This study explores the role of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in the consumer decision-making process when purchasing a holiday. Using an ethnographic approach, it explores the role of eWOM on consumers' attitudes toward online reviews (eReviews) and their subsequent behavior. Across the consumer decision-making processes -information search, evaluation, and purchase -the study develops a conceptual framework with three eWOM dimensions: (1) motivation, (2) source, and (3) content. Findings explore the variations of eWOM's influence across the decisionmaking stages with implications for theory and practice. The study further highlights implications for segmentation practices in the tourism industry.

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Purpose (mandatory) It is generally agreed that marketing campaigns developed for Western markets may not be appropriate for consumers living in Eastern cultures, particularly with respect to strategies for promoting luxury brands. While consultancy reports and media commentaries show that rising levels of disposable income are driving increasing demand for luxury goods in China and Taiwan, for example, the academic literature offers very few consumer research findings clearly elucidating the different luxury purchasing behaviour of Eastern and Western consumers. The purpose of this paper is to compare the consumption of luxury products and luxury fashion purchasing habits in Taiwan and the UK, with particular reference to the fashion sector, focusing on a strategically important emerging market segment: young consumers of luxury brands. Design/methodology/approach (mandatory) To achieve the study's objectives, questionnaires were administered online in each of the two countries to females aged 18-26 years, who had made more than two luxury purchases in the year preceding the survey. Employing a 2-wave survey, respondents were selected via social media and personal contacts in the UK and by means of snowball sampling in Taiwan. Findings (mandatory) The study found one major point of difference among many similarities: the Taiwanese buyers scored significantly higher on indicators that they were treating luxury brands as a means of developing their self-identity and communicating their social standing: an important part of maintaining 'face' in Asian cultures. These findings contain important

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