Determinants of E-WOM Influence: The Role of Consumers' Internet Experience

Research has widely demonstrated that personal sources of information are more influential than firm-generated sources. The potential impact of others' opinions has dramatically increased with the development of the Internet. However, very little is known about what makes certain opinions more influential than others. The purpose of this paper is to examine the determinants of electronic word of mouth (e-WOM) influence. We demonstrate that the influence of e-WOM depends on source credibility, valence, and the volume of information obtained from e-WOM. More interestingly, we also find that there exists a quadratic relationship between consumers' Internet experience and e-WOM influence.

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