Differentiating superlative-type eWOM messages to derive potency-magnitude relations based on inference space model

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is an important information source that influences consumer product evaluations. The author previously developed a computational model, called an inference space model, that predicts potency-magnitude relations between eWOM messages by comparing their numerical values, called inference quantum values. This paper focuses on superlative type messages and formalizes a message differentiation, which classifies them into two kinds: y*-open and y*-in. The differentiation enables us to investigate the various classes of the messages with respect to their Q-magnitude relations, which are the results of comparing the inference quantum values. As a complement to the previous work, y*-in messages are investigated to know how the Q-magnitude relations of y*-in messages change depending on message and evaluation parameters. The results show that most of Q-magnitude relations of y*-in messages do not depend on the evaluation parameters and suggest that the message differentiation plays a key role to construct accurate prediction strategies based on the inference space model.