Research On The Influences Of Rewarded Word-of-mouth In Social Networking Sites

With increasing popularization of social networking sites(SNS),more and more e-commerce platforms are integrating with prominent SNS.To make full use of the influences of electronic word-of-mouth(eWOM)communication and consumers'social relationship resources in consumer purchase decision,e-commerce platform or merchants often offer a variety of incentives for consumers to generate positive eWOM or social recommend.Given rewarded eWOM may mislead potential consumers,government and industry management associations mandated that company must disclose the compensation to consumers,otherwise,it will be considered as fraud reviews.Therefore,e-commerce platforms or merchants is facing a critical challenge how to use the available rewards programs to promote the eWOM communication and improve the marketing performance.Based on and extending the existing literature,this dissertation conducted three studies to deeply understand this topic from the perspectives of senders,receivers and firms of the eWOM communication respectively.First,from the perspective of the senders,this study proposed and investigated that the effect of incentives on senders' positive emotions which,in turn,promote the eWOM in SNS(SWOM).This study also investigates the mediating effect of positive emotion in the path between perceived incentives and SWOM intention,and then tests the moderating effects of unequal incentive allocations(i.e.,positive and negative inequity)and individuals' emotion regulation(i.e.,reappraisal and suppression).Second,for the receivers,this study tests the perceived suspicion for reviewers'motivation and review credibility mediate the link of affection intensity and product evaluation.This study also examines that rewards disclosure and ties strength moderate the relationship between affection intensity and the perceived suspicion for reviewers'motivation and review credibility.Third,from the perspective of firms,this study empirically investigates the effects of the provider characteristics,content characteristics and user interaction behavior on the firm marketing performance through an evidence from the online community in lvmama.com.The research results of this dissertation enrich the eWOM literature in the context of social networking sites.Furthermore,this dissertation extends the application of emotion theory,multiple inference model,and persuasion effect model in the field of the eWOM and referral reward programs.Finally,the conclusion of this dissertation has important theoretical guidance for companies how to design the available rewards mechanism for the eWOM communication to improve marketing performance in the SNS setting.