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The purpose of this paper is to improve the understanding of how different forms of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and simultaneous marketing communications (MC), two crucial components of relationship marketing, affect consumer persuasion when presented in a business-to-customer (B2C)-sponsored vs a customer-to-customer (C2C)-sponsored social network site (SNS). A concise typology of eWOM is also proposed.

An experiment involving different social network movie sites was conducted testing the effects of different eWOM along with a comparison to MC on consumers’ interest in, and likelihood to watch movie DVDs.

The empirical results showed that not all eWOM types have the same persuasiveness and community sponsorship as a source credibility cue is more influential from a C2C-sponsored SNS than from a B2C one, particularly for many-to-one eWOM communications.

Future research should include both positive and negative types of eWOM using different product categories to increase the generalizability of the results.

Not all eWOM types are created equal, and thus, SNS sponsorship can lead to source bias and affect the persuasiveness of eWOM embedded in SNSs. The results also imply that not all positive word-of-mouth has a more positive effect than MC.

The approach of measuring two forms of communications simultaneously adds to the much-needed integrative approach of studying the simultaneous delivery of MC and WOM and provides a more nuanced view of persuasion knowledge.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how today’s new type of opinion leaders, “Citizen Influencers” (CIs), persuade their followers by exploring which characteristics contribute to their persuasiveness.

Combining theories within opinion leadership, celebrity endorsement, product placement and user-generated content (UGC) five source characteristics – namely, expertise, trustworthiness, likeability, similarity and familiarity – are investigated using fashion as an example. A longitudinal netnographic study of ten CIs and their UGC and six focus groups with followers of specific CIs on Instagram are conducted.

All five characteristics contribute to the persuasiveness of CIs with trustworthiness as the main contributor. CIs persuasiveness lies in their unique ability to encompass two opposing qualities simultaneously: being attainable and relatable like ordinary consumers; being taste leaders with superior, celebrity-like status.

Only qualitative studies within the fashion category have been conducted, wherefore the relative weight between the two qualities cannot be quantified.

When choosing a CI, managers may consider: the amount of followers per CI as an indicator of influence; similarity between follower and CI as it provides the basis for trust; and the CIs personal universe on their Instagram profile as it leverage the meanings associated with the brand.

The key driver of CIs persuasiveness is their trustworthiness which mediates and amplifies the effect of the other four characteristics. CIs’ persuasive power rests upon the balancing act of being relatable and aspirational.

To help brands persuasively communicate their environmentally responsible initiatives, this study aims to involve two experiments, examining the impact of brand schema, information transparency and skepticism toward climate change for brands both familiar and unfamiliar to US consumers.

Two online experiments were designed recruiting a total of 510 participants. The design incorporates both message and treatment variance to increase internal and external validity of the study. Data collected were analyzed using PROCESS, a regression-based conditional path analysis technique.

The results indicated that for both familiar and unfamiliar brands, increased congruity of consumers' schemas to information presented in brands' pro-environmental messages led consumers to evaluate the messages as more persuasive, have more positive opinions about brands' environmentally responsible initiatives as well as behavioral intentions toward the brand. Also, presence of high information transparency on environmental responsibility-related messages influenced consumers' schemas positively, and in turn, their evaluations were more favorable. However, consumers’ climate change skepticism seemed to influence unfamiliar, not familiar brands.

The study provides both theoretical and managerial implications. The findings are important for established apparel brands that suffer from negative reputations, but are willing to revitalize their images, and for new ventures who want to establish their image as environmentally responsible.

This study aims to examine the effects of three green information quality dimensions – persuasiveness, completeness and credibility – on green brand evaluation and whether this is mediated by green brand credibility. It also examines the moderating effects of eco-label credibility and consumer knowledge on green information quality dimensions and green brand credibility relationships.

Using a structured questionnaire on environmentally-friendly electrical goods/electronics, cosmetic and apparel product advertisements, involving an elaboration task, this study collected usable data from 1,282 Indian consumers across 50 cities. It also undertook an assessment for three different product groups using structural equation modelling to examine proposed hypotheses and assessed moderated mediation using the Hays process model.

The study indicates that: green brand credibility mediates the effects of green information quality dimensions on green brand evaluation; consumer knowledge moderates the effects of persuasiveness and completeness on green brand credibility and eco-label credibility moderates the effects of persuasiveness and credibility on green brand credibility.

In green information processing, this study supports the relevance of the elaboration likelihood model and the mediation effect of green brand credibility. It also presents evidence that credible eco-labels enhance green information processing. While the results are broadly consistent across the three product categories, the results may only generalizable to the environmentally-aware urban populations.

Help brand managers to design advertisements that add brand credibility in environmentally-aware urban markets.

It helps to define green information quality and the interacting effects of eco-label credibility and consumer knowledge in green information processing.

This study aims to find how can fashion micro-influencers and their electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) messages increase consumer engagement on social media, focusing on micro-influencers’ influence, typology, eWOM content and consumer engagement.

A total of 20,000 microblogs were collected from Irish fashion micro-influencers and analyzed through keyword classification and content analysis in NVivo. The determinants of eWOM persuasiveness for consumer engagement on social media were investigated based on Sussman and Siegal’s information adoption model.

The study finds that among the four types of micro-influencers, market mavens and their eWOM messages have the highest impact on consumer engagement on social media, and it presents a repetitive and persuasive eWOM model of market mavens to increase consumer participation. Also, the study discovers that micro-influencers’ occasion-related microblogs have an increasing impact on consumer interactions whereas microblogs with brands have a decreasing engagement with consumers on social media.

This study advances prior studies on the relationship between influencers’ eWOM messages and consumer participation on social media by the development of a persuasive eWOM model of micro-influencers to increase consumer engagement and fill in the lack of relevant literature. Also, findings provide actionable insights for marketing communication practitioners to persuade consumers to participate in eWOM communications and establish strong consumer-brand relationships on social media.

Consumer-generated online product reviews (OPRs) have become a crucial source of information for consumers; however, OPRs are increasingly being incentivized. The purpose of this paper is to find a method of sponsorship and disclosure that could be considered ethically sound.

This study adopted a quasi-experimental approach to clarifying how the method of sponsorship impacts reader perceptions of OPRs in terms of helpfulness, credibility and purchase intention. Two experiments were performed on an online platform using data from 480 participants. Hypotheses were tested using analysis of covariance.

Meaning under the premise that sponsorship information is disclosed and not withheld from the readers, Study 1 revealed that experiential sponsorship is the best sponsorship. Study 2 revealed that featuring reviewers with greater influence in the online community increases the positive influence of disclosing experiential sponsorship on OPR persuasiveness.

The findings in this study provide rational incentives for firms to disclose sponsorship information, i.e. demonstrate high ethical standards in marketing. This was shown to create a win-win-win situation for consumers, firms and reviewers. Managerial implications for online marketing managers are also discussed.

Financial services industry is increasingly showing interest in automated financial advisors, or robo-advisors, with the aim of democratizing access to financial advice and stimulating investment behavior among populations that were previously less active and less served. However, the extent to which consumers trust this technology influences the adoption of rob-advisors. The resemblance to a human, or anthropomorphism, can provide a sense of social presence and increase trust.

In this paper, we conduct an experiment (N = 223) to test the effect of anthropomorphism (low vs medium vs high) and gender (male vs female) of the robo-advisor on social presence. This perception, in turn, enables consumers to evaluate personality characteristics of the robo-advisor, such as competence, warmth, and persuasiveness, all of which are related to trust in the robo-advisor. We separately conduct an experimental study (N = 206) testing the effect of gender neutrality on consumer responses to robo-advisory anthropomorphism.

Our results show that consumers prefer human-alike robo-advisors over machinelike or humanoid robo-advisors. This preference is only observed for male robo-advisors and is explained by perceived competence and perceived persuasiveness. Furthermore, highlighting gender neutrality undermines the positive effect of robo-advisor anthropomorphism on trust.

We contribute to the body of knowledge on robo-advisor design by showing the effect of robot’s anthropomorphism and gender on consumer perceptions and trust. Consequently, we offer insightful recommendations to promote the adoption of robo-advisory services in the financial sector.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the interesting but largely unexamined impact of self-uncertainty on the persuasiveness of self-deprecating advertisement.

In the present research, the experimental design and survey methods are used to collect data. Furthermore, the ANOVA and bootstrap analysis methods are adopted to verify whether a self-deprecating advertisement is more persuasive for consumers experiencing self-uncertainty and explore the mediating role of self-verification.

Study 1 indicates that people experiencing self-uncertainty are more likely to engage in actual self-verification. Study 2 demonstrates that consumers experiencing self-uncertainty are more likely to purchase products in a self-deprecating advertisement (vs. self-enhancing advertisement), and actual self-verification motive underlies this effect. In Study 3, a novel boundary condition for the main effect–product type (hedonic vs. utilitarian) is found, and it further reveals that the impact of self-uncertainty on the persuasiveness of self-deprecating advertisement will attenuate when the advertised product is utilitarian.

This research reveals that self-deprecating advertising is more desirable for consumers who experience self-uncertainty. Based on the conclusions in this paper, the self-deprecating advertising is more attractive and desirable for consumers who are reminded about their personal uncertainties. Thus, marketers could employ self-deprecating (vs. self-enhancing) advertisement to promote products. For example, in order to promote the waterproof function of iPhone 12, Apple China released a self-deprecating advertisement of “Splash proof and water resistant. Don't worry, iPhone.”

First, this research not only sheds new light on the relationship between self-uncertainty and the persuasiveness of self-deprecating advertisement but also verifies the mediating role of self-verification motive in this relationship. Moreover, this research reveals that self-uncertainty is a significant factor in how people react to the self-deprecating advertisement. It is noteworthy that the self-uncertainty effect is more likely to be found when the advertised product is related to hedonic or experiential consumption as opposed to utilitarian consumption.

The online Question and Answer community is full of a large number of science and technology topics, the discussion and dissemination of which play an important role in promoting the popularization of new technologies and cultivating public enthusiasm for science. However, the spread of false information and rumors weakens the community's positive effect, making the community more difficult for people to obtain useful information on such topics. Research on the influencing factors and governance of the spread of false information on science and technology topics has become the key to the spread of popular science.

Therefore, this paper uses the Elaboration Likelihood Model as the theoretical framework to examine the role of the factors influencing the spread of false information on science and technology topics in Zhihu community on the information persuasion and the impact on public behavior attitude from the core path and the edge path. This paper compiles a crawler program to capture 12,893 response information under the “Metaverse” topic in Zhihu community as an empirical sample and uses text mining and conducts visual correlation analysis to explore the key factors affecting the persuasive transmission path of information on science and technology topics.

The research finds that the content specialization, content consistency and content coherence of science and technology topics affect personal judgment from the aspect of information content through the core path and have a positive correlation with information persuasion; the number of comments, the length of the text and the publishing authors' influence from the edge image characteristics through the edge path are positively correlated with the information persuasion. Then, from the perspective of topic platform, government and topic participants, this paper puts forward a general plan to improve the information persuasion of science and technology topics so as to deal with false information.

Compared with the small data set of the traditional questionnaire survey, the research based on community empirical big data is more reliable. The model takes into account the attitude and behavior of users and is more suitable for the research on the transmission path of scientific and technological information in the internet era. This research provides a direction for analyzing the text characteristics and development trends of information in the field of science and technology and is conducive to promoting the optimization of the network information environment and building a good ecology, with the spread of rumors about science and technology topics curbed and the governance of false information strengthened.

Social recommender systems have recently gained increasing popularity. The purpose of this paper is to investigate the influences of informational factors on purchase intention in social recommender systems.

Specifically, this study validated the mediating effect of trust in recommendations and the perceived value between informational factors and consumers’ purchase intention.

The results confirm that recommendation persuasiveness was a strong predictor of trust in recommendations and perceived value. Recommendation completeness was positively related to trust in recommendations and perceived value as well. Trust in recommendations and perceived value was found to be strong drivers of purchase intention.

The author identifies two sets of informational factors, i.e. recommendation persuasiveness and recommendation completeness, which are relevant to consumer attitudes. The current study proved that informational factors on consumers’ purchase intention are fully mediated through trust in recommendations and perceived value.