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2021 Journal of Public Relations Research
doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2021.1944155
The purpose of this study was twofold. First, this study sought to validate the conceptualization and operationalization of lacuna publics, conceptulized as knowledge-deficient, extreme pro- and/or anti-issue activists about controversial social issues. Second, this study advanced a typology of disinformation-susceptible publics, classifying individuals into disinformation-immune, disinformation-vulnerable, disinformation-receptive, and disinformation-amplifying publics based on their issue-specific motivation, attitudes, and knowledge deficiency. In doing so, this study helps refocus scholarly attention on disinformation campaigns and how to possibly mitigate their effects. Surveys were conducted among American adults to understand lacuna publics’ information behaviors compared to those of non-lacuna publics, and to identify individuals who comprise the four disinformation-susceptible publics conceptualized in this study. Theoretical and methodological implications are discussed (120 words)
Marschlich, Sarah; Ingenhoff, Diana
2021 Journal of Public Relations Research
doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2021.1981332
Drawing from neo-institutionalism and public relations theory, this study examined to what extent corporate diplomacy builds on public relations to identify and respond to societal expectations emerging from a company’s host country environment, which can result in organizational legitimacy. Based on in-depth interviews (N = 25) with public relations executives in the United Arab Emirates, our findings imply that companies engage in corporate diplomacy to align with governmental demands while simultaneously attempting to meet internal expectations originating from employees and corporate values. The interviews resulted in the identification and description of five corporate diplomacy modes and a model describing corporate diplomacy-legitimacy, highlighting the role played by relationship cultivation and culture in gaining organizational legitimacy through corporate diplomacy. Consequently, our study provides a framework to explain the societal role of public relations in building organizational legitimacy through relationship cultivation.
2021 Journal of Public Relations Research
doi: 10.1080/1062726X.2021.2007929
This study investigated a dynamic interplay between social vigilantism (SV) – the extent to which one believes in his/her opinion superiority and the tendency to preach to others – and situational variables from the STOPS model. We explored how the two, separately and together, impacted publics’ active communicative action for problem-solving (active CAPS), as well as participation intent for an environmental corporate social responsibility (CSR) campaign. Structural equation modeling results demonstrated that problem and involvement recognitions motivated people to communicate about the given issue, while constraint recognition decreased the motivation. SV was a strong driving force for people to actively communicate about a given issue; additionally, as a moderator, SV amplified the positive effect of involvement recognition on situational motivation and that of referent criterion on active communicative engagement. SV, however, was a negative predictor of participation intent in the environmental CSR campaign. This study extends our understanding of segmentation of publics by taking a synthetic approach and furthers our knowledge in delineating more-nuanced subgroups in active publics.
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