The effects of social media eWOM communications on consumer attitude and behaviour

Abstract

Social Media (SM) applications allow users to communicate with various types of information about goods and services in the form of electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Applications such as Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube are currently ranked as the most accessed and adopted websites in the world that provide eWOM communication. Most importantly, these SM applications may have a significant impact on the opinions and attitudes of users with regard to the product information being shared. The aim of this research is to examine how different combinations of interactive attributes and features of eWOM being shared over SM applications effect consumers’ attitudes and behaviours of intangible services in the healthcare industry. Relevant attributes derived from the literature, which include source credibility, trustworthiness and argument quality within SM eWOM messages are explored. These are examined in line with factors of Electronic Window Dressing (EWD) features, such as SM capabilities of simultaneous video, picture and web link sharing within the SM environment. This determines what types of different characteristics of eWOM alone or in combination with multimedia communications, can positively or negatively influence consumer’s attitude that can have an effect on actual behaviour. A conceptual framework is augmented and developed based on existing theories in relation to persuasion and attitude change. The Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) and the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA) models are combined and adapted as a foundation of a new conceptual approach, noted as ‘Social Media Communications Model’ (SMCM), with additional components specifically related to SM communications in an attempt to form a predictive explanation of consumers’ attitudes. The research is designed as a comparative study by adopting an inductive interpretivist approach. A Qualitative method is used in the data collection process by performing in-depth interviews with 34 senior level managers with regard to SM communications in healthcare industry from both the United Kingdom and the United States. All of the primary data was transcribed, coded and thematically analysed. The key findings revealed the most preferred SM platforms used in the UK and US, how source credibly, expertise and trustworthiness are effective, and why videos, pictures and the timing of post were significant in changing consumer attitude. Practically, the research provides businesses and organisation in similar service goods industries with a SM model that explains how to create successful marketing campaigns. The research likewise contributes theoretically by identifying the relationships of important constructs relevant to SM communications from a qualitative perspective, forming a new extended theoretical framework that can be a predicator of consumer behaviour. The research further provides a better understanding towards the key factors of eWOM in SM that influence consumers to think and behave in certain ways, additionally contributing to the existing SM marketing literature by determining how and why certain SM messages are more persuasive than others and what attributes and factors lead to those changes. Finally, this research expands on the subject of SM eWOM by adapting the existing persuasions and consumer behaviour theories with relevant factors and constructs to SM, enabling business and marketing managers to create more effective SM content.