A big data exploration of the informational and normative influences on the helpfulness of online restaurant reviews

© 2020 Edith Cowan University With the proliferation of user generated online reviews, uncovering helpful restaurant reviews is increasingly challenging for potential consumers. Heuristics (such as “Likes”) not only facilitate this process but also enhance the social impact of a review on an Online Opinion Platform. Based on Dual Process Theory and Social Impact Theory, this study explores which contextual and descriptive attributes of restaurant reviews influence the reviewee to accept a review as helpful and thus, “Like” the review. Utilising both qualitative and quantitative methodologies, a big data sample of 58,468 restaurant reviews on Zomato were analysed. Results revealed the informational factor of positive recommendation framing and the normative factors of strong argument quality and moderate recommendation ratings, influence the generation of a reviewee “Like”. This study highlights the important filtering function a heuristic can offer prospective customers which can also result in greater social impact for the Online Opinion Platform

Tackling social media data analysis: Comparing and contrasting QSR NVivo and Leximancer

Purpose This paper aims to offer insights into the ways two computer-aided qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) applications (QSR NVivo and Leximancer) can be used to analyze big, text-based, online data taken from consumer-to-consumer (C2C) social media communication. Design/methodology/approach This study used QSR NVivo and Leximancer, to explore 200 discussion threads containing 1,796 posts from forums on an online open community and an online brand community that involved online brand advocacy (OBA). The functionality, in particular, the strengths and weaknesses of both programs are discussed. Examples of the types of analyses each program can undertake and the visual output available are also presented. Findings This research found that, while both programs had strengths and weaknesses when working with big, text-based, online data, they complemented each other. Each contributed a different visual and evidence-based perspective; providing a more comprehensive and insightful view of the characteristics unique to OBA. Research limitations/implications Qualitative market researchers are offered insights into the advantages and disadvantages of using two different software packages for research projects involving big social media data. The “visual-first” analysis, obtained from both programs can help researchers make sense of such data, particularly in exploratory research. Practical implications The paper provides practical recommendations for analysts considering which programs to use when exploring big, text-based, online data. Originality/value This paper answered a call to action for further research and demonstration of analytical programs of big, online data from social media C2C communication and makes strong suggestions about the need to examine such data in a number of ways

Online brand advocacy and brand loyalty: A reciprocal relationship?

© 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to increase the understanding of the online brand advocacy (OBA) and brand loyalty relationship through a social identity theory lens. Design/methodology/approach: An online survey was used to obtain the needed data and the relationships of interest were examined using a partial least squares structural equation modelling approach. Findings: Brand loyalty and consumer-brand identification were found to be predictors of OBA, while OBA impacted on purchase intent. In addition, a strong reciprocal relationship was found between OBA and brand loyalty, which has not been reported in prior studies. Research limitations/implications: This study highlighted OBA\u27s complexity. It suggested OBA is not only an outcome of a consumer-brand relationship but also that OBA plays a key role in the development of such relationships. A consumer\u27s identification with a brand fosters brand loyalty and purchase intent through the giving of OBA. Practical implications: The more consumers vocalise their brand relationships through OBA, the more they strengthen their relationship with brands. The inclusion of OBA management in brand and marketing strategies should enable organisations to foster opportunities for online consumer-brand interactions that strengthen consumer-brand relationships. Originality/value: First, unlike previous studies that have used makeshift scales to measure OBA, the authors used a recently developed OBA scale. Second, the important reciprocal relationship between OBA and brand loyalty, which has significant implications, has not been reported in prior research

Online brand advocacy (OBA): The development of a multiple item scale

Purpose: Despite an increasing interest in online brand advocacy (OBA) and the importance of online brand conversations, OBA’s conceptualization, dimensionality and measurement are unclear, which has created confusion. This paper aims to answer calls from researchers and practitioners for a better understanding and measurement of OBA. The development and validation of a parsimonious and practical OBA scale is outlined in this paper. Design/methodology/approach: A multi-methods, multi-stage approach was followed to develop a parsimonious OBA scale. From an initial pool of 96 items obtained from qualitative research and from items used in prior general brand advocacy scales, a test-retest reliability study is followed. Academic judges were consulted to verify dimensionality, followed by two separate online surveys to further purify the scale and assess criterion-related validity. Programs including SPSS, AMOS and WarpPLS were used. Findings: This research extends the knowledge of OBA by developing and testing a parsimonious and practical 16-item, four-dimensional OBA scale. Unlike previous attempts to measure OBA, this study suggested OBA as a multidimensional construct with four dimensions (i.e. brand defense, brand information sharing, brand positivity and virtual positive expression). Further, this study showed that OBA is conceptually different from consumer–brand engagement and electronic word-of-mouth. Research limitations/implications: Future research is encouraged to validate the OBA scale in various contexts and locations. Researchers can use the new OBA scale to examine potential brand-related antecedents and consequences of OBA. Practical implications: This study provides brand and marketing practitioners with a better understanding of brand advocacy occurring online. The OBA scale offers clear markers or trademarks that will be useful in assessing any brand’s health online and to track and better manage online brand communications and performance. Originality/value: This research provides the first empirical investigation of Wilk et al.’s (2018) exploratory insights into OBA. The resulting parsimonious scale has furthered OBA as a new area for academic enquiry and presented practitioners with a practical way of measuring OBA

Body mass composition and dietary habits in adolescents with polycystic ovary syndrome

Objectives: The aim of the present study is to assess differences in body composition between female participants in the study group who suffer from PCOS versus a healthy control group. Material and methods: The study included 85, 14–22-year-old, female participants. Participants belonged to one of two groups. Thirty seven participants with a diagnosis of PCOS were in the clinical group, and 48 participants were in the healthy control group with no prior diagnosis of PCOS. Results: A statistically significant difference between groups was found in their answer regarding diet. A correlation was found between the body fat index and the use of dieting among participants; participants with a lower body fat index (in kilograms) were less likely to be on a diet. Conclusions: The young female participants with PCOS were shown to have similar body composition to age-matched healthy controls. However, the clinical group with PCOS reported more frequent use of dieting, with less use of exercise

<i>Element</i> and <i>elementary</i> in Norwid’s writings

The text discusses the meanings the poet ascribes to the words given in the title. The word element appears 61 times in his works. In most contexts (50 cases) the author understands the word in the same way his contemporaries do, that is in the meaning of “a group of people that constitutes a separate circle” (22 cases), “component” (18 cases) and “natural element” (10 cases). What is interesting, 12 times he uses the word element in the meaning that is not found in dictionaries, one pointing to “immediate situations, realities, circumstances, determinants (most often living or material ones)”. However, he does not use the word in the meaning of “beginning, beginner teaching, prime principles” or in the meaning of “natural element as the only condition for life” (Słownik wileński – Vilnius Dictionary); he also does not use the special meanings of the word element. The adjective elementary appears in Norwid's works 44 times, most often in the meanings recorded in dictionaries: “basic, fundamental, simplest” (28 cases), “teaching the beginnings, initial” (6 cases), “natural, primary” (3 cases). There are also such uses of the word, in which the poet, referring to the meaning “natural, primary”, enriches it with aspects that are not included in dictionaries. We encounter such a situation in contexts containing individual connotations, conventionalized at least as far as the poet's idiolect is concerned. The word elementary is not used in Norwid's works in the function of a mathematical expression. Also, it is not used in the meaning “being the cause of a natural element”. The way the poet understood the words element and elementary proves a modern character of his poetical language