Gender Issues - Call for Papers: Examining Social Media Phenomena from a Gender Perspective

Submission Window

August 30-October 30, 2024

Social media refers to online tools and resources that facilitate communication, teamwork, and the exchange of content among users (Kim and Ko, 2012). Social media has allowed consumers to create and shape product- or brand- or firm-related content (Kumar et al. 2016; Saridakis et al. 2016; Nadeem et al. 2020). In addition, because of social media’s interactive and bidirectional nature (Gligor et al. 2019), the way customers interact with each other, brands, and firms has changed (Wu et al. 2020; Bozkurt et al. 2021a). In today’s world, social media users or consumers can comment on an Amazon post on Instagram, retweet a Barnes & Noble post on Twitter, or share a Samsung smartphone picture on Facebook. They can also share their content with their networks publicly (e.g., sharing on their feeds) or privately (by sending through private messaging systems) (Bozkurt et al., 2023). This feature of social media platforms is critical since it affects consumers’ expectations. For example, a global survey by Statista with 5,000 individuals reveals that 83% of consumers who engage with brands/firms on social media platforms expect to receive a response to their feedback (complaints/questions) in a day (Statista, 2022c). This suggests that understanding consumers’ social media behaviors is essential for firms/brands to gain competitive advantages.

In this regard, marketing scholars have started concentrating on comprehending consumer behaviors in a social media context (Colmekcioglu et al. 2023; Hollebeek et al., 2014; Nadeem et al., 2020; Park et al., 2021; Gligor et al., 2019). To date, a plethora of social media related-phenomena have been investigated, including, but not limited to, consumers’ social media engagement (Cao et al. 2021), social media interactivity (Wang and Chen, 2021; Bozkurt et al. 2021a), social media agility (Chuang, 2020; Gligor and Bozkurt, 2021; Bozkurt et al. 2023), social media comment intention (Bozkurt et al. 2021b), social media-based WOM (Colmekcioglu et al. 2022; Park et al. 2021), social media #hastags (Rauschnabel et al. 2019), to name a few. Even though these studies provide valuable insights, very few have empirically integrated consumers’ characteristics (e.g., gender) into a research model (Park et al., 2021; Silva Santos et al., 2023; Kamboj and Rahman, 2016). Integrating such characteristics is essential since examined or proposed relations could vary by such characteristics. For example, the examined or proposed effects, directly or indirectly, could vary by gender (e.g., such effects could be stronger or weaker for males compared to females (or vice versa)) since each gender group tends to exhibit distinct attitudes and behaviors when it comes to interaction on the internet (Islam et al. 2019). Thus, investigating social media phenomena’s effects on consumers’ social media emotions, attitudes, and behaviors from consumers’ gender-related differences or/and gender-related factors (e.g., gender (in)equality (e.g., Hill and Dhanda, 1999), gender identity (e.g., Palan, 2001), gender issues (e.g., Wolin, 2003), gender justice (e.g., Gurrieri and Finn, 2023), etc.)  could offer novel insights.  Thus, the goal of this special issue is to encourage scholars to examine social media phenomena and consumers’ social media emotions, attitudes, and behaviors by taking into account gender-related differences and gender-related factors.

For the current special issue, we invite conceptual and empirical work using qualitative, quantitative, or mixed methods designs.  We encourage scholars to explore the effects of gender, gender-related differences, or/and gender-related factors (e.g., gender (in)equality, gender identity, gender justice, etc.) on social media phenomena from various stakeholder perspectives, including consumers, employees, supervisors, managers, brands, and firms.

The following research questions are some of the phenomena researchers could consider when developing their models:

• How do gender-related differences affect social media-related phenomena (e.g., social media agility, interactivity, engagement, etc.)?
• How do gender-related differences affect customer emotions, attitudes, and behaviors on social media platforms? 
• What are the underlying mechanisms?
• How do gender-related factors (e.g., gender identity) affect the link between social media-related phenomena and outcomes (e.g., engagement)?
• How do gender-related issues (e.g., gender inequality) affect customers’ perceptions and interactions with brands/firms on social media?
• Does culture moderate the impact of gender-related differences or gender-related factors on consumers’ social media behaviors? If so, how?
• How do marketers’ social media strategies affect each group? How do various groups perceive marketers’ social media strategies? Which group (males/females) is more willing to reciprocate favorably or unfavorably toward firms/brands’ social media activities (e.g., interaction)? Do social media and technological platforms (e.g., Instagram, Twitter) play an influential role in each group’s emotions, attitudes, and behaviors toward brands/firms’ social media actions? If so, how and why?
• How does the interaction between individuals’ gender and other demographic characteristics (e.g., age, ethnicity) affect consumers’ social media emotions, attitudes, and behaviors?

Guest Editors

Sıddık Bozkurt (Osmaniye Korkut Ata University) siddikbozkurt@osmaniye.edu.tr (this opens in a new tab); sddkbzkrtt@gmail.com (this opens in a new tab)

David Gligor (Florida Gulf Coast University) dgligor@fgcu.edu (this opens in a new tab)

Nichole Gligor (Florida Gulf Coast University) ngligor@fgcu.edu (this opens in a new tab)

Nazan Colmekcioglu (Cardiff University) Colmekcioglun@cardiff.ac.uk (this opens in a new tab)

Managing editor

Dr. Sıddık Bozkurt, Email: sddkbzkrtt@gmail.com (this opens in a new tab) Please contact Dr. Bozkurt with any questions regarding this special issue.

References

Bozkurt, S., Gligor, D. M., & Babin, B. J. (2021a). The role of perceived firm social media interactivity in facilitating customer engagement behaviors. European Journal of Marketing, 55(4), 995-1022.

Bozkurt, S., Gligor, D., & Hollebeek, L. D. (2021b). Ethnicity's effect on social media‐based comment intention: Comparing minority and majority consumers. Psychology & Marketing, 38(11), 1895-1910.

Bozkurt, S., Gligor, D., Locander, J., & Rather, R. A. (2023). How social media self-efficacy and social anxiety affect customer purchasing from agile brands on social media. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, (ahead-of-print).

Cao, D., Meadows, M., Wong, D., & Xia, S. (2021). Understanding consumers’ social media engagement behaviour: An examination of the moderation effect of social media context. Journal of Business Research, 122, 835-846.

Chuang, S. H. (2020). Co-creating social media agility to build strong customer-firm relationships. Industrial Marketing Management, 84, 202-211.

Colmekcioglu, N., Marvi, R., Foroudi, P., & Okumus, F. (2022). Generation, susceptibility, and response regarding negativity: An in-depth analysis on negative online reviews. Journal of Business Research, 153, 235–250.

Colmekcioglu, N., Dedeoglu, B. B., & Okumus, F. (2023). Resolving the complexity in Gen Z's envy occurrence: A cross-cultural perspective. Psychology & Marketing, 40(1), 48–72.

Gligor, D., & Bozkurt, S. (2021). The role of perceived social media agility in customer engagement. Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, 15(1), 125-146.

Gligor, D., Bozkurt, S., & Russo, I. (2019). Achieving customer engagement with social media: A qualitative comparative analysis approach. Journal of Business Research, 101, 59-69.

Gurrieri, L., & Finn, F. (2023). Gender transformative advertising pedagogy: promoting gender justice through marketing education. Journal of Marketing Management, 39(1-2), 108-133.

Hill, R. P., & Dhanda, K. K. (1999). Gender inequity and quality of life: A macromarketing perspective. Journal of Macromarketing, 19(2), 140-152.

Hollebeek, L. D., Glynn, M. S., & Brodie, R. J. (2014). Consumer brand engagement in social media: Conceptualization, scale development and validation. Journal of interactive marketing, 28(2), 149-165.

Islam, J. U., Hollebeek, L. D., Rahman, Z., Khan, I., & Rasool, A. (2019). Customer engagement in the service context: An empirical investigation of the construct, its antecedents and consequences. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 50, 277-285.

Kamboj, S., & Rahman, Z. (2016). The influence of user participation in social media-based brand communities on brand loyalty: age and gender as moderators. Journal of Brand Management, 23, 679-700.

Kim, A. J., & Ko, E. (2012). Do social media marketing activities enhance customer equity? An empirical study of luxury fashion brand. Journal of Business research, 65(10), 1480-1486.

Kumar, A., Bezawada, R., Rishika, R., Janakiraman, R., & Kannan, P. K. (2016). From social to sale: The effects of firm-generated content in social media on customer behavior. Journal of marketing, 80(1), 7-25.

Nadeem, W., Khani, A. H., Schultz, C. D., Adam, N. A., Attar, R. W., & Hajli, N. (2020). How social presence drives commitment and loyalty with online brand communities? the role of social commerce trust. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 55, 102136.

Palan, K. M. (2001). Gender identity in consumer behavior research: A literature review and research agenda. Academy of Marketing Science Review, 10(2001), 1-31.

Park, J., Hyun, H., & Thavisay, T. (2021). A study of antecedents and outcomes of social media WOM towards luxury brand purchase intention. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 58, 102272.

Rauschnabel, P. A., Sheldon, P., & Herzfeldt, E. (2019). What motivates users to hashtag on social media?. Psychology & Marketing, 36(5), 473-488.

Saridakis, C., Baltas, G., Oghazi, P., & Hultman, M. (2016). Motivation recipes for brand‐related social media use: A Boolean—fsQCA approach. Psychology & Marketing, 33(12), 1062-1070.

Silva Santos, I. L., Pimentel, C. E., & Mariano, T. E. (2023). Cyberstalking scale: development and relations with gender, FOMO and social media engagement. Current psychology, 42(6), 4802-4810.

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Wang, Y., & Chen, H. (2021). Self-presentation and interactivity: luxury branding on social media. Journal of Product & Brand Management, 30(5), 656-670.

Wolin, L. D. (2003). Gender issues in advertising—An oversight synthesis of research: 1970–2002. Journal of advertising research, 43(1), 111-129.

Wu, C. W., Guaita Martínez, J. M., & Martín Martín, J. M. (2020). An analysis of social media marketing strategy and performance in the context of fashion brands: The case of Taiwan. Psychology & Marketing, 37(9), 1185-1193.