The Role of Ewom In Customer Engagement In Travel Service Organizations: An Affordance Perspective

The popularity of new media channels in recent decade has offered fertile ground for electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication. By enabling interaction between organizations and customers, eWOM communication may increase organizations’ capability of customer engagement (CE). Despite the acknowledged importance of eWOM as an important new channel for customer engagement in tourism industry, our understanding remains limited, especially the unique features of eWOM in the interaction. This research utilizes affordance theory to explain how eWOM help to realize customer engagement in the context of travel organizations, considering the symbiotic relationship between human activities and technological capabilities. Interpretive case study was conducted among three travel service providers. Six affordances of eWOM were identified to support customer engagement, i.e. interactive, reach, sharing, visibility, monitorability, and co-creation. Our study contributes practically to customer engagement and eWOM application in organizations, and also theoretically to technology affordances literature in IS field.