TITLE:
Qualitative Evidence for a Behavioral Extension of the Expectancy Valence Theory: The Netflix-Twitter-Yakult Case
AUTHORS:
Ashish Varma
KEYWORDS:
Expectancy-Value Theory, Twitter, Qualitative Method
JOURNAL NAME:
Theoretical Economics Letters,
Vol.8 No.15,
December
5,
2018
ABSTRACT: The Netflix movie “To all the boys I’ve loved
before” released in the USA on 17th Aug 2018 was linked to a substantial
increase in sales of the probiotic drink Yakult. This study probes the
phenomenon with an analysis of tweets for the first three weeks after the
release of the movie and also assesses reasons for the phenomenon with the
theoretical underpinning of the Expectancy Valence (EV) theory. The first
section of the study was conducted by undertaking a probe on 1922 tweets made
during 17th Aug 2018 (the release date of the movie in the USA) till 6th September
2018. The second part of the study was conducted by taking intensive in-depth
interviews of the target segment after 6th September 2018. The study highlights
the growing significance of social media in shaping the sentiments by
influencing perception and opinion (valence), which eventually influences the
sales of products (expectation). The study found out that the sharp increase in
sales was due to positive behavioral sentiment created by the social media.