FORUM – Word of mouse – An assessment of electronic word-of-mouth research
Michael BreazealeMississippi State University
INTRODUCTION
Word-of-mouth (WOM) communication has been defined as 'oral, person-to-person communication between a receiver and a communicator whom the receiver perceives as non-commercial, regarding a brand, product, or service' (Arndt 1967). Additionally, its nature has been described as fleeting because it 'vanishes as soon as it is uttered, for it occurs in a spontaneous manner and then disappears' (Stern 1994).In the age of the internet, however, that caveat no longer applies. WOM no longer vanishes instantly and it is not necessarily...