Author:
Xinwei Wang
Hock-Hai Teo
Kwok Kee Wei
Abstract:
Electronic word-of-mouth (EWOM) systems have become an inalienable and indispensable part of electronic
commerce and evolved into a rich information environment that contain a set of communication elements.
Understanding how these communication elements operate simultaneously to shape consumers’ decision with the
product in the EWOM context is a prerequisite for designing value-adding EWOM systems. Drawing on Elaboration
Likelihood Model and the additivity and the bias hypotheses, we document the roles of multiple communication
elements in EWOM systems, namely the product review, the informant profile, the peer rating indicator, and the
informant status indicator, in affecting a consumer’s acceptance of the product in an EWOM system. Through an
experimental study, we observe that the acceptance of the product is positively affected by the diagnosticity of the
product review and the informant’s credibility. The diagnosticity of the review is in turn affected by the congruence
between its coverage and the consumer’s personal consumption needs. Informant credibility is influenced by the
concentration of the informant’s past information contribution on the focal product category and this relationship is
moderated by the system artifact that displays the informant’s status.
Key Word:
Published Date:
August, 2015