• Journal of Korea Trade
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• v.23 no.5
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• pp.102-117
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• 2019

Purpose - This paper tried to identify the impact of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on purchase intention (PI) of Korean-brand cars in the context of Russian consumers, taking into consideration the credibility, quality, and quantity of eWOM while also considering the mediation effects of brand image (BI) and perceived quality (PQ). Although there is a considerable number of studies discussing the impact of eWOM determinants on PI, not many studies were conducted focusing on the Russian market. Design/methodology - This paper is considered to fill this gap between eWOM and (PI) and, in order to do so, 211 Russian respondents were randomly selected. Descriptive analysis, factor, and reliability analysis were conducted using SPSS version 22.0. While structural equation modeling was conducted using AMOS version 24.0. Findings - The results display that, in terms of Russian consumers' perception, eWOM credibility, quality, and quantity for Korean-brand cars show a substantial impact on PI. The mediation effects of brand image, as well as perceived quality, were also supported by analysis. In the final part of the paper, theoretical and managerial implications alongside limitations with further research suggestions are presented. Originality/value - This study endeavored to explore the degree of impact of eWOM and mediating roles of BI and PQ on Russian customer intentions to buy Korean-brand cars.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.107-135
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• 2017

Purpose Along with the growth of smart phones and social networking service (SNS), social commerce continues to expand. Although online reviews have become an important source of the information that consumers use to make purchasing decisions, theoretical development and empirical testing in this area are still limited. Thus, there is a need to develop further understanding about the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). Drawing upon the heuristic - systematic model (HSM) which is one of the dual-process theories, this study develops a research model that explains key factors influencing consumers' eWOM credibility. Furthermore, this study verifies that consumer's eWOM credibility is a key determinant of eWOM and purchase intentions. Design/methodology/approach The proposed model is empirically tested with 493 users who have experience in WeChat-based social commerce. The structural equation model (SEM) analysis is used to evaluate the research model and hypotheses. Findings The major findings are as follows. First, argument quality of eWOM (a systematic factor) has a positive effect on eWOM credibility. Second, source credibility and recommendation consistency of eWOM (heuristic factors) are positively associated with eWOM credibility. Finally, purchase and eWOM intentions greatly depend on eWOM credibility. These results confirm the effectiveness of HSM in explaining eWOM mechanisms in SNS-based social commerce. The details of findings and implications are presented.

• Asia Marketing Journal
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• v.12 no.2
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• pp.1-25
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• 2010

Motion pictures are so typical experience goods that consumers tend to look for more credible information. Hence, movie audiences consider movie viewers' reviews more important than the information provided by the film distributor. Recently many portal sites allow consumers to post their reviews and opinions so that other people check the number of consumer reviews and scores before going to the theater. There are a few previous researches studying the electronic word of mouth(eWOM) effect in the movie industry. They found that the volume of eWOM influenced the revenue of the movie significantly but the valence of eWOM did not affect it much (Liu 2006). The goal of our research is also to investigate the eWOM effects in general. But our research is different from the previous studies in several aspects. First, we study the eWOM effect in Korean movie industry. In other words, we would like to check whether we can generalize the results of the previous research across countries. The similar econometric models are applied to Korean movie data that include 746,282 consumer reviews on 439 movies. Our results show that both the valence(RATING) and the volume(LNMSG) of the eWOM influence weekly movie revenues. This result is different from the previous research findings that the volume only influences the revenue. We conjectured that the difference of self construal between Asian and American culture may explain this difference (Kitayama 1991). Asians including Koreans have more interdependent self construal than American, so that they are easily affected by other people's thought and suggestion. Hence, the valence of the eWOM affects Koreans' choice of the movie. Second, we find the critical defect of the previous eWOM models and, hence, attempt to correct it. The previous eWOM model assumes that the volume of eWOM (LNMSG) is an independent variable affecting the movie revenue (LNREV). However, the revenue can influence the volume of the eWOM. We think that treating the volume of eWOM as an independent variable a priori is too restrictive. In order to remedy this problem, we employed a simultaneous equation in which the movie revenue and the volume of the eWOM can affect each other. That is, our eWOM model assumes that the revenue (LNREV) and the volume of eWOM (LNMSG) have endogenous relationship where they influence each other. The results from this simultaneous equation model showed that the movie revenue and the eWOM volume interact each other. The movie revenue influences the eWOM volume for the entire 8 weeks. The reverse effect is more complex. Both the volume and the valence of eWOM affect the revenue in the first week, but only the volume affect the revenue for the rest of the weeks. In the first week, consumers may be curious about the movie and look for various kinds of information they can trust, so that they use the both the quantity and quality of consumer reviews. But from the second week, the quality of the eWOM only affects the movie revenue, implying that the review ratings are more important than the number of reviews. Third, our results show that the ratings by professional critics (CRATING) had negative effect to the weekly movie revenue (LNREV). Professional critics often give low ratings to the blockbuster movies that do not have much cinematic quality. Experienced audiences who watch the movie for fun do not trust the professionals' ratings and, hence, tend to go for the low-rated movies by them. In summary, applied to the Korean movie ratings data and employing a simultaneous model, our results are different from the previous eWOM studies: 1) Koreans (or Asians) care about the others' evaluation quality more than quantity, 2) The volume of eWOM is not the cause but the result of the revenue, 3) Professional reviews can give the negative effect to the movie revenue.

• The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.213-219
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• 2020

Studies related to Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) show that the acceptance of eWOM information is an important factor in customer purchase decisions. When consumers accept eWOM information, they tend to use that information in considering before making purchase decisions. In Viet Nam, there are few studies about eWOM information, especially on the acceptance of eWOM information. Research is conducted to test the influence of consumers on the perception of the senders' identity to the acceptance of online reviews (a kind of eWOM) in Viet Nam - a case study in Ho Chi Minh City. Using adjustment techniques, inspecting the scales and a theoretical model represent the relationship among the influential factors. The research is based on a sample of 522 consumers who use the Internet to search for product reviews before buying and used Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to test the relationships among the variables. The research results show that the scales of the variables: Message Quality, Source Credibility, Perceived Message Usefulness, Perceived Senders' Identity, Perceived Message Credibility, Message Acceptance attain the validity and reliability in the research. The research contributes to the understanding of the determinants that influence the acceptance of eWOM information, which are informational factors, and factors related to consumer skepticism.

• Asia-Pacific Journal of Business Venturing and Entrepreneurship
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.199-209
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• 2019

With the rapid development of mobile communication tools, customers are using SNS as a major information tool. SNS can provide information to a small number of customers as well as people around them, with information about a product or service that a small number of customers know through experience. With these characteristics, dessert cafes are being used as a major marketing tool for online websites and mobile phones using SNS. Therefore, in this study, theoretical considerations about e-WOM quality, perceived value, and visit intention were performed. The effect of e-WOM quality of dessert cafe on perceived value was analyzed and the effect of perceived value on visit intention was analyzed. Based on these results, I would like to suggest theoretical implications and practical implications for online marketing of dessert cafes. This study was conducted to survey the customers who have visited dessert cafe through oral communication within the last 6 months. The survey was conducted from September 4, 2018 to September 18, 2018, and was used for the analysis of 317 additional items. The research hypotheses between the e-WOM quality of the dessert cafe and the utilitarian value, hedonic value, and visiting intention were used the structural equation model(SEM). First, neutrality and interactivity have a significant effect on utilitarian value, but consensus and vividness have not significant effect. Second, It was found that the consensus, vividness, and neutrality had a significant effect on the hedonic value but interactivity was not found to have a significant effect. Third, hedonic value has a significant effect on visit intention, but utilitarian value has not significant effect. As a result, online e-WOM quality management is important.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.721-729
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• 2022

The pandemic of COVID-19 has led "E-commerce+ Live streaming", the new form of retail business, development rapidly. And more and more consumers choose to buy commodities in E-commerce live streaming. According to the related investigation at home and abroad, the purchase intention and WOM intention are two important measuring factors of the effect of the direct transmission of e-commerce. In previous research, the author proved that IWOM has become an important reference for consumers to make online purchases. In this study, the author mainly focus on the impact of online WOM on consumer intention. Based on the Involvement Theory, this paper proposes a model of the influence of IWOM on WOM intention in e-commerce live broadcast which is adjusted by the product involvement degree. The results show that the characteristics of anchor, the quantity and quality of IWOM, the prescription of IWOM, the difference of IWOM and the intention of WOM are positively regulated by the product involvement. However, product involvement did not play a moderating role between relationship strength and WOM intention.

• The Journal of Information Systems
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.233-254
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• 2011

Although e-commerce is growing fast, e-commerce consumers are still under higher risk and uncertainty in the comparison of the traditional commerce's. Consumer review boards of online shopping malls are good measures to help buyer's decision making, and should be managed effectively by sellers. We formulate the research model on consumer trust formation on seller managed web review boards on the background of previous literatures on e-WOM and trust. Our data analysis with 368 samples shows seller's reputation, e-service quality, perceived reviewer's benevolence and ability have significant positive effect on the trustworthiness of the board. Product involvement shows weak negative moderation effect on the relationship between perceived reviewer's benevolence and trustworthiness of review boards.

• Asia pacific journal of information systems
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• v.23 no.3
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• pp.131-154
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• 2013

New internet technologies have created a revolutionary new platform which allows consumers to make decision about product price and quality quickly and provides information about themselves through the transcript of online reviews. By expressing their feelings toward products or services on virtual opinion platforms, users extend their influence into cyberspace as electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM). Existing research indicates that an impact of eWOM on the consumer decision process is influential. For both academic researchers and practitioners, investigating this phenomenon of information sharing in online website is essential given the increasing number of consumers using them as sources of purchase decisions. It is worthwhile to examine the extent to which opinion seekers are willing to accept and adopt online reviews and which factors encourage adoption. Discerning the most motivating aspects of information adoption in particular, could help electronic marketers better promote their brand and presence on the internet. The objectives of this study are to investigate how online WOM influences a persons' purchase decision by discovering which factors encourage information adoption. Especially focused on the self-efficacy, this research investigates how self-efficacy affects on information usefulness and adoption of online information. Although people are exposed to same review or comment about product or service, some accept the reviews while others do not. We notice that accepting online reviews mainly depends on the person's preference or personal characteristics. This study empirically examines this issue by using cognitive dissonance theory. Specifically, in the movie industry, we address few questions-is always positive WOM generating positive effect? What if the movie isn't the person's favorite genre? What if the person who is very self-assertive so doesn't take other's opinion easily? In these cases of cognitive dissonance, is always WOM generating same result? While many studies have focused on one direct of WOM which indicates positive (or negative) informative reviews or comments generate positive (or negative) results and more (or less) profits, this study investigates not only directional properties of WOM but also how people change their opinion towards product or service positive to negative, negative to positive through the online WOM. An experiment was conducted quantitatively by using a sample of 168 users who have experience within the online movie review site, 'Naver Movie'. Users were required to complete a survey regarding reviews and comments taken from the real movie page. The data reflected user's perceptions of online WOM information that determined users' adoption level. Analysis results provide empirical support for the proposed theoretical perspective. When user can't agree with the opinion of online WOM information, in other words, when cognitive dissonance between online WOM information and users' preference occurs, perceived self-efficacy significantly decreases customers' perception of usefulness. And this perception of usefulness plays an important role in determining users' intention to adopt online WOM information. Most of researches have been concentrated on characteristics of online WOM itself such as quality or vividness of information, credibility of source and direction of online WOM, etc. for describing effect of online WOM, but our results suggest that users' personal character (e.g., self-efficacy) plays decisive role for acceptance of online WOM information. Higher self-efficacy means lower possibility to accept the information that represents counter opinion because of cognitive dissonance, whereas the people that have lower self-efficacy are willing to accept the online WOM information as true and refer to purchase decision. This study suggests a model for understanding role of direction of online WOM information. Also, our result implicates the importance of online review supervision and personalized information service by confirming switching opinion negative to positive is more difficult than positive to negative through the online WOM information. This implication would help marketers to manage online reviews of their products or services.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.2157-2167
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• 2013

The current paper aims to analyze the influence of users' self evaluation of e-service quality and others' word-of-mouth(WOM) on customer satisfaction and revisit intention in a family restaurant web site. The research model includes the constructs of service quality, WOM, customer satisfaction, and revisit intention. This study examines the hypothesized model using data from 175 college students around the Seoul metropolitan area who have visited a family restaurant as well as used its web site during the last three months. The findings show that service quality has a significant impact on customer satisfaction and a full-mediation effect between WOM and customer satisfaction. In addition, customer satisfaction has a significant influence on revisit intention. Family restaurants need to have an effort to manage service quality factors and social influences such as online WOM in order to use a web site as a tool of customer relationship management.

• Journal of Contemporary Eastern Asia
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.3-14
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• 2014

Online communities are an important source of electronic-word-of-mouth (eWOM), however few studies have examined these types of messages within the Middle Eastern context. This study focuses on Kuwaiti women as members of an online beauty forum; previous work has suggested a mediating effect of gender with women being more likely to trust and follow-up word-of-mouth with a purchase. A conceptual model, based on existing theoretical contributions, provides the basis of a coding framework for the message characteristics that influence members' eWOM adoption. A sub-set of the analysis is presented: 218 threads (1820 messages, coded into 6702 units) illustrating cases where eWOM was adopted and thereby demonstrating continuance intention with members returning to the forum. Content analysis revealed the prevalence of emotional aspects in messages, coded into a new category of 'community bonding'. Findings show that emotion expressed in messages is as influential and important as cognitive aspects of argument quality.