@Organisation in complaint tweets as a trigger for webcare interactions An organization’s webcare is aimed at dealing with as many consumer complaints as possible. The question is what features of negative word-of-mouth tweets lead to more webcare response. From a pragmalinguistic perspective, we started with a brief overview of the speech act of complaining, and its illocutionary force which is communicated directly or indirectly. In two corpus analyses (with 6533 and 1479 negative word-of-mouth tweets), we examined the relations between the way consumers address an organization (operationalized as the position of @Organization in the negative word-of-mouth tweet) and the amount of webcare interaction between the organization and consumers. The results show that when a consumer places the addressed @Organization at the beginning of the tweet, this leads to a webcare-response more frequently than when @Organization occurs elsewhere in the tweet. In the second corpus analysis, the communicative function of @Organization (direct or indirect address) was included in the analysis. When @Organization was addressed directly, this resulted in more webcare interaction than when the organization was addressed indirectly.

According to Hall's context theory, people from different cultures may react differently to complex messages. The current study is the first empirical examination of context theory's role on message comprehension and appreciation. In a comparative survey-based study (N = 289), Belgian and Dutch participants judged 12 complex product advertisements with visual metaphors. As expected by context theory, perceived complexity was lower for Belgian (a higher-context culture) than for Dutch participants (a lower-context culture), and participants' personal context culture score fully accounted for this difference. Similarly, ad liking was higher for Belgian than for Dutch participants, and again, this difference was explained by context score.

Research problem: The purpose of the present study was to investigate whether style congruency on the dimensions succinct-elaborate and instrumental-affective influenced the persuasiveness of business newsletters in the Netherlands and Great Britain. Research question: Is a writing style more persuasive in a country with cultural preferences that are congruent with this writing style? Literature review: The purpose of the literature review was to present two theoretical frameworks for investigating cross-cultural differences in style preferences. Theories about cross-cultural differences in value orientations show that value orientations can be linked to cross-cultural differences in persuasion. Theories about cross-cultural differences in communication styles show that preferences for particular communication styles can be linked to cultural value orientations. Methodology: Two quantitative experimental studies were conducted among 344 business-to-business customers of a company in the Netherlands and Great Britain. Using seven-point scales, participants evaluated different versions of a newsletter on comprehensibility, attractiveness, and intention to order goods. Statistical analyses included general linear model (GLM) repeated measures and two-way ANOVAs. Results and discussion: Findings reveal limited differences between the Dutch and British participants in preferences for communication styles. Consequently, it may not be worthwhile for organizations to adjust the style of their documents to preferences in different cultures. A limitation of the current study was that it only investigated style preferences for one particular business genre (i.e., newsletters). Future research should investigate stylistic preferences in other business genres and in other cultures.

The alternative typologies of visual metaphors proposed by Forceville (1996, 2005) and Phillips and McQuarrie (2004) show some striking similarities with regard to disposition of the visual elements, that is, the source and target domains. The first part of this chapter summarizes the results of two experiments that tested the validity of these classifications with Spanish, French, and Dutch participants and proposes an overall image of the appreciation of the three visual metaphor types. The second part focuses on the interpretations of the metaphors by the Spanish, French, and Dutch participants in the second experiment, to verify whether culture influences the interpretation of the common ground in visual metaphor. We detected subtle cultural differences in focus and interpretive diversity.

With regard to the spatial distribution of pictorial elements in (monomodal) visual (or pictorial) metaphor three types of metaphor can be distinguished: Similes (where the target and source are visually presented separately), Hybrids (where target and source are fused together) and Contextual Metaphors (where either source or target is visually absent). In an experiment using authentic advertisements, it is tested whether consumers’ experience of deviation from expectation and complexity vary with regard to these three types of visual metaphor. Participants in Spain, France and the Netherlands took part in an Internet experiment. Results show that Hybrids are the preferred type of visual metaphor, that deviation from expectation and comprehension have a positive impact on appreciation, and that perceived complexity correlates negatively with appreciation. The effects for nationality are limited.

In a previous study, no effects were found applying Information Mapping® (IMAP) to a relatively short text. In three new experiments, we investigated whether text length and the presence or absence of typical IMAP format features would influence possible IMAP effects, and if there would be any interaction effects of the application of the IMAP method and reader characteristics. It turned out that when presented with a relatively long text, readers worked more effectively and efficiently with an IMAP version. Adding typical IMAP format features to an otherwise unaltered conventional text did not produce greater effectiveness but did result in greater efficiency and higher appreciation. No interaction effects were found of the respondents' linguistic background and the application of the IMAP method.

In a previous study, no effects were found applying Information Mapping® (IMAP) to a relatively short text. In three new experiments, we investigated whether text length and the presence or absence of typical IMAP format features would influence possible IMAP effects, and if there would be any interaction effects of the application of the IMAP method and reader characteristics. It turned out that when presented with a relatively long text, readers worked more effectively and efficiently with an IMAP version. Adding typical IMAP format features to an otherwise unaltered conventional text did not produce greater effectiveness but did result in greater efficiency and higher appreciation. No interaction effects were found of the respondents’ linguistic background and the application of the IMAP method.

In een eerder onderzoek naar de effecten van toepassing van de Information Mapping® methode (een methode voor het schrijven van documenten volgens een vaste ordening van informatietypen en met specifieke lay-out kenmerken) werd geconcludeerd dat gebruikers niet beter presteerden met de IMAP-tekst die werd getest dan met een bestaande traditioneel geschreven versie (Jansen, Korzilius, Le Pair & Roest, 2002; 2003). De IMAP-tekst bleek niet significant effectiever, noch significant efficienter dan de traditionele tekst. Ook kreeg de IMAP-versie van de respondenten niet een significant hoger rapportcijfer dan de originele versie. Factoren die een succes van de IMAP-methode in dit experiment mogelijk in de weg gestaan hebben, waren de relatief geringe lengte van de gebruikte teksten en het gegeven dat de respondenten niet gewend waren aan het gebruik van IMAP-teksten voor opzoektaken. Uit de beperkte literatuur die er over serieus empirisch onderzoek met IMAP-teksten beschikbaar is (zie voor een bespreking Jansen et al., 2002; 2003) kan niet worden afgeleid welke invloed van deze factoren te verwachten is. De IMAP-literatuur laat ook de vraag onbeantwoord aan welke elementen uit de IMAP-methode een mogelijke effect (of juist het uitblijven daarvan) kan worden toegeschreven. Als met een IMAP-versie van een tekst beter gepresteerd wordt dan met een traditionele variant van dezelfde tekst, welke elementen van de methode zijn dan verantwoordelijk voor die verbeterde prestaties? Speelt de inhoudelijke organisatie van de teksten volgens de

The use of English in advertising aimed at non-native speakers of English is claimed to enhance image and text evaluation and to have no negative impact on comprehension. We tested these claims using promotional websites aimed at Dutch youngsters. Dutch secondary school pupils evaluated a completely English and a partly English homepage and completely Dutch versions of these homepages. Each participant evaluated a version with English of one homepage and a completely Dutch version of the other homepage. No significant differences were found between the Dutch and English versions of the homepages regarding image of the product advertised, evaluation of the website, and intention to use the product. The Dutch version either scored better than the English version on text evaluation, or the differences between the versions were not significant. Respondents were better at describing the meaning of Dutch terms than of their English equivalents.

An important consideration in the field of intercultural communication is the difference in communication styles between cultures. Gudykunst and Ting-Toomey (1988) distinguish four dimensions of communication styles: direct - indirect, instrumental – affective, personal – contextual and succinct – elaborate. This last dimension is central to the present study. In an experiment the attractiveness and persuasiveness of a succinct and an elaborate business newsletter was investigated in two countries: Great Britain and the Netherlands. Findings show that, although respondents clearly recognized the style differences between the two newsletters, these style differences had a limited effect on respondents’ reactions to the newsletters. The study did not provide any evidence that there were differences between respondents from Great Britain and the Netherlands in their preference for a succinct or elaborate communication style.

Preview this article: Testing an Information Mapping® text: Does the method live up to the expectations?, Page 1 of 1 < Previous page | Next page > /docserver/preview/fulltext/dd.4.1.05jan-1.gif