TRUSTWORTHINESS OF COMPANY GENERATED CONTENT

AND EMPLOYEE GENERATED ONLINE CONTENT : An

Exploratory study on Indian Youth

Student Name- Gargi Choudhury

(KHR2014PGDM24F119)

Vaibhav Vyas

(KHR2014PGDM24F148)

Batch- PGDM- IT

February, 2015

Institute For Technology & Management

Navi Mumbai, kharghar

Guided by- Prof. Neena Nanda

ITM Business School, Kharghar

TRUSTWORTHINESS OF COMPANY GENERATED CONTENT AND

EMPLOYEE GENERATED ONLINE CONTENT : An Exploratory study on

Indian Youth

This study explores the Indian youth’s perception of Trustworthiness of

Company-Generated Content (CGC) and User-Generated Content (UGC) on the

Internet. CGC advertisements have content that is controlled by the company,

while UGC creations are owned and managed by users.

Keywords: user-generated content, blogging, blogs, YouTube, banner ads,

online marketing, internet advertising, email marketing

1. INTRODUCTION

The internet is now being used as the most powerful medium by both companies and customers.

Advertisements on the Internet usually fall under two categories: Company Generated Content

(CGC) and User-Generated Content (UGC).

Company-Generated Content is a type of online content that is created and managed directly by

companies. CGC formats include banner advertisements, email marketing, and company blogs.

User- Generated Content, on the other hand, is initiated, managed and, most of the time, owned by

users themselves. Common UGC formats include third-party blogs, forums and wikis, and content

sharing sites.

Company-Generated Content (CGC)

Advertisements whose content is initiated, owned, and managed by the company fall under the

CGC type of Internet advertising. Commonly used CGC advertisement formats include email

marketing, official blog sites, and banner advertisements.

Email marketing-

Email marketing is the use of email as a means of communicating commercial messages to an

audience. It can be used by companies to send targeted messages to a captured market.

Official blog sites-

A blog is a website consisting of text, images, audio, video. Companies

usually set up official blogs to update customers on news about the company and its products.

Banner advertisements-

When clicked, the banner image redirects the user to another website featuring the company or

product being advertised.

User-Generated Content (UGC)

Advertisements whose content originates from users not related to the company are called User-

Generated Content (UGC). In UGC, users own and control information. Common UGC

advertisement formats include third-party blogs, forums and wikis, and content sharing sites.

Third-party blogs-

Free blogging platforms enabled users to easily create and manage their own blogs.

Forums and wikis-

A forum is an online discussion site while a wiki is a site that allows users to add, remove, and edit

content. Both rely on collaborative effort from a multitude of users who may not personally know

each other. As collaborative platforms with no intervention from companies, forums and wikis

become avenues where users can exchange positive and even negative comments about products

and services.

Content sharing sites-

Content sharing sites allow users to share media content. Examples are LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook

and YouTube.com.

2. METHODOLOGY

Target respondents were selected through simple random sampling method, with those aged

between 18 and 40 living in Kharghar, Navi Mumbai being chosen to answer the survey. Due to

time constraints, only respondents from ITM college and ITM hostel. The total number of

respondents were 50.

The questionnaire used a Likert-type 5- point numerical scale ranging from 1(“Not at all) to

5(Very). In CGC & UGC respondents rated the five channels of each in terms of credibility,

importance and trustworthiness. They are : For CGC, (i) Banner Advertisements (ii) Email

marketing (iii) Company blogs (iv) Company websites (v) Company social networking page.

For UGC, (i) Oral Person-to-Person Communication (ii) Third Party Blogs (iii) Content Sharing

sites (iv) Forums and Wikis (v) Social Networking Page. These channels were chosen because they

are the common channels used today to influence the Indian youth.

For Data Analysis IBM SPSS Statistics 20 and Microsoft Excel were used.

3. RESULTS

In our survey Fifty-four percent (54 %) i.e. 27 of the respondents are females, while Twenty-three

percent (46%) i.e. 23 are males, out of 50 (Table 1). The average numbers of respondents are of age

group 18-24 year. Almost 30 of the respondents are graduate the rest 18 are Post graduate. In our

survey respondents occupations were 31 of them are students where 2 are government employee, 13

are working on private firms, the rest are running their own business. Marital Status- 36 of the

respondents are single whereas 13 are married. 39 of the respondents lives in urban area whereas 11

respondents lives in sub urban areas. 100% of respondents use internet and Forty-four percent

(44%) use internet every hour. Maximum people in our survey use internet for gathering

information about product and services and for social networking.

Table 1: Respondents Age and Gender count

Row Labels Count of Age

Count of Gender

>40 10 10

Female 6 6

Male 4 4

18 - 24 33 33

Female 14 14

Male 19 19

24 -40 7 7

Female 3 3

Male 4 4

Grand Total 50 50

Graph 1: Respondents Age and Gender count

Hypothesis 1: Trustworthiness of UGC v/s CGC on online content

The Paired T test is used to evaluate the trustworthiness of UGC and CGC on online content. This

test is appropriate to find out the trustworthiness of UGC and CGC on online content. The paired

consider for this survey are the CPC and UGC.

The Result of paired t test-

H0:- There is no significant difference between trustworthiness of UGC and CGC on online

content.

H1:- There is significant difference between trustworthiness of UGC and CGC on online content.

From the output: T= 1.364 with degree of freedom 49

p= 0.179 (table 2)

Conclusion:- since p value = 0.179 > 0.05 , we fail to reject the null hypothesis.

Hence, we accept the null hypothesis that means there is no significant difference between

trustworthiness of UGC and CGC on online content.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

14

16

18

20

Female Male Female Male Female Male

>40 18 - 24 24 -40

Count of Age

Count of Gender

Table 2: Paired Sample Statistics

Hypothesis 2: Overall importance to UGC and CGC.

The Correlation is used to evaluate overall importance to UGC and CGC.

The result of correlation-

H0:- There is no significant correlation between overall importance of UGC and CGC content.

H1:- There is significant correlation between overall importance of UGC and CGC content.

From the output:

Mean of overall importance of UGC= 16.5200

Mean of overall importance of CGC= 17.4400

Significant 2-tailed value(p) = 0.010

Since the significant 2-tailed value (p) is less than 0.05(table 3), we reject the null hypothesis (H0)

and accepts H1.

Conclusion- There is no significant correlation between overall importance of UGC and CGC

content.

Table 3: Correlation Statistics

Hypothesis 3: Source credibility of CGC.

Chi square test is done to evaluate the source credibility of CGC.

The result of chi square test-

H0 :- there is no significant association of source credibility of CGC.

H1 :- there is significant Association of source credibility of CGC.

From the output:

Significant 2-tailed value (p) = 0.015 (table 4)

Since the significant 2-tailed value is less than 0.05, we reject the null hypothesis and accepts H1.

Conclusion- there is no significant association of source credibility of CGC.

Table 4: Chi_Square tests

Hypothesis 4: Gender wise importance given to UGC and CGC

Independent t test is done to evaluate the Gender wise importance given to UGC and CGC.

The result of chi square test-

H0 :- There is no significant difference between Gender wise importance given to UGC and CGC..

H1 :- There is significant difference between Gender wise importance given to UGC and CGC..

From the output:

Overall importance to UGC, Significant 2-tailed value (Equal variances not assumed)(p)= 0.505

Overall importance to CGC, Significant 2-tailed value (Equal variances not assumed)(p)= 0.675

Since the significant 2-tailed value for both UGC and CGC are less than 0.05 (Table 5), therefore

we reject Null hypothesis and accepts H1.

Conclusion: From the above results we can say that gender wise there is no importance given to

UGC and CGC.

Table 5: Independent T test

4. CONCLUSION

An analysis of source credibility is essential because past studies have shown that high credibility

perceptions ultimately lead to message effectiveness and favorable attitudes toward the brand

(Friedman & Friedman, 1979; Ohanian, 1990; Erdogan, 1999). Thus, companies must struggle with

building credibility on the Internet in the face of competition with other providers of information.

With the widespread popularity of UGC, this competition now includes the company’s own target

customers.

The results of this study provide a few number of theoretical insights. First, this study says that

there is no significant difference in trustworthiness of company generated and user generated

content. Indian youth believe on both User Generated Content and Company Generated Content.

Secondly, the Indian youth give importance to both User Generated Content and Company

Generated Content. Thirdly, there is no difference in perception of User Generated Content and

Company Generated Content because of gender of Indian youth.

5. LIMITATIONS AND FUTURE RESEARCH

The use of convenience sampling limits the generalizability of the study’s result. At best, the

conclusions of the study only apply to the youth of Navi Mumbai, Maharashtra. Future studies may

utilize probabilistic sampling methods to address this limitation.

The definition of credibility can also be refined in future research. This study focused on perceived

trustworthiness of the source, but other factors may be considered as expertise of the source,

justifiability of information presented, and attitudinal disposition of the recipient (Hovland &

Weiss, 1951; Chu & Kamal, 2008; Flanagin & Metzger, 2008).

In conclusion, an understanding of the youth’s attitudes and behavior on the Internet and of their

online relationship with companies – and also among themselves – becomes particularly important

as the Internet becomes an integral part of the lives of the youth.

6. REFRENCES

Andrew J. Flanagin ⇑ , Miriam J. Metzger 1 Trusting expert- versus user-generated ratings online:

The role of information volume, valence, and consumer characteristics. Department of

Communication, University of California, Santa Barbara, Santa Barbara, CA 93106, United States.

Computers in Human Behavior 29 (2013) 1626–1634

Aditi Gupta. A survey on Analyzing and Measuring Trustworthiness of User-Generated Content on

Twitter during High-Impact Events.

Sandeep Krishnamurthy, Wenyu Dou.(2008) NOTE FROM SPECIAL ISSUE EDITORS:

ADVERTISING WITH USER-GENERATED CONTENT: A FRAMEWORK AND RESEARCH

AGENDA

IAB Platform Status Report: User Generated Content, Social Media, and Advertising — An

Overview (April 2008)

Turner,Hopkins. Report for Ofcom: The Value of User-Generated Content

21 June 2013

Andrew N. Smith, ⁎ Eileen Fischer & Chen Yongjian. How Does Brand-related User-generated

Content Differ across YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter? Schulich School of Business, York

University, 4700 Keele St., Marketing Department, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3

JoAnn T. Hackos, Comtech Services. User-Generated Content White Paper

Xavier Ochoa, Erik Duval. Quantitative Analysis of User-Generated Content on the Web

Appendix 1: Questionnaire

1. What is your Age? (Please tick the appropriate answer)

a. < 18 b. 18 – 24

c. 24 – 40 d. > 40

2. What is your Gender? (Please tick the appropriate answer)

a. Male b. Female

3. What is your Qualification? (Please tick the appropriate answer)

a. Secondary b. SSC c. Graduate b. Post Graduate e. Ph.D.

4. What is your Occupation? (Please tick the appropriate answer)

a. Student b. Government Employee

c. Private Sector d. Self Employed e. Others

5. What is your current marital status?

a. Divorced b. Living with another c. Married

d. Separated e. Single f. Would rather not say

6. Which of the following best describes the area you live in? (Please tick the appropriate answer)

a. Urban b. Suburban c. Rural

7. Do you use Internet? (Please tick the appropriate answer)

a. Yes b. No

8. If Yes, how often you use Internet? (Please tick the appropriate answer)

a. 2 – 3 times a month b. 2 – 3 times a week

c. Daily d. Every hour

9. Why do you use Internet? (Please tick the appropriate answer, can select multiple answers)

a. For gathering information about products & services

b. For social networking

c. For E-commerce

d. For company purpose

e. For other purposes. Please specify................................................

10. How often you search in Internet for information? (Please tick the appropriate answer)

a. Never b. Few times c. Every time

11. Do you trust on the online content shown to you? (Please tick the appropriate answer)

a. Yes b. No c. Sometimes

12. How you become aware of company generated information? (Please tick the appropriate

answer, you can select multiple options)

a. Banner Advertisements b. Email marketing

c. Company Blogs d. Company websites

e. Company social networking page

13. How much importance you give to company generated content shown on internet?

Rate on the scale of 1 – 5

1 – Not at all important 2 – Less important

3 – Neither 4 – Important

5 – Very Important

a. Banner Advertisements .......

b. Email marketing .......

c. Company Blogs .......

d. Company websites .......

e. Company social networking page .......

14. How you become aware of user generated information? (Please tick the appropriate answer,

you can select multiple options)

a. Oral Person-person communication b. Thrid party blog

c. Content sharing sites d. Forums and wikis

e. Social networking sites

15. How much importance you give to user generated content shown on internet?

Rate on the scale of 1 – 5

1 – Not at all important 2 – Less important

3 – Neither 4 – Important

5 – Very Important

a. Oral Person-person communication .......

b. Thrid party blog .......

c. Content sharing sites .......

d. Forums and wikis .......

e. Social networking page .......

16. Rate on the scale of 1 – 5

1 – Strongly Disagree 2 – Disagree

3 – Neutral 4 – Agree

5 – Strongly Agree

Trustworthiness

User Generated Content Company Generated Content

Content Is True 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Content Is Geniune 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Content Is Trustworthy 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Content Is Dependable 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5

Content Is Important 1 2 3 4 5 1 2 3 4 5