How the Source of the Blog and Comments of Other Consumers on the Blog, Influence Consumers’ Attitudes and Intentions Presented by Jean-François Bélisle Jean-François Bélisle, Concordia University Lionel Bohbot, HEC Montréal Sylvain Sénécal, HEC Montréal

Game Plan 1.Introduction 2.Theoretical Framework 3.Hypotheses development 4.Method 5.Results 6.Conclusion & Discussion 7.One Step Further

Introduction February 2008 = 8 of the 10 websites with the highest growth for the last year in the United States (US) were UGC websites (eMarketer 2008). UGC = Various kinds of media content that is produced by users. 37% of television channels are present on MySpace and 14% of them broadcast videos on YouTube. Among diffusion partners of content on YouTube, we can find: CBS, BBC, NBC, Spike, NBA and NHL. Question: How corporate presence (the recommendation source) on UGC websites and the valence of comments posted towards this presence, can influence users’ attitudes towards the source and therefore purchase intentions towards this product and word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions?

The entire process of WOM communications on the internet Arndt (1967) defines WOM as an oral communication, between a communicator and a receptor, concerning a brand, a product or a service. On the internet, comments can be qualified as WOM if they are posted on a website by a communicator and read by a receptor. Opinions expressed on UGC websites are considered as WOM (Hennig- Thurau, Gwinner, Walsh, & Gremler, 2004). The entire process of WOM communications starts by the user attitude formation and attribution processes that occurs when he/she reads (act as a receptor) a UGC on a website and last when this user decides to recommend or not (act as a communicator) the product to another user.

Theoretical Framework Based on Attribution Theory (Heider, 1958; Jones & Davis, 1965; Kelley, 1967). An adaptation to UGC websites of the MacKenzie and Lutz (1989) framework which proposes an empirical examination of the structural antecedents of attitude toward the advertisement. 7 hypotheses that take into account relationships concerning the entire process of WOM are proposed.

Hypotheses Development Consumers infer two types of motivations: intrinsic (e.g., the celebrity has confidence in the product) and extrinsic (e.g., the celebrity endorses the product because of financial motives). Eagly, Wood and Chaiken (1978) identified two biases that could influence attributions inferred by an observer. – Knowledge bias: which means that the source is not as knowledgeable as it should be. – Discounting bias: the information transmitted by the source might not necessarily reflect reality. H 1 : On UGC websites, when the source is a third-party rather than a corporation, users’ attitude towards the source will be more positive.

Attitude towards the UGC source Recommendation UGC source H1

Hypotheses Development (2) Research shows that consumers’ exposed to positive WOM towards a product, will tend to rate the product higher than those exposed to negative WOM (Bone 1995; Burnkrant and Cousineau 1975; Burzynski and Bayer 1977; Cohen and Golden 1972; Pincus and Waters 1977; Schlosser 2005). H 2 : On UGC websites, when users are exposed to positive comments towards the source compared to when they are exposed to negative ones their attitude towards the source will be more positive.

Valence of UGC comments Attitude towards the UGC source Recommendation UGC source H2H1

Hypotheses Development (3) Past research investigating the relationship between the attitude towards the advertiser and its advertisement show that it is also present on the Internet (Sicilia, Ruiz and Reynolds 2006). We suggest that this relationship could also be present in the context of UGC websites. H 3 : On UGC websites, users’ attitude towards the recommendation source will be positively related to their attitude towards the content.

Valence of UGC comments Attitude towards the UGC article Attitude towards the UGC source Recommendation UGC source H3 H2H1

Hypotheses Development (4) Past research indicates the presence of a positive relationship between consumer’s attitude towards an advertisement, its attitude towards the brand presented in the advertisement, and its purchase intentions (Dröge 1989; MacKenzie, Lutz and Belch 1986; Mitchell and Olson 1981). H 4 : On UGC websites, users’ attitude towards the posted content about a product will influence their attitude towards a product. H 5 :On UGC websites, users’ attitude towards a product will influence their purchase intentions.

Valence of UGC comments Purchase intentions Attitude towards the UGC article Attitude towards the product Attitude towards the UGC source Recommendation UGC source H3 H2H1 H4 H5

Hypotheses Development (5) WOM intentions could be influenced by consumers’ involvement and by satisfaction towards a product (Brown, Dacin and Gunst 2005). Attitude towards an advertisement on attitude towards products associated with the advertisement, impacted on the behavior (MacKenzie et al. 1986) and on propagation effects generated by viral marketing (Phelps, Lewis, Mobilio, Perry, and Raman 2004; Watts and Peretti 2007). H 6 : On UGC websites, users’ attitude towards the posted content about a product will influence positively their intentions to recommend the product to others. H 7 :On UGC websites, purchase intentions will influence positively WOM intentions.

Valence of UGC comments WOM intentionsPurchase intentions Attitude towards the UGC article Attitude towards the product Attitude towards the UGC source Recommendation UGC source H3 H2H1 H4 H5H6 H7

Method: Sample Sample size: 228 participants Design: 3 (recommendation source: independent vs. corporate-positive vs. corporate-negative) X 2 (valence of comments towards the source: positive vs. negative) between-subjects design Product: a hand warming mouse for computers. Task: Participants were first invited to read a blog article that included the description of a hand warming mouse for computers. – In the third-party source condition, participants were informed that the article was written by a technology products expert user named Pat (independent). – In the case of both corporate sources, participants were informed that the article was posted by Pat, an associate (employee) of Wal-Mart (corporate-negative attitude) or of Future Shop (corporate-positive attitude), and coming from a blog that these companies were currently testing.

Method: Measures ScaleαSource Attitude towards the source of the article.91MacKenzie and Lutz (1989) Attitude towards the article.94MacKenzie and Lutz (1989) Attitude towards the product.92MacKenzie and Lutz (1989) Purchase intentions.82Putrevu and Lord (1994) WOM intentions.93Price and Arnould (1999)

Results ANOVA: 3 (recommendation source: third-party vs. corporate-positive vs. corporate-negative) X 2 (valence of comments towards the source: positive vs. negative) between-subjects ANOVA. DV: The mean of the three items representing attitude towards the recommendation source. H1 and H2 were confirmed

Results (Cont’ed) To test H3 to H7, we employed Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) Convergent and discriminant validity were respected (Anderson and Gerbing 1988) H3 to H7 were supported

Valence of UGC comments WOM intentionsPurchase intentions Attitude towards the UGC article Attitude towards the product Attitude towards the UGC source Recommendation UGC source H3 H2H1 H4 H5 H6 H7 p <.001p = p < p < p < p < p <.001

Conclusion & Discussion: Theoretical Implications Results obtained concerning the influence of comments on the attitude towards the product, makes a contribution in the field of interpersonal influence, and more precisely, concerning the evaluations and comments on the attitude towards the product (Cohen and Golden 1972; Pincus and Waters 1977). Thus, blogs are no exception. Support for results found by MacKenzie and Lutz (1989), showing a positive and significant effect between attitude of a consumer towards a company or a brand and attitude towards its associated message.

Conclusion & Discussion: Managerial Implications & Future Research Managerial Implications A company who would plan to use a blog to communicate the benefits of its company’s products should be aware that his communications would not be perceived as favorably as those provided by a user with no explicit link to the company. Future Research Replication and extension using other types of UGC content and websites such as videos presented on YouTube, a UGC website on which there is an increasing corporate presence. Manipulation of the uniformity of comments

Next step Add another product which would double the sample size Start Study 2 with another UGC

Questions? Comments? Bashing?