Title: Consumer attitude formation from eWOM: interplay between cognition and affect

Authors: Jinsoo Kim

Addresses: Communication Department, Rhode Island College, 600 Mount Pleasant Avenue, Providence, RI 02908, USA

Abstract: The goal of the current study is to investigate how affective and cognitive processing - two of the main components in forming an attitude - play roles in the impact of online consumer reviews on brand/product attitude formation, and, consequently, on purchase intention formation under various conditions (e.g. valence of consumer reviews, product type, and level of involvement). The main experiment was conducted under 2 × 2 × 2 experimentally designed conditions with manipulated valence (positive vs. negative), product type (hedonic vs. functional), and involvement level (high vs. low). The study found a dominant moderating effect from valence of consumer review, whereas the effects from the other moderating variables - product types and involvement levels - were merely detected. The theoretical and practical implications of these findings are discussed.

Keywords: word of mouth; electronic word of mouth; eWOM; consumer; attitude; purchase intention; emotion; cognition; affect; consumer reviews; product reviews; ELM; elaboration likelihood model; product types; hedonic and functional products; involvement level; valence; experiment.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2017.087270

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2017 Vol.11 No.4, pp.330 - 354

Received: 09 Feb 2017
Accepted: 07 May 2017

Published online: 11 Oct 2017 *

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