• Knowledge Management Research
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.65-83
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• 2017

Word-of-mouth (WOM), the communication between consumers offline, has transformed to include electronic word-of-mouth(eWOM), which has grown in its influence due to the advancements in communication technology. Despite the fact that many researchers have studied the impact of WOM and eWOM on the performance of movies in the movie industry, there still exists much controversy. Therefore, this study investigates the relationship of eWOM's volume and valence with the box office revenue for 2 years in Korean movies industry. The results show that the volume of eWOM, which is expected to related to awareness diffusion, is more important than the valence in the early stage of movie release. And in the later stage, the valence of eWOM which is expected to related to persuasion effect influences the box office revenue. In addition, the relationship of the volume and valence on box office revenue in both early and later stage can be increased through the interaction with the star power which raises the familiarity or the movie genre which causes the high arousal.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-25
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• 2010

Motion pictures are so typical experience goods that consumers tend to look for more credible information. Hence, movie audiences consider movie viewers' reviews more important than the information provided by the film distributor. Recently many portal sites allow consumers to post their reviews and opinions so that other people check the number of consumer reviews and scores before going to the theater. There are a few previous researches studying the electronic word of mouth(eWOM) effect in the movie industry. They found that the volume of eWOM influenced the revenue of the movie significantly but the valence of eWOM did not affect it much (Liu 2006). The goal of our research is also to investigate the eWOM effects in general. But our research is different from the previous studies in several aspects. First, we study the eWOM effect in Korean movie industry. In other words, we would like to check whether we can generalize the results of the previous research across countries. The similar econometric models are applied to Korean movie data that include 746,282 consumer reviews on 439 movies. Our results show that both the valence(RATING) and the volume(LNMSG) of the eWOM influence weekly movie revenues. This result is different from the previous research findings that the volume only influences the revenue. We conjectured that the difference of self construal between Asian and American culture may explain this difference (Kitayama 1991). Asians including Koreans have more interdependent self construal than American, so that they are easily affected by other people's thought and suggestion. Hence, the valence of the eWOM affects Koreans' choice of the movie. Second, we find the critical defect of the previous eWOM models and, hence, attempt to correct it. The previous eWOM model assumes that the volume of eWOM (LNMSG) is an independent variable affecting the movie revenue (LNREV). However, the revenue can influence the volume of the eWOM. We think that treating the volume of eWOM as an independent variable a priori is too restrictive. In order to remedy this problem, we employed a simultaneous equation in which the movie revenue and the volume of the eWOM can affect each other. That is, our eWOM model assumes that the revenue (LNREV) and the volume of eWOM (LNMSG) have endogenous relationship where they influence each other. The results from this simultaneous equation model showed that the movie revenue and the eWOM volume interact each other. The movie revenue influences the eWOM volume for the entire 8 weeks. The reverse effect is more complex. Both the volume and the valence of eWOM affect the revenue in the first week, but only the volume affect the revenue for the rest of the weeks. In the first week, consumers may be curious about the movie and look for various kinds of information they can trust, so that they use the both the quantity and quality of consumer reviews. But from the second week, the quality of the eWOM only affects the movie revenue, implying that the review ratings are more important than the number of reviews. Third, our results show that the ratings by professional critics (CRATING) had negative effect to the weekly movie revenue (LNREV). Professional critics often give low ratings to the blockbuster movies that do not have much cinematic quality. Experienced audiences who watch the movie for fun do not trust the professionals' ratings and, hence, tend to go for the low-rated movies by them. In summary, applied to the Korean movie ratings data and employing a simultaneous model, our results are different from the previous eWOM studies: 1) Koreans (or Asians) care about the others' evaluation quality more than quantity, 2) The volume of eWOM is not the cause but the result of the revenue, 3) Professional reviews can give the negative effect to the movie revenue.

• Journal of Distribution Science
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• v.15 no.9
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• pp.85-93
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• 2017

Purpose - The volume and valence of online word-of-mouth(eWOM) have become an important part of the retailer's market success for a wide range of products. This study aims to investigate how the growth of eWOM has generated the product's final financial outcomes in the introductory period influences. Research design, data, and methodology - This study uses weekly box office performance for 117 movies released in the South Korea from July 2015 to June 2016 using Korean Film Council(KOFIC) database. 292,371 posted online review messages were collected from NAVER movie review bulletin board. Using regression analysis, we test whether eWOM incurred during the opening week is valuable to explain the last of box office performance. Three major eWOM metrics were considered after controlling for the major distributional factors. Results - Results support that major eWOM variables play a significant role in box-office outcome prediction. Especially, the growth rate of the positive eWOM volume has a significant effect on the growth potential in sales. Conclusions - The findings highlight that the speed of eWOM growth has an informational value to understand the market reaction to a new product beyond valence and volume. Movie distributors need to take positive online eWOM growth into account to make optimal screen allocation decisions after release.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.145-156
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• 2018

Unlike the past, when distributors distributed games through retail stores, they are now selling digital content, which is based on online distribution channels. This study analyzes the effects of eWOM (electronic Word of Mouth) on sales volume of game sold on Steam, an online digital content distribution channel. Recently, data mining techniques based on Big Data have been studied. In this study, emotion index of eWOM is derived by emotional analysis which is a text mining technique that can analyze the emotion of each review among factors of eWOM. Emotional analysis utilizes Naive Bayes and SVM classifier and calculates the emotion index through the SVM classifier with high accuracy. Regression analysis is performed on the dependent variable, sales variation, using the emotion index, the number of reviews of each game, the size of eWOM, and the user score of each game, which is a rating of eWOM. Regression analysis revealed that the size of the independent variable eWOM and the emotion index of the eWOM were influential on the dependent variable, sales variation. This study suggests the factors of eWOM that affect the sales volume when Korean game companies enter overseas markets based on steam.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.60-76
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• 2024

This paper aims to empirically analyze how competitive and cultural factors moderate the relationship between electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) characteristics and sales in the US and Korean film industries. A conceptual model was developed based on the cue utilization theory (CUT) to analyze the role of cultural and competitive factors that moderate the relationship between three characteristics of eWOM (volume, valence, and variance) and movie sales. Data of 45 days of 163 films released in Korea and the US were collected and a total of 7,335 samples were analyzed by panel regression. As results, competitive factors enhanced the influence of the eWOM of a focal film and this moderating effect depended on the eWOM characteristics. It also revealed that the effect of eWOM had a greater effect on movie sales in Korea than in the US.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.11
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• pp.381-391
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• 2020

This research article investigates the way eWOM in social media influences the formation of destination image through development of trust and satisfaction for the potential tourist. The research involved administering an 18-point questionnaire taking online reviews, tourist involvement, and eWOM, destination image components of trust and satisfaction as variables. Data was collected from 554 individuals forming a cross-section of social media users and analyzed using multi-variate techniques (Reliability, CFA, and SEM). Results indicate a positive and significant relationship between all except online review and destination trust and satisfaction. Indirect and direct effects indicate that eWOM fully mediates the relationship between destination satisfaction and involvement and partially mediates the relationship between destination trust and involvement. In the case of online reviews, eWOM acts as a full mediator between destination trust and destination satisfaction for the future traveler using social media. The study proposes that components of image vary depending upon the degree of involvement, volume online reviews and eWOM generated also termed as 'virality' and these in turn influence the intention to revisit or recommend a destination. The study highlights its utility for National Tourist Organizations (NTOs) and online travel intermediaries to enhance destination marketing efforts.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-65
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• 2014

Word of Mouth (WOM) is a behavior used by consumers to transfer or communicate their product or service experience to other consumers. Due to the popularity of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and online communities, electronic WOM (e-WOM) has become important to the success of products or services. As a result, most enterprises pay close attention to e-WOM for their products or services. This is especially important for movies, as these are experiential products. This paper aims to identify the network factors of an online movie community that impact box office revenue using social network analysis. In addition to traditional WOM factors (volume and valence of WOM), network centrality measures of the online community are included as influential factors in box office revenue. Based on previous research results, we develop five hypotheses on the relationships between potential influential factors (WOM volume, WOM valence, degree centrality, betweenness centrality, closeness centrality) and box office revenue. The first hypothesis is that the accumulated volume of WOM in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The second hypothesis is that the accumulated valence of WOM in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The third hypothesis is that the average of degree centralities of reviewers in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The fourth hypothesis is that the average of betweenness centralities of reviewers in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The fifth hypothesis is that the average of betweenness centralities of reviewers in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. To verify our research model, we collect movie review data from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), which is a representative online movie community, and movie revenue data from the Box-Office-Mojo website. The movies in this analysis include weekly top-10 movies from September 1, 2012, to September 1, 2013, with in total. We collect movie metadata such as screening periods and user ratings; and community data in IMDb including reviewer identification, review content, review times, responder identification, reply content, reply times, and reply relationships. For the same period, the revenue data from Box-Office-Mojo is collected on a weekly basis. Movie community networks are constructed based on reply relationships between reviewers. Using a social network analysis tool, NodeXL, we calculate the averages of three centralities including degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality for each movie. Correlation analysis of focal variables and the dependent variable (final revenue) shows that three centrality measures are highly correlated, prompting us to perform multiple regressions separately with each centrality measure. Consistent with previous research results, our regression analysis results show that the volume and valence of WOM are positively related to the final box office revenue of movies. Moreover, the averages of betweenness centralities from initial community networks impact the final movie revenues. However, both of the averages of degree centralities and closeness centralities do not influence final movie performance. Based on the regression results, three hypotheses, 1, 2, and 4, are accepted, and two hypotheses, 3 and 5, are rejected. This study tries to link the network structure of e-WOM on online product communities with the product's performance. Based on the analysis of a real online movie community, the results show that online community network structures can work as a predictor of movie performance. The results show that the betweenness centralities of the reviewer community are critical for the prediction of movie performance. However, degree centralities and closeness centralities do not influence movie performance. As future research topics, similar analyses are required for other product categories such as electronic goods and online content to generalize the study results.

• The Journal of the Korea Contents Association
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• v.21 no.7
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• pp.93-104
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• 2021

Most of the existing studies on the volume and valence of the eWOM (electronic word of mouth) about movies and box-office revenues were conducted using online actual data (secondary data) at Yahoo Movies, IMDB.com, Naver Movies, etc. However, it is difficult to grasp psychological variables from online actual data. Therefore, existing studies using online actual data could not identify the causal relationship among volume, valence and psychological variables. This study fills this gap in the literature. This study aims to examine the direct and indirect effects (i.e. mediating effect) of the volume and valence of online reviews about movies on purchase intention through review credibility as a mediator. We conducted a survey on the South Korean consumers and a structural equation modeling. The outcomes show that the total effects of both volume and valence are significant. In addition, volume has an indirect effect only (i.e. full mediating effect) on purchase intention through review credibility, but valence has both direct and indirect effects (i.e. partial mediating effect) on purchase intention through review credibility. The theoretical and practical implications for these results are presented.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.53-74
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• 2018

Since South Korea has an economic structure that has a characteristic which market-dependent on overseas, the tourism industry is considered as a very important industry for the national economy, such as improving the country's balance of payments or providing income and employment increases. Accordingly, the necessity of more accurate forecasting on the demand in the tourism industry has been raised to promote its industry. In the related research, economic variables such as exchange rate and income have been used as variables influencing tourism demand. As information technology has been widely used, some researchers have also analyzed the effect of media on tourism demand. It has shown that the media has a considerable influence on traveler's decision making, such as choosing an outbound destination. Furthermore, with the recent availability of online information searches to obtain the latest information and two-way communication in social media, it is possible to obtain up-to-date information on travel more quickly than before. The information in online media such as blogs can naturally create the Word-of-Mouth effect by sharing useful information, which is called eWOM. Like all other service industries, the tourism industry is characterized by difficulty in evaluating its values before it is experienced directly. And furthermore, most of the travelers tend to search for more information in advance from various sources to reduce the perceived risk to the destination, so they can also be influenced by online media such as online news. In this study, we suggested that the number of online media posting, which causes the effects of Word-of-Mouth, may have an effect on the number of outbound travelers. We divided online media into public media and private media according to their characteristics and selected online news as public media and blog as private media, one of the most popular social media in tourist information. Based on the previous studies about the eWOM effects on online news and blog, we analyzed a relationship between the volume of eWOM and the outbound tourism demand through the panel model. To this end, we collected data on the number of national outbound travelers from 2007 to 2015 provided by the Korea Tourism Organization. According to statistics, the highest number of outbound tourism demand in Korea are China, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines, which are selected as a dependent variable in this study. In order to measure the volume of eWOM, we collected online news and blog postings for the same period as the number of outbound travelers in Naver, which is the largest portal site in South Korea. In this study, a panel model was established to analyze the effect of online media on the demand of Korean outbound travelers and to identify that there was a significant difference in the influence of online media by each time and countries. The results of this study can be summarized as follows. First, the impact of the online news and blog eWOM on the number of outbound travelers was significant. We found that the number of online news and blog posting have an influence on the number of outbound travelers, especially the experimental result suggests that both the month that includes the departure date and the three months before the departure were found to have an effect. It is shown that online news and blog are online media that have a significant influence on outbound tourism demand. Next, we found that the increased volume of eWOM in online news has a negative effect on departure, while the increase in a blog has a positive effect. The result with the country-specific models would be the same. This paper shows that online media can be used as a new variable in tourism demand by examining the influence of the eWOM effect of the online media. Also, we found that both social media and news media have an important role in predicting and managing the Korean tourism demand and that the influence of those two media appears different depending on the country.

• Journal of Smart Tourism
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.5-15
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• 2023

Given the increasing information overload among users of online review websites, understanding the manner in which cognitive costs are reduced and efficient information is made reliable has become increasingly important. This study targets a unique consumer review design and explores how reviews from an external peer-to-peer site embedded in an online travel agency (OTA) website influence subsequent evaluation behaviors. The empirical results indicate that (1) embedded external reviews with a high average valence tend to strengthen the influence of the positive evaluation ratio while diminishing the effect of the review volume, and (2) embedded external reviews with a large variance strengthen the positive effect of the review volume while weakening the effect of the positive evaluation ratio on subsequent positive evaluations. The findings provide practical insights for consumers and online platforms.