Electronic Word-of-Mouth: Motives for and Consequences of Reading Customer Articulations on the Internet

TLDR

The Internet enables consumers to access electronic word of mouth, and online customer comments can significantly influence product success. This paper derives several motives that explain why customers retrieve other customers’ online articulations from Web‑based consumer opinion platforms. A large‑scale empirical study tests the relevance of these motives and their impact on consumer buying and communication behavior. Consumers read online articulations mainly to save decision‑making time and make better buying decisions, and structural equation modeling shows that their motives strongly influence their behavior.

Abstract

The Internet makes it possible for consumers to obtain electronic word of mouth from other consumers. Customer comments articulated via the Internet are available to a vast number of other customers, and therefore can be expected to have a significant impact on the success of goods and services. This paper derives several motives that explain why customers retrieve other customers' on-line articulations from Web-based consumer opinion platforms. The relevance of these motives and their impact on consumer buying and communication behavior are tested in a large-scale empirical study. The results illustrate that consumers read on-line articulations mainly to save decision-making time and make better buying decisions. Structural equation modeling shows that their motives for retrieving on-line articulations strongly influence their behavior.