| It is important to understand the influence of specific channels of electronic Word-of-mouth on consumer behavior. Researchers have found that the actual channel of eWOM (e.g. face-to-face, consumer review sites, social media) influences the effectiveness of the actual consumer review, making some channels more influential than others. The main distinction of interest in this research between channels of eWOM is in relation to personal contact. Some channels allow the consumer to be familiar with the reviewer, whereas on other channels the reviewer is unknown to the consumer. This study looked at two channels that differ in personal contact (e.g. Yelp versus Facebook) to see which one is more influential in relation to consumer related behavior.;Researchers have found that both ORS and SNS channels are heavily used for service related reviews and are both highly influential in directing consumer related behavior. The main difference across these channels is that the source of the review is known to the reviewer on Facebook but not on Yelp. Researchers have found that this difference leads to different consumer outcomes, but hasn't been addressed between different channels of eWOM.;To examine this relationship, this study used a 2x2x3 between-subjects design that looked at how channel, number and direction of eWOM, influence source credibility, perceived credibility, eWOM review adoption, and intention to experience service. This study took place in the service context in which participants received consumer reviews about a fictitious restaurant called "Burger Barn". It was hypothesized that there would be a main effect for channel of eWOM, direction of consumer reviews and number of consumer reviews. It was also hypothesized that there would be two-way interactions between channel of eWOM and direction of consumer reviews and channel of eWOM and number of comments, as well as a three way interaction between channel of eWOM, direction and number of comments.;The results suggests that: there was a difference between channel of eWOM and consumer outcomes, with Facebook having higher levels of source credibility, perceived credibility and eWOM adoption than Yelp; and that the ratio of positive to negative reviews resulted in higher levels of source credibility, perceived credibility, eWOM adoption and intentions to experience service than the ratio of negative to positive and/or evenly split consumer reviews. All other hypotheses were not supported. |
