The impact of social media electronic word-of-mouth on purchase intention A study of online fashion shopping in Vietnam.

Absztrakt (kivonat)

In the era of technology, social media has become an essential part of people’s life. According to the Digital 2021 report, there are 4.20 billion active social media users as of January 2021. In Vietnam, the number of active social media users is 72 million, accounting for approximately 73% of the whole population (We are social, 2021). The development of social media has brought tremendous benefits and influenced the daily activities of people around the world. Online shopping is one of these activities. As an online consumer, social media gives the opportunity to access a large amount of information regarding a product or a service. Online consumers can also find opinions, experiences and recommendations of a product on social media, which is known as electronic word-of-mouth. Moreover, social media provides the platform for sellers to open a business, as online shops on social media have become increasingly popular (Che et al., 2017). This phenomenon is defined as social commerce (Kim & Park, 2013). Electronic word-of-mouth and its impact is one of the key aspects on social media that many researchers have investigated. A considerable amount of literature has been published concerning the impact of electronic word-of-mouth on consumers’ purchase intentions. Previous studies have reported that electronic word-of-mouth on social media has an influence on the purchase intentions of consumers (Erkan & Evans, 2016; Kudeshia & Kumar, 2017; See-To & Ho, 2014; Wang et al., 2012). However, most studies emphasize the information characteristics of electronic word-of-mouth, and only a few authors discuss and compare the influence of electronic word-of-mouth communicators on purchase intentions on social media platforms. Thus, this thesis attempts to elaborate on the two mentioned aspects of electronic word-of-mouth. In this study, I will examine the impact of electronic word-of-mouth in the context of online fashion shopping on social media, with a focus on Vietnamese citizens. The methodology used in this study is a quantitative survey questionnaire to collect data for further analysis and comparison with previous literature. The results of this investigation demonstrate References: The list of references is included in the thesis. that there is a significant effect of social word-of-mouth on the purchase intentions of social media users in Vietnam. The study also finds that customer reviews, as well as opinions from friends and relatives significantly impact the purchase intentions of electronic word-of-mouth receivers. However, the relationship between influencer opinions and purchase intentions is not found to be significant. Furthermore, the study discovers a difference in electronic word-of-mouth perceptions of the older generation (25 and above) and the younger generation (under 25) in Vietnam. The study suggests a possible direction of future research, which investigates the influence of electronic word-of-mouth in other countries and compares them to Vietnam.