What drives consumers to spread electronic word of mouth in online consumer‐opinion platforms

What drives consumers to spread electronic word of mouth in online consumer‐opinion platforms

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Article ID: iaor20123374
Volume: 53
Issue: 1
Start Page Number: 218
End Page Number: 225
Publication Date: Apr 2012
Journal: Decision Support Systems
Authors: ,
Keywords: e-commerce
Abstract:

The advance of the Internet facilitates consumers to share and exchange consumption‐related advice through online consumer reviews. This relatively new form of word‐of‐mouth communication, electronic word‐of‐mouth (eWOM) communication, has only recently received significant managerial and academic attention. Many academic studies have looked at the effectiveness of positive eWOM communication, examining the process by which eWOM influences consumer purchasing decisions. eWOM behavior is primarily explained from the individual rational perspective that emphasizes a cost and benefit analysis. However, we felt there was a need for an extensive study that examines consumers' motives for eWOM. In this paper, we focus on the factors that drive consumers to spread positive eWOM in online consumer‐opinion platforms. Building on the social psychology literature, we identified a number of key motives of consumers' eWOM intention and developed an associated model. We empirically tested the research model with a sample of 203 members of a consumer review community, OpenRice.com. The model explains 69% of the variance, with reputation, sense of belonging and enjoyment of helping other consumers significantly related to consumers' eWOM intention. The results of this study provide important implications for research and practice.

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