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The emergence of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) has facilitated agile technology implementation that focuses on iterative adaptations via learning by doing rather than the realization of a predesigned implementation plan. This study conceptualizes such an agile approach and explicates its operationalization via a four-year qualitative case study of a business-to-business (B2B) start-up firm’s implementation of a HubSpot marketing automation (MA) SaaS. The study shows how agile implementation continuously introduces adaptations to SaaS features and organizational routines for improving their mutual fit given the organization’s goals. The study also contributes to theory by offering a novel framework for managing agile implementation processes. The findings identify the key processes of sales lead management, content marketing, and customer intelligence through which start-up firms may capitalize on MA software. peerReviewed

PurposeBased on the foundations of the schema theory, the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and customer experience literature, this research examines how the interplay between a consumer's previous shopping experience(s) and perceived credibility of negative online word-of-mouth (PCNWOM) leads to improved consumer–firm relationship quality (RQ).Design/methodology/approachThe authors utilised series of scenario-based experiments (N = 918) to test the research hypotheses.FindingsThe authors show that a focal customer's previous shopping experiences attenuate the perceived credibility of negative word-of-mouth on social media by other customers, which in turn weakens consumer–firm RQ. The authors also show that positive and negative perceptual experiences are asymmetric.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, the online shopping experiences described in the experimental scenarios were generic and did not refer to any particular product/service. Thus, calibrating products and services into categories, and studying how product type differences impact online shopping experiences warrant further research.Practical implicationsFrom a practical perspective, the authors demonstrate that not only does enhancing consumer–firm relationship quality demand meticulous integration of consumers' website and social media experiences but also in positive vs negative perception scenarios, RQ wane as review frequency increases.Originality/valueThe authors contribute significant insight into the existing literature by specifically adopting the premise that consumers' previous online shopping experience(s) will influence how credibly they will perceive negative online WOM posted on social media.

This study explores the role of sound and its interaction with marketer-generated content (MGC) (i.e., emotional, informational, transactional) in influencing customer engagement (CE) (i.e., views and shares) in the context of tourism SMEs and TikTok. Content analysis was conducted to analyze data from 7 travel guide services in Indonesia. The final dataset comprised 660 TikTok videos, 4,092,289 views, and 10,920 shares. The results confirm that cover sound has no direct effect either on views or shares. Also, cover sound has no interaction effects with any MGC in impacting CE (i.e., views and shares). Individually, the MGC of emotional content has significant and positive effects on views, while informational and transactional posts have no significant effects on views. Further, transactional social media posts have significant and positive effects on shares, while informational and emotional posts have no significant effects on shares. Theoretically, this study expands content marketing and tourism CE literature by investigating factors driving CE in the context of tourism SMEs and TikTok. Practically, findings from this research can assist tourism SMEs in optimizing their content marketing strategies on TikTok.

This study examines the effects of content characteristics (i.e., informational and emotional characteristics), language, and nonverbal information on social media engagement (SME; i.e., likes, shares, and comments) in the context of global brands operating in an emerging market and implementing TikTok as a tool for social media marketing. The data set comprised 680 posts, 1,527,340 likes, 58,529 shares, and 18,743 comments collected from global smartphone brands’ TikTok accounts specifically targeting Indonesian consumers. The findings confirm that informational content mainly generates higher SME than emotional content. English and code-switched languages generally improve SME, whereas nonverbal information mostly has no significant effects. Furthermore, English and code-switched languages mainly have negative moderating effects on the relationship between content characteristics (both informational and emotional characteristics) and SME. Theoretically, this study provides a preliminary understanding of effective SME enhancement strategies for global brands targeting consumers on TikTok in emerging markets. Practically, the results of this research can provide guidelines for global brands engaging with consumers in emerging markets. These insights can also assist global brands in creating TikTok-famous content.

Influencer marketing practices are growing on social media channels, while the usage of other mass-media channels is decreasing, prompting organisations to search for new tools with which to communicate efficiently with their target audiences. Influencers can affect purchase intentions if the audience identifies with them. For a successful collaboration with an influencer, an organisation needs to ensure that the brand fit is suitable, as the audience will become suspicious if the paid collaboration is too apparent. In addition, an organisation can ask an influencer to perform many roles during the collaboration. The objectives of this study, therefore, are to discover how organisations ensure brand fit with the influencer and to identify the roles fulfilled by the influencer in the organisation. To gain an understanding of the research topic, this qualitative research uses interviews with organisations, and interviews with media and influencer agencies located in Finland. Comparing the findings with previous research, two main implications were found. First, to ensure brand fit, the influencer’s target audience is carefully checked to see if it matches the organisation’s target audience; the values and content of the influencer are then checked in order to understand their character. The second implication is that the influencer’s roles include (among other roles) those of content creator and protagonist. The theoretical implications suggested additional steps for the influencer selection process in order to ensure the brand fit is more accurate; there was also an implication that the extensive use of the influencer’s roles would result in more effective outcomes. peerReviewed

The lifting of COVID-19 restrictions has led to the opening of many tourism destinations, with many destination marketing organizations (DMOs) adopting different strategies to attract tourists. This study explores the post-COVID-19 branding strategies of four award-winning African destinations (South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, and Mauritius) and how they utilize social media to communicate their destination brand identities. We curated the tweets of the National Tourism Boards of the examined destinations from their official Twitter accounts and analyzed them using Atlas.ti. We found that each of the destinations uniquely identifies and communicates its destination’s competitive advantages. We provide insights and implications.

Public relations (PR) focuses on storytelling by creating newsworthy content that will be communicated to target audiences. However, because social media has empowered individual consumers to an unprecedented level, we are no longer passive consumers of stories and some consumers have even reached influencer status where their opinions carry great authority. In the future, PR stories will shape global culture, but the Covid-19 pandemic has also alerted us to the damage caused by deliberate misinformation (e.g. the anti-vaccination movement). The digital environment — especially where PR now operates — is changing rapidly; artificial intelligence and machine learning are assisting corporations in processing vast volumes of unstructured data. Currently, trust in online communications is eroding in general, but the future of Web3 with blockchain technology may reverse this erosion by introducing new trust protocols into digital interactions. peerReviewed

Meeting the mobile money needs of the less privileged in developing and emerging markets opens up enormous possibilities for banks and newly emerged financial-technology firms. Many consider mobile money services a separate domain within the banking and payment sector, different from its siblings: automated teller machines, net banking, point-of-sale banking, etc. This study was conducted to investigate how mobile money services act as a reliable driver of digital financial inclusion and to determine the role of mobile money agents in the transformation from the traditional services to mobile money services. This paper presents a conceptual model based on the stimulus-organism-response paradigm. We propose that the mobile money agent characteristics are the stimuli, that the mobile money customer is the organism, and that the response of the organism to the stimuli is continuous usage, which leads to financial inclusion in the developing country of Ghana. The continuous usage of mobile money services by customers encourages more engagement experiences and advocacy intentions. We provide empirical evidence suggesting that mobile money agent credibility and service quality stimulate customer empowerment. Furthermore, we argue that for the less financially empowered customer segment, mobile money agent credibility provides the needed impetus for the continuous usage of mobile money services. peerReviewed

Gen Z – also known as ‘Generation Z’ or ‘iGeneration’ born between 1997 and 2009 – has been hit the hardest by the pandemic and remote work. Whilst the global workforce will include nearly 27% of Gen Z by 2025, it appears essential to address their needs and preferences. This chapter provides new Gen Z white-collar workers’ insights hitherto scarce in research – comparably to those of Gen Z students – to help understand how to motivate, engage, and develop them. In particular, Gen Z's values and expectations for hybrid work emerge from 15 qualitative online interviews leveraged to advance recommendations to enhance internal employer branding – that is branding intended for the organisation’s workforce – by co-creating the future of hybrid work. While most Gen Z people seem prone to switching jobs and organisations if dissatisfied with their professional situation, this study can help organisations re-envision, adapt, and refine their employee value proposition to ensure Gen Z workers’ wellbeing, engagement, satisfaction, retention, and further attraction. peerReviewed

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication on social media has revolutionized how travelers search for and share information and how they interact with one another digitally. This research examines the effects of eWOM-triggered customer-to-customer (C2C) interactions on travelers’ post-eWOM behaviors (i.e., repurchase and customer engagement) in a cross-cultural context. Drawing upon cognitive dissonance theory, a scenario-based experiment was conducted using a sample of 461 African tourists with recent intracontinental travel experience. Our findings suggest that a customer’s repurchase intention and engagement in social media C2C interactions are significantly influenced when their eWOM is challenged by other customers. Compared with individualistic cultures, such a phenomenon is more effective in collectivistic cultures, particularly when a customer shares negative eWOM. Customers in collectivistic cultures are more likely to appreciate consensus with other customers, and they tend to expend more effort toward solving dissonance. The theoretical and managerial implications of these findings are discussed.