Role Of User-generated Content Research Articles

The Role of User-Generated Content in the Sustainable Development of Online Healthcare Communities: Exploring the Moderating Influence of Signals

Grounded in signaling theory, this study explores the influence of user-generated content (UGC) within online healthcare communities on patient purchasing behavior, with the overarching goal of advancing the development of online medical consultation services and contributing to the sustainable evolution of the online healthcare community. Leveraging publicly available data from the “Haodf.com”, we construct an empirical model of online medical consultation purchases, integrating principles from signaling theory and trust theory. Our analysis scrutinizes the effects of various forms of UGC on patient purchasing behavior, alongside the moderating influence of associated signals. The results demonstrate that knowledge-sharing articles authored by doctors and patient ratings positively impact consultation service purchases, whereas public displays of doctors’ past consultation records impede such transactions. Furthermore, external signals were found to moderate the relationship between UGC and consultation service purchases. The implications of these findings offer actionable insights for stakeholders invested in online healthcare communities.

Content creators at a crossroads with decentralized social media

Social media have become an important channel and source of income for content creators. However, the owners of centralized social media platforms may engage in practices and make decisions related to (1) monetization, (2) content moderation, and (3) privacy and security, which may be detrimental to content creators’ earning potential and long-term success. This paper investigates the extent to which new types of social media platforms may address those three challenges due to their decentralized nature. Specifically, we analyze the potential and limitations of federated vs. blockchain-based social media platforms as platforms for content creators and provide recommendations for content creators. Given the role of user-generated content in the success of social media platforms, we also provide directions for research and development of decentralized social media to increase their relevance for content creators.

The role of user-generated content in tourism decision-making: an exemplary study of Andalusia, Spain

PurposeThis research proposes to organise and distil this massive amount of data, making it easier to understand. Using data mining, machine learning techniques and visual approaches, researchers and managers can extract valuable insights (on guests' preferences) and convert them into strategic thinking based on exploration and predictive analysis. Consequently, this research aims to assist hotel managers in making informed decisions, thus improving the overall guest experience and increasing competitiveness.Design/methodology/approachThis research employs natural language processing techniques, data visualisation proposals and machine learning methodologies to analyse unstructured guest service experience content. In particular, this research (1) applies data mining to evaluate the role and significance of critical terms and semantic structures in hotel assessments; (2) identifies salient tokens to depict guests' narratives based on term frequency and the information quantity they convey; and (3) tackles the challenge of managing extensive document repositories through automated identification of latent topics in reviews by using machine learning methods for semantic grouping and pattern visualisation.FindingsThis study’s findings (1) aim to identify critical features and topics that guests highlight during their hotel stays, (2) visually explore the relationships between these features and differences among diverse types of travellers through online hotel reviews and (3) determine predictive power. Their implications are crucial for the hospitality domain, as they provide real-time insights into guests' perceptions and business performance and are essential for making informed decisions and staying competitive.Originality/valueThis research seeks to minimise the cognitive processing costs of the enormous amount of content published by the user through a better organisation of hotel service reviews and their visualisation. Likewise, this research aims to propose a methodology and method available to tourism organisations to obtain truly useable knowledge in the design of the hotel offer and its value propositions.

“Customer Reviews or Vlogger Reviews?” The Impact of Cross-Platform UGC on the Sales of Experiential Products on E-Commerce Platforms

User-generated content (UGC) from e-commerce platforms and third-party platforms can impact customer-perceived risk and influence product sales in online stores. However, the understanding of UGC from which platform type yields a stronger effect on product sales and how the effects interact across the platforms remains limited. This limitation arises from the complexity of consumer purchasing behavior and information processing, as well as the heterogeneity of UGC features across different platforms and the uncertainty surrounding causal relationships. This study constructs a novel cross-platform framework using the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) to investigate the underlying mechanism of how cross-platform UGC affects online sales of experiential products. Additionally, it examines the mediating effect of purchase intention in the relationship between cross-platform UGC and product sales, as well as the moderating effect of product price. Taking the e-commerce platform Tmall and third-party platform Bilibili as a cross-platform example, we analyzed customer reviews on Tmall and vlogger reviews on Bilibili for 300 cosmetic products, using text sentiment analysis and multiple regression. Results show that the number of product evaluations from third-party platforms positively impacts sales, but this impact is weaker compared to the influence of UGC originating from e-commerce platforms on sales. The underlying mechanism refers to the process by which UGC on an e-commerce platform directly impacts sales and also influences sales through purchase intention. In contrast, UGC on third-party platforms only influences sales through purchase intention. Furthermore, the product price has no significant moderating effect on the positive relationship between review length and sales. This study provides a cross-platform UGC research framework that can guide effective cross-platform marketing management by shedding light on the role of UGC in reducing customer-perceived risk and its impact on online sales of experiential products.

Tourists’ Engagement on Tourism Organizations' Facebook Pages: The Role of User-Generated Content

Tourism industry prospects are presented by digital marketing and consumer travel behaviour changes. Given this fact, digital content marketing (DCM) assumes greater significance for enhancing social media user engagement. Providing valuable and relevant information that differentiates the company and catches the consumers' attention has been one of the current challenges in this area. The wide availability of information on the Internet changes how consumers engage with it. Therefore, creating and disseminating educational and pertinent content is now mandatory. To ensure the effectiveness of the process, it is crucial to understand with whom, how, when, and where communication will be carried out. Thus, tourism organisations must offer targeted, tailored, and appealing information to interest customers more about the destinations. Social media is a commonly used strategy for tourism promotion initiatives, where User Generated Content (UGC) has emerged as one of the most popular means to achieve this goal. “Turismo Centro de Portugal” is responsible for publicizing the Centre region of Portugal, including cities such as Coimbra, Aveiro, Viseu, and Leiria. Turismo Centro de Portugal has won several communication-related awards, having already been recognized internationally for its advertising campaigns. Numerous studies analyzing user-generated content and digital content are available, but they invariably look at businesses rather than tourism-related institutions. Hence, conducting a study to identify follower engagement and involvement in digital content marketing posts versus user-generated content posts applied to the Turismo Centro de Portugal was considered pertinent. For this purpose, a qualitative analysis of the existing content and its results on Turismo Centro de Portugal's Facebook page was developed based on a social media content analysis framework adapted from other authors. The results revealed the importance of using user-generated content in a social media communication strategy for tourism organisations.

The dark and light sides of engagement: an analysis of user-generated content in wildlife trade online communities.

Recent research has focused on the role of user-generated content (UGC) in the dark side of engagement on social media. In this study, we apply this to the unique context of the online exotic wildlife trade, a critical area of research due its involvement in devastating global species loss as well as harms to human health and livelihoods. We first conduct qualitative analysis on a large data set of UGC with the automatic machine-learning lexical software Leximancer 4.5.1 to explore the discourse that occurs in comments of posts that promote behaviour change and demand reduction. Then, we complement this by testing an extended elaboration likelihood model to determine the nature of information processing that leads to positive comment valences. Our results show that motivation, opportunity and ability factors moderate the relationship between dual-processing routes and comment valence as well as influencing the likelihood of positive comment valences that indicate attitude change. This work extends the use of theory from Information Systems and Marketing to conservation and provides both conceptual and practical recommendations to encourage behaviour change and reduce the harmful effects of engagement.

How Does Sentiment Content of Product Reviews Make Diffusion Different?

ABSTRACTThe current study is focusing on diffusion and adoption of new digital artifacts. The goal is to explore the social role of user-generated content (UGC) during the diffusion process of digital products in the context of online social networks. Data collection is conducted on 154 new digital products during a two-year timeframe. Results of the study provide a deeper insight into the influence of sentiment content on new product diffusion and how such a web system (i.e., online social networks) can help to enable a process of value co-creation. The overall finding shows that sentiment content has a positive, but dynamic relationship with diffusion of digital products.The study sheds light on the crowding power and the long-tail effect in online social networks. Findings also offer valuable implications for organizations to set up their strategic vision in terms of information dissemination, digital marketing, and customer relationship management.

Cast Aside

This paper examines the role of user-generated content in a traditional news organization during the coverage of the Boston marathon bombings. In-depth interviews were conducted with the journalists who made up the interactive team at the Boston Globe. The interactive team was in charge of the live blog during the week-long coverage of the marathon bombings. The study identifies the perceptions journalists hold of user-generated content during crisis reporting and the impact user-generated content had during the tense coverage. The findings suggest that user-generated content has a good way to go before being considered an integral part of breaking news content.

Online activities of Finnish newspapers in the changing media business environment

This article is concerned with changing online strategies in newspaper publishing. It examines the situation through the case of Finland, a country with an exceptionally high rate of printed press circulation. Despite declining readership, newspapers have still maintained a relatively stable economic position. Newspaper publishers have not rushed into online operations and other new forms of production and distribution because the traditional business models have secured their economy. Within a European perspective, Finland is an exceptional market for newspapers because subscriptions have such a solid foothold. The home delivery system also makes newspapers an efficient marketing channel, and daily newspapers still continue to receive the largest share of total advertising spending. In addition, newspaper publishers have been able to retain or even improve upon their profits, despite convergence trends challenging the logic of media consumption through the emergence of web-based services. In this study, our aim was to discover the views of newspaper editors and publishers on online operations now and in the near future. An online survey was conducted among newspaper editors and CEOs in 2013. The survey was sent to 236 people and 56 answers were collected (24 per cent). Respondents represented both daily and local newspapers, and the selection was geographically representative. The results show that Finnish newspapers are still slow to change, maybe because they have done so well in a protected market. They are gradually adapting to new media and online operations, though development has been faster in large dailies than in small local newspapers. Some newspapers do not even have specific online strategies. However, smaller publications might be more flexible about change in the foreseeable future. Traditional trust in quality journalism produced by professional journalists is still alive, while, at the same time, respondents foresee that the role of user-generated content is growing.

The Impact of User-Generated Content On Product Innovation

The Impact of User-Generated Content On Product Innovation

The Role of User-Generated Content in Tourists' Travel Planning Behavior

This article reports on research that investigates how websites containing user-generated content (UGC) are used by consumers and the role they have on their information search and travel behavior. The research, conducted via an online survey, represents the views of more than 12,000 hospitality and tourism consumers. The results suggest that although these sites are popular, they are not yet considered to be as credible or trustworthy as existing sources of travel information such as government-sponsored tourism websites. UGC (or Web 2.0 sites, as they are also known) appear to act as an additional source of information that travelers consider as part of their information search process, rather than as the only source of information. The study is significant in that it appears to be one of the few investigations that captures the perceptions of the travel consumer and the way they relate to the information value associated with Web 2.0 sites.

Between tradition and change

Online news media have become a key part of social, economic, and cultural life in many societies. Research about these media has grown dramatically, especially in the past few years, but there have been few reviews of this research and none of the most recent scholarship. This article reviews scholarship on online news production published since 2000. It examines research on five key topics: historical context and market environment, the process of innovation, alterations in journalistic practices, challenges to established professional dynamics, and the role of user-generated content. A tension between tradition and change emerges from this discussion and is evident at two levels. First, the world of practice seems to straddle the re-enactment of established forms and tinkering with alternative pathways. Second, the modes of inquiry oscillate between using existing concepts to look at new phenomena and taking advantage of these phenomena to rethink these concepts and come up with new ones. The article concludes by identifying shortcomings in the existing scholarship and suggesting avenues for future studies to overcome them. It suggests how scholarship on online news production could contribute to rethinking some of the fundamental building blocks of understanding communication and society in the contemporary media environment.