The Influence Of Enterprise Internet Employment Word-of-mouth On Labor Cost

Under the new economic normal,optimizing resources,controlling costs,and improving efficiency have become increasingly important.Prior research shows that labor cost is an important part of operation and production cost,and labor cost control has always been an important content of management accounting research(Blinder,1990)[1].The growing literature on labor cost control has shown that the development of social media is providing a new way of labor cost control.For example,social media platforms such as Glassdoor in the USA and Kanzhun in China provide the opportunity for existing and former employees to post their opinions about their company online.The employees’ online comments can help fill the information gap between the company and the outside world and influence the decision-making of potential job seekers.The content of employee online reviews is also the response of the existing employees’ job satisfaction and the evaluation of the employees’ work status.Therefore,this paper selects the Internet industry as the research object.Starting from employee online reviews,this paper explores the relationship between employee reviews on social media and labor cost,labor efficiency and labor cost stickiness.This paper abandons the questionnaire survey method with small sample size and individual error,and uses Internet crawler technology and text sentiment analysis to quantify employee reviews.In the new data environment,new tools are used to re-examine the traditional cost control issues.Our research shows that the enterprises with higher emotional scores in employee online reviews,that is,the enterprises with better Internet employment word-of-mouth,are more attractive to job seekers,and their labor costs are lower.Moreover,the labor cost of different positions has different sensitivities to word-of-mouth,and high-tech positions are more sensitive;Employees have higher enthusiasm and higher labor efficiency after entering the company;Employees are more willing to share risks with enterprises,accept the labor contract linked to performance,and labor cost stickiness is lower.Our paper complements the existing literature on employees’ online review and labor cost control.Unlike prior studies that were limited to customers’ online reviews on products and services,we demonstrate that employees’ online reviews can affect the firms’ labor costs,efficiency,and labor cost stickiness.Using big data and employees’online comments,we contribute to the management accounting literature by demonstrating how employees’ specific effects can affect the firm’s labor cost and efficiency.Our study has practical implications,also.We show that employees’ positive online comments can reduce the firm’s labor costs and improve efficiency.We suggest that firms actively respond to negative comments and solve employees’ dissatisfaction promptly.The firm should also consider providing a good working environment and treat employees fairly.