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Humanities and Social Sciences Communications volume 10, Article number: 524 (2023)
711
Metrics details
This paper examines the study of Non-Profit Organization’s (NPOs’) webpages through the Strategic Online Communication Approach (SOCA) context to underpin public engagement. Although it can be argued that social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter have a significant role in interactive online engagement, it is often webpages that have the critical role in creating engagement in the initial (and arguably most important) stage of opening dialog. In the SOCA context NPOs’ webpages need to be strategically planned and aligned with the NPOs goals and targeted to various stakeholders such as the general public, volunteers and donors. In general terms, this research resulted in a sequential model called EMEA (Extended Model of Webpages Engagement and Adoption) with three levels (information, interaction, and action). The EMEA model shows the efficiency and maturity of the webpages, indicating the level of engagement that should be possible, to therefore improve relationships with the public and obtain better results. Results show that the more ‘ways to help’ an NPO presents on its webpage, the greater the level of potential engagement (as different options to collaborate, convey trustworthy information, and control content are evident). Finally, this research showed that the greater engagement achieved by NPOs, the better the likely results and therefore the effective application of EMEA can explain and even predict success for NPOs. This paper only addresses web pages, and therefore further research is needed to clarify the role of Social Networking Sites (SNS) for high interactivity. Secondly, although EMEA is able to explain and even predict the levels of engagement, it is not evident that it necessarily occurs. Finally, although EMEA is applied correctly, it does not guarantee that NPOs are managing communication in the context of SOCA, since a multi-channel online strategy is required.
Cornelia Fischer, Verena Radinger-Peer, … Marianne Penker
Hyeon Jo & Youngsok Bang
Meng Chen & Wu Li
The results of recent studies on NPOs (Ihm and Kim, 2021; Manetti and Bellucci, 2016; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2018, 2020; Patel and McKeever, 2014) indicate that both Web 1.0 tools, organizational websites, and Web 2.0 tools play a vital role in communication. NPOs operate multiple internet platforms for stakeholder relationship building and have crafted websites that play a key role in dialogic communication (Albanna et al., 2022; Di Lauro et al., 2019; Kim et al., 2014) but use Facebook and Twitter (Haro-de-Rosario et al., 2018; Lovejoy et al., 2012) to supplement dialogic features that are limited on websites.
It’s important to note that websites still play a crucial role in a digital strategy as they complement social media channels by providing more in-depth information and establishing initial communication with external stakeholders, such as possible donors or supporters (Ihm and Kim, 2021; Lovejoy and Saxton, 2012; Milde and Yawson, 2017; Seo and Vu, 2020). Additionally, websites can be used in marketing communications strategy, for example, to promote events and increase the possibility of receiving donations and funding (Milde and Yawson, 2017; Seo and Vu, 2020).
Authors found that NPOs tend to prefer their websites over e.g., Facebook when conducting online stewardship, particularly for three stewardship dimensions: reciprocity, responsibility, and reporting (Waters and Feneley, 2013). Others argue that even although NPOs are managing social media such as Facebook or Twitter, they utilize their website to direct stakeholders to external social media sites (Campbell and Lambright, 2020; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020).
However, it’s important for NPO’s websites to prioritize key characteristics such as visual appeal, mobile-responsiveness, and ease of navigation. The websites should be designed to be as simple and user-friendly as other marketing materials (McKnight, 2023) and this is an important justification for a model to improve the capability of websites to drive stakeholder engagement (Philips, 2022). Accordingly, there are some important actions that NPOs can undertake on a website to increase lead generation, such as encouraging site visitors to subscribe to newsletters, thus capturing information on possible supporters (Philips, 2022).
Therefore, the NPO’s website is a core platform to communicate their purpose and mission, describe their work and their ways to help, generate interactions with different publics and facilitate online transactions (e.g. to increase fundraising) (Di Lauro et al., 2019; Kirk et al., 2016; Panic et al., 2016).
To optimize the above, organizations increasingly prefer websites where they have complete control over message design and content (Philips, 2022). Therefore, to strategically manage their online communication, NPO communication professionals utilize websites, followed by others social media channels, specifically Facebook, Twitter, blog site, Instagram, podcast, Snapchat, and Pinterest (Seo and Vu, 2020).
Overall, websites are a very important channel and fulfill two core organizational functions: to provide information and to generate dialog with stakeholders (Lovejoy and Saxton, 2012). It is evident that websites can drive meaningful interaction with NPO audiences, but these organizations often do not fully use their websites in a strategic and interactive way, (Lovejoy and Saxton, 2012). Similarly, some researchers doubt that NPOs are using websites effectively as part of a Strategic Online Communication Approach (SOCA) (Lee and Blouin, 2019; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020).
In summary, the main objective of this work was to define a model able to measure the efficiency and maturity of NPO websites in building engagement with stakeholders, and to underpin how they should be planned in the context of a Strategic Online Communication Approach (SOCA) for better results.
There are two key hypotheses that derive from the above:
H1: The number of ways in which NPO’s help will influence positively on the achievement of engagement.
H2: NPOs engagement with the public will positively influence NPOs results.
The essential novelty of the research is that it seeks to determine whether the effective application of a model (EMEA) can explain and even predict success for NPOs via their websites.
Despite previous studies that agree the importance of corporate websites as channels for communication between organizations and their stakeholders (Aziz and Kamaludin, 2015; Huang and Ku, 2016; Kent et al., 2003; Simões et al., 2015; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020; Philips, 2022), there is still limited information available to guide NPO’s construction of their websites (Akrimi and Khemakhem, 2014; Seo and Vu, 2020) so in essence, the study of corporate websites has not properly addressed how they contribute to strategic corporate communication, especially in the non-profit sector.
In summary, although NPOs use websites, they have not always used them strategically (Gandía, 2011; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020; Saxton and Guo, 2011). In this work (Figs. 1) utilizing the Strategic Online Communication Approach (SOCA) websites are studied as one instrument of the mix of corporate communications (Gurău, 2008; Lovejoy and Saxton, 2012). In the SOCA context webpages must be correctly managed to drive engagement (as the core purpose) using various channels in a longer term (not short term) focus, aligned with business goals, and targeted to stakeholders (Albanna et al., 2022). The SOCA framework advocates managing webpages with engagement as a primary purpose.
Source: the authors.
The reality shows that although websites are continuously evolving (and varying levels of complexity and functionality are needed) they may be simply an online presence, and the existence of a corporate website, therefore does not guarantee that it is fulfilling any strategic online corporate communication function. Also, relationship nurturing is possible on webpages, not only on social media such as Facebook or Twitter (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020). Although it is suggested that webpages have demonstrated value in nurturing relationships, there is a lack of recent literature that explores how to improve websites for engagement (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020) in line with the Strategic Online Communication Approach (SOCA).
Thus, engagement is a strategic function that needs to be properly planned and this has not been studied in the context of webpages. The question that arises is whether NPOs are using websites (as part of a social media strategy) efficiently to maximize stakeholder engagement?
As stated in the introduction, the main objective of this work was therefore to define a model able to measure the efficiency and maturity of NPO websites in building engagement with stakeholders, to underpin how they must be planned in the context of a Strategic Online Communication Approach (SOCA) for better results.
The concept of engagement can be seen as an approach that drives stakeholder interactions and influences them to make decisions that generate social capital (Taylor and Kent, 2014). The literature highlights five key points for websites: the dialogic loop, the usefulness of information, the generation of return visits, the ease of the interface and the rule of conservations of visitors (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020; Taylor and Kent, 2014). The first one, “dialogic loop”, was the most important, as it allows the website user to provide feedback and interact with the organization. Although dialogic loop is a ‘condition sine qua non’ it is not sufficient alone to engage the public. Therefore, engagement is not only dialogic communication, but also an “affective, cognitive, and behavioral state” (Dhanesh, 2017, p. 931).
In the digital environment, the engagement concept takes a center stage (Taylor and Kent, 2014). Engagement is a multidimensional concept, (Dijkmans et al. 2015, p. 59) defined as "a combination of cognitive aspects (e.g., being interested in a company’s activities), behavioral aspects (participation in the company’s activities), and/or emotional aspects (feeling positive about a company’s activities)".
Three dimensions were identified within engagement: the behavioral or dialogic dimension (based on the dialogic loop, e.g. when someone visits webpages to be informed of something), the cognitive dimension, comprising interest in the organization and its contents (the start of the real interactivity, e.g. when someone downloads material, or asks for information), and the emotional dimension based on feelings towards the firm to that lead to action (e.g. in the case of NPOs when someone introduces personal information, as a donor or a volunteer) (Carrillo-Durán and García, 2020).
Therefore, engaging stakeholders on websites is possible by going through the three dimensions sequentially (Carrillo-Durán and García, 2020). It means that engagement is not a matter of ‘to be’ or ‘not to be’ on the webpage, but rather that there are different levels: the lower level is just the level of information at the start of the dialog; the medium level that involves interactivity (communication based on genuine interest) and the higher level (involving action and commitment).
As discussed, in the SOCA context (Albanna et al., 2022), webpages should be managed to drive engagement with stakeholders in the long term and should align with business goals and results. In the specific NPO context it can be discussed as follows.
First, strategic communication should be designed around key stakeholder groups (Seo and Vu, 2020). For NPO’s, the public is regarded as the most significant stakeholder, with potential funders, current funders, other non-profit organizations, and journalists following them in terms of importance (Seo and Vu, 2020).
The most important thing to highlight is that when talking about NPO’s stakeholders, social media in general and websites are channels to support engagement, but none of them are exclusively able to do this (Albanna et al., 2022).
Therefore, one way to better engage general publics through webpages and generate the kinds of emotional responses needed can be through providing content on the NPO’s goals and ‘ways to help’ to catch stakeholder’s interest (Albanna et al., 2022; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020). The authors discussed that the more ways and opportunities to develop the relationship, the greater the stakeholder engagement (Hoefer and Twis, 2018; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2018; Tsai and Men, 2013). For example, for online donations, specific goals are helpful in motivating donors (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020), and the more goals provided gives more possibilities to engage stakeholders. Accordingly, the first hypothesis for this research is as follows:
H1: The number of ways in which NPO’s help will positively influence the achievement of engagement.
Second, in the SOCA context, webpages should be aligned with business goals and results, with funding the most important of these (Albanna et al., 2022). NPOs are pertinent players in making the world a better place (Kirk et al., 2016). Their websites aid in fulfilling their socially beneficial missions by being a platform to present themselves, to engage stakeholders around the world, and to perform e-transactions to raise funds.
Although many NPOs deliberately utilize social media channels as Public Relations and advocacy tools instead of having official websites to seek funds (Di Lauro et al., 2019), It seems that “in that scenario, the social media efforts are not capturing any new donations. In a worst-case scenario, those same donors could decide to give less when they are motivated to give from social media than when they are spurred to give by websites" (Harris et al., 2021, p.3).
Therefore, in the SOCA context, the second hypothesis follows that the more engagement an NPO can get on its webpages the greater the influence on results:
H2: NPOs engagement with the public will positively influence NPOs results.
The sequential models of evaluation and website efficiency is considered an important research area (Law, 2019). In general terms ‘website features’ has been the commonly used expression when evaluating a website, whereas the term ‘website characteristics’ has emerged subsequently and is used interchangeably.
Among different models to measure the efficiency of webpages the Extended model of Internet Commerce Adoption (EMICA) has been often cited and has been applied in the agricultural and tourism sectors (eg Daries et al., 2018)
EMICA is a scale to evaluate the efficiency of websites through sequential stages. The implication is that dialog is the pinnacle of communication (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020). EMICA consists of three stages: promotion, provision of information and services, and transaction processing. As sites move from promotion to processing through provision, layers of complexity and functionality are added (Burgess, et al. 2003).
To move from one level to another, a website has to collect a minimum number of attributes (García-Lastra and Escalera, 2009). This form of evaluation in the EMICA is called ‘analysis of the levels in a related way’ and, is employed in this research against the ‘analysis of the levels independently’. The main reason for this is to try to overcome one of the main drawbacks of EMICA, that a website can be on two levels at the same time (Schmid et al., 2008). According to these authors, the company experience in electronic commerce is expressed in website phases, also called steps or layers, each comprising certain features.
An alternative to EMICA was proposed using content analysis to assess maturity of websites based on four dimensions (Information, Interactivity, Online processing, Functionality) (Daries-Ramon et al., 2019).
Overall, there seems to be parallels between different levels on websites to measure efficiency and different levels to drive engagement. The comparison can be seen in Table 1.
Some additional features have been used to evaluate websites in non-profit organizations. Kirk et al. (2016) proposed a four stages model with four aspects to represent the different levels of usage of websites by NPOs. These features were quantified to evaluate the efficiency level of NPO websites. In terms of engagement, writers discuss which features of NPO websites are more effective to engage the general public and, also the level of engagement created (Albanna et al., 2022; Hoefer and Twis, 2018).
Similarly, studies related digital engagement to the level of interaction promoted by websites (Dhanesh, 2017; Kirk et al., 2016). In other words, a high level of engagement seems to be related to how much a website can provide two-way communication between the visitor and the NPO (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020).
Based on the above, we propose a parallel model to EMICA called Extended Model of Webpages Engagement and Adoption (EMEA). Thus, engagement is possible at three stages (cognitive, behavioral and emotional) which resonates with the three dimensions of EMICA and the other models cited above (Taylor and Kent, 2014).
Thus, EMEA has been designed in practice as a data sheet to collect data analysis from webpages, and it is divided into three dimensions: Stage 1 -Information; Stage 2 - Interaction; Stage 3 – Action. As it is a sequential scale, the stages can be divided into layers, which demonstrates the advancement of the website through each stage. Also, as the final purpose is to measure the level of engagement, the more the website advances through the stages, the greater the engagement with stakeholders.
The first stage of information is also the most basic level of engagement. It is associated with a behavioral dimension in which resources that serve the stakeholder are “relatively passive forms of information-seeking” (Dhanesh, 2017, p. 930). We propose that this basic information is expected by the user, and it is not powerful enough to create a distinctive image to achieve engagement (Huang and Ku, 2016; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020).
In terms of models and features, Kirk et al. (2016) proposed two levels of one-way information to non-profit websites called emerging presence and enhancing presence. In the same way, Huang and Ku (2016) found that Operational Management and Communication and Consultation are informational items in NPO websites related with the intention to donate money and time.
In the first Stage of the EMEA we summarize the features related to information on the NPO in websites (Di Lauro et al., 2019). However, we excluded the features that were not characterized as one-way communication (Kirk et al., 2016) because at the Information level of EMEA we assume a passive information search (Dhanesh, 2017).
In Layer 1 of the informational stage of EMEA, a low level of engagement is possible (Di Lauro et al., 2019; Dhanesh, 2017) when websites present features related to basic information in a passive form (Dhanesh, 2017; Kirk et al., 2016) such as: mission/vision, online contact form, contact detail, office location etc. (Huang and Ku, 2016; Kirk et al., 2016; Kirk and Abrahams, 2017; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2018, 2020).
Going further, Layer 2 of Stage 1 advances to a richer level of information, but still low engagement, where NPOs provide relevant information to connect the interest of stakeholders (Dhanesh, 2017; Kirk et al., 2016). NPOs usually prioritize the principles of usefulness of information and visitor retention (Wang and Yang, 2020), and EMEA includes features as goals, press releases, news updates, board members, key staff, annual reports, or budget/financials (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020), organization structure, list of donors, information about related cooperation (Huang and Ku, 2016; Kirk et al., 2016; Kirk and Abrahams, 2017; Uzunoğlu and Kip, 2014). Table 2 summarizes the layers and features.
Interaction is the second stage of EMEA and is considered as a cognitive dimension (Dhanesh, 2017). This level of engagement comprises interest in the organization.
At this level, the interaction with stakeholders evolves to a two-way interaction and, importantly, also a multi-interaction. The features proposed in EMEA Stage 2 enable stakeholders to develop an active relationship with the NPO website. We argue that the more that a relationship is developed the greater the stakeholder engagement (Hoefer and Twis, 2018; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2018, 2020; Tsai and Men, 2013).
To shape the second stage of EMEA, the features that allowed two-way information suggested in the literature were utilized (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2018, 2020). However, features that represent commercial activities, enabling money transactions, or volunteer registration were excluded from the second stage and are further discussed in the third stage of EMEA.
In this way, the features that promoted two-way information and improves the interaction with the stakeholders were kept in this EMEA Interaction level, including home page video, multimedia, email sign up and inducement, double opt-in.
These features are important to catch stakeholder attention and allow the NPO to create a continuous relationship (Hoefer and Twis, 2018). Other features suggested in this level are: search engine box, calendar of events, downloadable files (e.g., audio/video, pdf, etc.), stakeholders support (e.g., FAQs, sitemaps), major links on the homepage to the subpages (eg., RSS), links to other websites (Hoefer and Twis, 2018; Huang and Ku, 2016; Kirk et al., 2016; Kirk and Abrahams, 2017; Law, 2019; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2018, 2020). Multimedia is a feature suggested from the hotel’s quality models (Law, 2019), as EMICA, and included sounds, video, webcam or panoramas, flash-animation and graphics not included before. Although this feature does not appear in non-profit models, it can add-value to the website making it more attractive (Hoefer and Twis, 2018) and increasing the likelihood of a visitor engaging with the non-profit organization (Bastida and Huan, 2014).
Non-profits should communicate and engage stakeholders in their purpose (Hoefer and Twis, 2018, Kirk and Abrahams, 2017), which can be achieved through links with social media to develop the perception of personal benefits and increase the willingness to interact (Avidar et al., 2015; Dhanesh, 2017; Hoefer and Twis, 2018). These features that enable interactivity are termed higher-level and include access to SNS’s (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and/or Instagram) (Albanna, et al., 2022), social media sharing widgets, blogs and podcasts, forums, newsletters, terms of privacy (Hoefer and Twis, 2018; Kirk et al., 2016, Kirk and Abrahams, 2017; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2018, 2020; Uzunoğlu and Kip, 2014). The last feature involves trust where the stakeholder shares personal data with the NPO (Uzunoğlu and Kip, 2014).
Finally, in the third and final layer of Stage 2, there is high interactivity. This layer involves features such as: chat, exclusive areas for members, ability to leave comments and to receive feedback (Huang and Ku, 2016; Kirk et al., 2016; Kirk and Abrahams, 2017; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2018, 2020; Wang and Yang, 2020). Table 3 summarizes the layers and features.
The last, third stage is Action/Commitment, and it is considered an emotional dimension and the highest level of engagement, as it implies a personal cost involving money or time. Donating reinforces the connection between the stakeholder and the NPO (Hoefer and Twis, 2018; Kirk et al., 2016) and online transactions of money, online stores and online applications to volunteer are among features proposed for NPO websites (Albanna et al., 2022).
In the EMEA third stage, we summarized the features proposed in the models from the literature that enable commercial transactions and donations of money and time. Thus, the processing stage was divided into four features: secure online transactions for donations of goods, online registration to be enrolled as a volunteer, online donation of money, and online store (Albanna et al., 2022; Hoefer and Twis, 2018; Huang and Ku, 2016; Kirk et al., 2016; Olinski and Szamrowski, 2018). Table 4 summarizes the features.
The primary objective of this study is to validate a model able to measure the efficiency and maturity of NPO websites in building engagement with stakeholders. This will underpin how webpages can be optimized through planning them through the context of a Strategic Online Communication Approach (SOCA).
To define a model able to measure the efficiency and maturity of NPO websites in building engagement with stakeholders, a sample of NPOs webpages is needed. The source of this sample was The Charity Commission for England and Wales ranking (2020) (The Charity Commission - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk). The Charity Commission for England and Wales (CCEW) is a non-ministerial government department accountable to Parliament. Its responsibility is to keep a precise and current record of charitable organizations in England and Wales and ensure that relevant information about each registered charity is widely accessible to the public. The CCEW assisted in this study in two ways. First, providing the sample composed of the top 50 charities by income from England and Wales. Although it is a non-probabilistic sampling that involves selecting participants for a study from those who are readily available, it is considered sufficient to apply our methodology in the context of an exploratory and descriptive study.
The selection by income was made following additional research, as in NPOs’ online context the level of income was determinant to engaging the public and that the organization’s website appears to be an effective tool for achieving that objective (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020). For NPOs there was a positive relationship between the size of the communication team (which is supposed to be more consistent in bigger organizations with higher incomes) and the importance of the organization’s website for its external communication (Seo and Vu, 2020) argue that.
Second, in the quantitative part of this research, the CCEW provides accurate information, widely available to the public, about each registered charity, such as: last recorded income, last recorded expenditure, groups targeted, ways to help and projects undertaken (Charity Comission for England and Wales, 2020). This information was fundamental to create quantitative variables that were used in the quantitative part of this study.
Drawing from the literature these are the variables employed in this research:
Variable 1: “Engagement” is the main dependent variable in this study, and it depends upon independent variables explained below.
According to the literature, sequential engagement at different levels through webpages (EMEA: Tables 1–3) can be measured, particularly, the efficiency and maturity of webpages in driving engagement. In this study, engagement is possible on webpages through EMEA in the SOCA context.
Variable 2: “Results” is considered the second dependent variable. This is because it depends on other variables around NPOs, such as the number of ways to help the organization, and the possible levels of engagement (Kirk et al., 2016; Seo and Vu, 2020). “Results” is a variable measured through two indicators: “Last recorded income” and “Last recorded expenditure” obtained from CCEW (Charity Comission for England and Wales, 2020).
“Last recorded income” was particularly key to rank the sample in terms of income, due to the positive relationship between the larger organizational size, better results, greater importance given to the communication team, and the organization’s webpage for its external communication (Seo and Vu, 2020).
Variable 3: “Number of groups targeted”, this variable is an independent variable referring to the various stakeholders of NPOs. An NPO employs their website as a way of communication between itself and its audience in building relations, so the more stakeholders they have, the more nurturing relationships they cultivate and greater possibilities to build engagement (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020; Seo and Vu, 2020). This information was not directly present in the CCEW database as a numerical variable and was therefore calculated as a quantitative variable by the authors from the CCEW list of stakeholders for each charity.
Variable 4: “Number of ways to help” is an independent variable related to the mission of the organization and their main principles applied to stakeholders. By utilizing NPO websites to openly share information, show opportunities to help people and contribute to the NPOs’ cause, opportunities for engagement increase (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020). This information was also not directly present in CCEW database, and so was calculated as a numerical variable by authors based on CCEW information provided.
Variable 5: “Number of things does”, is an independent variable related to projects the NPO develops and manages. A NPO uses its website to not only present its mission and principles, but also to present the way in which they are successfully using resources on projects (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020). Therefore, the more activities undertaken, the more potential engagement. As with the last two independent variables this information was not directly present in the CCEW database, so was again calculated as a numerical variable by authors.
According to the objective of this study to build engagement with stakeholders, the methodology seeks to explore the relationship between the activities and action NPOs develop and the level of engagement it is possible to reach (H1) to improve NPOs results (H2).
To clarify this, the methodology is divided into two parts and three stages as follows in Table 5.
The objective of this work was to define a model (EMEA) able to measure the efficiency and maturity of NPO websites in building engagement with stakeholders in the context of SOCA.
The results are shown according to the stages of the methodology.
After defining EMEA (according to the literature), a data sheet was designed and applied to the sample (Tables 1–3). The results of the application of EMEA to the top 50 NPOs by income from the CCEW (Charity Comission for England and Wales, 2020) showed the level of engagement that they can achieve with their stakeholders (through their websites) (Table 6).
As shown in Table 6, no NPOs reached the maximum stage (the third stage of Interactivity) or the level of Action. The majority of NPOs (23 out of 50) were in the medium level of Interactivity (the second stage of this level). Just 7 out of 50 demonstrated the low stage of Interactivity.
For the Level of Information, 8 out of 50 NPOs displayed the highest stage, and just 4 out of 50 did not attain the low stage of Information. Finally, 8 out of 50 did not attain any stage.
Progressing the methodology, the second stage involved EMEA data sheet analysis of webpages and allowed investigation of relationships between different stages of EMEA and different variables from The CCEW database (Charity Comission for England and Wales, 2020): “Results” (Last recorded income and Last recorded expenditure), “number of groups targeted”, “number of ways to help”, and “number of things done”.
This was to understand if there were significant differences between stages of the EMEA according to the quantitative variables from the CCEW database (Charity Comission for England and Wales, 2020). We carried out ANOVAs and Kruskal–Wallis tests. The results can be seen in Table 7 and indicate that there are significant differences between the means of the EMEA stages with these two variables: “last recorded income”, and “number of ways to help”. A certain relationship exists between the level of engagement that NPOs reached and these two quantitative variables, but the sense and value of these relationships is not yet finalized.
Another objective for this paper was validating EMEA to get engagement in NPOs analyzing, according to the literature, the relationship between the activity of NPOs (“ways to help”) (H1) and the level of engagement possible to reach in terms to increase NPOs results (H2) and its predictive power.
According to the third stage of the methodology, and to understand what kind of relationship exists between these two significant variables: “last recorded incomes”, “number of ways to help” and NPOs’ level of engagement reached, we applied a multivariable method based on structural equations.
In order to validate our hypothesis and taking into consideration previous results, it led the authors to propose the following research model (Fig. 2), in which the variable “number of ways to help”’ can affect EMEA and this, in turn, the economic results of the NPO’s in terms of “last recorded income” and “last recorded expenditure” indicators. In essence, we argue that NPOs with more ‘ways to help’ will drive greater engagement and therefore move higher up the EMEA to improve their results.
Source: the authors.
Missing data was less than 5% and the strength of fit should be the starting point for evaluating the structural model (Henseler et al., 2016). The results can be seen in Table 8. As it is a model with compounds, we focus on the exact fit tests based on bootstrap (Benitez et al., 2019). These tests help to achieve nomological validity.
All the measures and indicators of strength of fit indicate a good fit for the model (Table 9), and it can be stated that the model cannot be rejected from a confirmatory point of view (Henseler et al., 2016).
In the results for the model the “High Interactivity” stage got a very low value, not altering the content as this level did not filter any NPO, so we proceeded to eliminate the “High Interactivity” stage (Hair et al., 2011). The rest of the indicators of all the constructs have adequate values, which means that they have individual reliability.
To analyze the discriminant validity, we used the heterotrait-monotrait (HTMT) ratio (Henseler et al., 2016), the result of which we can see summarized in Table 10.
The results are sufficient as they do not contain the value 0.9 (Gold et al., 2001) or the more restrictive value of 0.85 (Kline, 2011). This implies that “Number of ways to help” and “NPOs Results” are empirically different. In relation to the formative constructs, there is no problem of multicollinearity between dimensions: Action, Information, and Interactivity (Diamantopoulos and Siguaw, 2006). The higher collinearity between indicators, the more difficult it would be to separate the distinctive effect of each indicator on the emerging construct, which could increase standard errors.
The path coefficients show the estimates of the hypothesized structural model relationships; Fig. 3 illustrates the results.
Source: research data.
The results can be seen in Table 11. All the hypotheses are fulfilled. We have also used the Percentile method (Aguirre-Urreta and Rönkkö, 2018).
Next, we calculated the coefficient of determination (R2) that represents a measure of predictive power. It indicates the amount of variance of a construct that is explained by the predictor variables of this endogenous construct in the model (Table 12). The higher the value (between 0 and 1), the greater the capability the model has to predict for this variable.
The value indicates a weak explanatory power level for EMEA (Chin, 1998), and negligible for results since it does not even reach the minimum threshold of 0.1 (Falk and Miller, 1992).
We then proceeded to analyze the effect size, f2, which assesses the degree to which an exogenous construct contributes to explaining a given endogenous construct in terms of R2 (Cohen, 1988). The results appear in Table 13. Thus, we can say that the effect size is weak for the Results construct and moderate for EMEA (Cohen, 1988).
Since R2 increases when predictor constructs are included in the model, adjusted R2 is used, which controls for model complexity when comparing different model configurations (different numbers of exogenous variables and/or different samples).
Finally, we have calculated the predictive relevance of the model using the Stone-Geisser test (Q2) that is used for reflective dependent constructs. The results can be seen in Table 14.
The results indicate that EMEA has a medium predictive relevance on “NPOs results” and that the same happens with “Number of Ways to help” (Hair et al., 2019).
Although we used our model as explanatory, we do not preclude the possibility of using it as a predictive model for new scenarios. We used a procedure incorporated in SmartPLS called PLSpredict (Shmueli et al., 2016), and the results can be seen in Table 15.
These results indicate that the model shows high predictive power for “NPOs Results” (Last Recorded Expenditure and Last Recorded Income) and low predictive power for EMEA.
Whilst an explanatory model has the purpose of testing causal hypotheses, a predictive model aims to predict new observations or scenarios, to predict observations in a future time, or to predict observations that were not included in the original sample used to test the model (out-of-sample prediction) (Shmueli and Koppius, 2011).
In general terms, this research resulted in a model called EMEA (Extended Model of Webpages Engagement and Adoption) with three levels (information, interaction and action) and it concludes that NPO’s communication through their websites has to be planned in the context of a Strategic Online Communication Approach (SOCA), should be long term, targeted to the general public, and demonstrate various ways to help so that it can drive increased engagement and consequently better results.
In particular, it is concluded that:
The EMEA model is a compound of three dimensions (information, interaction, and action) with different weight in the results. Action is the lowest. Every dimension includes different functionalities to drive a higher or lower level of engagement. Therefore, EMEA shows the efficiency and maturity of the webpages indicating the level of engagement that it would be possible to achieve so that it can improve relationships with the public and obtain better results. The final action and total engagement are most probably, offline, because of a multichannel communication effort (online and offline).
However, it is found that the higher level of interactivity (the layer 3 of Stage 2) is non discriminant among NPOs. This level includes features such as Chat rooms, Members areas and Ability to receive feedback. This issue can be explained since the high level of interactivity is usually managed through social networking sites (principally Facebook and Twitter) as complementary media.
Although it is said that social networking sites such as Facebook or Twitter develop better interactive functions than webpages, it is webpages that have a significant role in the creation of engagement in the first stage: the dialogic loop (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020; following Taylor and Kent, 2014).
Neither the existence of social networking sites, nor the existence of advanced functions on the web ensures greater engagement by themselves. However, this work demonstrates the capacity that webpages hold to achieve engagement if the EMEA is applied (although continuous management and ongoing work of the NPOs department of communication are important to facilitate this).
The second conclusion is that the more ways to help NPOs’ present on their webpages the greater level of engagement it is possible to achieve (hypothesis 1). An average Internet user, e.g., potential donor who is looking for information about a particular NPO, is likely to have first contact with this organization via their website (Olinski and Szamrowski, 2020). Therefore, NPO websites should present different options to collaborate (given that websites provide more trusted information and control over the published content) and should clearly differentiate from the websites of competing organizations.
The third conclusion is that the greater engagement achieved by NPOs the better results they will enjoy (hypothesis 2). This research showed that the effective application of EMEA can explain and even predict better results. E.g., the application of EMEA not only can facilitate contact with the donors, but also it can explain and even predict deeper relationships with them in terms of donation levels. Therefore, it is not only a matter or placing a donation button on the organization’s website, but also a matter or creating webpages able to involve donors sequentially and without gaps in the process of building effective engagement.
The authors acknowledge that work of this nature inevitably has limitations and can always be built upon. Firstly, the data only addresses web pages, so further research is needed to clarify whether "high interactivity" is effectively being worked out in SNSs as a future hypothesis. Additionally, EMEA can explain and even predict the level of engagement that can be generated through web pages, but it is not necessarily evidence that engagement takes place. Finally, it is said that the EMEA is a tool to manage web pages, but even if it is applied correctly, it is not a ‘sine qua non’ condition to say that NPOs are managing communication in the context of SOCA if it is not part of an online multichannel communication strategy and is developed with the help of the NPOs communication department.
The data underlying can be found in the OSF HOME repository: https://osf.io/49shf/?view_only=2126100bcb9948bbafd324db2a0cd77b.
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University of Extremadura, Badajoz, Spain
María Victoria Carrillo-Durán & Juan Luis Tato-Jiménez
Bournemouth University, Poole, UK
Chris Chapleo
FUCAPE Business School, Vitória, Brazil
Lara Sepulcri
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MVCD, JLT-J, and CC: design and structure of the paper. MVCD and LS: theoretical framework. JLTJ: analysis, results, and conclusions. LS: field work. CC: full revision of the paper and proofreading.
Correspondence to María Victoria Carrillo-Durán.
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Carrillo-Durán, M.V., Tato-Jiménez, J.L., Chapleo, C. et al. Enhancing non-profit engagement: the extended model of webpage engagement and adoption for strategic management. Humanit Soc Sci Commun 10, 524 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41599-023-01980-9
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