Exploring Consumers' Purchase Intentions on Facebook: The Influence of Characteristics of eWOM
Hung-Fu Huang1*, Ching-Chang Lee1
1 College of Management, National Kaohsiung University of Science and Technology, Kaohsiung, Taiwan
*Corresponding Author: [email protected] Accepted: 15 June 2021 | Published: 1 July 2021
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Abstract: With the rapid development of the Internet, social media has grown very quickly in recent years. Consumers often use electronic word of mouth (eWOM) on social media to share and exchange information, which can affect and change customer behaviour. Based on the theory in several fields, we seek to deepen our understanding about how purchase intention is formed, by employing a Technology Acceptance Model (TAM). In this paper, we develop a new approach which extends the TAM to explore whether the characteristics of eWOM information impacts consumers’ purchase intentions of the tourism product on Facebook. This study is supported by data collected from 202 subjects, using a survey and we achieve significant results.
Keywords: eWOM, Tourism, Facebook, TAM, Purchase intention
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1. Introduction
According to a report from the World Tourism Organization, 1.5 billion tourists traveled internationally in 2019 (UNWTO, 2020). This report reveals abundant business opportunities for the tourism industry. Currently, consumers often buy tourism-related products on e- commerce platforms. In order to reduce costs and increase profits, travel agencies usually extend their marketing and sales, and then provide opportunities for consumers to purchase tourism-related products on e-commerce platforms, as well as to interact with consumers.
Moreover, there is another business model called social commerce resulting from e-commerce evolution. Social commerce increases the degree of social presences in online environments and appends the social aspect of shopping to e-commerce (Baozhou et al., 2016). Features of social commerce include recommendation lists, ratings, and electronic word of mouth (eWOM) (Huang & Benyoucef, 2015).
More and more consumers trust and use eWOM; it is used to assess the quality and performance of products. The tourism and hospitality industries need to comprehend the importance of eWOM in their business model, as eWOM is also considered an important feature of social commerce (Knoll, 2015). With the rapid development of the Internet and its ability to generate eWOM information, travellers depend on eWOM information produced by other consumers to form opinions of travel-related products (Sparks and Browning, 2011). Nowadays, some websites that focus on tourism and hospitality have grown successfully on the Internet (e.g., Agoda, Expedia, and Tripadvisor). These websites allow travellers to exchange information, opinions or recommendations (Liu and Park, 2015); these are also good tools that offer travellers the venue to write down their travel experience,
In other words, consumers tend to depend on eWOM in order to reduce perceived risk and uncertainty. While prior studies have examined the influence of eWOM of tourism and hospitality websites on travel intentions (Liu and Park, 2015), we should not ignore the flourishing influence from other community platforms such as social media. Currently, Facebook is quite a popular social media with platforms of eWOM (Bajpai and Pandey, 2012).
The information posted on Facebook is an influential eWOM form of communication that is being used by consumers for their travel decisions (Yang, 2012). It is very important for travel companies or agencies to understand how eWOM information influences the travel intentions of consumers and their purchase of tourism-related products.
However, Ukpabi and Karjaluoto (2018) describe the characteristics of information of travel, such as the source-based and content-based characteristics, which define the origin of the information and the nature of the information, respectively, yet they did not carry out empirical testing. Therefore, our study focuses on the gap to comprehend the characteristics of eWOM information that influence the eWOM adoption in regard to the purchase intention of the tourism product. We apply the characteristics of information into the TAM to explore whether eWOM affects consumers’ purchase intentions of the tourism product on Facebook. We empirically test our approach and the derived results offer theoretical and managerial viewpoints. These viewpoints can help travellers to make purchase decision; company marketers or management teams will be able to employ related information in their marketing activities for the tourism industry.
2. Literature Review
Social Media
Social media comprises a group of Internet-based applications built on the technology of web 2.0, for the creation and exchange of user generated content (Obar and Wildman, 2015). Social media includes all the Internet platforms which offer consumers instruments for many kinds of interactions. These interactions are empowered to assist information creation, sharing and exchanging information on different experiences, services and products. Social media also offer a platform for content searching which is very friendly and has become a perceived necessity in daily life. It can easily spread reviews and acquire the suggestions of others. Many kinds of review platforms have impacted the information exploration and purchasing decisions of consumers (Yang, 2012).
Social media play an important role in the tourism and hospitality field (Luo and Zhong, 2015).
They have acquired great popularity among travellers because these platforms allow them to see and share reviews and suggestions about individual travel experiences (Papathanassis and Knolle, 2011). The information provided by travellers is often considered more trustworthy and objective than that offered by travel agencies or companies (Wilson et al., 2012).
Therefore, among travel agencies, hotels and their consumers, social media can accelerate effective interactions (Luo and Zhong, 2015).
Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)
eWOM is considered an influential marketing tool to share thoughts with others (Zhang et al., 2010). People can share their viewpoints using texts, pictures and videos. eWOM can be presented in various formats, e.g., online rating, opinions, comments, reviews and experience.
Some communication channels, such as blogs, discussion forums, review websites, e- commerce websites, product websites and social media, frequently make use of eWOM
information (Mishra & Satish, 2016). With the development of Web 2.0, eWOM has become an important information source on social media.
Consumers read reviews posted by different consumers about the advantages or disadvantages of products or services, in order to obtain satisfactory information before purchasing products (Bajpai & Pandey, 2012). People like to make use of reviews on social media to evaluate products or services before making purchase decisions (Yang, 2012). Moreover, in order to satisfy more needs, concerns and behaviours of consumers, firms can offer extra service and communication tools using social media (He et al., 2013).
3. Hypotheses development Attitude and purchase intention
Purchase intention is a planned behaviour for consumers to buy some products (Ajzen, 1991).
Due to unknown and uncertain factors, consumer behaviour often changes. Purchase intention is a key point for marketers because of their dependence on purchase intention to predict consumer behaviour. When consumer satisfaction is increased, purchase intention is also raised at the same time. Moreover, Moital et al., (2009) find that behavioral intention is assumed to be the best predictor of behaviour on online travel shopping.
Attitude is defined as an individual's feeling regarding a concept or an affair through a comprehensive assessment (Peter, 1997). Individuals’ actual behaviour depends on their behaviour intention, which in turn is impacted by attitude (Davis, 1989). The relationships between attitude and purchase intention have been applied in the research on online consumer behaviour. Cheung and Thadanu (2012) describe attitude toward eWOM communication as positively related to online purchase intention. Thus, we expect that positive attitude toward using eWOM will result in higher purchase intention of the tourism product.
H1: Attitude toward eWOM positively affects purchase intention of the tourism product using eWOM on Facebook.
Perceived usefuless (PU) of eWOM and Perceived ease of use (PEOU) of eWOM
Two constructs of TAM, PU and PEOU are important factors of functional advantages of using eWOM for purchase intention of tourism-related products. PU is defined as a person believes that using the new technology would enhance her or his job performance, and PEOU is defined as a person believes that using the new technology would be free of effort (Davis, 1989). Liang et al. (2013) find that PU and PEOU have a significant influence on attitude toward information adoption of eWOM, and their results also show that attitude toward eWOM adoption mediates the relations between the information adoption of eWOM and the behavioural intention of using it. Lin (2007b) indicates that PU and PEOU also have a significant influence to the sustainability of virtual communities in the tourism field, and leading to the purchase intention.
Thus, we offer the following hypotheses:
H2: PU of eWOM positively affects attitude toward eWOM.
H3: PEOU of eWOM positively affects attitude toward eWOM.
H4: PEOU of eWOM positively affects PU of eWOM.
Homophily of eWOM
Source homophily illustrates a group that has similar characteristics of members. Exchanges of information occur most often between individuals with common characteristics, i.e., the degree to which individuals who interact with one another have the same or similar particular characteristics such as education, values, beliefs, social status, etc. (Rogers & Bhowmik, 1970).
Moreover, people compare their characteristics and abilities with others. If they find that they share similarities with another person, they will suppose that the others have relevant requirements and preferences (Festinger, 1954).
Prior studies observed perceptual homophily with eWOM, which is based on similarities among consumers (Ruef et al., 2003). Through eWOM information and profile information, consumers do not need actual interactions; they can still know about their similarity to commentators. Therefore, consumers can better comprehend the preferences and experiences of the commentators. According to these studies, we believe that consumers will use more suitable information coming from commentators who are similar to them from their experiences, suggestions, and preferences. Therefore, a traveller will use consumers’ eWOM information when they share the same type of travel, making it easier to evaluate suitable the tourism product. Thus we hypothesize that:
H5a: Homophily of eWOM positively affects PU of eWOM.
H5b: Homophily of eWOM positively affects PEOU of eWOM.
Novelty of eWOM
Outstanding is novelty of content, or the newness of the travel information (Chen et al., 2014), the extent to which the information in the traveller's social media, such as Facebook or blog, is considered to be new. Novelty of content plays an important role in traveller decision-making because it separates what the consumer is familiar with and what is novel (Jang & Feng, 2007).
Crompton (1979) notes to novelty as a new experience; thus, novel travel can be considered a new and unfamiliar experience (Faison, 1977). Novel information may express unexpected product or service characteristics, surprising the consumer. We predict that the novelty of eWOM is also one of the antecedents of PU and PEOU of eWOM. Therefore, we posit the following hypotheses:
H6a: Novelty of eWOM positively affects PU of eWOM.
H6b: Novelty of eWOM positively affects PEOU of eWOM.
4. Methodology
Sampling
An online survey was developed in order to acquire the purchasing experience of consumers from eWOM information and to increase their travel intentions. The instrument is listed in Appendix A.
To test our hypotheses, we utilized a survey method to collect empirical data from Facebook.
Moreover, the subjects must be at least 18 years old because they were more likely to purchase tourism-related products. The questionnaire was available online between February 1st and March 1st of 2020, and 202 responses were used for testing after discarding 3 responses with missing data. Table 1 shows the basic characteristics of sample.
Measurements
Based on existing items of estimation in the previous study, our paper developed the questionnaire. We measured all constructs by using questionnaire items with responses on a five-point Likert scale ranging from 1 to 5, with 1 meaning the lowest score (strongly disagree) and 5 meaning the highest score (strongly agree) on the estimation items. To measure homophily, novelty, PU, attitude toward eWOM and purchase intention of the tourism product;
we used three-item scales from previous studies (Gilly et al., 1998; Chen et al., 2014; Davis, 1989; Limayem et al. 2000; Schiffman and Kanuk 2003). Moreover, two items’ scales, adapted
from Davis (1989), were used in order to assess PEOU. We modified these items to fit the requirement of our study.
Results
This paper analyzed the data using a two-step procedure. First, the confirmatory factor analysis was done to assess all the constructs of the measurement model. Second, we utilized SmartPLS 3 (partial least squares) to test the hypothesis. Bootstrapping with 5000 re-samples was used to assess reliability and validity of item, means, standard errors, and path coefficient
We employed a measurement hypothesis to test item factor loading, reliability, and discriminant validity. In Table 2, factor loading of item reliability higher than 0.7 is accepted, while less than 0.5 should be dropped. Composite reliability (CR) is the sum of loadings that
Table 1: Sample characteristics (n=202)
Measure Item Frequency Percentage (%)
Gender Male 105 52
Female 97 48
Age 18-30 102 50.5
30-40 51 25.2
40-50 30 14.8
Above 50 19 9.5
Education Level
High school 17 8.4
Junior college University
45 102
22.3 50.5
Above University 38 18.8
Internet experience
0~5 year 84 41.6
6~10 year 75 37.1
Above 10 year 43 21.3
eWOM experience
0~5 year 111 54.9
6~10 year 72 35.6
Above 10 year 19 9.5
should be squared and then separated by the combination of the sum of the error terms and the sum of squared loading, range from 0.835 to 0.914, which surpass the threshold value of 0.70.
Cronbach's alpha was utilized to assess construct reliability. All measures have good reliability, because all Cronbach's alpha are higher than 0.7. Average variance extracted (AVE) refers to assess convergent validity. Our results support convergent validity because they are higher than 0.50, ranging from 0.627 to 0.841. Discriminant validity checks if a construct is more highly related to its own measures than to any other construct. It is assisted when the square root of AVE for each construct is more than the relationships between this construct and other constructs. This condition is satisfied.
Path coefficients were used to measure the structural model, which shows the strengths of the correlations between independent variables and the dependent variable. R2 is the proportion of the variance in the dependent variable, which has predictive ability of the model derived from the independent variables. Thus, higher the R2 indicates model, better fit with the data. The testing results of structural model are shown in Figure 1.
5. Conclusions and discussion
Our paper proposed and tested a model in order to explore the influence between characteristics of eWOM and purchase intention of the tourism product using eWOM on Facebook. Based on characteristics of eWOM, we extended the TAM model to explore this issue. Our results provide empirical data showing that consumers will use more suitable information coming from friends who have similar viewpoints, experiences, and preferences. Our outcomes show that homophily of eWOM is positively related to PU and PEOU of eWOM, and this proves that our prediction is correct. Furthermore, novelty of travel information is an important motivator for numerous travellers. If the information is perceived too past, travellers may not have perceived interest. If they do not find novel information, they may feel bored, causing them to stop looking for travel information on Facebook. Our results show that novelty of eWOM has a significant impact on PU and PEOU of eWOM.
Next, the results show that PEOU of eWOM is positively related to PU of eWOM, PU of eWOM and PEOU of eWOM are positively linked to attitude toward eWOM. On the other hand, our results also find that attitude toward eWOM is positively related to purchase intention of the tourism product using eWOM. Thus, a positive attitude toward eWOM is able to acquire a higher willingness to purchase the product.
Table 2: Factor loading, Cronbach's alpha, CR and AVE Factor Items Factor Loading Cronbach’s
Alpha
Composite reliability
AVE
Homophily H1 0.759 0.703 0.835 0.627
H2 0.832
H3 0.784
Novelty N1 0.816 0.761 0.862 0.676
N2 0.841
N3 0.81
PU PU1 0.863 0.81 0.887 0.724
PU2 0.852
PU3 0.838
PEOU PEOU1 0.923 0.811 0.914 0.841
PEOU2 0.911
ATT ATT1 0.855 0.824 0.895 0.74
ATT2 0.865
ATT3 0.86
PI PI1 0.85 0.852 0.91 0.771
PI2 0.901
PI3 0.883
ATT: Attitude toward eWOM; PI: Purchase intention of the tourism product.using eWOM on Facebook
Our results provide several theoretical implications. First, this paper extends experimental and behavioural studies that focus on purchase intention of the tourism product based on an interdisciplinary field on management information systems, hospitality and tourism management, and marketing. Second, according Ukpabi and Karjaluoto (2018) showed the information characteristics, we extend the TAM that both homophily and novelty are increased as exogenous variables in our paper. These two variables are rarely discussed in the eWOM.
Finally, this study elucidates the importance of how consumers comprehend the relevant characteristics of information of eWOM, so our approach can be utilized to assess the effect of characteristics of eWOM on purchase intention for the tourism industry.
As for managerial implications, our paper also provides several viewpoints: first, why travellers read eWOM and how eWOM stimulates the decision making of travellers who are interested in purchasing travel products. This implies that managers should constantly monitor and check eWOM that is important for travellers. Especially negative information should be reflected and improved in time. Second, travellers’ assessment of satisfaction results from primary factors and related factors. Primary factors include basic expectations related to product price, product advantages/disadvantages and product value. Related factors are linked to customers’ service performance. Outstanding delivery of these factors usually produces positive eWOM, and this increases the expectations of potential consumers. Thus, managers should improve primary and related factors through eWOM to meet the expectations of consumers. Finally, the pervasiveness of the Internet has changed consumers from passive to active participants.
Facebook offers the most instant information exchange. With a large number of members, it is very proper platforms for eWOM, and it also generates and acquires numerous information.
Thus, managers can apply the characteristics of eWOM of the results of this paper and should comprehend what characteristics can facilitate travellers’ adoption of eWOM. Then, they can develop more effective marketing strategies from eWOM.
6. Limitations and future work
This study was somewhat limited by its industry. We set the contents of the questionnaire on the tourism industry, whereas questionnaires on different industries should have different
patterns (e.g., 3C industry, retail industry, and catering). In the future, we will do related research on other industries, and explore the influence of eWOM information on consumer purchase intention for different industries. Another limitation of this study used only Facebook;
we plan to explore different social media in the future. Finally, the new generation of the World Wide Web is called web 3.0. Information and most user behaviours are stored in a large database; this enhances the visibility and readability of eWOM information. Future expectation is that web 3.0 could accelerate eWOM communication and play an important role in affecting consumer purchase intention.
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Appendix A. Measurement items
eWOM of the tourism product is shared by your friends on Facebook. The information as follows:
Our travel agent planned the new and perfect trip for us. We initially had a brief conversation with him and told him what we were interested in and what we wanted to see and where, and then he quickly worked out a good itinerary what we wanted.We were only in Tokyo for 6 days, but we experienced very much. From the sumptuous hotel and delicious food, to the seeing and culture, this was truly a mind blowing tour. Although not cheap, we feel very valuable, and would recommend this tour to my friends.
Homophily of eWOM (Gilly et al., 1998)
(1) The person who provides the information has the same experience as me.
(2) The person who provides the information has the same viewpoint as me.
(3) The person who provides the information has the same preference as me.
Nvelty of eWOM (Chen et al., 2014)
(1) If it is the novel information, I would like to understand it.
(2) If it is the novel information, I would like to comprehend it.
(3) If it is the novel information, I would like to explore it.
Perceived usefulness of eWOM (Davis, 1989) (1) I think the information provides valuable tips.
(2) I think the information is helpful for me to evaluate the tourism product.
(3) Overall, I think the information is useful for me.
Perceived ease of use of eWOM (Davis, 1989)
(1) I make a purchase decision of the tourism product easily by the information.
(2) I do not take a lot of time to make a purchase decision of the tourism product by the information.
Attitude toward eWOM (Limayem et al. 2000)
(1) I think using the information to understand the tourism product is a good idea.
(2) I think using the information to understand the tourism product is very convenience.
(3) I like using the information to understand the tourism product.
Purchase intention of the tourism product (Schiffman and Kanuk, 2003) (1) I would like to purchase the tourism product.
(2) I expect to buy the tourism product in the short time.
(3) If I need the tourism product, I will definitely purchase it
