Online word of mouth and consumer purchase intentions

Gerard Prendergast, David Ko and Siu Yin V. Yuen

Previous researchers have explained how offline word of mouth (WOM) influences consumer behaviour. Increasingly, however, consumers are turning to online WOM, especially online forums.

Online word of mouth and consumer purchase intentions

Gerard Prendergast and David Ko

Hong Kong Baptist University

Siu Yin V. Yuen

Classroom Publications Limited

Introduction

Consumers search for information prior to making a purchase in order to reduce perceived risk (Bettman 1973; Srinivasan & Ratchford 1991). One such source of information is word of mouth (WOM). Since the seminal book by Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955), marketing researchers have shown that WOM communication has an impact on consumer attitudes (Brucks 1985), consumer risk taking (Woodside & Delozier 1976), short-term and long-term product judgments (Bone 1995) and purchase decisions and...

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