Electronic word of mouth analysis for service experience

Since eWOM provides a rich source of objective information about products or services, it has become one of the major ways in which consumers collect information about items they are interested in buying. However, the problem of eWOM overload makes it difficult to effectively collect this information, and may have adverse effects on their actual purchase behavior. eWOM content is characterized by unstructured text formats, oversimplified expressions, and newly coined phrases (textspeak), and these all contribute to the challenges that arise when analyzing eWOM. This study thus proposes an eWOM analysis method for analyzing eWOM, which may lead to a more effective method for analyzing eWOM content, extracting both positive and negative appraisals, and help consumers in their decision making. At the same time, the method proposed in this study can also be utilized as a tool to assist companies in better understanding product or service appraisals, thus translating these opinions into business intelligence and as the basis for product/service improvements.     

A computer-based approach for analyzing consumer demands in electronic word-of-mouth

Consumer opinions are one of the most valuable assets that enterprises have, and thus questionnaires are often employed to investigate the views of consumers. However, this approach requires a large amount of human labor and time, and, most importantly, it cannot automatically find out consumers’ needs. However, many consumers now share their appraisals of products or services through electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Since these usually reflect consumer needs, and thus their demands, collecting and analyzing eWOM data has become a key task for many businesses. Nonetheless, current eWOM-related research focuses on its transmission, influence, issues, and marketing, and there seem to be very few studies that apply eWOM to develop consumer needs analysis systems. In order to effectively collect and analyze eWOM data, this study proposes a computer-based approach for analyzing consumer demands. The approach utilizes sentiment analysis to develop extraction methods for use with eWOM appraisals. It thus uses eWOM appraisals to find out consumer demands. This work integrates eWOM with information technology to develop an approach to computerize consumer needs analysis. It is expected that the results will help enterprises to improve the quality of their products and market competitiveness.     

In eWOM We Trust

Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) is an important factor in marketing communication. As more people use eWOM to assist them in making purchase decisions, the process by which they evaluate the credibility of these online recommendations becomes increasingly relevant. Although previous studies have recognized that credibility is one of the most important antecedents of eWOM adoption, little is known about the drivers of this credibility. Thus, this paper examines factors that influence the perceived credibility of consumer online recommendations. Drawing on dual process theory and source models, hypotheses were derived and tested with structural equation modeling on a basis of 643 consumers. Generally, the paper provides evidence that expertise, trustworthiness, and aggregate rating are the most significant factors of the perceived eWOM credibility. The study also demonstrates that involvement could moderate these relationships.     

Consumer perceptions of information helpfulness and determinants of purchase intention in online consumer reviews of services

Online consumer reviews offer an unprecedented amount of information for consumers to evaluate services before purchase. We use the dual process theory to investigate consumer perceptions about information helpfulness (IH) in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) contexts. Results highlight that popularity signals, two-sided reviews, and expert sources (but not source trustworthiness) are perceived as helpful by consumers to assess service quality and performance. Although two-sided reviews exercise a significant influence on perceived IH, their influence on purchase intention was indirectly mediated by IH. IH predicts purchase intention and partially mediates the relationship between popularity signals, source homophily, source expertise, and purchase intention.     

Examining the Impacts of Electronic Word-of-Mouth Message on Consumers’ Attitude

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has become one of the most influential communication tools. Few studies have identified what makes certain online reviews more influential than others. The objective of this study is to develop a better understanding of the impact of online reviews on consumer attitude and behavioral intention through a conceptual framework built from a series of theories and models. Combined experiment and survey methods contribute to the literature. Research findings revealed that online review antecedents of eWOM like review quality, valence, credibility, and quantity exerted impact on consumers’ attitude toward products. Personal involvement was a predominant predictor of consumers’ attitude. This study identified emotional strength’s mediating role in enhancing online review credibility and inducing a favorable attitude toward products.     

Mode comparison study on willingness to buy and willingness to pay for organic foods: paper-and-pencil versus computerized questionnaire

This contribution looks into the survey mode effect using a randomized trial comparing data from paper-and-pencil and computerized web questionnaire concerning the willingness to buy (WTB) and the willingness to pay (WTP) for two food products certified as organic. A survey questionnaire was filled in by 110 university students for each mode in thermal comfort lab conditions. The design enables to study measurement variance specifically attributable to the mode of questionnaire completion (i.e. mode effect) and presentation of products (i.e. stimulus effect). While the two questionnaires were as similar as possible, the paper-and-pencil version involved the actual presentation of a tetra pack package of organic orange juice of 750 ml and a paper package of organic spaghetti of 500 g, but the computerized version involved their video projection. As regards the difference in substantive results, the prospective consumers “subjects” seemed to be more willing to buy the organic orange juice when presented live than presented on video embedded in the computerized questionnaire, while only women were willing to pay more for orange juice for the paper-and-pencil mode. No difference was found for the organic spaghetti product. As regards the response quality, in contrast to previous studies respondents wrote fewer words to the open-ended question in the computerized than in the paper-and-pencil version of the questionnaire. In addition, the study shows that using video clips as replacement for physical product presentations when measuring WTB and WTP as important concepts in consumer preference research needs further testing and evaluation as respondents may not react to them in the same way.     

Brand followers’ retweeting behavior on Twitter: How brand relationships influence brand electronic word-of-mouth

Twitter, the popular microblogging site, has received increasing attention as a unique communication tool that facilitates electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). To gain greater insight into this potential, this study investigates how consumers’ relationships with brands influence their engagement in retweeting brand messages on Twitter. Data from a survey of 315 Korean consumers who currently follow brands on Twitter show that those who retweet brand messages outscore those who do not on brand identification, brand trust, community commitment, community membership intention, Twitter usage frequency, and total number of postings.     

Perceived ‘usefulness’ of online consumer reviews: An exploratory investigation across three services categories

Online reviews, a form of online word-of-mouth (eWOM), have recently become one of the most important sources of information for modern consumers. Recent scholarship involving eWOM often focuses on the transmission and impact of online reviews but sheds less light on the underlying processes that drive consumers’ receptions of them. Similarly, few studies have explored the recipients’ perspectives in the context of various services. This study addresses the aforementioned gaps in extant literature. The research model in this study is built upon the rich stream of literature related to how people are influenced by information and is tested on reviews collected from Yelp.com, a popular online advisory website dedicated to services businesses throughout the United States. The results of the study show that a combination of both reviewer and review characteristics are significantly correlated with the perceived usefulness of reviews. The study also finds several results that are anomalous to established knowledge related to consumers’ information consumption, both offline and online. The authors present the results of the study and discuss their significance for research and practice.     

Exploring the effects of trust,task interdependence and virtualness on knowledge sharing in teams

The sharing of knowledge within teams is critical to team functioning. However, working with team members who are in different locations (i.e. in virtual teams) may introduce communication challenges and reduce opportunities for rich interactions, potentially affecting knowledge sharing and its outcomes. Therefore, using questionnaire‐based data, this study examined the potential effects of different aspects of virtuality on a knowledge‐sharing model. Social exchange theory was used to develop a model relating trust to knowledge sharing and knowledge sharing to team effectiveness. The moderating effects of virtuality and task interdependence on these relationships were examined. A strong positive relationship was found between trust and knowledge sharing for all types of teams (local, hybrid and distributed), but the relationship was stronger when task interdependence was low, supporting the position that trust is more critical in weak structural situations. Knowledge sharing was positively associated with team effectiveness outcomes; however, this relationship was moderated by team imbalance and hybrid structures, such that the relationship between sharing and effectiveness was weaker. Organizations should therefore avoid creating unbalanced or hybrid virtual teams.     

Twittering the Little India Riot: Audience responses,information behavior and the use of emotive cues

In crises and disasters, social media not only facilitates mobilization, sharing of critical information, but also enables people to watch and participate as the crisis unfolds. Participation is now much more open to those beyond the immediately affected: the victims, the rescue workers and other stakeholders. This paper reports on a study of tweets collected during and after a rare occurrence of a violent riot in Singapore, illustrating the evolution of crisis responses, emotive cues information seeking and sharing behavior on Twitter over the lifecycle of the riot. Evidence of orientation of responses from the self towards the community as the riot progresses was found, contributing to ongoing research on community building in crises. Emotive cues were most dominant in the first hour of the riot, with various responses fluctuating over the riot's lifecycle. Emotive cues predicted most responses except for tweets that were reasoning about the riot, and also had an effect on informational tweets. Retweets drove most activity, and users also shared information and formed communal dialogue within their own networks. Despite the dominance of negative emotive cues and responses to the crisis, positive tweets – those singing praises and thanking stakeholders – were more likely to be retweeted.     

Evaluating Initial Public Acceptance of Highly and Fully Autonomous Vehicles

ABSTRACT

The autonomous vehicle (AV) is expected to dramatically increase road safety. Understanding the public’s initial perceptions and acceptance of AV is imperative because these aspects are likely to determine the future evolution of AVs. This study focuses on public perceptions and acceptance of the two highest levels of vehicle automation – highly autonomous vehicle (HAV) and fully autonomous vehicle (FAV). We drew from the conversation on trust and developed a psychological model to explain three acceptance measures, namely, general acceptance, behavioral intention to use, and willingness to pay (WTP). Using a between-subject survey (N = 742), we determined that the respondents held a stronger belief of benefits from FAV than from HAV. Trust in AV retained a direct effect as well as an indirect effect (mainly through perceived benefit) on the three acceptance measures. In comparison with perceived risk, perceived benefit exerted a higher direct effect on AV acceptance and a higher mediating effect on the trust–acceptance relationship. A prediction analysis further demonstrated that the model exhibited acceptable predictive capability for public acceptance. We drew certain implications for increasing AV acceptance.     

Exploring the affect factors of knowledge sharing behavior: The relations model theory perspective

With a view to achieve the ultimate goal of a permanent development, operation, and growth, to any business and enterprise, the strategy of knowledge management must be reinforced, and the sooner the better. In despite of those new and high interests shown toward the organization-embedded knowledge, not much concrete finding has been obtained regarding how and why employees are reluctant to share what they know.In our research, we proposed to base on the relations model theory to explore how different relation models, cultivated and shaped by different corporate cultures, give their influences on the willingness of knowledge sharing from employees. In the mean time, with a view to get closer to the realistic circumstance in the office, we give it a shot to include additional moderating variables, task inter-dependence, as well as time-of-cooperation, into our full research framework, aiming to see if they will disturb the influencing processes between the four principal relations and the willingness of employees to share their knowledge.The result reflects the distinct impact from communal sharing and equality matching on the willingness of sharing, while a subtle but negative impact of market pricing on the sharing willingness. There is no clear effect of authority ranking. Furthermore, in the analysis of interaction mode including additional moderators, the result has exhibited that task inter-dependence does moderate the relationship between communal sharing/equality matching/market pricing and the notion of sharing, while time-of-cooperation also adjusts the influencing processes between communal sharing, equality matching, market pricing, and willingness of sharing. This analysis and study grant us some clues regarding how corporate culture would eventually leverage employees’ intention in sharing their knowledge, and advise the business organizations how they should correctly formulate the knowledge management strategy and activities to augment the knowledge inter-flows between employees.     

Development of a scale to measure skepticism toward electronic word-of-mouth

In recent years, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has become an influential factor affecting Internet users' perceptions and behaviors (Chatterjee 2001; Lee et al. 2009). However, as more evidence demonstrating the utilization of fake eWOM has been discovered (Forrest and Cao 2010; Malbon 2013), Internet users' trust of eWOM may have been severely undermined, and they may have developed skepticism about this kind of communication in general. Current measurement scales for evaluating Internet users' suspicions/distrust toward eWOM messages are adopted from the marketing discipline and developed for advertising skepticism, which is contextually different from skepticism toward eWOM. The purpose of this study is to create a new measurement scales for eWOM skepticism. Using data from a preliminary survey, new measurement items for eWOM skepticism were established. Then, the new items were validated using a second survey dataset. The reliability and validity of the new scales suggested that the new instrument is suitable for measuring eWOM skepticism. This study contributes to the eWOM literature by highlighting the importance of investigating eWOM situations from the perspective of suspicion and distrust.     

Factors affecting pass-along email intentions (PAEIs): Integrating the social capital and social cognition theories

While eWOM advertising has recently emerged as an effective marketing strategy among marketing practitioners, comparatively few studies have been conducted to examine the eWOM from the perspective of pass-along emails. Based on social capital theory and social cognitive theory, this paper develops a model involving social enablers and personal cognition factors to explore the eWOM behavior and its efficacy. Data collected from 347 email users have lent credit to the model proposed. Tested by LISREL 8.70, the results indicate that the factors such as message involvement, social interaction tie, affection outcome expectations and message passing self-efficacy exert significant influences on pass-along email intentions (PAEIs). The study result may well be useful to marketing practitioners who are considering email marketing, especially to those who are in the process of selecting key email users and/or designing product advertisements to heighten the eWOM effect.     

The influence of eWOM in social media on consumers’ purchase intentions: An extended approach to information adoption

Social media websites have created valuable opportunities for electronic word of mouth (eWOM) conversations. People are now able to discuss products and services of brands with their friends and acquaintances. The aim of this study is to examine the influence of these conversations in social media on consumers' purchase intentions. For this purpose, a conceptual model was developed based on the integration of Information Adoption Model (IAM) and related components of Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). The new model, which is named as Information Acceptance Model (IACM), was validated through structural equation modelling (SEM) based on surveys of 384 university students who use social media websites. The results confirm that quality, credibility, usefulness and adoption of information, needs of information and attitude towards information are the key factors of eWOM in social media that influence consumers’ purchase intentions. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed as well as recommendations for further research.     

基于异质策略消费者的销售商两阶段订货模型

采用基于目标客户群定位的两阶段决策方法,研究策略消费者异质情形下的销售商订货模型.假设策略消费者对产品的估价为随机变量,通过对模型的逆向求解和仿真得出:1)消费者平均支付意愿的大小影响销售商定位的目标客户群的范围;2)随着消费者平均支付意愿、产品清仓价格的提高以及消费者异质程度、产品成本的降低,销售商会将更多的消费者定位为目标客户;3)当消费者平均支付意愿较低或异质程度较大时,销售商可以获得比消费者同质情形更高的利润,消费者的异质性有利于销售商.     

网站群间数据交换与共享系统

随着我国电子政务建设的快速发展,政府逐渐拥有越来越多的应用数据,但是这些数据由各种相互孤立的系统所采集生成并管理,其服务的范围被局限在某个特定应用或某部门内部,各个数据库之间存在相当数量的数据重叠,大量数据的重复采集的同时也造成了大量的数据不一致的问题。提出一个网站群间数据交换与共享系统。采用一种基于SOA和JSON数据格式的解决方案来处理多网站间新闻共享与交换。各网站和交换中心均发布服务接收新闻,同时各个站点均向交换中心发布新闻,交换中心根据配置信息转发新闻到相关站点的对应栏目下。设计交换中心与站点前置机,通过简单的配置实现交换中心与各个站点间新闻转发,实现新闻交换。如果有新加入的站点也不需要额外处理,只需要配置新的栏目对应关系即可实现新闻的共享与交换。     

Experience-based service provider selection in agent-mediated E-Commerce

For a given service demand, it is necessary to select a suitable service provider among many possibilities. An accurate selection is difficult when consumers do not have a significant history with many of the service providers and thus need to interact with others to make informed selections. In traditional approaches, consumers rate the service providers and exchange these ratings among each other. Contrary to traditional, rating-based service provider selection, this paper advocates an objective, experience-based approach in which consumers record their experiences with service providers rather than the overall, subjective ratings. A consumer's experience with a provider captures the requested service and the delivered service in terms of service-specific attribute values. When an experience is transferred from one service consumer to another, the receiving consumer evaluates the experience using her own evaluation criteria. By sharing experiences, service consumers can model service providers accurately and thus make better selections for their needs. Rating-based strategies use highly subjective information for decision making since ratings depend on satisfaction criteria of the rater. However, the proposed method uses experiences, which do not include any interpretation. Comparisons of experience-based and rating-based strategies show that the experience-based approach results in higher customer satisfaction rates in many real-life settings.     

Service cooperation and marketing strategies of infomediary and online retailer with eWOM effect

In contemporary electronic commerce, an infomediary displays electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) information of customers and links shoppers to retail websites, thus acting as an intermediary between buyers and sellers. This paper studies an online supply chain system in which the infomediary presents demand-referral services to online retailers based on eWOM of customer information. It is assumed that online demand is affected by retailer price, referral service effort, and eWOM. The demand function is extended and developed based on Bass’s model. A Stackelberg game model of service cooperation is presented, and then the optimal decisions on retailers’ prices and infomediary service efforts in the decentralized supply chain are analyzed. Moreover, the profits and cumulative sales in supply chain equilibrium are analyzed under several parameters. A computational experiment is implemented to verify the validity and effectiveness of the model. The results show that price sensitivity has a significant negative effect on cumulative retailer sales and the profits of retailers and infomediary, but the effect of service sensitivity and sales periods on profits is absolutely positive. Specifically, eWOM has two different impacts on the profit of the retailer and infomediary respectively. Finally, conclusions and management implications for supply chain parties are presented, along with some possible directions for further research.     

When products receive reviews across platforms: Studying the platform concentration of electronic word-of-mouth

A product can receive Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM), e.g., user reviews, at both retail and review platforms, with considerable variance in volume and valence. We define such eWOM variation across platforms as the platform concentration of eWOM. A lower platform concentration is measured by a higher level of volume equality and valence equality, i.e., a more comparable number of user reviews and more consistent average ratings among multiple platforms, respectively. Results from multiple models over software data from retail and review platforms shows that volume equality and valence equality positively interact to affect online users’ product adoption decisions.