What Mobilizes Information Contribution to Electronic Word-of- Mouth System? Explanations from a Dual-Process Goal Pursuit Model

Electronic word-of-mouth systems (EWOMS) facilitate electronic commerce tremendously. Although adequate consumption information supply is critical for these systems and to some extent for electronic commerce to succeed, there is a lack of investigations on information provision as current studies related to EWOMS mainly concentrate on the consequences of the deployment of the systems. We do not have a systematic understanding of what may motivate consumers to engage in electronic word-of-mouth activities. This study attempts to address the knowledge gap by constructing a dual-process goal pursuit model to explain consumers’ initial participation in electronic word-of-mouth activities. We conceptualize the consumer’s participation as a joint behavioral product of the consumer’s both conscious and unconscious responses to electronic word-of-mouth systems to pursue some goals that are either embedded in the participation process itself or endowed by the consequences of the participation behavior by devoting multiple resources such as effort, cognitive resources, and time to the activity. The consumer’s habitual dependence on online communication and opinion leadership behavior are identified as intrinsic goals that the consumer pursues automatically without cognitive processing. Additionally, the consumer would also perceive and derive extrinsic goals based on the incentives such as status and economic rewards that are offered by the system and on her past consumption experience. However, these extrinsic goals operate within the consumer’s cognitive context. The consumer’s assessment of the attractiveness and attainment expectance of the goals would moderate the effects of the goals on electronic word-of-mouth participation.