The effects of eWOM volume and valence on product sales – an empirical examination of the movie industry

Abstract

The present research examines how quantitative and qualitative aspects – volume and valence – of eWOM on various social media platforms in the movie industry, along with other forms of marketing communications (e.g. advertising expenditure), predict box office and DVD sales for pre- and post-periods of movie releases. The analysis of aggregated big data from multiple sources – 65,665,859 social media postings from blogs, forums, news, and Twitter, Nielsen’s ad expenditure data, and Rotten Tomatoes ratings for 170 movies—revealed that the explanatory power of the model for box office revenue and DVD sales mostly comes from the volume, rather than valence, of eWOM.

Keywords:

• Advertising effectiveness
• social media
• eWOM
• volume
• valence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kacy Kim

Kacy Kim (Ph.D., University of Texas at Austin) is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Marketing at Bryant University. Her research focuses on digital marketing and marketing analytics using big data. She has published articles in International Journal of Advertising, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Marketing Communication, Asian Journal of Communication, and Marketing Management Journal, among others.

Sukki Yoon

Sukki Yoon (Ph.D., University of Illinois) is a Professor in the Department of Marketing at Bryant University. His research focuses on advertising and consumer behavior. He has published articles in Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, European Journal of Marketing, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Public Policy and Marketing, Marketing Letters, Psychology & Marketing, Internet Research,Management Decision, Journal of Consumer Behavior, and Journal of Consumer Marketing, among others.

Yung Kyun Choi

Yung Kyun Choi (Ph.D., Michigan State University ) is a Professor in the Department of Advertising and PR at Dongguk University in Seoul. His research focuses on advertising and online consumer behavior. He has published articles in Journal of Advertising, International Journal of Advertising, Journal of Business Research, Psychology & Marketing, Internet Research, Journal of Consumer Behavior, among others.