IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jbrese/v69y2016i2p642-652.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Unknown, surprising, and economically significant: The realities of electronic word of mouth in Chinese social networking sites

Author

Listed:
  • Kasabov, Edward

Abstract

The increasing significance of electronic word-of-mouth (e-WoM) has followed the rapid growth of Internet usage. Consumers seek information provided by other online users on various online platforms, including social networking sites (SNSs) which are considered ideal platforms for e-WoM. We report research with Chinese consumers on the motivation and use of e-WoM in SNSs, drivers and dynamics of e-WoM, and e-WoM influences on consumer behavior. A number of normative expectations and conclusions in extant research are disconfirmed through empirical research, including the non-significance of non-information-related, social and hedonic motives for seeking e-WoM, and the secondary role of social capital. Findings are incorporated in a novel framework to inform theory development. By providing insights about e-WoM motivations and behaviors in SNSs and by focusing on such dynamics in the Chinese market, a topic is highlighted that is economically significant but is less frequently documented in marketing.

Suggested Citation

  • Kasabov, Edward, 2016. "Unknown, surprising, and economically significant: The realities of electronic word of mouth in Chinese social networking sites," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 69(2), pages 642-652.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:2:p:642-652
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.08.036
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0148296315003859
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jbusres.2015.08.036?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Greenberg, Penelope Sue & Greenberg, Ralph H. & Antonucci, Yvonne Lederer, 2007. "Creating and sustaining trust in virtual teams," Business Horizons, Elsevier, vol. 50(4), pages 325-333.
    2. David Godes & Dina Mayzlin, 2004. "Using Online Conversations to Study Word-of-Mouth Communication," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 23(4), pages 545-560, June.
    3. Fong, John & Burton, Suzan, 2008. "A cross-cultural comparison of electronic word-of-mouth and country-of-origin effects," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 61(3), pages 233-242, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Bartschat, Maria & Cziehso, Gerrit & Hennig-Thurau, Thorsten, 2022. "Searching for word of mouth in the digital age: Determinants of consumers’ uses of face-to-face information, internet opinion sites, and social media," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 141(C), pages 393-409.
    2. Sindy Liu & Patsy Perry & Gregory Gadzinski, 2019. "The implications of digital marketing on WeChat for luxury fashion brands in China," Journal of Brand Management, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 26(4), pages 395-409, July.
    3. Topaloglu, Omer & Dass, Mayukh & Kumar, Piyush, 2017. "Does who we are affect what we say and when? Investigating the impact of activity and connectivity on microbloggers' response to new products," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 77(C), pages 23-29.
    4. Alisa Kazakova & Meerim Karimova & Insin Kim, 2021. "Examining Rapport with Local People, International Students’ Roles through Travel Experience and Sustainable Tourism," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(17), pages 1-15, September.
    5. Lova Rajaobelina & Isabelle Brun & Nour Kilani & Line Ricard, 2022. "Examining emotions linked to live chat services: The role of e-service quality and impact on word of mouth," Journal of Financial Services Marketing, Palgrave Macmillan, vol. 27(3), pages 232-249, September.
    6. Hsieh, Jung-Kuei, 2023. "The impact of influencers' multi-SNS use on followers’ behavioral intentions: An integration of cue consistency theory and social identity theory," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 74(C).

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. King, Robert Allen & Racherla, Pradeep & Bush, Victoria D., 2014. "What We Know and Don't Know About Online Word-of-Mouth: A Review and Synthesis of the Literature," Journal of Interactive Marketing, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 167-183.
    2. Hyunwoo Hwangbo & Jonghyuk Kim, 2019. "A Text Mining Approach for Sustainable Performance in the Film Industry," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(11), pages 1-16, June.
    3. Diwanji, Vaibhav S. & Cortese, Juliann, 2020. "Contrasting user generated videos versus brand generated videos in ecommerce," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 54(C).
    4. Shijie Lu & Xin (Shane) Wang & Neil Bendle, 2020. "Does Piracy Create Online Word of Mouth? An Empirical Analysis in the Movie Industry," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 66(5), pages 2140-2162, May.
    5. Goyal, Sanjeev & Heidari, Hoda & Kearns, Michael, 2019. "Competitive contagion in networks," Games and Economic Behavior, Elsevier, vol. 113(C), pages 58-79.
    6. Inyoung Chae & Andrew T. Stephen & Yakov Bart & Dai Yao, 2017. "Spillover Effects in Seeded Word-of-Mouth Marketing Campaigns," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 36(1), pages 89-104, January.
    7. Khim-Yong Goh & Cheng-Suang Heng & Zhijie Lin, 2013. "Social Media Brand Community and Consumer Behavior: Quantifying the Relative Impact of User- and Marketer-Generated Content," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 24(1), pages 88-107, March.
    8. Duan, Yongrui & Liu, Tonghui & Mao, Zhixin, 2022. "How online reviews and coupons affect sales and pricing: An empirical study based on e-commerce platform," Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, Elsevier, vol. 65(C).
    9. Steven M. Shugan, 2005. "Brand Loyalty Programs: Are They Shams?," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 24(2), pages 185-193.
    10. Kee-Young Kwahk & Byoungsoo Kim, 2017. "Effects of social media on consumers’ purchase decisions: evidence from Taobao," Service Business, Springer;Pan-Pacific Business Association, vol. 11(4), pages 803-829, December.
    11. Marc Bourreau & Michel Gensollen & François Moreau & Patrick Waelbroeck, 2013. "“Selling less of more?” The impact of digitization on record companies," Journal of Cultural Economics, Springer;The Association for Cultural Economics International, vol. 37(3), pages 327-346, August.
    12. K. Sudhir, 2018. "Editorial—Introducing A New Section— Marketing Science: Frontiers," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 37(1), pages 1-4, January.
    13. Sungsik Park & Woochoel Shin & Jinhong Xie, 2021. "The Fateful First Consumer Review," Marketing Science, INFORMS, vol. 40(3), pages 481-507, May.
    14. Liu, Yizao & Rui, Huaxia, 2014. "Social Media and Consumer Engagement in the Carbonated Soft Drinks Market," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 169815, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    15. Rohit Aggarwal & Ram Gopal & Alok Gupta & Harpreet Singh, 2012. "Putting Money Where the Mouths Are: The Relation Between Venture Financing and Electronic Word-of-Mouth," Information Systems Research, INFORMS, vol. 23(3-part-2), pages 976-992, September.
    16. Sheng Tun Li & Thuong Thi Pham & Hui Chi Chuang & Zhi-Wei Wang, 2016. "Does reliable information matter? Towards a trustworthy co-created recommendation model by mining unboxing reviews," Information Systems and e-Business Management, Springer, vol. 14(1), pages 71-99, February.
    17. André Luis Araujo da Fonseca & Paula Castro Pires de Souza Chimenti & Maribel Carvalho Suarez, 2023. "Using deep learning language models as scaffolding tools in interpretive research," RAC - Revista de Administração Contemporânea (Journal of Contemporary Administration), ANPAD - Associação Nacional de Pós-Graduação e Pesquisa em Administração, vol. 27(Vol. 27 N), pages 230021-2300.
    18. Inman, J. Jeffrey & Nikolova, Hristina, 2017. "Shopper-Facing Retail Technology: A Retailer Adoption Decision Framework Incorporating Shopper Attitudes and Privacy Concerns," Journal of Retailing, Elsevier, vol. 93(1), pages 7-28.
    19. Yumei Luo & Qiongwei Ye, 2019. "Understanding Consumers’ Loyalty to an Online Outshopping Platform: The Role of Social Capital and Perceived Value," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-18, September.
    20. Wang, Kai-Yu & Ting, I-Hsien & Wu, Hui-Ju, 2013. "Discovering interest groups for marketing in virtual communities: An integrated approach," Journal of Business Research, Elsevier, vol. 66(9), pages 1360-1366.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jbrese:v:69:y:2016:i:2:p:642-652. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jbusres .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.