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In this paper the authors seek to compare lay (consumer) and professional (physician) discourse structures in answers to diabetes‐related questions in a public consumer health information website.

Ten consumer and ten physician question threads were aligned. They generated 26 consumer and ten physician answers, constituting a total dataset of 717 discourse units (in sentences or sentence fragments). The authors depart from previous LIS health information behaviour research by utilizing a computational linguistics‐based theoretical framework of rhetorical structure theory, which enables research at the pragmatics level of linguistics in terms of the goals and effects of human communication.

The authors reveal differences in discourse organization by identifying prevalent rhetorical relations in each type of discourse. Consumer answers included predominately (66 per cent) presentational rhetorical structure relations, those intended to motivate or otherwise help a user do something (e.g. motivation, concession, and enablement). Physician answers included mainly subject matter relations (64 per cent), intended to inform, or simply transfer information to a user (e.g. elaboration, condition, and interpretation).

The findings suggest different communicative goals expressed in lay and professional health information sharing. Consumers appear to be more motivating, or activating, and more polite (linguistically) than physicians in how they share information with consumers online in similar topics in diabetes management. The authors consider whether one source of information encourages adherence to healthy behaviour more effectively than another.

Analysing discourse structure – using rhetorical structure theory – is a novel and promising approach in information behaviour research, and one that traverses the lexico‐semantic level of linguistic analysis towards pragmatics of language use.

User-generated content (UGC), e.g. YouTube videos on social media, is all around us. These UGCs are primarily demonstrational and/or informational in their execution format. However, viewers could easily misclassify the UGCs and that may be detrimental to the focal product in the UGC. This study aims to investigate this phenomenon.

The study uses an online survey (N = 459). The respondents were randomly exposed to one of the two UGCs – informational or demonstrational – and then responded to questions measuring their attribution and their purchase intention towards the focal product in the UGC.

Results indicate that about 20% of the respondents misclassified the type of UGC. Further, UGC characteristics such as vicarious experience, transparency and connectedness significantly enhance purchase intention, especially for demonstrational videos; demonstrational UGC, when correctly perceived yield the most favorable results; and misclassification does suppress these relationships.

This study contributes to the theory and practice by linking the viewer evaluation of UGC on various evaluative dimensions (i.e. vicarious experience, connectedness, transparency and perceived risk), purchase intention towards the focal product in the UGC and correct or incorrect classification of the UGC format (demonstrational or informational). This study adds to the knowledge base about UGC by highlighting some of the pitfalls when viewers misclassify the UGC format and emphasizes the importance of a match between the content of the UGC and the perceptions and expectations associated with the medium on which it is uploaded. Like any other research, this study too has its limitations. It has only looked at a few possible variables that would predict the purchase intention in the context of the complex and rich phenomenon of UGC. Future studies should look at other sources of misclassification.

Given the ubiquitous nature of social media and their role in consumer decision-making, the findings of this study have serious practical implications. The results of the study highlight steps to be taken by both creators and marketers to improve effectiveness of UGCs.

While this study does not focus on the social aspects of UGCs, it is not difficult to imagine the phenomenon of UGC misclassification, either as a mistake or deliberately induced and its social implications. Fake news seems to be not uncommon.

Even though the impact of consumer-to-consumer information exchange and UGC on consumers’ brand attitude and purchase intention is well recognized, there is limited research on this topic. Further, to the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to explicitly examine the concept of misclassification and corresponding issues in the context of UGCs.

Customer suggestions offer valuable insights to companies, and suggestion sharing is a form of engagement that strengthens customers’ relationships with firms. Yet research to date has neglected to explicitly study the antecedents of direct-to-firm consumer suggestion sharing or to adequately characterize the behavior. This paper aims to address this deficiency.

The research draws on two surveys using three different elicitation techniques – critical incident, direct reporting and scenario response. Inductive content analysis of consumer responses is used to derive exploratory insights regarding the range of factors that motivate and inhibit consumer suggestion sharing, with an emphasis on consumer service-related contexts.

Potential self, other and firm benefits motivate suggestion sharing, whereas a host of factors, including the effort involved, a lack of perceived firm efficacy and unpleasant sharing contexts inhibit it. The findings reveal a rich portrait of antecedents that illustrates how direct-to-firm suggestion-sharing behavior combines elements of customer citizenship behavior, customer complaint behavior and online community idea sharing.

The research relies upon reporting by US students and consumers.

Service firms hoping to avail themselves of customers’ desire to contribute to their and their customers’ betterment must understand and manage the tripartite nature of consumer suggestion sharing evinced by the antecedents revealed.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this research offers the first description of the range of factors that motivate and inhibit direct-to-firm consumer suggestion sharing. As such, it provides a theoretical foundation upon which future consumer suggestion-sharing research can build.

The purpose of this study is to illustrate the influence of media coverage and sentiment about brands on user-generated content amplification and opinions expressed in social media.

This study used a mixed-method approach, using a brand situation as a case example, including sentiment analysis of social media conversations and sentiment analysis of media coverage. This study tracks the diffusion of a false claim about the brand via online media coverage, subsequent spreading of the false claim via social media and the resulting impact on sentiment toward the brand.

The findings illustrate the influence of digital mass communication sources on the subsequent spread of information about a brand via social media channels and the impact of the social spread of false claims on brand sentiment. This study illustrates the value of social media listening and sentiment analysis for brands as an ongoing business practice.

While it has long been known that media coverage is in part subsequently diffused through individual sharing, this study reveals the potential for media sentiment to influence sentiment toward a brand. It also illustrates the potential harm brands face when false information is spread via media coverage and subsequently through social media posts and conversations. How brands can most effectively correct false brand beliefs and recover from negative sentiment related to false claims is an area for future research.

This study suggests that brands are wise to use sentiment analysis as part of their evaluation of earned media coverage from news organizations and to use social listening as an alert system and sentiment analysis to assess impact on attitudes toward the brand. These steps should become part of a brand’s social media management process.

Media are presumed to be impartial reporters of news and information. However, this study illustrated that the sentiment expressed in media coverage about a brand can be measured and diffused beyond the publications’ initial reach via social media. Advertising positioned as news must be labeled as “advertorial” to ensure that those exposed to the message understand that the message is not impartial. News organizations may inadvertently publish false claims and relay information with sentiment that is then carried via social media along with the information itself. Negative information about a brand may be more sensational and, thus, prone to social sharing, no matter how well the findings are researched or sourced.

The value of the study is its illustration of how false information and media sentiment spread via social media can ultimately affect consumer sentiment and attitude toward the brand. This study also explains the research process for social scraping and sentiment analysis.

Market mavenism and opinion leadership are two important consumer influential concepts in marketing communication literature. The purpose of this paper is to explore two overarching research questions. First, can we separate market mavenism from opinion leadership in China? The answer to this question would solve an important issue of targeting in marketing communication. Second, if market mavenism is indeed distinctive from opinion leadership, are market mavenism and opinion leadership determined by same or different factors in China? The answer of this question would help determine how to reach each type of consumer influential and add knowledge to market segmentation.

An online survey was conducted to test the hypotheses. In total, 316 Chinese respondents completed this survey.

The results were illuminating: market mavenism and opinion leadership were indeed distinctive yet related concepts in China. Monochronicity, altruism, price-value consciousness, and income significantly influenced market mavenism after controlling for all other variables while monochronicity, price-value consciousness, and age significantly predicted opinion leadership after controlling for all other variables.

This study provides a richer picture of market mavenism and opinion leadership in the Chinese market.

This study helps scholars and professionals efficiently and effectively reach each type of consumer influential.

This paper aims to explore whether or not and how brand community supportive climates (information- versus emotion-supportive climates) have an impact on consumer-to-consumer helping behavior.

A survey of users of cell phone brand communities was conducted, and data from 413 participants were used to validate the hypotheses of this study.

Results indicated that emotion- and information-supportive climates enhance consumer-to-consumer helping behavior through consumer–community relationships (i.e. brand community identification and brand community commitment).

To enhance the external validity of this research, future studies could investigate other settings (e.g. social media-based brand communities and brands of other product types) in countries with different religious beliefs.

Marketers should create an environment where consumers feel informationally and emotionally supported within the brand community, thereby enabling the former to enhance their relationships with their brand communities and ultimately increase consumers' helping behavior.

By dividing the supportive climate into two parts, the current study enriched the literature on community climate. Moreover, the authors complemented and expanded the literature on consumer helping behavior.

The focus of this study lies in understanding the extrinsic vs intrinsic motivators which drive the m-coupon sharing behaviour in social networking sites (SNSs). A consumer can make promotional tool (in our case m-coupons) viral if the cues trigger an apt motivation. This study fills the need gap by identifying which motivations must be focused to make a promotional tool viral by the consumer especially in an emerging economy like India.

We designed conceptual framework based on extensive literature review and employed hierarchal regression methodology to investigate the motivation to share m-coupon.

Sense of self-worth, Socializing and Reciprocity emerge as strong reasons for a consumer to share m-coupons amongst friends and peers in SNS. Results have shown that intrinsic motivation works very effectively when a consumer shares m-coupons in SNSs.

This study has certain limitations. First, the impact of age, gender and education can also influence the results as perception evolves with age and education. Second, in our study, we have not classified m-coupons in different categories. Different types of m-coupons may have a different impact on consumers.

The paper presents findings, which are useful for marketers to develop a customer-centric viral promotional strategy.

This study is one of the few studies in integrating types of motivation with coupon proneness and coupon sharing in social media. This study has specifically targeted the emerging economy where m-coupons usage has seen a surge. Study has shown that it is the intrinsic motivation which is very crucial for encouraging consumer for participating in SNSs and share e-word of mouth amongst friends and peers.

This study aims to investigate a sharing economy context, where vacation rental units that are owned and operated by individuals throughout the world are rented out through a common website: vrbo.com. It is posited that gross domestic product (GDP) per capita, a common indicator of the level of economic development of a nation, will impact the likelihood that prospective travelers will choose to book accommodations in the sharing economy channel (vs traditional hotels). The role of online customer reviews in this process is investigated as well, building upon a significant body of extant research which shows their level of customer decision influence.

An empirical analysis is conducted using data from the website Vacation Rentals By Owner on 1,940 rental listings across 97 countries.

GDP per capita serves as risk deterrent to prospective travelers, making the sharing economy an acceptable alternative to traditional hotels for the average traveler. It is also found that the total number of online customer reviews (OCR volume) is a signal of popularity to prospective travelers, while the average star rating of those online customer reviews (OCR valence) is instead a signal of accommodation quality.

This study adds to a growing agenda of research investigating the effect of online customer reviews on consumer decisions, with a particularly focus on the burgeoning sharing economy. The findings help to explain when the sharing economy may serve as a stronger disruptive threat to incumbent offerings. It also provides the following key insights for managers: sharing economy rental units in developed nations are more successful in driving booking activity, managers should look to promote volume of online customer reviews and positive online customer reviews are particularly influential for sharing economy rental booking rates in less developed nations.

Building meaningful relationships between consumers and service brands has received significant attention. This paper aims to explore how brand love in services – a relationship between the consumer and the service brand – is created through relationships between the consumer and other people. Specifically, we explore how brand love is created through the social relationships consumers form with other consumers.

This conceptual paper synthesizes the literature on consumer-brand relationships, brand community, social support and service providers, psychological ownership and brand love in the context of services.

This paper suggests that consumers love brands that are meaningful to them. Brands can become more meaningful to consumers by facilitating interpersonal connections and helping consumers define their identity. The connection between social relationships with other consumers and brand love is mediated by the consumer's level of perceived membership in the community. For some consumers, perceived membership grows to the point of becoming perceived psychological ownership of the community, where the consumer feels a sense of responsibility for the brand's and the community's well-being.

This paper advances theoretical understanding of how brand love operates in services and how it can be enhanced through services’ management.