JMM Special Issue Call for Papers: Deadline for submissions 20 February 2023

Stop it! I don’t like it! Online abuse in the marketplace

Guest Editors: Rory Mulcahy, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia; Aimee Riedel, University of the Sunshine Coast, Australia; Amanda Beatson, Queensland University of Technology, Australia; Byron Keating, Queensland University of Technology, Australia.

Online abuse: communication which is menacing, harassing, offensive, or intending to cause harm, is an important societal and economic issue due to its high prevalence in online channels such as social media, online forums, and gaming. For instance, recent reports suggest that over 40 percent of adult internet users in the US have personally experienced cyberbullying (Johnson, 2021). Further, other online harassment behaviours such as fake online reviews are estimated to cost the global economy $152 billion per year (Marciano, 2021). Ultimately, while online technological advancements have provided some benefits to society and economy, there are undoubtedly significant issues relating to online abuse that require attention.

In the last two decades a growing body of literature investigating different online abuse topics has emerged, such as trolling (Cracker & March, 2016; Demsar et al., 2021; Golf-Papez & Veer, 2017), cyberbullying (Balakrishnan et al., 2019; Sainju et al., 2021) and fake reviews (Moon et al., 2021; Munzel, 2016). Building on this foundation of knowledge, the special issue seeks submissions that not only raise awareness of the types of online abuse prevalent in the marketplace but the need for marketing and consumer research to understand how to combat such deviant behaviours. Thus, we call for marketing and consumer research that looks at online abuse in new ways, investigating how marketing and consumer theorising can help understand the nuances of different types of online abuse issues (e.g., trolling, cyberstalking, creeping, revenge porn, slut-shaming, online impersonation, and catfishing). Further, this special issue seeks to motivate research to not only understand why online abuse behaviour occurs, but how it can be addressed or mitigated by consumers and businesses. Broadly, this special issue seeks papers to assist in addressing the following questions:

  1. What is the impact of online abuse on consumer and business well-being (economic, operational, social, psychological, and emotional)?
  2. How can consumers and businesses respond to online abuse?
  3. What type of consumers and businesses are more vulnerable or susceptible to online abuse?


Suggested Topic Areas

We would welcome submissions that cover a variety of marketing and consumer research fields, as well as multi-disciplinary works in fields such as information systems. Further, we will encourage a diversity of methodologies, conceptualisations, and theories. Submissions could include but are not limited to the following themes:

  1. The bystander effect (what roles can bystanders play in stopping online abuse?)
  2. Online abuse/harassment of celebrities and social media influencers
  3. Textural and narrative investigations into trolling framing and responses
  4. Business-to-business online abuse (e.g., abuse of competitors or suppliers)
  5. How can businesses respond to online abuse behaviours such as fake reviews and trolling?
  6. Impact of online abuse on or for consumers experiencing vulnerability
  7. Mistreatment or incivility towards others online (e.g., employees, other customers, influencers)
  8. The impact of different forms of content for online abuse (video, audio, textual)
  9. Unintended consequences of consumer movements (e.g., cancel culture)
  10. Misuse of or abuse toward technology agents (e.g., chatbots)
  11. Online consumer sabotage and brand impact
  12. The impact of exposure to abuse on behaviours (e.g., loyalty, purchase, word of mouth, engagement, future abusive behaviour)


Submission Requirements:

Authors should submit manuscripts of between 8,000–10,000 words (excluding tables, references, captions, footnotes and endnotes). All submissions must strictly follow the guidelines for the Journal of Marketing Management. These are available at: https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/rjmm20/current

Manuscripts should be submitted online using the Journal of Marketing Management ScholarOne Manuscripts site (https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/rjmm). New users should first create an account. Once a user is logged onto the site submissions should be made via the Author Centre. Authors should prepare and upload two versions of their manuscript. One should be a complete text, while in the second all document information identifying the author should be removed from the files to allow them to be sent anonymously to referees. When uploading files authors will then be able to define the non-anonymous version as “Complete paper with author details”, and the anonymous version as “Main document minus author information”. To submit your manuscript to the Special Issue choose “Special Issue Article” from the Manuscript Type list when you come to submit your paper. Also, when you come to the ‘Details and Comments’ page, answer ‘yes’ to the question ‘Is this manuscript a candidate for a special issue’ and select the Special Issue Title of Online abuse in the marketplace in the text field provided.

Informal queries regarding guest editors’ expectations or the suitability of specific research topics should be directed to the Special Issue Editors:

The closing date for submissions is 20 February 2023.

Technical queries about submissions can be referred to the Editorial Office: rjmmeditorial@westburn.co.uk

References

Balakrishnan, V., Khan, S., Fernandez, T., & Arabnia, H. R. (2019). Cyberbullying detection on twitter using Big Five and Dark Triad features. Personality and individual differences, 141, 252-257. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2019.01.024
Craker, N., & March, E. (2016). The dark side of Facebook®: The Dark Tetrad, negative social potency, and trolling behaviours. Personality and Individual Differences, 102, 79-84. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2016.06.043
Demsar, V.,Brace-Govan, J., Jack, G., & Sands, S. (2021). The social phenomenon of trolling: understanding the discourse and social practices of online provocation, Journal of Marketing Management, 37(11-12), 1058-1090. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2021.1900335
Dineva, D.P., Breitsohl, J.C., & Garrod, B. (2017), Corporate Conflict Management on Social Media Brand Fan Pages, Journal of Marketing Management, 33 (9-10), 679–98. https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2017.1329225
Golf-Papez, M. & Veer, E. (2017). Don’t feed the trolling: rethinking how online trolling is being defined and combated, Journal of Marketing Management, 33(15-16), 1336-1354, https://doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2017.1383298
Johnson, J (2021). Cyber bullying- statistics & facts. Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/topics/1809/cyber-bullying/#dossierKeyfigures
Marciano, J. (2021). Fake online reviews cost $152 billion a year. Here’s how e-commerce sites can stop them. Retrieved from: https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2021/08/fake-online-reviews-are-a-152-billion-problem-heres-how-to-silence-them/
Moon, S., Kim, M. Y., & Iacobucci, D. (2021). Content analysis of fake consumer reviews by survey-based text categorization. International Journal of Research in Marketing, 38(2), 343-364. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijresmar.2020.08.001
Munzel, A. (2016). Assisting consumers in detecting fake reviews: The role of identity information disclosure and consensus. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 32, 96-108. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2016.06.002
Sainju, K. D., Mishra, N., Kuffour, A., & Young, L. (2021). Bullying discourse on Twitter: An examination of bully-related tweets using supervised machine learning. Computers in human behavior, 120, 106735. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chb.2021.106735

 

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