Article 11 Flashcards
Who wrote “Measuring and Managing Consumer Sentiment in an Online Community Environment”?
Homburg, C., Ehm, L., & Artz, M. (2015). Measuring and Managing Consumer Sentiment in an Online Community Environment. Journal of Marketing Research, 52(5), 629-641. https://doi-org.ru.idm.oclc.org/10.1509/jmr.11.0448
What is “Measuring and Managing Consumer Sentiment in an Online Community Environment” about?
This research examines how consumers react to firms’
active participation in consumer-to-consumer conversations in an online community setting. The authors analyze consumer posts from ten online forums with active firm participation.
What were the takeaways of “Measuring and Managing Consumer Sentiment in an Online Community Environment”?
The results indicate that consumers show diminishing returns
to active firm engagement, which, at very high levels, can undermine
consumer sentiment. We did not find a consistent significant negative association between relative firm engagement and engagement quality.
What is an “online community” according to Homburg et al 2015?
An online community comprises “an aggregation of individuals or business partners who interact based on a shared interest, where the interaction is at least partially supported or mediated by technology and guided by certain protocols and norms.
How was the data in Homburg et al 2015 collected?
For sample 1, the authors used two data sets from the online forum of a firm-sponsored community targeting do-it-yourselfers (functional). The firm provided high engagement at odd hours and low engagement at even hours. For sample 2, they obtained nine data sets from an online platform consisting of travel-related forums (social). Supervised sentiment analysis was conducted, ambiguous posts were removed along with rare words, and words were then classified.
What is the independent variable in Homburg et al 2015?
Relative firm engagement, defined by a firm intervention as a post written by a firm representative
What are the dependent variables in Homburg et al 2015?
We control for characteristics of the post itself (ie. post length) as well as for the communication environment (ie. sentiment of previous post), the response time of the moderators (response quickness), and the unobserved heterogeneity on the thread, user, and time level
What was the answer to “RQ1: How do consumers react to active firm engagement in an online community?” in Homburg et al 2015?
The returns for relative firm engagement on consumer sentiment are positive but diminish with respect to increasing firm engagement. Moderator response quickness is not substantially related to consumer sentiment.
What was the answer to “RQ2: Does consumer reaction to active firm engagement differ with the type of online conversation?” in Homburg et al 2015?
The authors didn’t find a significant association for the social subgroup but observed the relationship indicating diminishing returns for functional subgroups.
What was the answer to “RQ3: Do consumer reactions to active firm engagement differ between consumer segments with different interests?” in Homburg et al 2015?
Results seem to imply that active firm engagement can provide value for consumers if the type and topic of conversation (e.g., functionally oriented product support) matches the core value contribution of an online community that was originally designed for
product-related support, technical problem-solving, and complaint management
What are the managerial implications of Homburg et al 2015?
- firms can rely on sentiment measures as a performance metric to assess the reactions to active firm engagement and to evaluate the success of marketing initiatives in online settings
- considering the customer insights firms gain from firm-owned forums, it would be wise to segment customers appropriately and engage with them accordingly (ie. depending on tech background or value of customer)
