The Effect of e WOM on Purchase Intention: Celebrities and Social Ties Mediating Emotional Factors

Scholars around the world have studied electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) heavily in the past decade. However, despite extensive knowledge of the effect of e-WOM on consumer behavior, there is still a lack of understanding of how the e-WOM source shapes those behaviors. There are many sources of e-WOM, the influence of which may have different outcomes when it comes to consumers' purchase intentions. Moreover, most studies have measured social tie strengths (strong/weak) as one variable. Weak-tie e-WOM (W-tie) and strong-tie e-WOM (S-tie) are always studied in contrast to each other. The versus characteristics of these two constructs have been considered in almost all studies; however, they may work together via different mechanisms. This study split social ties into two separate constructs, W-tie and S-tie, while adding another source of e-WOM (celebrities e-WOM), and investigated how W-tie moderated the effect of S-tie and celebrity e-WOM on purchase intention, as well as the mediation effect of perceived value, perceived enjoyment, and affective response on purchase intention. A total of 983 valid responses were analyzed using SPSS and AMOS.

Pagina's: 112, Paperback, LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing