Audience-Message Construal Fit Promotes Personalised EWOM Communication

Electronic word of mouth(EWOM)is playing an increasingly important role in the process of audience access to information as information technology continues to develop.Research that investigates the factors that influence the spread of EWOM messages is of great importance,for example,because communicators can rely on these findings in order to improve the effectiveness of EWOM communication.At the same time,observing this form of media can be linked and traced back to the thinking and theories of communication pioneers such as Lazarsfeld and Rogers.For example,the academic focus on word-of-mouth has led to an emphasis on the concept of ’opinion leaders’.As a result,the research on word of mouth is also of great theoretical value.Previous studies have examined many factors that influence the effectiveness of word-of-mouth communication.However,few studies have examined the effectiveness of EWOM messages from the perspective of micro-communication effects.Within the larger discipline of cognitive communication,this study attempts to explore the influence of audience psychological states at high and low construal levels on the effectiveness of EWOM messages.Through the application and extension of construal level theory(CLT)and the elaboration likelihood model(ELM),this study proposes a two-stage model to investigate the communication effects of EWOM messages from a micro-communication effects perspective.The CLT predicts the first stage of message processing: When there is a construal fit between EWOM messages and the psychological state of the audience,individuals perceive higher processing fluency,message credibility,and diagnosticity.The Elaboration Likelihood Model predicts the second stage of the process: these enhanced perceived processing fluency,message credibility and diagnosticity act as important cues to influence message persuasion via central and peripheral routes.This two-stage model can predict a number of questions in research on the effects of EWOM messages because of the inclusive nature of the concept of construal levels.For example,the effects of internal and external factors,such as the personal characteristics of the audience and the decision-making context,on the effectiveness of EWOM messages can be examined within this research framework.This framework proposes that the persuasiveness of word-of-mouth messages will typically be better when the psychological state of the audience,induced by external or internal situational factors,matches the word-of-mouth message in terms of construal levels.When there is a mismatch,the persuasiveness of the word-of-mouth message is reduced.Based on this framework,this study proposes six specific research hypotheses that encompass the effects of six internal and external factors on the associated persuasiveness of high versus low construal level EWOM messages.To test the hypotheses,a 2(audience construal mindset: high construal level,low construal level)X 2(EWOM message construal level: desirability attribute focus vs.feasibility attribute focus)between-subjects design was used across the six scenarios.Participants were randomly assigned to different experimental groups.The effectiveness of the EWOM messages in each treatment was measured across the six scenarios.Randomised experiments,by excluding other possible alternative explanations through this randomisation,provide empirical evidence to support this framework.The scenarios included three classical internal personal trait factors(audience’s chronic construal level tendency,regularity focus orientation,maximisation tendency)and three external contextual factors(decision for immediate or future self,decision for self or others,platforms on which EWOMs are presented(shopping site or social networking site)).The results support the research hypothesis of this study: The communicative effects of EWOM messages are moderated by the influences predicted by construal level theory.Specifically,when there is a construal fit between the audience and the message,EWOM messages are more effective.Together,our hypothesis and framework are supported by these findings.This experiment was conducted as a randomised online experiment based on a group of Chinese internet users.The following points were strictly followed.Firstly,to demonstrate that the experimental approach is the most appropriate method for the research question at hand,we provide a more detailed explanation and justification of why the experimental approach was chosen over other methods in this study.Second,based on the theoretical framework and research hypotheses,the experimental design of the randomised experiment was strictly determined.Third,statistical power analysis was used to determine the minimum sample size required in the experiments.Fourth,the experimental material for the experiment was generated by collecting,collating and editing existing EWOM messages on the websites.These were written by real consumers.Fifth,during the implementation of the experiment,the potential impact of the experimental process on the participants was fully considered and minimised.The reliability of the data and the rigour of the conclusions were ensured by the above controls over the process of conducting the randomised experiment.Overall,this study makes the following contributions.First,in terms of research questions and perspectives,this study adopts a cognitive communication perspective and integrates the influence of communication channels,communication content and communication objects on information effectiveness studies,which is rare in previous studies.At the same time,this study addresses the shortcomings of previous EWOM studies that applied construal level theory by investigating the influence of audience psychological states on EWOM message effectiveness.Second,in terms of theoretical contribution,this study achieves the complementary strengths of ELM and construal level theory.It proposes three specific factors that can influence the effectiveness of EWOM.Finally,regarding research methodology,this study adopts online randomised experimental method.On the one hand,the experimental method itself has good internal validity.This helps to compensate for the small number of experimental articles in previous quantitative research on communication effects in China.Secondly,compared to laboratory experiments,online experiments also have the advantage of greater sample diversity and other external validity.As a result,this study has important implications for both theory and practice.