• Journal of Smart Tourism
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• v.3 no.4
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• pp.5-15
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• 2023

With the growing trend of online global market, customers have further technological capabilities in searching for information and online shopping on the Internet. In addition, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is a significant factor that influences customer purchase intention. However, the perspective of online users on hotel websites is still in its infancy, especially in various cultural contexts. The current study examined a theoretical framework of hotel websites to understand how online users perceive the importance of hotel websites with regard to influencing purchase intention, within the content of Thai online users through an online questionnaire survey. Findings show that usability positively influences online Thai users' satisfaction. Moreover, eWOM has a significant positive influence on satisfaction, but eWOM has an indirect effect on the intention to purchase. Practical implications are further discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.41 no.5
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• pp.809-824
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• 2017

Interest in and use of social media as a communication channel are consistently evolving; in addition therefore, corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities have been often conducted on online channels such as social media due to the advantages offered by the rapid spread of information. Consumers can be persuaded differently and their cognition can be influenced depending on who delivers what message. This study examines the influence of information source characteristics on eWOM acceptance of CSR messages and attitudes toward a company. This study compares cases: when a company sends their CSR message versus when an individual (i.e., consumer's acquaintance) sends the company's CSR message. A total of 320 respondents were presented with online stimuli and responded to the questionnaire to identify this phenomenon. Vegan fashion (which refers to products made from raw materials without animal cruelty) was used as stimuli in this study because it is a representative example of CSR activities. As a result, when consumers are exposed to CSR messages online, perceived expertise, trustworthiness and attractiveness of information source affect consumer's electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) acceptance and attitude toward a company. However, only trustworthiness influences eWOM acceptance in cases of a corporation information source. This study confirms the differences in eWOM acceptance and in attitudes to the company depending on to whom the messages were sent and with what content.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.131-154
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• 2013

New internet technologies have created a revolutionary new platform which allows consumers to make decision about product price and quality quickly and provides information about themselves through the transcript of online reviews. By expressing their feelings toward products or services on virtual opinion platforms, users extend their influence into cyberspace as electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Existing research indicates that an impact of eWOM on the consumer decision process is influential. For both academic researchers and practitioners, investigating this phenomenon of information sharing in online website is essential given the increasing number of consumers using them as sources of purchase decisions. It is worthwhile to examine the extent to which opinion seekers are willing to accept and adopt online reviews and which factors encourage adoption. Discerning the most motivating aspects of information adoption in particular, could help electronic marketers better promote their brand and presence on the internet. The objectives of this study are to investigate how online WOM influences a persons' purchase decision by discovering which factors encourage information adoption. Especially focused on the self-efficacy, this research investigates how self-efficacy affects on information usefulness and adoption of online information. Although people are exposed to same review or comment about product or service, some accept the reviews while others do not. We notice that accepting online reviews mainly depends on the person's preference or personal characteristics. This study empirically examines this issue by using cognitive dissonance theory. Specifically, in the movie industry, we address few questions-is always positive WOM generating positive effect? What if the movie isn't the person's favorite genre? What if the person who is very self-assertive so doesn't take other's opinion easily? In these cases of cognitive dissonance, is always WOM generating same result? While many studies have focused on one direct of WOM which indicates positive (or negative) informative reviews or comments generate positive (or negative) results and more (or less) profits, this study investigates not only directional properties of WOM but also how people change their opinion towards product or service positive to negative, negative to positive through the online WOM. An experiment was conducted quantitatively by using a sample of 168 users who have experience within the online movie review site, 'Naver Movie'. Users were required to complete a survey regarding reviews and comments taken from the real movie page. The data reflected user's perceptions of online WOM information that determined users' adoption level. Analysis results provide empirical support for the proposed theoretical perspective. When user can't agree with the opinion of online WOM information, in other words, when cognitive dissonance between online WOM information and users' preference occurs, perceived self-efficacy significantly decreases customers' perception of usefulness. And this perception of usefulness plays an important role in determining users' intention to adopt online WOM information. Most of researches have been concentrated on characteristics of online WOM itself such as quality or vividness of information, credibility of source and direction of online WOM, etc. for describing effect of online WOM, but our results suggest that users' personal character (e.g., self-efficacy) plays decisive role for acceptance of online WOM information. Higher self-efficacy means lower possibility to accept the information that represents counter opinion because of cognitive dissonance, whereas the people that have lower self-efficacy are willing to accept the online WOM information as true and refer to purchase decision. This study suggests a model for understanding role of direction of online WOM information. Also, our result implicates the importance of online review supervision and personalized information service by confirming switching opinion negative to positive is more difficult than positive to negative through the online WOM information. This implication would help marketers to manage online reviews of their products or services.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Costume
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• v.65 no.6
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• pp.25-35
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• 2015

The purpose of this study is to investigate the characteristics of members and communities that have significant influence in the online fashion community through their word-of-mouth activities. In order to identify the influence and the diffusion of word-of-mouth in fashion community, the study selected one online fashion community. Then, the study sorted the online posts and comments made on fashion information and put them into the matrix form to perform social network analysis. The result of the analysis is as follows: First, the fashion community network used in the study has many active members that relay information very quickly. Average time for information diffusion is very short, taking only one or two days in most cases. Second, the influence of word-of-mouth is led by key information produced from only a few members. The number of influential members account for less than 20% of the total number of community members, which indicate high level of degree centrality. The diffusion of word-of-mouth is led by even fewer members, which represent high level of betweenness centrality, compared to the case of degree centrality. Third, component characteristic shares similar information with about 70% of all members being linked to maximize information influence and diffusion. Fourth, a node with high degree centrality and betweenness centrality shares similar interests, presenting strain effect to particular information. Specially, members with high betweenness centrality show similar interests with members of high degree centrality. The members with high betweenness centrality also help expansion of related information by actively commenting on posts. The result of this research emphasizes the necessity of creation and management of network to efficiently convey fashion information by identifying key members with high level of information influence and diffusion to enhance the outcome of online word-of-mouth.

• The Research Journal of the Costume Culture
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.478-493
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• 2013

The purpose of this study is to examine the online WOM effect of blog review depending on brand awareness and message direction. The theory of planned behavior was applied to understand online WOM acceptance. A survey was conducted targeting female in 20s and 30s and 312 questionnaires were used for analysis. Frequency analysis, reliability analysis, t-test, and regression analysis were conducted using SPSS ver. 18.0. The results are as follows. First, purchase intention and online re-WOM intention are higher when brand awareness is higher. Second, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, WOM acceptance intention, purchase intention and off-line re-WOM intention show higher values when negative information is afforded. Third, in type 1 (high brand awareness/positive message) and type 3 (low brand awareness/positive message), attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have a positive effect on WOM acceptance intention. In type 2 (high brand awareness/negative message), subjective norm and attitude have a positive effect on WOM acceptance intention. In type 4 (low brand awareness/negative message), subjective norm and perceived behavioral control have a positive effect on WOM acceptance intention. Forth, in type 1 and type 3, WOM acceptance intention has a positive effect on purchase intention, offline re-WOM intention and online re-WOM intention. In type 2 and type 4, WOM acceptance intention has a negative effect on purchase intention, and a positive effect on offline re-WOM intention. The results show that blog review has ripple effect on consumer behavior by affecting purchase intention and offline re-WOM intention.

• Journal of Intelligence and Information Systems
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• v.20 no.1
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• pp.49-65
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• 2014

Word of Mouth (WOM) is a behavior used by consumers to transfer or communicate their product or service experience to other consumers. Due to the popularity of social media such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, and online communities, electronic WOM (e-WOM) has become important to the success of products or services. As a result, most enterprises pay close attention to e-WOM for their products or services. This is especially important for movies, as these are experiential products. This paper aims to identify the network factors of an online movie community that impact box office revenue using social network analysis. In addition to traditional WOM factors (volume and valence of WOM), network centrality measures of the online community are included as influential factors in box office revenue. Based on previous research results, we develop five hypotheses on the relationships between potential influential factors (WOM volume, WOM valence, degree centrality, betweenness centrality, closeness centrality) and box office revenue. The first hypothesis is that the accumulated volume of WOM in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The second hypothesis is that the accumulated valence of WOM in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The third hypothesis is that the average of degree centralities of reviewers in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The fourth hypothesis is that the average of betweenness centralities of reviewers in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. The fifth hypothesis is that the average of betweenness centralities of reviewers in online product communities is positively related to the total revenue of movies. To verify our research model, we collect movie review data from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), which is a representative online movie community, and movie revenue data from the Box-Office-Mojo website. The movies in this analysis include weekly top-10 movies from September 1, 2012, to September 1, 2013, with in total. We collect movie metadata such as screening periods and user ratings; and community data in IMDb including reviewer identification, review content, review times, responder identification, reply content, reply times, and reply relationships. For the same period, the revenue data from Box-Office-Mojo is collected on a weekly basis. Movie community networks are constructed based on reply relationships between reviewers. Using a social network analysis tool, NodeXL, we calculate the averages of three centralities including degree, betweenness, and closeness centrality for each movie. Correlation analysis of focal variables and the dependent variable (final revenue) shows that three centrality measures are highly correlated, prompting us to perform multiple regressions separately with each centrality measure. Consistent with previous research results, our regression analysis results show that the volume and valence of WOM are positively related to the final box office revenue of movies. Moreover, the averages of betweenness centralities from initial community networks impact the final movie revenues. However, both of the averages of degree centralities and closeness centralities do not influence final movie performance. Based on the regression results, three hypotheses, 1, 2, and 4, are accepted, and two hypotheses, 3 and 5, are rejected. This study tries to link the network structure of e-WOM on online product communities with the product's performance. Based on the analysis of a real online movie community, the results show that online community network structures can work as a predictor of movie performance. The results show that the betweenness centralities of the reviewer community are critical for the prediction of movie performance. However, degree centralities and closeness centralities do not influence movie performance. As future research topics, similar analyses are required for other product categories such as electronic goods and online content to generalize the study results.

• The Journal of Industrial Distribution & Business
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.19-27
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• 2021

Purpose: This study investigated the impact of key factors such as service quality, perceived benefit and brand familiarity on a consumer's intention to order online food delivery (OFD). In addition, mediating effect of electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) between relationships among selected key variables and OFD purchase intention is also assessed. Research design, data and methodology: This explanatory, quantitative study employed convenience sampling and collected data through online structured questionnaire from 304 respondents who are users of OFD apps based in greater Klang valley region of Malaysia. The data was then subjected to normality and reliability assessment followed by confirmatory factor analysis, validity assessment and structural equation modelling using IBM SPSS AMOS 24.0. Results: Findings revealed that service quality, perceived benefits and brand familiarity affects purchase intention positively and significantly. Perceived benefits demonstrated highest impact on purchase intention followed by brand familiarity and service quality. Findings also suggest that e-WOM fully mediates relationship between brand familiarity and purchase intention, however, the same was not observed for remaining two variables. Conclusions: The study has enriched OFD literature by investigating impact of selected key factors on purchase intention in the context of OFD. Implications, limitations and future research avenues are then discussed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Clothing and Textiles
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• v.38 no.2
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• pp.216-230
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• 2014

The importance of the Chinese fashion market is increasing; therefore, this study investigates the possibility of implementing a Word-of-Mouth (WOM) marketing strategy among Chinese students in Korea. This study examines the effects of consumer characteristics (similarity, opinion leadership, and fashion innovativeness), awareness of Korean fashion brands, satisfaction with Korean fashion products on WOM experiences and WOM behavior (off-line as well as on-line). A total of 161 responses from Chinese students in Korea were gathered and analyzed using SPSS 20.0 for descriptive statistics, factor analysis, and regression analysis. The results show that consumer characteristics (except similarity) significantly influence WOM experiences, opinion leadership influence off-line WOM behavior, and fashion innovativeness influence online WOM behavior. However, similarity has no influence on WOM experiences and WOM behavior. Second, Korean brand awareness affect both WOM experiences and behavior; however, satisfaction with Korean fashion products only affected WOM experiences. This study showed the feasibility of conducting a WOM marketing strategy using the WOM effects of Chinese students in Korea. The study may help the Korean apparel industries establish an entry strategy for the Chinese market.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.13 no.3
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• pp.209-231
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• 2011

Internet is having strong impact on the consumer's decision making process. Information search has been done actively through internet today. The online reviews can be crucial information cue to evaluate the alternarive products. The online WOM(Word-Of-Mouth) effect depends on the characteristics of information sender, receiver, and WOM. This study is to examine the influence of the online word of mouth on the consumer purchase intention and the moderating role of product involvement, consumer regulatory focus and self-efficacy. Positive customer reviews on the products influence the purchase intention positively and negative customer reviews influence it negatively. Moderating role of involvement in the causal relation between the valence of online reviews and purchase intention is tested. In case of positive WOM, it is predicted that purchase intention for high involvement products is higher than that of low involvement. In case of negative WOM, purchase intention for high involvement product is lower than that of low involvement product. And this study invetigate the moderating role of regulatory focus. In case of positive WOM, it is predicted that promotion focus oriented consumers have higher purchase intention than prevention focus oriented consumers. In case of negative WOM, prediction is that prevention focus oriented consumers have lower purchase intention than promotion focus oriented consumers. Then we examine the moderating role of self efficacy in the causal relation between the valence of online reviews and purchase intention. In case of positive WOM, it is predicted that consumers with low self efficacy have higher purchase intention than consumers with high self efficacy. In case of negative WOM, it is predicted that consumers with low self efficacy have lower purchase intention than consumers with high self efficacy. Emprical results support our prediction and four hypotheses derived from our conceptual framework are all accepted. This study suggest that the level of product involvement, consumer regulatory focus and the level of self-efficacy influence the consumer responses of the valence of online reviews. Therefore marketers need to manage online reviews based on the level of product involvement, regulatory focus orientation and the level of self-efficacy of target consumers.

• Journal of Digital Convergence
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• v.16 no.3
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• pp.145-156
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• 2018

Unlike the past, when distributors distributed games through retail stores, they are now selling digital content, which is based on online distribution channels. This study analyzes the effects of eWOM (electronic Word of Mouth) on sales volume of game sold on Steam, an online digital content distribution channel. Recently, data mining techniques based on Big Data have been studied. In this study, emotion index of eWOM is derived by emotional analysis which is a text mining technique that can analyze the emotion of each review among factors of eWOM. Emotional analysis utilizes Naive Bayes and SVM classifier and calculates the emotion index through the SVM classifier with high accuracy. Regression analysis is performed on the dependent variable, sales variation, using the emotion index, the number of reviews of each game, the size of eWOM, and the user score of each game, which is a rating of eWOM. Regression analysis revealed that the size of the independent variable eWOM and the emotion index of the eWOM were influential on the dependent variable, sales variation. This study suggests the factors of eWOM that affect the sales volume when Korean game companies enter overseas markets based on steam.