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Building upon uses and gratifications (UG) theory and social exchange theory, the current study establishes a theoretical model to examine the underlying relationship between customer motivations, active participation and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) and purchase intentions on WeChat.

The data were gathered in a web-based survey of 301 WeChat users in mainland China. To empirically verify the proposed hypotheses, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed using online data.

Path analysis outcomes demonstrate that functional, hedonic and social motivations positively affect WeChat users' active participation. In addition, active participation significantly influences e-WOM intention while showing no correlation with purchase intention.

Theoretically, this article can enrich the extant system of relevant theories and offer a fresh perspective for further research on the generation of consumers' e-WOM intention and purchase intention in the WeChat context. Practically, the research outcomes provide insight for companies on how to motivate customers to participate in online activities, which subsequently improve WeChat users' willingness in conducting e-WOM communication and making purchase decisions.

Although mobile social media could serve as an influential marketing vehicle for individuals' engagement in social and commercial activities in today's mobile-matured environment, the substantial impact of active engagement on the relationship between customer motivation and purchase intention remains insufficiently explored. The outcomes not only contribute to the current body of knowledge, but also offer several managerial guidance for companies that pay attention to mobile social media marketing in a contemporary mobile media-saturated society.

As opposed to conventional promotional methods, Word-of-Mouth (WOM) communication, especially when negative, significantly shapes customers’ repurchase decisions and preferences. Therefore, this study aims to examine the interplay between negative WOM and bank service failures, with a focus on the mediating role of customer switching intentions and the moderating role of switching costs in this relationship.

Using an online semi-structured questionnaire survey, a dataset comprising 411 responses was gathered from retail bank customers in China. This dataset was subsequently analyzed using SPSS PROCESS.

Consistent with the social exchange theory, our study revealed a significant relationship between service failure and both bank customers’ intention to switch and negative WOM communication. Additionally, we observed that switching intentions significantly influence negative WOM communications, acting as a mediator between service failures and negative WOM. Furthermore, our findings indicated that switching costs moderate the direct effect of service failures on negative WOM and moderate the indirect effect of service failures on negative WOM through switching intentions.

This study provides significant policy implications aimed at minimizing bank service failures and subsequent negative WOM communications among bank customers.

This study empirically investigates the role of service failures in promoting negative WOM communication, demonstrating a partial mediation effect of switching intentions in this relationship. Moreover, the study highlights that switching costs moderate service failures’ impact on customers’ switching intentions.

This research aims to examine the integral elements of omnichannel retailing, an evolving approach that blends online and offline shopping experiences. It focuses on how various factors – merchandise variety, monetary saving, personal interaction, complaint handling, social influence, perceived crowd and skepticism – affect relative advantage, consumer satisfaction and word-of-mouth (WOM) advocacy in an omnichannel context.

A comprehensive survey was conducted with 258 participants, and the data were analyzed using partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM). This methodology provided insights into the complex relationships between different omnichannel retailing factors and their impact on customer satisfaction and WOM.

The study found that monetary saving influences both relative advantage and satisfaction. Personal interaction was observed to affect complaint handling and relative advantage. Importantly, relative advantage was found to impact both satisfaction and WOM. Additionally, the study highlighted the roles of social influence and satisfaction in enhancing WOM.

This research adds to the existing literature by providing a nuanced understanding of the dynamics of consumer engagement in omnichannel retailing. It bridges a gap in existing research by concurrently examining the impact of online and offline retail factors on consumer satisfaction and WOM in an omnichannel setting.

The aim of this research is to examine the roles of trust and electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) in crowdfunding (CF) participation for equity CF by taking into account the following antecedents of trust and e-WOM: intrinsic motivation (IM), extrinsic motivation (EM), deterrents, venture quality (VQ), third-party seal (TPS), value congruence (VC) and perceived accreditation (PA).

In this research, a survey among 408 active and potential funders in Iran was conducted. The statistical analysis used partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM).

The results of this research revealed a significant influence of trust and e-WOM on participation in CF for equity CF. Extrinsic motivation had the greatest impact on trust and VC had the greatest impact on e-WOM.

This research extends the equity CF research area to CF success and considers the effects of some parameters on CF participation. This research provides many theoretical and practical implications.

The present study aims to examine the impact of social media marketing activities (SMMAs) on the adoption of food waste reduction behavior among Generation Z consumers within the restaurant service industry in Pakistan. The study focuses on the impact of social media advertisements and investigates the mediating influence of waste reduction intentions on actual behavior. This underscores the significance of contextual and emotional variables in comprehending consumer behaviors.

The study used a cross-sectional research methodology to examine the impact of SMMAs on the behavior of Generation Z consumers in Pakistan’s food service industry with regard to reducing food waste. A study was conducted to investigate the restaurant purchasing behaviors of a sample consisting of 449 individuals belonging to the millennial generation, often known as Generation Z.

The majority of variables related to SMMA, except for interactivity and personalization, were shown to have a positive impact on individuals’ intents to reduce food waste. The study observed a significant relationship between consumers’ intentions to decrease waste and their actual behavior in waste reduction. Furthermore, this relationship was shown to be influenced by the mediating role of waste reduction intention.

Examining how social media affects Pakistani Generation Z’s efforts to reduce food waste is what makes this study distinctive. According to the research, the majority of social media factors positively influence intentions to reduce waste. The relationship between intentions and actual behavior, which highlights the impact of social media campaigns and emotional aspects in promoting waste reduction, is one of the important conclusions.

This paper investigates the usage and trust of Chinese social media in the travel planning process (pre-trip, during-trip and post-trip) of Chinese tourists.

Through a combination of structured online survey (n = 406) and follow-up interviews, the research identifies the diversification of the demand-and-supply patterns of social media users in China, as well as the allocation of functions of social media as tools before, during and after travel.

Social media users are diverse in terms of their adoption of social media, use behaviour and scope; the levels of trust and influence; and their ultimate travel decisions and actions. Correlations between the level of trust, influence of social media and the intended changes in travel decisions are observed. Destination marketers and tourism industries should observe and adapt to the needs of social media users and potential tourist markets by understanding more about user segmentation between platforms or apps and conducting marketing campaigns on social media platforms to attract a higher number of visitors.

This paper demonstrated the case of social media usage in mainland China, which has been regarded as one of the fastest growing and influential tourist-generating markets and social media expansions in the world. This study further addressed the knowledge gap by correlating social media usage and travel planning process of Chinese tourists. The research findings suggested diversification of the demand-and-supply pattern of social media users in China, as well as the use of social media as tools before, during and after travel. Users were diversified in terms of their adoption of social media, use behaviour, scope, the levels of trust, influence and the ultimate travel decisions.

Destination marketing organizations should note that some overseas social media platforms that are not accessible in China like TripAdvisor, Yelp, Facebook and Instagram are still valued by some Chinese tourists, especially during-trip period in journeys to Western countries. Some tactics for specific user segments should be carefully observed. When promoting specific tourism products to Chinese tourists, it is necessary to understand the user segmentation between platforms or apps.

Social media is a powerful tool for tourism development and sustainability in creating smart tourists and destinations worldwide. In China, the use of social media has stimulated the development of both information and communication technology and tourism.

The purpose of this paper is to identify the influence of homophily and social identity in eWOM adoption and influence on music consumption in streaming platforms. The study also proposes a framework for eWOM influence on product consumption.

Data were collected through an electronic questionnaire with a total of 524 valid responses. A partial least square methodology was used to approach the data analysis.

The findings indicate that both homophily and social identity have an influence on eWOM effect. Additionally, homophily shows influence on social identity being an important value to the total influence. It is also confirmed how eWOM has direct influence on music consumption.

Social information of consumers becomes more relevant than ever, as the results contribute to highlight its importance as a message adoption influencer and product consumption driver.

This study contributes to social communication theory by identifying homophily and social identity as valuable assets during eWOM generation. The research brings a new angle to social identity theory in the social network environment and influences eWOM adoption in music streaming consumption.

El propósito de este estudio es identificar la influencia de la homofilia y la identidad social en la adopción de eWOM y su influencia en el consumo de música en plataformas de streaming. El estudio también propone un marco para la influencia de la eWOM en el consumo de productos.

Los datos se recopilaron a través de un cuestionario electrónico con un total de 524 respuestas válidas. Se utilizó una metodología de Mínimos Cuadrados Parciales para abordar el análisis de datos.

Los hallazgos indican que tanto la homofilia como la identidad social tienen una influencia en el efecto de la eWOM. Además, la homofilia muestra influencia en la identidad social siendo un valor importante para la influencia total. También se confirma cómo la eWOM tiene influencia directa en el consumo de música.

Este estudio contribuye a la teoría de la comunicación social identificando la homofilia y la identidad social como activos valiosos durante la generación de eWOM. La investigación aporta un nuevo enfoque a la teoría de la identidad social en el entorno de las redes sociales e influye en la adopción de eWOM en el consumo de música en streaming.

La información social de los consumidores se vuelve más relevante que nunca, ya que los resultados contribuyen a resaltar su importancia como influenciador en la adopción de mensajes y como impulsor del consumo de productos.

本文旨在确定同质性和社会认同对电子口碑在音乐流媒体平台上的采纳的影响。研究还提出了一个关于eWOM对产品消费影响的框架。

通过电子问卷收集了524份有效回复, 并采用了偏最小二乘法对数据进行分析。

研究结果显示, 同质性和社会认同对eWOM效果产生影响。此外, 同质性对社会认同产生影响, 对总体影响具有重要价值。另外, 研究还确认了eWOM对音乐消费的直接影响。

本研究通过确认同质性和社会认同在eWOM生成过程中的重要价值, 为社交传播理论做出了重要贡献。研究为社交网络环境下的社会认同理论提供了新的视角,并对音乐流媒体消费中的eWOM采纳产生了影响。

在当前社会环境下, 消费者的社会信息比以往任何时候都更加重要。本研究的结果有助于凸显社会信息在信息采纳和产品消费方面的重要性, 进一步强调了其作为影响因素和驱动力的重要性。

A total of 478 Americans participated in an online survey. Each participant was asked to answer questions about a company randomly assigned from one of 36 companies representing six industries.

This study aims to explain how corporate social responsibility (CSR) and negative corporate ability (CA) associations lead to negative word-of-mouth (WOM) intentions in non-crisis situations. Specifically, this study investigates the mediating roles of revenge and avoidance motives in the relationship between negative CSR and CA associations and the intention to generate negative WOM.

The findings indicate that negative CSR associations have a greater effect on WOM than negative CA associations. Moreover, negative CSR associations stimulate the revenge motive, resulting in stronger intentions to spread negative information, while negative CA associations lead to the avoidance motive, resulting in weaker intentions to spread negative information.

Unlike most previous studies that focused on crises, this study examines how negative CA and CSR associations influence negative WOM in non-crisis situations, shedding light on the roles of motives including the revenge and avoidance. The research fills a gap in the existing literature by demonstrating that negative CSR associations have a greater impact on negative WOM intentions than negative CA associations in non-crisis situations.

All presidential and legislative candidates want to be the winner. However, they do not know the determinants of voters' reasons for making choices. This study aims to investigate the role of education level, political party brand reputation, religiosity brand personality and e-WOM on voters' decisions with implications for voters' loyalty.

The survey method was used to collect data from 1206 respondents who have the right to vote through offline and online using Google forms shared on social media platforms—data analysis using Structural Equation Modeling using the SmartPLS 4.0 program.

The results showed that Brand Reputation of Politics can encourage brand Religious Personality and e-WOM. Brand Religious Personality is a factor that causes the decision to vote. However, the level of education is not a determining factor for Brand Religious Personality and e-WOM. In addition, brand religious personality, e-WOM and Decision to vote can mediate Brand Reputation of Political loyalty.

The findings from this study can help political parties and candidates develop strategies tailored to voters' needs and increase their chances of winning elections.

The novelty in this study is the development of a model that has never been tested before that uses factor sources from marketing science literacy such as Brand, e-WOM and Loyalty. This study also used moderation variables namely choosing decisions, e-WOM, and religious brand personality. The object of this research was conducted in Indonesia, which is included in the list of developing countries but has never been done in any country. The analysis tool uses the new SEM-PLS version 4.0, so it has a level of novelty and implications that are important for political marketing.

Handicraft entrepreneurs often lack the marketing funding needed to achieve brand awareness and, ultimately, sales. While positive word-of-mouth (WOM) from customers can bridge the funding gap, handicraft entrepreneurs may not have knowledge of how to generate WOM effectively. The purpose of this study is to examine role of self-schema and brand love in generating positive WOM in a developing country research context, namely, South Africa.

This study used a quantitative approach. A survey was completed by 250 South African respondents who purchase handmade home décor items. The interrelationships between constructs were analysed using covariance-based structural equation modelling.

Self-schema and brand love are instrumental in generating positive WOM, albeit via different underlying mechanisms. Brand love mediates the relationships between self-schema (inner- and social self) and positive WOM.

This paper contributes to the entrepreneurial marketing (EM) field theoretically by providing a needed customer perspective for EM strategies from a developing country. Moreover, by considering underlying cognitive and emotional processes that underpin WOM, the authors demonstrate how handicraft entrepreneurs can use customers as a resource in their marketing strategy. Practical recommendations for handicraft entrepreneurs and policymakers are also offered.