부산대학교 도서관

Despite growing interest in the rising popularity of electronic word of mouth (EWOM), many unanswered questions about its effects on online brand outcomes still need to be answered. This paper explores the interactive impact of message characteristics (valence, credibility and format) on online brand evaluation and engagement. We tested our hypotheses using a web-experiment with a fictitious airline brand explicitly developed as the research context to collect data from a sample of Facebook users (N=480) drawn from an online Australian consumer panel. All the participants were randomly assigned to one of 16 conditions in a 2 (EWOM message valence: positive vs. negative) x 2 (EWOM message credibility: high vs low) x 4 (message format: text, picture, audio-visual and audio) between-subjects factorial design. The data were analysed using a Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) conducted with AMOS 26.0 to test the measurement model, ANOVA and Hayes' PROCESS Macro with SPSS software to test the moderated mediation model proposed in this study. We found that a positive valence has a stronger effect on brand evaluation than negative EWOM valence. Moreover, we found that the effect of message valence on online brand evaluation is significantly moderated (enhanced) by credibility. We also found significant differences in the impact of valence (but not credibility) on brand evaluation across different message formats. Finally, brand evaluation mediates the impact of message valence (but not credibility) on online brand engagement. This paper has contributed to the growing EWOM literature by introducing an integrative conceptual model. Moreover, this paper has contributed to the field of ELM theory of persuasion by forming its assumptions in a new context (Airline) in Australia using popular social media platforms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]