Title: The effect of eWOM on brand attitude and purchase intention of consumers: a cross-sectional study on consumer electronics

Authors: Chetna Kudeshia; Arun Mittal

Addresses: BIT, Mesra, Noida Extension Centre, A-7, Sector-1, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India ' BIT, Mesra, Noida Extension Centre, A-7, Sector-1, Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract: Growing acceptance of Facebook and Twitter as an interesting social networking service for customers has made them a value-adding marketing channel for business. These platforms play an important role in Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) communication and thus call for new knowledge to understand their effect on consumer behaviour. Considering their significance and popularity among social media users, the purpose of this paper is to find out the relationship between user-generated positive eWOM for consumer electronics given on social networking sites, brand attitude and purchase intention. A survey-based empirical study was conducted to examine the influence of positive eWOM on brand attitude and purchase intention. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) was applied using the data collected from 315 respondents comprising of the users of Facebook and Twitter. The research established that user-generated positive eWOM on social networking sites (Facebook and Twitter) significantly influences the brand attitude and purchase intention of consumer electronics.

Keywords: electronic WoM; word-of-mouth; eWOM; consumer electronics; purchase intention; brand attitudes; consumer behaviour; social networks; India; Facebook; Twitter; social networking services; SNS; structural equation modelling; SEM.

DOI: 10.1504/IJIMA.2016.080162

International Journal of Internet Marketing and Advertising, 2016 Vol.10 No.3, pp.131 - 151

Received: 31 Dec 2014
Accepted: 31 Jan 2016
Published online: 06 Nov 2016 *

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