Biography

Minjeong Kang, Ph. D. (Syracuse University), is an assistant professor and teaches Public Relations courses at the Media School, Indiana University. Her research interests are understanding the concept of public engagement in various stakeholder contexts such as member, employee, and volunteer relations and its positive impacts in eliciting supportive communication and behavioral outcomes. Her research has been published in leading peer-reviewed journals in her field including Communication Research, Corporate Reputation Review, Journal of Communication Management, Journal of Public Relations Research, and Public Relations Review. She has been serving on the editorial board of Journal of Public Relations Research.

Research Awards

• Winner, The Ketchum Excellence in Public Relations Research Award (November, 2009), Institute for Public Relations.
• Winner, The Highly Commended of the 2018 Emerald Literati Awards for her co-authored publication in Journal of Communication Management, “How symmetrical employee communication leads to employee engagement and positive employee communication behaviors: The mediation of employee-organization relationships”.

Refereed Publication

• Kang, M., Kim, J. R., & Cha, H. (2018). From concerned citizens to activsts: a case study of 2015 South Korean MERS outbreak and the role of dialogic government communication and citizens’ emotions on public activism. Journal of Public Relations Research. DOI: 10.1080/1062726X.2018.1536980 
• Kang, M. & Park, Y. E. (2017). Exploring trust and distrust as conceptually and empirically distinct constructs: Association with symmetrical communication and public engagement across four pairings of trust and distrust. Journal of Public Relations Research, 29(2-3), 114-135. 
• Kang, M., & Sung, M. J. (2017). How symmetrical employee communication leads to employee engagement and positive employee communication behaviors: The mediation of employee-organization relationships on the link. Journal of Communication Management, 21(1), 82-102.
• Kang, M. (2016). Moderating effects of identification on volunteer engagement: An exploratory study of a faith-based charity organization. Journal of Communication Management, 20(2), 102-117.
• Yang, S.-U., Kang, M., & Cha, H. (2015). A Study on dialogic communication, trust, and distrust: Testing a scale for measuring organization-public dialogic communication. Journal of Public Relations Research, 27(2), 175-192.
• Kang, M. (2014). Understanding public engagement: Conceptualizing and measuring its influence on supportive behavioral intentions. Journal of Public Relations Research, 26(5), 399-416.
• Kang, M. (2013). When an organizational message resonates with personal values of publics: The implications for strategic communication management. Atlantic Journal of Communication, 21(4), 185-199.
• Kang, M. (2013). Effects of the organization-public relational gap between experiential and expected relationship outcomes: Relational gap analysis. Journal of Communication Management, 17(1), 40-55.
• Kang, M., & Yang, S.-U. (2010) Mediation effects of organization-public relationships on public intentions for organizational supports. Journal of Public Relations Research, 22(4), 477-494.
• Kang, M., & Yang, S.-U. (2010). Comparing effects of country reputation and overall corporate reputations of a country on international consumers’ product attitudes and purchase intentions: A case study of South Korea. Corporate Reputation Review, 13(1), 52-62.
• Yang, S.-U., Kang, M., & Johnson, P.  (2010). Effects of narratives, openness to dialogic communication, and credibility on audience engagement in crisis communication through organizational blogs. Communication Research, 37(4), 473-497.
• Yang, S.-U., & Kang, M. (2009). Measuring blog engagement: A four-dimensional scale. Public Relations Review, 35(3), 323-324.

Professional Publication

• Kang, M. (2010). Measurement of social media credibility: A study on a measure of blog credibility. A research paper published by Institute for Public Relations.