How Electronic Word-of-Mouth Forms and Affects the Market Performance of Art Exhibitions

Jung Eun Kwon, Sang-Hoon Kim, Kyoung Cheon Cha

Jung Eun Kwon is a Ph.D. candidate in Marketing at the Graduate School of Business, Seoul National University. Her research focuses on arts and culture marketing.
Sang-Hoon Kim is a Professor of Marketing at the Graduate School of Business, Seoul National University. His research interest lies in arts and entertainment marketing.
Kyoung Cheon Cha is an Associate Professor of Marketing at Department of Business Administration, Dong-A University. His research interests include forecasting and marketing dynamics.

ABSTRACT
With image-oriented social media growth, uploading “exhibition visit-proof photos” on social networking sites (SNS) has become a new trend, aligning with the promotional change made by major art museums, allowing visitors to take photos of artworks. This study identifies the antecedents of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) activities, particularly Instagram photo sharing, which corresponds to the representative image-oriented SNS. Drawing on the uses and gratifications theory and the cognitive-affective theory, this study identifies the important factors affecting the eWOM of art exhibitions. For instance, allowing taking photos and highlighting photogenic elements are the top influencing factors for photo sharing on Instagram. The seemingly unrelated regression analysis confirms the positive relationship between eWOM and market performance. The findings, especially how art museum marketing factors affect eWOM and market performance, can help art practitioners derive optimal marketing strategies for exhibitions.

KEYWORDS
Art exhibition, eWOM, art exhibition market performance, art exhibition marketing, image-oriented SNS, photo sharing