eWOM Behaviors: What Factors Contribute to the Creation, Search and/or Transmission of Information in Social Networks?

Resumen

Given that social networks have become a revolutionary phenomenon for Internet communication, more and more companies are trying to take advantage of the power of online recommendations (eWOM) within the fashion context. Therefore, the following question arises: what psychological factors are relevant in the eWOM behaviors of blog users and social networks? Specifically, the possible influence of tie strength, homophily, trust, informative influence and normative influence on the different types of eWOM behaviors (opinion seeking, opinion passing and opinion giving) has been analyzed. In addition, the relationships between the proposed behaviors has been discussed. The results of this study can provide valuable information on how to design digital communication strategies. Moreover, from a business point of view, knowing user’s type of behavior in social networks can guide companies in the attention that should be given to the most active users, given the high impact they have on sales (Roy et al.,2017). In order to respond to these objectives, an empirical study has been carried out and the PLS-SEM methodology has been applied. Through the causal model, it is concluded that normative influence and informative influence affect the creation, the search and the transmission of opinion. However, homophily only influences opinion seeking and opinion passing to third parties. In addition, it has been detected that tie strength affects opinion giving and opinion seeking, but it does not influence opinion passing. Additionally, we can conclude that opinion giving is related to opinion seeking. These results, show that opinion leaders in social networks can also show opinion seeking behavior because they want to update the information they already have or simply expand their knowledge. Similarly, both the creation and search for opinion are positively related to opinion passing. This finding shows that dissemination of information is an inherent consequence of both opinion giving and seeking. Therefore, we can conclude that both, leaders and lurkers contribute to the dissemination of opinions in social networks. Finally, future studies could analyze the moderating effect of product involvement on observed consumer behaviors (Sarwar et al., 2019). Lastly, future research could explore the relationship between eWOM and other concepts such as brand love and brand image. Such concepts could contribute significantly to the knowledge of positive opinions’ dissemination in social networks by consumers and are useful for companies that are trying to influence consumers’ judgments of products and their buying (Bigne et al., 2020).