New Voice Channel and Voice Endorsement: How the Information Displayed on Online Idea Management Platforms Influences Voice Endorsement?

This study aims to provide an integrative understanding of the antecedents of voice endorsement from the digital voice context. This paper focuses on the distinctive information displayed on online idea management platforms and employs the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to examine how peripheral cues (the number of readings, likes, comments, voicer status, and voicer identity) and central cues (voice persuasiveness and voice sidedness) influence voice endorsement. We empirically tested our research model with the archival database of 201 employee voice posts on the online idea management platform from a large Chinese enterprise. The results of archival analysis showed that several factors were significantly related to voice endorsement. Specifically, the number of comments, voicer status, and voice persuasiveness were positively related to voice endorsement. Voicer identity and voice sidedness were negatively related to voice endorsement. However, the number of readings and the number of likes were not significantly related to voice endorsement. Moreover, issue involvement significantly moderated the relationship between the number of comments and voice endorsement, as well as the relationship between voice persuasiveness and voice endorsement, and between voice sidedness and voice endorsement. Theoretical and practical implications for voice endorsement are discussed.