AI‐Powered mental health chatbots: Examining users’ motivations,active communicative action and engagement after mass‐shooting disasters

Chatbots are gaining their popularity in society and have triggered heated discussions in academia as well. Currently, few studies explored the applications of AI‐powered mental health chatbots in a mass‐shooting disaster context. Via integrating literature from multi‐disciplines such as crisis management, mental health and digital communication, this quantitative study intends to contribute to close this gap and explore the associations between perceived gratifications and protection motivations of using mental health chatbot services, active communicative action, and online and offline engagement behaviours of solving mental health problems after disasters. This study surveyed 1,114 US participants who ever used chatbot services from top healthcare companies. Implications of the results enhance theoretical discussions on how artificial intelligence has shaped individuals’ motivations, communicative action and engagement behaviour to treat mental health problems. This study also benefits professionals who want to learn more about chatbots for mental healthcare, crisis management and customer engagement.     

Activating constructive employee behavioural responses in a crisis: Examining the effects of pre‐crisis reputation and crisis communication strategies on employee voice behaviours

This study explores how organizational management can promote employee voice behaviours, as positive behavioural reactions with constructive ideas, in responding to organizational crisis. Using an experimental study (N = 640) among full‐time employees in the United States, the study found that pre‐crisis internal reputation and crisis communication strategies—accommodative response and stealing thunder—positively and directly affected constructive employee voice behaviours in a crisis situation. Furthermore, the study revealed how post‐crisis internal reputation mediates the influences of pre‐crisis internal reputation and stealing thunder on positive/constructive and negative/destructive employee voice behaviours. The findings of this study contribute to the theoretical development of crisis communication in the internal context of an organization, especially with respect to employee voice behaviours. The study also highlights an important practical implication for crisis managers who can activate and promote positive employee behaviour voices, thereby influencing leadership's strategic decision‐making in an organizational crisis.     

More than providing ‘solutions’: towards an understanding of customer‐oriented citizenship behaviours of IS professionals

Information systems (IS) support in organizations has undergone dramatic changes over the years. IS professionals in the support function have become an important knowledge source to colleagues who seek assistance with their IS usage. Our understanding of IS professionals' customer‐oriented behaviours is limited, however. Focusing on IS post‐implementation support and drawing upon organizational citizenship behaviour (OCB) theory, this paper seeks to understand IS professionals' citizenship behaviours in supporting colleagues. Our analysis of 630 support tasks performed by IS professionals with regard to two systems at three periods reveals five types of customer‐oriented OCB: anticipation, education, justification, personalization‐technology and personalization‐business. Our results also show different associations between four contextual factors of IS support (i.e. system, user, task and problem) and the OCBs. In instances of user deficiency, more personalization‐business and anticipation OCBs were observed across all the four problem domains (functionality, data, workflow and role). By contrast, in instances of system deficiency, more personalization‐technology OCBs were observed among the two problem domains of data and functionality. Moreover, the occurrence of OCBs revealed a temporal pattern such that personalization‐business OCBs are more pronounced in early post‐implementation periods whereas anticipation OCBs and personalization‐technology OCBs become more dominant later. The categorization scheme of the customer‐oriented OCB, the OCB dynamics and the patterns between OCB types and the contextual factors advance our understanding of the evolving and challenging work of organizational IS support. Our findings extend the OCB literature on customer orientation and enrich the limited studies on knowledge‐intensive IS support work. Practical implications of the findings on IS management and policies are discussed.     

Crisis Communications Management on the Web: How Internet‐Based Technologies are Changing the Way Public Relations Professionals Handle Business Crises

This article analyses how Internet‐based technologies can help companies to: monitor their business environment online in search of potentially conflictive issues that need to be managed (issues management); to prepare a crisis communications plan that considers the Internet side of today's business landscape (crisis communications planning); to respond adequately to crises should they arise by using all available online tools (crisis response); and to establish appropriate Internet‐based actions once the crisis dies down (post‐crisis). The article also questions whether the traditional one‐way corporate approach and tone is still suitable in the new, more participative, online business environment, or whether companies should use a different tone, language, and attitude when engaging with their audiences on the Internet in a crisis situation.     

The impacts of social media bandwagon cues on public demand for regulatory intervention during corporate crises

In the social media era, a growing number of corporate crises are entwined with salient social issues. To address such crises, publics may demand their government take action with regulations, legislation or public policy remediation. Through two online experiments in China, this study investigates how social media bandwagon cues contribute to public demand for regulatory intervention during corporate crises. This study finds that a social media post collecting a great number of likes, comments and shares (i.e., high levels of bandwagon cues) can directly lead to increased public demand. This study also reveals significant mediating roles of perceived crisis severity and publics' responsibility attributions to dual agents—an in-crisis company and social systems wherein the company operates. When publics are exposed to a post with high levels of bandwagon cues, they perceive greater crisis severity, which in turn increases their responsibility attribution to the company and to social systems. The heightened responsibility attribution then spills over to public demand. Moreover, crisis blame frames of the post content moderated the effects of bandwagon cues on publics' attribution to social systems and subsequent public demand.     

A Work‐In‐Process Literature Review: Incorporating Social Media in Risk and Crisis Communication

This work‐in‐process literature review gives an overview of recent insight in the incorporation of social media in risk and crisis communication. By marrying literature and examples of social media use with best practices in risk and crisis communication, this study demonstrates how communicators can embrace social media tools to better manage a risk or crisis. Best practices in risk and crisis communication are summarized, examples of social media tools used to manage risks and crises are expounded, and recommendations for practitioners are provided to incorporate social media tools in risk and crisis communication.     

Corporate Governance in the Context of Crises: Towards a Stakeholder Theory of Crisis Management

In this paper, we take a step towards developing a stakeholder theory of crisis management. We argue that, in the context of crises, adopting the principles of a stakeholder model of corporate governance will lead companies to engage more frequently in proactive and/or accommodating crisis management behaviour even if these crisis management behaviours are not perceived to maximize shareholder value. We also propose a mechanism that may explain why the stakeholder model may be associated with more successful crisis management outcomes. We conclude by challenging the efficacy of the shareholder view in crisis and crisis‐like situations, and call for further theoretical and empirical research.     

An Examination of Consumer–Company Identification as a Key Predictor of Consumer Responses in Corporate Crisis

Through an experiment, this study examined how varying degrees of consumer–company identification, crisis severity and different crisis response messages (i.e., two‐sided vs. one‐sided) affected consumers’ responses to corporate crisis and the crisis‐affected company. Results suggested that two‐sided response messages were more effective in reducing the attribution of crisis responsibility than one‐sided positive response messages for weak identifiers, while one‐sided positive response messages were more effective than two‐sided response messages for strong identifiers. But this message effect was only found in low but not high severity crisis. Findings of the study indicated that consumer–company identification may serve as one of the key factors in predicting consumer reactions to crisis.     

Coping with Katrina: Assessing Crisis Management Behaviours in the Big One

Hurricane Katrina continues to capture attention and influence scholarship including official reports that focus more on event chronologies than on conceptual patterns. Our paper explores conceptual patterns crisis management behaviour, drawing upon Lalonde's (2004) archetypes of crisis managers as collectivists, integrators, and reactives. We add a paralytics archetype for our analysis. Key findings include an imbalance between counterproductive and constructive archetypes. Reactive and paralytic crisis manager behaviours were over‐represented, significantly contributing to conflict, communication failures, and the systemic failure of governments. Collectivist and integrator archetypes were badly under‐represented, limiting intergovernmental relations, cooperation, and communication embedded in these behaviour types. Crisis management performance with future crises would benefit from a systematic assessment of crisis management styles and behaviours.     

Understanding post‐adoption IS usage stages: an empirical assessment of self‐service information systems

Organisations have invested in self‐service information systems (IS) to provide a direct interface for service delivery. Enriching the usage of these systems can provide organisations with immense benefits. However, limited research has been directed towards understanding post‐adoption IS usage behaviour in general and specifically in the context of self‐service IS. This study proposes post‐adoption IS usage behaviour as a broader concept constituting feature level usage of IS, integration of IS in the work system and exploration of new uses of IS. We evaluate how the new conceptualisation can be used to classify users at different stages of self‐service IS usage. Further, we examine user perceptions that differentiate among the users situated at different self‐service IS usage stages. Data were collected in the context of a self‐service Web‐based IS to validate the post‐adoption IS usage constructs and to examine the proposed thesis. The newly developed conceptual structure and measures for post‐adoption IS usage behaviour exhibit strong psychometric properties. The analysis shows three distinct post‐adoption IS usage stages and highlights that usefulness, user‐initiated learning, ease of use, satisfaction and voluntariness of use differentiate users at the different stages of post‐adoption IS usage. The results show that these variables aggregate into value confirmation and learning orientation as two higher‐level concepts. Further, we evaluate the predictive efficacy of the research model in classifying users into different post‐adoption self‐service IS usage stages. Implications are drawn for future research.     

Quantized tracking control for a multi‐agent system with high‐order leader dynamics

This paper presents a study of a tracking control problem for a multi‐agent system with an active leader and quantized communication constraints. We first design a discrete‐time distributed estimator‐based tracking control for each follower‐agent and analyze the tracking convergence with the help of the Riccati equation and common Lyapunov function when the communication channel is perfect and the interconnection topology is time‐varying. Then a stochastic quantization strategy is applied to model the information communication in the agent coordination and the corresponding solution to the tracking control problem is also given. Finally, a numerical example is given to illustrate the tracking control algorithm. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley and Sons Asia Pte Ltd and Chinese Automatic Control Society     

Dynamics of Change in the Aftermath of the 2001 UK Foot and Mouth Crisis: Were Lessons Learned?

This article investigates the UK animal health sector in the aftermath of the 2001 foot and mouth crisis. The article draws together perspectives from crisis management, policy and institutional change literatures in order to assess the extent of reforms since the epidemic. Interviews with government officials and parliamentarians and the analyses of official documentation indicate that lessons have been learned and there are successes in many areas; yet, there remains key aspects of crisis management that have yet to change, which leave the government vulnerable in the event of more wide‐scale foot and mouth outbreaks. The results of the study serve to suggest that post‐crisis change research should consider making more explicit links with the institutional literature on change dynamics.     

Planning Makes (Closer to) Perfect: Exploring United States’ Local Government Officials’ Evaluations of Crisis Management

How a government responds to, manages, and communicates about crisis has direct implications for public well‐being and ultimately shapes public opinion about local governments and government officials. Yet, little is known about crisis preparation, especially that of local governments. Local governments are involved in managing any crisis situation that affects their communities, regardless of the responsible organization or nature of the crisis. This study surveys local government officials (N = 307) in 44 states across the United States who manage crisis communication to reveal unique considerations of planning, magnitude and citizen satisfaction on crisis management. Novel findings are revealed with respect to each variable to direct future crisis research, particularly that informing the precrisis stage.     

Media Frames across Stages of Health Crisis: A Crisis Management Approach to News Coverage of Flu Pandemic

Dividing a crisis management process into three stages, this study examined news coverage of swine flu crisis in terms of news frames, mortality exemplars, vaccine problems, evaluation approaches to risk magnitudes and news sources. Results revealed that various framing strategies were used in news media at different stages of the flu crisis. The frames of health risk, societal problems, political/legal issues and prevention/health education were mostly used at the pre‐crisis stage, while the medical/scientific frame was regularly utilized at the post‐crisis stage to highlight medical treatment and scientific research. The evaluation approaches were also employed differently. The qualitative approach was mostly used at the pre‐crisis stage, while the quantitative and statistical approaches were applied frequently at the post‐crisis stage. Health professionals were widely cited as news sources at each stage to increase public awareness of crisis severity, and government officials and politicians repeatedly appeared to function strategically toward the achievement of public‐institution effectiveness at the pre‐crisis stage.     

Development and validation of a crisis self‐efficacy index

This study develops a crisis self‐efficacy index to provide a tool for crisis communication researchers and practitioners to understand behavioural aspects of crisis response better. Evaluations of public's crisis self‐efficacy using this index inform strategic message development to protect the public and minimize crisis damages by identifying the public/s most in need of self‐efficacy enhancing interventions. The index also provides practitioners a useful longitudinal index to evaluate progress in crisis preparedness programs and track changes in efficacy. A four‐stage survey index development process using structural equation modelling identifies four underlying constructs of crisis self‐efficacy: action, preventive, achievement and uncertainty management.     

The effect of text messaging on 9‐ and 10‐year‐old children's reading,spelling and phonological processing skills

This paper reports on an intervention study that considered the impact of text messaging on 9‐ to 10‐year‐old children's literacy skills. One hundred and fourteen children who had never owned a mobile phone before were recruited and randomly allocated to either the intervention or control conditions. All children were pre‐ and post‐tested on a range of reading, spelling and phonological awareness measures. Children in the intervention group were given access to a mobile phone (enabled for text messaging only) for weekends and during half‐term break for a 10‐week period. It was found that there were no significant differences between the two groups of children in terms of their literacy attainment during that period. However, within the mobile phone group, there was evidence that use of text abbreviations was positively related to gains in literacy skills. Moreover, after controlling for individual differences in IQ, and the children's performance at pre‐test, textism usage was able to account for a significant amount of variance in post‐test spelling scores. These results show that text messaging does not adversely affect the development of literacy skills within this age group, and that the children's use of textisms when text messaging is positively related to improvement in literacy skills, especially spelling.     

Linking Issue Management,Corporate Social Responsibility and Crisis Communication: Applying Balance Theory in Crisis and Issue Management

Through a 2 × 2 × 3 experiment design, this study examines effects of issue‐related corporate social responsibility (CSR) programmes on stakeholder perceptions of an issue‐related crisis (i.e., blame, scepticism and corporate credibility) through the lens of balance theory. Results indicate that issue‐related CSR programmes work well in reducing scepticism when stakeholders have high issue involvement and positive attitudes. Scepticism is also found to be a mediator between issue‐related CSR programmes and perceived corporate credibility.     

Crisis Politics in Authoritarian Regimes: How Crises Catalyse Changes under the State–Society Interactive Framework

Most studies and research on crisis management and government crises focus on nations that are advanced and democratic. Through the institutionalized mechanism of voting, the public can respond to a government's handling of a crisis without destabilizing the democratic system of government. However, the consequences of crises, particularly governance crises, in authoritarian regimes have not been adequately addressed. Drawing upon different frameworks in the field, this paper proposes a heuristic crisis development ladder and a state–society interactive framework more relevant for studying crisis management in authoritarian nations such as China. By focusing on the catalytic effect of crisis that accelerates reforms and changes, this paper argues that critical crises are politically powerful and decisive in authoritarian systems, especially in the context of an increasingly proactive civil society. This paper illustrates the crisis provoking politics that influences decision‐making under non‐democratic rule.     

A research note exploring firm action announcements and consumer attributions of blame: The moderating role of base‐rate information

Consumer attributions of negative events have significant implications for crisis communication. This paper employs a scenario‐based between‐subjects design experiment to examine the effects of two types of action announcement, technical and ceremonial, on consumer attributions under different base‐rate conditions (crisis frequency in category). The findings suggest that, under high base‐rate condition, technical action announcements lead to more controllability and stability attributions than ceremonial action announcements for uninvolved firms. Under low base‐rate condition, technical action announcements lead to more stability attributions than ceremonial action announcements for involved firms.     

关联项目增强的多兴趣序列推荐方法

现有基于多兴趣框架的序列推荐方法仅从用户近期交互序列中学习得到用户多兴趣表示,忽略了数据集中项目间的关联信息。针对这一问题,提出了一种关联项目增强的多兴趣序列推荐方法IAMIRec（item associations aware multi-interest sequential recommendation method）。首先通过数据集中用户交互序列计算得到项目关联集合和对应的项目关联矩阵,然后根据项目关联矩阵通过多头自注意力机制建模用户的近期交互序列,最后使用多兴趣框架学习得到用户的多个兴趣向量并进行top-N推荐。在三个数据集上对该方法进行了测试与分析,IAMIRec在recall、NDCG（normalized discounted cumulative gain）和hit rate指标上的表现均优于相关方法。实验结果说明 IAMIRec可以实现更优的推荐性能,也表明引入项目关联信息可以有效增强用户的多兴趣表示。