A SHIELD AGAINST FAKE NEWS? THE INFLUENCE OF CORPORATE REPUTATION ON CONSUMERS INTENTION TO SHARE FALSE NEWS ABOUT COMPANY ON SOCIAL NETWORK SITES
False news about companies. News sharing. Corporate reputation. Social network sites. Experimental research.
This research project proposes to examine the influence of corporate reputation on the consumer's intention to share false news about company on social network sites. What motivated this project was the increase in the number of false news about companies on social network sites and the lack of awareness about the subject. The theoretical framework adopted are the literatures about news sharing, corporate reputation and cognitive dissonance theory. The investigation method is a 2^3 factorial online experiment in blocks, in which each subject represents a block. The three manipulated factors are: corporate reputation (good vs bad), sector of activity (food vs construction) and news valence (positive vs negative). The stimulus are headlines of false news about companies and the sample are users of social network sites who are familiar with the companies mentioned in the headlines and who perceive the reputation of these companies in the desired way. The research instrument is a questionnaire that addresses the intention to share each headline, among other variables. Data analysis will be conducted through analysis of variance (ANOVA). A pilot experiment was applied to test the experimental design outlined initially and adjust the final plan, described in this summary. The thesis of this project is that a good reputation mitigates the intention of the consumer to share false negative news, while a bad reputation enhances this intention, regardless of the sector in which the news company operates. If the thesis is confirmed, the results of this work may be used by managers to combat the spread of false news about companies on social network sites.