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Article

The Moderating Effects of Online Streaming Content Service Characteristics on Online Word-of-Mouth for Service Performance

by
Sangjae Lee
College of Business Administration, Sejong University, Seoul 05006, Republic of Korea
Appl. Sci. 2023, 13(24), 13274; https://doi.org/10.3390/app132413274
Submission received: 27 October 2023 / Revised: 8 December 2023 / Accepted: 14 December 2023 / Published: 15 December 2023
Browse Figure
Review Reports Versions Notes

Abstract

:
Online streaming contents are creating greater service uncertainty, as consumers need to experience such contents before making a decision to continue to purchase them. Few studies have investigated the interaction between eWOM (online word-of-mouth) and online streaming content service characteristics with regard to the performance of online streaming contents and explained how this interaction can promote the role of service characteristics in service performance outcomes or remedy service uncertainty attributable to these characteristics. Thus, in order to test the interaction effects, this paper examines the moderating effects of service (webtoon) characteristics (i.e., author experience, genre (drama or fantasy), completion, transfer to paid service, and publication time (Wednesday)) on the relationship between eWOM and certain online streaming contents’ service performance measures; in this case, the publication period and content gamification. Based on scrawled data from 154 webtoons published on Naver Webtoon, a multivariate regression analysis with interaction terms showed that author experience and genre interact with the number of reviews to affect gamification. The transfer to a paid service interacts crucially with review ratings and the number of reviews to influence both the publication period and gamification. Online streaming content completion and publication times are factors that interact with review ratings and thus affect the publication period. Service providers need to cope with service uncertainties when attempting to further their online streaming content service by considering the service characteristics as well as customers’ responses through eWOM.

1. Introduction

As a greatly proliferating form of online streaming content, the webtoon is a type of digital comic that was developed in Korea in 2003. The word “webtoon” is a portmanteau of the words “web” and “cartoon,” referring to online-exclusive comics. The popularity of webtoons has gone global, with a growing number of smartphone users aided by fast internet connections. Naver has provided a global webtoon service called Line Webtoon since 2014. According to Allied Market Research, the global webtoon market stands at 3.7 billion USD and is expected to reach 56 billion USD in 2030 [1]. Furthermore, Bloomberg once published an article introducing the new Korean term “manhwa,” reporting that the manhwa industry in South Korea was expanding more rapidly than ever, replacing the once-mighty position of Japanese manga [2]. Many genres of online manhwa have become very popular among millions of Korean people, who collectively refer to them as webtoons. At present, publishing webtoons has become a major trend for many talented manhwa authors in Korea, some of whom enjoy celebrity status in the cultural content market in Korea. The market size of webtoons reached approximately one trillion KRW as of 2020 [3], and the webtoons industry is expected to amount to 3.4 billion USD in Korea in 2032 [4], serving as a lucrative source of business that creates further businesses when webtoon contents are transformed into movies or games.
Online streaming content services are growing rapidly, as the associated intellectual property can be used easily as a vehicle for multiple types of content, such as movies, dramas, games, and character-related merchandising. Movie titles such as “The Avengers” and “Black Panther”, which are based on cartoon content produced by Marvel Studios, ranked first in the box office in 2012 and 2018, respectively [5]. Online streaming content (such as webtoons) provides a prototype of intellectual property for testing of the market potential for development into dramas, movies, and games based on market awareness. A number of commercially successful mobile games in Korea today were sourced from webtoons. Examples include “God of High school,” “Noblesse,” “Denma,” and “The Sound of Your Heart” [6]. Korean mobile webtoon app services such as “Line Manga,” “Kakao Piccoma,” and “NHN Comico” are ranked in the top seven in Japan, estimated to have a market size of 447.9 billion Japanese yen in 2022 [7]. In particular, “Line Manga” has approximately 40 million monthly users. Naver webtoon is the top-ranked service platform for webtoons in Korea, with more than four million subscribers, 70% of whom are in their teens or 20 s.
Many service online streaming content sites are involved with experience goods, exacerbating their vulnerability to market friction originating from information uncertainty from a customer’s perspective [8]. Customer complaints include inflated savings, low-quality products and services, information deficiencies, and extraneous costs [9]. To cope with diverse market imperfections, online streaming content service sites provide online consumer reviews via electronic word of mouth (eWOM) to remedy asymmetric information [10].
Online consumer reviews are posted on third-party websites, and consumers post or read reviews left by others who have purchased the same product to help make their purchasing decisions [11]. Online consumer reviews provide a crucial source of product information and have important effects on consumers’ purchase decisions. The quantity (e.g., number of reviews) and quality (e.g., reviews’ helpfulness) of eWOM affect both purchase intention and product sales [12,13]. Consumers consult online reviews before deciding to buy a new product or service because they provide product information transparency [14] and influence repurchase intention [15,16]. Given eWOM’s importance, previous studies have investigated how review volume and valence are related to product sales, showing that eWOM results in product sales [17,18,19,20,21,22,23] or consumer loyalty [24].
Similar to the context of online streaming content services, the present study has several objectives. First, we focus on moderators that affect the relationship between eWOM and the service performance of online streaming content. We posit that online streaming content service providers’ decisions to further their service can be based on service characteristics that interact with eWOM to enhance customers’ responses or service characteristics that interact with eWOM to reduce service uncertainty as it pertains to online streaming content. The service characteristics relevant to the former include author experience, genre popularity, and webtoon completion (including suspension), while the characteristics related to the latter include the transfer to a paid service and unpopular publication times.
As previous studies have not examined the interaction of eWOM with the performance of online streaming content services from a service provider’s perspective, it is necessary to examine how eWOM interacts with the various contexts of an online streaming content service in terms of service performance. For instance, the impact of eWOM on product sales is greater for less-popular products than for well-known products [25]. Furthermore, e-contents such as webtoons provide greater service uncertainty, as they are experience goods in nature and consumers must experience them before making a continued purchase decision. Nevertheless, few studies have investigated the interaction between eWOM and online streaming content service characteristics in terms of the performance of online streaming content and explained how this interaction can promote the service characteristics’ role in the realm of service performance or remedy service uncertainties attributable to these service characteristics.
Second, as there are few studies of how eWOM affects the success of online streaming contents such as webtoons, we aim to provide insights specifically into the way moderating factors related to eWOM and webtoons can influence the success of webtoons. While eWOM factors have been studied extensively with respect to their effects on product sales or purchase intentions, eWOM’s role in the success of online streaming content has been studied less often. Thus, it is necessary to determine eWOM’s effect on online streaming content service performance outcomes by elucidating the different contexts of webtoon services.
As few studies have evaluated the success of online streaming content, we devise measures of webtoons’ success, i.e., the publication period and likelihood that webtoon contents will be developed as mobile games. Given that such online streaming contents as webtoons can be viewed only after consumers agree to subscribe to the content, these success measures reflect these contents’ particular aspects specifically.

2. e-WOM and Online Streaming Content Services

Studies of eWOM’s effects on online service performance outcomes can be divided into two types according to whether product performance is a measure oriented toward consumers (product sales, purchasing intention) or online streaming content service providers (e.g., publication period, product functionalities’ enhancement). Previous studies have investigated eWOM’s effect on product sales in detail [23,26,27,28,29]. For example, Chintagunta et al. [26] investigated the influence of online reviews on box office revenue in a designated market area with respect to valence, volume, and variance. Zhu and Zhang [25] investigated the same effect on product sales and found that they are moderated by product and consumer characteristics. Lee et al. [10] indicated that Facebook “likes” influence sales in social commerce, while product and deal characteristics moderate this influence. Finally, Lee and Cheoh [21] investigated the average number of reviews and the influence of rating on box office revenue.
Other studies have shown contrasting results of eWOM’s effects on sales. For example, while Chevalier and Mayzlin [18] and Chintagunta et al. [26] showed that review ratings affect product sales significantly, work by Duan et al. [20] indicated that they do not. Cheung et al. [17] suggested that consumer expertise and consumer engagement play a crucial moderating role with regard to the influence of social information cues on consumer purchase decisions. Zhou and Duan [23] posited that third-party free sampling and external WOM moderate the feedback relationship between internal WOM and sales. While the theory of adverse selection and asymmetric information between buyer and seller can be used to explain online buyers’ reliance on eWOM, factors beyond remedying adverse selection and asymmetric information can explain online streaming content service providers’ decisions to expand their services.
eWOM’s effects on the performance or quality of online streaming content services, such as online videos, music, and news, have not been studied as much compared to other types of products, such as physical products [13,30,31] or movies [20,26]. Online streaming contents such as webtoons are associated with greater service uncertainty. This is because they are experience goods, and customers must use them for a certain period to develop attitudes about them that affect their decision to continue to purchase them. Service providers also face service uncertainty, in that expanding online streaming content services will not necessarily lead to positive responses from customers. As this uncertainty has reduced the ability to develop this type of online business completely into a legitimate market [10], feedback systems based on eWOM have appeared as a facilitating medium to increase buyers’ confidence in purchasing. Previous studies have also suggested that eWOM affects perceived value, willingness to pay, and purchase intention. Wu et al. [32] examined the influence of eWOM on consumers’ willingness to pay by assessing its mitigating effects on product and seller uncertainty. Liang et al. [16] suggested that eWOM also affects consumers’ perceptions of products’ value and their repurchase intentions. Chen et al. [33] also studied eWOM’s role in the consumer purchase decision-making process. These studies focused on eWOM’s effects on consumer-oriented product performance measures, such as sales and purchase intention. However, studies of eWOM’s effects on online streaming contents’ service performance measures, such as the publication period, or on content enhancement for other businesses (i.e., webtoon gamification), are rare. Accordingly, it is necessary to examine the effects of eWOM on online streaming content service provider-oriented performance measures in this context.

3. Research Model

Our study examines how the interaction between eWOM and webtoon characteristics affects webtoon performance, as represented by the publication period and gamification, to enhance customers’ responses or reduce service uncertainty as it pertains to online streaming content. Previous studies have suggested that eWOM moderates sales or purchase behavior. For example, Zhu and Zhang [25] indicated that the factors of game popularity and player experience play moderating roles in eWOM’s effect on the decision to purchase games, while Wu et al. [32] demonstrated a moderating role of consumers’ risk attitudes in online user reviews on consumers’ willingness to pay. Hu et al. [34] showed that review ratings exert an indirect effect on sales through sentiments. Furthermore, Lee et al. [10] studied the contingent influence of Facebook likes on product sales based on product and deal characteristics. Lee and Cheoh [27] also indicated that the helpfulness of reviews can affect the relationship between eWOM and box office revenue. These previous studies used the theory of adverse selection, assuming that adverse selection is created by asymmetric information between the buyer and seller, to understand online consumers’ reliance on eWOM. However, online streaming content service providers’ decisions to further their services can be understood with respect to factors beyond remedying adverse selection and asymmetric information. While previous studies have thoroughly examined eWOM’s effect on product sales, few studies have investigated the interaction between eWOM and online streaming content service characteristics. Specifically, there is a gap in understanding how this interaction can enhance the influence of service characteristics on service performance or diminish service uncertainty stemming from these service characteristics in the context of online streaming content.
Our study identifies moderating webtoon characteristics that are related to online streaming content service providers’ decisions to further their online streaming content service and past customers’ responses presented through eWOM. Our research intends to expand on the findings of previous studies (e.g., Lee et al. [10], Zhu and Zhang [25]) by showing that eWOM can enhance the effects of service characteristics (author experience, genre (drama or fantasy), completion) on service performance. Furthermore, our study intends to enhance previous studies (e.g., Einsingerich et al. [35], Lee et al. [10]) by identifying the moderating webtoon characteristics (transfer to paid service and publication time (Wednesday)) to show that eWOM enhances social engagement and evaluations of recommendations’ quality by reducing social risks. These webtoon characteristics are factors that serve either to facilitate the effects of eWOM on online streaming contents’ service performance or reduce their service uncertainty from the service provider’s perspective. Thus, it is necessary to examine how eWOM interacts with various service contexts to explain online streaming content service providers’ further implementations with regard to service. The service characteristics that interact with eWOM to enhance customer responses include author experience, genre popularity, and webtoon completion (including suspension), while the service characteristics that interact with eWOM to reduce service uncertainty include the transfer to a paid service and unpopular publication times.
First, author experience can be considered among the factors that affect online streaming content service expansion and performance. Internet experience is related to user persistence, in that a lack of experience results frequently in rapid withdrawal from the internet as an information source. If a consumer possesses a greater internet experience, s/he tends to have greater confidence in the internet based on a different perception of online channels’ attributes than does an internet novice. Furthermore, eWOM’s effects on sales are greater in games whose players have greater internet experience [25]. In the context of eWOM and webtoon performance, authors with significant webtoon experience can provide greater webtoon performance, be considered persistent in their creation and enhancement, and have greater experience in being exposed to or interacting with eWOM. These users acknowledge how to adjust webtoons’ production extent according to eWOM. eWOM affects authors with greater experience more sensitively, and they are likely to create webtoons that have longer publication periods and a greater gamification likelihood than other authors with less webtoon experience when positive review ratings and a high number of reviews provided through review sites.
Hypothesis 1: 
More and better online reviews (e.g., review ratings, number of reviews) have a greater influence on webtoon performance when webtoon authors have more experience.
While genre has often been used in the movie literature as an explanatory variable to predict box office revenue [36], the results from studies of the relationship between movie genre and box-office revenue are inconsistent [37]. eWOM’s effects on sales also can differ according to genre; viewers of literary genres may prefer “slow” dissemination choices, such as face-to-face conversations, while viewers of non-literary genres may be prone to making “fast” dissemination choices, such as SMS [38]. Zhu and Zhang [25] posited that eWOM’s effects on product sales is becoming greater for lesser-known products than for popular products. However, with respect to the effect of genre on webtoon performance, when a webtoon belongs to the two most popular genres, i.e., drama and fantasy, its effect on performance will likely be greater. This is because service providers of webtoons in these genres are likely to have more experience interacting with eWOM, also knowing how to respond to it and adjust the extent to which they produce webtoons. Thus, eWOM’s influence is more pronounced in popular genres and affects the publication period and gamification likelihood more sensitively than it does in other genres.
Hypothesis 2: 
More and better online reviews (e.g., review rating, number of reviews) have a greater influence on webtoon performance when the webtoon genre is drama or fantasy.
Authors are subject to renewal contracts for every webtoon they publish, and contract renewal is based on their popularity and access traffic. When a webtoon’s publication is completed or suspended, the uncertainty with respect to publication contract renewal is very low. However, uncertainty is greater until completion (or suspension) than for other webtoons that are not completed (or suspended), and the uncertainty involved in the deal is related positively to eWOM’s effects [10]. For webtoon service providers, when the publication is suspended or completed, eWOM’s effects on webtoon performance are greater, as widespread eWOM represents either the webtoon’s high or low popularity among consumers. Additionally, it is likely that these webtoons either are completed successfully or suspended due to consumers’ poorer responses. When webtoon publication is underway and the service provider is still developing its contents in collaboration with the author, eWOM has less of an effect on webtoon performance, as the story is not completed, and consumers are not yet able to recognize its real merits and interesting features. Thus, eWOM’s effects on the publication period or gamification are greater for webtoons that have been completed successfully.
Hypothesis 3: 
More and better online reviews (e.g., review ratings, number of reviews) have a stronger influence on webtoon performance when the webtoon has been completed or the publication has been suspended.
eWOM facilitates social engagement and evaluations of the quality of recommendations by reducing social risks [35]. eWOM with low social risk and high transparency can enable a decrease in adverse selection in online commerce. As uncertainty plagues e-commerce’s ability to develop completely into a legitimate market, feedback systems have appeared as redeeming mechanisms to strengthen consumers’ purchase confidence. Product uncertainty moderates eWOM’s effects on sales [10], and webtoon service providers perceive more uncertainty in webtoons’ success in the results of their pay service. Thus, they rely on eWOM to a greater extent to determine further enhancements of webtoon contents compared to when there is no pay service.
Hypothesis 4: 
More and better online reviews (e.g., review rating, number of reviews) have a greater influence on webtoon performance when the webtoon has transferred to a pay service.
As the effects of eWOM on sales differs according to product popularity [25] and uncertainty [10], webtoons published on a less-popular weekday (such as Wednesday) are likely to provide greater uncertainty with respect to the service performance of online streaming contents. Thus, online streaming content service providers consider eWOM’s effects seriously when a webtoon is published on a less-popular weekday, and its effect on webtoon performance becomes greater. Service providers have become more sensitive to consumers’ responses by adjusting the extent of their publications, and they depend on reviews of eWOM to determine the appropriate period until the end of the current episode.
Hypothesis 5: 
More and better online reviews (e.g., review rating, number of reviews) have a greater influence on webtoon performance when the webtoon is published on the least-popular weekday.
Figure 1 and Table 1 present the research model and variables.

4. Methods

We collected data from 154 webtoons published on “Naver Webtoon,” a leading online streaming content service platform in Korea, from 1 January to 30 November, 2017. An automated proprietary tool based on Python was implemented to crawl through the Naver Webtoon website and collect the data required to test the hypotheses. The data’s distributions are shown in Table 2. The total number of webtoons that had completed their final serial publication was 32 (20.8%) (20.8%). The authors’ renewal contracts with the service providers were for an interval of three months, and the contracts were not renewed when the subscription rate for the corresponding webtoon was low or lacking access traffic.
Eighteen (9.7%) webtoons were used to create mobile games, and their genres included role playing (7.8%), simulation and strategy (1.3%), and action and puzzle (0.6%). In addition, 85 webtoons (55.2%) had transferred to a paid service. The webtoons’ major genres were drama (26.6%) and fantasy (22.7%), and the least and most popular weekdays for publication were Wednesday (9.7%) and Sunday (15.6%), respectively. The authors published 2.5 webtoons on average.
IBM® SPSS® Statistics version 27 was used to test the research hypotheses statistically via a multivariate regression analysis with interaction terms, which is a common method for testing the research hypotheses involving moderating effects (Lee and Cheoh, 2016, 2021) [13,27].

5. Results and Discussion

Table 3 and Table 4 provide the multiple regression results of using the interaction terms between eWOM and the five moderating variables to explain the publication period and gamification, respectively. Five moderating variables were used as control variables. The models estimated are as follows:
PubPeriod = β0 + β1 RevRating + β2 NumReview + β3 AutExp × RevRating + β4 AutExp × NumReview + β5 Genre × RevRating + β6 Genre × NumReview + β7 Compl × RevRating + β8 Compl × NumReview + β9 PayService × RevRating + β10 PayService × NumReview + β11 PubTime × RevRating + β12 PubTime × NumReview
Gamification = β0 + β1 RevRating + β2 NumReview + β3 AutExp × RevRating + β4 AutExp × NumReview + β5 Genre × RevRating + β6 Genre × NumReview + β7 Compl × RevRating + β8 Compl × NumReview + β9 PayService × RevRating + β10 PayService × NumReview + β11 PubTime × RevRating + β12 PubTime × NumReview
PubPeriod: publication period; RevRating: review rating; NumReview: number of reviews; AutExp: author experience; Compl: completion of publication; PayService: transfer to a paid service
Ten interaction terms were included to test the interaction between eWOM (review rating and number of reviews) and five webtoon characteristics for publication period and gamification. For example, the interaction between author experience and review rating and between author experience and the number of reviews indicates that the effects of eWOM are more pronounced when authors have considerable experience compared to when they have little experience.
Author experience and genre interact with the number of reviews to affect gamification. The transfer to a paid service interacts crucially with review rating, and the number of reviews and affects both the publication period and gamification. Webtoon completion and publication time interact with review rating to affect the publication period. Thus, Hypothesis 3 is supported, and Hypotheses 1, 2, 4, and 5 are supported in part, as the webtoon characteristics interact either with review rating or the number of reviews to affect the publication period or gamification.
The study results provide online streaming content service providers with specific information and practical insights into how webtoon characteristics can affect further webtoon performance, as mediated by eWOM. To increase the publication period, webtoon service providers must consider eWOM (review ratings) as an important condition of the consumer response when webtoons are intended to be transferred to a paid service or when webtoons are completed and are published on a less popular weekday. When webtoons are transferrable to a paid service or are published on a less-popular weekday, service uncertainty increases. Review ratings should be monitored to reduce service uncertainty created by the transfer to a paid service and publication on a less-popular day before making a decision regarding whether to expand publication. When online streaming contents are completed or suspended, expansion via additional publications depends greatly on the review rating to predict and determine customer responses to possible future expansion of the online streaming content.
For webtoon gamification, service providers should evaluate eWOM (the number of reviews) when they are using experienced authors, popular genres, or planning a transfer to a paid service. The number of reviews should be monitored to evaluate customers’ responses before making a decision to expand webtoon services to other businesses, such as games, when they are using experienced authors, popular genres, or undergoing a transfer to a paid service. Experienced authors and popular genres require an assessment of the number of reviews to enhance the already-stable customer responses to these online streaming contents, while the transfer to a paid service demands the monitoring of the number of reviews to reduce the service uncertainty that the transfer may create. This interaction between author experience, genre, and the number of reviews can enhance the influence of the author’s experience and genre on gamification.
Our results expand on the findings of previous studies (e.g., [10,25]) by showing that eWOM can enhance the effects of service characteristics (author experience, genre (drama or fantasy), completion) on service performance. Furthermore, our study enhances previous studies (e.g., [10,35]) by identifying the moderating webtoon characteristics (transfer to paid service and publication time (Wednesday)), showing that eWOM enhances social engagement and evaluations of the quality of recommendations by reducing social risks.

6. Conclusions and Implications

While the literature on the effects of online reviews and ratings on product sales is extensive, studies of eWOM centering on its effects on online streaming contents’ service performance measures are lacking. Thus, this paper examines eWOM’s interaction with webtoon characteristics, i.e., author experience, webtoon genre (drama or fantasy), webtoon completion, transfer to a paid service, and publication time (Wednesday), on webtoon contents’ publication period and gamification. Both webtoon completion and publication time interact with review ratings and affect the publication period, and author experience and genre interact with the number of reviews to affect gamification. Transfer to a paid service interacts importantly with review ratings, and the number of reviews and affects both the publication period and gamification. These results provide insights into these interacting factors’ roles and ultimately further our understanding of the relationship between eWOM and webtoon performance.

6.1. Implications for Researchers

Although research interest has focused largely on eWOM’s influence on product sales and purchasing behavior, few studies have examined its interactive effects with the service characteristics of online streaming content. Limited attention has been given to its interactive effects which can enhance the effects of service characteristics on service performance or reduce service uncertainty attributable to these characteristics. While research interest has increasingly targeted eWOM’s effectiveness on online review sites, few studies have been devoted to webtoon characteristics’ moderating effects on the relationship between eWOM and webtoon performance from the perspective of online streaming content service providers considering service uncertainty. While previous studies have suggested that eWOM affects product sales, drawing from frameworks related to the customer network base and quality uncertainty, this paper has explored how online streaming content service providers rely on eWOM to leverage existing network bases when making decisions about the further expansion of their services. Previous studies have not explored how contextual factors specific to online streaming content affect the relationship between eWOM and webtoon performance from the provider’s perspective. Our theoretical approach offers information systems scholars improved insights into the contexts in which webtoon suppliers use eWOM to extend webtoon publications further and develop them into game services.
Our study provides insight regarding how the interaction between eWOM and webtoon characteristics influences webtoon performance, as measured by the publication period and gamification, to facilitate customers’ responses (in the case of author experience, genre, and webtoon completion) or diminish service uncertainty (in the case of transfers to paid services and the publication time). These moderating webtoon characteristics are factors that serve either to enhance eWOM’s influence on service performance or reduce service uncertainty from the online streaming content service provider’s perspective. Based on social engagement frameworks, this paper provides theoretical explanations of suppliers’ motivations to use online webtoon reviews in various contexts of webtoon characteristics, such as author experience, genre, transfers to paid services, publication completion, and publication time.

6.2. Implications for Practitioners

Given that a webtoon’s success ultimately should be determined by the extent to which it is published, seen by customers, and expanded to other businesses such as games, webtoon service providers should design their services so they can adjust the contextual features to focus on the interactions between such factors and eWOM. Webtoon service providers who operate on online review sites should focus on online streaming contents’ social validation and promote the volume and valence of eWOM proactively according to the characteristics of the online streaming content. For example, webtoon service platform providers should account for and adjust based on the author’s experience, webtoon genre (drama or fantasy) and completion, transfer to a paid service, and the publication time when developing online streaming contents, and they should encourage users to log into their service accounts and participate in social interactions. To promote eWOM’s effects on webtoon performance, service providers can consider adjusting the webtoon characteristics listed above in such a way that eWOM will affect the publication period and gamification positively. Online streaming content such as webtoons is causing greater service uncertainty for service providers, as customers must experience this content before deciding to subscribe to the service. Thus, service providers need to cope with service uncertainty and further their online streaming content services by accounting for service characteristics as well as customers’ responses through eWOM.
Our study suggests that online streaming content service providers should consider the author’s experience, genre popularity, and webtoon completion (including suspension), all of which interact importantly with eWOM, to enhance their customers’ responses. Furthermore, service providers should consider transfers to a paid services and unpopular publication times that interact with eWOM to reduce the service uncertainty of their online streaming content. Service providers with experienced authors who produce popular genres or offer paid services should consider promoting eWOM to a greater extent. They should also use methods that promote favorable evaluations of their offerings proactively based on past subscription performance and change their webtoon characteristics flexibly to produce more favorable responses to their online streaming content offerings.

Funding

This research received no external funding.

Data Availability Statement

The data presented in this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy.

Conflicts of Interest

The author declares no conflict of interest.

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Applsci 13 13274 g001
Figure 1. Research model.
Figure 1. Research model.
Applsci 13 13274 g001
Table 1. eWOM and webtoon-related variables.
Table 1. eWOM and webtoon-related variables.
CategoryVariablesDescription
Online
streaming		Author experience (number of online streaming contents created by author)Total number of previous online streaming contents posted by the author
content (webtoon)-relatedGenre of online streaming contentsRepresents whether the content belongs to a popular genre (drama or fantasy) of online streaming contents
variablesCompletion of online streaming contentsDummy variable showing whether the online streaming content series is completed
Transfer to paid serviceDummy variable showing whether the current online streaming contents are transferred to a paid service from a free service
Publication time (the least popular weekday (Wednesday)) to publish online streaming contents)Dummy variable showing whether it is published on the least popular weekday (Wednesday) when online streaming contents are published weekly
Publication period (weeks)Represents the total period of online streaming contents series
GamificationDummy variable showing whether online streaming content is converted into a game
eWOM variablesRating of the first series in online streaming contentNormalized value from one to ten of the rating for the first series in online streaming content
Number of reviews for the first series in online streaming contentNormalized value of the number of reviews posted for the first series in online streaming content
Table 2. Distribution of variables.
Table 2. Distribution of variables.
(a) Webtoon-related variables
GenreFrequencyPercent
Number of<12013.0
webtoons15837.7
created by the22214.3
author3138.4
42013.0
5 ≤ Careers ≤ 7149.1
8 ≤ Careers74.4
GenreAction2013.0
Comic117.1
Daily life85.2
Drama4026.0
Fantasy3522.7
Historic21.3
Horror31.9
Martial1.6
Romance1912.3
School63.9
SF63.9
Thriller31.9
CompletionUncompleted12279.2
Completed3220.8
Transfer to paid serviceTransferred8555.2
Not transferred6944.8
Posting weekday(s)Sunday2415.6
Monday1912.3
Tuesday1912.3
Wednesday149.1
Thursday2013.0
Friday2214.3
Saturday1811.7
Two days1610.4
Five days21.3
Period<1007244.9
(weeks)100 ≤ Period < 2004125.4
200 ≤ Period < 3002012.2
300 ≤ Period < 400116.7
400 ≤ Period106
GamificationYes1811.7
No13688.3
(b) eWOM variables
GenreMinimumMaximumMean
Rating of the first series in online streaming contents (webtoon)3.839.989.70
Number of reviews for the first series in online streaming content6846965811,241.28
Table 3. Results of regression analysis for the first period (dependent variable = publication period).
Table 3. Results of regression analysis for the first period (dependent variable = publication period).
VariablesStandard BetaStandard Errort-Valuep-Value
Review rating−0.051 **102.305−2.0060.047
Number of reviews−2.1170.003−0.2270.821
Review rating × author experience2.20619.0940.6010.549
Number of reviews × author experience0.244 *0.0001.7830.077
Review rating × genre1.10741.8110.7020.484
Number of reviews × genre0.0390.0020.2170.829
Review rating × completion of publication6.687 **94.9412.3520.020
Number of reviews × completion of publication0.2070.0040.9410.348
Review rating × transfer to paid service7.918 **90.2012.3410.021
Number of reviews × transfer to paid service0.442 **0.0022.5310.012
Review rating × publication time3.726 *94.8991.8560.066
Number of reviews × publication time0.0330.0040.2770.782
* p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, F-value = 5.06, p = 0.000.
Table 4. Linear probability model analysis results for the first period (dependent variable = gamification).
Table 4. Linear probability model analysis results for the first period (dependent variable = gamification).
VariablesStandard BetaStandard Errort-Valuep-Value
Review rating−1.425 **0.264−2.0950.038
Number of reviews−0.459 *0.000−1.9510.053
Review rating × author experience3.6130.0490.9410.349
Number of reviews × author experience0.350 **0.0002.4490.016
Review rating × Genre1.1140.1080.6760.500
Number of reviews × genre0.410 **0.0002.1960.030
Review rating × completion of publication06.311 **0.2452.1220.036
Number of reviews × completion of publication0.1810.0000.7870.433
Review rating × transfer to paid service6.460 **0.2331.8250.070
Number of reviews × transfer to paid service0.533 ***0.0002.9230.004
Review rating × publication time3.1050.2451.4780.142
Number of reviews × publication time0.1020.0000.8120.418
* p < 0.1, ** p < 0.05, *** p < 0.01, F value = 3.93, p = 0.000.
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Lee, S. The Moderating Effects of Online Streaming Content Service Characteristics on Online Word-of-Mouth for Service Performance. Appl. Sci. 2023, 13, 13274. https://doi.org/10.3390/app132413274

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Lee S. The Moderating Effects of Online Streaming Content Service Characteristics on Online Word-of-Mouth for Service Performance. Applied Sciences. 2023; 13(24):13274. https://doi.org/10.3390/app132413274

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Lee, Sangjae. 2023. "The Moderating Effects of Online Streaming Content Service Characteristics on Online Word-of-Mouth for Service Performance" Applied Sciences 13, no. 24: 13274. https://doi.org/10.3390/app132413274

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