Findings of two experimental studies show that Instagram influencers with high numbers of followers are found more likeable, partly because they are considered more popular. Important, only in ...limited cases, perceptions of popularity induced by the influencer's number of followers increase the influencer's perceived opinion leadership. However, if the influencer follows very few accounts him-/herself, this can negatively impact popular influencers' likeability. Also, cooperating with influencers with high numbers of followers might not be the best marketing choice for promoting divergent products, as this decreases the brand's perceived uniqueness and consequently brand attitudes.
Testimonials are one of the marketing tools that can have a big impact on consumers. Testimony is a form of electronic word of mouth (E-wom) where the information contained in E-wom will be very ...important as a reference for consumers when they want to make a purchase of a product. This research aims to find out the influence of E-wom quality, E-wom quantity, and E-wom credibility on the purchase intention of fashion products on the online marketplace. The population in this study are people who have visited marketplaces such as tokopedia, shopee, and bukalapak in Surabaya. The sampling method used is purposive sampling, with the number of samples being 385 respondents. Respondent data is collected by distributing questionnaires online. This study used multiple linear regression analysis in SPSS 22 as an analysis tool. The findings of this analysis show that E-wom quality affects purchase intention, E-wom quantity affects purchase intention, and E-wom credibility affects purchase intention.
This study analyses the comparative effects between E-WOM on online shopping platforms and social networking platforms on consumers’ purchase intention of smartphones in India. The E-WOM effect on ...buying intention has become an important context for many researchers due to its increasing importance in today’s world of digitalization. This study aims to assess the influence of E-WOM factors on these two platforms, including E-WOM credibility, E-WOM attitude, E-WOM quantity, and E-WOM format, on purchase decisions of smartphones. The data were collected using a questionnaire from 361 respondents in Uttar Pradesh, India. Multiple regression has been applied to empirically measure the influence of independent factors (E-WOM credibility, E-WOM attitude, E-WOM quantity, and E-WOM format) on the dependent factor (consumers’ purchase intention). The result indicates that E-WOM credibility, E-WOM quantity, and E-WOM format on online shopping platforms have more impact than E-WOM on social media on the purchase intention of smartphones. This study aids online companies in understanding the purchase patterns of consumers, and E-WOM on online shopping platforms is more effective in terms of credibility, quantity, and format as compared to E-WOM on social networking platforms toward buying intention of smartphones.
The purpose of this article is to identify which dimensions of online convenience affect consumers’ intention of using online shopping and explore a conceptual model to measuring consumer perceptions ...of online shopping convenience in order to surpass the shortcomings of previous studies that did not examine the consequences of convenience shopping experience. A sample of 250 Portuguese young individuals participate in the empirical study. Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and a covariance-based Structural Equation Model (CB-SEM) were used to validate the measurement model and to test the relationships in the model. The results reveal that Possession, Transaction, and Evaluation are the dimensions with more influence in online shopping convenience. The outcomes of this study extend previous works on online convenience and help to understand which factors drive online satisfaction and enhance behavioral intentions and e-WOM. Contributions to the body of knowledge and the implications for e-commerce retailers are presented. In face of the findings, retailers should be conscious that customer expectations of online convenience have increased as a natural response to the service innovations introduced by website managers and marketers. Therefore, frequent monitoring of consumers’ perceptions and expectations about online convenience is a prerequisite for achieving continuous improvement in rendering highly convenient online service.
Electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) plays an important role in influencing Chinese consumers’ brand perceptions. While domestic social media managers are keen to understand how to protect their brands, ...their foreign counterparts are keen to reduce consumer ethnocentrism in order to gain a foothold in the Chinese market. This study uses an online survey to investigate whether positive and negative e-WOM enhance or weaken consumer ethnocentrism and brand equity towards domestic and foreign smart phone brands. Findings suggests that both positive and negative e-WOM influence consumer ethnocentrism and that these effects are contingent upon brand origin. Furthermore, findings show that the effects of positive and negative e-WOM on brand equity are consistent, irrespective of brand origin. Interestingly, consumer ethnocentrism has a positive effect on brand equity for domestic brands, but does not have a negative effect on brand equity for foreign brands. The study further discusses theoretical and practical implications of the findings.
Despite the increasing popularity of viral marketing, factors critical to such a new communication medium remain largely unknown. This paper examines one of the critical factors, namely Internet ...users' motivations to pass along online content. Conceptualizing the act of forwarding online content as a special case of a more general communication behavior, we identify four potential motivations: (1) the need to be part of a group, (2) the need to be individualistic, (3) the need to be altruistic, and (4) the need for personal growth. Using a survey of young adults, we examine the relationship between these motivations and the frequency of passing along online content. We also investigate if high trait curiosity can indirectly lead to more forwarding by increasing the amount of online content consumed. Results show that Internet users, who are more individualistic and/or more altruistic, tend to forward more online content than others.
The purpose of this study is to investigate influencers on Twitter to discover the characteristics of their tweets through PIAR, a unique data mining research tool developed by the University of ...Salamanca that combines graph theory and social influence theory. An analysis of 3853 users posting about two automotive Japanese car firms, Toyota and Nissan, reveals the characteristics influencers have on this social network. The findings suggest that influencers use more hashtags and mentions on average when they tweet, and their word count is fewer than those with less power on this virtual community. Surprisingly, they tend to include less embedded links on their posts. Additionally, influencers have on average a large number of people they follow and they clearly express their opinions and feelings (either positive or negative) when tweeting. The results broaden the understanding of how influencers write and behave on social networks when they communicate with their users' community. Further, it provides insights for practitioners and marketers on how to discover influencers talking about their brands by observing tweets' content.
•Information processing and influence on microblogging depends on tweets' content.•Expressing positive sentiments in tweets contributes to increase users' influence.•Using hashtags and mentions increases the influence of a Twitter user.•Using links makes users less popular on microblogging sites when posting.•There is no significant effect of tweet length on users' influence on microblogging.
Gamification is a popular trend that is applied in many fields such as marketing, advertising, education, administration, and communication. In the field of electronic banking (e-banking), ...gamification uses the available content of businesses, exploits in many different aspects and aims at the ultimate goal of increasing sales, achieving effective marketing. The objective of this paper is to study the factors affecting the adoption of gamification in the field of e-banking. Based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), through a survey of 193 managers, bankers and customers, gamification application has had a positive impact on the acceptance of this new trend in e-banking. The research results show that: ease of use, usefulness, enjoyment, and convenience have an effect on acceptance of gamification. It also shows that clients can manage their investments and buy more mutual funds, thus increasing their chances of winning the game.
This study analyzes the effects of social media marketing activities (SMMAs) on brand equity and customer response in the airline industry. A survey was conducted with a total of 302 passengers who ...used social media managed by airlines, and the collected data were analyzed via structural equation modeling. The results showed that trendiness was the most important SMMA component, and airline SMMAs had significant effects on brand awareness and brand image. In addition, the results demonstrated that brand awareness significantly affected commitment and that brand image significantly affected online word-of-mouth and commitment. It is expected that the results of this study may be used as fundamental data in the development of airline SMMA strategies, particularly by investigating the relative importance of each SMMA component and analyzing the effects of SMMAs.
•This paper investigates how the social media marketing activities of airlines influence brand equity and customer response.•Social media marketing activities were found to have positive impacts on airline's brand equity and customer response.•Trendiness was found as the most significant social media marketing activity component.
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