Research Gateway

Abstract

With the emergence of web 2.0, internet and social media has become a part and parcel of our day to day lives. It has transformed the way in which we behave as consumers. Today we, as consumers, are significantly engaging in social media conversations to share our consumption related experiences, either knowingly or unknowingly. This has led to the emergence of a new form of word-of-mouth (WOM) conversation namely, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). While the traditional WOM involves one-to-one personal conversations, eWOM involves one-to-many, many-to-one and many-to-many opinion sharing instances using online platforms. eWOM involves exchange of experiences, evaluation and opinions of products, brands and/ or services by consumers through various online platforms such as discussion forums, blogs, newsgroups, review sites, social networking sites etc. Research evidences show that such conversations can influence brand preferences and attitudes, positively or negatively.