Social Signaling Theory Research Articles

How Do Hotel and Tourism Management Students and Graduates Present Their Academic Degree?

ABSTRACTThis exploratory qualitative study aims at highlighting how hotel and tourism management (HTM) students present their academic degree, and the reasons for their choice. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 24 participants. A judgmental theoretical sampling technique utilized to provide a voice for seniors and graduates. Findings indicated that for jobs in hospitality, participants presented themselves as students/graduates of the Department of HTM; for jobs in non-tourist and hospitality organizations, participants present themselves as management/business administration students/graduates; and in casual encounters, as “management students specializing in tourism” or “management and tourism students.” The diverse presentations seem to respond to public perceptions that hotel management does not require academic education and the academic abilities of those studying HTM is questionable. Conceptualization and discussion are based on equity theory, impression management, academic prestige, social-signaling theory, philosophy of language, and the notion of embarrassment. Managerial implications are suggested.

The partial truths of compensatory and poor-get-poorer internet use theories: More highly involved videogame players experience greater psychosocial benefits

Research has established loneliness as a good predictor of intensive Internet use. But it is not fully understood whether Internet activity lessens lonely individuals' felt distress (known as positive psychosocial “compensation”), or by contrast further magnifies it (the “poor-get-poorer” hypothesis). Focused on online videogames in particular, we use qualitative cultural psychiatric interviews (N = 20) and path analysis of online survey data (N = 3629) to model pathways connecting loneliness, videogame involvement, and positive and negative online gaming experiences. Informed by social signaling theory, we hypothesize that lonely individuals who are intensively involved in online videogames (as opposed to playing casually) will experience more positive play experiences, given the way that such gamers’ costly expenditures of time, energy, and resources “signal” their commitment and also their insiderness to gaming communities, thus fostering for them a greater sense of social inclusion and support. By contrast, lonely gamers who fail to engage videogames in this intensive and socially supportive manner can instead compound their life distress with additional problems related to their online play. Ironically, it is thus gamers displaying dimensions of what seems on the surface to be “addictive” play—but is better described in this context as intensive gaming involvement—who experience the greatest psychosocial benefits from their play. Our research aims to add nuance to debates about how the Internet shapes the mental health of distressed emerging adults in particular. Rather than posing a single solution, we posit that the answer depends on the manner in which lonely and distressed individuals engage with life online.

Predicting job offer acceptance of professionals in Taiwan: The case of the technology industry

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is defined as a firm's behavior that goes beyond its economic interest to benefit stakeholders and is a critical factor for business organizations to implement in order to successfully increase the job offer acceptance of job applicants. This research examines such job offer acceptance by developing a model based on the social signaling theory and expectancy theory. The hypotheses of this research were empirically tested using the data from professional job applicants at three well-known career fairs for the high-tech industry in Taiwan. The test results show that business practice CSR engagement and recruitment procedural justice positively affect both career success expectation and a firm's attractiveness, which consequently influence job offer acceptance. At the same time, due to its insignificant effect on career success expectation, philanthropic CSR engagement only has a significant impact on a firm's attractiveness. The findings of this research complement prior studies by presenting how business practice CSR engagement, philanthropic CSR engagement, and recruitment procedural justice should be simultaneously taken into account to boost job offer acceptance. Lastly, managerial implications and limitations are provided.

Modeling corporate social performance and job pursuit intention: Forecasting the job change of professionals in technology industry

Various social trends in modern society have changed the attitude of high-tech personnel who look for a job. An important factor for successful recruitment in technology industry is to increase the pursuit intention of a variety of potential high-tech job seekers. This research predicts such pursuit intention by proposing a model based on social identity theory and social signaling theory. In the model, this study hypothesizes that perceived corporate ability, positive publicity, and corporate social responsibility are positively related to pursuit intention and word-of-mouth indirectly via the mediating mechanism of career development expectation and firm's attractiveness. Such mechanism has not yet assessed in previous literature. The findings of this research complement prior studies by presenting how a firm's ability, publicity and social responsibility should be jointly taken into account to strengthen recruitment campaigns. Last, managerial implications and limitations are provided.

Fundamental frequency during couple conflict: An analysis of physiological, behavioral, and sex-linked information encoded in vocal expression.

The human voice is one of the sounds most frequently experienced by human beings. During couple conflict, higher fundamental frequency (f0), a physical property of human speech, has been linked to an increased risk of divorce, less beneficial response to couple therapy, and higher levels of dysfunctional communication behavior. F0 is generally considered to be a measure of emotional arousal, but it is not currently clear whether this interpretation is appropriate for understanding spouses' f0 during couple interaction. The goal of the current article is to clarify what forms of information are encoded in f0 during couple conflict by examining the relations between f0 range, physiological variables, and communication behavior during the conflict discussions of 67 German couples. In line with evolutionary models of speech production, associations emerged in the expected directions between f0 and: (a) physiological variables (e.g., heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol); (b) self-reported communication behavior; and (c) observationally coded communication behavior. Additionally, simultaneous examination of physiological variables and observationally coded communication behaviors revealed that associations between both sets of variables and f0 range were largely independent of one another. Furthermore, women's range of f0 was significantly greater than men's range of f0. With regard to social signaling theories, f0 range can be understood as a nonverbal transmission of distress. Implications for future research on and use of f0 are discussed.