Nowadays, word-of-mouth is a very important component of e-commerce activity because consumers are very sensitive to other people’s opinions. Depending on the companies’ politics, these opinions can be incentivized or non-incentivized. One of the major dilemmas consists in establishing which kind of word-of-mouth has more influence on customers’ perceptions. The purpose of this study is to assess the relationships between perceived argument quality (PAQ) and perceived source expertise (PSE), on the one hand, and electronic word-of-mouth adoption intention on the other hand, for an incentivized message compared to a non-incentivized message. We processed answers from two different random groups by using adapted PAQ and PSE inventories of questions. The constructs, latent variables and items were analyzed in IBM Amos software, and our findings confirm the hypotheses regarding the relationship between the attributes of the message (argument quality and source expertise) and message credibility. Additionally, we found a significant positive relationship between message credibility and electronic word-of-mouth adoption intention. Our research also explores the moderating role of the message type (incentivized vs. non-incentivized) in the relationships above, and we discovered that the message type significantly moderates the relationship between perceived argument quality and credibility, but the type of message does not moderate the relationship between message credibility and eWOM adoption intention.

中文翻译：

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了解在线环境中采用激励式口碑

如今，口碑是电子商务活动中非常重要的组成部分，因为消费者对他人的意见非常敏感。根据公司的政治，这些意见可以是激励的，也可以是非激励的。主要的难题之一在于确定哪种口碑对客户的认知影响更大。这项研究的目的在于，一方面评估感知论据质量（PAQ）和感知来源专业知识（PSE）之间的关系，另一方面评估电子口碑传播意图，以比较非激励性消息。我们使用改编的PAQ和PSE问题清单处理了来自两个不同随机组的答案。在IBM Amos软件中分析了结构，潜在变量和项目，我们的发现证实了有关消息属性（参数质量和来源专业知识）与消息可信度之间关系的假设。此外，我们发现消息可信度与电子口碑传播意愿之间存在显着的正相关关系。我们的研究还探讨了消息类型（激励与非激励）在上述关系中的调节作用，并且我们发现消息类型显着缓和了感知论证质量和可信度之间的关系，但消息类型却没有适度消息可信度与eWOM采用意图之间的关系。我们发现消息可信度与电子口碑传播意愿之间存在显着的正相关关系。我们的研究还探讨了消息类型（激励与非激励）在上述关系中的调节作用，并且我们发现消息类型显着缓和了感知论证质量和可信度之间的关系，但消息类型却没有适度消息可信度与eWOM采用意图之间的关系。我们发现消息可信度与电子口碑传播意愿之间存在显着的正相关关系。我们的研究还探讨了消息类型（激励与非激励）在上述关系中的调节作用，并且我们发现消息类型显着缓和了感知论证质量和可信度之间的关系，但消息类型却没有适度消息可信度与eWOM采用意图之间的关系。