虛擬社群中的負面口碑、衍生性口碑回應與品牌態度關係之研究

Abstract

隨著科技的發展，愈來愈多的消費者經由網路尋求他人對某些產品的使用經驗，藉此降低購買風險和不確定性，線上口碑對消費者購物行為之影響與日俱增。隨著社交媒體平台的蓬勃發展，更是帶動了線上口碑的發展，同時，越來越多的消費者亦會透過虛擬社群發佈負面口碑，分享個人對品牌的負面觀點。儘管少數文獻曾探討廠商的服務補救措施與網路回應模式，作為協助品牌因應負面線上口碑的方式，但這些研究多只聚焦於廠商主導的因應策略，忽略了社群成員以及社群特質可能造成的影響。有鑑於此，本研究試圖針對虛擬社群中之負面口碑及其衍生性口碑回應進行討論，透過深度訪談探討由社群成員所共同主導之衍生性口碑回應，以及虛擬社群特質對其他成員品牌態度的影響。本研究結果發現，衍生性口碑回應之定錨性、感染性、深度性，能夠改善社群中負面口碑對成員負面品牌態度的影響；而虛擬社群當中的社群領袖、社群規範與互動氛圍等特性，則能協助增強衍生性口碑回應之影響效果。

The development of internet has changed the way consumers seek brand-related information. Nowadays consumers turn to digital arena for electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) to adverse risk and uncertainty. Meanwhile, more consumers tend to share negative comments of brands in virtual communities. The negative electronic word-of-mouth (NeWOM) thus poses new threats for brands. Even though few studies attempted to tap this issue by proposing service recovery and webcare responses as recommendations for brands, the research focus is restricted to marketer-initiated response tactics, which neglects the potential influence of responses initiated by community members and the virtual community traits. Therefore, this study focuses on NeWOM and the word-of-mouth responses taking place in virtual community, trying to explore how member-initiated word-of-mouth responses and virtual community traits influence bystanders’ brand attitude. This research utilizes in-depth interviews to investigate the issue. The results demonstrate that the anchoring, contagious and profound nature of member-initiated word-of-mouth responses can improve the negative impact of NeWOM on bystanders’ brand attitude. In addition, the virtual community traits associated with the presence of community opinion leaders, community norms and interactive patterns are effective in enhancing the effect of member-initiated word-of-mouth responses.