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03:16
Twitter’s role for brand management - taking part in the
dialogue through CSR communication in social media
Etter, Michael 1 ; Plotkowiak, Thomas 2 ; Arvidsson, Adam 3
1 Center for CSR/Copenhagen Business School, IKL,
Copenhagen, Denmark; 2 MCM/University of St. Gallen, St.
Gallen, Switzerland; 3 University of Milan, Dept. of Sociology,
Milan, Italy
In recent years the junction of two long-term trends, branding
and CSR, could be witnessed moving from the organizational
periphery to its centre. Thereby CSR has been proven to have a
positive impact on brand performance, consumer attitudes and
purchase behavior (Auger et al., 2003; Brown & Dacin, 1997;
Sen & Bhattacharya, 2004; Sen, Bhattacharya & Korschun,
2006).
However, to gain brand performance CSR involvement
has to be communicated (Dawkins, 2004; Morsing, 2006).
Marketplace polls report that consumers not only expect
businesses to be socially responsible, but they also want to
be informed about what firms are doing, and will support
firms that pursue CSR initiatives (Drumwright & Murphy,
2000;Ginsberg & Bloom, 2004; Lewis 2003). Recently, the
emerge of the Web 2.0 has changed the way of communication
and interaction between businesses and consumers, by
increasing the flow of unfiltered information co-streamed by a
previously disenfranchised audience (Shirky 2008). The social
web gave birth to a new breed of ”professional consumers”
or ”prosumers” (Davis & Moy 2007) leading to a pertinent
question: ”Who is branding whom?” (Jones, Temperley &
Lima, 2009, P. 928). Marketing scholars therefore propose
to achieve maximum reach and impact on-line reputation
by gearing brand management processes towards engaging
company stakeholders in online conversations (Jones et
al,2009; Fernando,2007; Scott,2007).
Discussion of the impact of Web 2.0 on marketing is current
and topical (Gelles 2009; Arnone, Geerts & Scoubeau 2009;
Hair, Rose and Clark 2009). Among existing social media
twitter - an Internet-based micro-blogging service allowing
users to publish short messages - has become one of the most
popular tools, used by companies and consumers to publish
messages and conversationally interact through computers and
mobile phones, not at least discussing brands and products
(Krishnamurthly, Gill & Arlitt, 2008; Honeycutt & Herring,
2009; Java et al, 2009; Zhao & Rosson, 2009). By analyzing
the CSR communication of thirty corporate accounts, the like
as Starbucks and Ford, we contribute to the understanding
of the role of Twitter for brand management. Using social
network analysis (Wasserman & Faust, 1994; Borgatti, 2005)
and content analysis of 41’000 tweets, this study examines
to what extent companies are using Twitter to communicate
CSR efforts and thereby employ social media as a brand
management tool in the interaction with consumers and
opinion leaders.
04:01
Exploring the process of balancing cooperation and
competition within SMEs
Nisuls, Johanna; Kock, Sören
Hanken School of Economics, Management and Organisation,
Vasa, Finland
Since the 90’s, when co-opetition was launched as a term for
simultaneous cooperation and competition, the increased
complexity and competitive nature of the environment has
revealed itself through a more and more frequent occurrence
of a co-opetitive character among the inter-firm interactions.
Moreover, along with the empirical evidence and conceptual
frameworks embracing the simultaneous occurrence of
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cooperation and competition within the inter-firm relations
the field of co-opetition research has advanced. However, in
order to bring this field forward and to further clarify the
concept of co-opetition the advancement of our knowledge
of the actual nature of the co-opetitive relations and the
development of the content and the dynamics herein have been
highlighted (Mariani 2007; Yami, Castaldo, Dagnino, Le Roy
& Czakon 2010). In fact, Bengtsson, Eriksson and Wincent
(2010) recently argued that the basis of the complementary
character of the co-opetitive paradigm lies within the interplay
between the cooperative and the competitive interactions
and the benefits derived from a state of dynamic tensions
herein. Based on these notions the authors advance previous
assumptions, concerning how the value of the cooperation
is reflected through the level of competition and vice versa,
in their conceptualization of dynamic co-opetition based on
moderate and balanced levels of cooperation and competition
respectively (Bengtsson et al. 2010). In an attempt to further
contribute to this discussion this paper seeks to explore how
the content of the co-opetitive relations takes form through a
process of experiential learning within the dyadic relations, as
well as through the emergence of external challenges over time.
Moreover, the study aims to advance our current knowledge
on some of the challenges in balancing the levels of cooperative
and competitive interactions specifically within an SME
context. The empirical material is based on semi-structured
qualitative interviews with respondents from different units, in
altogether four competing house-manufacturing SMEs engaged
in a formal cooperation. The study takes a retrospective
approach towards analyzing the development of the nature
of the competition-dominated co-opetitive relations found
between the case companies through their joint exploration and
exploitation activities. More detailed references are available
on request.
04:02
The hidden co-opetitive agenda in standard setting -
A study of conference attendants’ norms and tactics
Eriksson, Jessica; Johansson, Marlene; Bengtsson, Maria
Umeå School of Business, Umeå, Sweden
Technological firms frequently cooperate on standard setting
as products and services within technical systems require
interoperability and compatibility between components
and protocols. In order to be competitive firms also need to
influence the standards, and studies of standard setting have
increasingly focused on the co-opetitive aspect (e.g. Garud,
Jain & Kumaraswamy, 2002). The literature on co-opetition
has largely focused on interaction at the organizational or
inter-organizational levels, yet co-opetition is ultimately an
act carried out by and affecting individuals. Recent studies
on standard setting, e.g. Leiponen (2008), have described
how individuals’ and firms’ external cooperative relations
outside the standard committees increase the likelihood of
successfully influencing the standard setting process. In this
paper we explore the micro processes and tactics through
which participants shape standards to the advantage of
their organizations, illustrating how co-opetition at the
inter-organizational level is expressed through individuals’
engagement in standard setting.
We draw on observations from a three day conference
organized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project in the
telecommunications industry and on 20 interviews with
delegates. We identify norms of behavior, such as a consensus
approach to decision making. These norms are contrasted
with tactics employed before and during the conference. One
set of tactics is ”Playing with the space in the room”, e.g.
if a particularly important issue is to be discussed, a firms’
delegates cam spread in the plenary room. If critical opinions