Interactive Impact of EWOM Message Characteristics and Format on Brand Evaluation and Online Brand Engagement: Towards an Integrative Framework

Abstract

With the rapid rise in the popularity and usage of social media platforms and the associated sharing of electronic word of mouth (EWOM), many questions about its impact on customers’ attitudes and behaviours still need to be answered. This research aims to explore the interactive effect of message characteristics (valence and credibility) and message formats (text, picture, audio-visual and audio) on brand evaluation and online brand engagement, utilising the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) of persuasion theory to elucidate the current research phenomenon. A causal research design was applied through web-based experiments using mock Facebook and Twitter accounts for a fictitious airline brand explicitly developed for this research using Qualtrics software.

To attain the objectives of the research, the participants were randomly assigned to one of 16 conditions in a 2 (EWOM message valence: positive vs. negative) x 2 (EWOM message credibility: high and low) x 4 (message formats: text, picture, audio-visual and audio) format using between-subject factorial design. Therefore, this research utilises a multi-method quantitative, conducting the web experiment through an online survey to test all the hypotheses data from a simple random sample of Facebook (N=480) and Twitter (N=480) users from Australia. The data were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) conducted with AMOS 26.0 to test the measurement model, variance analysis via ANOVA, and Hayes’ PROCESS Macro with SPSS software to test the moderated mediation model proposed in this research.

The findings demonstrate that positive EWOM message valence has a more substantial impact on brand evaluation than negative EWOM message valence. Additionally, the research results indicate a positive effect of EWOM message valence on online brand evaluation that is positively moderated (strengthened) by message credibility. Moreover, the findings display that brand evaluation significantly impacts online brand engagement. Furthermore, the results exhibit significant differences in the impact of EWOM message valence (but not credibility) on brand evaluation across different message formats. In particular, EWOM message valence has a more substantial impact on brand evaluation for the text format than picture, audio-visual and audio formats. Lastly, the findings show brand evaluation fully mediates the effects of message valence (but not credibility) on online brand engagement.

This research offers several considerable contributions to the literature on EWOM messages by emphasising the relationship between EWOM message characteristics (valence and credibility) and brand evaluation. Moreover, this study is the first to illustrate the interactive relationships of four different EWOM message formats (text, picture, audio-visual, and audio) as moderators and two EWOM message characteristics (valence and credibility) and the first to identify their influence on brand evaluation. Furthermore, this research is considered to be among only a few that deeply explain the role of brand evaluation as a mediator between EWOM message characteristics (valence and credibility) and online brand engagement on two different social media platforms (Facebook and Twitter) in the airline context. In addition, this study offers some practical implications to marketing practitioners and brand managers on improving their understanding of online customers to maximise their brand engagement online. Besides the theoretical and practical contributions, it also provides some methodological contributions to EWOM research by conducting an experimental strategy using a multi-quantitative method.