The influence of culture on the use of anonymous electronic word-of-mouth : Examining online consumers' credibility perceptions

Across the world, the importance of e-commerce is constantly growing. Online shopping has become a part of consumers’ daily life, as buying from the virtual marketplace is considered vastly convenient. Consumers are now able to read the opinions of other consumers, as well as write their own experiences on various websites. Today this information exchange, called electronic word-of-mouth, is one of the most important factors affecting consumers’ purchase decisions. However, as Internet allows eWOM to spread anonymously, it raises concerns in terms of credibility. As national culture has been shown to impact on individuals’ tendency to trust and be influenced by others, it is essential to take these cultural differences into consideration when studying anonymous eWOM. The objective of this thesis was to find out how national culture might influence online consumers’ perceptions and usage of anonymous eWOM. More closely, the study aimed to analyze differences in consumers’ credibility perceptions, to understand which type of eWOM they prefer to utilize when shopping online. The selected research approach was qualitative, and the data was collected by theme interviews. In addition, stimulus techniques were used through different assignments, by showing the interviewees real eWOM-messages. All the interviewees were university students, representing various nationalities. Based on their cultural background, they were divided into different groups with the help of national culture dimensions. The findings of the research recognized that all consumers, regardless of their national culture, do utilize anonymous eWOM. The use of name may increase the effectiveness of the message, but whether the message is perceived as credible, is determined by the content. Individualistic consumers mainly evaluate messages based on the argument strength and language, while collectivistic consumers aim to find cues of the source’s credibility. Additionally, collectivistic consumers seem to perceive completely positive, anonymous messages as the most unreliable type of eWOM. Nevertheless, all consumers prefer to read eWOM on shopping websites or independent review sites. Chinese and Taiwanese consumers even consider eWOM in social media as unreliable and utilize mobile review apps instead. These findings indicate that the social relationship with the source, or the use of identity cues, may not be as important in terms of credibility as was expected. All in all, national culture seems to explain differences in consumers’ eWOM use and perceptions only limitedly.Verkkokaupan merkitys kasvaa jatkuvasti. Nettishoppailusta onkin tullut osa kuluttajien arkea kaikkialla maailmassa, erityisesti sen helppokäyttöisyyden ansiosta. Kuluttajat voivat lukea toisten kuluttajien mielipiteitä sekä kirjoittaa omia kokemuksiaan useille eri sivustoille. Tätä ilmiötä kutsutaan termillä eWOM, joka tarkoittaa sähköistä suusanallista viestintää. Siitä on tullut yksi tärkeimmistä kuluttajien ostopäätöksiin vaikuttavista tekijöistä. Viestintä Internetissä on kuitenkin usein nimetöntä, mikä saattaa vähentää tiedon uskottavuutta. Kulttuuritausta vaikuttaa siihen, miten yksilöt luottavat viestintään ja kuinka alttiita he ovat toisten vaikutukselle. Tutkittaessa nimetöntä sähköistä suusanallista viestintää onkin olennaista ottaa kulttuurierot huomioon. Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena oli selvittää kansallisen kulttuurin vaikutusta kuluttajien nimettömän suusanallisen viestinnän käyttöön ja kokemukseen verkossa. Erityisen mielenkiinnonkohteena olivat erot kuluttajien kokemuksista viestinnän uskottavuudessa – nämä selvittämällä olisi mahdollista ymmärtää paremmin, millaista viestintää he mieluiten hyödyntävät ostopäätöstensä tukena. Tutkielma oli luonteeltaan laadullinen ja aineisto kerättiin teemahaastatteluin. Haastatteluiden apuna käytettiin myös stimulointitekniikoita erilaisten tehtävien kautta, esittämällä haastateltaville todellisia eWOM-viestejä. Kaikki haastateltavat olivat yliopisto-opiskelijoita ja he edustivat useita eri kansallisuuksia. Heidät jaettiin kulttuuritaustan mukaan eri ryhmiin kulttuuridimensioiden avulla. Kaikki tutkimukseen osallistuneet kuluttajat hyödynsivät nimetöntä sähköistä suusanallista viestintää asioidessaan verkossa. Tulosten perusteella nimen käyttö saattaa silti lisätä viestin vaikuttavuutta. Se kuinka uskottavaksi viesti koetaan, määräytyy kuitenkin täysin sisällön perusteella. Individualistiset kuluttajat arvioivat pääasiassa argumenttien vahvuutta ja kirjoitustyyliä, kun taas kollektivistiset kuluttajat pyrkivät löytämään vihjeitä kirjoittajan uskottavuudesta. Tulosten perusteella kollektivistiset kuluttajat lisäksi kokevat täysin positiiviset, anonyymit viestit kaikkein epäluotettavammaksi eWOMin muodoksi. Eroista huolimatta kaikki kuluttajat lukevat eWOMia mieluiten shoppailusivustoilla tai itsenäisillä arviointisivustoilla. Kuluttajat Kiinasta ja Taiwanista jopa kokevat sosiaalisessa mediassa ilmenevän eWOMin olevan epäuskottavaa ja hyödyntävät useimmiten mobiiliarviointisovelluksia. Tutkimuksen tulokset osoittavat, että eWOMin kirjoittajan ja lukijan välinen suhde, tai identiteettivihjeet, eivät ole yhtä tärkeitä elementtejä uskottavuuden kannalta kuin olisi voitu olettaa. Yleisesti voidaan todeta, että kulttuurierot selittävät vain osittain sähköisen suusanallisen viestinnän käyttöä ja kokemusta

Can you believe what you see? A qualitative study about the determinants affecting the perceived credibility of video eWOM

Thesis Purpose: With the increasing popularity of social networks like YouTube, and the increasing accessibility of consumers to devices able to make and edit videos, video reviews are facing a remarkable growth. Hitherto, the research in eWOM has paid more attention to written reviews, leaving a notable gap of research in video eWOM. The purpose of this study was to improve the knowledge about video eWOM, studying the determinants affecting the perceived credibility of video reviews. Indeed, credibility is a crucial factor, playing a significant role in the consumer’s attitude toward a brand or product, and the consequent purchase intention. The study reached an answer to the following question: What are the determinants affecting the perceived credibility of video-eWOM reviews? Theoretical Perspective: The research model, adopted in this study, built upon three (3) main theoretical areas, due to a lack of research in video eWOM and in order to formulate an adequate background, suitable for the interpretation and analysis of data. First, the study drew upon the determinants of perceived credibility, found by prior research in the field of written eWOM. With the purpose of facilitating the use of this theory, it was built a comprehensive model, summarising all the determinants. Second, some theories about the influence of video features on the audience were implemented in order to fully grasp the potentiality of video reviews. Finally, the third area was focused on the peculiar features of nonverbal communication, involved in video reviews through the adoption of images, motion and sound to convey the message. Methodology: The empirical research was performed through a qualitative study based on a variation grounded theory. The data was collected at one point in time, and the sample consisted in 12 female participants who interacted with five (5) video reviews on YouTube. The participants’ opinions were collected performing semi-structured interviews, supported by the techniques of photo elicitation and list of thoughts. The empirical data was then analysed through a sequence of definite steps, based on grounded analysis. Results: The results of the empirical research were summarised in a new model, encompassing all the determinants observed to exert an influence in the current study. Two (2) new determinants of perceived credibility – visual evidence and testing – were revealed along with one (1) new moderator, first impression. Besides, the determinants and moderators, corresponding to the ones of written eWOM, were assessed by the participants through the adoption of more cues, including the reviewer’s appearance, facial expressions, tone of voice, and video features (e.g. setting). Keywords: Video eWOM, Video reviews, Electronic word-of-mouth, Credibility, YouTube

(Un)Social Media: A Content Analysis of the Centralized Self on Twitter

This dissertation critically assesses the social media posts that create, give life to and finally abandon trending topics on Twitter. Drawing on Baudrillard’s (1983) notion of simulacrum, the dissertation examines posts as performative discourse that reframes the trend within the personal simulacrum of the poster. Using digital humanities tools, a corpus of 102,532 tweets have been collected. A content analysis was performed to analyze themes and term frequency. Selected case studies indicated that posters persistently centered their online identity within content, reframing content as personal performance rather than dialogic engagement. The first case study examines social media posts responding to Je suis Charlie or I am Charlie, an online meme that itself responded to the terrorist attack on the offices of a French satire magazine. In this case study, the “I am” proclamation is the most distinct rhetorical strategy. The place study discusses social media responses to controversial postings from the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, Germany. In this second case study, the self is visually represented in the form of photoshopped selfies and the process of public apology known as “undouching.” The political argument section surveys the social media battle surrounding Native American protests over a proposed oil pipeline through North Dakota. In this third case study, users manipulated their geolocational marker to indicate they were in Standing Rock, ND when they physically were not. The study found that social media content is represented through a series of performative poses. Rather than dialogic, as the term “social” media implies, the content on these platforms is monologic. The content may have been designed with a limited audience in mind: those that already agree with the author’s sentiment and/or the author themselves. The content that does become traditionally “viral” is due to preexisting celebrity, as Boorstin (1987) conceived of it. These celebrity figures increase sentimental echoes and contribute to these phenomena being designated as trending in their respective time. Performative poses are amplified through likes and retweets or what Alhabash & McAlister (2015) called electronic word-of-mouth or eWOM (p. 1318). Content on social media, whether it receives sentimental amplification or not, is left on a virtual bookshelf for others to find and use in the future. Even if nothing is done with them now, what is left behind in social media spaces should be considered by all who create and use social media. The dissertation provides suggestions for users, including methods for adapting in the ideological echo chambers they find themselves in and selecting the most empirically positive echo chamber for them. Social media creators should consider the algorithmic structure of their platforms, including a “catch up” feature from early Facebook and an opt-in function to allow users to see content that may have been filtered out from their view. Knowing the ways in which performative poses make up social media will benefit all involved, so the most can be made of these limited spaces

A meta-analysis of the factors affecting eWOM providing behaviour

Purpose- Numerous studies have examined factors influencing eWOM providing behaviour. The volume of extant research and inconsistency in some of the findings makes it useful to develop an all-encompassing model synthesising results. Therefore, the aim of this study is to synthesise findings from existing studies on eWOM by employing meta-analysis, which will help to reconcile conflicting findings of factors affecting consumers’ intention to engage in eWOM communications.Design/methodology/approach- The findings from 51 studies were used for meta-analysis, which was undertaken using Comprehensive Meta-Analysis software.Findings- Factors affecting eWOM providing behaviour were divided into four groups: personal conditions, social conditions, perceptual conditions, and consumption-based conditions. The results of meta-analysis showed that out of 20 identified relationships, 16 were found to be significant (opinion seeking, information usefulness, trust in web eWOM services, economic incentive, customer satisfaction, loyalty, brand attitude, altruism, affective commitment, normative commitment, opinion leadership, self-enhancement, information influence, tie strength, homophily, and community identity).Originality/value- Applying meta-analysis helped reconciliation of conflicting findings, enabled investigation of the strengths of the relationships between motivations and eWOM providing behaviour, and offered a consolidated view. The results of this study facilitate the advancement of current knowledge of information dissemination on the Internet, which can influence consumer purchase intention and loyalty

Anonymity, Privacy, and Disclosure (APD) Triad on Social Networking Applications

While the average time people spend on their mobile apps continues to increase, the life cycle of using new social networking apps (SNA) remains relatively short, mostly due to privacy concern. For SNA users, it is important to know how the perception of anonymity and privacy concern determine the depth of disclosed information. For many SNA developers and practitioners, understanding the actual engagement of users on the platform is critical for measuring success of the app. Previous research has evaluated motivations/preventions of app usage and consequences of continuing usage. Despite efforts to understand the engagement with mobile devices and other users, there is little work in the Information Systems (IS) field to simultaneously investigate the triad of anonymity, privacy concern, and disclosure (APD) on continuous engagement with SNAs. Through the lens of contextual integrity of privacy, this research proposes a research model to investigate APD relationships with perceived and actual engagements with a new SNA. The research model is tested using a survey and actual usage data captured from users’ log files provided by mobile app developers. Results demonstrate how privacy is significantly related with actual engagement while anonymity relationship with actual engagement is fully mediated by perceived engagement

Understanding what drives consumers’ electronic word-of-mouth behavior in a multichannel, multimedia and multiscreen environment

JEL Classification: M31, M39O objectivo da presente dissertação consiste em investigar a intenção dos consumidores em escolher canais electrónicos quando decidem partilhar informação (boca-a-boca) com outras pessoas, num ambiente de múltiplos canais e dispositivos. O estudo explora as motivações dos consumidores aquando pretendem transmitir informação, com o objctivo de perceber o que os leva a (1) envolver-se neste tipo de comunicação, especificamente na indústria das companhias aéreas, e (2) associar essas motivações à intençao de uso de vários canais electrónicos para a partilha da informação. Foi realizado um questionário online, determinando uma amostra de 103 adultos portugueses, de forma a analisar quantitativamente as hipóteses propostas, através de análises estatísticas para factores e associações lineares entre as variáveis. Os resultados sugerem que as motivações dos consumidores para a partilha de informação influenciam positivamente a escolha de múltiplos canais electrónicos para a sua transmissão, sendo que a preocupação pelos outros, ajudar a empresa, e expressar maus sentimentos consistem nas principais motivações. Foi ainda verificado que o conhecimento prévio sobre um canal influencia positivamente a sua posterior utilização. A dissertação ainda oferece sugestões para as empresas desenvolverem estratégias sobre a utilização de canais electrónicos no contexto da intenção dos consumidores em partilhar informação sobre a empresa. Desta forma, o estudo prevê um avanço no conhecimento na área de gestão de múltiplos canais electrónicos, através da investigação das motivações que levam os consumidores a escolher certos canais na transmissão de informação.he purpose of the current dissertation is to investigate the intention of consumers to channel usage when engaging in electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communications, in a context of multichannel, multimedia and multiscreen environment. The study explores consumer’s motivations for eWOM in order to understand what takes consumers (1) to engage in this type of communication, specifically in the airline services industry, and (2) associate these motivations to channel usage intention and consequent multichannel behavior. A questionnaire was conducted, with a sample of 103 Portuguese adults, in order to perform a quantitative statistical analysis with factor analysis and linear regression between the variables. Findings suggest that eWOM motivations influences multichannel behavior, being concern for others, helping the company, and venting negative feelings the principal motivations for a multichannel behavior. Additionally, obtained findings suggest that perceived channel knowledge has a positive important in explaining consumer’s choice of online channels. The research offers suggestions to develop multichannel strategies in a context of eWOM intentions as this study advances knowledge in the multichannel management field by investigating why and how consumers choose channels for transmitting eWOM

Cultural and review characteristics in the formation of trust in online product reviews: A multinational investigation

Recent changes in web technologies have given a voice to consumers in online discussion of products and services. While the web has long been a source of information about products and services, web content was controlled by those who knew how to develop for the web, or those who could hire web developers. The trend toward web software that permits novice users to contribute to conversations about products has been embraced by online retailers, who facilitate and encourage online user reviews of products. Researchers are just starting to understand the relationship between online user reviews and purchase intention, however have determined that trust is central to the development of purchase intention. In this study, we report the results of a simulation based web purchase experiment that included subjects in Colombia, the People’s Republic of China and the United States. The experiment included manipulations for both information quality and a social component of the review, and espoused culture scores of subjects where measured. We find that information quality, the social component and espoused uncertainty avoidance influence trust in the review. We were not able to support an interaction effect between information quality and uncertainty avoidance and trust, nor an interaction effect between the social component and collectivism

How Reviewers’ Identity Disclosure and Expertise Affect Consumer Responses: The Mediating Role of Perceived Deception

Deceptive reviews which include posts by businesses (or individuals) to promote their own products/services or denounce their competitors are increasingly being used to mislead those making purchase decisions. Mass media globally and online review websites have acknowledged the existence of deceptive reviews that can undermine trust in online review websites. However, the challenges faced by both online review websites and businesses whose products and services are being reviewed extend beyond the existence of actual deceptive reviews. Another significant problem is related the issue of perceived deception (what consumers perceive is a deceptive review regardless of whether the review is deceptive or not), which is the focus of this thesis. A systematic review of literature regarding online reviews suggests that consumers’ perceived credibility and trustworthiness can be influenced by various factors related to reviews, reviewers, online review websites, and consumers’ characteristics, either independently or interactively. In turn, perceived credibility and trustworthiness play a role in influencing consumers’ responses. However, there is a lack of academic knowledge regarding the antecedents and consequences of perceived deception in online reviews that this thesis seeks to address. Building on two well-known theories (social information processing theory (SIPT) and the persuasion knowledge model (PKM)) and supplementing them with existing online review literature, a conceptual framework is developed and tested. The framework assesses how reviewers’ profile cues (reviewer’s identity disclosure and reviewer’s expertise), influence perceived deception. In addition, consumers’ responses to online reviews that they perceive to be deceptive, such as reduced booking intention, negative emotion, warning other consumers by sharing negative word of mouth (NWOM), or experiencing reduced trust towards a hotel are explored. The role of online review scepticism on the relationship between reviewers’ profile cues and perceived deception is also investigated. An online experiment (pre-test 1: n = 93; pre-test 2: n = 82; main study: n = 321) using a 2 (reviewer’s identity disclosure: high, low) x 2 (reviewer’s expertise: high, low) between-subject design was used to explore how a reviewer’s profile cues influence perceived deception and ultimately consumer responses. The results reveal the significant effects that reviewer’s identity disclosure and expertise have on perceived deception, particularly when online review scepticism is high. These cues also influence booking intention, NWOM, and negative emotion through perceived deception. Drawing on SIPT and PKM, the thesis extends online review literature by developing and testing a conceptual framework which shows how reviewers’ profile cues (i.e., low identity disclosure and low expertise) impact perceived deception and, in turn, subsequent consumer responses. The conceptual framework also shows the moderation effect of online review scepticism on the relationship between reviewer’s profile cues and perceived deception. Practically, this thesis validates a model that identifies the causes and negative effects of perceived deception. The model is designed to assist online review websites and hotels understand the importance of ensuring that genuine reviews (non-deceptive reviews) are not mistakenly perceived to be deceptive. Online review websites and hotels might achieve this by foregrounding reviewer's profile information (i.e., reviewer's identity disclosure and reviewer's expertise level)

What leads consumers to spread eWOM for Food Ordering Apps?

Restaurants are using innovative ways to engage with consumers using Food Ordering Apps (FOAs). The purpose of this article is to identify the influence of consumers’ eSatisfaction, perceived value, trust, and eLoyalty on eWOM for FOAs in India. The study also verifies if eWOM for FOAs varies based on age, gender, family size, order value, and online shopping experience. The research followed a multi-stage approach. In the first stage, an extensive literature review was conducted to identify the various factors that lead to eWOM. In the second stage, a survey was distributed among the FOA users. 375 responses were obtained. In the third stage, a binary multivariate logistic regression was used to evaluate the predictive power of the proposed research model. The results indicated that eLoyalty, trust, and perceived value were statistically significant in predicting consumers’ intent to spread eWOM for FOAs. eSatisfaction, age, gender, order value, shopping experience, and family size were insignificant in shaping the customer’s intention to spread eWOM for FOAs. The findings of this study can be used to understand the factors that influence users to spread eWOM for FOAs. Managers in food delivery business can use the findings from this study to address the most relevant constructs shaping eWOM as it has an impact on the survival prospects and profitability of the business