Min Xiao

This research study examined how the number of reviews, review scores product involvement, and product review valence affect consumers' shopping decisions. Specifically, two online experiments were conducted to examine how product review scores interact with the number of reviews, product involvement, and review valence in affecting bandwagon perceptions and purchase intention. A mock website that displays products and product review metrics was constructed for the purpose of the research. The findings suggest that product review scores, and their interaction with product involvement and review valence, influenced consumers' shopping decisions.

The goal of the research is to empirically examine how different factors affect the dissemination of environmental protection messages on social media. The theoretical foundation of the research is based on the literature on heuristics. Perceived bandwagon support, valence of message framing, and source of information (i.e., source credibility) were examined as the independent variables. The dependent variables were perceived information credibility, intention to share the message, and intention to read the article attached to the message. Four online experiments were conducted, and college students were sampled. Overall, the findings suggest that the impact of source, bandwagon support, and message valence affect behavioral intentions and perceived information credibility in various ways, and the extent of such impacts is context-dependent. The findings of the study would advance our theoretical understanding of how we use psychological heuristics to process information related to environmental communication. The findings would also help environmental organizations and activists to better communicate with their potential audiences.

YouTube is a popular social marketing platform. Marketers or advertisers can collaborate with a YouTube influencer to present marketing messages. However, negative user-generated comments may affect the effectiveness of message delivery. Thus, one pretest and two main studies were conducted to investigate the influence of negative comments on consumers and the strategy to combat the negativity. The first study examined the influence of comment valence on product attitude and perceived trustworthiness of influencer. The second study examined how the increased frequency of influencer–viewer interaction mitigated the damage inflicted by negative comments. The findings of the studies reveal that negative comments have a strong influence on consumers. However, if an influencer is actively replying to negative comments, the negative influence is likely to be mitigated. Theoretical and practical contributions of the studies were discussed.

The increasing consumer demand for shopping eco-friendly products online leads brands and marketers to offer more products that are claimed to be eco-friendly on online stores. However, it is very difficult for consumers to evaluate the credibility of such claims, and marketers usually do not offer resources to help consumers make the evaluation. Hence, consumers must utilize limited information cues (e.g. country-of-origin, price, etc.) that are available to them to evaluate the credibility of green claims and the greenness of products. Two online experiments were conducted to examine how product COO, product price, and product types affect consumer perception of product greenness and green claim credibility. The findings suggest that product COO is a powerful factor that influences consumer perception. Theoretical and practical implications of the findings were discussed.

Feeling right or wrong about a message frame can be used as a heuristic to infer one’s motivational state and determine the depth of information processing. Two experiments examined how individuals’ regulatory fit/nonfit response to news headlines interact with their motivation to influence information elaboration and information seeking. Under high motivations, regulatory fit confirmed their state and increased time spent on the news, elaboration, and information seeking. However, under low motivation, regulatory fit decreased elaboration and information seeking. Instead, under low motivational states, nonfit headlines increased elaboration and information seeking. The study fills a gap in the cognitive mechanisms of framing effect by demonstrating that there exists a fast and intuitive framing effect through affective responses such as regulatory fit-ness.

The current study employs the theory of reasoned action to examine factors that correlate with the behavioral intentions of watching eSports. A structural equation modeling analysis is performed to examine the relationship between intentions to watch eSports, attitude toward watching eSports, subjective norms, behavioral beliefs, and normative beliefs. The results suggested that three behavioral beliefs-related factors (aesthetics, drama, and escapism) and subjective norms were positively related to attitude toward watching eSports. Normative beliefs positively influenced subjective norms. Finally, attitude toward watching eSports positively influenced behavioral intention.

The rise of influencer marketing makes YouTube an ideal media platform to implement such marketing strategies. Many scholars consider the success of YouTube influencer marketing as a result of high consumer perception of information credibility. This study employs heuristic-systematic model to investigate how informational cues influence credibility evaluations of information posted by YouTube influencers. An online survey was conducted to investigate the factors, and a two-step, structural equation modelling data analysis approach was utilised to explore the correlation between variables. The results reveal that trustworthiness, social influence, argument quality, and information involvement are influential factors affecting consumer perceived information credibility on YouTube. The analytic results also reveal a strong and positive correlation between perceived information credibility and brand/video attitudes.