PhD Oral Exam - Kai Haverila, Business Administration

When studying for a doctoral degree (PhD), candidates submit a thesis that provides a critical review of the current state of knowledge of the thesis subject as well as the student’s own contributions to the subject. The distinguishing criterion of doctoral graduate research is a significant and original contribution to knowledge.

Once accepted, the candidate presents the thesis orally. This oral exam is open to the public.

Abstract

The growth in online technology and social media use has led to a significant boom in online communication and participation. The current literature on online interactions has mainly focused on how online platforms encourage positive forms of engagement, but it is important to recognize that these platforms also create opportunities for negative types of engagement such as trolling to occur, which has become increasingly prevalent online. Currently, there is a growing academic interest in online trolling behaviors. However, the current research on trolling has some crucial limitations that must be addressed. Firstly, the trolling construct lacks conceptual clarity and trolling literature has been rather limited in scope, especially in the marketing context. To address this issue, Essay I conceptually explored how trolling can emerge in the brand community context. More specifically, this research introduced the brand trolling concept and developed numerous research propositions and questions that are foundational to the novel concept on the individual-, community-, and brand/organization-level. The service-dominant logic was used as a theoretical framework to illustrate the highly contextual and expansive nature of brand trolling in the brand community environment. Overall, this essay developed a more solid foundation for the trolling construct and it introduced a novel perspective on how the empirical relationships and conceptual elements of trolling can be expanded to the marketing domain on multiple levels.

Another issue prevalent in trolling literature is how its conceptualization has not been fully agreed upon by scholars and practitioners alike. Accordingly, Essay II addressed this issue by developing valid and reliable scales for trolling behavior and trolling victimization. Appropriate scale development procedures such as exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, reliability tests, and numerous validity tests were conducted throughout multiple studies. The results of the studies demonstrated how trolling behavior and trolling victimization are both reliable, valid and multidimensional constructs. This research further solidifies the foundation for trolling behavior and victimization that should help scholars research the concepts more appropriately in the future.