The Role of Virtual Community in Disseminating Electronic Word of Mouth

Abstract

The dissemination of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is essential to the success of products and services marketing. While recommendations are easily created and diffused in the online community, the role of the online community on the decision to submit or act on eWOM has not been addressed in the research. This study aims to examine whether the intention to provide eWOM will be enhanced when people have a good relationship with the online community where eWOM is published. This study used a questionnaire with a designed scenario to collect 401 samples and used an interactive structural equation modelling technique to examine the moderating role of the online community. Results indicate that the perceived influence of eWOM positively affects intention to disseminate WOM and that this relationship is intensely moderated by the respondents' sense of the virtual community. That is, a person who thinks eWOM is effective will be more likely to offer WOM when he/she perceive good relationship with the source of eWOM. These findings suggest that marketers should develop a good relationship with online communities and their members to raise the effectiveness of WOM marketing.