This research investigates how different types of electronic word-of-mouth affect consumer¡¦s attitude and purchase intention. Using the product types drafted by Ratchford (1987¡^as the moderating variable, this research explores the relation between different types of electronic word-of-mouth and consumers¡¦ product attitude and purchase intention. Ratchford (1987) divided the products into four categories along two dimensions, the consumer ¡§involvement¡¨ and ¡§rational vs affective¡¨ attitude. An experimental study was conducted using electronic word-of-mouth collected from Internet group discussion forums to find how different types of electronic word-of-mouth (product introduction, positive reviews and negative reviews) affected consumer¡¦s attitude and behavior. The results indicate that the nature of electronic word-of-mouth did affect consumer attitude toward the product and purchase intention. Major observations include the following: 1. Negative electronic word-of-mouth has resulted in lower attitude and purchase intention for ¡§Low involvement¡¨ product. 2. No significant difference exists between different types of electronic word-of-mouth for ¡§High involvement¡¨ product. 3. For ¡§Rational product¡¨, neutral message that only provided product description¡¨ turned out to create higher satisfaction, while positive and negative word-of-mouth had no significant effect on consumer attitude and purchase intention. 4. For ¡§Affective product¡¨, positive electronic word-of-mouth has more satisfaction on the consumer¡¦s attitude and purchase intention.

This dissertation focuses generally on consumer behavior, and particularly on consumer attitudes toward products of foreign origin for the purpose of developing a theory that will assist in explaining and predicting this phenomenon. Existing research in the area of country of origin effects upon consumer attitudes toward foreign-made products demonstrates significant methodological limitations such as single cue approaches., The major objective of this dissertation is to contribute to the development of a theory based upon the expectancy-value attitude concept to better explain and predict consumer attitudes toward products of foreign origin. To achieve this objective, the research attempts to overcome the limitations identified in attitude research and specific methodological deficiencies in research focusing on attitudes toward products of foreign origin by: 1. utilizing the expectancy-value approach; 2. basing operationalization of the attitude concepts on Likert-like scales and subjective conditional probabilities; 3. measuring the operationalized attitudes both directly and indirectly via beliefs and evaluations; 4. simultaneously including multiple extrinsic cues; 5. including pictorial cues in the questionnaire; and 6. performing and reporting validity and reliability tests. The general model developed in this research, representing the theory of attitudes toward products of foreign origin is the Foreign Product Attitude Model (FPAM). This dissertation will concentrate on an extracted part of the total model, namely the relationships between the informational stimuli cues and the attitudinal response. The informational extrinsic informational cues include the country of origin, the brand name, the store image and an involvement covariate. By concentrating on the above relationships it is hoped that this study will contribute to a better understanding of the direct effects of the informational stimuli upon the attitude toward a product of foreign origin. The country of origin effect and the other extrinsic cues (brand name and store image) were found to have significant effects on consumer attitudes toward products, explaining almost 20 percent of the total variance.

No description available.

近年來，隨著網際網路及線上社群日益普及，電子口碑的影響力迅速壯大。有鑑於這樣的趨勢，許多廠商開始尋找具有一定人氣的公眾人物或網路紅人為產品撰寫業配文。做為一種相對新穎的行銷方式，業配文同時兼具一般電子口碑的特性與產品代言的商業色彩。正因為它並非單純自發性的使用心得分享，許多消費者仍對其可信度有所疑慮，且大眾對其之觀感亦差異甚大。 本研究遂以信號理論（Signaling Theory）的觀點出發，將業配文撰文者視為信號傳遞者（Signaler）、文章內容視為信號本身（Signal）、消費者視為信號接收者（Receiver）、承載文章之平台視為信號環境（Signaling Environment），探討此四大面向中可能影響消費者文章信任、產品態度與購買意願之因素。 本研究採量化分析，透過發放線上問卷蒐集初級資料，經統計迴歸分析後發現，信號接收者面向的「撰文者與消費者相似性」、「撰文者過往名聲」、信號本身面向的「文章內容真實性」以及信號環境面向的「平台可信度」確實對文章信任有正向顯著影響，並會藉之進而影響產品態度和購買意願。此外，「平台生動性」及「平台互動性」則直接對產品態度有正向顯著影響。而本研究也針對文章信任之中介效果及信號接收者面向的「消費者人格外向開放性」、「消費者過去受業配文影響之經驗」、「消費者產品知識程度」是否具調節效果進行分析，詳細結果於研究中將一一闡述。 / In recent years, the impact of Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) has surged due to the prevalence of the Internet and social media. In response to this phenomenon, many firms have been inviting public figures or Internet celebrities to write sponsored (blog) posts for certain products. Sponsored posts, in substance, lie somewhere between solely spontaneous sharing of personal experiences and actual endorsements. Hence, many consumers still take sponsored posts with a grain of salt and remain skeptical of their authenticity as well as trustworthiness. This research builds upon Signaling Theory by adopting the concept of “Signaler”, “Signal”, “Receiver”, and “Signaling Environment”, and aims at clarifying some possible factors that may influence consumers’ trust toward the sponsored posts, product attitude and purchase intention. Among the independent variables, “Similarity between Writer and Consumer”, “Writer’s Reputation”, “Content Truthfulness”, and “Media Credibility” are significantly positively correlated with consumers’ trust toward the sponsored posts, which then positively influences consumers’ product attitude and purchase intention. Meanwhile, “Media Vividness” and “Media Interactivity” also contribute significantly to consumers’ product attitude. Other factors involved, the mediating effect of trust, as well as the moderating effect of “Consumer’s Personality” and “Consumer’s Past Experiences” are further discussed in this research.