| With the development of the economy and online shopping,the e-commerce industry has grown rapidly and IWOM has gradually become more important to consumers and platform merchants,with improving their own positive reviews becoming a way for platform merchants to build a competitive advantage and merchants to carry out word-of-mouth marketing based on this.It is consumers’ trust in word-of-mouth and the drive for profit that has led many merchants to interfere with user review behaviour and product review information by adopting marketing tactics such as false reviews and baiting reviews,in order to improve the quality of product user reviews and positive ratings to improve shop reputation and influence the shopping behaviour of potential consumers.Considering the concealment and complexity of review baiting behaviour of platform merchants,it is difficult for platforms to regulate this,and there is little research on review baiting behaviour of platform merchants.Therefore,it is of great practical significance to study the mechanism,effect and regulation strategy of review baiting behaviour of platform merchants in order to promote the high-quality development of e-commerce platforms.This paper combs through the relevant domestic and international literature on IWOM and induced review behaviour,focusing on social learning theory to lay the foundation for subsequent research.Firstly,an empirical study on the mechanism of merchant induced review behaviour is conducted by means of questionnaire research,a model is constructed using the theory of planned behaviour,and the intrinsic drivers and mechanisms of merchants adopting induced review behaviour are analysed through SPSS linear regression.On the basis of the above,a Bayesian conditional probability signalling game model is used to construct a decision model for the induced review behaviour of platform merchants,discuss two scenarios of whether to adopt the induced review behaviour,solve and analyse the optimal results of the model,analyse the impact of the behaviour on other merchants in the platform market based on the results,and simulate the changes in the online market from the data of the two market scenarios.Finally,two different regulatory measures are introduced,and corresponding policy recommendations are made to platform companies and other stakeholders.The following conclusions are obtained from the research and analysis:(1)The adoption of review elicitation behaviour by platform merchants is positively influenced by behavioural attitudes,subjective norms,perceived behavioural control,and behavioural intentions.(2)There are prerequisites for low-quality sellers to adopt the bait-and-switch review strategy,and sellers will only adopt this strategy when consumers are sensitive to the cost of cashback to a certain extent in order to achieve profitable results.This results in a critical value for consumers’ sensitivity to cashback,and a specific analysis of the feasible range.(3)The optimal rebate cost is obtained by optimising the profit function of low-quality sellers.The optimal rebate cost increases with the product price,but consumer sensitivity to rebates and the product market share of highquality merchants are not necessarily monotonically related.The equilibrium demand for both high and low quality products and the profits of both types of merchants are also obtained.(4)Induced review behaviour can only work in markets dominated by low-quality goods.The use of induced commentary strategies in a market dominated by high quality goods will not benefit low quality merchants,but will instead harm their profits.In addition,when the quality level of low-quality products rises,consumers are more likely to accept cashback and give positive reviews,and adopting an inducement to induce reviews strategy will also bring more profits to low-quality merchants.The findings of this paper are important theoretical support and practical guidance for better regulating the business management behaviour of platform merchants,creating a good market competition ecology and facilitating the high-quality development of the e-commerce industry. |
