Social word of mouth: How trust develops in the market
Nick Hajli
Newcastle University Business School
Xiaolin Lin
Washington State University
Mauricio Featherman
Washington State University
Yichuan Wang
Auburn University
Introduction
Trust plays a central role in helping consumers make purchasing decisions in an e-commerce context (Gefen 2000; McKnight et al.2002; Jones & Leonard 2008). Increased degrees of trust in a vendor make it more likely to encourage consumer inquiries and boost intention to purchase products from that vendor’s websites (Gefen 2000; Hajli 2013b). On the other hand, with little trust, consumers often hesitate to purchase from a...