报告摘要： This article aims to investigate how public opinions and bot accounts may affect the outcome of legal disputes between opposing parties. Our research indicates that Practice what you preach, unite knowledge and practice may lose out to actions speak louder than words when businesses are involved in lawsuits with social media engagement. We also discover that social media users’ sophistication may be a pitfall for the involved parties, including the judge who is adjudicating the case. Additionally, the court may be misled by a number of variables in its decision while listening to the public opinions and seeking the truth. 嘉宾简介： Dr. Haitao (Tony) Cui is the Ecolab-Pierson Grieve Chair in International Marketing, Professor of Marketing, and Deputy Associate Dean for Global DBA, at the Carlson School of Management, University of Minnesota, and an Affiliated Professor at the Industrial Engineering Department of U of Minnesota. Cui is also the Marketing Science Institute Inaugural MSI Scholars, the Chang Jiang Scholars by Ministry of Education of China, and the Vice President of Behavioral Operations Research and Management Chapter of Operations Research Society of China. Cui serves as Departmental Editor of Marketing-OM Interface area at Production and Operations Management, Departmental Editor of Customer Experience, Behavior, & Decision Making area at Service Science, Guest Associate Editor at Management Science, and serves on the editorial board of Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Marketing Science, and Journal of Operations Management.
With the massive growth of social media and other informational platforms that businesses and individuals may use to share their opinions, a society’s perspectives of some contentious issues may be influenced significantly. At the same time, it has been noted that various parties have used paid trolls (i.e., fake comments made by bot accounts) to sway public opinions concerning some hotly debated issues or legal proceedings.
