The quality of word‐of‐mouth in the online shopping mall

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among the quality of word‐of‐mouth (WOM), online trust, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and online shopping intention in the online shopping mall. This study presented participation and response of others on bulletin boards or product review sections as the factors that affect the quality of WOM through literature review.

Design/methodology/approach

A theoretical review and an empirical study were conducted and the hypotheses were tested through the empirical analysis.

Findings

The paper finds that participation and response of others on bulletin board or product review section have positive effects on the quality of WOM. It was revealed that the quality of WOM has positive effects on online trust, and online trust has positive effects on perceived usefulness, shopping intension and perceived ease of use. In addition, the results demonstrated that perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness have positive effects on shopping intention.

Originality/value

Many studies on online shopping malls are mostly focused on the effects of following the action by positive or negative WOM. This study examines the factors that determine the quality of online WOM, and it seeks to examine the effects of such WOM on the following actions such as online trust and purchase intention.

Citation

Kim, H. and Song, J. (2010), "The quality of word‐of‐mouth in the online shopping mall", Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 4 No. 4, pp. 376-390. https://doi.org/10.1108/17505931011092844