Abstract

Facing the rising trend of sponsored product reviews posted on social media, government regulatory agencies have published industry guidelines requiring disclosure of sponsorship in social media product reviews. However, research about the effects of online product review sponsorship disclosures, especially in the social media context, is still limited. To address this problem, the current study tested the effects of sponsorship disclosure in YouTube product reviews on consumers’ persuasion knowledge and attitudinal responses to the product, brand, and the reviewer. Persuasion Knowledge Model and expectancy violations theory were applied to form the theoretical foundation for the study hypotheses. Results from an online experiment revealed: (1) sponsorship disclosure increased consumers’ perceived persuasive intent and appropriateness of a sponsored product review but not their perceived effectiveness of the content; (2) sponsorship disclosure had no significant effect on viewers’ attitudes toward the reviewed product, brand, or the reviewer; and (3) viewers’ expectancy moderated the effects of sponsorship disclosure on persuasion knowledge. Implications of the study findings and limitations and suggestions for future research are discussed.

摘要

面对社交媒体上发布的赞助产品评论的上升趋势，政府监管机构发布了行业指南，要求在社交媒体产品评论中披露赞助。然而，关于在线产品评论赞助披露的影响的研究，特别是在社交媒体背景下，仍然有限。为了解决这个问题，当前的研究测试了 YouTube 产品评论中的赞助披露对消费者的说服知识和对产品、品牌和评论者的态度反应的影响。应用说服知识模型和期望违反理论为研究假设奠定了理论基础。在线实验的结果显示：(1) 赞助披露增加了消费者对赞助产品评论的说服意图和适当性的感知，但并未增加他们对内容有效性的感知；(2) 赞助披露对观众对被评价产品、品牌或评价者的态度没有显着影响；(3) 观众的期望调节了赞助披露对说服知识的影响。讨论了研究结果的影响和局限性以及对未来研究的建议。