1 Introduction
2 Research Framework and Hypotheses
2.1 Stakeholder Engagement of Public Utilities Through Facebook
2.2 Factors Influencing the Outcome of Stakeholder Engagement on Facebook
3 Research Design and Methods
Variables | Authors referring to the importance of this indicator | Operationalization used in this study | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
Key items | Indicators | |||
1. Company specification | 1.1. Company size | Nah and Saxton (2012) | Number of employees: 1 (1–49 employees), 2 (50–249 employees), 3 (250–599 employees), 4 (600–1200 employees), 5 (>1200 employees) | |
1.2. Ownership structures | Sharif et al. (2015) | Public share in percentage | ||
2. Communication interactivity |
Calculated Interactivity
(=2.1. + 2.2. + 2.3.)
| 2.1. Average frequency | Pedersen et al. (2013) | Several times a day, once a day, several times a week, at least once a week, several times a month, once a month, less than once a month |
2.2. Rapidity of response | Manetti et al. (2016) | Within 24 h; within two working days; within one week; it takes longer than one week; we do not reply to comments at all | ||
2.3. Perceived interactivity | Pedersen et al. (2013) | Interactive, active, reactive, passive | ||
3. Resources | 3.1. Time resources | Total working hours for the Facebook account per week | ||
3.2. Monetary resources | 0–15,000 euro; >15,000–30,000 euro; >30,000–45,000 euro; >45,000–60,000 euro; >60,000–75,000 euro; >75,000 euro | |||
4. Outcome | 4.1. Number of fans on Facebook | Number of fans | ||
Control variable
|
Authors
| |||
5. Year of account creation | Year the Facebook account was created |
4 Analysis of Empirical Findings
4.1 Descriptive Analysis
Key items | 1. Company specification | 2. Communication interactivity | 3. Resources | 4. Outcome | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Indicators | 1.1. Company size | 1.2. Ownership structuresa
| 2.1. Frequency of information | 2.2. Rapidity of response | 2.3. Perceived interactivity | Calculated interactivity (2.1. + 2.2. + 2.3.) | 3.1. Time resources | 3.2. Monetary resources | 4.1. Amount of fans |
Arithmetic average
| 3.07 | 69.98 | 4.98 | 4.88 | 3.10 | 13.05 | 14.35 | 1.81 | 6,546 |
Minimum
| 1 | 0.00 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 4 | 0.50 | 1 | 0 |
Maximum
| 5 | 100 | 7 | 5 | 4 | 16 | 80 | 6 | 60,000 |
Standard deviation
| 1.43 | 37.12 | 1.17 | 0.49 | 0.706 | 1.93 | 16.22 | 1.38 | 13,299 |
n
| 137 | 127 | 62 | 60 | 60 | 58 | 41 | 58 | 70 |
4.2 Relational Analysis
5 Discussion
Proposition | Support | |
---|---|---|
P1 | Company Specification ⇔Communication Interactivity | − |
P2 | Company Specification ⇔Resources | (+) |
P3 | Company Specification ⇔Outcome | (+) |
P4 | Communication Interactivity ⇔Resources | + |
P5 | Communication Interactivity ⇔Outcome | + |
P6 | Resources ⇔Outcome | (+) |