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Consumer-brand identification (CBI) establishes when consumers use the defining attributes of a brand to define themselves. This study examines whether and how CBI influences the effectiveness of corporate response strategies suggested by the situational crisis communication theory in preventable crises and whether this influence is moderated by a threat to the self-defining attributes shared between consumers and a brand. A total of 868 consumers of two brands took part in an online experiment. CBI increases the effectiveness of corporate response strategies at mitigating negative consumer reactions. Response strategies are even more effective when a crisis does not threaten the shared defining attributes. Additionally, compensation is the strategy that really reduces consumers' negative reactions, instead of apology strategy. More theoretical and practical implications were discussed.

By using the 2014 randomly sampling survey of 36 major cities in China, the author empirically examines the status and predictors of e-government use by citizens. The author finds that nearly one third of the respondents accessed online services of city government websites, and the sampled cities vary substantially in the percentage of e-government uptake. The results show that e-government use is primarily driven by citizen trust in government, age, education, and income, whereas political efficacy, gender, nationality, household types, and occupations are not significant. There is a notable digital divide in relatively disadvantageous groups, and the government should pay particular attention to boost e-government use among these individuals.

AbstractThis study took an intergroup communication approach and examined how two types of social identities, namely organizational identity and shared ethnic identity with the victim, affect publics' reactions to a crisis. Data collected via a quasi‐experiment showed that organizational identity affects publics' reactions, such that internal publics perceive the organization more positively and have less negative word‐of‐mouth intention. Internal publics feel guilty even if they are not personally responsible for the crisis. Publics do not react more negatively when their ethnic ingroup members are accidentally victimized. Organizations should mitigate the internal publics' anger and guilt and also clarify that the crisis is nonethnicity‐related when the victims happen to be ethnic minorities to avoid any misunderstanding of victims' ethnic ingroup members.

Social media applications (SMAs) have been increasingly used by the public sector to interactively communicate with citizens, businesses, and other stakeholders, but we know little about what drives their adoption and usage. In this paper the author hypothesizes that SMA adoption is jointly shaped by top management characteristics, organizational attributes, and interorganizational and environmental factors. Drawing on a national survey of the U.S. local health departments (LHDs), his empirical findings suggest that the age and career background of top executives, organizational size, jurisdictional coverage, quality improvement initiatives, contracting-out experience, and emergency presence are key predictors of SMA adoption. The author also finds that the adoption and number of SMAs are affected by two different groups of antecedents. The results contribute to our understanding of SMA adoption and generate meaningful policy implications for LHDs and other public sectors.

AbstractDespite the fact that performance management has been ubiquitously adopted in the public sector across the world today, there is limited and inconclusive evidence that it improves citizen satisfaction with the government. In this article, we use survey data and multilevel modelling to analyse the effects of multiple performance management components on citizens' perceptions of government performance across 19 major cities in China. The results reveal that performance management does have a positive impact on citizen satisfaction. In addition, citizen participation, performance feedback and accountability, and information openness are positively associated with citizen satisfaction along various performance dimensions in different magnitudes. While we should take account of and mitigate its unintended consequences, our results suggest that it is still promising for public organizations to implement performance management.