eWOM: Extant Research Review and Future Research Avenues

Executive Summary Word-of-mouth (WOM) communication is widely accepted as a critical factor in building marketing strategies and communications. Invention of the Internet and proliferation of social media have added a new electronic dimension to traditional WOM, thereby converting it into electronicWOM (eWOM). The extant literature has focused on various aspects of eWOM such as its effect on consumer’s purchase decision process, utilization of eWOM to build brand strength and consumer loyalty, information diffusion, and creating buzz among potential consumers. The purpose of this study is to do a systematic review and meet the two objectives: (1) summarize the extant literature in eWOM domain and (2) identify a few areas for future research. This article has been organized as follows. It starts with the definition and interrelationship between three keywords used in literature, which are traditional word-of-mouth (WOM), electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM, also referred as online word-of-mouth [OWOM]), and viral marketing. The article focuses on theoretical foundations and frameworks which form the basis of eWOM in the literature. eWOM borrows its foundation from different disciplines based on the research perspective. It highlights theories based on social perspective (sociology literature), information perspective (IS literature), and marketing perspective (specific theories from marketing literature). It identifies the motivational factors for consumer involvement in eWOM creation and diffusion process and summarizes the findings of literature on what drives consumer to spread eWOM on various channels. It discusses the findings from literature review on importance and effects of eWOM for marketing communications and marketing strategies. It provides actionable strategies for practitioners and marketers to suggest how they can utilize eWOM to improve performance, generate more sales and to communicate with consumers? It also looks at how to deal with negative eWOM and how a firm should respond to it. Finally, it analyses the current status of research and suggests a few areas for future researchers.