• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.3-14
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• 2014

Online communities are an important source of electronic-word-of-mouth (eWOM), however few studies have examined these types of messages within the Middle Eastern context. This study focuses on Kuwaiti women as members of an online beauty forum; previous work has suggested a mediating effect of gender with women being more likely to trust and follow-up word-of-mouth with a purchase. A conceptual model, based on existing theoretical contributions, provides the basis of a coding framework for the message characteristics that influence members' eWOM adoption. A sub-set of the analysis is presented: 218 threads (1820 messages, coded into 6702 units) illustrating cases where eWOM was adopted and thereby demonstrating continuance intention with members returning to the forum. Content analysis revealed the prevalence of emotional aspects in messages, coded into a new category of 'community bonding'. Findings show that emotion expressed in messages is as influential and important as cognitive aspects of argument quality.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.355-367
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• 2014

The purpose of this research is to find the specific structure with factors that affect online game users' positive word of mouth(WOM) for online game companies to maintain existing and new users. In previous studies the influence of characteristics of online games and attributes of users on intention to play online games is mainly focused on. However online games are products with communication on network, so that critical mass through diffusion as well as the use of product by individual consumers is important issues. Therefore, it is necessary to consider network externality effect that the more value can be obtained by more game users. The authors verified that the influence of the variables like social mass and critical mass, affecting consumers' attitude and WOM. According to the research results, social norm and critical mass have significant influence on positive attitude and WOM intention for online games. Another results verified that social norm and users' attitude affect positive WOM intention directly. These results suggest managerial implication regarding social norm and critical mass to online game companies that desire for WOM to get more online game users.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.419-428
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• 2020

SNS media is gaining its media share with the benefits of digital technology, such as the convenience of physical access and the entertainment and interactivity of contents, and are becoming a part of users' lives. As media contents consumers move from traditional media to SNS, marketing communication activities are rapidly adapting to leading SNS platforms such as Facebook. This study compares how users perceive four advertisement attributes in each SNS, focusing on Facebook, Instagram, Kakao Story, and Twitter, where the media content creation and consumption systems are relatively similar to each other. The impact on eWOM intention was identified. In addition, we discussed effective SNS operation.

• The Journal of the Convergence on Culture Technology
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.245-252
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• 2020

Recently, as the income level of consumers increases, interest in tourism products has increased, competition among tourist destinations has been fierce. Storytelling ads are drawing attracting attention as one of the ways to establish differentiated positioning for tourism products. This study investigates the role of the involvement of tourism activity in the storytelling ads effects, and examines the effects of the attitude toward storytelling ads on tourist destination commitments, visit intention and SNS WOM (word-of-mouth) intention. This study also empirically tests the role of mental simulation in the relationship between storytelling ads attitudes and visit intention. A total of 255 usable responses were obtained from a sample of 270 consumers aged 18 or older in South Korea. Following the two-stage approach of model validation, measurement validity of each construct appearing in the structural model and hypothesized structural paths were tested. The findings show that all hypotheses are supported except H3 that posits the impact of attitude toward the storytelling ads on visit intention and mental simulation showed a moderate effect on the relationship between ads attitude and visit intention in the case of rational appeal. This study suggests that the production of storytelling ads of tourist destinations can be effective strategy to improve regional competitiveness and increase visit and SNS WOM intention.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.8 no.2
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• pp.475-483
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• 2021

COVID-19 pandemic has affected the lives of people and has forced businesses to develop different ways of doing businesses. Several businesses have implemented social responsibility activities. With social distancing keeping many people at home, online and digital platforms have become one of the most important mechanisms for businesses undertakings and implementing those social responsibility initiatives and activities - digital social responsibility (DSR). The purpose of this study is to examine the relationships of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intentions and customer engagement with DSR in social media with attitude toward DSR as the antecedent during COVID-19 social distancing situation in Thailand. The study employs a quantitative research method where sampling method is followed by convenience sampling technique, and study data is collected through survey questionnaire with social media users who have experiences with firms' online social responsibility initiatives. Based the samples of 123 respondents, Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) has been used for analysis. The results show that attitudes toward DSR in social media significantly influence electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intentions and have a significant effect on customer engagement with DSR in social media. The mediation analysis also revealed that eWOM intention partially mediated the relation between attitudes toward DSR in social media and customer engagement.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.29 no.6
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• pp.223-233
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• 2024

This study investigates the impact of personalization recommendation systems on customer loyalty in e-commerce, focusing on the role of information presentation, system interaction, and social community functions. It examines how these elements influence flow state, word of mouth (WOM), and repurchase intention (RPI). Using structural equation modeling (SEM) and data collected from 500 respondents in SPSS and AMOS, the study finds that all three personalization aspects significantly enhance flow state, which, in turn, positively affects WOM and RPI. System interaction directly boosts both WOM and RPI, while information presentation and social community functions influence only one of these loyalty measures. Flow state mediates the relationship between personalization factors and loyalty outcomes. These findings suggest e-commerce platforms should enhance system interaction and embed social community features to foster customer loyalty.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.131-154
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• 2013

New internet technologies have created a revolutionary new platform which allows consumers to make decision about product price and quality quickly and provides information about themselves through the transcript of online reviews. By expressing their feelings toward products or services on virtual opinion platforms, users extend their influence into cyberspace as electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Existing research indicates that an impact of eWOM on the consumer decision process is influential. For both academic researchers and practitioners, investigating this phenomenon of information sharing in online website is essential given the increasing number of consumers using them as sources of purchase decisions. It is worthwhile to examine the extent to which opinion seekers are willing to accept and adopt online reviews and which factors encourage adoption. Discerning the most motivating aspects of information adoption in particular, could help electronic marketers better promote their brand and presence on the internet. The objectives of this study are to investigate how online WOM influences a persons' purchase decision by discovering which factors encourage information adoption. Especially focused on the self-efficacy, this research investigates how self-efficacy affects on information usefulness and adoption of online information. Although people are exposed to same review or comment about product or service, some accept the reviews while others do not. We notice that accepting online reviews mainly depends on the person's preference or personal characteristics. This study empirically examines this issue by using cognitive dissonance theory. Specifically, in the movie industry, we address few questions-is always positive WOM generating positive effect? What if the movie isn't the person's favorite genre? What if the person who is very self-assertive so doesn't take other's opinion easily? In these cases of cognitive dissonance, is always WOM generating same result? While many studies have focused on one direct of WOM which indicates positive (or negative) informative reviews or comments generate positive (or negative) results and more (or less) profits, this study investigates not only directional properties of WOM but also how people change their opinion towards product or service positive to negative, negative to positive through the online WOM. An experiment was conducted quantitatively by using a sample of 168 users who have experience within the online movie review site, 'Naver Movie'. Users were required to complete a survey regarding reviews and comments taken from the real movie page. The data reflected user's perceptions of online WOM information that determined users' adoption level. Analysis results provide empirical support for the proposed theoretical perspective. When user can't agree with the opinion of online WOM information, in other words, when cognitive dissonance between online WOM information and users' preference occurs, perceived self-efficacy significantly decreases customers' perception of usefulness. And this perception of usefulness plays an important role in determining users' intention to adopt online WOM information. Most of researches have been concentrated on characteristics of online WOM itself such as quality or vividness of information, credibility of source and direction of online WOM, etc. for describing effect of online WOM, but our results suggest that users' personal character (e.g., self-efficacy) plays decisive role for acceptance of online WOM information. Higher self-efficacy means lower possibility to accept the information that represents counter opinion because of cognitive dissonance, whereas the people that have lower self-efficacy are willing to accept the online WOM information as true and refer to purchase decision. This study suggests a model for understanding role of direction of online WOM information. Also, our result implicates the importance of online review supervision and personalized information service by confirming switching opinion negative to positive is more difficult than positive to negative through the online WOM information. This implication would help marketers to manage online reviews of their products or services.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.25 no.9
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• pp.1348-1355
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• 2022

This study will be an exploratory study from the perspective of IWOM on the intention of word-of-mouth transmission. And based on 256 questionnaire survey data of E-Commerce live broadcast consumers, structural equation modeling is used to explore the paths and mechanisms of influence of consumers' perceived IWOM and perceived value on oral transmission intention in China's E-Commerce live broadcast. The results found that consumers' perceived IWOM had a positive effect on perceived usefulness and perceived entertainment, and that perceived usefulness had a positive effect on purchase intention while perceived entertainment had no direct effect on word-of-mouth transmission intention. Perceived IWOM also indirectly influences willingness to pass on word-of-mouth by affecting perceived value. Among them, the mediating effect of perceived usefulness in the path of perceived network influence on word-of-mouth transmission intention is greater than that of perceived entertainment.

• International Commerce and Information Review
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.391-418
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• 2013

The development of web 2.0 technologies created the popularization of social media. People use social media for information communication with many purposes. Under such an environment, this paper examines the acceptance of word-of-mouth information dissemination through social media. The determinants of acceptance and the effect of acceptance on purchase intention as the result of information on social media pertaining to overseas tourism are researched in detail. The consumer choice for international travel involves a decision making with high uncertainty and thus people are using the word of mouth information strongly. Empirical analysis using SPSS, AMOS analysis software was performed on sample data consisting of 385 collected surveys. This paper shows the neutrality of eWOM, the professionalism of senders, and that the practicability of eWOM significantly affects the acceptance of the information. In addition, the acceptance of eWOM information has a significant effect on the spread of eWOM and customers' purchase intention. The paper shows that the practicability of information and the professionalism of word-of-mouth information should be improved.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.53-72
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• 2015

Social media marketing have drawn substantial attention in business and academia. This study examines the impact of social media marketing on purchase intention of consumer in South Korea and Pakistan. The research background rests on literature of social media, social media marketing, electronic word of mouth and social media advertisement. Descriptive research method is adopted for the purpose of this study. The findings indicated that South Korean users have higher intention to purchase products through social media platforms as compared to users in Pakistan. The results also show that electronic word of mouth has greater influence on purchase intention as compared to advertisement on social networks. Managerial implications and limitations of the study results were also discussed.