Research Of The Effects Of EWOM On Consumers’ Purchase Intention

The rapid development of the Internet communication technology has brought great changes to people’s life. Thanks to the Internet, online communication becomes universal, interactive and instant. Based on the Internet word of mouth, the consumers tend to make their purchasing choice, and the enterprises would carry out their marketing activities accordingly. In this background, it is necessary to explore the influence of the Internet word of mouth on the consumer’s purchase intention.Based on the theory of consumer behavior and by referring to the available research results of the Internet word of mouth, this study succeeded in constructing a model of the influence of the Internet word of mouth on consumers’ purchase intention. The factors affecting the communication effects of the Internet word of mouth were identified so as to give advice for the enterprises to develop efficient network marketing strategies.This thesis first reviewed the literature of the concepts of the traditional word of mouth and the Internet word of mouth, the influencing factors of the Internet word-of-mouth communication, consumers’ purchase intention and their purchase trust, before constructing the model of the influence of the Internet word of mouth on consumers’ purchase intention. Based on the three aspects of the sender, the recipient and the Internet word of mouth itself, six factors were identified which were the professionalization of the sender, the relationship strength, the amount of the word of mouth, the quality of the word of mouth, the profession of information sender and the recipient’s involvement in the product, so as to further explore how these factors affect consumers’ purchase intention through the mediator effect of the recipient’s trust of the word of mouth.This thesis conducted a questionnaire based on the research model and research hypothesis. By referring to the existing research conclusions, the related variables were defined and the measurement items were decided. After the in-depth interviews and preliminary research,400 copies of the questionnaire were distributed to the Internet shopping consumers, and 325 valid copies were recovered.The data were analyzed with the software of SPSS 19.0 and AMOS 17.0 in descriptive statistics analysis, reliability analysis, validity analysis, factor analysis and structural equation model. The conclusions were:(1) the Internet word of mouth has a significant impact on consumers’purchase intention; (2) the Internet word of mouth has a significant influence on the trust of the recipient’s trust of the word of mouth; (3) the recipient’s trust of the word of mouth has a significant influence on their purchase intention; (4) the recipient’s trust of the word of mouth plays different roles in the relationship between purchasing intention and different variables.In the end, based on the conclusions, this thesis put forward some suggestions for the enterprise of how to better use the Internet word of mouth in carrying out the marketing activities. At the same time, the limitations of this research and the future research prospects were pointed out.