The Influence of Electronic Word-of-Mouth Communication on Consumer Purchase Intention

Abstract

The innovation of the Internet has led to the revolution of consumer behaviour and purchase intention throughout the consumer decision-making process. It provides a huge opportunity for businesses to anticipate the increasing value of online retail. Particularly in Malaysia, the number of Internet users has given rise pertaining to current trends which involved exhaustive use of social networking in terms of patterns of getting information among users and e-commerce experience. As social media becomes a vital part of people’s daily life, the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) surpasses the influence of traditional face-to-face WOM communication on consumers’ decision making. The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of the persuasiveness of eWOM messages and consumer’s attitude to use information which turns into behaviour intention in the online context among Malaysian young consumers. Convenience sampling was employed to select sample among young generation who at least have one social media account. Data were collected using questionnaires. A total of 440 effective samples were collected and the analyses were carried out using both descriptive analysis and structural equation modelling (SEM). The findings showed Source credibility, Source presence, eWOM quantity and eWOM attractiveness are the factors that influence online purchase intention.