Persuasion Effect of e-WOM: The Impact of Involvement and Ambiguity Tolerance

Abstract Prior to purchasing a new product, consumers search external information about the product to make a well-informed purchase decision and decrease the potential risk involved in buying products. Due to the popularity of Internet, e-WOM has already become an important information source for many consumers. The current study proposed the idea that the distribution and quantity of electronic word-of-mouth would be related to consumers’ purchase intentions. In addition, consumers’ personality trait of tolerance of ambiguity and involvement would also be related to purchase intention. Tolerance of ambiguity and personal involvement were as mediators for the influence of e-WOM on purchase intentions. This article conducted three studies in order to investigate the persuasion effects of e-WOM. A restaurant was selected as the target of e-WOM in all the three studies. Authors created a simulated online community for a gourmet restaurant in order to manipulate the experimental variables for the three studies. Study 1 examined the impact of consumers’ characteristics of tolerance of ambiguity and involvement on the persuasion effects of e-WOM. This article recruited 122 voluntary participants in an online community. After deleting redundant responses and responses with missing data, a remaining 83 completed responses were accepted for data analysis. Study 1 adopted Partial Least Squares (PLS) to test the influence of involvement and ambiguity tolerance on purchase intention. The explanatory power of the construct was 19.4% for purchase intention and the path linkages from consumers’ tolerance of ambiguity and involvement to purchase intention were all significant. This study results displayed that a positive relationship between involvement and purchase intention and a negative relationship between ambiguity tolerance and purchase intention. Study 2 utilized a three factorial design to test the relationship between the quantity of e-WOM and purchase intention. Three web pages containing one, five, or fifteen customer reviews were created as experimental scenarios. Study 2 recruited 150 participants in total. After deleting redundant responses and responses with missing data, the remaining 98 completed responses were accepted for data analysis. An ANOVA analysis revealed significant differences in consumers’ purchase intention among three groups of e-WOM quantity (F(2,95)=3.55, p<. 05) The e-WOMs with five and 15 customer reviews influenced respondents to visit the restaurant, while the e-WOM with one customer review did not. Study 2 also used a t-test analysis to examine the differences in purchase intention between groups of one and 15 customer reviews. The results revealed that high involvement consumers reported higher purchase intentions in the 15 customer review group than in the one customer review (t=2.35, p<.05). Study 3 utilized a three factorial design to test the influence of distribution of e-WOMs on purchase intention. It included three e-WOM rating score distributions: J-shape, U-shape, and inverted U-shape (normal distribution). Study 3 recruited a total of 329 participants. After deleting redundant responses and responses with missing data, the remaining 215 completed responses were accepted for data analysis. ANOVA analysis showed a significant difference in purchase intentions among groups with different e-WOM rating score distributions (F(2, 212)=3.59, p<. 05). Participants reported higher intention to dine at the restaurant when the rating score distribution was J-shape. The ANOVA results also found that the impact of e-WOM distribution on persuasion effect existed only in the high involvement group. For high involvement consumers, J-shape e-WOMs increase consumers purchase intention compared to other distributions. Base on the analyses of the three empirical studies, this article revealed that e-WOMs were more persuasive for individuals with high involvement and low ambiguity tolerance. Low ambiguity tolerance individuals reported a greater desire to reduce their uncomfortable feelings of uncertainty. Additionally, e-WOMs can provide useful product information and help to reduce feelings of uncertainty in the purchase decision process. When compared to high ambiguity tolerance individuals, low ambiguity tolerance individuals were more easily persuaded by e-WOMs in decreasing their uncertain feelings and increasing their purchase intention. In addition, the persuasion effects of e-WOMs was superior for high involvement individuals when compared to low involvement ones; high involvement individuals cared more about the products than low involvement ones. When viewing the e-WOMs, high involvement individuals carefully read the e-WOMs, which is essential to persuasion effects. This study also revealed that the quantity of e-WOM was positively related to purchase intentions. Large amounts of e-WOM could enhance individuals’ purchase intentions since a sufficient amount of information is a requirement for purchase decisions. Analysis of the moderate effects of involvement revealed that the relationship between e-WOM quantity and purchase intention was significant in high involvement individuals. Finally, e-WOMs with fewer negative rating scores were more persuasive since negative e-WOMs may have reduced consumers’ purchase intention. In other words, people prefer products with a lower percentage of negative product reviews. These results were useful for both academics and practice to better understand the influence factors for persuasion effect of e-WOM.