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Considering the transition of communicational channels from physical to digital spaces, this study aims to provide a theoretical foundation for understanding engagement in electronic word of mouth (eWoM) among managers and customers in the hospitality and tourism industry.

This study uses the four aggregate dimensions, namely, performance expectancy, efforts expectancy, social influence and facilitations condition. Further, this paper uses the 14 second-order themes of the Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology with a data set that represents elements that can trigger eWoM, both from managers’ and customers’ perspectives. The process of data structuration follows thematic analysis and axial coding techniques.

The results of this study show that performance expectancy, facilitation conditions, social influence and effort expectancy all trigger positive eWoM generation in the hospitality and tourism industry indicating customers’ and managers’ perspectives.

This novel study provides a theoretical foundation and novel propositions for future research work on the role of novel antecedents that can trigger eWoM in the hospitality and tourism industry. This paper also provides a benchmark for practitioners and policymakers in their strategic decisions-making towards improving business performance through positive eWoM.

In 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.

This 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.

The 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.

This 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.

By 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.

Global adoption of the internet and mobile usage results in a huge variation in the cultural backgrounds of consumers who generate and consume electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Unsurprisingly, a research trend on cross-cultural eWOM has emerged. However, there has not been an attempt to synthesize this research topic. This paper aims to bridge this gap.

This research paper conducts a systematic literature review of the current research findings on cross-cultural eWOM. Journal articles published from 2006 to 2021 are included. This study then presents the key issues in the extant literature and suggests potential future research.

The findings show that there has been an upward trend in the number of publications on cross-cultural eWOM since the early 2010s, with a relatively steeper increase toward 2020. The findings also synthesize cross-cultural eWOM research into four elements and suggest potential future research avenues.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, there is currently no exhaustive/integrated review of cross-cultural eWOM research. This research fills the need to summarize the current state of cross-cultural eWOM literature and identifies research questions to be addressed in the future.

El boca a boca electrónico cross-cultural: una revisión sistemática de la literatura

La adopción global de Internet y los móviles da lugar a una enorme diferencia en el origen cultural de los consumidores que generan y consumen el boca a boca electrónico (eWOM). No es de extrañar que haya surgido una tendencia de investigación sobre el eWOM transcultural. Sin embargo, no se ha intentado sintetizar este tema de investigación. El objetivo de este artículo es subsanar esta carencia.

Este trabajo de investigación realiza una revisión bibliográfica sistemática de las investigaciones realizadas sobre eWOM transcultural. Se incluyen artículos de revistas publicados desde 2006 hasta 2021. A continuación, el estudio presenta las cuestiones clave de la literatura existente y sugiere posibles investigaciones futuras.

Los resultados muestran que ha habido una tendencia al alza en el número de publicaciones sobre eWOM intercultural desde principios de la década de 2010, con un aumento relativamente creciente hacia 2020. Los resultados también sintetizan la investigación sobre eWOM intercultural en cuatro elementos y sugieren posibles vías de investigación futuras.

Actualmente no existe una revisión exhaustiva/integrada de la investigación sobre el eWOM cross-cultural. Esta investigación satisface la necesidad de resumir el estado actual de la literatura sobre eWOM cross-cultural e identifica las cuestiones de investigación que deben abordarse en el futuro.

跨文化电子口碑研究：系统性文献回顾

摘要

在互联网全球化以及移动手机的广泛使用的背景下, 不同文化背景的消费者都在贡献电子口碑（eWOM）。这使得电子口碑存在文化差异。然而, 还没有人试图对这个研究课题进行综合分析。本文的目的就是要弥补这一空白。

本研究论文对目前关于跨文化eWOM的研究成果进行了系统的文献回顾。包括2006年至2021年发表的期刊文章。然后, 本研究提出了现有文献中的关键问题, 并提出了潜在的未来研究。

研究结果显示, 自2010年初以来, 关于跨文化eWOM的出版物数量呈上升趋势, 到2020年时增幅相对较大。研究结果还总结了跨文化eWOM研究的四个要素, 并提出了潜在的未来研究途径。

目前还没有关于跨文化eWOM研究的详尽/综合的回顾。这项研究填补了总结跨文化电子WOM文献现状的需要, 并确定了未来要解决的研究问题。

The purpose of this study is to conduct a systematic study of important research trends and published electronic word of mouth (eWOM) studies over the past 20 years in the emerging economy. This research is designed to identify the key areas of eWOM based on the Antecedents-Consequence-Intervention (ACI) framework. This paper is also aimed to analyze the current research status of each WOM area and critically review each area for developing future research directions.

616 articles were selected from 112 journals for in-depth review analysis. For the systematic review of articles, an ACI framework was adopted. This paper used systematic review analysis methodology to critically analyze important research studies in each area of the ACI framework with a set of research questions.

Results identify six significant areas of eWOM, i.e. WOM antecedents, outcomes, senders, receivers, eWOM platform and eWOM management representing the whole environment. The result highlights increasing research interest on mixed eWOM and rich eWOM content and market-level source credibility factors. Research also identifies research gaps based on the ACI framework.

Analyzing the recent trends in the eWOM environment with the SLR approach and linking these trends to the ACI framework with a future research agenda in the emerging market indicated a pioneering attempt in eWOM research.

The aim of this research is to measure the impact of eWOM (electronic word of mouth) and brand celebrity use on the purchasing behavior of sports consumers.

To test the model hypotheses, sports consumers who use social media and have purchased at least one online sports product were selected as the research group. Online survey method was used, and 836 participants were reached. The model was tested with structural equation modeling (SEM) through smart PLS software.

As a result, the quality, credibility and usefulness of the information consumers encounter on online platforms cause them to adopt information about products or services, and then exhibit online purchase behavior. While the attractiveness and trustworthiness of celebrities are seen as important factors affecting consumers' online purchase of sports products, the effect of celebrity expertise was found to be ineffective in this study.

Marketers can develop more effective eWOM strategies by considering consumers' expectations. Businesses that want to implement an effective marketing strategy may prefer celebrities in product promotions or advertisements of their brands.

This research revealed the effect of eWOM and celebrity endorsement on the online purchase behavior of sports consumers in terms of the sports industry. Unlike previous studies, this study examined these variables together on sports consumers and contributed to the development of models.

The purpose of this study is to investigate how electronic word of mouth (eWOM) affects purchase intention and brand equity, and to further examine the mediating role of brand equity between eWOM and purchase intention among Indian consumers of branded apparel.

The data was collected from 303 consumers of branded apparel using an online questionnaire, and data were analyzed through structural equation modeling with the help of SPSS v24 and AMOS v23.

The findings of this study demonstrated that eWOM has a positive and significant influence on brand equity and purchase intention. Simultaneously, brand equity partially mediates between the eWOM and purchase intention of consumers of apparel brands.

The study's data set is limited in its generalizability as it is based on specific responses from Indian consumers of branded apparel via an online survey. The results of this study would help marketing practitioners and apparel manufacturers to augment their sales and design their promotional strategy in accordance with consumers' traits.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is one of the first to propose an integrative model that studies relationships between eWOM, brand equity and purchase intention by incorporating the Elaboration Likelihood Model among Indian consumers of branded apparel. Furthermore, this novel piece of research explores the relationship between eWOM and purchase intention with brand equity as a mediator, particularly for branded apparel selected by Indian consumers.

The purpose of this study was to discuss the importance of customer-based brand equity (CBBE) and identify the critical attributes of how to develop CBBE during the most difficult time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This study collected 386 restaurant managers' viewpoints to examine the mutual relationships among CBBE and other critical attributes of corporate social responsibility (CSR), electronic word of mouth (EWOM) and brand personality. Furthermore, structural equation modeling (SEM) was conducted to examine the proposed moderation and mediation hypotheses.

The results show that corporate social responsibility (CSR) mediates the relationship between brand personality and brand image. Furthermore, the mutual relationship among CBBE is discovered in that brand image may indirectly affect brand loyalty through perceived quality and brand awareness. Furthermore, with the reliance on social media, the moderating roles of electronic word of mouth (EWOM) are also revealed that strengthen the indirect effect of brand personality on brand awareness through CSR and brand image.

With the increasing attention to CBBE, which aims at tourism destination brand equity, hotel branding from the customer perspective, restaurant managers' viewpoints are not considered. Further, because of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, customers are paying more attention to food safety and food delivery processes, which are important for CSR and connected to CBBE. However, until now, fewer studies have addressed these issues as such. The present study reflects the bidirectional effects of such a comprehensive viewpoint.

This study aims to fill various gaps detected in the literature on mass prestige (hereafter referred to as masstige) theory. The originality of the work stems from the multidimensional application of Paul’s (2015) model, the introduction of brand addiction as a construct from the consumer-brand relationship (CBR) theory within the context of wines and the exploration of a new and less studied sector in masstige strategies.

A structured questionnaire was distributed to collect data from masstige wine brand buyers in Portugal, of whom 166 completed the questionnaire correctly. A conceptual model was developed and tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling.

The findings include that only two dimensions of Paul’s (2015) masstige scale affect brand addiction: brand knowledge and excitement and status. Brand addiction has a positive effect on brand loyalty and electronic word of mouth (eWOM), and brand loyalty has a positive impact on eWOM. Theoretical and managerial implications were explored.

This research added a CBR perspective to masstige theory and applied masstige theory to wine brands for the first time. These three distinctive aspects collectively contribute to the novelty and significance of the research, opening up exciting possibilities for future investigations and providing a valuable contribution to the academic community and the wine industry alike.

The purpose of the research paper is to examine customers' online purchase intention towards apparel in the online environment, with a focus on the role of conviction and brand reputation of the e-retailer.

Hypotheses are based on an extensive literature review and tested using adapted existing scales for the constructs-social media usage for apparel, electronic word of mouth (EWOM), conviction, apparel e-retailer's brand reputation and online purchase intention towards apparel, and data are collected from 362 online customers of apparel brands in eight major cities across the country. Structural equation modelling (SEM) is applied to analyze data and test hypotheses because of multiple dependent variables.

The quantitative results indicate that impact of social media and EWOM on online purchase intention towards apparel is mediated by conviction. The results also explain the moderating effect of apparel e-retailer's brand reputation.

Findings provide suggestions for the apparel business in an online environment that address the issue of breach of trust and implications for apparel e-retailers, managers and researchers. The study contributes to the existing retail literature by proposing concept of conviction and role of apparel e-retailer's brand reputation in this context.

This study examines the effect of social media marketing on voting intention applying a combination of fuzzy logic methodology and a multidimensional panel data model.

The study adopts a multidimensional panel data method that includes several fixed effects. The dependent variable is a multifaceted construct that measures the participants’ intention to vote. The independent variables are electronic word of mouth (eWOM), customisation (CUS), entertainment (ENT), interaction (INT), trendiness (TRD), candidate’s perceived image (CPI), religious beliefs (RB), gender and age. The grouping variables that signify fixed effects are employment status, level of education, mostly used social media and religion. First, the significance of said fixed effects was tested through an ANOVA process. Then, the main model was estimated, including the significant grouping variables as fixed effects.

Employment status and level of education were significant fixed effects. Also, eWOM, ENT, INT, CPI, RB and gender significantly affected participants’ voting intention.

Being based on a questionnaire that asked participants about how they perceive different aspects of social media, the present study is limited to their perceptions. Therefore, further studies covering the voters’ behaviour in action could be efficient complements to the present study.

The findings could guide the political parties into prioritizing the aspects of social media in forming an effective campaign resulting in being elected.

The findings have the potential to help the public in making better informed decisions when voting. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate applications for social media which are beyond leisure time fillers.

Fuzzy logic and multidimensional panel data estimates are this study’s novelty and originality. Structural equation modelling and crisp linguistic values have been used in previous studies on social media’s effect on voting intent. The former refines the data gathered from a questionnaire, and the latter considers the possibility of including different grouping factors to achieve a more efficient and less biased estimation.