Word-of-mouth (WOM) study is extended to the on-line context (eWOM) by examining the informational and normative determinants of the perceived credibility of on-line consumer recommendations. A survey of users of an on-line consumer discussion forum in China substantiated the effects of the determinants, although post-hoc analyses revealed that prior knowledge and involvement level moderate some of them. Implications for research and practice are discussed.KEY WORDS AND PHRASES: Credibility, eWOM, informational and normative infl uence, on-line consumer discussion forum.Following the development of network technology, the Internet is permeating almost every aspect of life. One recent phenomenon is the popularity of on-line consumer discussion forums. These consumer forums have millions of registered members with reportedly high hit rates. For instance, daily visits to the discussion forum of www.it168.com, a popular consumer forum in China, are reported to number more than 9 million (www.gdb2b.cn/company/ corporation_web.asp?id=536/). The attraction of the consumer forum is mainly due to a new form of word-of-mouth (WOM) communication, comprising vast amounts of consumer information on opinions and recommendations on vendors/products from experienced consumers. Researchers often refer to this on-line consumer sharing activity as electronic WOM (eWOM) [32,33]. eWOM connects diverse individual consumers and extends and opens up the WOM network from one's immediate contacts to the entire Internet world. As more people utilize product information from the eWOM network to make purchase decisions, the process by which they evaluate the credibility of online consumer recommendations becomes particularly interesting [32]. This is because eWOM arises from a possibly unlimited number of unknown participants, and the presence of vast amounts of unfi ltered information makes the information validity uncertain [22,23,59]. This could raise readers' suspicions about the believability of the on-line reviews [56]. People tend to deliberate on the credibility of eWOM to a greater extent than traditional WOM when seeking on-line product recommendations and will only take on-line advice that they perceive as credible [68]. Prior study has already demonstrated that credibility is one of the most important antecedents of eWOM adoption [47]. As McKnight and Kacmar noted, information credibility is a vital predictor

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Purpose -The proliferation and advance of web-based technologies create expanded opportunities for retailers to gain a better understanding of their customers. However, the success of these web-based discussion boards depends solely on whether customers are willing to share their knowledge and experience with other customers in these discussion boards. Thus, this study aims at identifying the factors that drive knowledge sharing among customers in web-based discussion boards. Design/methodology/approach -An exploratory study with 104 respondents was conducted to identify and categorize the key factors of customer knowledge sharing in web-based discussion boards. Findings -The results indicate that the enjoyment of helping others is the most frequently cited reason for customer knowledge sharing in web-based discussion boards. On the other hand, the lack of knowledge self-efficacy is the mostly cited reason explaining why customers do not want to share knowledge with others.Research limitations/implications -The exploratory analysis suggests that the underlying reasons that motivate and inhibit customers to share are very different. There is a need to integrate multiple theoretical perspectives from across the social and technical domains if this phenomenon is to be better understood. Practical implications -Building upon the findings of this study, some generic guidelines for retailers and web designers for promoting customer sharing in web-based discussion boards are outlined. Originality/value -This research is one of the first studies to use the socio-technical perspective to investigate customer knowledge sharing phenomena in web-based discussion boards.