A Research On The Determinants Of Consumers' Re-diffusion Intention Of Positive And Negative Online Word-of-mouth

Word-of-mouth (WOM) has great influence to consumers'attitude and purchase decision-making (Bone et al.,1995). With the rapid development of Internet, it enables consumers to share their opinions on, and experiences with, goods and services with a multitude of other consumers, that is, to engage in online word-of-mouth (oWOM or eWOM) communication. Due to the distinct characteristics of online Word-of-mouth (e.g., directed to multiple individuals, rapid diffusion, available to other consumers for an indefinite period of time, and anonymous), compare with traditional (offline) word-of-mouth, online word-of-mouth can diffuse more rapid, and has more great influence (Hennig-Thurau et al., 2004). As a result, more and more experts and scholars are involved in the research of WOM and online WOM. However, research about re-diffusion of WOM is not sufficient yet, and related demonstration research about online WOM is even more exiguous. This paper will discuss them.Drawing on findings from research on traditional word-of-mouth, virtual communities and rumor diffusion literature, this paper focuses on the re-diffusion of online word-of-mouth. From the source, WOM message and receiver's diffusion motives, we explore the influence to positive and negative word-of-mouth re-diffusion intention.Based on the data of pilot study and large-sample, this paper studied the structure of variable of source credibility, content characteristic, diffusion motivations of receivers and re-diffusion intention. Finally, we found the variables of two-items source credibility (expertness and trustworthiness), two-items content characteristic ( playfulness and vividness ) , and items of diffusion motivations (altruism, self-enhancement, amusement, social benefits, economic incentives, venting negative feelings, advice seeking). While estimating the measurement model, this paper confirms the structural validity of every variable by the exploring factor analysis. Through the methods of structural equation full model, nester-model and bivariate model, this paper studied the five hypothesis and draws conclusions that source credibility, diffusion motivations of receivers and content character have significant and positive effect on re-diffusion intentions of receivers.Based on bivariate model, we found that the determinants of receivers'positive WOM re-diffusion intention in decreasing order are playfulness of WOM message, vividness of WOM message, amusement motive of receivers, and social benefits motive of receivers and trustworthiness of WOM message. The determinants of receivers'negative WOM re-diffusion intention in decreasing order are altruism of receivers, trustworthiness of source, social benefits motive of receivers, expertness of source and vividness of WOM message.