互联网环境下企业家口碑对品牌评价的影响——顾客语言认知视角

The Effect of Internet Entrepreneur Word-of-Mouth(WOM) on Brand Evaluation:The Perspective of Customer Language Cognition

基于语言类别理论,本文研究了企业家具体口碑和抽象口碑对品牌评价的影响及作用机制。通过研究发现:(1)企业家的正面抽象(vs.具体)口碑导致顾客对企业家有更多本质(vs.偶然)属性的认知,进而产生更高的品牌评价,而企业家的负面抽象(vs.具体)口碑导致顾客对企业家有更多本质(vs.偶然)属性的认知,进而产生更低的品牌评价;(2)品牌关系强度影响不同效价、不同类别的企业家口碑对品牌评价的交互作用,正面(负面)抽象口碑使强(弱)关系顾客产生更高(低)的品牌评价,而负面(正面)不同类别的口碑对强(弱)关系顾客的品牌评价的影响没有显著差异;(3)企业补救信息能够明显减少负面具体口碑对品牌评价的影响,但对于负面抽象口碑的效应没有显著影响。

Inferred from product word-of-mouth(WOM),entrepreneur word-of-mouth(WOM)is defined as the messages related to company leaders transmitted between consumers.Many hot social events have proven that WOM about company leaders will have a tremendous impact on brand evaluation.However,relevant research on entrepreneur WOM is still in the initial stage.In order to investigate the underlying mechanism between WOM about company leaders and consumer’s evaluation on brand based on Semin and Fielder’s Linguistic Category Model and relevant researches on online WOM and online comments,this paper divides the entrepreneur WOM into concrete WOM and abstract WOM through the methods of focus group,expert interview and questionnaire survey.Connecting with customer’s cognition,a conceptual model is proposed to illustrate how different types of WOM about business leaders influence customer’s evaluation on brand.Final empirical results show that concrete WOM and abstract WOM about business leaders affect brand evaluation differently through influencing their perception of these different linguistic category online comments.Moreover,the influence mechanism between WOM about business leaders and consumer’s evaluation on brand varies with the valence of entrepreneur WOM.Specifically,the results reveal that abstract WOM about company leaders has a greater positive impact on brandevaluation than the leaders’concrete WOM has in the positive valence of WOM.However,in the negative valence of WOM,concrete WOM has a smaller negative effect on customer’s evaluation on brand than abstract WOM does.Customer cognition mediates the relationship between entrepreneur WOM and brand evaluation.Moderation analysis shows that brand relationship strength moderates the effect of different types of entrepreneur WOM on brand evaluation and corporate remedy moderates the impact of negative different types of entrepreneur WOM on brand evaluation.The results not only enrich WOM literature,but also signify marketing implications for companies,in terms of how to guide and control rewarded online comment behavior.