Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) research – a comparative bibliometric analysis and future research insight

Abstract

PurposeIn recent times, the growing use of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has attracted consumers, organizations and marketers alike. The objective of this study is to summarize and compare the current mass of eWOM research published in leading hospitality and tourism journals with research published in the other fields of both business and management.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses multiple bibliometric analysis methods, including citation, co-citation, keyword and co-word analysis. It compares various assessments of eWOM research published in 399 selected business publications and 398 selected hospitality/tourism publications (ABDC A and above and ABS 3 and above) between 2003 and 2021.FindingsThe co-citation analysis identified three thematic areas under each of the domains, i.e. in the hospitality/tourism field, the three themes included eWOM and behavior; eWOM and social media; and eWOM as a marketing tool. Similarly, under the business field (encompasses remaining business and management subdisciplines), the three themes are eWOM and sales, eWOM quality and attributes; and eWOM, information and consumer. Additionally, the word and co-word analysis mapped the comparative evolution of research in these two fields. The study advocates more research focusing on less researched platforms using diverse data, recommender systems adoption and application of eWOM in the business to business (B2B) context.Research limitations/implicationsThis study summarizes the overall theoretical and conceptual structure of eWOM research in both business and hospitality/tourism fields; based upon which, several recommendations for future research are proposed.Originality/valueBy comparing the developments in the specialized hospitality/tourism sector with broader management literature using multiple, complementary techniques, this study brings out important insights for hospitality/tourism researchers.

A holistic assessment of eWOM management effectiveness with agent-based modeling

“…This study via the ABM adoption affords parsing and directly observing multilayer causal effects solely from eWOM behaviors, thus adding to existing correlational eWOM explorations by supporting the critical determinant role of eWOM management in business performance. The developed ABM model also responds to the call for hospitality research on alternative methods/tools to leverage the rich eWOM-related data to inform business and customer decisions (Mukhopadhyay et al , 2022).…”

“…Several differentiating features of the hospitality industry from other industries to be captured include its overall enjoyment of greater customer loyalty and repeated patronization, given the on-average deeper relationship between customers and servicing staff (Pizam and Shani, 2009); being more subject to customer cocreation of experiences, thus having fewer controllable consumption outcomes but more personalized consumption experiences (Mok et al , 2013); intangible services as its primary offering, thus emphasizing the unparalleled importance of eWOM to increase the offering tangibility and assure customers (Mukhopadhyay et al , 2022); higher competition levels (Singal, 2015); and more opportunities to adapt offerings during consumption to enhance customer satisfaction (Kandampully et al , 2018). Taken together, we develop an ABM model with features unique to the hospitality industry as the basis for conducting simulated experiments answering Q1–Q2.…”

A bibliometric and visual analysis of hospitality and tourism marketing research from 2000–2020

“…Kim and So (2022)'s bibliometric research focused on customer experience in hospitality and tourism. Moreover, Mukhopadhyay et al (2022) compared the eWOM research published in leading hospitality and tourism journals with those in the other fields of mainstream business and management. While informative, these quantitative review articles all focused on specific topics (e.g.…”

A Comparative Study of the Impact of Negative Word of Mouth on Travel Intentions of Chinese and Korean Consumers in Tourism Destinations

“…When consumers are exposed to negative word-of-mouth, they are more likely to be motivated by negative emotions, so negative emotions are part of negative word-of-mouth. They can impact consumer behavior [28].…”