A Social Network Approach to the Influences of Shopping Experiences on E-wom

Consumers who had memorable shopping experiences (i.e., special promotions or exceptional services) tend to resort to word-of-mouth to tell significant others in their social network about those experiences. The study aims to investigate the role of social networks in the adoption and dissemination of e-WOM arguments. The study’s objectives are three-fold.: First, the study examines the effects of consumers’ in-store shopping experiences on the level of and quality of e-WOM communication by considering Schmitt’s [1999] five strategic experiential modules (sense, feel, think, act, and relate). Second, the study verifies whether three attributes of social networks (the strength, centrality, and range of ties) influence e-WOM communication. Third, the study determines whether the presentation of e-WOM arguments and product categories influences the evaluation and adoption of e-WOM communication. The results indicate that some types of shopping experiences are more likely to influence e-WOM communication than others, which demonstrates the usefulness of developing e-WOM proliferation strategies for retail stores catering to the five strategic experiential modules. In addition, the results verify that e-WOM arguments are more effective when they are presented by using both images and text and suggest that managers of online stores should differentiate between e-WOM diffusion strategies based on the characteristics of products and the level of their involvement.