기업태도가 소비자의 기업루머 신뢰에 미치는 영향 - 루머유형, 메시지 강도와 반박 전략을 중심으로 -

초록

As consumers are being inundated with information about companies from various media sources including the internet and SNS, many companies in the social sphere are experiencing the effects of both positive and negative rumors. The goal of this study is (1) to investigate potential factors affecting consumers’ trust in rumors and (2) to examine any interaction effects among the factors and (3) to provide marketers with an effective refutation strategy against rumors. Study 1 analyzes the effect of message strength, corporate attitude, and types of rumors that affect the level of trust of those rumors by consumers. The results show that consumers tend to trust rumors where the messages are strong. In addition, consumers with positive attitude toward a corporation tend to trust positive rumors while those with negative corporate attitude are more likely to trust negative rumors. This may be because consumers evaluate information with their own motivation, and recognize information unmatched with the motivation as unreliable due to their motivated skepticism even when strong messages have high persuasive power. However, when messages are weak, consumers' trust in rumors is not significantly different by rumor type or corporate attitude. Study 2 examines the influence of message strength, corporate attitude, and refutation of corporations on consumers' trust in rumors. When the relationship between consumers and the corporation is positive, consumers are more likely to refuse negative rumors and accept excuses provided by the company. However, when the relationship is negative and messages are strong, consumers tend to trust rumors when refutation style is weak. In contrast, aggressive refutation by the corporation results in consumers trusting the rumors when messages strength is weak. Therefore, companies should not aggressively refute rumors if message strength is weak. The results of this study provide marketers with appropriate and effective strategies to implement in response to company rumors.

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