The influence of electronic-word-of-mouth on consumer decision-making for beauty products in a Kuwaiti Women's online community

Abstract

Online communities are an important source of electronic-word-of-mouth (eWOM), however few studies have examined these types of messages within the Middle Eastern context. This study focuses on Kuwaiti women as members of an online beauty forum; previous work has suggested a mediating effect of gender with women being more likely to trust and follow-up word-of-mouth with a purchase. A conceptual model, based on existing theoretical contributions, provides the basis of a coding framework for the message characteristics that influence members’ eWOM adoption. A sub-set of the analysis is presented: 218 threads (1820 messages, coded into 6702 units) illustrating cases where eWOM was adopted and thereby demonstrating continuance intention with members returning to the forum. Content analysis revealed the prevalence of emotional aspects in messages, coded into a new category of ‘community bonding’. Findings show that emotion expressed in messages is as influential and important as cognitive aspects of argument quality.