Managing Uncertainty on eWOM: a Comparison Study between Commercial and Third Party Websites

This study utilizes elaboration likelihood model (ELM) as the theoretical foundation, to explore the effects of information comprehensiveness, argument strength, consistency and quantity on eWOM (electronic word-of-mouth) readers’ information adoption intention in two types of websites (commercial and third party), we collect 278 data from one commercial and one third party website, the results find, in general, all of these four determinant factors can significant affect information adoption intention; however, their effects will be modified in different websites, this finding indicates that people do perceive different level of uncertainties in different websites, and they will utilize different signals to alleviate their information uncertainty concerns. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are also introduced.