Networked Consumers and Networked Information: Examine the Mediation Role of Involvement and Moderation Role of Opinion Leadership in eWOM Information Processing

• In Event: To Understand Communication and Social Networks II

Abstract

Based on Elaboration Likelihood Model and opinion leader theory, this study aims at exploring the eWOM information process of movie consumers with different level of opinion leadership. Examining a sample of 510 Chinese movie consumers, this study found that mediated by involvement, consumers with higher opinion leadership are more likely to engage in both eWOM information seeking and eWOM information sharing. Besides, this study confirmed the validity of ELM in the context of eWOM information processing, strong argument quality and strong source credibility will predict high perceived information usefulness, which further lead to information adoption. Also, this study found that opinion leadership moderate both the relationship between source credibility and perceived information usefulness, and the relationship between perceived information usefulness and information adoption.

Author

• Yuan Wang, CUHK