Online Persuasion: How the Written Word Drives WOM – Evidence from Consumer-Generated Product Reviews
Jin Li
North Dakota State University
Lingjing Zhan
Hong Kong Polytechnic University
IntroductionThe phrase word-of-mouth (WOM) refers to “informal, person-to-person communication between a perceived noncommercial communicator and a receiver regarding a brand, a product, an organization, or a service” (Harrison-Walker, 2001). Compared to traditional marketing communication tools, WOM is perceived to be more trustworthy and relevant, is more likely to generate empathy, and can significantly reduce consumer resistance (Bickart and Schindler, 2001).
WOM has been described as “a dominant market force in...