Full length articleThe influence of eWOM in social media on consumers’ purchase intentions: An extended approach to information adoption
Introduction
Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has long been considered an influential marketing instrument (Bickart and Schindler, 2001, Kumar and Benbasat, 2006, Zhang et al., 2010). Consumers search for information posted by previous customers, in order to make themselves comfortable before purchasing products or services (Pitta & Fowler, 2005). The Internet has provided several appropriate platforms for eWOM such as blogs, discussion forums, review websites, shopping websites and lastly social media websites (Cheung & Thadani, 2012). Previous studies have found the influence of eWOM in these sources on consumers’ purchase intentions (Bickart and Schindler, 2001, Chan and Ngai, 2011, Park et al., 2007, See-To and Ho, 2014).
However, social media websites, which are relatively new eWOM platforms, have brought a new aspect to eWOM, through enabling users to communicate with their existing networks. People are now able to exchange opinions and experiences about products or services with their friends and acquaintances on social media (Chu and Kim, 2011, Kozinets et al., 2010). This reduced anonymity has the potential to make eWOM information more trustworthy and reliable (Chu and Choi, 2011, Wallace et al., 2009). Indeed, since the conversations in social media frequently refer to brands (Wolny & Mueller, 2013), they are naturally influential on consumers purchase intentions (Wang, Yu, & Wei, 2012). However, it is difficult to envisage all eWOM information as being influential on consumers' purchase intentions. Owing to the vast amount of information which consumers are exposed to, they need to critique and screen the information before using it. This mechanism between eWOM and consumers’ purchase intention has not yet been explained even though the studies previously mentioned discovered the impact of eWOM in social media.
According to Knoll's latest research (2015), which reviews the recent eWOM studies undertaken in the social media context, the influence of eWOM depends on both the information and the consumer. Although this is only an argument based on recent studies and has not been empirically tested, we also agreed with the idea that consumer behaviour towards information should be evaluated together with the characteristics of information. Therefore, we considered both aspects whilst developing our research model. We integrated the Information Adoption Model (IAM) and related components of Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). The IAM explains the characteristics of the eWOM information, while the related components of TRA express the behaviour of consumers towards eWOM information.
The objective of this study is to examine the influence of eWOM in social media on consumers' purchase intentions. For this purpose, we empirically test our research model which we named as Information Acceptance Model (IACM). More specifically, the proposed model tests quality, credibility, usefulness and adoption of information, needs of information and attitude towards information as main precursors of purchase intention. The results provide theoretical insights regarding eWOM in social media; and contribute to the literature through the presented model. On the managerial side, understanding the determinants of eWOM information on social media which affect consumers’ purchase intentions could help marketers to utilise eWOM in their digital marketing activities.
Section snippets
EWOM in social media
Social media websites are considered as truly appropriate platforms for eWOM (Canhoto and Clark, 2013, Erkan and Evans, 2014, Kim et al., 2014). In addition to daily conversations between customers, these websites also allow opinion leaders to create and promote profiles relating to products and services of brands. People can share their comments via written texts, pictures, videos or even applications. Visually enriched contents make eWOM more enjoyable and appealing. Furthermore, social media
Theoretical background of the research model
This study develops a theoretical model to identify the determinants of eWOM information on social media which influence consumers' purchase intentions. To do so, the IAM (Sussman & Siegal, 2003) was extended with related components of TRA (Fishbein & Ajzen, 1975). The introduced model in this study, which is named as information acceptance model (IACM), shows that the influence of eWOM on social media not only depends on the characteristics of eWOM information, such as quality and credibility
The research model (IACM) and hypotheses development
Fig. 2 shows the research model of this study, explaining the determinants of eWOM information on social media which affect consumers' purchase intentions. This study claims that the characteristics of eWOM information are not sufficient to examine the influence of eWOM on consumers' purchase intentions; the behaviour of consumers towards the eWOM information should be included in the evaluation. Therefore, it creates a new model, which is named IACM. Both characteristics of eWOM information
Sampling
In order to test the hypothesised relationships among variables in the proposed research model, a survey was conducted. University students were deemed appropriate for this study due to latest statistics which show adults between the ages 18–29 as being the majority of social media users. As of January 2014; 89% of this age group who use the Internet, also use social media websites (PRC, 2014). A total of 384 students registered in UK universities participated in the study. The sample size of
Measurement model evaluation
The research model was tested using AMOS 20, a structural modelling technique which is well suited for predictive models (Bentler & Chou, 1987). Before testing the hypothesised relationships, we analysed the reliability and validity of the scales. Convergent validity, which was examined by using the composite reliability (CR) and the average variance extracted (AVE), demonstrates how the items are related to each other; and, simply, whether they can be in the same measurement or not. The lower
Discussion
The influence of eWOM on consumers' purchase intentions has long been known by researchers (Bickart and Schindler, 2001, Chan and Ngai, 2011, Kumar and Benbasat, 2006, Park et al., 2007, Zhang et al., 2010). In fact, the impact of eWOM in social media on consumers' purchase intentions has also been known (See-To and Ho, 2014, Wang et al., 2012). However, this study explains the determinants of eWOM information on social media which influence consumers' purchase intentions through the tested
Conclusion
This study proposed a research model called Information Acceptance Model (IACM) in order to examine the influence of eWOM in social media on consumers' purchase intentions. The IACM claims that the influence of eWOM information on social media not only depends on the characteristics of eWOM information, such as quality and credibility of information, but it also depends on the consumers’ behaviour towards eWOM information. The model was validated through a survey of 384 university students who
Limitations and future research directions
The results of this study should be considered with the following limitations. This research has been conducted with university students. Although the age group of university students constitutes the majority of social media users, they may not precisely reflect the whole population. Another limitation of this study is considering all social media websites together, instead of specifically focusing on one website such as Facebook or Twitter. Further research could examine the eWOM in one social
Acknowledgements
We thank Professor Ray Hackney, Dr Abdulaziz Elwalda, and PhD Researcher Erhan Aydin for their valuable comments and insights on this article. Also, thanks to Dr Chris Evans for encouraging this research.
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