A Review for the Influential Factors in E-WOM Research

Abstract

Although substantial literature is available on customer reviews or e-WOM (electronic word of mouth), the topic is still under development and offers potential opportunities for further research. Since the topic is still at the stage of development, a review of the literature on customer reviews with the objective of summarizing existing findings will initial further studies on the growth of e-WOM technologies. This paper reviews the literature on e-WOM using a suitable classification scheme to identify the gap between theory and practice. Aiming to provide useful insights into the anatomy of e-WOM literature and be a good source for anyone who is interested in e-WOM, nine categories of findings are ultimately presented based on dependent-independent-variable relationship, along with a comprehensive list of reference. The paper ends up with discussions on future directions for research.