An Empirical Study On The Influence Of Consumer Purchase Decisions In Online Word-of-Mouth

Traditional word-of-mouth (WOM) has proven to play a major role in consumer buying decisions by influencing consumer choice. Following the development of network technology,New internet technologies have created a revolutionary new platform which allows consumers to not only obtain information related to goods and services from the few people they know, but also from a vast, geographically dispersed group of people, who are familiar with related products or services. E-mail, Forums/BBS, Discussion Forums, and chat rooms are just a few examples of this medium. By expressing their feelings regarding products or services through these virtual opinion platforms, users extend their personal influence into cyberspace as online word-of-mouth (OWOM).In the web context, is the effects of WOM like traditional WOM? What factors will influence the effects of WOM?Therefore, the research takes some factors (such as expertise of sender, expertise of seeker, tie strength) which have proven to affect the impact of traditional WOM in the network context and rebuild the model. The study investigate on the influence of consumer purchase decisions in OWOM by individual dimensions(expertise of sender, expertise of seeker, perceived risk of seeker), relationship dimensions(tie strength, relationship between an individual and a site) and characteristics of OWOM information dimensions(relevance.timeliness, comprehensiveness).(1)The expertise of sender has significantly positive relationship on the Influence seeker's purchase decision in OWOM.(2)The expertise of seeker has really influence the effect of OWOM. and they are significantly negative correlation.(3)The perceived risk of seeker has significantly positive relationship on s the influence seeker's purchase decision in OWOM.(4)Tie strength between seeker and sender as significantly positive relationship on the Influence of consumer purchase decisions in OWOM.(5)The relationship between an individual and a site has really influence the effect of OWOM. and they are significantly positive correlation.(6) Both relevance and comprehensiveness of OWOM information have significantly positive relationship on the Influence seeker's purchase decision in OWOM, but timeliness of OWOM information does not have significant effect on OWOM's influence.