This paper studies a new group of entrepreneurs which has emerged on social media platforms, i.e., social media entrepreneurs. Arguing that followers are critical stakeholders in social media platforms, we examine how they respond to the monetization efforts of social media entrepreneurs. We draw on self-determination theory to explore how the authenticity of social media entrepreneurs is affected by their commercialization activities and to explore mechanisms that can help them address the authenticity penalty imposed by their followers. We use the Tanya Burr YouTube beauty and fashion channel as our empirical setting to show that sponsorship is associated with followers imposing a penalty, whereas affiliation links and own-brand promotion do not lead to a negative follower response. Our findings show that the negative effect of sponsorship on follower responses can be mitigated by revealing and concealing strategies. We discuss the contribution in terms of the digital media entrepreneurship literature and self-determination theory.

Offshoring can increase firms’ exposures to product quality risks, such that manufacturing firms need effective tactics for maintaining product quality consistency across offshoring subsidiaries. With an agency theory approach, the current study seeks novel insights into three widely used subsidiary control mechanisms for achieving product quality consistency across offshoring subsidiaries in emerging markets and developed home countries. With surveys of 150 subsidiaries of multinational corporations in heavy industries operating in China, the authors test a proposed model using hierarchical linear regression, and account for endogeneity concerns with the Gaussian copula method. The results indicate an inverted U-shaped relationship of decision autonomy with product quality consistency, that expatriate staffing positively predicts product quality consistency and attenuates the negative effect of decision autonomy, and that, compared with greenfield entry, mergers and acquisitions negatively predict product quality consistency. These findings have several theoretical and practical implications.