“Almost every statement spoken today by major political, business, and academic leaders was written by someone else” (Einhorn, 1991, p. 115). Those “someone elses” are ghostwriters who are willing to craft documents, anonymously, for clients for a fee. As familiarity with the role of ghostwriters has risen, shame or embarrassment at having used their services seems to be declining (Conner, 2014), which is why we have heard that Prince Harry paid his ghostwriter $1 million and apparently Michelle Obama had as many as six different ghostwriters assisting in the writing and production of her bestseller, Becoming. Still, very little is known about who ghostwriters are and how they work. To begin to empirically understand the burgeoning ghostwriting industry and its participants, as well as how the occupation has evolved, I conducted an in-depth inductive, qualitative study using a grounded theory (Corbin & Strauss, 2008) methodology, conducting interviews with ghostwriters, ghostwriting agency owners, and ghostwriting clients to chronicle and explain the trajectory of the field. / Business Administration/Strategic Management

Thought leadership is a term that has been around for more than a decade. Little research has been done on exactly what thought leadership is or how to become a thought leader. Yet the business press is full or articles touting the importance of becoming a thought leader along with a variety of benefits. Additionally, social media has become an increasingly important part of any marketing strategy. This paper begins by developing a typology of business to business CEO social media presence, it clearly defines the three key attributes of a thought leader and concludes with identifying which attributes are the most important in CEO thought leadership. Chief Executive Officers (CEOs) are generally expected to represent the public face of the company, and their leadership is critical to success in product-service markets. Social media platforms offer CEOs the opportunity to benefit their companies by demonstrating leadership, communicating ideas, and motivating others, often with a personalized touch. Yet, many CEOs, particularly in business-to-business (B2B) firms, are relatively new to social media and do not have a clear social media strategy. A typology of B2B CEO social media presence was developed by utilizing cluster analysis to analyze a cross-section of B2B CEOs’ social media activity. Results shows that the Reluctants, constituting 74% of the sample, have little or no social media presence. Of CEOs with some social media presence, the main types are LinkedIn Leveragers who have a substantial LinkedIn presence only, and TweetStars, who are active only on Twitter. A CEO who is a thought leader is a business leader who communicates ideas in a way that motivates others to develop them and is recognized by others outside of their organization. Using the three attributes of thought leadership – communication, motivation of others, and public recognition, a survey was conducted to identify which of these attributes were the most important in increasing perceived thought leadership. Using choice based conjoint analysis to test the level of perceived thought leadership, public recognition followed closely by motivation were most important in contributing to perceived thought leadership. The typology developed in this paper leads to the development of a set of empirical propositions for future research. Insights gained from this analysis can help companies and their CEOs make informed decisions on their social media options and strategies. The identification of what attributes are most important to increase levels of perceived thought leadership lays the foundation for additional research. Recommendations offered in this paper can help companies and CEOs invest their resources in a marketing strategy appropriate to their goals. / Business Administration/Marketing