Cross-cultural online communication
Lecture 1
In the past, there was mostly marketer generated content: controlled
information stream directed towards consumers.
In the present, there is consumer generated content: less controlled
information stream, consisting of e.g.:
- Blogs
- Vlogs
- Brand communities
- News groups
- Social networks
- Consumer comparison sites
These are all examples of eWOM: electronic word of mouth.
Cross-cultural Online Communication is research into the experience
and wording of reviews in e-WOM.
Internet reviews are of great importance for companies, institutions and
consumers. For example hotel reviews in the growing touristic sector.
Studies show that:
- Personal recommendations are the most trustworthy form of
advertising
- E-WOM is more influential than traditional WOM, thanks to speed,
comfort, one-to-many, and absence of face-to-face pressure
- There is a positive correlation between the review rating and the
degree to which the product was bought
E-WOM users are divided into lurkers, intermittent contributors and heavy
contributors. The 90-9-1 principle states the following:
- 90% Lurkers: never write reviews
- 9% Intermittent contributors: rarely write reviews; are
responsible for 10% of the reviews
- 1% Heavy contributors: frequently write reviews; are
responsible for 90% of the reviews
The things that motivate people to post reviews are:
- Ego-focused (‘I have been disadvantaged, therefore I must have
revenge)
- Socially focused
- Helping others
For these reasons, people post negative reviews more frequently than
positive reviews.
,How people evaluate e-WOM reviews:
- Positive reviews are seen as more valuable for products for which
the quality of info is easy to evaluate before purchase (driers/
cameras)
- Negative reviews are seen as more valuable for products for
which the experience is more important than the product
characteristics (airlines/city trips)
Implications for organizations:
- Online reputation management: organizations can use
reviews to monitor their image
- Webcare: a policy of an organization to actively respond to
statements about that organization on social media, for instance
by consumers who have questions or complaints. It aims to action
to ensure that complainers stop complaining and, more
importantly, show that the company responds adequately when
customers are dissatisfed. Webcare consists of:
o Public personal answer, intervention, and humor.
o Best method: mediated immediacy: personal (signed/frst
person) and immediate (through the same channel)
- Automatic analysis of reviews: certain tools exist that can
analyze reviews automatically.
o Opinion mining/Sentiment analysis: fll in a word and see
if people talk about it in a pleasant vs. unpleasant/active vs.
subdued way.
It is still in the very early phases.
Research into automatic analysis or quantitative
analysis has yet to examine the role of nationality,
multilingualism or culture. This means there is a
scientifc gap here.
Computer evaluates subjective information (tricky)
o Review skeptic is a tool that automatically checks the
authenticity (real vs. fake) of reviews
Fake reviews tend to use more superlatives and
words like I and me to enhance their credibility.
However, use of superlatives may be dependent on
culture or language, but until now, research is still
limited to English language.
Preliminary research question in this course: Do cultures difer with regard
to e-WOM style?
, Lecture 2
Reviews are not only about facts, but about expressing evaluation. They
are about:
- Expressiveness
- Directness
- Politeness
- Openness
- Individualism
- Avoidance of insecurity
- context
Model of influence of culture. These influence each other:
E.T Hall worked on the iceberg model:
- The visible parts of culture are in awareness, these are e.g.:
o Artifacts (=objects created by humans)
o Behavior
- The invisible parts of culture are out of conscious awareness,
these are e.g.:
o Norms
o Beliefs
o Assumptions
o Values
Some dimensions that difer across cultures according to Hall (1980) are:
- Proxemics: how we relate to people in our daily lives in a spatial
way
- Monochronous vs. Polychronous: fxed time view vs. fluid time
view
- High context vs. Low context:
o High context cultures are those that communicate in ways
that are implicit and rely heavily on context.
Lecture 1
In the past, there was mostly marketer generated content: controlled
information stream directed towards consumers.
In the present, there is consumer generated content: less controlled
information stream, consisting of e.g.:
- Blogs
- Vlogs
- Brand communities
- News groups
- Social networks
- Consumer comparison sites
These are all examples of eWOM: electronic word of mouth.
Cross-cultural Online Communication is research into the experience
and wording of reviews in e-WOM.
Internet reviews are of great importance for companies, institutions and
consumers. For example hotel reviews in the growing touristic sector.
Studies show that:
- Personal recommendations are the most trustworthy form of
advertising
- E-WOM is more influential than traditional WOM, thanks to speed,
comfort, one-to-many, and absence of face-to-face pressure
- There is a positive correlation between the review rating and the
degree to which the product was bought
E-WOM users are divided into lurkers, intermittent contributors and heavy
contributors. The 90-9-1 principle states the following:
- 90% Lurkers: never write reviews
- 9% Intermittent contributors: rarely write reviews; are
responsible for 10% of the reviews
- 1% Heavy contributors: frequently write reviews; are
responsible for 90% of the reviews
The things that motivate people to post reviews are:
- Ego-focused (‘I have been disadvantaged, therefore I must have
revenge)
- Socially focused
- Helping others
For these reasons, people post negative reviews more frequently than
positive reviews.
,How people evaluate e-WOM reviews:
- Positive reviews are seen as more valuable for products for which
the quality of info is easy to evaluate before purchase (driers/
cameras)
- Negative reviews are seen as more valuable for products for
which the experience is more important than the product
characteristics (airlines/city trips)
Implications for organizations:
- Online reputation management: organizations can use
reviews to monitor their image
- Webcare: a policy of an organization to actively respond to
statements about that organization on social media, for instance
by consumers who have questions or complaints. It aims to action
to ensure that complainers stop complaining and, more
importantly, show that the company responds adequately when
customers are dissatisfed. Webcare consists of:
o Public personal answer, intervention, and humor.
o Best method: mediated immediacy: personal (signed/frst
person) and immediate (through the same channel)
- Automatic analysis of reviews: certain tools exist that can
analyze reviews automatically.
o Opinion mining/Sentiment analysis: fll in a word and see
if people talk about it in a pleasant vs. unpleasant/active vs.
subdued way.
It is still in the very early phases.
Research into automatic analysis or quantitative
analysis has yet to examine the role of nationality,
multilingualism or culture. This means there is a
scientifc gap here.
Computer evaluates subjective information (tricky)
o Review skeptic is a tool that automatically checks the
authenticity (real vs. fake) of reviews
Fake reviews tend to use more superlatives and
words like I and me to enhance their credibility.
However, use of superlatives may be dependent on
culture or language, but until now, research is still
limited to English language.
Preliminary research question in this course: Do cultures difer with regard
to e-WOM style?
, Lecture 2
Reviews are not only about facts, but about expressing evaluation. They
are about:
- Expressiveness
- Directness
- Politeness
- Openness
- Individualism
- Avoidance of insecurity
- context
Model of influence of culture. These influence each other:
E.T Hall worked on the iceberg model:
- The visible parts of culture are in awareness, these are e.g.:
o Artifacts (=objects created by humans)
o Behavior
- The invisible parts of culture are out of conscious awareness,
these are e.g.:
o Norms
o Beliefs
o Assumptions
o Values
Some dimensions that difer across cultures according to Hall (1980) are:
- Proxemics: how we relate to people in our daily lives in a spatial
way
- Monochronous vs. Polychronous: fxed time view vs. fluid time
view
- High context vs. Low context:
o High context cultures are those that communicate in ways
that are implicit and rely heavily on context.
