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The Exploratory Research of Influence Factor for the Credibility of Online Word-of-mouth

Author: AiQing
Tutor: ZhuMin
School: Southwestern University of Finance and Economics
Course: Business management
Keywords: Online Word-of-Mouth virtual community credibility
CLC: F274;F49
Type: Master's thesis
Year: 2009
Downloads: 334
Quote: 1
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Abstract

Along with the development of global internet, there are more and more studies of online word-of-mouth. The importance of online word-of-mouth marketing also becomes more significant. With the development of virtual community, online interpersonal communication has been paid more attention. Many companies have taken positive measures to encourage consumers to exchange information in virtual communities.Traditional word-of-mouth is an informal kind of communication behavior in which the information disseminator and receiver has a face-to-face communication. Through that information exchange, consumers would have more understanding to the specific commodity or service, and then the appraisal and purchase intention would be affected. As a result, word-of-mouth has been regarded as a reliable information source which has great influences. As the internet developed, word-of-mouth is not limited to face-to-face communication but also disseminate on internet space, which is called online word-of-mouth. The online word-of-mouth spread anonymously, which lead to higher possibility of online rumor or hostile attack. In the 18th internet research, only 31% of netizens are satisfied with the credibility of online information.Could online word-of-mouth get the trust of consumers when there are a plenty of fake information on the internet? Which factors would have influence on the credibility of online word-of-mouth? Does the credibility of online word-of-mouth disseminator and virtual community have influence over the trust of consumers on the information?To answer the above questions, the author has a review on the past researches of word-of-mouth communication and virtual community trust, and then proposed the framework of the paper. This study includes six parts as the following. The introduction part was the background information in the essay. This part summarized the importance of this paper from both the theoretical and realistic prospective. Then it outlined the framework of the investigation and the major method. In particularly, the creative part of the essay has been pointed out.The first part summarized the past literatures about word-of-mouth. Through the review, we have found that most researches were about the influences of online word-of-mouth over purchase intention. According to the consumer attitude theory model, online word-of-mouth influence over purchase intention through affecting the consumers’attitude. However, when consumers trust the online word-of-mouth, it is possible that they would not have purchase intention immediately but their attitude might have been changed. At present, there are little researches about the credibility of online word-of-mouth. In addition, the credibility of online word-of-mouth should have been studied in three aspects, including source credibility, channel credibility and information credibility. In existed researches, those three aspects were studied as a whole. By reviewing the past literatures, the influence factors were summarized providing a theoretical base for the following research.The second part introduced the establishment of theory model in this essay. Using the existed models of online word-of-mouth as a reference, the author proposed the theory model of influence factors of the online word-of-mouth credibility, and research hypothesizes.The third part talked about the definition and indicators of all variables in the essay, which is the base of questionnaire design. In order to ensure the credibility and validity of the questionnaire, a small scale discussion and a pre-test has been hold before data collection. In addition, the questionnaire could be revised to be more clear and intelligible through a small scale discussion. This part also introduced the research method. The questionnaire was posted on several virtual communities in which there are a great number of registered users.The fourth part is the most important part of the essay. A general overview of the collected data was given. It can be seen that the sample distribution was reasonable. Then, the credibility and validity analysis proved the questionnaire was credible, valid and suitable for further statistical analysis. Through variance analysis, we have found that gender and income level doesn’t have significant influences over the trust of online word-of-mouth credibility. On the contrary, age and education background have significant influences over the trust of online word-of-mouth credibility. At last, through the analysis of structured equation, except the receiver’s specialized ability and similarity has little influence on the credibility of online word-of-mouth, most of the previous research hypothesizes has been proved.The last part proposed some advices on how to implement online word-of-mouth marketing. Market segmentation and being familiar with the target consumers is the primary thing. Second, companies should select appropriate online word-of-mouth disseminator, take advantage of opinion leaders and cultivate opinion leaders. Third, find out the position of virtual communities to select appropriate online word-of-mouth marketing channels. Fourth, pay attention to negative word-of-mouth and crisis public relations. Fifth, implement healthy online word-of-mouth marketing and keep away from violent marketing activities. At last, the author came up with the limitations of the research and the future work.The paper analyzed the theory about the credibility of online word-of-mouth, established the model and got the solutions to implement online word-of-mouth marketing.1 The influence factors were classified into 3 categories, including the online word-of-mouth disseminator, receiver and information channel. At the same time, the credibility of online word-of-mouth was studied from 3 perspectives, including source credibility, channel credibility and information credibility.2 This essay focused on the credibility of online word-of-mouth under the virtual community’s communication style, which is different from other online communication. It is crucial for enterprises to implement community marketing.

The Exploratory Research of Influence Factor for the Credibility of Online Word-of-mouth

Abstract

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