疫情环境下的疾病线索对消费者网络口碑传播的影响及机理研究

从现实来看，疫情的爆发使得消费者时常接触到和疾病相关的线索，因此了解疾病线索如何影响消费者行为变得至关重要。在疫情期间，消费者的网络口碑传播越来越重要，为企业提供了新的营销机遇和挑战。从理论上来看，目前关于外部环境因素如何影响消费者的口碑传播行为的研究依然十分有限。鉴于此，本项目聚焦于研究疫情下的疾病线索对消费者口碑传播行为的影响及其作用机制。从口碑的效价（正面vs.负面），以及口碑的类型（用户生成内容vs.企业生成内容）两个视角出发，探讨三个方面的研究内容，即疾病线索对消费者（1）分享原创正面口碑信息的影响与机制；（2）分享原创负面口碑信息的影响与机制；（3）转发企业生成内容的影响与机制研究。本项目一方面丰富了关于影响口碑传播的情境因素的研究，另一方面为疾病线索的研究提供新的机制。此外，我们的研究结论对企业如何在疫情环境下促进正面口碑传播，避免负面口碑传播有着重要的实践启示。

From a practical point of view, the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic has made consumers often exposed to disease cues, which increases the importance of understanding how disease cues affect consumer behavior. During the pandemic, consumers’ online word-of-mouth has significant marketing implications, providing companies with new marketing opportunities and challenges. Theoretically, until now, research on how external environmental factors affect consumers’ word-of-mouth is still very limited. Given these practical and theoretical gaps, this project focuses on examining the impact of disease cues on consumer word-of-mouth and its mechanisms. From the perspective of the valence of word-of-mouth (positive vs. negative) and the type of word-of-mouth (user-generated content vs. marketer-generated content), we propose three studies, namely, the effects and mechanisms of disease cues on consumers’ intention to (1) share user-generated positive eWOM, (2) share user-generated negative eWOM, and (3) repost marketer-generated content. On the one hand, the findings of this project can advance the research of the contextual factors that affect word-of-mouth, and on the other hand, it provides new mechanisms for the studies of disease cues. In addition, this project has significant implications for companies’ word-of-mouth marketing during the pandemic.