environments. Next, we turn to how psychological science can inform interventions to counteract these challenges of the digital world. After distinguishing among three types of behavioral and cognitive interventions—nudges, technocognition, and boosts—we focus on boosts, of which we identify two main groups: (a) those aimed at enhancing people’s agency in their digital environments (e.g., self-nudging, deliberate ignorance) and (b) those aimed at boosting competencies of reasoning and resilience to manipulation (e.g., simple decision aids, inoculation). These cognitive tools are designed to foster the civility of online discourse and protect reason and human autonomy against manipulative choice architectures, attention-grabbing techniques, and the spread of false information.
In the 21st century, green consumption has risen into a global trend, which inclines cosmetic companies to be more environmental-friendly and to have a larger green product portfolio to satisfy these new consumers’ needs. Social media contributed to this trend, shaping consumers’ attitudes into more environmentally conscious behavior. The present study applied the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) to explain the impact of Social Media on consumers’ purchase intention and motivation (altruism and egoism). Based on empirical investigation, an online survey was developed to measure the proposed conceptual model. The reliability and validity of the reflective constructs were tested using partial least squares (PLS) modeling technique. The results indicate the importance of social media on consumers’ attitudes, subjective norms, altruistic and egoistic motivations, and the impact of these variables as the antecedents of green cosmetics purchase intention. These results have important theoretical implications. They revealed that external factors such as social media as an information source, have an important role in consumer motivation formation and green cosmetic purchasing intentions. The findings are relevant for marketers to implement better communication strategies on social media to increase consumers’ motivations and purchase intention toward green cosmetics.
This study explores young voters’ perception of social media use and activities of political brands in light of their general apathy towards traditional politics. Focus groups were conducted with young voters to collect data. Relationship Marketing Orientation served as the study’s underpinning theoretical framework. Findings suggest that young voters perceive that mainstream political brands are not utilising social media to build online relationships. However, smaller political brands enjoyed a positive perception. This was due to them excelling on the dimensions of bonding, trust and shared values. The research provides executable recommendations to political brands and their social media teams. The research also identifies and proposes ‘customer education’ as the eighth dimension of relationship marketing orientation.
In Britain, by 2015, Web 2.0 had become a more widely accepted and established mode of civic engagement of which political e-participation became an observable extension. However, in the run-up to 2010, social media were newer, less understood and largely associated with younger generations. These changes present questions about how wider technocultural developments impacted political engagement between the 2010 and 2015 UK general elections. This article aims to go some way in examining this question with a theoretical focus on the role of Facebook as a driver of change in political organisation. Using the British Conservative Party as a case study, the article analyses and compares events, observations and shifting power relations associated with digital technology and organisational change observed over two election cycles spanning from 2005 to 2015. A focal aim is to examine changes in Conservative Party campaigns and organisation in order to contribute to wider debates about the impact of digital technology in changing the organisation and activities of actors, like political parties and political participants, in democratic contexts. The article concludes that a complex combination of internal and external, technological and human, and grassroots and centralised factors played roles in changing the Conservative Party.
This paper explores how consumers perceive retailer ethics. Based on a review of the marketing and consumer research literature, we conceptualize consumer perceptions of the ethics of retailers (CPER) as a multidimensional construct and propose that its effects on consumer purchase behavior and word-of-mouth communication are more salient when consumers have strong rather than weak ethical beliefs. The model was validated using a random sample of 399 respondents in a collectivist society. The results of structural equation modeling confirmed that CPER is a second-order construct comprising product fairness, price fairness, non-deception, fair trade, and green products. CPER positively predicted consumer purchase behavior and word-of-mouth communication. Moreover, ethical beliefs moderated the positive relationship between CPER and the word-of-mouth communication of consumers with strong ethical beliefs but did not moderate the relationship between CPER and purchase behavior. The implications of the findings are discussed.
Marketers today use social networking sites as their communication channel to promote their brands. There is a growing importance to this media to increase consumer’s online participation and engagement. The aim of this research it to identify the determinants of consumer brand engagement behavior in Facebook brand pages and its impact on brand loyalty. This study applies the uses and gratification theory (UGT), social influence theory and technology adoption models to explain why consumers are engaged in Facebook brand pages. This research adopted mixed approach of research, which involves qualitative and quantitative analyses. The data about Facebook brand page activities of 100 brands were collected using Fanpage Karma, a social media evaluation tool. The second part of the study used an online questionnaire to conduct empirical research, and collected and analyzed data of 334 respondents using SEM. The finding shows computer, mobile and airlines brand categories exhibits higher engagement rate compared to retail, electronics and restaurants brands. The information seeking is the key determinant for consumers’ engagement behavior in brand pages. Social influence and economic benefits also found to stimulate the participation of consumers on social networking sites. The results also show that there is a strong relationship between engagement and brand loyalty. This study provides a new framework to understand consumer brand engagement behavior in social networking sites like Facebook.
The study of the relationship between online social media use and offline political action has mostly limited itself to an examination of political participation (or civic engagement) patterns. Does social media use also relate to the formation of citizens’ voting preferences during an election campaign? We examine this question using individual-level public opinion survey data collected during the 2012 provincial election campaign in Quebec. We find that the relationship between voting intention and social media use is significant, that it is stronger than that found for traditional (or offline) media use, and that it is stronger in the case of voting intention in favor of non-mainstream political parties.
Social media allows people to freely interact with others and offers multiple ways for marketers to reach and engage with consumers. Considering the numerous ways social media affects individuals and businesses alike, in this article, the authors focus on where they believe the future of social media lies when considering marketing-related topics and issues. Drawing on academic research, discussions with industry leaders, and popular discourse, the authors identify nine themes, organized by predicted imminence (i.e., the immediate, near, and far futures), that they believe will meaningfully shape the future of social media through three lenses: consumer, industry, and public policy. Within each theme, the authors describe the digital landscape, present and discuss their predictions, and identify relevant future research directions for academics and practitioners.
Over the last decade, extensive literature has been published regarding social media effects on real-life political participation. Many argue that social media stimulates online and offline political participation. This study investigates how online political activities impact political efficacy and real-life political participation among university students in rural Pakistan. In addition, this study also sheds light on the relationship between political activities and political awareness. We conducted an online survey of (N = 200) male and female undergraduate and graduate students from the University of Narowal, Pakistan. We used Qualtrics software to distribute our survey among students for data-collection purposes. The results reveal that the majority of the students use social media for political awareness and information. Political efficacy is significantly based on online political participation. In addition to that, social media is a vital platform for netizens to participate in real-life political activities. In conclusion, the findings of the study suggest that online political activities strongly correlate to political awareness and offline political participation. In rural areas of Pakistan, the younger generations are very active on social media to participate in online and offline political happenings.
Based on the Social Media Political Participation Model (SMPPM), this study investigates the relationship between four key motivations behind the use of Social Network Sites (SNS) and political engagement among adolescents. We collected our data in a paper-pencil survey with 15-to 20-year-old adolescents (N=294), a highly underexplored group, which is most active on social media. We theorize that adolescents' user motivations are related to political engagement via two modes of exposure: The intentional mode, which is related to active information seeking, and the incidental mode, in which adolescents run into politics only by accident. We found that political information and self-expression motivations were positively related to political engagement via the intentional mode. By contrast, entertainment motivations were negatively related to offline, but not to online engagement via the incidental mode.
This study expands uses and gratifications research into the area of political Instagram use. A survey shows the motives for following political leaders on the social media platform and how followers’ motives are associated with their demographics and political attitudes. Findings indicate that information/guidance motives are the most important for following political leaders on Instagram, with social utility being the next highest motive. Also, males use Instagram more for social utility purposes than females, and having an entertainment motive is related to being young. The results also provide insight into how the politically active can be more influential on Instagram.
Advocates of new media-especially social networks, blogs, and photo/con-tent sharing sites-argue that these tools create transformative impacts on society. Recently, around the world younger activists in popular democracy movements, uprisings, and protests, feeling disengaged by traditional forms of political discourse, have debated their positions on new media, and have used digital media to communicate, organize, and coordinate protest activities. While some media scholars suggest this is an indication that young people are active in creating a public sphere constructed by social media, there is still little real-world evidence that the technological potentials are widely realized. To address this gap, this comparative case study aims to reveal how some "ordinary" young people are using social media in response to political issues, investigating: if social media create a new kind of dynamic arena for their public activism; which factors may stimulate the young to activism; and whether their motivation is powerful enough to resist the status quo. Describing and analyzing qualitative interview data from a study of Turkish students and a parallel collection of data from US students, we construct an explanation of their communicated understandings of their differences and similarities in opportunities for political actions. Our findings indicate: there are many similar technical capacities; some similar topics are seen as political; and there are different understandings of what is and is not for public discussion among their personal collections of contacts and friends, with varying levels of real-world connections. This analysis is important in terms of understanding the ways uses of media technologies may be affected by different cultures, political and social conceptualizations and online communication patterns.
Although studies suggest that the use of social media can promote political participation (PP), there is a lack of theorizing about the psychological processes underlying this relationship. This article attempts to fill this gap by suggesting a social media political participation model. Taking a goal systemic perspective, the model specifies a set of interrelated processes that need to be realized so that social media use affects PP. Furthermore, key contingent conditions are outlined and insights into fostering PP are offered. The article explains ways of testing the model with surveys and experiments. Implications for future research are discussed.
Online trends and platforms come and go, and media professionals have historically shown a keen interest in adopting novel modes of content distribution in order to capture the interest of the elusive online audience. The paper at hand provides insights into the employment of online interactivity by news media users in relation to the social media presences of a selection of Norwegian media outlets. Adopting a comparative approach, the study features analysis of data from online mainstay Facebook and from the comparably novel Instagram platform. Among other things, results suggest that the previously noted tendency for audience members to prefer 'lighter' or less demanding modes of interaction with online news content is further strengthened – especially on the latter of the two studied platforms. Given that Instagram tends to attract comparably younger users, implications for the news media industries as well as for future trends regarding audience interaction in relation to news are discussed.
The Logic of Connective Action explains the rise of a personalized digitally networked politics in which diverse individuals address the common problems of our times such as economic fairness and climate change. Rich case studies from the United States, United Kingdom, and Germany illustrate a theoretical framework for understanding how large-scale connective action is coordinated using inclusive discourses such as “We Are the 99%” that travel easily through social media. in many of these mobilizations, communication operates as an organizational process that may replace or supplement familiar forms of collective action based on organizational resource mobilization, leadership, and collective action framing. in some cases, connective action emerges from crowds that shun leaders, as when Occupy protesters created media networks to channel resources and create loose ties among dispersed physical groups. in other cases, conventional political organizations deploy personalized communication logics to enable large-scale engagement with a variety of political causes. The Logic of Connective Action shows how power is organized in communication-based networks, and what political outcomes may result.
We assess whether and how accidental exposure to political information on social media contributes to citizens’ online political participation in comparative perspective. Based on three online surveys of samples representative of German, Italian, and British Internet users in the aftermath of the 2014 European Parliament elections, we find that accidental exposure to political information on social media is positively and significantly correlated with online participation in all three countries, particularly so in Germany where overall levels of participation were lower. We also find that interest in politics moderates this relationship so that the correlation is stronger among the less interested than among the highly interested. These findings suggest that inadvertent encounters with political content on social media are likely to reduce the gap in online engagement between citizens with high and low interest in politics, potentially broadening the range of voices that make themselves heard.
This article is concerned with social media activism at the margins and deals with the problem of managing visibility and voice and the role of affect in the emergence of contested publics over time. While we hear a lot about social media mobilization and exchange during critical and large-scale protest events, less is understood about the capacities for building and maintaining more peripheral dissident publics over longer timeframes. And while platforms such as YouTube have been celebrated (and censored) for their ability to make protest visible through dispersed affective networks, the increasingly commercialized channel structure raises questions about the sustainability of ordinary acts of protest in the long term. This article examines a case study of peripheral anarchist political activism that moves through and beyond critical events. The study applies methods of video content analysis, qualitative analysis of comments and interactions, and visual analysis of selected videos to examine emergent “affective publics,” drawing on Daniel Stern’s notion of vitality affects.
The growth in ethical consumption behaviour and greater interest in sustainable fashion from
a production side provides grounding for the emergence of a new consumer market for
sustainable fashion. To date however most studies in this field focus on the production end of
the emerging market, with little exploration of the consumers. Of the work there is on
sustainable fashion consumption, the majority discuss perceptions of sustainable fashion by
the general population, with little work sampling actual consumers of sustainable fashion.
Therefore, the purpose of this study is to explore the values and motivations underpinning
actual sustainable fashion consumption. 39 in-depth interviews were conducted with a sample
of frequent sustainable clothing consumers. The study follows a means-end theory approach
linking purchased products back to purchasing criteria and personal values. This study
therefore contributes to the overall understanding of sustainable fashion consumption and
gives insights into purchasing criteria and behavioural choices of sustainable fashion
consumers.
We still do not fully understand why attitudes toward the European Union differ among citizens. In this study, we turn to the Big Five personality traits: Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness and Neuroticism as antecedents of European Union attitudes. In a national survey, we focus on attitudes toward widening and deepening of the European Union, trust in European Union institutions, identification with the European Union and negative affect experienced toward the European Union. We theorize that the Big Five traits are heterogeneously associated with the different European Union attitudes. We confirm that the Big Five traits are indeed associated with some but not all European Union attitudes. Accordingly, personality is expected to shape how citizens' respond to changes in the institutional setup of the European Union.
This study examines (1) how social media use (i.e., blogs and social network sites (SNSs)) influences individuals’ online political participation; and (2) the mediating role of exposure to political perspectives (i.e., exposure to like-minded and cross-cutting viewpoints) in the relationship between social media use and online political participation. The results show that both blog and SNS use are positively related to online political participation. Most interestingly, exposure to like-minded perspectives mediates the relationship between individuals’ blog use and online political participation while exposure to cross-cutting perspectives mediates the relationship between SNS use and participation.
Both anecdotal and case-study evidence have long suggested that consumer behavior such as the buying or boycotting of products and services for political and ethical reasons can take on political significance. Despite recent claims that such behavior has become more widespread in recent years, political consumerism has not been studied systematically in survey research on political participation. Through the use of a pilot survey conducted among 1015 Canadian, Belgian, and Swedish students, we ascertain whether political consumerism is a sufficiently consistent behavioral pattern to be measured and studied meaningfully. The data from this pilot survey allow us to build a “political consumerism index” incorporating attitudinal, behavioral, and frequency measurements. Our analysis of this cross-national student sample suggests that political consumerism is primarily a tool of those who are distrustful of political institutions. However, political consumers have more trust in other citizens, and they are disproportionately involved in checkbook organizations. They also tend to score highly on measures of political efficacy and post-materialism. We strongly suggest including measurements of political consumerism together with other emerging forms of activism in future population surveys on political participation.
Exposure to news, opinion and civic information increasingly occurs through social media. How do these online networks influence exposure to perspectives that cut across ideological lines? Using de-identified data, we examined how 10.1 million U.S. Facebook users interact with socially shared news. We directly measured ideological homophily in friend networks, and examine the extent to which heterogeneous friends could potentially expose individuals to cross-cutting content. We then quantified the extent to which individuals encounter comparatively more or less diverse content while interacting via Facebook's algorithmically ranked News Feed, and further studied users' choices to click through to ideologically discordant content. Compared to algorithmic ranking, individuals' choices about what to consume had a stronger effect limiting exposure to cross-cutting content.
Copyright © 2015, American Association for the Advancement of Science.
An ongoing debate concerns the extent to which political consumerism constitutes political behavior. To address this debate, researchers have examined several predictors of political consumerism, but have not focused on its communicative dimensions, especially with respect to digital media. In this study we conceptualize political consumerism as a form of civic engagement, and we theorize that people who use social media are more likely to engage in political consumerism than those who do not. Using original survey data collected in the US, we find that political consumerism is more closely related to civic engagement than it is to political participation, and that use of social media mediates the relationship between general Internet use and political consumerism.
The digital traces of U.S. members of congress on Twitter enable researchers to observe how these public officials interact with one another in a direct and unobtrusive manner. Using data from Twitter and other sources (e.g., roll-call vote data), this study aims to examine how members of congress connect and communicate with one another on Twitter, why they will connect and communicate with one another in such a way, and what effects such connection and communication among members of congress have on their floor vote behavior. The follower-followee and communication networks of members of congress on Twitter demonstrate a high degree of partisan homogeneity. Members of congress prefer to follow or communicate with other members who are similar to them in terms of partisanship, home state, chamber, and public concern. This condition is known as the homophily effect in social network research. However, the magnitude of the homophily effect is mitigated when the effects of endogenous networking mechanisms (i.e., reciprocity and triadic closure) in such networks are controlled. Follower-followee ties can facilitate political discourse among members of congress on Twitter, whereas both follower-followee and communication ties on Twitter increase the likelihood of vote agreement among members of congress. The theoretical, methodological, and practical implications of the findings are addressed.
Research shows that digital media use is positively related to political participation. However, this relationship does not appear in all studies. To date, researchers have generally treated inconsistent findings from study to study and from election to election as an empirical problem that reflects differences in measurement and model specification. In this article, we question the assumption that a consistent relationship between Internet use and political participation should exist over time. We test this expectation using 12 years of data from the American National Election Studies. Our findings support the expectation that a general measure of Internet use for political information is not consistently related to six acts of traditional political participation across elections.
Politics and the Twitter Revolution: How Tweets Influence the Relationship between Political Leaders and the Public, by John H. Parmelee and Shannon L. Bichard, is the first comprehensive examination of how Twitter is used politically. Surveys and in-depth interviews with political Twitter users answer several important questions, including: Who follows the political leaders on Twitter, and why? How persuasive are political tweets? Is political Twitter use good for democracy?
These and other questions are answered from theoretical perspectives, such as uses and gratifications, word-of-mouth communication, selective exposure, innovation characteristics, and the continuity-discontinuity framework. In addition, content analysis and frame analysis illustrate how political leaders' tweets frame their policies and personalities.
The findings in Politics and the Twitter Revolution show Twitter to be surprisingly influential on political discourse. Twitter has caused major changes in how people engage politically. Followers regularly take actions that are requested in leaders' tweets, and, in many cases, leaders' tweets shape followers' political views more than friends and family. Other findings raise concerns. For some, Twitter use contributes to political polarization, and there is frequently a disconnect between what followers expect from leaders on Twitter and what those leaders are giving them.
Online social networking has become a reality and integral part of the daily personal, social and business life. The extraordinary increase of the user numbers of Social Networking Sites (SNS) and the rampant creation of online communities presents businesses with many challenges and opportunities. From the commercial perspective, the SNS are an interesting and promising field: online social networks are important sources of market intelligence and also offer interesting options for co-operation, networking and marketing. For SMEs especially the Social Networking Sites represent a simple and low cost solution for listening the customer’s voice, reaching potential customers and creating extensive business networks. This paper presents the results of a national survey mapping the demographic, social and behavioral characteristics of the Dutch users of SNS. The study identifies four different user profiles and proposes a segmentation framework as basis for better understanding the nature and behavior of the participants in online communities. The findings present new insights to marketing strategists eager to use the communication potential of such communities; the findings are also interesting for businesses willing to explore the potential of online networking as a low cost yet very efficient alternative to physical, traditional networking.
Purpose
This study aims to explore the factors that encourage Generation Z consumers to turn an ethical purchase intention into purchase behaviour. Theory of planned behaviour model is applied to understand the Generation Z ethical consumerism.
Design/methodology/approach
Qualitative method in the form of 18 semi-structured interviews was conducted on participants aged within the Generation Z cohort in the UK.
Findings
Research findings show that Generation Z has strong awareness and desire towards ethical and environmental issues. Driven in the main by the cohorts unlimited exposure to social media platforms and online resources where information is shared. Generation Z’s frugality limits them to purchase truly ethically in their current life stage. Financial aspirations from this target market suggest a future desire to purchase high value ethical items. Further trends discovered highlighted sustainable lifestyle choices within the generation. Recycling, diet choices and reduced consumption on clothing were expressed. The paper highlights that Generation Z are aware of ethical issues prevalent in society and are doing what they can at this life stage to make a positive impact.
Practical implications
This research has valuable implications for both academics and marketers. It provides new insights for scholars into understanding Generation Z decision-making in ethical consumption. It successfully applied the Theory of Planned Behaviour to understand generational consumer behaviour. The findings can assist practitioners to determine effective marketing strategies to persuade Generation Z to act ethically. The research can also be considered when dealing with government legislation when tackling social change in younger population as this appeared important factor for the researched consumers. Marketers should also consider digital influencers as part of their communication campaigns targeting Generation Z users.
Originality/value
This search offers a valuable contribution to current academic findings towards Generation Z research as ethical consumers incorporating TPB framework.
Despite the resources devoted to microtargeting in recent election campaigns, we still have a limited understanding of its impacts on the electorate. This article aims to test the reinforcement effect of microtargeted messages on voters’ attitudes. Specifically, it looks at how microtargeting influences the strength and stability of partisan affiliation and the probability of voters changing their vote choice during the 2015 Canadian election campaign. Given that individuals are not targeted randomly, entropy balancing is used to model selection into treatment and create a valid counterfactual for microtargeted individuals. This approach is complemented by an extensive sensitivity analysis to improve confidence in selection on observables. We find evidence that microtargeting reinforces party ties and makes voters less likely to defect from their preferred party.
There is a lack of research relevant to word of mouth (WOM) communication in political marketing. Also, existing studies on WOM communication identified behavioral determinants of the concept and neglected associated marketing stimuli. This study offers a 10-dimensional 62-item statistically significant WOM model for political marketing to address the stated lacuna. The study utilized structural equation modeling (SEM) to analyze 2357 pieces of primary data collected as samples from voters in Bangladesh. To prepare the questionnaire, authors created a pool of relevant items (through recent studies found in Google scholars) and tested the content validity through literature review, expert opinion of five academics, comments of three political scientists, and pilot study. Results of the study revealed that all political marketing dimensions of the model influence WOM sharing and WOM recommendation. The study also found a significant influence of external variables (media, internet, and technology) on WOM communication. Item-specific results found that in regards to political mix components, the ones that had the most influence on WOM communication were psychological cost if the candidate wins, image of the candidate as leader, using celebrities and icons in the campaigns, building election gates, and candidate’s modesty.
Purpose
Political marketing is unable to reach out or influence voters as it once did. This study seeks to identify means for political marketers to effectively reach to voters. Specifically, this study examines the role of different WOM/e-WOM political messages (shallow vs. deep) delivered through various communication channels on voters’ message evaluation, believability, attitude towards the message and communication, message involvement, voting intentions, and WOM/e-WOM intentions.
Design/methodology/approach
Two experimental design studies were conducted to test the research hypotheses. Data were collected from age-based voting cohorts through snowball sampling and online consumer panels.
Findings
The results suggest that political WOM/e-WOM messages received via different communication modes are perceived differently by age-based voting cohorts in terms of message evaluation, believability, and attitudinal dispositions. The perceived credibility of the communication source makes a difference in such evaluations and dispositions. Also, the complexity of message impacts behavioral intentions of age-based voting cohorts differently. Older (younger) voter cohorts are more receptive to complex and detailed (short and brief) messages. Political message involvement mediates the relationship between message believability and voting intentions as well as WOM/e-WOM intentions.
Research limitations/implications
The results are limited in terms of generalizability due to the experimental nature of the studies. Future research may seek to use actual candidates and examine the effects of moderators such as the cognition-based needs of respondents to engage in central or peripheral processing.
Practical implications
Political marketers can achieve greater credibility and effectiveness as well as partially restore political marketing’s reputation by honoring three guidelines: (1) construct shallower (or deeper) political marketing messages when (2) targeting younger (or older) voting cohorts through (3) internet-connected (or traditional) delivery modes.
Originality/value
This paper explores an important but under researched area in political marketing (i.e., the use of WOM/e-WOM messages in political marketing) and identifies important differences in attitudinal and behavioral dispositions of age-based voting cohorts impacted by the choice of communication mode and message complexity. Moreover, the perceived credibility of the communication source (sender) can sway communication mode preferences for age-based voting cohorts.
This study extends the nascent stream of research that investigates the contributions of mobile and virtual technology to consumer misbehaviour and dark side of consumer life. Using a qualitative approach, the present research explores the nature of consumer–technology relationship, specifically virtual and mobile technology, at the level of lived experience. The findings reflect eight important facets of technology-related dark-side consumer behaviour that, in one way or another, cause harm to the individual user, other consumers or society at large. These themes showcase human entrapment in mobile and virtual technology. The findings have significant implications for marketing managers as well as consumer well-being.
The book contributes to the vast field of research in psychometrics as well as to the growing field of positive psychology. It analyses the development and validation of several constructs of positive psychology like resilience, flow, mindfulness, spirituality, and intrapersonal and interpersonal strengths. The chapters discuss the test construction process and develop scales for constructs that are validated on the Indian population. In most Indian behavioral research, psychological tests from the West are employed without assessing psychometric properties in India. However, establishing validation of psychological tests in a new culture is necessary in order to claim results based on these tests. Hence, this book bridges this gap in positive psychology and its allied fields and develops and standardizes these scales for the Indian population. The new constructed and validated scales have undergone rigorous statistical screening. Psychologists, psychiatrists, and social workers interested in studying well-being in India and in understanding how to create psychometric scales for non-Western populations will find the book useful for their research.
As an alternative to the seemingly natural objectivity and self-evidence of "data," this paper builds on recent francophone literature by developing a critical conceptualization of "digital traces." Underlining the materiality and discursiveness of traces allows us to understand and articulate both the technical and sociopolitical implications of digital technology. The philosophies of Gilbert Simondon and Michel Foucault give strong ontological and epistemological groundings for interpreting the relationships between technology and processes of subjectification. In this light, digital traces are framed as objects and products of eteronomous interventions, the logics of which can be traced through the programs and algorithms deployed. Through the empirical examples of "Predictive Policing" and "Quantified Self" digital traces are contrasted with the premises and dreams of Big Data. While the later claims to algorithmically correlative, predict and preempt the future by reducing it to a "what-is-tocome," the digital trace paradigm offers a new perspective on how forms of self-control and control of the self are interdependent facets of "algorithmic governmentality.".
Based on the uses and gratifications framework, this study examined associations between motivations for using Facebook among college students, their concern for impression management, Facebook intensity, and psychological outcomes including sense of belonging and satisfaction with campus life. Using data from an online survey (N = 246), the study found that four motivations—entertainment, relationship maintenance, self-expression, and communication—together with impression management, were significantly associated with Facebook intensity. However, the impacts of Facebook intensity on psychological consequences were relatively limited. Theoretical implications of the study were discussed.
The debate that has arisen around the weakening of the traditional cleavages’ heuristic power in explaining vote suggests considering the role of lifestyles in designing politically meaningful social aggregates. We investigated the relationship between lifestyle and voting behavior, establishing the degree to which this relationship traces the effect of the socio-structural categories (e.g. social class) or is, at least in part, independent of them. Through a k-means clustering, we individuated a typology of four Italian lifestyles; we showed its relation to socio-demographic features and its ability to discriminate participants’ political attitudes. The subscription to each lifestyle was significantly associated with voting behavior, net of the variance accounted for by the traditional cleavages. The theoretical implication and further direction of research are discussed.
The results of this research suggest a new mandate for discriminant validity testing in marketing. Specifically, the authors demonstrate that the AVE-SV comparison (Fornell and Larcker 1981) and HTMT ratio (Henseler et al. 2015) with 0.85 cutoff provide the best assessment of discriminant validity and should be the standard for publication in marketing. These conclusions are based on a thorough assessment of the literature and the results of a Monte Carlo simulation. First, based on a content analysis of articles published in seven leading marketing journals from 1996 to 2012, the authors demonstrate that three tests—the constrained phi (Jöreskog 1971), AVE-SV (Fornell and Larcker 1981), and overlapping confidence intervals (Anderson and Gerbing 1988)—are by far most common. Further review reveals that (1) more than 20% of survey-based and over 80% of non-survey-based marketing studies fail to document tests for discriminant validity, (2) there is wide variance across journals and research streams in terms of whether discriminant validity tests are performed, (3) conclusions have already been drawn about the relative stringency of the three most common methods, and (4) the method that is generally perceived to be most generous is being consistently misapplied in a way that erodes its stringency. Second, a Monte Carlo simulation is conducted to assess the relative rigor of the three most common tests, as well as an emerging technique (HTMT). Results reveal that (1) on average, the four discriminant validity testing methods detect violations approximately 50% of the time, (2) the constrained phi and overlapping confidence interval approaches perform very poorly in detecting violations whereas the AVE-SV test and HTMT (with a ratio cutoff of 0.85) methods perform well, and (3) the HTMT.85 method offers the best balance between high detection and low arbitrary violation (i.e., false positive) rates.
Corporate executives struggle to harness the power of social technologies. Twitter, Facebook, blogs, YouTube are where customers discuss products and companies, write their own news, and find their own deals but how do you integrate these activities into your broader marketing efforts? It's an unstoppable groundswell that affects every industry yet it's still utterly foreign to most companies running things now. When consumers you've never met are rating your company's products in public forums with which you have no experience or influence, your company is vulnerable. In "Groundswell", Josh Bernoff and Charlene Li explain how to turn this threat into an opportunity. In this updated and expanded edition of "Groundswell", featuring an all new introduction and chapters on Twitter and social media integration, you'll learn to: Evaluate new social technologies as they emerge; Determine how different groups of consumers are participating in social technology arenas; Apply a four-step process for formulating your future strategy; and, Build social technologies into your business. "Groundswell" is required reading for executives seeking to protect and strengthen their company's public image.
After 20 years of Qualitative Inquiry, some current trends and challenges are outlined, which might affect the current state and further development of qualitative research in the near future. A central focus is their impact on the politics of qualitative research. Politics of inquiry addressing problems of societal relevance are challenged by the globalization and internationalization of qualitative enquiry or trends to big data in funding. Other relevant trends are expectations about archiving and reanalysis of qualitative data, the new interest in qualitative inquiry in the context of evidence, limitations coming from ethical reviews, and the limitation to mixed methods research. These trends are discussed here by using examples from current research projects. Locating qualitative inquiry in the future is discussed between being pushed aside by citizen research and taking over some (sub)disciplines.
The mass media are ranked with respect to their perceived helpfulness in satisfying clusters of needs arising from social roles and individual dispositions. For example, integration into the sociopolitical order is best served by newspaper; while "knowing oneself" is best served by books. Cinema and books are more helpful as means of "escape" than is television. Primary relations, holidays and other cultural activities are often more important than the mass media in satisfying needs.
Television is the least specialized medium, serving many different personal and political needs. The "interchangeability" of the media over a variety of functions orders televisions, radio, newspapers, books, and cinema in a circumplex. We speculate about which attributes of the media explain the social and psychological needs they serve best. The data, drawn from an Israeli survey, are presented as a basis for cross-cultural comparison.