This summary is based on the 7 lectures of Crosscultural Online Communication for the IBC study at Radboud University. The summary contains the important theory aspects, as well as an explanation/method/results/criticism on the selected articles for the course.
,LECTURE 1
External communication: from a company to the consumer
The past: Controlled information stream directed toward consumer (marketer generated
content)
The present: less controlled information stream directed toward consumers (consumer
generated content): columns, vlogs, blogs, reviews, TripAdvisor. e-WOM: electronic word of
mouth
e-Word of Mouth: large influence in tourism industry: societal relevance and economic
relevance.
Cross cultural research into the experience and wording of reviews in e-WOM
Focus on intensified language
Asynchronous: it will be always available, no timing requirement for transmission.
- Pro: more time to process information, bigger audience
- Con: can be outdated, less personal
2
,Source credibility
Perceived expertise:
- Laypersons have little expertise
- Self-proclaimed expert has expertise
- Rated expert high level of expertise
Perceived trustworthiness
- Lay persons more trustworthy
- Self-proclaimed expert not so trustworthy
- Rated expert more trustworthy
Which advertising formats do people trust the most? In order:
1. Personal communication
2. Consumer opinions online (e-WOM)
3. Search engine results
4. Ads on social networks
Positive correlation between the review rating and degree to which product was bought.
e-WOM is more influential than traditional WOM
- Speed
- Comfort
- One-to-many, massive reach
- Absence of face-to-face pressure
- Exposed to people outside your surroundings
90-9-1 principle
90% of users never leave a post (lurkers)
1% of users contribute heavily and are responsible for 90% of posts: heavy contributors
9% of users are responsible for the remaining 10% and are known as intermittent contributors
Motivation to share reviews:
Ego focused or socially focused
Positive movie-related tweets get retweeted 15-20% more often. Not more effective because
negativity bias: more influential.
Products for which the quality of information is easy to evaluate BEFORE purchase, such as dvd
players and cameras: positive reviews are seen as more valuable.
Products for which the experience is more important than the product characteristics such as
airlines and city trips: negative reviews are seen as more useful.
3
, e-WOM for organisations.
Online reputation management: monitoring your image/reputation
Web care: reading and acting on negative messages
Directly responding to negative review and the larger audience.
Ensure complainers stop complaining and show company responds adequately when
customers are dissatisfied.
Best method: mediated immediacy: immediate, as soon as possible, personal language.
Automatic sentiment analysis: what is the overall company sentiment?
Opinion mining or sentiment analysis
Computer evaluates subjective information. Limitations because sarcasm, irony,
abbreviations cannot be read. Still in the early phases
Little research with automatic analysis or quantitative analysis has examined the role of
nationality, multilingualism or culture
Scientific gap.
How to spot a fake review:
- Fake hotel reviews rely more on superlatives to describe experiances
- Phony reviews include greater first-person perspective: I and me
- More emphasis on external aspects: husband, business, vacation
But use of superlatives may be dependent on culture or language.
LECTURE 2
recap
e-WOM plays an important role in consumer decision making and is important for company
reputation management.
Research into e-WOM is limited to English language. Automatic analysis of e-WOM is still
limited: sarcasm, abbreviations etc.
Scientific gap: language differences /cultural differences in e-WOM is not researched.
Preliminary research question: do cultures differ with regard to e-WOM review style?
What is culture: collective mental programming. Conventionalize way of thinking.
What dimensions: individualism & collectivism, high/low power distance
What dimensions can influence communication behaviour and how?
How do they relate to e-WOM and reviews?
Reviews: expressing an evaluation: expressiveness, directness, politeness, openness
4
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