University of Bologna
Bocconi University
Data Reply
The Journal of Interactive Marketing Best Paper Award honors the best Journal of Interactive Marketing article published in a given calendar year. The award is given to an article that has made a significant contribution to the advancement of the practice of marketing. Editorial Board Members, Associate Editors, and Advisory Board Members vote for the best paper in an initial round, and the papers that receive the most votes are considered by a smaller committee that chooses the winner.
The winners of the 2023 award are Elisa Montaguti, Sara Valentini, and Federica Vecchioni for their article, “Content That Engages Your Customers: The Role of Brand Congruity and Promotions in Social Media,” published in the February 2023 issue of Journal of Interactive Marketing. The award committee, composed of Sonja Gensler (University of Münster), Alice Li (Ohio State University), Arvind Rangaswamy (Penn State University), and Peeter Verlegh (VU University Amsterdam), stated:
“Social network users spend nearly two hours daily on social media platforms, often sharing content with others in their network. Yet 87% of firm-generated brand posts do not evoke any reactions. To mitigate low engagement and capture consumer attention, companies post content that diverges from their brand identity and incorporates promotional themes. The authors introduce a conceptual framework to analyze how congruency with the brand and promotional themes influence users’ willingness to share content, employing a multimethod approach for validation. In a field experiment, the authors find that brand-congruent content significantly increases sharing, whereas promotional content typically reduces sharing unless it aligns with the brand. In two online lab experiments, the authors demonstrate that consumer reactance and altruistic motives are crucial for understanding these dynamics. By being aware that altruism and reactance are the drivers of consumers’ rebroadcasting behavior, companies can proactively design their social media campaigns to promote sharing.
The paper offers novel insights about the drivers of social media engagement to brand posts (e.g., the role of congruency) and offers useful guidelines for managers to effectively manage their social media posts. A key factor in the committee’s decision to select this paper for the 2023 JNM Best Paper Award is the breadth of studies conducted by the authors that included secondary data analyses and experiments. The studies not only established the presence of the effects but also provided an understanding of the reasons for the observed effects. Together, the studies made a compelling case for the novelty, validity, and the value of the results and insights.”
The article will be honored at the 2024 AMA Summer Academic Conference.
Honorable Mention
The selection committee would also like to recognize Felix Eggers, Frank T. Beke, Peter C. Verhoef, and Jaap E. Wieringa for their article titled, “The Market for Privacy: Understanding How Consumers Trade Off Privacy Practices,” as an honorable mention for this award.
2023 Finalists
The other excellent finalists for the award were:
- “The Effects of Cultural Differences on Consumers’ Willingness to Share Personal Information,” by Christopher Schumacher, Felix Eggers, Peter C. Verhoef, and Peter Maas
- “Overcoming Consumer Resistance to AI in General Health Care,” by Piotr Gaczek, Rumen Pozharliev, Grzegorz Leszczyński, and Marek Zieliński
Go to the Journal of Interactive Marketing