Joint Effect of Different Dimensions of eWOM on Product Sales

Abstract

Understanding the antecedents and consequences of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is of significant theoretical value and great interest to both consumers and firms. To reconcile the disagreement in the relationship between eWOM and product sales, we investigate the joint effect of different dimensions of eWOM on the sales of durable goods (i.e., cars). Our study is based on eWOM collected from Autohome, a leading online review platform of automobiles in China. Our empirical results show that the volume and valence of eWOM positively affect car sales, and variance negatively affects car sales when the volume of eWOM is low. Further analyses of the joint effect show that the positive impact of eWOM volume on sales is stronger when the valence is lower and the variance is higher. This research contributes to the literature on eWOM and provides helpful suggestions for firms by shedding light on the joint effect of different dimensions of eWOM in the context of the Chinese automobile industry.

eWOM Information Richness and Online User Review Behavior: Evidence from TripAdvisor

“…However, these studies and measures target consumer behavior, putting merchants in a passive position in the eWOM mechanism, and the impact of online reviews has a strong latency. From a research content perspective, most eWOM research has focused on consumers' willingness to consume, emotions, and trust, reflecting historical eWOM information interaction and affecting user business decisions and behaviors [20,21]. Research on eWOM publishing has focused on consumers' sharing motivations, such as altruism, rewards, and emotional venting [22,23].…”