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The purpose of this study is to examine the factors influencing online word-of-mouth communication engagement behavior of college students on social networks such as Facebook.

A survey instrument designed to measure the constructs assumed to have an influence on word-of-mouth communication on social networks was administered to college students who are actively using Facebook. Structural equation model was used to test the hypothesized relationships.

Results of the study show that social capital and trust were two important factors that positively influenced opinion-giving and opinion-seeking behaviors, which, in turn, influenced the word-of-mouth behavior on Facebook. Although these results were not significantly different from the findings reported in the literature, the results emphasize that the impact of social capital and trust on word of mouth increased through the opinion-seeking/giving path.

Although the college students are ideal users for Facebook, the use of college students could limit the generalizability of the results to other populations. Furthermore, the authors have only investigated a few constructs that are assumed to contribute to the online word-of-mouth communication behavior. Other studies should include a more comprehensive list of construct and test their impact.

The study contributes to the literature on word-of-mouth communication in online social networking sites. Organizations could benefit from this knowledge by understanding that social networking sites should be considered as a key component of the integrated marketing communication strategy, and specific targeting efforts could be directed for those users with high levels of opinion-seeking/giving.

Although online social networking has been popular, not many empirical studies have been conducted on consumers’ engagement in the word-of-mouth communication in social networking sites, such as Facebook. This study attempts to fulfill the gap.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the credibility assessment and adoption of electronic word-of-mouth on online social-networking sites, social word-of-mouth (sWOM), where the author writes product reviews on Facebook and hopes their Facebook friends will buy these products. The readers of the sWOM message are aware of the author’s commercial intentions. sWOM messages on search goods and experience goods are considered separately.

Author of sWOM messages invites their closed circle of Facebook friends to participate in a survey. The respondents are randomly assigned to read a product review of a search good (i.e. a laptop computer) or an experience good (i.e. a moisturizer cream (beauty product)). The partial least squares method is used to analyze the data from 339 returns (166 for the search good and 173 for the experience good).

The sWOM readers’ assessments of the messages’ credibility remain free from commercial influence. While the traditional factors of credibility and author-reader tie strength continue to influence the adoption of sWOM message, readers’ perceptions of the sWOM author’s marketing skills is also a factor. The relationships between the constructs depend on whether the products are search or experience goods.

Few studies investigate the type of sWOM considered here. Commercially influenced sWOM messages are effective since the author’s marketing skills, and other often-cited factors, affect the credibility and adoption of sWOM. Thus, the equality-matching (friendship) relationship and the market-pricing (sales) relationship can work hand-in-hand in the sWOM context.

This study examined the relationship between perceived personalization and positive electronic word of mouth, as well as the mediating impact of online advertising engagement and the moderating effect of online users' modes on that relationship. The theory of presence serves as the foundation for the relationships among variables.

A quasi-experimental research design was used to carry out the investigation. The analysis was performed on 865 valid responses from the treatment and control groups.

Results showed no mediation for the control group and partial mediation for the treatment group. The treatment group's moderated mediation relationships were found as significant, but the control group's relationships were insignificant. The findings also supported the hypothesis that there is a significant association between perceived personalization and online advertising engagement for playful online users and a weak relationship for serious online users. On the mediation link of online advertising engagement between perceived personalization and positive electronic word of mouth, the conditional indirect influence of “online users' modes” has been specifically studied.

This study is the first to examine online advertising through the lens of the theory of presence and offers a moderated-mediation model of Online Users' Modes and Online Advertising Engagement, which is a valuable addition to the marketing body of knowledge.

Young consumers are increasing using electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in travel social networking sites to make purchase decisions. This paper aims to test the extended Information Adoption Model (IAM) that places perceived usefulness and information adoption as consequences of argument quality, source credibility, information quantity and emotive word comprehension, and as an antecedent of purchase intentions.

Data are collected through survey questionnaire from 405 hotel young customers in Malaysia, who had experienced travel social networking sites. The hypothesized relationships were analysed using structural equation modelling.

The results show that argument quality, source credibility, information quantity and emotive word comprehension have positive effect on the perceived usefulness of eWOM. Perceived usefulness has positive influence on the information adoption of eWOM, which in turn predicts the young consumers’ purchase intentions.

The present study strengthens and advances the existing literature on tourism, social media and marketing by offering an extension to the IAM. The proposed extended model of IAM is verified and applied effectively in the context of eWOM for travel social networking sites.

Practitioners and marketers of travel social networking sites can improve the usability and effectiveness of eWOM to attract more young consumers.

The study contributes to the extension of IAM by adding information quantity and emotive word comprehension. This research validated the significant roles of eWOM argument quality and source credibility in predicting the information usefulness of eWOM.

The purpose of this paper is to examine how user-generated positive social electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) via Facebook affects brand attitude and, consequently, influences purchase intention of smartphones. The spending patterns of consumers, particularly decision-makers, have been affected to a substantial degree by the strong presence of brands on the web. eWOM, one among the shape of net product reviews, exercises extensive influence not only on the consumers’ attitude towards the brand but also impacts their buying intentions.

A survey-based empirical study was conducted to examine the influence of social eWOM on brand attitude and purchase intention of consumers. Structural equation modeling (SEM) was applied using data collected from 311 respondents comprising users of Facebook.

The research established that user-generated positive eWOM on social networking site, Facebook significantly influences brand attitude and purchase intention of consumer electronics.

The data set used for the study limits generalizing of results, as the data are not representative across industries or across all social media applications. The study provides a useful and interesting insight into the theory and practice of eWOM. It shows how social eWOM, an emerging communication tool, not only helps twenty-first century marketers in reaching customers, but how it also plays a vital role in affecting brand attitude and purchase intention of products.

This paper provides useful and valuable insights into the relationship between social eWOM, brand attitude and purchase intention of consumer electronics, an area that largely remains unexplored. The study can also be replicated for other products or services for future research.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate how information and communication technology (ICT) adoption in hotels contributes to satisfaction and loyalty from the consumer perspective, considering the online dimension of recommendations.

A quantitative research based on a structured questionnaire and using a personal survey method was developed. Surveys were conducted on 386 guests from Spanish hotels. Causal methodology by testing structural equation model was applied.

Significant relationships are obtained in the sequence “ICT use perception – satisfaction with ICT – overall satisfaction with the hotel – dimensions of loyalty” and the mediating effect of positive electronic word-of-mouth intention between ICT satisfaction and general intention to recommend the hotel is confirmed.

Future research can replicate these relationships in other tourist services and employ multidimensional scales to measure word-of-mouth behaviour.

The novelty of this work is that it studies the relationships between ICT, satisfaction and loyalty in hotel services, paying particular attention to positive word-of-mouth behaviour, both conventional and online.

El propósito de este trabajo es investigar la contribución que tiene la adopción de las TIC en los hoteles en la satisfacción y la lealtad, desde la perspectiva del consumidor y considerando la dimensión online de las recomendaciones.

Se desarrolló una investigación cuantitativa basada en un cuestionario estructurado y empleando el método de la encuesta personal. Se realizaron 386 encuestas a huéspedes de hoteles españoles. Se aplicó la metodología causal testando un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales.

Se obtienen relaciones significativas en la secuencia “percepción de los clientes del uso de las TIC – nivel de satisfacción con las TIC – nivel de satisfacción general con el hotel – dimensiones de la lealtad” y se confirma el efecto mediador que tiene la intención del boca-oreja online entre la satisfacción con las TIC y la intención general de recomendar el hotel.

En futuras investigaciones se pueden replicar estas relaciones en otros servicios turísticos y emplear escalas multidimensionales para medir la conducta de boca-oreja.

La novedad de este trabajo radica en el estudio de las relaciones entre las TIC, satisfacción y lealtad en los servicios hoteleros poniendo especial atención en la conducta de boca-oreja positivo, tanto convencional como online.

This paper aims to investigate the impacts of social media on the Pakistani consumers' buying behavior, which could be reflected in either complex buying, variety seeking, dissonance reducing or habitual buying. Entrepreneurs need to know how their loyal and prospective customers feel, think and how do they decide on purchasing certain products and services.

The self-administered online questionnaire is used to collect feedback from consumers in order to analyze the data and come up with the findings. A sample size of 396 respondents was used to analyze and find a relationship between social media and consumer buying behavior.

Social media is found to have a partially significant impact on Pakistani consumers' buying behavior; word of mouth and content credibility are the two factors that influence Pakistani consumers' buying behavior. Pakistani consumers, below the age of 40, possess more complex buying behavior, which alerts entrepreneurs to consider it for their future marketing strategies.

Entrepreneurs should make an effort to be differentiated from others while keeping customers aware of the products they provide. In addition, customers should not spend too much time when comparing brands; rather, businesses should make it more captive.

This paper provides different results in comparison to the previous studies, in terms of the factors influencing consumers' buying behavior.

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.

This study aims to explore the nature of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and the key drivers of this consumer-generated brand communication, focusing on eWOM in the context of social media communications.

The study uses inductive qualitative design, and the data have been collected via 22 semi-structured interviews with individuals who follow brands on Facebook.

Building on interview data, the paper advances a conception of eWOM in the social media context and highlights that eWOM consists of a broad range of brand-related communications, which include such activities as consuming, commenting, posting and forwarding information. The study also uncovers two major antecedents of eWOM, which are one’s concern for self-presentation and privacy.

Further research could examine additional drivers of brand-related eWOM in the context of Facebook brand pages, and investigate eWOM in other social media platforms.

The findings have two important implications for brand management. Firstly, considering the importance of self-presentation, brands are advised to develop an in-depth understanding of the types of self-image pursued by their target audience. Secondly, given the concerns about privacy on social media, brands may carefully consider and manage the levels of privacy that should apply when communicating with their followers.

The novel insights centre on the individual differences in eWOM activity, and the importance of one’s perceptions of self-image and privacy in explaining these differences. It seems that the propensity to engage in eWOM and the form that this communication takes are the reflections of one’s self-presentation and privacy preferences.

This paper aims to systematically find the main research differences and similarities between social media and social networks in marketing research using the bibliometric perspective and provides suggestions for firms to improve their marketing strategies effectively.

The methods of co-word analysis and network analysis have been used to analyze the two research fields of social media and social networks. Specifically, this study selects 2,424 articles from 27 marketing academic journals present in the database Web of Science, ranging from January 1, 1996 to August 8, 2020.

The results show that social networks and social media are both research hotspots within the discipline of marketing research. The different intimacy nodes of social networks are more complex than social media. Additionally, the research scope of social networks is broader than social media in marketing research as shown by the keyword co-occurrence analysis. The overlap between social media and social networks in marketing research is reflected in the strong focus on their mixed mutual effects.

This paper explores the differences and similarities between social networks and social media in marketing research from the bibliometric perspective and provides a developing trend of their research hotspots in social media and social networks marketing research by keyword co-occurrence analysis and cluster analysis. Additionally, this paper provides some suggestions for firms looking to improve the efficiency of their marketing strategies from social and economic perspectives.