• Journal of Information Management
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• v.43 no.1
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• pp.109-134
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• 2012

This study, focusing on process of online Word-of-Mouth(oWOM) adoption in applications market which is a major issue of recent mobile industry, tried to empirically analyze how main characteristics of oWOM affect trust and process of oWOM adoption. To do this, based on understanding about applications market and precedent studies on online communication and Elaboration Likelihood Model(ELM), I developed the research model and proposed seven hypotheses. The subjects were smart phone users who ever used review in mobile applications market. The study method was questionnaire survey. As a result, trust in review was suggested as prerequisite for consumers to accept on-line review in mobile applications market. And it was empirically proved that for the customers to feel trust, these are necessary - positive assessment on argument quality, vividness of delivered explanation, and neutrality of message. The theoretical implications of this study are that based on studies on oWOM, factors affecting trust in review were explored in the environment of mobile applications market with less judgement clues for decision making compared to other on-line media and then, these factors were conceptualized. From the practical view, this study suggested implication on what attributes companies or developers can strategically utilize while investigating prerequisites of oWOM adoption.