IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/manlab/v39y2014i3p293-308.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Social Media WOM: Definition, Consequences and Inter-relationships

Author

Listed:
  • Angshuman Ghosh
  • Sanjeev Varshney
  • Pingali Venugopal

Abstract

Social media is the latest buzzword in the world of marketing and communication. Billions of people are using different social media sites on a daily basis. A significant proportion of consumers refer to reviews of products and services posted on social media before making their purchase decisions. In the process, the word of mouth or WOM messages posted by fellow users on social media sites play an important role. In this research article, we study how social media WOM influences the decision making of the recipient consumer. Based on study of the extant literature and consequent analysis, we present a set of research propositions and a conceptual model. The main relationships that we study are the impact of social media WOM on consumer purchase intention and brand attitude. We also study the role of key correlates in the context namely perceived risk, source credibility, social media website, perceived product knowledge and involvement level. The primary contributions of this research article are distinguishing the roles of positive and negative WOM, bringing WOM to the context of social media and studying the roles of key correlates.

Suggested Citation

  • Angshuman Ghosh & Sanjeev Varshney & Pingali Venugopal, 2014. "Social Media WOM: Definition, Consequences and Inter-relationships," Management and Labour Studies, XLRI Jamshedpur, School of Business Management & Human Resources, vol. 39(3), pages 293-308, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:manlab:v:39:y:2014:i:3:p:293-308
    DOI: 10.1177/0258042X15577899
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0258042X15577899
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0258042X15577899?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Punj, Girish N & Staelin, Richard, 1983. "A Model of Consumer Information Search Behavior for New Automobiles," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 9(4), pages 366-380, March.
    2. Dhar, Vasant & Chang, Elaine A., 2009. "Does Chatter Matter? The Impact of User-Generated Content on Music Sales," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 23(4), pages 300-307.
    3. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2009. "The fairyland of Second Life: Virtual social worlds and how to use them," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 52(6), pages 563-572, November.
    4. Park, Cheol & Lee, Thae Min, 2009. "Information direction, website reputation and eWOM effect: A moderating role of product type," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 62(1), pages 61-67, January.
    5. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1992. "Advances in Prospect Theory: Cumulative Representation of Uncertainty," Journal of Risk and Uncertainty, Springer, vol. 5(4), pages 297-323, October.
    6. Brucks, Merrie, 1988. "Search Monitor: An Approach for Computer-Controlled Experiments Involving Consumer Information Search," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 15(1), pages 117-121, June.
    7. Peypoch, Ramon J., 1998. "The case for electronic business communities," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 41(5), pages 17-20.
    8. Amos Tversky & Daniel Kahneman, 1991. "Loss Aversion in Riskless Choice: A Reference-Dependent Model," The Quarterly Journal of Economics, President and Fellows of Harvard College, vol. 106(4), pages 1039-1061.
    9. Alba, Joseph W & Hutchinson, J Wesley, 2000. "Knowledge Calibration: What Consumers Know and What They Think They Know," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 27(2), pages 123-156, September.
    10. Dowling, Grahame R & Staelin, Richard, 1994. "A Model of Perceived Risk and Intended Risk-Handling Activity," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 119-134, June.
    11. Ajzen, Icek, 1991. "The theory of planned behavior," Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, Elsevier, vol. 50(2), pages 179-211, December.
    12. Park, C Whan & Mothersbaugh, David L & Feick, Lawrence, 1994. "Consumer Knowledge Assessment," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 21(1), pages 71-82, June.
    13. Bone, Paula Fitzgerald, 1995. "Word-of-mouth effects on short-term and long-term product judgments," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 32(3), pages 213-223, March.
    14. Weinberg, Bruce D. & Pehlivan, Ekin, 2011. "Social spending: Managing the social media mix," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 54(3), pages 275-282, May.
    15. Yubo Chen & Jinhong Xie, 2008. "Online Consumer Review: Word-of-Mouth as a New Element of Marketing Communication Mix," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 54(3), pages 477-491, March.
    16. Yang, Jun & Mai, Enping (Shirley), 2010. "Experiential goods with network externalities effects: An empirical study of online rating system," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 63(9-10), pages 1050-1057, September.
    17. Kaplan, Andreas M. & Haenlein, Michael, 2010. "Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of Social Media," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 53(1), pages 59-68, January.
    18. Jean-Noël Kapferer & Gilles Laurent, 1985. "Measuring consumer involvement profiles," Post-Print hal-00786781, HAL.
    19. Kristine de Valck & Roberts V. Kozinets & Andrea C. Wojnicki & Sarah J.S. Wilner, 2010. "Networked Narratives: Understanding Word-of-Mouth Marketing in Online Communities," Post-Print hal-00458424, HAL.
    20. Mitchell, Andrew A & Dacin, Peter A, 1996. "The Assessment of Alternative Measures of Consumer Expertise," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 23(3), pages 219-239, December.
    21. Petty, Richard E & Cacioppo, John T & Schumann, David, 1983. "Central and Peripheral Routes to Advertising Effectiveness: The Moderating Role of Involvement," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 10(2), pages 135-146, September.
    22. Alba, Joseph W & Hutchinson, J Wesley, 1987. "Dimensions of Consumer Expertise," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 13(4), pages 411-454, March.
    23. Goldberg, Marvin E & Hartwick, Jon, 1990. "The Effects of Advertiser Reputation and Extremity of Advertising Claim on Advertising Effectiveness," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 17(2), pages 172-179, September.
    24. Jay P. Carlson & Leslie H. Vincent & David M. Hardesty & William O. Bearden, 2009. "Objective and Subjective Knowledge Relationships: A Quantitative Analysis of Consumer Research Findings," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 35(5), pages 864-876, October.
    25. David Beer & Roger Burrows, 2007. "Sociology and, of and in Web 2.0: Some Initial Considerations," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 12(5), pages 67-79, September.
    26. Singh, Tanuja & Veron-Jackson, Liza & Cullinane, Joe, 2008. "Blogging: A new play in your marketing game plan," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 51(4), pages 281-292.
    27. David Godes & Dina Mayzlin, 2004. "Using Online Conversations to Study Word-of-Mouth Communication," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 545-560, June.
    28. Beatty, Sharon E & Smith, Scott M, 1987. "External Search Effort: An Investigation across Several Product Categories," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 14(1), pages 83-95, June.
    29. Park, C Whan & Lessig, V Parker, 1981. "Familiarity and Its Impact on Consumer Decision Biases and Heuristics," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 8(2), pages 223-230, September.
    30. Zaichkowsky, Judith Lynne, 1985. "Measuring the Involvement Construct," Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Research Inc., vol. 12(3), pages 341-352, December.
    31. Tversky, Amos & Kahneman, Daniel, 1986. "Rational Choice and the Framing of Decisions," The Journal of Business, University of Chicago Press, vol. 59(4), pages 251-278, October.
    32. Ali Siddiq Alhakami & Paul Slovic, 1994. "A Psychological Study of the Inverse Relationship Between Perceived Risk and Perceived Benefit," Risk Analysis, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(6), pages 1085-1096, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Syed Sardar Muhammad & Bidit Lal Dey & Vishanth Weerakkody, 2018. "Analysis of Factors that Influence Customers’ Willingness to Leave Big Data Digital Footprints on Social Media: A Systematic Review of Literature," Information Systems Frontiers, Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 559-576, June.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Gaia Rubera & Andrea Ordanini & David Mazursky, 2010. "Toward a contingency view of new product creativity: Assessing the interactive effects of consumers," Marketing Letters, Springer, vol. 21(2), pages 191-206, June.
    2. Roma, Paolo & Aloini, Davide, 2019. "How does brand-related user-generated content differ across social media? Evidence reloaded," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 322-339.
    3. Catherine Viot, 2012. "Subjective knowledge, product attributes and consideration set : the wine case," Post-Print hal-01803724, HAL.
    4. Kick, Markus, 2015. "Social Media Research: A Narrative Review," EconStor Preprints 182506, ZBW - Leibniz Information Centre for Economics.
    5. Akbari, Morteza & Foroudi, Pantea & Zaman Fashami, Rahime & Mahavarpour, Nasrin & Khodayari, Maryam, 2022. "Let us talk about something: The evolution of e-WOM from the past to the future," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 149(C), pages 663-689.
    6. Kostyra, Daniel S. & Reiner, Jochen & Natter, Martin & Klapper, Daniel, 2016. "Decomposing the effects of online customer reviews on brand, price, and product attributes," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 33(1), pages 11-26.
    7. Smith, Gerald E. & Venkatraman, Meera P. & Dholakia, Ruby Roy, 1999. "Diagnosing the search cost effect: Waiting time and the moderating impact of prior category knowledge," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 20(3), pages 285-314, June.
    8. Bartschat, Maria & Cziehso, Gerrit & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, 2022. "Searching for word of mouth in the digital age: Determinants of consumers’ uses of face-to-face information, internet opinion sites, and social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 393-409.
    9. Bin Gu & Jaehong Park & Prabhudev Konana, 2012. "Research Note ---The Impact of External Word-of-Mouth Sources on Retailer Sales of High-Involvement Products," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(1), pages 182-196, March.
    10. (Kay) Byun, Kyung-ah & Ma, Minghui & Kim, Kevin & Kang, Taeghyun, 2021. "Buying a New Product with Inconsistent Product Reviews from Multiple Sources: The Role of Information Diagnosticity and Advertising," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 55(C), pages 81-103.
    11. Qian, Lixian & Soopramanien, Didier & Daryanto, Ahmad, 2017. "First-time buyers' subjective knowledge and the attribute preferences of Chinese car buyers," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 189-196.
    12. Huang, Liyuan & Gursoy, Dogan & Xu, Honggang, 2014. "Impact of personality traits and involvement on prior knowledge," Annals of Tourism Research, Elsevier, vol. 48(C), pages 42-57.
    13. Wirawan Dony Dahana & HeeJae Shin & Sotaro Katsumata, 2018. "Influence of individual characteristics on whether and how much consumers engage in showrooming behavior," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(4), pages 665-692, December.
    14. Bettina Lis, 2013. "In eWOM We Trust," Business & Information Systems Engineering: The International Journal of WIRTSCHAFTSINFORMATIK, Springer;Gesellschaft für Informatik e.V. (GI), vol. 5(3), pages 129-140, June.
    15. Catherine Viot & Juliette Passebois-Ducros, 2010. "Wine brands or branded wines? The specificity of the French market in terms of the brand," Post-Print hal-01803728, HAL.
    16. Tibert Verhagen & Daniel Bloemers, 2018. "Exploring the cognitive and affective bases of online purchase intentions: a hierarchical test across product types," Electronic Commerce Research, Springer, vol. 18(3), pages 537-561, September.
    17. Erjon Nexhipi, 2022. "The difference in consumer attitudes of locally grown apples with imported apples. the case of Korca Region, Albania:," Technium Social Sciences Journal, Technium Science, vol. 37(1), pages 250-264, November.
    18. Nguyen, Hang T. & Chaudhuri, Malika, 2019. "Making new products go viral and succeed," International Journal of Research in Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 36(1), pages 39-62.
    19. Samson, Alain & Voyer, Benjamin G., 2014. "Emergency purchasing situations: Implications for consumer decision-making," Journal of Economic Psychology, Elsevier, vol. 44(C), pages 21-33.
    20. Babutsidze, Zakaria, 2018. "The rise of electronic social networks and implications for advertisers," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 137(C), pages 27-39.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:manlab:v:39:y:2014:i:3:p:293-308. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.xlri.ac.in/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.