As one of the earliest studies exploring the impact of different online platforms on Chinese consumers’ brand attitude and purchase intention, this study also has some weaknesses. Even though the items of perceived site credibility and perceived source
credibility were loaded on one factor, the author should think deeper to conceptualize the combination of these two. Secondly, this study focused on the effect of eWOM platforms on consumers’ perception, in order to avoid confounding factors such as product involvement and brand familiarity, the author made up a brand name, which might introduce another confounding factor: unfamiliarity. Additionally, the sample was limited to student consumers.
Therefore, the result cannot be generalized to the whole population of Chinese consumers.
In future research, researchers could replicate this study in the context of positive eWOM to see if different online platforms have the same impact on perceived eWOM credibility, brand attitude and purchase intention, or compare the effect of both conditions.
Future studies can also test whether perceived credibility mediates the relationship between the condition and dependent variables. The author hopes that this study will trigger researchers’ interest to get a better understanding of eWOM communications among Chinese consumers.
References
Ajzen, I., & Fishbein, M. (1980).
Understanding attitudes and predicting social behavior.
NY: Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs.
Bai, B., Law, R., & Wen, L. (2008). The impact of website quality on customer satisfaction and purchase intentions: Evidence from Chinese online visitors.
International Journal of Hospitality Management, 27
(3), 391-402.Bailey, A. A. (2005). Consumer awareness and use of product review websites.
Journal of Interactive Advertising, 6
(1), 68-81.Belch, G. E., & Belch, M. A. (2006).
Advertising and promotion: An integrated marketing communications perspective
(7th Ed.). NY: McGraw-Hill/Irwin.Chatterjee, P. (2001). Online review: Do consumers use them?
Advances in Consumer Research, 28
(1), 129-133.Chen, C., Wu, K., Srinivasan, K., & Zhang, X. D. (2011). Battling the Internet water army:
Detection of hidden paid posters. Retrieved March 13, 2012, from http://arxiv.org/
pdf/1111.4297v1.pdf
Cheung, C. M. K., Lee, M. K. O., & Rabjohn, N. (2008). The impact of electronic word-of-mouth: The adoption of online opinions in online customer communities.
Internet Research, 18
(3), 229-247.Dellarocas, C. (2006). Reputation mechanisms. In T. Hendershott (Ed.),
Handbook on information systems and economics
(pp. 629-660). New York: Elsevier Publishing.Duhan, D. F., Johnson, S. D., Wilcox, J. B., & Harrell, G. D. (1997). Influence on consumer use of word-of-mouth recommendation sources.
Academy of Marketing Science, 25
(4), 283-295.Dwyer, P. (2007). Measuring the value of electronic word of mouth and its impact in consumer communities.
Journal of Interactive Marketing, 21
(2), 63-79.Erin, M. S., & Lawrence E. B. (2009). Social ties and online word of mouth.
Internet
Research, 19
(1), 42-59.Eysenbach, G., & Kohler, C. (2002). How do consumers search for and appraise health information on the World Wide Web? Qualitative study using focus groups, usability, tests and in-depth interviews.
British Medical Journal, 324
(7337), 573-577.Faircloth, J. B., Capella, L. M., & Alford, B. L. (2001). The effect of brand attitude and brand image on brand equity.
Journal of Marketing Theory and Practice, 9
(3), 61-75.Flanagin, A. F., & Metzger, M. J. (2007). The role of site features, user attributes, and information verification behaviors on the perceived credibility of web-based information.
New Media and Society, 9
(2), 319-342.Freeman, K. S., & Spyridakis, J. H. (2004). An examination of factors that affect credibility of online health information.
Technical Communication, 51
(2), 239-263.Goldsmith, R. E., & Horowitz, D. (2006). Measuring motivations for online opinion seeking.
Journal of Interactive Marketing, 6
(2), 3-14.Gu, B., Park, J., & Konana, P. (2012). The impact of external word-of-mouth sources on retailer sales of high-involvement products.
Information System Research, 23
(1), 182-196.Hennig-Thurau, T., Kevin, P. G., Gianfranco W., & Dwayne, D. G. (2004). Electronic word-of-mouth via consumer-opinion platforms: What motivates consumers to articulate themselves on the Internet?
Journal of Interactive Marketing, 18
(1), 38-52.Hu, Y. F., & Sundar, S. S. (2010). Effects of online health sources on credibility and behavioral intentions.
Communication Research, 37
(1), 105-132.Jo, S. (2005). The effect of online media credibility on trust relationships. J
ournal of Website Promotion, 1
(2), 57-77.Johnson, T. J., & Kaye, B. (2004). Wag the blog: How reliance on traditional media and the Internet influence credibility perceptions of weblogs among blog users.
Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly, 81
(3), 622-642.Kaplan, A. M., & Haenlein, M. (2010). Users of the world, unite! The challenges and opportunities of social media.
Business Horizons, 53
(1), 59-68.Kiecker, P., & Cowles, D. (2002). Interpersonal communication and personal influence on the Internet: A framework for examining online word-of-mouth.
Journal of Euromarketing, 11
(2), 71-88.Kim, D. (2006). Abandoning traditional news? Examining factors influencing the displacement effects of online news on traditional news media. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, IL: Southern Illinois University.
Kliatchko, J. (2008). Revisiting the IMC construct: A revised definition and four pillars.
International Journal of Advertising, 27
(1), 133-160.Kotler, P., & Keller, K. L. (2008).
Marketing management
(13th Ed.). NJ: Upper Saddle River.Lazarsfeld, P., Berelson, B., & Gaudet, H. (1948).
The people's choice.
NY: Columbia University Press.Lee, M., & Youn, S. (2009). Electronic word of mouth (eWOM): How eWOM platforms influence consumer product judgment.
International Journal of Advertising, 28
(3), 473-499.Lenhart, A., & Fox, S. (2006). Bloggers: A portrait of the Internet’s new storytellers. Pew Internet & American Life. Retrieved Feb 17, 2012, from http://www.pewinternet.org/
pdfs/PIP%20Bloggers%20Report%20July%2019%202006.pdf
Mack, R. W., Blose, J. E., & Pan, B. (2008). Believe it or not: Credibility of blogs in tourism.
Journal of Vacation Marketing, 14
(2), 133-144.MacKenzie, S. B., & Spreng, R. A. (1992). How does motivation moderate the impact of central and peripheral processing on brand attitudes and intentions?
Journal of Consumer Research, 18
(4), 519-529.Metzger, M. J., Flanagin, A. J., Eyal, K., Lemus, D. R., & McCann, R. (2003). Credibility for the 21st century: Integrating perspectives on source, message and media credibility in the contemporary media environment. In P. J. Kalbfleisch (Ed.),
Communication
yearbook 27
(pp. 293-335). NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates.Mitchell, A. A., & Olson, J. C. (1981). Are product attribute beliefs the only mediator of advertising effects on brand attitude?
Journal of Marketing Research, 18
(3), 318-332.Nan, X. (2006).
The influence of source credibility on attitude certainty.
Paper presented at the annual convention of the Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication, CA: San Francisco.Newhagen, J., & Nass, C. (1989). Differential criteria for evaluating credibility of newspapers and TV news.
Journalism Quarterly, 66
(2), 277-284.Park, D. H., & Kim, S. (2008). The effects of consumer knowledge on message processing of electronic word-of-mouth via online consumer reviews.
Electronic Commerce Research and Applications, 7
(4), 399-410.Phelps, J. E., Regina, L., Lynne, M., David, P., & Niranjan, R. (2004). Viral marketing or electronic word-of-mouth advertising: Examining consumer responses and motivations to pass along email.
Journal of Advertising Research, 44
(4), 333-348.Pollach, I. (2006). Electronic word of mouth: A genre analysis of product reviews on consumer reviews on consumer opinion Web sites. In R. H. Sprague (ed.),
Proceedings of the 39th Hawaii international conference on system sciences
. CA: IEEE ComputerSociety Press.
Prendergast, G., Ko, D., & Yuen, S. Y. V. (2010). Online word of mouth and consumer purchase intention.
International Journal of Advertising, 29
(5), 687-708.Pride, W. M., & Ferrell, O. C. (2011).
Marketing foundations.
TN: South-Western Cengage Learning.Rieh, S. Y., & Danielson, D. R. (2007). Credibility: A multidisciplinary framework.
Annual Review of Information Science and Technology, 41
(1), 307-364.Sabbane, L. I., Lowrey, T. M., & Chebat, J. C. (2009). The effectiveness of cigarette warning label threats on nonsmoking adolescents.
Journal of consumer affairs, 43
(2), 332-345.Slater, M. D., & Rouner, D. (1996). How message evaluation and source attributes may influence credibility assessment and belief change.