온라인 소셜네트워크의 제품판매 관련구전효과에 대한 기여도 분석

Abstract

In recent years, IT advancement has brought out the new Internet communication environment such as online social network services, where people are connected in global network without temporal and spatial limitation. The popular use of online social network helps people share their experience and preference for specific products and services, thus holding large potential to significantly affect firms’ business performance through Word‐of‐Mouth (WOM). This study examines the role of online social network in raising WOM effect on the movie industry by comparing with the similar role of Internet portal, another major online communication channel. Analyzing 109 movies and data from both Twitter and Naver movie, we found that significant WOM effect exists simultaneously in both Twitter and Naver movie. However, we also found that different figures of online viral effects exist depending on the popularity of movies. In the hit movie group, before the movie release, the WOM effect occurs only in Twitter while the WOM effect arises in both Twitter and Naver movie at the same time after the movie release. In the less‐popular (or niche) movie group, the WOM effect occurs in both Twitter and Naver movie only before the movie release. Our findings not only deepen theoretical insights into different roles of the two online communication channels in provoking the WOM effect on entertainment products but also provide practitioners with incentive to utilize SNS as strategic marketing platform to enhance their brand reputations.