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Social media developments in the last decade have led to the emergence of a new form of word of mouth (WOM) in the digital environment. Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) is considered by many scholars and practitioners to be the most influential informal communication mechanism between businesses and potential and actual consumers. The purpose of this paper is to extend knowledge about WOM in this new context by proposing a conceptual framework that enables a better understanding of how trust and reciprocity influence eWOM participation in ORCs.

This study applies non-probability convenience sampling technique to conduct a quantitative study of data from an online survey of 189 members of ORCs. Partial least squares (PLS) is used to analyse the correlations between individuals’ intention to seek opinion, to give their own opinion and to pass on the opinion of another within ORCs.

The data analysis reveals that opinion seeking within ORCs had a direct effect on opinion giving and opinion passing. Ability trust and integrity trust had a positive effect on opinion seeking, while benevolence trust had a direct positive effect on opinion passing. Reciprocity had a direct impact on opinion passing. While reciprocity did not affect opinion giving, the relationship between these two concepts was mediated by integrity trust.

By studying the complexities that characterise the relationships between reciprocity, trust and eWOM, the study extends understanding of eWOM in ORCs.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is one of only a few papers that have examined the complex interrelationships between reciprocity, trust and eWOM in the context of ORCs.

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the effects of brand trust and online brand community (OBC) trust on consumer repurchase intention and the positive electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) intention of OBC members.

The research model was assessed using data from a sample of 628 OBC users using partial least squares structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM).

The results show that brand trust positively affects repurchase intention and positive eWOM intention, both directly and indirectly through OBC trust. The total effect of brand trust on the results is greater than that of OBC trust.

This research contributes to marketing theory and practice by analysing the combined effect of OBC trust and brand trust on the consumer–brand relationship in the context of OBCs.

El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar los efectos de la confianza en la marca y la confianza en la comunidad online de marca en la intención de los miembros de la comunidad de recomprar dicha marca y de hablar bien electrónicamente (eWOM) sobre la misma.

El modelo de investigación fue evaluado usando datos de una muestra de 628 usuarios de comunidades online de marca, mediante un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales por el método de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS-SEM).

Los resultados muestran que la confianza en la marca afecta positivamente a la intención de recompra y al eWOM positivo, directa e indirectamente a través de la confianza en la comunidad. El efecto total de la confianza en la marca es mayor que el de la confianza en la comunidad.

Esta investigación contribuye a la teoría y práctica del marketing al analizar el efecto combinado de la confianza en la marca y en la comunidad online de marca, en las relaciones consumidor-marca.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the characteristics of virtual social networks (VSNs) and to determine their salient attributes, including those that influence flow experience, trust and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) behaviors affecting users’ purchase intentions, and to provide important strategic implications contributing to the Internet marketing literature.

Using a self-administered questionnaire, the data (n = 167) are collected from two Iranian Internet social networking sites, namely, facenama.com and cloob.com . Using LISREL 8.5, hypothesized relationships are examined through structural equation modeling (SEM) analysis.

According to the results of the study, despite all assumptions and studies to the contrary, eWOM behaviors in VSNs are derived from neither users’ flow experience nor their trust in VSNs, but they are mostly caused by VSNs’ attributes, from which four are investigated in this study, namely, communication and social relationships, entertainment, information disclosure and ease of use. Nevertheless, according to the results, VSN attributes also influence trust and flow experience, trust in a VSN environment influences users’ flow experience and eWOM in VSNs has significant impact on users’ purchase intentions. The findings also revealed that the level of education of a user affects how much he trusts the VSN environment.

The author examined flow experience, trust, eWOM behavior, purchase intentions and the VSNs’ attributes to verify their relationships, providing a better understanding of an effective indirect marketing in VSNs. The results also have important implications for researchers.

While flow experience, trust, word-of-mouth (WOM) behaviors and purchase intentions have been separately studied in Web sites, e-shopping malls and blogs, little research has sought to identify the existence of these elements within VSNs, their correlations with one another and how they are affected by VSNs’ attributes.

The coronavirus pandemic has created a new wave of first-time online shoppers in both industrialized and emerging countries. More interestingly, scholars and practitioners expect this transition to online shopping to eventually persist in the next few years. The current research study aims to investigate the factors explaining attitudes toward online shopping. The authors propose an integrated model in which trust mediates the effects of relative advantage and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on attitudes toward online shopping. The moderating effect of gender was also assessed using the multigroup analysis (MGA).

Based on data collected from 378 Moroccan online shoppers, the authors empirically tested the hypothesized model using a partial least squares (PLS) estimation.

First, relative advantage, eWOM and trust significantly impact consumer attitudes toward online shopping; at the same time, trust is influenced by relative advantage and eWOM. Second, results confirm that trust mediates the effects of relative advantage and eWOM on attitudes toward online shopping. Third, the MGA reveals that female consumers tend to exhibit a stronger effect of eWOM on trust and on attitudes toward online shopping.

Most relevant studies have focused on the main predictors of attitudes toward online shopping but did not suggest mediating and moderating factors that can help in explaining indirect effects. The present paper bridges a gap pertaining to antecedents of attitudes toward online shopping by incorporating the mediating effect of online trust. The authors also examine gender disparities related to the predictors of trust and consumer attitudes toward online shopping. This study is the first of its kind to investigate the antecedents of attitudes toward online shopping in an African country.

The purpose of this study is to contribute to the existing knowledge on two aspects. First, the authors introduce a conceptual model based on the social capital theory (SCT) to understand the mechanisms through which social capital factors affect consumers’ electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) engagement and purchase intentions via social network sites (SNSs). Second, the present study empirically tests and validates the proposed relationships that delineate social capital dimensions as crucial precursors of eWOM engagement and purchase intention in the specific SNS context, namely, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter.

The authors applied both exploratory and descriptive design based on a triangulation approach. The authors adapted an in-depth interview method in the first part to better specify our constructs and hypotheses. At the quantitative part, the authors conducted the survey method on 1,169 consumers as central part of the research for empirical testing and validating our conceptual model. The authors applied structural equation modeling analysis by using AMOS 22.0.

Overall, the results of this study indicate that social capital-based drivers have a significant role underlying the eWOM engagement of consumers, while engagement in eWOM has a further effect on their purchase intentions. In this study, social network culture appears as the most dominant social driver of consumers’ engagement in eWOM, followed by tie strength and interpersonal trust.

This study extends prior research on drivers of eWOM. An integrated conceptual model under SCT is proposed and tested to verify the dimensional interrelationships and effects on consumers’ eWOM engagement and purchase intentions. Second, this work advances the understanding of eWOM behavior in a novel context, social networks. Cross-cultural comparison of our results in other regions of Turkey or different countries might enable generalizability, which is one of the limitations of the study.

This study highlights that consumers are incorporating recommendations into their social networking behavior. The findings of this study show that before constructing their social media strategies, marketers should first investigate the congruence between the cultural environment of the SNS in which they connect with their customers and the positioning of their products.

This study suggests implications about privacy guidelines for SNS regulation setters. Policymakers should understand when and how consumers’ profile and social tie information should be disclosed and accessed through their eWOM behaviors and try to develop trustful regulations.

This study serves as the first attempt to demonstrate that social capital drivers affect consumers’ purchase intentions through their eWOM engagement by its robust conceptual model. No integrated model under SCT has ever been proposed and tested on consumers’ eWOM engagement via SNSs.

This study aims to contribute to the ongoing discussion of how consumers approach shopping directly via social media by explicating decisions related to trust on social media and how various types of electronic word of mouth (eWOM; ratings and reviews, recommendations and referrals and social media communities) contribute to these decisions.

A total of 198 respondents with experience shopping directly via social media were instructed to select the platform on which they had the most shopping experience (Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, Pinterest, etc.) to answer relevant survey questions. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was used for analyzing the results.

Findings reveal that eWOM provided by strong ties (recommendations and referrals; social media communities) is superior to weak ties (ratings and reviews). Surprisingly, ratings and reviews do not significantly relate to trust in the retailer, suggesting that this information may be necessary but not sufficient for trusting retailers on social media.

This research distinguishes trust decisions related to shopping on social media and clarifies how each type of eWOM uniquely influences trust in the retailer by using tie strength theory.

The paper aims to investigate how customer satisfaction can be achieved in the context of digital platform services, its influence on electronic word of mouth (eWOM) and how such relationships can be moderated by perceived technological innovativeness (PTI).

The research framework was developed and empirically tested using an online survey and analysed using structural equation modelling (SEM). Data were gathered from 501 Uber customers in London, UK.

The study recognises and confirms that trust and cost saving enhanced customer satisfaction in Uber mobility services, which has a positive impact on eWOM. There are other findings regarding users who share rides vs those who do not share. Furthermore, it has been found that PTI moderates the relationship between customer satisfaction and eWOM.

The research draws on collaborative consumption literature and contributes to the antecedents of customer satisfaction in digital economy literature: trust, environmental impact, cost saving and utility. The study offers an empirical validation of the role of PTI in enhancing eWOM. The paper breaks new ground for a better understanding of how PTI can moderate the influence of customer satisfaction and eWOM in digital platforms.

Vloggers (video bloggers) have emerged as a new phenomenon in social media marketing, especially in the hotel industry, where user-generated reviews can strongly influence purchase decisions. Therefore, this paper aims to build an electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) adoption model (EAM) that incorporates source evaluation attributes (information quality, major influence and source credibility), trust in eWOM and eWOM intention (EWOMI) and booking intention and investigate the moderation of negative reviews from vloggers on relationships in the EAM.

This paper conducted two studies (n_s1 = 446, n_s2 = 374). The data were collected through an online and face-to-face survey with an experimental design. This paper conducted covariance-based structural equation model to examine main effects and applied a multiple-group analysis to test the moderating effect of vlogger reviews.

Three attributes of source evaluation are important predictors of trust in eWOM, which positively impact eWOM and booking intention. EWOMI also positively affects booking intention. Moreover, the negative review of vloggers can lower the effects of information quality on trust and of trust on EWOMI in Study 1 and on hotel booking intention in Study 2.

This study builds the EAM model for the hospitality context and provides novel insights into the moderating effects of vloggers’ negative reviews on the relationships in the EAM.

Vlogger（视频博主）已成为社交媒体营销中的一种新现象, 尤其是在酒店行业, 用户生成的评论可以强烈影响购买决策。 因此, 本文旨在建立一个电子口碑 (eWOM) 采用意向模型（EAM）, 该模型包含来源评估属性（信息质量、主要影响力和来源可信度）、对电子口碑的信任、eWOM intention (EWOMI) 和预订意愿, 以及 (2) 调查视频博主对 EAM 中关系的负面评论的调节。

当前的研究进行了两项研究（n_s1 = 446, n_s2 = 374）。 数据是通过带有实验设计的在线和面对面调查收集的。 本文使用 CB-SEM 来检查主要效果, 并应用多组分析来测试 vlogger 评论的调节效果。

来源评估的三个属性是网络口碑信任度的重要预测指标, 对网络口碑和预订意愿产生积极影响。 EWOMI 也对预订意愿产生积极影响。 此外, vlogger 的负面评论可以降低信息质量对信任的影响, 以及信任对研究 1 中的 EWOMI 和研究 2 中的酒店预订意愿的影响。

这项研究为酒店环境建立了 EAM 模型, 并提供了关于视频博主负面评论对 EAM 中关系的调节作用的新颖见解。

With the expansion of internet as a tool for exchanging information, companies include in their websites a virtual space to share information among users. The purpose of this paper is to explore the characteristics of consumers’ reviews (electronic word-of-mouth quantity, credibility and quality) as antecedents of customers’ online repurchase intentions. Specially, it proposes a model where trust on an online seller and perceived usefulness of a website mediate the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM) characteristics on repurchase intentions.

Structural equation modeling was employed on a sample of 252 online customers. An online questionnaire was aimed at internet users who had previously made an online purchase and read online reviews received from the vendor’s website.

Results show that only EWOM quality has a positive direct effect on consumers’ repurchase intention while quantity has a negative influence. Perceived usefulness mediates the influence of all EWOM characteristics on online repurchase intention. EWOM credibility and quality also indirectly influence repurchase intentions through trust on the online vendor.

This paper outlines ways to improve managerial implications by developing mobile applications or websites where the reviews have an appropriate volume and quality of information. Moreover, it suggests general advice to present online reviews in a useful manner to users who visit these websites.

This study is one of the first to propose an integrative model that studies in depth the three main EWOM characteristics and customer responses for understanding their repurchase behavior.

As fake information has become the norm on the internet, it is important to investigate how skepticism impacts an individual’s attitude toward word-of-mouth (eWOM). This study examines eWOM skepticism via three dimensions: suspicion of motivation, suspicion of truthfulness and suspicion of identity. It investigates not only which of the three dimensions is more influential in eWOM situations but also the variations and relationships among these three. Furthermore, this study evaluates how an individual’s dispositional trust and perceptions regarding structural assurance can impact each dimension, which in turn affects the assessment of the eWOM messages’ credibility.

Using an online scenario-based survey, data were collected via Amazon Mechanical Turk from 195 participants in the U.S. PLS and cluster analysis were used to analyze the data.

The results reveal that the suspicion of identity play a major role in message credibility assessment and that people who are naturally less likely to trust others also hold higher suspicion of motivation and truthfulness. Further, structural assurance has significant negative effects on all three dimensions.

The findings highlight the importance of enhancing the protective measures on eWOM platforms and call for stricter regulations to prevent organizations from adopting deceptive eWOM propagandas.

This research contributes to the literature by exploring the impact of skepticism on eWOM message credibility assessment and helping to validate this newly created construct by considering eWOM skepticism as a formative construct.