Yang Song

Purpose: This study applies the Feelings-as-Information Theory (FIT) to investigate how non-face emojis in user-generated content (UGC) influence perceived review credibility through positive affect and processing fluency, and how these effects vary by review valence and involvement. Design/methodology/approach: Two experiments were conducted: a 3 × 2 between-subjects design with review valence as a contextual factor, and a 3 × 2 × 2 between-subjects design with involvement acting as a boundary condition for the early-stage impact of emojis on perceived credibility via positive affect and processing fluency. Findings: Study 1 shows that in positive reviews, low-relevance (LR) and high-relevance (HR) non-face emojis enhance perceived credibility by boosting positive affect and processing fluency, respectively. In negative reviews, LR emojis reduce perceived credibility by impairing processing fluency, while HR emojis enhance it by supporting processing fluency. Study 2 reveals that these effects are attenuated for highly involved consumers. Research limitations/implications: The findings enrich research on emojis, image–text relevance, multimodal communication and FIT. Limitations include the experimental design and focus on positive affect and processing fluency, suggesting opportunities for future research using broader methods and additional mechanisms. Practical implications: Marketing managers, UGC platforms and content creators can strategically use non-face emojis to optimise emoji marketing, resulting in more valuable evaluations. Originality/value: This research introduces a novel categorisation of non-face emojis into low- and high-relevance types based on emoji-text alignment. Furthermore, it demonstrates that their credibility effects depend on both message-level (review valence) and consumer-level (involvement) contingencies.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of servant leadership on employees' promotive voice behavior and prohibitive voice behavior by focusing on the mediating role of job engagement and the moderating role of proactive personality.Design/methodology/approach: Time-lagged data were collected using a field survey research design. The participants included 216 employees and 23 supervisors in two commercial banks in China.Findings: Perceived servant leadership was positively related to employees' promotive and prohibitive voice behavior, and these relationships were mediated by enhanced job engagement. In addition, employees' proactive personality amplified the relationship between perceived servant leadership and job engagement, and the mediating effect of job engagement on the relationship between perceived servant leadership and voice behavior.Research limitations/implications: This study enhances understanding of the mechanisms underlying the servant leadership – voice model by identifying the mediating role of job engagement. The results also demonstrate the moderating role of proactive personality in enhancing the effects of servant leadership. However, the survey design was not longitudinal, which limits the study's ability to confirm causality.Practical implications: The findings reveal that servant leadership, employees' job engagement, and proactive personality can facilitate employees' promotive and prohibitive voice behavior.Originality/value: This study addresses the unexplored mediating mechanism of the relationship between servant leadership and voice behavior, and offers new directions for servant leadership and voice research.