In the digital age, consumers have changed their roles from passive receivers of marketing messages to active information suppliers about products through various digital media. The communication between consumers which occurs online is termed electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication. Electronic word of mouth communication is an integral part of e-commerce. With the exponential growth of internet users and their adoption of eWOM for product information, it has become important to study the factors responsible for the effectiveness of eWOM. This chapter investigates the traditional WOM and eWOM literature to explore its status. A summary of eWOM communication has been presented to summarize prior studies of eWOM which is aligned with basic communication processes. The research papers (literature) have been segregated into eight categories: WOM, eWOM, eWOM impact, source credibility, message characteristics, receiver characteristics, eWOM platform, and response after eWOM adoption. Finally, several strategies are discussed for theoretical and empirical exploration.
Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has become one of the influential sources of information in recent times. However, the emergence of digital media and the huge volume has made it difficult to evaluate its credibility. The main purpose of this article is to determine the factors influencing Electronic word of mouth source credibility for durable products in India. Further, this study examines to what extent business analytics tools are used in the research of eWOM source credibility. The findings suggest that the source trustworthiness and source expertise significantly contribute to eWOM source credibility which further influences the purchase intention, brand awareness, and consumer attitude. The real-time information is not getting captured through business analytics tools. The marketers and practitioners can benefit from this study by understanding phenomenon of the eWOM source credibility and influence on overall consumer behaviour. The study further suggests building an eWOM analytics system and provides future research directions.
In the digital age, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication has grown to be the most powerful influence on customer behaviour. However, the growing body of evidence raises concerns about credibility and eWOM quality. Various factors related to the source, message, medium and receiver of eWOM were collected by an extensive literature review. Aiming to synthesise existing research, this study seeks to determine the factors that contribute to eWOM's success as a wholesome construct. It also operationalises eWOM's measure. The research design of this study is quantitative and uses a structured questionnaire to collect data from eWOM givers and seekers in the online environment. The scale items were gathered from previous research and tested for dimensionality using „Factor Analysis‟ to validate the eWOM construct. There is evidence to show that eWOM effectiveness can be measured to determine purchase intention. E-commerce has developed rapidly, and it is time to take advantage of this growth by measuring the eWOM construct comprehensively from a customer‟s perspective.
The technological advancement in the usage of social networking sites (SNSs) has grown beyond boundaries. This expansion helps organizations to capture the attention of online customers towards their products and services. The primary purpose of the study is to list the drivers of eWOM credibility and explore its role in customer engagement at SNSs. A conceptual model that categorizes source credibility, trustability, knowledge, tie strength, and homophily are identified as the drivers of eWOM source credibility in SNSs. Similarly, valence, volume, consistency, emotions, quality, and rating are listed as the drivers of eWOM message credibility. This study suggested that drivers of eWOM will impact on customer engagement and that will, in turn, result in building a positive attitude, brand image, and behaviour towards the product or service listed in the SNSs. Further, the study discusses the theoretical and managerial implications in engaging customers through eWOM.
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