• Journal of Distribution Science
• /
• v.18 no.3
• /
• pp.77-85
• /
• 2020

Purpose: This study examined marketing value as online word-of-mouth media in the foodservice industry, and it did research on online word-of-mouth (e-WOM) communication marketing schemes using mass communication in the industry. The study is also intended to investigate the impact of electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) information and communication on product awareness risks, benefits, and word-of-mouth (WOM) impacts on restaurant consumers. Research design, data, and methodology: The analysis was conducted on a valid questionnaire of 425 menu product consumers. The survey was conducted for two months in March 2019. The collected data was analyzed using SPSS and hierarchical regression analysis was applied. Results: It did empirical research on the reciprocal casual relations to online and the existing word-of-mouth communication that have to be preceded to understand characteristics of online word-of-mouth communication for the purpose of this study. The result is summarized as follows. First, the online word-of-mouth (e-WOM) effect on product recognition risk shows the statistically significant effect of information sender characteristics, information recipient characteristics, and online word-of-mouth (e-WOM) communication on product recognition risk. Second, the influence of online word-of-mouth (e-WOM) on product risk benefits shows that the information sender characteristics, the information receiver characteristics, and online communications have a statistically significant effect on product risk benefits. Third, online word of mouth risk recognition had a statistically significant effect on word of mouth acceptance. Fourth, online risk benefit had a statistically significant positive effect on word of mouth (WOM) effect. Conclusions: The communication between online word of mouth (e-WOM) sender and recipient had a positive influence on the product evaluation and attitude change in the foodservice industry, and the word-of-mouth (WOM) effect affected financial and non-financial performance. The results mentioned above indicated that the communication between the sender of the information and the receiver of the information had a positive effect on the product evaluation and attitude change of the menu consumer, and the word-of-mouth (WOM) result affected the financial. Therefore, the online word-of-mouth (e-WOM) effect has a positive effect on the word-of-mouth (WOM) effect of menu products when performed simultaneously and positively between the information sender and the information receiver.

• Korea Journal of Hospital Management
• /
• v.29 no.2
• /
• pp.18-36
• /
• 2024

This study delved into the complex nature of medical services as experience goods and trust services, investigating the profound impact of online word-of-mouth on medical consumers' decisions to visit hospitals. Considering the restrictive legal framework for medical advertising, consumers are increasingly dependent on unrestricted sources of information like online reviews. This research aimed to provide empirical evidence for the significant role online word-of-mouth plays in hospital selection. Utilizing data from Naver reviews, hospital choice factors were classified based on the Kano model, revealing the subtle yet significant influence that word-of-mouth has on consumers' hospital visit intentions beyond merely positive or negative messages. In particular, the study provided insights into how the categorized positive and negative information, along with the presence or absence of emotional expression, affects the efficacy of word-of-mouth. The experiment targeted medical consumers aged over 20 and, through analysis using the SPSS statistical program, yielded important findings. The direction of online word-of-mouth, the presence of emotional expression, and the interaction of Kano attributes all created significant differences in hospital visit intentions. Notably, emotional expression included in negative word-of-mouth concerning one-dimensional attributes markedly decreased visit intentions, whereas the absence of emotional expression in attractive attributes actually enhanced reliability and increased visit intentions. These findings offer critical implications for redefining strategies in medical marketing and online review management. The discoveries of this study underscore the importance of active engagement and strategic management of online reviews by medical service providers, urging careful consideration of the various elements of online word-of-mouth that influence medical consumers' hospital visit intentions.

• Journal of Fashion Business
• /
• v.23 no.6
• /
• pp.49-63
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study was to determine the satisfaction, trust and word-of-mouth intention of online information according to the type of information search by female cosmetics consumers in their 20's to 40's. For this study, online and offline surveys were conducted by 307 people. Factor, correlation, and multiple regression analysis were used to analyze the data. The main results are summarized as follows. First, the cosmetic consumer's information search types were identified as active, playful, and economic information search types. Second, the results of examinations on the effect of consumer information search types on satisfaction, reliability, and word-of-mouth intention of the online information searches showed that the active information search type had a positive effect on satisfaction, reliability, and word-of-mouth intention. The economic information search type had a positive effect on satisfaction. The active information search type was confirmed to have high satisfaction, reliability, and word-of-mouth intention for the provided information and thus, the acceptance of the provided information was high. The playful information search type was divided into continuous, habitual, and independent information search and a tendency to assign a low value to consumer information was confirmed. The economic information search type showed high satisfaction with the information obtained by searching, but also a passive attitude toward trust or word-of-mouth intention and was categorized as a passive search type. Online information search is a communication channel with a great influence that can provide various benefits to cosmetic consumers.

• Journal of Information Technology Applications and Management
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.181-200
• /
• 2006

The purpose of this study is to examine factors influencing online product transformation focusing on benefits of online shopping and word of mouth. Generally, it has been known that buying search goods is more proper than experience goods in the online. However benefits of online shopping and word of mouth make product transformation from experience goods to search goods and the product transformation promote the purchase of experience goods online. We developed a conceptual model of online product transformation including benefits of online shopping(e.g. good price and convenience), online word of mouth (e.g. bulletin board and consumer reviews), and consumer characteristics (e.g. innovativeness and Internet usage). Also, we suggest several research propositions on online product transformation. The implications for marketing strategies of experience goods and furher research direction are suggested.

• Knowledge Management Research
• /
• v.15 no.3
• /
• pp.141-168
• /
• 2014

Purchasing through Internet shopping mall has more uncertainty compared with offline shopping mall. Previous studies have presented that trust plays a role of reducing uncertainty and increasing purchasing intention. In this study, we suggest that third-party assurance and word-of-mouth contribute to the formation of trust. In addition, we also propose that ease of product evaluation plays moderating roles in the relationships between third-party assurance, word-of-mouth and trust. For this study, we collected sample data from two groups consisting of online shoppers purchasing the search goods and experience goods categorized by type of ease of product evaluation. Empirical results show that word-of-mouth and third-party assurance have different effects on trust in two groups. The third-party assurance has a stronger impact on trust in online shopping group of the search goods than in the experience goods, while word-of-mouth in the online community has a stronger impact on trust in online shopping group of the experience goods than in the search goods. We expect that this result will provide researchers and managers who are interested in trust formation factors in online shopping mall with useful theoretical and practical implications.

• Proceedings of the CALSEC Conference
• /
• 2005.03a
• /
• pp.155-160
• /
• 2005

This study identified online information characteristics and investigated the effects of information characteristics on word of mouth performance in online environment. And the comsumer knowledge was found to be a moderator of the relationship between information characteristics and WOM performance in online environment. The implication of this work to both researchers and practitioners were discussed.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.91-104
• /
• 2008

This study notes the growing importance of online community as a means of building customer relationships. The author aims to identify how to communicate in an online community on preannounced new products, and test social influence that influence word-of-mouth of consumers, and confirm moderate effect of market maven between social influence and word-of-mouth activity in on-line community. The main findings are that social influence such as internalization and conformity positively influence word-of-mouth communication on online community. And moderate effect of market maven confirm between social influence(internalization and confirmity) and word-of-mouth activity.

• International Journal of Contents
• /
• v.8 no.3
• /
• pp.71-78
• /
• 2012

The emergence of the Internet has provided a new outlet for consumers who experience service failure from products and services, augmenting the traditional options of entry, voice and action. Consumers' negative word of mouth through online (word-of-mouse or eWOM) far exceeds traditional word of mouth (WOM) in respect of its potential effectiveness, speed and spread. This paper tries to figure out the service failure themes in the health care industry by analyzing online word-of-mouse using the critical incidents technique (CIT). Complaint themes in the area of healthcare are identified and analyzed. The results identify that major complaint theme differed according to the site type. Also, the findings indicate that delivery and customer services are critical issues when consumer makes negative WOM.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
• /
• v.31 no.3 s.162
• /
• pp.410-419
• /
• 2007

The purposes of this study were to segment consumers by on-line word of month and to find the differences among the segmented groups in regard to fashion involvement, internet perceived risk, and internet purchase behavior. The subjects of this study were female consumers who were members of online cafe in Korea. The data were collected during October, 2004. The respondents returned the questionnaires through internet and 480 questionnaires were finally used in the data analysis. The statistical analyses used for the study were factor analysis, cluster analysis, t-test, and $X^2-test$. The results showed that word-of·mouth communication on internet(e-WOM) is composed of two factors, word-of-mouth transmission and word-of-mouth acceptance. These two factors were put under cluster analysis and were classified into two groups of the word-of·mouth communication: WOM group and non-WOM group. T-test showed that word-of-mouth communication groups were significantly different in regard to fashion involvement, internet perceived risk, and internet purchase behavior. For example, WOM group was more uncertain of their clothing choices, put more weight on the internal factors of clothing selection, and was a frequent purchaser of internet fashion products. Internet fashion business needs to implement the proper marketing strategies based on the results of the study.

• The Korean Journal of Franchise Management
• /
• v.14 no.1
• /
• pp.1-21
• /
• 2023

Purpose: During COVID-19, consumers prefer social distancing or contactless activities for safety, and hygienic condition has become one of the most important factors in evaluating restaurants. Therefore, this study aims to investigate whether offline/online word-of-mouth is affected by restaurant quality. Research design, data and methodology: The data were collected from 480 consumers who had experiences of visiting a restaurant in the past 90 days and analyzed with SPSS 28.0 and SmartPLS 4.0 programs. Results: Physical environment and menu had positively significant effects on brand love, while employee service and hygiene had no significance on brand love. Restaurant environment, menu, and hygiene had negatively significant effects on brand hate, but employee service had not significant impact on brand hate. Brand love had positively significant effects on offline and online word-of-mouth, and brand hate had negatively significant effects on offline and online word-of-mouth. Conclusions: First, restaurants need to develop a pleasant space where customers can have emotional experiences. Second, restaurants need to fulfill customers' desire for global food consumption. Third, restaurants should ensure hygiene and safety to prevent customers' brand hate. Lastly, restaurants need to establish offline/online word-of-mouth strategy to identify which restaurant quality attributes influence brand love/hate and offline/online word-of-mouth.