Research On Types Of WOMI And Their Influence On First Purchase Behavior

Word of Mouth (WOM) is a very important, however least-understood marketing element. With the popularity of internet, enterprises realized the importance to understand consumers' WOM behavior. Many scholars also hold the same opinion; therefore, WOM measurement becomes a hot issue in business as well as academic circle. However, there are few researches on WOM measurement, especially effective ones; the existing empirical researches are mostly conducted in western countries, so it is practically and theoretically meaningful to develop an effective WOM measurement method.Based on literature review, this paper points out that the task of WOM measurement is to decompose the influence of WOM, which is to disclose the components of WOM and determine the importance of each component. Borrowing idea from organization theory, the author first raises the new concept —Word-of-mouth-influence (WOMI), which implies the method of WOM measurement; then in the context of consumers' first purchase behavior, explores WOMI through two stages—exploring research and descriptive research stages.Furthermore, taking college students' cell phone first purchase behavior as example, this research demonstrates the application of the method of WOM measurement. The empirical research results in a WOM measurement scale with high reliability and viability, and concludes five types of WOMI, which are finance influence, society influence, convenience influence, incentive influence and quality influence. This research also computes the weights of all the WOMIs in the scale.