Abstract:

The uses of WOM to influence consumer purchases are widely adopted as one of the marketing tools in the business world. WOM is believed to be even more influential than traditional organizational marketing communications. WOM communications in SNSs are exchanged among acquaintances of the sites. Such eWOM communications further intensify the effectiveness and efficiency of the spread of the words. Social commerce and eWOM have become widely used marketing tools for organizations to expand their reach to potentials. Instead of waiting for suggestions to push to the SNS pages, many SNS users would try to actively seek related information from friends’ SNS pages for quicker purchase decision making. This study aims at identifying the factors influencing such active eWOM seeking. Seven hypotheses are developed to measure the impact of the identified factors (Receiver’s experiences, sender’s experiences, Tie strength, and Sender’s strength of expression) on eWOM active searching and ultimately influence the intention to purchase. Our research model and hypotheses contribute both theoretically and practically.