As technology advances, the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) surpasses the influence of traditional face-to-face WOM communication on consumers’ decision making. Since the hospitality and tourism products and services contain more interpersonal interaction that needs to be experienced by consumers, the influence of eWOM in the hospitality industry is more significant than in other industries. The main purpose of this study is to examine the relationships among source credibility of eWOM, customers’ perceived risk, and their behavior intentions to use consumer generated media. The result provides evidence about the influence of eWOM on overall perceived risk and how consumers use eWOM to manage and reduce the potential risks when making their lodging decisions. Academically, it confirms the significance of eWOM influence and connects the gap in the previous literatures between source credibility of eWOM and perceived risk research. Practically, hoteliers can set their marketing strategies precisely aimed to consumers’ needs and are able to build good reputations through those online travel forums or hotel review sites.

This paper seeks to understand how the micro-blogging tool, Twitter, can be used effectively by marketers and advertisers by incorporating the attributes of information quality, information usefulness and source credibility into their tweets. Case analyses of five of the most popular Twitter accounts were conducted with regards to the appearance of each account and the content of their tweets. Recommendations for improving the quality of each Twitter account were also provided. / text

Titel: Från eWOM till köpintention – En studie om hur valens och argumentkvalitet i en recension påverkar konsumentens köpintention  Nivå: C-uppsats, examensarbete i ämnet företagsekonomi  Författare: Tobias Fält & Viktor Hamwi  Handledare: Jonas Kågström  Datum: 2019 - januari  Syfte: Syftet är att analysera vilken roll valens och argumentkvalitet i en restaurangs onlinerecensioner har för påverkan på konsumentens köpintention. Metod: Studien använder sig av en kvantitativ forskningsmetod med en webbaserad enkätundersökning som grund för det insamlade materialet. Den webbaserade enkätundersökningen samlade in totalt 157 svar från respondenter. Därefter analyserades de insamlade svaren i SPSS där deskriptiv analys, korrelationsanalys, faktoranalys, t-test och klusteranalys genomfördes. Resultat och slutsats: Resultatet av studien visar att valens har en direkt påverkan på konsumentens köpintention. Vidare visade resultatet att negativa recensioner har en större påverkan på konsumentens beteendemässiga intention än positiva recensioner, vilket styrker forskningen som påvisar att negativitetseffekten är aktuell. Studien fann också att argumentkvalitet inte har en signifikant påverkan på köpintentionen.  Uppsatsens bidrag: Uppsatsen bidrar till den befintliga forskningen genom att styrka att negativitetseffekten gäller även för restauranger, vilket belyser vikten i att behandla negativa recensioner då de kan spela en roll i restaurangens rykte och försäljning.  Förslag till vidare forskning: Vi ser gärna att framtida studier fokuserar på samma ämne, men med fler respondenter då vi inte fann något statistiskt samband mellan köpintention och argumentkvalitet. Framtida studier bör även fokusera på liknande tjänster då vi ser en överrepresentation av produkter som forskningsunderlag i denna typ av undersökningar.  Nyckelord: eWOM, recensioner, köpintention, valens, argumentkvalitet. / Title: From eWOM to purchase intention – A study of how valence and argument quality in a review effects a consumer`s purchase intention  Level: Final assignment for Bachelor Degrees in Business Administration  Author: Tobias Fält & Viktor Hamwi Supervisor: Jonas Kågström Date: 2019 - January   Aim: The aim of this paper is to analyze the role of valence and argument quality on restaurants online reviews, and its impact on customers purchase intention. Method: This paper used a quantitative research method with a web-based survey as the basis for the collected material. The web-based survey collected a total of 157 responses from respondents. The collected answers were later analyzed in SPSS where descriptive statistics, correlation analysis, factor analysis, t-test and a cluster analyses were performed. Results and conclusion: The results show that valence has a direct impact on the consumer purchase intention. Furthermore, the results show that negative reviews have a greater effect on the consumer behavioral intention than positive reviews, which strengthens previous studies that show the relevance of the negativity effect. The study also shows that argument quality does not have a significant effect on the consumer’s purchasing intention.  Contribution: This study has contributed to previous research by demonstrating that the negativity effect is applied to restaurants as well, which shows the importance of addressing negative reviews as they can have an impact on a restaurant’s reputation and sales.    Further Research: We would like to see future studies focusing on the same subject, but with a larger number of respondents as seen as we could not find a statistical connection between purchasing intention and argument quality. Future studies should also focus on similar services since we see an overrepresentation of products as subject of examination in this field. Keywords: eWOM, reviews, purchase intention, valence, argument quality

Syfte: Studien syftar till att öka kunskapen om vilka faktorer som motiverar människor attsprida eWOM då kundförtjusning upplevts. Studien syftar, i synnerhet till att få en ökadteoretisk förståelse, i termer av servicekvalitet, kopplat till denna motivation.Design/metod: Studien kombinerar en induktiv och deduktiv ansats där empiri har prövatsmot befintlig teori. Undersökningen har genomförts i form av en kvalitativ innehållsanalys,med en kvalitativ ansats, där söktermer för hotellrecensioner på Tripadvisor.com, kopplat tillkundförtjusning, har använts. Ett befintligt kod-schema från tidigare forskning inom områdetför kundförtjusning har använts som utgångspunkt för kategorisering av analyserad text.Emellertid har vi haft ett öppet sinne för att kunna se eventuella nya kategorier växa fram urdatamaterialet. Kategorier har även kvantifierats för att få en bättre förståelse av resultatet.Resultat: Analysen av hotellrecensioner indikerar att det framförallt är kundservice, i form avöverraskningar, varm/välkomnande-, vänlig-, hjälpsam och uppmärksam personal sommotiverar människor att sprida eWOM då man upplever kundförtjusning. Emellertid ärpåtagliga aspekter såsom, renlighet samt inredning- och storlek av gästrum också vitala fördenna motivation. Gällande servicekvalitetsdimensioner från teorin: SERVQUAL, är detframförallt, empathy, assurance, responsiveness och tangibles som motiverar människor attsprida eWOM, där empathy tycks vara den viktigaste dimensionen.Originalitet/värde: Studiens resultat adderar kunskap till tidigare studier som berörmänniskors motivation till att sprida WOM, i synnerhet forskning relaterad till servicekvalitet.Det finns begränsat med forskning kring fenomenet eWOM i relation tillservicekvalitetsdimensioner, och studien reducerar gapet mellan traditionell WOM ocheWOM i termer av motivation till att sprida dito. Studien bekräftar även tidigare forskninggällande de faktorer av hotellupplevelser som bidrar till kundförtjusning, och jämför även tvåolika definitioner av kundförtjusning. Vidare, ger studien insikt till management inomhotellbranschen, i synnerhet hotell belägna i Storbritannien, kring de faktorer som har enpositiv inverkan på fördelaktig ryktesspridning. / Program: Civilekonomprogrammet

I Sverige och Finland har besöksnäringen vuxit med ett exportvärde som ständigt ökat. Dock är detta främst förekommande i storstäderna. På beslut av Sveriges regering och EU har utvecklingsprojektet Archipelago Business Development trätt fram, med uppdrag att stärka digital satsning i skärgården. I och med konsumenters tillgång till sociala medier och Wordof-mouth (WOM) bör företag ompröva sin marknadsföring. Studien syftar till att undersöka hur skärgårdsföretag marknadsför genom sociala medier, samt vilka för- och nackdelar som företagen upplever. Detta studeras genom kvalitativa intervjuer med projektledare inom ABD och skärgårdsföretag från Finland och Sverige som deltar i projektet. Resultatet visar på att det finns två generella typer av företag inom skärgården som i olika stor omfattning använder sociala medier för marknadsföring. / In Sweden and Finland, the tourism industry has grown with an export value that is constantly increasing. However, this is mainly occurring in the big cities. From a decision of the Swedish government and the EU, a development project called Archipelago Business Development has emerged. The project has the task of strengthening digital investment in the archipelago. With consumers' access to social media and Word-of-mouth (WOM), companies should re-examine their marketing strategy. This study aims to investigate how companies in the archipelago social media in their marketing, and what pros and cons the companies experience. This is studied through qualitative interviews with project managers within ABD and companies in the archipelago from Finland and Sweden participating in the project. The results show that there are two general types of companies in the archipelago that use social media for marketing to varying degrees.

<p>The Dark Side of the Word-of-Mouse Effect</p><p><em>- An experimental study of how negative information in today’s social media can influence consumer perception</em></p><p> As a result of the electronic revolution of information dissemination, social media as a phenomenon has come to play an important part, both in society at large but also when it comes to business and marketing. Nowadays, knowledge and opinions about brands and products are spread by reputation through a wide range of social media platforms, a phenomenon which in the literature is referred to as word-of-mouse or electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM).</p><p>The purpose of this paper is to investigate how people’s opinions towards a company and its product are affected by negative information in terms of eWOM. Or more precisely, whether or not there is a difference in this effect depending on information content, concerning company values on the one hand and product attributes on the other.</p><p>This was done in an experimental setting where two groups of respondents were subjected to fictitious information of different types using established social media platforms. Thereby, the impact on attitude, credibility and buying intention towards the company and its product was measured as well as the diagnosticity of the information and accordingly the eWOM effect could be determined.</p><p>The result of the study indicates that negative eWOM does indeed induce changes in the receiver’s opinion and more importantly it shows a discrepancy in the impact of different kinds of information. That is, the receiver’s opinion in terms of attitude and credibility is, by the eWOM, affected to a larger extent by the exposure of negative information concerning company values as compared to product attributes. However, regarding the impact on the receiver’s ultimate behavior this discrepancy does not seem to exist as buying intention is affected equally.</p>

The Dark Side of the Word-of-Mouse Effect - An experimental study of how negative information in today’s social media can influence consumer perception  As a result of the electronic revolution of information dissemination, social media as a phenomenon has come to play an important part, both in society at large but also when it comes to business and marketing. Nowadays, knowledge and opinions about brands and products are spread by reputation through a wide range of social media platforms, a phenomenon which in the literature is referred to as word-of-mouse or electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). The purpose of this paper is to investigate how people’s opinions towards a company and its product are affected by negative information in terms of eWOM. Or more precisely, whether or not there is a difference in this effect depending on information content, concerning company values on the one hand and product attributes on the other. This was done in an experimental setting where two groups of respondents were subjected to fictitious information of different types using established social media platforms. Thereby, the impact on attitude, credibility and buying intention towards the company and its product was measured as well as the diagnosticity of the information and accordingly the eWOM effect could be determined. The result of the study indicates that negative eWOM does indeed induce changes in the receiver’s opinion and more importantly it shows a discrepancy in the impact of different kinds of information. That is, the receiver’s opinion in terms of attitude and credibility is, by the eWOM, affected to a larger extent by the exposure of negative information concerning company values as compared to product attributes. However, regarding the impact on the receiver’s ultimate behavior this discrepancy does not seem to exist as buying intention is affected equally.

Consumers are increasingly engaging with brands on social networking sites (SNS) through activities such as sharing, commenting, liking and recommending products or brands to other consumers. These types of recommendations are referred to as electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) and are proven to have a significant influence on consumers’ purchasing decisions. Previous research has investigated motives for traditional WOM and motives for eWOM on opinion platforms. This study proposes that eWOM on SNSs is a combination of traditional WOM and eWOM on opinion platforms. By using a sample of 154 Swedish Facebook users, this study explores why consumers engage in positive eWOM communication on SNSs. This is done by testing 6 validated motives that are identified in previous research in the new context. The resulting analysis suggests that consumers’ need for social interaction and desire to express positive emotions are the primary drivers behind engagement in positive eWOM communication on SNSs. The findings confirm that eWOM on SNSs contains elements of both traditional WOM and eWOM on opinion platforms and should thus be considered as a unique context where eWOM takes place.

Konsumenter använder och förlitar sig i allt större utsträckning på andras åsikter som lagtsupp på recensionssidor på nätet. Nyligen har dock skandaler uppmärksammat förekomsten avmanipulation av recensioner vilket lett till att recensionssajters trovärdighet kan ifrågasättas.Tidigare forskning har också gett tvetydiga svar på huruvida folk litar på recensioner ellerinte.Att utforska det här ämnet är viktigt eftersom marknadsförare måste förstå sig påkonsumenters förtroende för onlinerecensioner då dessa kan användas som ett kraftfulltmarknadsföringsverktyg och som ett nytt element i marknadsföringsmixen. Den här studiensyftar till att utforska konsumenters förtroende för onlinerecensioner genom att undersökavarför man litar på recensioner och vad som gör en onlinerecension pålitlig. Genomanvändandet av en modifierad version av Shannon och Weavers kommunikationsmodell, kanen recension struktureras kring elementen meddelande, sändare, mottagare, kanal ochåterkoppling. Den här studien implementerar en kvalitativ metod där semistruktureradeintervjuer använts för att få en djupare förståelse för intervjuobjektens känslor och tankar.Studiens resultat indikerar att konsumenter inte litar på individuella recensioner, utan snararepå systemet med onlinerecensioner i sin helhet; antalet recensioner nämndes som den mestinflytelserika faktorn för att skapa tillit. Studien visar också att den som läser recensionerframförallt använder meddelandet för att avgöra om en recension är pålitlig eller inte. Pågrund av avsaknaden av information om personen som skriver recensionen är meddelandetdet enda läsaren verkligen kan utvärdera. / Increasingly, consumers are using and relying on the opinions of others posted on onlinereview sites. However, recent scandals has brought attention to the existence of reviewmanipulation and questioned the credibility of online review sites. Furthermore, previousresearch has shown conflicting findings on whether or not consumers trust online reviews.Exploring these matters becomes important since marketers need to be able to understandconsumer trust in online reviews as it then can be used as a powerful marketing tool and as anew element of the marketing communication mix. The aim of this study is to exploreconsumer trust in online reviews by investigating why people trust online reviews, and whatmakes an online review trustworthy. This is accomplished using a modified version of theShannon and Weaver communication model which is structured around the elementsmessage, sender, receiver, channel and feedback. The study employs a qualitative methodusing semi-structured interviews in order to gain a deeper understanding of the thoughts andfeelings of the interviewees. The findings indicate that consumers do not put their trust inindividual reviews, but in the online review system as a whole; the number of reviews postedwas mentioned as the most influential factor for creating trust. The study shows that readersof reviews primarily use the message to determine whether a review is trustworthy or not.Because of the lack of information about the person writing the online review, it is the onlything the reader can truly evaluate.

The purpose of this study was to provide a better understanding why consumers conduct research online and post online reviews. This was achieved by finding relationships between the two phenomena presented above. The study used a cross-sectional design since little was known about the relationships within the chosen research area. Results were measured by quantitative instrument through a self-administered questionnaire divided by each phenomenon. The questionnaire was directed towards Swedish consumers in the buying decision process.Consumers conduct research online with the specific goal for gaining information posted by other consumers, since it has a higher credibility. Helping other consumers and self-expression was reasons found in relation to why consumers post online reviews.Findings strengthen the fact that higher education could be found of relationship to conduct research online; however, not to post online reviews. In comparison to previous studies the study measured online shopping frequency instead of Internet experience. It was found that consumers who conducted online shopping were in relation with previous presented theories. / Syftet med denna studie var att skapa en bättre förståelse till varför konsumenter publicerar och konsumerar onlinerecensioner. Genom att applicera en tvärsnittsdesign kunde syftet uppnås då relationer identifierades. För att möjliggöra mätning av resultatet applicerades ett kvantitativt instrument genom en självadministrerad enkät vilken var uppdelad efter respektive fenomen.Onlinerecensioner används för det specifika målet att samla större mängder information innan köpbeslut. De onlinerecensioner som används främst är de skapade av andra konsumenter då de anses vara av högre trovärdighet än information skapat av företag. Att hjälpa andra konsumenter och självförbättring är vad resultatet påvisar vara anledning till att konsumenter publicerar onlinerecensioner.Vidare stärkte resultatet en relation där konsumenter med högre utbildning tenderar att konsumera onlinerecensioner men inte till att publicera dessa. Konsumenternas köpfrekvens applicerades istället för att mäta graden erfarenhet av Internet, vilket gjorts i tidigare studier.