رابطه بین انگیزه های کلمه دهان به دهان الکترونیکی و ویژگی های پیام : چشم انداز فرستنده

This study investigates how particular motivations are associated with different eWOM message characteristics. This is examined from the sender’s perspective in both positive and negative eWOM contexts. Responses from a sample of 201 consumers who had posted an online message about a financial service in the last 12 months were collected through an online survey. Results showed that cognitive and affective characteristics of messages were linked to different motivations to engage in eWOM, which further differed across positive and negative messages. Managers should encourage consumers to share more positive factual information and sort online reviews based on the subject matter, rather than just the positivity of a message.

It is well-documented that word-of-mouth (WOM) can influence consumers’ decisions (e.g. Day, 1971, Harrison-Walker, 2001 and East et al., 2008). The persuasiveness of a WOM message may depend on, among other things, the way a sender words a message through logical and emotional appeals or characteristics (Mazzarol et al., 2007 and Sweeney et al., 2012). However, what remains unknown is what drives the sender to design their message with such characteristics. The present study attempted to address this research gap in an online environment. The task of identifying and assessing WOM content has in the past been challenging as WOM has often been privately communicated, such that managers are neither privy to what is being said, nor how it is being said. As WOM communication is becoming increasingly transparent in online discussion forums, social networking sites, consumer review sites and blogs (Riegner, 2007), it is now possible to identify and examine individual electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) messages and gain richer insight into how customers’ feelings and experiences about a service are represented to others. The present study made use of this new source of WOM. Much of the research on WOM examines the receiver’s perspective and little has addressed the generation of WOM (Harrison-Walker, 2001). To advance our knowledge in this area, a suitable point of departure is the investigation of WOM from the sender’s perspective, in particular their motivation to initiate WOM communication and the characteristics of the WOM message. Specifically, the purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between motivations and message characteristics across both positive and negative eWOM.

6.1. Discussion and theoretical implications The present study sought to identify how motivations to engage in eWOM influence the characteristics of the eWOM message, in particular cognitive and affective message components following the centrality of cognitive and affective elements in communication (e.g., Allsop et al., 2007 and Mason and Davis, 2007). The findings suggest that for positive eWOM messages, personal self-enhancement, social benefits, and advice seeking are positively linked to both cognitive and affective characteristics of the message. Efforts to make personal or social gain from eWOM communication seem to evoke clear factual information that is presented in a persuasive and emotive manner. However, these social motives largely do not appear to be associated with the extent of cognitive and affective characteristics in a negative eWOM message. However, as expected, messages motivated by warning others in the negative eWOM case, do generate cognitive and affective characteristics, particularly the former; although the difference was not significant. In contrast, venting evoked significantly stronger affective than cognitive message characteristics. It seems people are more circumspect in the case of warning than venting, placing more emphasis on cognitive content (Bronner and de Hoog, 2011). Helping other consumers was, as expected significantly more linked to cognitive than affective message characteristics in positive eWOM messages, providing additional support for the notion that those altruistically-motivated to share their positive or negative service experience with others are likely to focus on factual content in the message content (Sen and Lerman, 2007 and Bronner and de Hoog, 2011). 6.2. Managerial implications The proposed framework emphasises the importance of understanding the links between motives for initiating eWOM communication and the cognitive and affective communication characteristics of eWOM messages (Fig. 1). Managers should be aware that some of these motivations may give rise to eWOM messages with sufficient cognitive and affective characteristics to impact their business. The impact of cognitive and affective elements on receiver expectations of, for example, service quality and value was established in Sweeney et al.’s (2012) study. Therefore, the framework in the present study should help managers to better understand the nature of eWOM communication and assess the extent to which these motivations influence message characteristics and ultimately their organisation. The rapid rise and transparency of social networking sites offers researchers and managers a significant opportunity to track eWOM concerning their organisation. A discussion forum or social networking page initiated by the organisation should enable managers to not only access eWOM communication but also to promote social interaction among consumers in the hopes of creating socially-driven motivations to initiate eWOM. These sites should enable consumers to interact with each other socially, ask questions, provide tips and buying advice on a product or service and write product reviews. The findings re-affirm the value of sites designed for this purpose. At the very least, managers may use online sentiment monitoring tools (e.g. Buzz Monitoring) and assess the cognitive and affective elements of discussions surrounding their brands. Our expectation is that as people become part of online communities, particularly with the increase in social networking; group norms and personal social agendas as reflected in our motivation set will play a greater role in determining how eWOM messages are worded (e.g. Trusov et al., 2009, Kozinets et al., 2010 and Higgins, 2011). As a result, it is increasingly important for managers of social networking campaigns to understand the social norms of communication in each online community and support a culture of open and constructive feedback. In addition, given the greater impact of cognitive message elements on the receivers perceptions on the organisation (Sweeney et al., 2012), we recommend managers sort reviews by its factual content or subject matter to improve the value and user-friendliness of the site. An example of this is tripadvisor.com where hotel reviews are indexed by factual topics (e.g. room service, great view, subway station, etc.), instead of the valence of reviews.