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This chapter is a descriptive study of digital marketing to stimulate electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) through the social impact of content creation. This chapter firstly introduces the background, concept, and development of e-WOM. Secondly, discuss the relationship between digital marketing and e-WOM. Finally, make recommendations for the business. In the discussion of the relationship between digital marketing and e-WOM, this chapter expounds the social impact of content-generating, one of the essential means in digital marketing. It discusses the relationship between social impact and e-WOM. This chapter can provide references and the basis for exploring the relationship between digital marketing and e-WOM.

This paper aims to present a cross‐national study that investigates changes in purchase intentions of UK versus Chinese consumers following exposure to successive e‐WOM comments in the form of positive and negative user reviews for experience versus search products.

A 2(e‐WOM valence and order: negative versus positive most recent)×2(product type: experience versus search)×3(purchase intentions at t₁, t₂, t₃) repeated‐measures factorial design is used to test a set of hypotheses developed from the literature.

Chinese consumers are susceptible to recent e‐WOM comments regardless of their valence, while UK consumers anchor on negative information regardless of the order in which it is acquired. This holds particularly for experience products.

This cross‐national study contributes to the scarce literature on the impact of e‐WOM on consumer purchase decisions by comparing UK and Chinese consumers. The authors suggest that culture moderates the development of product evaluations following exposure to e‐WOM.

For entrepreneurs operating in an Internet-of-Things (IoT) environment, it is essential to monitor more systematically, both the interaction with the consumers and the sharing of information among the consumers. The purpose of this paper is to identify the antecedents of word-of-mouth (WOM) in the online SME’s context in terms of consumers “citing the site” to peers in personal communications. A research model integrates the determinants of retail website-specific positive WOM communication, and proposes that WOM about a particular website is influenced by: site-level variables, that is, website quality and interactivity; and consumer-level variables, these being the site user’s satisfaction with and commitment to the website. The research advances the study of IoT entrepreneurship.

Data were collected from graduate and undergraduate students with business and entrepreneurship majors from a reputed school in the Northeast region of the USA, using an online survey. The hypotheses were then tested with SEM using AMOS 18.0.

Findings suggest that in an IoT context, WOM is influenced by a variety of factors of which the e-satisfaction and attitude toward website constructs play important roles. The study highlights the importance of the e-satisfaction construct and its metrics. E-satisfaction is not only a critical outcome metric, but also a primary predictor of customer e-loyalty, measured in terms of the customer’s positive attitude, stickiness and propensity to spread positive WOM.

The paper contributes to the entrepreneurship and IoT literature with a comprehensive framework of information sharing, interactivity and WOM, showing that specific antecedents drive consumers to cite and advocate for a website to fellow customers. The framework helps retail SME entrepreneurs in the IoT context to design appropriate strategies to influence website visitors’ endorsement of the site to fellow customers.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the relation between average ratings (viewership) and the volume and valence of electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) for early episodes of TV shows.

Linear regression was performed in which the dependent variable is average TV ratings and main independent variables are volume and valence of e-WOM. The study used a Breusch–Pagan test to detect heteroscedasticity. Accordingly, the model is analyzed using heteroscedasticity-consistent standard error estimators.

The results show that the volume of the early e-WOM does not significantly contribute to explaining average ratings, but the valence does.

Because the advertising revenue of television broadcasters is determined according to expected TV ratings, the average ratings should be predicted as early as possible. This study shows that analyzing early e-WOM helps predict average ratings.

Consumers are increasingly connected to each other through electronic devices. Consequently, the potential for online retailer (hereafter, e‐tailer) initiated communications delivered through electronic media to inspire viral‐like e‐WOM processes among consumers is also expanding. Microblog postings and e‐mails may impact consumers' perceptions of retail web sites (e‐servicescape). These perceptions may trigger other outcomes (i.e. greater trust, patronage, or e‐WOM) that redound to e‐tailers' interests. The first purpose of this paper is to expand online e‐tailers' (e‐tailers') understanding of how and whether microblog postings affect consumers' e‐servicescape perceptions. The second purpose is to investigate how and whether e‐servicescape perceptions influence consumers' trust in e‐tailers' web sites, patronage of e‐tailers, and propensity to engage in e‐WOM about e‐tailers' messages.

By integrating the e‐servicescape construct with the Network Coproduction Model of WOM theory, a model is developed. This model examines how e‐communication efforts affect consumers' perceptions of e‐servicescape, trust, e‐tail patronage and e‐WOM. Each relationship is investigated through a consumer survey.

Findings suggest: microblog postings may have a negative impact on consumers' e‐servicescape perceptions; retail web site's usability, financial security, customization, and entertainment value positively affect consumers' trust; and consumers' trust positively impacts retail patronage and e‐WOM intentions.

Prescriptive insights for managing microblogging in ways that more favorably influence consumers' perceptions of e‐tailers' e‐servicescapes – and subsequently consumer trust in, patronage of, and e‐WOM about the retailer and its web site – are developed.

The paper is the first to integrate word‐of‐mouth theory with e‐servicescape to test a model examining how microblog postings affect e‐servicescape perceptions, consumer trust, consumer retail patronage, and e‐WOM intentions.

The authors' research examines how negative electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) alters focal customers' post-recovery justice perceptions and attitudes to determine their future behavior with the service provider. Specifically, this paper develops and tests a conceptual model to investigate how negative e-WOM alters focal customers' perceptual and attitudinal outcomes after the service recovery experience. It also examines the post-recovery effect of negative e-WOM on focal customers’ willingness to patronize the service after their recovery experience.

To test the hypotheses, two pretests and two experimental studies with created scenarios in the retail context were conducted.

The authors' findings reveal that services are judged during and well beyond failure and recovery occurrences. To maintain a loyal customer base, service managers should develop processes that address service complaints both within and beyond the service consumption stage. The authors also find that despite a favorable recovery, focal customers gravitate toward the failure experience and develop unfavorable attitudes toward the service provider, leading to likely defections.

The authors' research demonstrates the persuasive power of negative e-WOM at the post-service recovery stage, making a unique contribution to the service recovery literature. This research also contributes to the persuasive effect of negative e-WOM, demonstrating message context as a boundary condition of negative e-WOM effects. In general, the authors' work highlights the importance of understanding the psychological processes involved in eliciting the persuasive influence of negative e-WOM in the post-service recovery stage that may lead to the defection of “so-called” successfully recovered customers.

The primary aim of this study is to identify and analyze the key factors that impact the intentions of Jordanian tourists to visit and revisit destinations using the Jannah Jo app.

A self-administered questionnaires via Google Forms was employed comprising a sample of 401 Jordanian tourists who have the Jannah Jo app. Partial least squares-structural equation modeling approach was applied for hypotheses testing.

The present investigation has revealed that the constructs of perceived ease of use (PEU), perceived usefulness (PU) and perceived value (PV) exerted a significant and positive impact on electronic word of mouth (e-WOM). Additionally, e-WOM was observed to wield a positive and significant influence on the attitudes of consumers' decision-making, thereby ultimately affecting the intentions of Jordanian tourists with regard to their decisions to visit and revisit destinations. Nevertheless, it is noteworthy that the results indicated that neither augmented reality nor content quality exhibited any statistically significant positive relationship with e-WOM.

Tourism agencies striving to encourage the adoption of smart applications must grasp the relevance of e-WOM within the contemporary digital milieu. Additionally, they should acknowledge the significance of tourists' intentions concerning both revisiting and initial visits. This research contends that such agencies ought to take into account the substantial influence exerted by PEU, PU and PV in shaping the favorable e-WOM discourse.

By integrating the technology acceptance model in conjunction with other relevant variables, this research strives to develop a comprehensive model that advances the comprehension of the intricate determinants affecting tourists' engagements with mobile applications. Furthermore, it is noteworthy that this study represents the initial investigation conducted in the Middle East, specifically in Jordan, on this subject matter.

The tourism industry has a huge potential, and the return to its state prior to the COVID-19 pandemic is a large stake for any economy. Tourism e-WOM is an important contributor towards attracting visitors and choosing tourism destinations. Drawing from the value and personality theories, the aim of this study is to investigate the factors determining e-WOM intentions in tourism.

Based on a sample of 469 responses collected online from a random sample of Romanians and using partial least squares structural equation modelling, the authors hereby analyze the influence of economic, emotional, social and altruistic values on e-WOM intentions, and the moderating effects of the big five personality traits (openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness and neuroticism) on this relationship.

The results of the study revealed that except economic value, all the exogenous (emotional, social and altruistic) values have a positive influence on the e-WOM intentions. However, the study further suggested that the big five personality traits do not moderate the relationship between the value factors and e-WOM intentions.

The influence of perceived value will be useful for building a stout marketing strategy and to describe e-WOM behaviour among Romanians.

Tourism service providers can promote their services by stressing the various types of value bestowed by their offers.

Although inspired by existing research, the current study is original in that the model used has not yet been proposed before, all the more so for the particular case of the tourism industry.

This study clarifies the integration-related effects of photos and text on consumer information processing and decision-making outcomes.

The authors conducted an experiment by recruiting 162 workers from Amazon Mechanical Turk. These participants were randomly assigned based on a full factorial, between-subject design with four possible conditions (2 [separate vs alternate layout] × 2 [photo-first vs text-first sequence]). The authors conducted a two-way analysis of variance to test the main effects and the interaction effects of layout and sequence on perceived diagnosticity, pleasantness feelings and attitudes toward products or services reviewed through electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM); the authors also applied Process Models 4 and 8 to explore the mechanism of these effects.

The experimental results reveal that text-first sequence is generally more effective than photo-first sequence in enhancing perceived diagnosticity and attitudes toward products or services. However, when a photo is displayed first, a separate layout is more effective than an alternate layout in enhancing perceived diagnosticity and attitudes. By contrast, regardless of the sequence, an alternate layout is more effective than a separate layout in inducing pleasantness feeling.

Future studies should further explore photo-based e-WOM, including other photo characteristics (e.g. visual quality, quantity and content).

This study provides guidelines for businesses to use photos on social media to achieve strategic goals.

This study addresses an identified need; that is, how the presentation of photo cues (e.g. layout and sequence) influences consumer decisions.

Consumer expectation not only influences purchase decision but also post-purchase satisfaction and word-of-mouth (WOM). This study aims to develop theories of initial expectation management by suggesting when it is desirable for new products to raise or lower consumer expectations. It systematically examines the interplay of product value and consumer heterogeneity in the dynamic process of new product diffusion under competition.

Drawing on traditional diffusion and choice models, this study develops an agent-based model to formalize and analyze how consumers’ initial expectations of a new product influence the interdependent processes of product sales, consumer satisfaction and WOM. The simulation analyses in controlled settings help understand the underlying mechanisms in a stepwise manner.

The results show that, although the optimal strategy for low-value products is to induce consumer expectations higher than product value, high-value products are better introduced with expectations formed close to it. The results also highlight an important drawback of “under-promising” strategies in reducing the base and volume of WOM. Further, the analysis illustrates how consumer heterogeneities in product valuation and initial expectation affect the effectiveness of expectation management. For high-value products, both heterogeneities reduce the effectiveness of the optimal strategy. For low-value products, however, value heterogeneity enhances the effectiveness, whereas expectation heterogeneity reduces it.

Firms introducing new products should be sensitive to how consumers value the product and form expectations about it. Different from firms that must rely on aggressive advertising to sell inferior products by building up high expectations, those with superior products can rely more on the power of consumer WOM, which is much less costly and thus gives them a competitive advantage. Firms should also pay attention to how diversified the consumers are in product valuation and expectation. The expectation management strategy is more effective when consumers form more similar expectations. Inferior firms may leverage this mechanism to neutralize their disadvantages.

The articulated mechanisms help push forward the research on new product diffusion and consumer expectation management. To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of the first studies to systematically analyze the impact of consumer heterogeneity on the effectiveness of expectation management.