Master Thesis
Mimetic isomorphism on social media: how organizations use mimetic
forces to cope with social media issues
Zienat Hussainali 10000265 Master thesis
M.Sc. Business Administration
Specialization in International Management
Thesis supervisor: dr. M.K. Westermann–Behaylo Second reader: dr. L.E.D. DiVito
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Statement of Originality
This document is written by Zienat Hussainali, who declares to take full responsibility for the contents of this document.
I declare that the text and the work presented in this document are original and that no sources other than those mentioned in the text and its references have been used in creating it.
The Faculty of Economics and Business is responsible solely for the supervision of completion of the work, not for the contents.
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Acknowledgements
I wish to express the deepest appreciation to my mentor and thesis supervisor, Dr. Michelle
Westermann-Behaylo, for continuously inspiring me and providing me with guidance, feedback and especially reassurance throughout the development of my thesis.
I also wish to express my sincere gratitude to my loving family and in particular my mother, for supporting and encouraging me throughout this process.
Last, but not least, my appreciation goes out to my dear friend Christina for providing me with feedback.
4 Table of Contents Abstract p. 5 Introduction p. 6 Literature review p. 8 Issue management p. 8 Social media p. 11 Institutional isomorphism p. 14 Mimetic isomorphism p. 16
National factors and organizational fields p. 20
Theoretical framework p. 22
Social media and the mimetic response p. 23
National factors p. 25 Organizational field p. 26 Methodology p. 27 Research philosophy p. 27 Research method p. 27 Research strategy p. 28 Sampling p. 28 Data collection p. 29 Data analysis p. 29 Variables p. 31 Results p. 32 Within-case analysis p. 32 Cross-case analysis p. 44
Social media and the mimetic response p. 44
National factors p. 47
Organizational fields p. 49
Discussion p. 50
Implications p. 53
Limitations p. 54
Directions for further research p. 55
Conclusion p. 56
References p. 57
5 Abstract
The objective of this study is to investigate the extent to which organizations use mimetic
isomorphism to cope with the change social media has caused in the issue management model. In addition, the effects of organizational fields and a country’s knowledge and connectedness on this relationship are studied. To this end, a theoretical model is provided. The research method used is qualitative multiple case studies; eight cases are selected from the petition database on change.org. Based on the results, it can be concluded that organizations use mimetic isomorphism in their responses to social media issues. However, this relationship is moderated by the organization’s organizational field and its home country’s degree of knowledge and connectedness. This research demonstrates the relevance of established theories, such as institutional theory and mimetic isomorphism, in light of new developments. Directions for future include providing insights into managers’ issue management processes research and uncover underlying motives for imitation of other organizations.
Keywords: institutional theory, mimetic isomorphism, social media, organizational fields, national factors
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Introduction
Recently, Taco Bell – one of America’s largest fast-food chains specialized in Mexican style food - was petitioned by the world’s leading farm animal welfare organization, Compassion in World Farming (CFW). CFW started this petition to pressure Taco Bell to stop sourcing eggs from factory farms that keep hens in small battery cages and switch to cage-free eggs (www.change.org). The petition had received considerable attention and reached a large public through social media such as Facebook and Twitter. As a result of the exposure, the petition gathered 166,882 digital signatures from concerned people worldwide. In response to this petition, Taco Bell published a press release stating that all their restaurants would be serving exclusively cage-free eggs by the end of 2016 (www.tacobell.com).
Today, social media has made it easier than ever for any individual to criticize an organization openly by starting a petition or campaign that may become a social movement. Petitions, such the one aimed at Taco Bell, get more attention as they spread quickly through social media, causing a serious threat to an organization and its survival. These characteristics of social media have changed
organization’s issue management processes; organizations can no longer deal with issues in the way they did with traditional media (Perrault, Berman & Westermann-Behaylo, 2014). Solving these social media issues is therefore becoming increasingly important to an organization’s reputation and
legitimacy in the eyes of the public, potentially threatening the achievement of the firm’s strategic objectives.
Legitimacy can be referred to as the acceptance of an organization by its environment (Deephouse, 1996) and is essential for organizational functioning and even survival (Dowling & Pfeffer, 1975; Zimmerman & Zeitz, 2002). Legitimacy can be obtained by conforming to others’ expectations. Imitating another organizations’ behavior –that is perceived as legitimate - offers a quick solution to also be perceived as legitimate (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). When this happens, after some time, organizations become more similar in their processes and structure as they all imitate each other. This is known as institutional isomorphism. This process has different mechanisms, one of which is mimetic isomorphism (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983). This specific type of institutional isomorphism is described as conformity through imitation resulting from responses to uncertainty. Uncertainty
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prevails in situations in which there is no clear course of action. Therefore, when organizations are faced with uncertainty and are unsure about their actions, they have the tendency to imitate each other to stay legitimate.
These mimetic pressures are relevant to this study, considering that social media still cause many uncertainties for organizations, especially when used by stakeholders attempting to change organization’s practices through online campaigns. As there is no established course of action to respond to these social media issues, organizations can experience mimetic pressures, which means that they might imitate another organization’s behavior to respond to these issues.
Current research has not yet investigated the relationship between mimetic isomorphism and social media, even though, as argued by this paper, this is an important one. This study contributes to academic research by providing a new theory that aims to explain organizations’ use of mimetic isomorphism as a mechanism to reduce the uncertainty when facing social media issues. In addition, multiple perspectives are taken by incorporating the effects of national factors such as knowledge capacity and global connectedness and organizational fields. Therefore, the research question is stated as follows: To what extent do organizations use mimetic isomorphism to cope with the change social media has caused in the issue management model and how do their home countries’ degree of knowledge and connectedness and organizational field affect this?
The method of this study is a multiple case study, discussing eight cases – with petitions targeting organizations – in different organizational fields and countries varying in knowledge capacity and global connectedness. The responses of organizations are analyzed based on different characteristics to reveal the use of mimetic isomorphism. In addition, these responses are compared within and between groups to be able to detect differences and similarities.
The remainder of this paper is as follows. First, the relevant literature on issue management, social media and mimetic isomorphism is reviewed. Afterwards, these concepts are brought together in the research question and the aim of this research is discussed in more depth. In the theoretical framework the relationship between the concepts is discussed and a model is presented, which will be the foundation for the propositions. Then, the methodology is explained in detail. After this, evidence in the form of case studies will be presented and analyzed. The results of this research will be
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discussed and concluding remarks are made. The limitations and recommendations for future research complete the paper.
Literature review
Issue managementIn order to give a comprehensive definition of issue management, it is necessary to understand what is perceived as an issue. There have been many disagreements on the definition of issues in the past, but management academics have come to a broad acceptance (Jacques, 2007), defining an issue as ‘a condition or event, either internal or external to the organization which, if it continues, will have a significant effect on the functioning or performance of the organization or on its future interests’ (Regester & Larkin, 2002, p.42). In management literature, an issue becomes strategic when it can affect the organization’s ability to reach its objectives. These issues can arise from various concerns, which include social, political, environmental and corporate (Jacques, 2007; Perrault, Berman and Westermann-Behaylo, 2014; Regester & Larkin, 2002).
Issue management has also been defined in many ways through various approaches. Jaques (2007) gives an overview of the acceptable definitions used, one of which proposed by The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). They define issue management as ‘the systematic identification and action regarding public policy matters of concern to an organization’ (PRSA, 1987). Another definition is given by Johnson (1983) stating that issue management is a process by which
organizations can identify, evaluate and respond to social and political issues that may affect them. Issue management has attracted the attention of the academic world since the 1970’s (Heugens, 2002). This particular interest in issue management started with research into the issue attention cycle, focusing solely on the public’s attention to issues. Downs (1972) was one of the first to write an influential article on this topic. He develops a theoretical framework consisting of five stages with regard to the evolvement of a societal problem or issue. The framework explains how societal problems suddenly become and remain prominent for a short period of time and eventually, due to loss of public interest, make way for other issues, some without being solved.
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coordinated issue management processes within organizations. This then spurred many authors to look into these issue management processes; the way in which organizations deal with issues that can become of strategic importance to them. Previously, organizations often did not recognize issues until the issues had already become of strategic importance, jeopardizing the organization’s ability to reach its objectives. In the following years and even decades, many authors have been researching the issue attention cycle or issue evolution (Peters & Hogwood, 1985; Schneider & Meyer, 1991;
Zyglidopoulos, 2003) and issue management processes (Ansoff, 1980; Dutton & Ottensmeyer, 1987; Mahon & Waddock, 1992).
Resulting from this is a well-established field of academic research and a corporate function for issue management (Perrault, Berman and Westermann-Behaylo, 2014). However, research on issue management since then has been divided into two main streams; the public affairs or public policy approach and the organizational behavior or internal process approach. These two streams overlap significantly, but have slightly different interpretations of issue management (Heugens, 2002; Jaques, 2009).
The public affairs stream has predominantly focused on macro-level issue management, regarding problems such as the type of scanning tools and systems that organizations should use to identify issues early on and ensure that issues can be tracked throughout their life span. This stream of research involves problems like sense-making processes on individual levels in environments with an overload of stimuli and specific cues that organizational decision-makers respond to when recognizing issues as threats (Heugens, 2002; Jaques, 2009).
Strategic issue management models focus on enabling organization to identify and respond to strategic issues quickly by systematically scanning the organization’s environment (Ansoff, 1980). Important in traditional issue management frameworks is managers’ perception, interpretation and response (Perrault, Berman & Westermann-Behaylo, 2014). Managers’ attention first has to be directed to issues through specific situations, which can be linked to the second stage of the issue attention cycle (Downs, 1972); managers can recognize the issue at the same time that it attracts more public attention through significant events. When the issue is perceived, it is interpreted. This indicates that the urgency of taking action is determined and the success of potential action is evaluated (Dutton
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& Duncan, 1987), after which the organization responds. The underlying assumption is that strategic action depends on perceptions and interpretations of the environment, organization and strategic issues, which are subject to other influences, such as individual or group characteristics and organizational context (Schneider & Meyer, 1991).
In their research, Perrault, Berman & Westermann-Behaylo (2014) present the generic issue management model (figure 1) based on Isabella (1990) in which it is argued that the managers’ interpretations of issues evolve through four stages. Perrault, Berman & Westermann-Behaylo (2014) argue that attention and interpretation occur as individual processes and in an iterative cycle. This cycle suggests that as the issue keeps evolving, events are triggered which cause managers to redefine the situation and start interpretation again. This eventually leads to the response of an organization, after which the issue is resolved and attention shifts to another issue.
Figure 1. A generic issue management framework (Source: Perrault, Berman & Westermann-Behaylo, 2014)
Previous research shows that issues usually follow a path through a series of stages (Isabella, 1990; Downs, 1972; Zyglidopoulos, 2003). From the perspective of an organization, issues evolve from a point where they are perceived as insignificant, then get more attention and create a conflict, after which the organization responds to an issue and the new equilibrium - whether this is a change in practices or the issue becoming non-significant - becomes institutionalized.
As discussed, the issue management framework has been established after much academic research. However, the effects of social media on this framework have not been investigated. Social media have become one of the main platforms through which stakeholders confront organizations with their concerns, which can very quickly become serious issues due to social media’s unique
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characteristics. Therefore, an important part of this research is to explore how social media have changed the generic issue management framework, building on the work of Perrault, Berman and Westermann-Behaylo (2014).
Social media
Social media are often referred to as dynamic and interactive web 2.0 applications or
consumer-generated media (De Bakker & Hellsten, 2013). The most distinctive feature of social media is that there is a possibility for creating and exchanging content between communities and individuals. This is called user-generated content; users can interact, create and upload content through social media, such as YouTube, Facebook and blogs (De Bakker & Hellsten, 2013; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010). Social media differ from traditional media in that they are free and easy to use. They also have the ability to easily connect geographically dispersed people. As Hanna, Rohm and Crittenden (2011) argue; the power of the social media ecosystem lies in the fact that we are all connected.
Previous academic research on social media has mainly focused on organizations using social media to influence their stakeholders’ perceptions. Organizations focus on gaining value on social media by improving their marketing in areas such as brand management and relationship management (Heller Baird & Parasnis, 2011; Michaelidou, Siamagka & Christodoulides, 2011; Vries, Gensler & Leeflang, 2012). However, many academics that have considered social media as only holding opportunities for organizations, have been proven wrong. In many cases, it has been shown that social media caused a shift in power from organizations to consumers and other stakeholders, offering uncertainties for and even threats to organizations (Berthon, Pitt, Plangger & Shapiro, 2012; Fournier & Avery, 2011; Hanna, Rohm & Crittenden; 2011; Kietsmann, Hermkens, McCarthy & Silvestre, 2011).
While traditionally, stakeholders used the internet to see, read and watch content, they are now increasingly utilizing platforms (blogs, social networking sites) to create, share and discuss content. Hanna, Rohm and Crittenden (2011) argue that through social media, consumers are even taking an active role in the marketing process by co-creating product designs and other marketing material. Kietzmann et al. (2011) call this the social media phenomenon, which gives stakeholders, including
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consumers, the opportunity to affect an organization’s sales, reputation and even survival.
As social media has enabled stakeholders to affect the organization’s practices, it is important to consider how managers cope with concerns and issues raised through these media – as this is increasingly happening due to the characteristics of social media. Social media connects people in numerous ways, also making it easier to connect stakeholders or activists at this point with similar interests, such as changing an organization’s practices. Through social media, they have the ability to voice criticisms on corporate practices and create awareness.
Hond and Bakker (2007) view activist groups as stakeholder groups representing a social movement, which is a shared belief about what is perceived to be a better world and able to mobilize people collectively to solve social problems. Social media enables the easy creation of these ‘issue networks’- a web of relationships that connects people through interests (Diani, 2000). This empowers activists to mobilize in large numbers, strengthening the effect issues could have on an organization’s reputation. Another social media characteristic that enables the creation of issue networks is user-generated content; activists create their own content, thereby framing issues the way they perceive them to be and emphasizing the negative consequences the organization’s practices can have. This influences others’ perceptions, causing an expanding issue network. Shirky (2011) argues that even uncoordinated groups can engage in collective action this way, while this would be practically impossible when using traditional media.
Perrault, Berman and Westermann-Behaylo (2014) argue that through social media
stakeholders can decide what issues are important, how they should be perceived and based on this, influence others’ perceptions. Organizations therefore become participants in the issue-centered process on social media, whereas they previously had more control to steer the perceptions of issues. Social media has placed organizations into a larger network of stakeholders and activists, who have gained significant influence in changing organizations’ practices.
As a result, social media has tremendously changed the way issues are presented and the conditions under which they become of strategic importance to the organization. This suggests that social media has also changed the way managers perceive, interpret and respond to issues and has direct implications for the validity of the generic issue management model under these new
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circumstances. Perrault, Berman and Westermann-Behaylo (2014) adapted and combined two
frameworks, the generic issue management model and the five stage model (Isabella, 1990), to explain how social media changed managers’ behavior regarding issues.
Perrault, Berman and Westermann-Behaylo (2014) argue that in the first stage, the issue has not been formed yet, meaning that managers do not see the issue. They start interpretation by connecting parts of information into a frame of reference through selective perception, selecting information that fits with their cognitive frame. At this stage, active interpretation does not start because the issue has not yet disrupted the organization’s practices. Managers use automatic
interpretations in this phase, which allows them to spend little time and effort to an issue that is not of strategic importance at that moment.
The issue network is now being formed and stakeholders are starting to receive information about the issue. According to Perrault, Berman and Westermann-Behaylo (2014), some researchers suggest that managers can respond proactively at this time when they perceive the issue to be
dangerous to the organization. If not, the issue can generate more and more attention, mobilize a larger issue network and even reach traditional media, at which point the issue can become of strategic importance to the organization. It should be noted that not all organizations will recognize the issue or consider it strategically important.
Managers’ perception and interpretation change at this point, triggering active interpretation instead of automatic interpretation. The issue challenges the managers’ available frame of reference as it becomes clear that the issue is affecting the organization’s practices. This stage of the issue often comes as a surprise, drawing managers’ active attention since they have used automatic interpreting thus far. As the frame of reference is no longer relevant, managers are left uncertain about the possible threat to the organization and the way in which they should address the issue.
Next, managers form new frames of reference to reconstruct the interpretation of the issue. At this point, the issue is evaluated by the public, after which managers seek information to be able to interpret the issue through the public’s perspective. This way, the response of the organization can be adjusted to the motives of the activists, reaching strategic goals. In many cases, managers respond to the social media issue by compromising and changing their practices in order to avoid any more
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reputational damages (Perraults, Berman & Westermann-Behaylo, 2014).
In this process, it becomes clear that when social media come into play, it changes the generic issue management framework, mostly due to the speed and the intensity with which issues arise. While managers usually start out with a frame of reference, social media have enabled issues to rise quickly enough to go unnoticed until an issue network has already started forming, indicating that relatively considerable time goes by before the issue gets the manager’s attention. As a consequence, managers are surprised by this and have little time to interpret the issue, causing the cycle to speed up as an effect of social media.
Moreover, issue networks grow exponentially on social media while activists frame the issue to their advantage. It is, therefore, of great importance to quickly respond to the issue. All in all, issues move through stages more quickly on social media, creating a conflict more easily because awareness can be created in a short period of time (Perrault, Berman and Westermann-Behaylo, 2014). The uncertainty that this brings to organizations can, to some extent, be solved by using isomorphic pressures. This will be discussed in the next chapter.
Institutional isomorphism
Institutional theory is about the deeper aspects of social structure and the way in which the elements creating social structure are constructed, diffused and adapted over time and space (Scott, 2005). It reflects on the processes that cause structures to become established, which then serve as guidelines for social behavior. These structures include norms, rules and routines (Scott, 1995). North (1990) has a similar definition and argues that these structures or institutions are ‘humanly devised constraints that structure political, economic and social interactions’ (p. 97).
Many authors agree that institutionalization can be viewed as the process by which people accept a shared definition of social reality (Dacin, Goodstein & Scott, 2002; Scott, 1987). This shared definition of social reality ensures that everyone behaves in a socially accepted way according to their institutional environment, which is often taken for granted as ‘the way things are done’. These institutions do not only serve as guidelines for human behavior, but also for organizational behavior. Organizations are expected to act in accordance with their institutional environment and adhere to
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Conforming to the institutional environment is essential to organizations, because it gives them the right to exist, also known as legitimacy (Deephouse, 1996). Dealing with social media issues in a positive way is also very important to organization in order to be perceived as legitimate. They strive for legitimacy because they rely on resources from their environment and will get access to these only if they are perceived as legitimate (Mizruchi & Fein, 1999). Zimmerman and Zeitz (2002) even argue that legitimacy is a social judgment of acceptance and desirability that gives organizations the opportunity to access resources that are needed to survive and grow.
Legitimacy can thus be referred to as the acceptance of an organization by its environment (Deephouse, 1996) and is often associated with institutional theory. Legitimacy can be achieved through institutional isomorphism (Deephouse, 1996), which is a core concept of institutional theory, introduced by DiMaggio and Powell (1983). Institutional isomorphism is a constraining process that forces organizations to resemble each other when facing the same environmental conditions
(DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Slack & Hinings, 1994; Verbruggen, Christiaens & Milis, 2011). Organizations become isomorphic with their institutional environment and as a result, become identical by adapting similar structures, strategies and processes. This research focuses on organizations adapting similar processes with regard to social media issue management.
Institutional isomorphism is achieved through three different mechanisms that force for accommodation with the outside world; coercive isomorphism, mimetic isomorphism and normative isomorphism (DiMaggio and Powell (1983). It is worth noting that these mechanisms are difficult to separate as they are intertwined in many ways (Han, 1994). The first mechanism of isomorphic change is coercive isomorphism. This type of isomorphism is driven by external formal and informal
pressures exerted on the organization. These mostly come from cultural expectations of the society and other organizations upon which the organization is dependent. Some pressures that can be categorized as coercive isomorphism are government regulations.
The second type is mimetic isomorphism, which can be described as conformity through imitation and can result from responses to uncertainty. Uncertainty prevails in situations in which there is no clear course of action. Organizations may decide that the best response is to imitate an
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organization that they perceive to be successful. Uncertainty also drives organizations to imitate each other to economize on costs. For instance, when technologies are not yet fully understood, in case of ambiguous goals or when the environment creates uncertainty on how to behave as an organization, organizations can imitate others as a response.
Finally, normative isomorphism is driven by professionalism and involves two processes. The first process is that the members of an occupation receive similar training and education (e.g. attorneys and professors) which creates similar perceptions among them. Second, members of occupations interact with each other through professional associations, which further diffuse their ideas and worldviews. These members collectively try to define the methods of their work (e.g. standards) to establish legitimacy for their occupation (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983).
While it can be very interesting to study the relationship between normative and coercive isomorphism and organizations handling social media issues, this is beyond the scope of this paper. The focus of this research is mimetic isomorphism and its effect on organizations when facing social media issues. Social media issues still offer many uncertainties for organizations, not only due to the shift in power that has taken place from organizations to stakeholders causing threats to the
organization, but also because of social media’s disruption of the generic issue management model. For decades, organizations have been dealing with issues in the same way before the rise of social media. The changes that social media has brought in perceiving, interpreting and responding to issues have left many managers and organizations uncertain of their behavior. As mentioned before, mimetic isomorphism is driven by uncertainty, which is the reason that these pressures are very relevant to organizations coping with social media issues and can have direct implications for organizational behavior. Mimetic isomorphism is therefore discussed in more detail in the next section.
Mimetic isomorphism
Mimetic isomorphism is a broad concept and has been studied in many ways, including its effects on organizational structure and behavior, and within different areas of business (Haveman, 1993). Even so, the focus of this research is how the uncertainty of social media impacts
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organizational behavior. Therefore, literature on mimetic isomorphism and organizational behavior, specifically literature discussing different types of uncertainty, is explored.
As discussed, mimetic isomorphism is the imitation of an organization that is perceived as legitimate when facing uncertainty. Once many organizations act in one way, their behavior becomes the norm and institutionalizes. As a consequence, other organizations and new players facing
uncertainty will adopt this behavior to be perceived as legitimate by their environment (DiMaggio & Powell, 1983, Lieberman & Asaba, 2006).The advantages of mimetic behavior when facing a problem with unclear solutions are considerable (Cyert & March, 1963; Haveman, 1993). In addition, research has shown that mimetic isomorphism can lead to positive outcomes for organizations (Brouthers, O’Donnell & Hadjimarcou, 2005). Therefore, it is not surprising that imitation of other organizations is not uncommon and happens within various business areas (Lieberman & Asaba, 2006).
Organizations often imitate other organizations that they perceive as having superior
information. This mostly happens in uncertain situations and environments where managers are unable to assess the outcomes that their actions will have. Managers can be uncertain about the potential consequences of their actions with regard to the well-being of the organization. In these ambiguous environments, managers will be more receptive to the actions of other organizations as they comprise implicit information. As a result, they can decide to imitate the actions of these organizations to be more confident about their decisions and the outcomes of their decisions (Lieberman & Asaba, 2006).
Two authors focusing on the use of mimetic isomorphism as a coping mechanism for uncertainty are Mezias and Lant (1994). They investigate the use of institutional rules, built on the work of DiMaggio and Powell (1983). They argue that these institutional rules, which include ‘imitating large organizations’ guide changes in organizational strategies. They find support for the notion that imitating large organizations is a successful rule, especially under conditions of ambiguity, costly search and environmental variability. Organizations that followed this institutional rule and imitated the behavior of larger organizations under these conditions had better chances of surviving. DiMaggio and Powell (1983) also suggest that firms often legitimate their decisions based on similarity to previous decisions made by other organizations. Moreover, using previous decisions as guidance in making decisions can reduce decision uncertainty (Brouthers et al., 2005).
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Another research on institutional rules was conducted by Haveman (1993). He aims to explain how market structure affects rates of market entry through institutional theory. He also investigates what kind of organizations serve as role models for other organizations when entering a new market and diversifying. Thus, he researches whether organizations, when dealing with uncertainty, replace technical rules with institutional rules, such as imitating similar, larger or successful organizations. He finds that effects of mimetic isomorphism on the entry into new markets are considerable;
organizations follow successful (defined as profitable) and similar organizations within the same industry. The organizations being imitated are mostly large and profitable; he finds limited evidence for the imitation of similarly sized organizations, which indicates that the larger organizations serve as role models for smaller sized organizations.
These results show considerable support for mimetic isomorphism in high risk situations, such as a new market entry. Haveman (1993) concludes by saying that organizations, when uncertain, often engage in a tactic best described as ‘follow the leader’, more specifically, similar organizations to decide where and how to diversify. For organizations coping with the uncertainty of social media, the results of research into the use of institutional rules (Haveman, 1993; Mezias & Lant, 1994) indicate that it would be beneficial for them to imitate larger organizations as these organizations are often associated with legitimacy and success. Basing their decisions on decisions made by other
organizations – that have had desired results - can reduce uncertainty and increase the chances of positive results in dealing with social media issues.
Tingling and Parent (2002) use institutional theory as a theoretical perspective in their research on technology evaluation and selection because it provides a mechanism - mimetic isomorphism - to reduce uncertainty and ambiguity; characteristics that are also salient in technology selection and evaluation. They argue that the technology selection process is highly ambiguous for early adopting organizations. Selecting a technology, which is necessary for many organizations, before the market has pointed out a winner is a risky task and could be a very expensive decision if it is not the right one. This brings a lot of uncertainty as it can affect the organization’s competitive position and economic viability. They find support for the notion that early adopters use mimetic isomorphism in their technology decision process to reduce uncertainty. The early adopters imitated the selection decisions
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made by other organizations, even if they believed that these selections were inferior. Conforming to the decisions of other organizations, even when these are perceived as inferior, could indicate that mimetic isomorphic pressures are very powerful when organizations are faced with uncertainty.
The context of Tingling and Parent’s (2002) research is similar to this research. Uncertainty and ambiguity can also be considered characteristics of social media, as most organizations do not have much experience dealing with them. Social media becomes even more ambiguous when activists openly confront organizations with their malpractices and demand change. Responding to these issues is risky and could potentially be very damaging to the organization’s reputation if done wrong. Extending Tingling and Parent’s (2002) results, this could indicate that when selecting strategies on how to deal with social media issues, organizations could have a better strategy in mind but will still decide to follow the strategy of a successful organization due to the uncertainties, even when the alternative strategy is perceived as inferior.
Much research has also focused on the effects of mimetic isomorphism in the international business environment. Henisz and Delios (2001) investigated Japanese MNEs’ entry into foreign markets and their use of mimetic isomorphism to cope with firm-specific uncertainty, which they define as an organization’s unfamiliarity with market characteristics. The results show that when locating the first plant in another country, organizations were more likely to imitate the past location choices of home-country organizations. Additionally, they found that when organizations face firm-specific uncertainty, they rely on the past international expansion decisions of successful similar organizations.
In a similar study, Lu (2002) investigates the effects of mimetic isomorphism on the entry mode choice of Japanese organizations. The direct link between the entry mode choice and the performance and survival of the organization’s subsidiary makes this a very important decision accompanied by high uncertainty. This study provides evidence for mimetic behavior in entry mode decisions as later entrants follow the entry mode patterns set by earlier entrants. Moreover, host-country decisions made by earlier entrants predicted later entrants’ decisions, indicating the imitation of other organizations when moving into a new environment.
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international environment are very relevant to organizations dealing with social media issues, as the uncertainties of the online environment can be considered similar to the uncertainties of the
international business environment. In relation to this research, the results of Henisz and Delios’ (2001) and Lu’s (2002) studies indicate that an organization will rely on or follow other organizations’ decisions when dealing with social media issues.
The studies that have been discussed show considerable support for the notion that imitating other organizations when faced with uncertainty is common. This also indicates that when an
organization is facing a social media issue, it can imitate decisions of organizations that have already dealt with social media issues to reduce uncertainty. However, given that organizations operate in and across different contexts, the levels of uncertainty can differ based on a number of factors. This research discusses two of these factors; national factors and organizational fields.
National factors and organizational fields
National factors - global connectedness and knowledge capacity - and organizational fields are expected to affect the degree of uncertainty that organizations experience when dealing with social media issues. This, in its turn, will affect the degree of mimetic isomorphism organizations use in their response to these social media issues. Therefore, these factors are explained in more detail.
Global connectedness and knowledge capacity. International business offers many challenges for organizations as they have to be able to cope with the differences between countries. These differences can include economic, administrative and financial practices (Whitley, 1992). However, these country-level differences vary from country to country, causing some countries to be more similar than others. Berry, Guillén and Zhou (2010) take on an institutional approach to quantify cross-national distance. They discuss national factors that determine the institutional distance between countries, including but not limited to political, knowledge, connectedness, cultural, and geographic distance. The national factors used in the current research are knowledge capacity and global connectedness.
With regard to knowledge capacity, Berry et al. (2010) argue that countries differ in their capacity to innovate and create knowledge, which creates institutional distance between countries. This also affects the country’s role in the global economy. Florida (2002) also mentions that talent and
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innovation are not distributed evenly across countries, providing support for this notion. Berry et al. (2010) measure the knowledge capacity of a country by using the number of patents and scientific articles per capita.
A country’s global connectedness refers to their connection with the rest of the world. Berry et al. (2010) define it as the ability of individuals and organizations to interact with other parts of the world, acquire information and diffuse their activities. They measure global connectedness by using numbers of international tourism and internet users as a percentage of the population. However, as social media is one of the main subjects in this research, global connectedness is solely referred to as the internet usage in a country.
Knowledge capacity and global connectedness are argued to be related. Countries with a knowledge based system have more capacity to innovate and create knowledge. As a result, they will play a bigger role in the global economy and therefore have more income per capita. This enables them to invest more in research and development, leading to the discovery and use of more advanced information technology (Baliamoune-Lutz, 2003), such as the internet. Countries with a knowledge based system are often developed countries, while developing countries usually have a skill based system. Skill based countries have less capacity to innovate and create knowledge and thus have a smaller role in the global economy and less income. This leads to a lack of investment into research and development and less access to advanced technologies.
This separation between developed and developing countries is also evident based on Internet access, often referred to as the global digital divide (Guillén & Suarez, 2005). Developing countries are known to have less access to advanced technologies such as the Internet than developed countries (Chen & Wellman, 2004; Madon, 2000). This illustrates that knowledge capacity and global
connectedness typically go together.
Organizational fields. Institutional isomorphism, and thus mimetic isomorphism, usually takes place within an organizational field, causing organizations within the same field to look alike (Frumkin & Galaskiewicz, 2004). DiMaggio and Powell (1983) refer to an organizational field as organizations that “constitute a recognized area of institutional life: key suppliers, producers,
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regulatory agencies and other organizations that produce similar services or products” (p. 148). This concept has a wider reach than the term ‘industry’ in that it does not only refer to equivalent
organizations that produce the same product or service, but also refers to organizations that are related vertically (Verbruggen, Christiaens & Milis, 2011). For this research, a distinction is made based on low technology and high technology organizational fields. This will be explained in the next section.
Theoretical framework
It is clear that there is a substantial body of research available on the three main concepts of this study, which include issue management processes (Ansoff, 1980; Dutton & Ottensmeyer, 1987; Mahon & Waddock, 1992), social media (De Bakker & Hellsten, 2013; Heller, Baird & Parasnis, 2011; Kaplan & Haenlein, 2010) and mimetic isomorphism (Brouthers, O’Donnell & Hadjimarcou, 2005; Haveman, 1993; Tingling and Parent, 2002). However, no previous research uniting these concepts has been found. Therefore, this research aims to tie these concepts together in search of new theories with regard to organizational behavior on social media.
As discussed, social media has disrupted the traditional issue management model, which has caused great uncertainty for organizations. This research investigates whether organizations use mimetic isomorphism to cope with this uncertainty. In addition, the effects of national factors - knowledge capacity and global connectedness - and organizational fields on the relationship between social media and organizations’ use of mimetic isomorphism are studied. This leads to the following research question: To what extent do organizations use mimetic isomorphism to cope with the change social media has caused in the issue management model and how do their home countries’ degree of knowledge and connectedness and organizational field affect this?
In order to answer this question, a new theoretical model (figure 2) is proposed, showing the relationships between the concepts. In the following sections, these relationships are discussed in further detail. Moreover, to test the validity of this model, three propositions are proposed.
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Figure 2. Organization’s mimetic response to social media issue
Social media and the mimetic response
It has been discussed that the characteristics of social media are very different from traditional media and therefore, offer many uncertainties for organizations as they often do not know how to deal with social media. In contrast, activists have often confronted organizations through social media and have proven to be successful in using the characteristics of the social media platform to their
advantage.
Social media has the ability to connect people with similar interests, creating issue networks and mobilizing people in large numbers, reinforcing the pressure they can put on organizations (Hond & Bakker, 2007; Diani, 2000). The creation of issue networks is also facilitated by user-generated content. This enables activists to frame issues as they perceive them to be and emphasize the negative consequences of the organization’s practices, which in turn allows them to quickly create awareness and gain support from a large group (Shirky, 2011). This platform therefore offers the perfect place for activists to voice their concerns about the practices of organizations and confront them with issues.
Not only do social media enable activists to form a large issue network, create user generated content and confront organizations with their unethical practices; they also allows them to put high pressure on organizations in a short period of time. This creates uncertainty for organizations because they cannot apply their usual issue management strategies and have to find another way to cope with the issue. Besides the uncertainty that these social media’s characteristics cause, they also speed up the pace at which an issue travels through the stages. Managers often only notice the issue after it has become of strategic importance. At this point, managers need to take action quickly to avoid the issue
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from escalating. They are left with hardly any time to interpret and reinterpret the issue from various perspectives, as they would do under the different circumstances. This causes uncertainty for managers in the way they should address the issue and the consequences of their actions, because an
inappropriate response could be damaging to the organization’s reputation.
As mentioned, the uncertainty offered by social media in the online environment is
comparable to the uncertainty offered by the international business environment. Both environments can be considered new and do not offer a clear course of action when first entered. Previous research in the international business context has also shown that when an organization operates in an unstable environment, it imitates other organizations to reduce uncertainty (Henisz & Delios, 2001; Lai, Wong and Cheng, 2006; Lu, 2002). Moreover, other evidence suggests that organizations legitimate their decisions based on previous decisions made by organizations that have been in a similar situation (Brouthers et al., 2005; DiMaggio & Powell, 1983; Henisz & Delios, 2001; Levit and March, 1988; Lu, 2002).
Based on these results, this paper argues that, due to the high level of uncertainty, social media will elicit the same reaction and motivate organizations to use mimetic forces to reduce the uncertainty in their decision making processes. This mimetic behavior will be visible in the way an organization responds to social media issue. The response is the third stage in the issue management model and the only stage that produces a visible outcome that can be objectively measured, in contrast to the first two stages - attention and interpretation – which are less visible processes and are less objective as
managers would have to communicate their experiences. An organization’s response is divided based on different characteristics; the type, timing, sentiment or content of the response. It is expected that organizations will respond similarly to other organizations on at least one of these characteristics. This leads to the following propositions:
P1. An organization that is confronted with a social media issue will respond in a way that is mimetic to other organizations’ responses to a social media issue based one of following characteristics: (1) type of action, (2) timing, (3) sentiment, or (4) content.
25 National factors
It is proposed that the characteristics of social media and operating in a new environment lead to uncertainty for organizations and drives them to use mimetic isomorphism as a mechanism to reduce this uncertainty. However, the organization’s home country’s knowledge capacity and global connectedness can change the degree of uncertainty experienced by organizations. As discussed, a country’s knowledge capacity and global connectedness are related. Countries that have the capacity to innovate and create knowledge will play a bigger role in the global economy and therefore have more income per capita. This enables them to invest more in research and development, leading to the discovery and use of more advanced information technology (Baliamoune-Lutz, 2003).
The countries that are characterized by a knowledge based system with a high degree of internet usage are more knowledgeable about technology, internet and thus social media. This means that organizations that operate within these countries also have more knowledge in these areas. As a result, they will be less uncertain about social media. This decreased uncertainty will lead to
organizations responding less mimetic to social media issues than organizations in countries with a low degree of knowledge capacity and connectedness.
In contrast, organizations in countries characterized by a low degree of knowledge and connectedness have less knowledge with regard to technology and Internet. Therefore, they will experience a higher degree of uncertainty when facing social media issues and require mimetic isomorphism to reduce this uncertainty. Based on this, it is expected that their responses will show more similarities – thus, on more of the characteristics - to other organizations’ responses than those of organizations operating in a country with a high degree of knowledge and connectedness. This is stated in the following proposition:
P2. Organizations that operate in countries with a low degree of knowledge and connectedness will respond in a more mimetic manner to social media issues than organizations in countries with a high degree of knowledge and connectedness.
26 Organizational fields
In addition to national factors, organizational fields are also expected to affect the degree of uncertainty organizations experience when dealing with social media issues. As mentioned, DiMaggio and Powell (1983) state organizational fields refer to equivalent organizations in an industry and organizations related through the vertical chain (Verbruggen, Christiaens & Milis, 2011). For this research, a distinction is made between high technology (high tech) and low technology (low tech) organizational fields.
These organizational fields are based on the organization’s core business. Organizations that incorporated online activities into their business model or retail technology that provides online access are considered high tech, while organizations that do not have a part of their core business online are considered low tech. This definition differs from the traditional division between the low and high tech industry (Hatzichronoglou, 1997), because the focus of this research is social media. It can be assumed that when an organization’s profitability partially depends on online sales, they will have more
knowledge about internet and thus experience less uncertainty when it comes to dealing with social media issues.
In contrast, organizations that do not have part of their core business online and are not dependent on online sales are not actively involved with the Internet. Hence, it is argued that these organizations will experience more uncertainty when confronted with social media issues. To reduce this uncertainty, they will use mimetic forces. As a consequence, their responses will be show more similarities – thus, on more of the characteristics - to that of other organizations than the responses of organizations that are positioned in a high tech field. This leads to the following proposition:
P3. Organizations that are positioned in a low technology organizational field will respond in a more mimetic manner to social media issues than organizations that are positioned in a high technology organizational field.
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Methodology
Research philosophy
Proctor (1998) argues that consistency within the research is of great importance. The consistency between the research question, research philosophy and method of research is the rationale for any research project. According to Bryman (2012), the research philosophy is an essential part of the research as it holds assumptions about the way in which the world is perceived. In essence, the research philosophy steers the researcher towards a particular perspective, which then influences the choices made regarding the research strategy and design.
Qualitative research is characterized by its interpretivist ontology and constructionist
epistemology, viewing reality as multiple and relative (Hudson & Ozanne, 1988). The interpretivist ontology assumes that reality is socially constructed by each social actor indicating multiple, relative realities. The constructionist epistemology, or view on knowledge constructing, relates to this as it considers the world as being constantly constructed through the meaning that social actors assign to social actions. The acquired knowledge within this philosophy is therefore more socially constructed rather than objectively determined (Hudson & Ozanne, 1988).
Research method
The aim of this research is to explore a relatively new subject – organizations’ use of mimetic isomorphism when faced with social media issues - and build theory on this subject, which requires a theory building approach and therefore a qualitative research method. (Eisenhardt & Graebner, 2007). Qualitative research is a research method that uses an interpretive approach to analyze subjects and focuses on qualities of events that occur naturally and its assigned meanings (Gephart, 2004).
Moreover, it can provide thick and detailed descriptions of phenomena that cannot be reduced to a few variables (Rynes & Gephart, 2004). This rich data is necessary for theory building on subjects that have not been studied previously, which is also the case for the extent to which organizations use mimetic isomorphism to cope with social media issues.
28 Research strategy
The research strategy is qualitative case studies. Case studies offer researchers the possibility to explore a phenomenon in its context using different data sources and are useful to investigate a complex phenomenon in its context in-depth (Yin, 2003). Exploring case studies by using different data sources allows for multiple facets of the case to be captured (Baxter & Jack, 2008). A case study research is therefore especially appropriate in new topic areas. The process is iterative and tightly linked to data which results in novel, testable and empirically valid theory (Eisenhardt, 1989).
Case studies have a theory-building approach that is embedded in rich empirical data. According to Yin (2003) a case study design can be used in three situations; (1) when the research question is a ‘how’ or ‘why’ question, (2) when the researcher cannot manipulate the behavior of the subjects and (3) when the contextual conditions are relevant to the phenomenon. In this research, all three elements are relevant. Therefore, the research strategy used for this research is case studies, or more specifically embedded multiple case studies. Multiple case studies can create a more robust theory than a single case study as the propositions are more deeply grounded in empirical evidence. This design is considered robust and reliable (Yin, 2003) Moreover, a multiple case study offers the possibility to explore differences between cases and analyze cases within and across settings.
Sampling
Case study research relies heavily on theoretical sampling as the purpose of this type of research is to develop theory. This means that cases are selected for theoretical reasons, such as extending a theory, because they are suitable for exploring and extending relationships among constructs (Eisenhardt, 1989; Yin, 2003). The selected cases are typical to allow the exploration of differences within and between cases and discover similar results, which can contribute to extending existing theory (Baxter & Jack, 2008; Yin, 2003). Selecting similar cases can also enhance the generalizability of the research, as case studies are usually known for their context specificity and therefore lack of generalizability (Eisenhardt, 1989; Eisenhardt & Greabner, 2007).
In line with this, cases are selected on their contribution to theory development within the sample of cases. Eight cases or petitions that resulted in the organization responding – as the response
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is needed for analysis - were carefully selected. Moreover, the organizations in these cases are situated in two different organizational fields - high technology and low technology – and two different national contexts – low degree of knowledge and connectedness and a high degree of knowledge and connectedness. This allows for robust results by using cases within each organizational field and national context, but also when exploring differences between organizational fields and national
context.
Data collection
The cases were selected from the petition databases on the website Change.org. This website offers activists a tool to start online petitions to pressure organizations to change their practices, which are perceived as unethical or unfair. Organizations’ responses to the petition have been found online; most of them were retrieved from the website of the relevant organization and some were found with the help of online search engines. The social media attention with regard to the petition and the issue was found through the petition website and its updates on the issue, but also through the Facebook and Twitter pages of the organizations and petitioners. Moreover, Twitter was checked for relevant
hashtags and keywords, while Facebook was searched for relevant keywords in relation to the issue. To be able to explore multiple perspectives and ensure the construct validity, triangulation of data sources and types was used (Knafl & Breitmayer, 1989; Yin, 2003). A personal case study database was made, containing case study documents, notes and tabular materials. This helped to build strong evidence for each case (Yin, 2003). The additional information on cases was found through searching for key words, such as petition combined with the relevant organization on the search engine ‘google’ and websites of the relevant organizations and/or activists. Moreover, newspaper articles and articles by online media sources that reported on the issue and other sources that referred to the petition were collected.
Data analysis
For data analysis, the program Nvivo 10 was used. This program enables researchers to structure all relevant case study information by using nodes and categories. These nodes can be
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connected, which offers researchers the possibility to spot relationships and connections between cases. Basic data of each case was entered into Nvivo (see table 1).
Description Description of the petition goal
Corporation Full legal corporate name of target firm
Starting date Date petition was put online
Petitioner Name of person/group that stated the petition Victory date Date that corporation makes changes and the link Supporters Number of supporters as of the date of victory Home country The home country of the organization being petitioned Parent company and its home country The name of the parent company and its home country Internet penetration rate of home country The internet penetration rate of the organization’s home
country and if applicable, of the parent’s home country Organizational field Organizational field and if referred to as high or low tech Related websites Link and description of any website other than the initial
petition where issue is specifically mentioned. Social media attention
Corporate press releases
Twitter hashtags, tweets and retweets. Facebook shares and posts etc.
Date and summary of corporate statements related to petition
Traditional media attention Date and summary of news stories related to petition published in newspapers, magazines or broadcast on television and radio
Table 1. Basic data for each case
The data from the cases was analyzed corresponding to some key features that Eisenhardt (1989) mentions as important for case studies. The first step was within-case analysis. This is an important step as it involves descriptive and detailed case study write-up, which is central to gaining insight. Becoming familiar with each case separately was important to be able to recognize unique patterns, which accelerates cross-case comparison. The second step was to explore cross-case patterns. As argued by Eisenhardt (1989), this step can easily lead to biases because people usually leap to
conclusions based on limited information. Therefore, looking at data in divergent ways was necessary to avoid biases. This was done by selecting pairs of cases and listing differences and similarities
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between them. This stage is meant to go beyond initial impressions through the use of structured views on the data, which enhances the accuracy and reliability of the theory and the probability of novel findings (Eisenhardt, 1989). Overlapping themes and relationships have emerged from these steps.
The last step was then to assess how the evidence of the cases related to the propositions stated in the theoretical framework. However, as this is an iterative process, theory and data should be constantly compared in order to eventually generate a theory that is tightly linked to the data and can be recognized as an empirically valid theory (Eisenhardt, 1989; Eisenhardt & Greabner, 2007; Yin, 2003).
Variables
Mimetic isomorphism. The organization’s response to the issue has been analyzed based on four characteristics; the type, timing, sentiment and content of the response. The type of response refers to the decision made by the organization –whether they give in to the petitioner’s demands or not – and the type of means used to communicate this decision, which could be a press release on their website. The timing of the response was based on the number of signatures at the time of the organization’s response. The third characteristic, which is the sentiment of the response, was analyzed based on the words used. The overall sentiment of the response was determined based on the use of words with positive and negative connotations. A positive word is a word such as ‘wonderful’ while ‘bad’ qualifies as a negative word.
The last characteristic is the content of the response. The content of each organization’s response was analyzed based on the presence of the following three topics: (1) active
acknowledgement of petition or issue, (2) mentioning core values and (3) reputation management. The active acknowledgement of the issue or petition refers to organizations stating something about the overall issue or petition that they are facing in their response. The second topic, core values, is about organizations mentioning their (core) values. For example, an organization can state ‘we value simplicity and transparency’. The last topic, reputation management refers to organizations trying to defend their reputation by for example stating that they are trying to diminish the negative effects by giving in to demands or want to change as soon as possible.
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National factors. The national factors are based on the home country of the relevant organization in each case. A distinction was made between countries that have a low and high degree of knowledge capacity and global connectedness. As discussed, there is a relationship between these constructs. Therefore, both these factors are based on the internet penetration rate of a country. To divide it evenly and objectively, countries that have an internet penetration rate of 50 percent or less are considered countries with a low degree of knowledge and connectedness, while countries with an internet penetration rate higher than 50 percent are categorized as having a high degree of knowledge and connectedness.
Organizational field. Organizations have been categorized based on operating in a low technology organizational field or a high technology organizational field. Organizations that have a core part of their business online or sell technology that provides online access are considered high tech. In contrast, organizations that do not have online activities incorporated into their business model are considered low tech. To illustrate; the apparel industry would traditionally be considered a low
technology industry, while in this research it has been referred to as a high tech industry. This is due to the fact that a high percentage of clothing retailers currently offers online shopping and thus has part of their core business online.
It should be noted that organizations that simply have an online presence (website or social media), but do not incorporate this presence into their business model are not immediately referred to as high tech, because an online presence is expected from organizations operating in a modern high knowledge and connectedness country. Moreover, it is possible that, if it is not vital to their business model, organizations outsource their online presence.
Results
Within-case analysis
In this section, the eight cases including relevant background information are discussed to be able to get a deeper understanding of the context of each case. In addition, the petition is explained and
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social media attention with regard to the petition is covered. An overview of the most important aspects of each case is given in table 2 (p.43).
Case 1: Taco Bell
Taco Bell is an American fast-food chain based in California and specializes in Mexican food. The organization was established in 1962 by Glen Bell (www.tacobell.com). Taco Bell’s parent company is Yum! Brands and includes other brands like KFC and Pizza Hut
(www.yum.com/company). Taco Bell and its franchises welcome more than 35 million customers each week in more than 6500 restaurants, most of which are located in the United Stated of America (USA) and some in other parts of the world (www.tacobell.com).
On October 21st, 2015, Compassion in World Farming - the world’s leading farm animal welfare organization - started a petition to pressure Taco Bell to switch to cage-free eggs
(www.change.org). At that time, Taco Bell was sourcing eggs from factory farms that keep egg laying hens in small battery cages, preventing hens from exhibiting natural behavior, such as nesting. The petition states that ‘each hen has less space than a sheet of paper’ and may never experience natural light or fresh air until they are ready to be slaughtered. Previous petitions had already proven to be successful in pressuring large corporations like McDonalds, Burger King and Starbucks to source 100% cage-free eggs and set a timeline to do so, while some American states even completely banned the use of battery cages.
The petition was shared through social media and eventually signed 166,882 times by people all over the world. Change.org shared two similar links on their twitter to promote their petition,
including the following: ‘CIWF wants taco bell to follow McDonald's lead and purchase only cage-free eggs: [link]’ (www.twitter.com). These links were retweeted 239 times and marked favorite 170 times. Moreover, their post including link on Facebook collected 25 likes and was shared 19 times. A general search for the key words such as ‘taco bell cage free’ showed 99 tweets regarding this subject, with 78 retweets and 149 favorites. Some celebrities, like Maria Concita Alonso, a Spanish actress, also tweeted the link. Her tweet was retweeted 40 times and marked favorite 26 times.
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would be serving exclusively cage-free eggs by December 31, 2016. Taco Bell expects to be the first restaurant to completely implement this change, outpacing some competitors by years. The CEO of Taco Bell Corp., Brian Niccol, states:
“we are a brand that has our finger on the pulse of not only what appeals to our customers’ tastes but also the issues they care most about, and they tell us they want food that’s simple and easy to understand. Implementing this change at record pace underscores that we are always listening and responding to our customers, while doing what is right for our business”. (www.tacobell.com)
Taco Bell operates in the restaurant business and thus in a low tech industry. They are based in California, United States, which qualifies as a country with a high degree of knowledge and
connectedness with an internet penetration rate of 87,4 percent (www.data.worldbank.org).
Case 2: Ben & Jerry’s
Ben & Jerry’s is an American ice-cream brand established in 1978 in Vermont, USA. When Ben & Jerry’s became a wholly owned subsidiary of Unilever in 2000, they also started producing ice-cream in a factory of Unilever in the Netherlands. They operate in many countries in the USA and Europe and are known for their strong commitment to social missions and environmental
consciousness (www.benjerry.com).
On September 9th, 2015, Ben & Jerry’s was faced with a petition that pressured them to
demonstrate a strengthened commitment to end the tail docking – amputation of tails, usually without anesthetics – of their dairy cows. Ben & Jerry’s had a voluntary ‘caring dairy’ program and included a financial incentive to producers that did not dock cows’ tails. However, some farmers had refused the incentive and did not participate in the program to be able to continue tail docking. Their milk was still accepted by Ben & Jerry’s. Petitioners demanded a strengthened commitment from Ben & Jerry’s to stop all their producers from docking their cows’ tails and set up a plan for it (www.change.org).
The petition had gathered 133,480 signatures. On twitter, some tweets were tracked talking about this issue of which most also referred to the petition on www.change.org. A general search for ‘tail docking ben jerry’ resulted in 32 tweets, 27 retweets and 21 favorites. The hashtag
