The Effects of the Characters of SNS WOM Sender and the Relationship between the Sender and Receiver on Consumers’ Intention to Accept the SNS Word-of-mouth Information: Comparing Korean and Chinese Consumers

Abstract

This research verify the relationship among sender’s expertise, similarity and tie strength with the sender and competence, benevolence, integrity of the sender and the intention to accept the WOM message. The surveys were conducted in Korea and China from May. 5th to 30th, 2015. Surveys were conducted in Korea and China from May 5th to 30th, 2015. 195 surveys were used for the final analysis. 56 were korean male, 46 were korean female, and 58 were chinese male and 35 were chinese female. The results of this research shows that it is positively correlated between the senders’ competence and expertise. The tie Strength with the sender affects the senders’ enevolence. And the more the receiver perceive the similarity to the sender, the more the receiver trust the senders’ integrity. It is found that all the three components of the trust, competence, benevolence and integrity affect the receiver’s intention to accept the word-of-mouth information. Additionally It could be said that for those Chinese customers with individualism orientation tend to pay more attention to the senders’ competence to trust the sender, but the Korean customers with collectivism orientation tend to trust the sender with the benevolence of the sender. With the results of this research, two managerial implications can be induced. First, the promotion with word-of-mouth should be taken and practiced with the considering the culture of the country. And the senders’ expertise, tie Strength with the sender and the similarity impacts on the trust components.