Finding the tipping point: when heterogeneous evaluations in social media converge and influence organisational legitimacy

Laura Illia; Elanor Colleoni; Michael Etter; Katia Meggiorin

doi:10.1177/00076503211073516

Finding the tipping point: when heterogeneous evaluations in social media converge and influence organisational legitimacy

Laura Illia, Elanor Colleoni, Michael Etter, Katia Meggiorin

Strategy, Intl Mgt & Entrepreneurship

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

24 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Can citizens impact the broader discourse about an organisation and its legitimacy? While social media have empowered citizens to publicly question firms through large volumes of online evaluations, the high heterogeneity of their evaluations dilutes their impact. Our empirical study applying a TVAR analysis of 2.5M tweets and 1,786 news media articles tests the condition by which the heterogeneity of online evaluations converges and influences the broader media discourse. Although social media evaluations do not initially influence media legitimacy, they become influential after reaching a tipping point of refracted attention, which is created by high volume and convergence around few aggregative frames. Thus, social media storms may influence the broader discourse about an organisation when this discourse converges and reaches a tipping point, rather than merely through the massive participation of citizens.

Original language	English
Number of pages	43
Journal	Business and Society
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1177/00076503211073516
Publication status	Accepted/In press - 15 Dec 2021

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Finding the tipping point: when heterogeneous evaluations in social media converge and influence organisational legitimacy

Abstract

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