Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective Research Articles

Doing the right thing: How to persuade travelers to adopt pro-environmental behaviors? An elaboration likelihood model perspective

This study adopts the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to explore the interplay between central route factors and peripheral route factors in influencing pro-environmental behaviors among tourists. Place attachment is introduced as a moderator influencing the relationship between tourists' attitudes and behaviors. Utilizing designed scenarios, the study gathered 728 valid questionnaires to assess the effects of informational characteristics on tourists' information perception and subsequent behavioral responses. The findings underscore the pivotal roles played by the environmental (social) cues, attributes of pro-environmental behaviors as well as image appeal in boosting the perceived informativeness and diagnosticity of the information, which significantly shape tourists' attitudes and behavioral intentions. Moreover, the research discloses that the extent to which attitude affects pro-environmental behavior is contingent upon the tourists' level of place attachment to the destination.

Do Word-of-Mouth and Quality Have the Same Influence in Choosing a Doctor Online? A Study from Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective

From the theoretical perspective of the elaboration likelihood model and service quality, this study attempts to provide an empirical study of patients’ medical choice behaviour and the moderating effect of disease risk under different paths with a real data set from an online healthcare community. The results demonstrate that factors from the central and peripheral routes affect patients’ behavioural intention regarding online medical choices. Disease risk plays an important moderating role. Low-risk patients are mainly influenced by factors from the peripheral route including doctors’ service reputation and disclosure of service qualifications, while high-risk patients are mainly influenced by factors from the central route including service quality of treatment and reviews quality.

Source credibility plays the central route: an elaboration likelihood model exploration in social media environment with demographic profile analysis

PurposeThis study aims at building a framework for the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) response under the social media environment. The elaboration likelihood model was adopted to explain how message source credibility and message appeal jointly influence the eWOM response process, while source credibility provides a central route and message appeal plays a peripheral route for information processing.Design/methodology/approachThis study used a scenario design to test the decision behavior in the Facebook environment through message content manipulation. A convenience sampling method was adopted in this study. We collected 203 valid questionnaires and tested this research model with LISREL 8.8. This study used a two-stage structural equation modeling data analysis method with LISREL 8.8, by which the measurement model was assessed through confirmatory factor analysis for the reliability and validity of the research model, and the causal relationship among factors was assessed through exploratory factor analysis .FindingsThe results showed that 53% variance of eWOM responses could be explained by message source credibility and emotional message appeal from the elaboration likelihood model perspective. Message source credibility plays a central role in the social media environment. The model was further tested with a demographic profile analysis for both gender and age. It is found that a female user is influenced by both source credibility and emotional appeal, but a male user is only influenced by message source credibility. The mature age group is more responsive to eWOM messages.Research limitations/implicationsThe sample might not represent all social networking sites (SNS) users. The participants represent a small segment of the Facebook population around the globe. Secondly, this research design could be improved by using more recreational messages to test the effects of message appeal and message source credibility. Thirdly, the mobile phone is a type of physical product rather than an experiential product. Future studies could try to identify the same eWOM determinants with different SNS functions, for example, the inbox message function. Similarly, Facebook users are allowed to use both text and pictures to disseminate promotional messages.Practical implicationsThis study provides an insight for SNS administrators regarding the determinants of driving more customer responses toward a message. Message source credibility and message appeal are identified as the antecedents for eWOM responses in SNS. Companies could make use of this finding to improve their marketing communication strategy in SNS. The finding can inform administrators of the importance of focusing on both customers’ psychological state and message attributes during the dissemination of promotional messages to improve the efficiency of the promotional effort. Companies aimed at receiving different types of eWOM responses in SNS may need to consider other factors for creating their promotional messages.Originality/valuePrevious studies have mainly identified factors influencing eWOM responses from the people-centered variables such as personal traits and social relationships. This study proposes that the eWOM response is a dual information processing process that can be explained by the ELM. When a user processes information in SNS, he follows both the central route and the peripheral route (i.e. source credibility and message appeal) which can influence the eWOM response. It is the first time that the source credibility is investigated as the central route in ELM model.

Determinants of patients' service choice in online health communities: an elaboration likelihood model perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this research paper is to explore the determinants of patients' service choices between telephone consultation and text consultation in online health communities (OHCs).Design/methodology/approachThis study utilized an empirical model based on the elaboration likelihood model and examined the effect of information, regarding service quality (the central route) and service price (the peripheral route), using online health consultation data from one of the largest OHCs in China.FindingsThe logistic regression results indicated that both physician- and patient-generated information can influence the patients' service choices; service price signals will lead patients to cheaper options. However, individual motivations, disease risk and consulting experience change a patients' information processing regarding central and peripheral cues.Originality/valuePrevious researchers have investigated the mechanism of patient behavior in OHCs; however, the researchers have not focused on the patients' choices regarding the multiple health services provided in OHCs. The findings of this study have theoretical and practical implications for future researchers, OHC designers and physicians.

Uncovering the dual influence processes for click-through intention in the mobile social platform: An elaboration likelihood model perspective

The burgeoning growth of mobile social platforms has gained the attention of advertisers, and the way how to stimulate users’ click-through intention in the virtual social community is becoming a research focus of scholars. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study develops a theoretical framework to examine the mediation effects of cognitive vs. affective trust on the relationship between dual routes (central route vs. peripheral route) and users’ click-through intention in the context of mobile social platforms. Particularly, users’ prior product experience is incorporated in the research model to examine its moderating effect on the influence processes. A scenario-based survey is conducted in China, and the partial least square method is used to analyze the data. Empirical results suggest that perceived content personalization is positively associated with cognitive trust, and its influence is stronger for experienced users with the recommended product. Social recommendation is positively associated with affective trust, and its impact is higher for users without prior product experience. Advertiser reputation is positively associated with both cognitive trust and affective trust, and its effect on cognitive trust is stronger for users without prior product experience, while its impact on affective trust is higher for users with prior product experience. Moreover, cognitive trust is positively associated with affective trust, and the two trust mechanisms have positive influences on click-through intention toward the recommended product. We discuss theoretical and practical implications in the final section.

Determinants of online professor reviews: an elaboration likelihood model perspective

PurposeDrawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), the authors examine the influence of perceived professor teaching qualities, as central cues, on online professor ratings. Also, our study investigates how the volume and period of reviews, as peripheral cues, affect online professor ratings.Design/methodology/approachLeveraging stratified random sampling, the authors collect reviews of 892 Information Systems professors from 250 American universities. The authors employ regression models while conducting robustness tests through multi-level logistic regression and causal inference methods.FindingsOur results suggest that the central route from perceived professor qualities to online professor ratings is significant, including most qualitative pedagogical factors except positive assessment. In addition to course difficulty, the effect of the peripheral route is limited due to deficient diagnosticity.Research limitations/implicationsOur primary concern about the data validity is a lack of a competing and complementary dataset. However, an institutional evaluation survey or an experimental study can corroborate our findings in future research.Practical implicationsOnline professor review sites can enhance their perceived diagnosticity and credibility by increasing review vividness and promoting site interactivity. In addition to traditional institutional evaluations, professors can obtain insightful feedback from review sites to improve their teaching effectiveness.Originality/valueTo our best knowledge, this study is the first attempt to employ the ELM and accessibility-diagnosticity theory in explicating the information processing of online professor reviews. It also sheds light on various determinants and routes to persuasion, thus providing a novel theoretical perspective on online professor reviews.

Predicting review helpfulness in the omnichannel retailing context: An elaboration likelihood model perspective.

As increasingly retail enterprises have adopted the omnichannel retailing strategy, both online-generated and offline-generated reviews should be considered to better understand the helpfulness of online reviews in the omnichannel retailing context. Drawing on the Elaboration Likelihood Model, the present study attempts to examine the impacts of review label volume, review content length, and review label-content relevance on review helpfulness in the omnichannel retailing context. The empirical data of 2,822 product reviews were collected from Suning.com. The results of Negative Binomial Regression showed that both central cue (review label-content relevance) and peripheral cue (review content length) positively affect review helpfulness. Specifically, the positive effect of review content length on review helpfulness will be stronger when the online review is submitted from an omnichannel retailer’s online store. On the contrary, the positive effect of review label-content relevance on review helpfulness will be weaker when the online review is generated from an omnichannel retailer’s online channel.

The Anatomy of Viral Advertising: A Content Analysis of Viral Advertising from the Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective

This study is a quantitative content analysis of 445 viral video ads shared online between 2009 and 2019. Using the framework of the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) that distinguishes between peripheral and central ad cues, our findings highlight the dominance of peripheral cues over central cues. Viral ads included more emotional than rational appeals and integrated music and sound effects, while the use of substantial arguments was kept to a minimum. The dominance of peripheral cues was also evident across product categories; however, they mainly characterized ads for technology products. Our findings provide more than a mere description of the characteristics of viral ads, but detail the dominant creative elements that viral ads feature, which might infer the effectiveness of specific message elements in driving ad sharing. The theoretical and managerial implications of this study are also discussed.

Antecedents and Moderators of Promotion Messages for Trust in Mobile Banking Services: An Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective

ABSTRACT This paper applies a theory of persuasion using the elaboration likelihood model to explain how communication messages from mobile banking services are interpreted by receivers to increase their trust in mobile banking. We explain how users’ security and privacy concerns moderate the central route persuasion relationship between argument quality and trust. A questionnaire survey is employed to test a research model. The findings indicate that central and peripheral route persuasion cues enforce users’ trust in mobile banking services. Users with strong privacy and security concerns are more likely to rely on the quality of arguments of the messages. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed in the paper.

Understanding Users' Group Behavioral Decisions About Sharing Articles in Social Media: An Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective.

The decision to share information is a common phenomenon in individuals’ daily social media use (e.g., Twitter, micro-blogs). However, research on the information to be shared mainly focuses on short texts, and the research on long texts/article sharing is relatively limited. Based on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM), this study established a conceptual model to reveal the determinants of users' behavior in sharing articles. Data on 1311 articles were collected on WeChat, China's most popular social media, and were processed using multiple linear regression. We found that both the central path and the peripheral path of the ELM affect users' decision-making about article-sharing behavior, and that amount of reading and perceived usefulness have the greatest impact. The rhetorical title, the number of pictures, and the number of fans have a negative impact on users' decision-making about article-sharing behavior. Further, the factors that affect users' online-community sharing and sharing with friends are also different. This study is one of the first to apply ELM to examine the influencing factors of users’ decisions about sharing general articles on social media, contributing to the research on the decision-making behavior of users sharing long texts on social media.

Walking the talk about corporate social responsibility communication: An elaboration likelihood model perspective

AbstractLarge organizations, including listed businesses, financial service providers as well as public services entities are increasingly disclosing information on their environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues through corporate websites or via social media. Therefore, this research uses valid measures from the Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) to explore the individuals’ attitudes toward online corporate social responsibility (CSR) communications. The data were gathered from a structured questionnaire among three hundred ninety‐two respondents (n = 392). A structural equations modeling partial least squares (SEM‐PLS 3) approach was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the timeliness, relevance and accuracy of information as well as the source expertise were highly significant antecedents that were affecting the research participants’ attitudes toward CSR communications. This contribution implies that there is scope for content curators to publish quality online information on their business activities to improve their trustworthiness and positive credentials among stakeholders.

Exploring Consumer Adoption of Mobile Shopping Apps From a Perspective of Elaboration Likelihood Model

This study aims to integrate perceived risk into elaboration likelihood model, develop a comprehensive research model to explain dual routes of persuasive communication through various factors affecting individual acceptance and usage of mobile shopping apps, and identify the antecedents of consumers’ perceived risk in the context of mobile shopping. Structural equation modeling is adopted to test the proposed model. Information quality has a negative effect on perceived risk (central route), while source credibility has a positive impact on perceived usefulness (peripheral route). The antecedents of perceived risk including information quality, source credibility, familiarity, and personal innovativeness which are divided into four categories: cognition-based, affect-based, experience-based, and personality-oriented. The four antecedents significantly affect consumer’s perceived risk in adopting mobile shopping apps. The results show that consumers’ perceived usefulness and perceived risk affect consumers’ behavioral intentions of mobile shopping apps adoption.

Mediating role of attitude in halal cosmetics purchase intention: an ELM perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the role of attitude as a mediator in exploring the Halal cosmetics purchase intention of Indian Muslim women. Various drivers of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) (quality, quantity, consistency and quantity) have been tested as antecedents of purchase intention through the lenses of the elaboration likelihood model (ELM).Design/methodology/approachThe positivist paradigm approach has been used to test the proposed mediation model using structural equation modelling. Responses of 313 Indian Muslim women who read reviews shared on various social media platforms before making any halal cosmetics purchase intention have been used for the final analysis. Mediation was tested using bootstrapping.FindingsThe findings of the study revealed that attitude towards halal cosmetics mediates the relationships of various drivers of eWOM with halal cosmetics purchase intention. However, it was observed that this mediation was partial in the context of eWOM quality, eWOM valence and eWOM consistency. Furthermore, for eWOM quantity, the mediation effect was full as the direct impact of eWOM quality on halal cosmetics purchase intention was not significant but its indirect impact on the latter via attitude was found to be significant.Research limitations/implicationsThis study adds to the marketing communication literature, especially in the context of eWOM. The study also validates ELM theory in explaining the attitude that shapes the halal cosmetics purchase intention, thus the current study enriches the ELM literature.Practical implicationsThe current study offers several implications for halal cosmetics marketers. It offers various suggestions to them on how to capitalize on eWOM as it influences Indian Muslim women’s purchasing intention for halal cosmetics by shaping their attitude towards such cosmetics favourably.Originality/valueWith reference to halal cosmetics, the current study offers a new perspective by examining the purchasing intention for such cosmetics based on various drivers of eWOM. The attitude towards halal cosmetics as a mediator has helped in better explaining the purchase intention for halal cosmetics.

Do Social Networking Fan Page Posts Matter for Corporate Image? Modified Elaboration Likelihood Model Perspective

The purpose of the current study is to examine factors affecting corporate image driven by social networking fan pages on Facebook. Under the modified elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we answer how fan page contributor post quality (FPQ) and source credibility (FPC) influence fan page post informativeness (FPI) and in turn, impact corporate image. We tested the hypotheses by analyzing survey responses using a covariance-based SEM method from 178 respondents who follow at least one company fan page on Facebook. The findings reveal that FPQ and FPC play a salient role in explaining FPI, which, in turn, impacts the corporate image. Our results show that uncertainty about products or services posted on a fan page significantly moderates the relationships among FPQ, FPC, and FPI. Implications and limitations are discussed.

How the live streaming commerce viewers process the persuasive message: An ELM perspective and the moderating effect of mindfulness

• Based on ELM, both central and peripheral route factors affect perceived persuasiveness. • Perceived persuasiveness exert significant influence on purchase and response intention. • Mindfulness exerts moderating effect on viewers’ response intention. Live streaming commerce has gained its popularity among consumers, as it creates a novel environment to facilitate viewers to process product information and conduct related behaviors. Elaboration likelihood model (ELM) is applied to explore the viewers’ decision-making process via two distinct routes, comprised of central and peripheral routes. By integrating mindfulness as a moderator, this study develops a research model to examine the effects of central route factors (information completeness, information accuracy, and information currency) and peripheral route factors (streamer trustworthiness, streamer attractiveness, bullet-screen consistency, and co-viewer involvement) on perceived persuasiveness. The research results indicate, by using 395 valid empirical data, which both route factors exert significant effects on viewers’ perceptions of the persuasive message and lead to apropos behavior intentions. Mindfulness positively moderates the relationship between perceived persuasiveness and response intention. This investigation provides theoretical implications for the literature of live streaming commerce and ELM as well as managerial implications for live streaming commerce practitioners.

Persuasion amidst a pandemic: Insights from the Elaboration Likelihood Model

ABSTRACT COVID-19 mitigation strategies have largely relied on persuading populations to adopt behavioural changes, so it is critical to understand how such persuasive efforts can be made more effective. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) of persuasion allows for the integration of a variety of seemingly disparate effects into one overarching framework. This allows for prediction of which effects are more likely to lead to subsequent behaviour change than others and for generation of novel predictions. We review several recent investigations into persuasive effects of variables related to the source of a persuasive message, features of the message itself, the recipient, and interactive effects between variables across these categories. Each investigation is situated within the ELM framework, and future directions derived from the ELM perspective are discussed. Finally, the implications of each piece of research for COVID-19 persuasive messaging are unpacked and evidence-based recommendations are made.

Understanding online health community users' information adoption intention: an elaboration likelihood model perspective

PurposeThe purpose of this research is to draw on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to examine users' information adoption intention in online health communities (OHC).Design/methodology/approachThe authors collected 350 valid responses using a survey and conducted the moderated regression analysis to examine the research model.FindingsThe results indicated that users' information adoption intention is influenced by both central cues (argument quality) and peripheral cues (source credibility and emotional support). In addition, self-efficacy moderates the effect of both central cues and peripheral cues on information adoption intention.Originality/valuePrevious research has focused on the effect of individual motivations such as reciprocity and benefits on user behavior, and has seldom disclosed the influencing process of external factors on OHC users' behavioral decision. This research tries to fill the gap by adopting ELM to uncover the mechanism underlying OHC users' information adoption.

The effect of different social media marketing channels and events on movie box office: An elaboration likelihood model perspective

Social media has become an important marketing media to attract and retain consumers. This article focuses on the movie industry and aims to investigate how different channels and events in social media marketing achieve box office success through different consumers’ responses. In reference to elaboration likelihood model (ELM), we propose our research model and test hypotheses using the data of 304 movies with the information of box office, attributes, and associated social media posts. The results show that: (1) official microblog activity increases the purchase intent through changing audience's attitude while third-party mention increases purchase intent through catching audience's attention and promoting positive attitude, and there is an interaction effect between official microblog and third-party media; (2) social media marketing events related to contents introduction promote purchase intent through central route while those related to surrounding information promote purchase intent through peripheral route; and (3) movie attributes interact with marketing intensity in affecting purchase intent. Under the same marketing intensity, the marketing effect of domestic sequel movies released on popular holidays is better. Our findings provide both theoretical and practical implications.

Do topic consistency and linguistic style similarity affect online review helpfulness? An elaboration likelihood model perspective

Despite researchers has devoted to understanding the impacts of manager response on the helpfulness of online review, the underlying mechanism of how the topic consistency and linguistic style similarity between manager response and corresponding review may influence review helpfulness remains unclear. Based on Elaboration Likelihood Model, a research model reflected such effects on online review helpfulness was developed and empirical examined against 51,627 consumer reviews collected from Tripadvisor.com. Specifically, the moderating effects of topic consistency and linguistic style similarity between manager response and consumer review on the relationships between two important cues (text sentiment and review length) and review helpfulness were tested. The results of negative binomial regression showed that text sentiment as the central cue has a negative effect on review helpfulness, while review length as the peripheral cue has a positive effect on review helpfulness. As expected, the negative influences of text sentiment on review helpfulness will be weakened when the topic consistency level is high or when the linguistic style similarity level is high. The positive influences of review length on review helpfulness will also be weakened when topic consistency or linguistic style similarity are at its high level. This study thus can not only help retailers identify useful reviews, but also help potential consumers reduce information overload.

How informational-based readiness and social influence affect usage intentions of self-service stores through different routes: an elaboration likelihood model perspective

ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the effects of informational-based readiness and customer readiness (central route) as well as social influence (peripheral route) on the intention to use self-service stores and the moderating effects of social influence. We tested the proposed framework using survey data from 513 potential users of self-service stores in Taiwan. The results show that informational-based readiness significantly increases the intention to use self-service stores directly, and indirectly via customer readiness. Our findings indicate that social influence directly and significantly increases the intention to use self-service stores and negatively moderates the constructs of the central route.