The Influence of Electronic Word of Mouth on Museum Cultural Products
Fang-Chi Huang, Associate Professor of Department of Cultural & Creative Enterprise Management, Nanhua University, Taiwan
ABSTRACT
In this era of internet, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is a means of referral in applications such as Facebook and Twitter, making it possible to reach potential customers. eWOM communities symbolize a significant source of information that helps consumers to make purchasing decision. In this study, we present a simple model for eWOM in museum cultural products on the maximize profits and introduce the case of Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum. The research serves not only contribute to the cultural economics literature, but also provides information to cultural authorities to make the strategy of cultural products. Keywords: eWOM ; Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum ; Cultural Economics
INTRODUCTION
In contemporary society, museums faced the fierce competition not only with other museums but also with providers of entertainment and recreational products. Trusov et al., [19] indicated that museums, in light of increasing operating costs and decreasing funding, it is essential that the marketing of strategies discuss referral among customers as a suitable and cost effective means of disseminating information and winning new customers. According to the research of Miller and Lammas [11], electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is a means of referral in applications such as Facebook and Twitter, making it possible to reach potential customers. Customer reviews and ratings have become relevant in service industry, owing to their intangibility and valuation challenges Non-profit organization like museums may need financial support from government to operate. However, government change the policy which made non-profit museums began focused on minimizing cost and maximizing revenue to make it profitable. The traditional learning or educational activities of non-profit museums was replaced by the tourism activities oriented. Duan et al. [5] found that word of mouth, included electronic form, is essential to visitors’ decision making. Henning and Walsh [7] indicated electronic word of mouth is defined as any positive or negative statement made by potential, current or former consumers; about a product or a company, which is useful for a multitude of people via the Internet. According to information adoption theories, Filieri and McLeay [6] demonstrated that consumers modify their behavior in line with the suggestions in online reviews. Cantallops and Salvi [4] reviewed research on eWOM and hotels industry. Wu et al.,[21] investigated the impact of review statistics on willingness to pay. Borgonovi [2] used logistic regression to show that many control variables do affect differently the frequency of participation. WOM plays an important role for the decision process of customers. However, until now not much has been researched on eWOM in museum context. In this study, we intended to present a simple model for eWOM in museum cultural products.
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The National Palace Museum (NPM) [12] located in Taipei and Taibao, Taiwan, has a permanent collection of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks. These artifacts include antiquities, paintings and calligraphy, historical documents and Asian artifacts, making them one of the world’s unique collections of cultural assets. The NPM is actively promoted as tourism attractions in tourism-related promotional materials and successfully attracted visitors from all over the world. The NPM has become a must visit cultural destination for foreign visitors in Taiwan. To achieve cultural equality between the northern and the southern regions of Taiwan, the Executive Yuan approved the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum (referred to as the “SBNPM”) [17] at Taibao, Chiayi County on Dec.31, 2004. In 2014, according to Executive Information System of Tourism Bureau in Taiwan, the number of visitors went to the NPM were 5,402,325, compared to 4,500,678 in 2013, increased 901,647(20.03%). It showed that the number of visitors had continued to grow in these years. In this study, we intended to present a simple model for eWOM in museum cultural products on the maximize profits; uncover the development conditions and future trends for the cultural products by analyzing the SBNPM located in Taibao. For the cultural authorities wanted to promote the cultural activities and cultural products, we give some suggestion. The research serves not only contribute to the cultural economics literature, but also provides information to cultural authorities to make the strategy of cultural products. The remainder of this paper organized as follows. Literature reviews for considering eWOM in museum cultural products were presented in section 2. Mathematical model developed for museum cultural products was presented in section 3. The development conditions for museum cultural products by analyzing the Southern Branch Museum were introduced in section 4. The final section concludes.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Henning and Walsh [7] indicated electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is defined as “any positive or negative statements made by potential, current, or former customers; about a product or a company, which is useful for a multitude of people and institutions via the Internet. Park and Lee [13], Yali and Bayram [22] demonstrated that the impact of eWOM on consumer’s purchase intentions. Terry and Ernest [18] found that WOM message valence interacts with brand type to affect attention differently. Siu et al., [15] have focused on analyzing museum visitors’ behaviors, expectations and attitudes. Wilco et al., [20] aim to investigate cultural museums’ potential to be tourism products and make them successful from a supply side perspective. Museums are one of the most important tourism products, making tourists be familiar with the local culture. Jansen Verbeke and Van Rekom [8] thought branding museums can attract more visitors to a region and then develop it as a cultural destination. Jalilvand, Esfahani, and Samiei [9] discussed the challenges and opportunities related to the use of eWOM communities and highlights their role in the customer decision-making process. Shi [14] advocated that consumer networks can be described as dense or loose depending on whether they encompass strong or weaker ties between individuals. Brynjolfsson, Hu, and Smith [3] point out that the eWOM Amazon.com contains a huge amount of product information created directly by customers in the form of reviews which enables the Long Tail formation. Anderson [1] found customer demand across a product space takes the form of a Power Law. From a mathematical point of view, Mahanti et al. [10] indicated the Long Tail is a manifestation of power-law relationships. Through eWOM, a great audience of consumers is able to acquire knowledge from reviews concerning products and services. eWOM communities symbolize a significant source of information that helps consumers to make purchasing
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decision. Nowadays, there is a lack of papers focusing on constructing models within eWOM system. Hence, in this study, we intended to present a conceptual model for eWOM in museum cultural products on the maximize profits.
MATHEMATICAL MODEL
Assume the cultural creative market for a product has n people, of whom x(t) know of the product.
' '' Their purchases generate profits of P x , where P (0) 0 , P (0) 0 and P 0 . People learn of the museum by sharing their thoughts and opinions with others through eWOM. At a cost C(u) ,
' '' whereC (0) 0, C 0 andC 0 , the museum influences the contact rateu(t) , the rate at which people discuss the museum. The x(t) knowledgeable people inform x(t)u(t) people, of whom only a fraction 1 x will be newly informed. Knowledgeable people forget at a constant proportionate rate b . The n purpose of this study is to present a simple model for eWOM in museum cultural products and find out the contact rate u(t) that maximizes the present value of the profit stream over the operation period 0 t . The following constrained maximization can represent the model:
rt Max [P(x) C(u)]dt (1) 0 e s.t. x ' bx xu (1 x / n ), 0 x n (2) From (2), x < n throughout since the positive term tends to zero as x approaches n . The current value Hamilton is 2 H P(x) C(u) m(bx xu x u / n) The optimal solution satisfies (2) and following conditions. ' C (u) mx(1 x / n), (3) ' ' m (r b u)m 2mxu / n P (x) (4) For the phase diagram analysis, differentiate (3) and use (1) to eliminate m . Use (3) and (4) to eliminatem' from the result. The resulting system is (2) and ' ' '' ' '' u r bx /(n x) C (u) /C (u) P (x)x(1 x / n) /C (u) (5) Let x' 0 along x 0 and for u bn /(n x) (6) When x approaches n , this is an increasing convex function that grows without bound. Above this locus, x is increasing; x decreases below the locus. The points (x , u) such that u' 0 satisfy ' ' C (u)Ph (x)x(1 x / n) / r bx / (n x) (x) (7)
CASE of Southern Branch of National Palace Museum
In this section, introduced the National Palace Museum (NPM) and Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum (SBNPM), data sources came from the website www.south.npm.gov.tw. The NPM located in Taipei and SBNPM located in Taibao, Taiwan, have a permanent collection of ancient Chinese imperial artifacts and artworks. The NPM is actively promoted as tourism attractions in
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tourism-related promotional materials and successfully attracted visitors from all over the world. To achieve cultural equality between the northern and the southern regions of Taiwan, the Executive Yuan approved the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum (SBNPM, referred to as the “Southern Branch Museum”) at Taibao, Chiayi County on Dec.31, 2004, positioning the museum as"an Asian art and Culture Museum". The SBNPM aims to "Focus on Asia" and to "Broaden Perspectives", striving to exhibit the cultural concepts and artistic accomplishments of Asia through interacting with overseas museum regarding exhibitions, research, preservation and maintenance paradigms. From the website www.south.npm.gov.tw showed that December 10, 2016 to March 5, 2017, the SBNPM launched “Japanese Art at Its Finest: Masterpieces from the Tokyo and Kyushu National Museums,” it was the finest exhibition of Japanese masterpieces with the largest scale that Taiwan has ever held. On July 3, 2017, the Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum signed an official memorandum of understanding for cooperation with Asian Art Museum of San Francisco. In order to achieve the mission of cultural equity between the NPM and SBNPM, the SBNPM continue to promote cultural diversity in Asia. According to the website www.npm.gov.tw showed the number of visitors went to the NPM in 2016 were 4,665,725, went to the SBNPM were 1,477,167. Figure 1 illustrates each month of visitors went to the NPM and SBNPM in 2016. Visitors went to the museum in January to February, June to July and September to October were the increased situation. In those periods were represented respectively Taiwan Lunar New Year, summer vacation and glorious October Festival. Silberberg (1995) found that museum visitors tend to be people with high education and income, the majority visitors tend to be seniors. Recently, schools arrange museum trips for their students during the week, on weekends, family groups are the main portion of visitors. Visitors are more interested in high quality, understandable and emotional experiences. In 2012, the NPM cooperated with Taoyuan International Airport to increase international visibility through the “Future Museum” exhibition which utilizes 3D display and interactive technologies for international visitors. The NPM intended to optimize digital access, NPM iPalace Channel is the cloud multimedia platform which tries to stimulate public activity in both the physical and digital dimensions of the museum.
Figure 1: No. of Visitors Went to the NPM and SBNPM in 2016
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CONCLUSION
In this era of internet, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is a means of referral in applications such as Facebook and Twitter, making it possible to reach potential customers. Through eWOM, a great audience of consumers is able to acquire knowledge from reviews concerning products and services. Museums are one of the most important tourism products, making tourists be familiar with the local culture. Branding museums can attract more visitors to a region and then develop it as a cultural destination. In this study, we present a simple model for eWOM in museum cultural products on the maximize profits and introduce the case of Southern Branch of the National Palace Museum. According to the website www.npm.gov.tw showed the number of visitors went to the NPM in 2016 were 4,665,725, went to the SBNPM were 1,477,167. Visitors went to the museum in January to February, June to July and September to October were represented respectively Taiwan Lunar New Year, summer vacation and glorious October Festival. Recently, the NPM intended to optimize digital access, NPM iPalace Channel is the cloud multimedia platform which tries to stimulate public activity in both the physical and digital dimensions of the museum.
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