Title: Moderating effect of brand awareness levels on the relationship between eWOM, perceived quality, brand trust, and purchase intention

Authors: Dimas Agus Hairani; Tanti Handriana; Dudi Amarullah

Addresses: Faculty of Economics and Business, Airlangga University, No. 4-6, Airlangga Road, Surabaya City, Indonesia ' Faculty of Economics and Business, Airlangga University, No. 4-6, Airlangga Road, Surabaya City, Indonesia ' Faculty of Economics and Business, Airlangga University, No. 4-6, Airlangga Road, Surabaya City, Indonesia

Abstract: The development of e-commerce drives high competition between brands. Although eWOM plays an essential role in e-commerce, there has not been discussed previously about the role of brand awareness levels as a moderating factor. This research examines the influence of brand awareness levels in the relationship between eWOM, perceived quality, brand trust, and purchase intention. The hypotheses of this research were tested using partial least square-structural equation modelling (PLS-SEM) and multi-group analysis (MGA) with a total sample of 220. The result showed that the two groups of brand awareness levels (high vs. low) had notable differences regarding the relationship between perceived quality, brand trust, and purchase intention. However, there were no differences in the relationship between eWOM, perceived quality, and brand trust in both groups. In addition, the research also found that eWOM was unable to influence purchase intention directly. Several implications are also presented at the end of the paper.

Keywords: eWOM; perceived quality; brand trust; purchase intention; brand awareness.

DOI: 10.1504/IJEMR.2024.139377

International Journal of Electronic Marketing and Retailing, 2024 Vol.15 No.4, pp.393 - 414

Received: 17 Mar 2022
Accepted: 20 Jun 2022
Published online: 02 Jul 2024 *

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