Effect of the characteristics of eWOM on Consumer’s Buying Behavior: An Online Dining Guide Analysis

• Main Authors: Yi-Hsuan Kuo, 郭怡萱
• Other Authors: 黃恆獎
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2010
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/84998342168386847045

碩士 === 臺灣大學 === 國際企業學研究所 === 98 === According to AC Nelson’s report, though advertising media and sources are expanding rapidly, “the word-of-mouth (WOM) of other consumers “is still the most trustworthy information for consumers. Similar to traditional WOM, research points out that the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) may have higher credibility and more relevant to consumers than the information which marketers create on their own websites. The eWOM is not only a credible information source, but also facilitate to strengthen consumer''s loyalty. Scholars have pointed out earlier the ineligible WOM effects on the service industry. Thus, this research is conducted based on the catering industry, and choose web surfers who employ online dining guide as a reference as the sample, aiming at clarifying the characteristics of information which give rise to the eWOM effect, and to determine whether the characteristics of the surfers interfere with this result, and whether the eWOM affect consumer’s purchase intention and their willingness to forward the information. After the analysis with LISREL method, we found that: (1) the content informativeness, distribution of comments, the negative or positive opinion of comments, the emotional level of comments and the style of comments have positive interaction with WOM effects. (2) the message receiver’s conformity has positive interaction with WOM effects, and the message receiver’s profession has negative interaction with WOM effects. (3) the eWOM effect will positively affect the consumer’s buying intention and their willingness to forward the information.