Electronic word of mouth
The Effect of Electronic Word of Mouth and Online Review Characteristics on a Hotel Choice Neema Gurung
Southeast Missouri State University
Abstract Word of mouth whether it is traditional or online is always found to have influential effect on the purchasing decision making of the consumers. It is especially seen to be more significant in the hospitality and tourism products and services since it contains more interpersonal interaction that needs to be experienced by consumers. Likewise, tourism intangible products are difficult to evaluate prior to their consumption. Online consumer product reviews on service related products are found to be helpful to the customers prior to their decision making. The main purpose of this study is to explore whether the electronic word of mouth is considered to be helpful for the service related products like the hotels and to determine the factors that determine the helpfulness of the review to the customers. The result provides evidence that the character length and time of the review have a significant effect on the degree of helpfulness of the review and the customers considers positive reviews to be more helpful than the negative reviews.
1. Introduction
Jackie Huba, one of the 10 most influential online marketers stated in her blog that 66% of all brand related word of mouth conversations are mostly positive while 8% of the brand related word of mouth conversation are mostly negative and the average online review is 4.3 out of 5. The statistics justifies the popularity of electronic word of mouth and explains the fact that consumers are always interested in hearing about new and interesting products. Before making a purchase, consumers pay attention to what people are saying about that product. The Electronic word of mouth is defined as “any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a
Southeast Missouri State University
Abstract Word of mouth whether it is traditional or online is always found to have influential effect on the purchasing decision making of the consumers. It is especially seen to be more significant in the hospitality and tourism products and services since it contains more interpersonal interaction that needs to be experienced by consumers. Likewise, tourism intangible products are difficult to evaluate prior to their consumption. Online consumer product reviews on service related products are found to be helpful to the customers prior to their decision making. The main purpose of this study is to explore whether the electronic word of mouth is considered to be helpful for the service related products like the hotels and to determine the factors that determine the helpfulness of the review to the customers. The result provides evidence that the character length and time of the review have a significant effect on the degree of helpfulness of the review and the customers considers positive reviews to be more helpful than the negative reviews.
1. Introduction
Jackie Huba, one of the 10 most influential online marketers stated in her blog that 66% of all brand related word of mouth conversations are mostly positive while 8% of the brand related word of mouth conversation are mostly negative and the average online review is 4.3 out of 5. The statistics justifies the popularity of electronic word of mouth and explains the fact that consumers are always interested in hearing about new and interesting products. Before making a purchase, consumers pay attention to what people are saying about that product. The Electronic word of mouth is defined as “any positive or negative statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a