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Determinants of Customers’ eWOM Behaviour—A System Success Perspective

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Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2017

Abstract

Consumers are both eWOM receivers as well as generators. Despite extant literatures on eWOM adoption and generation research, little research focused on eWOM communication from a system perspective. This research examined eWOM adoption and generation behaviour using the IS success approach by including three dimensions of quality perception of travel review websites, namely information quality, system quality, and social quality. The proposed research model is tested with empirical data from 204 respondents who have both used and generated eWOM. The findings indicate that, information quality (completeness), system quality (reliability), and social quality (social interaction) all exert significant effect on travellers’ eWOM use behaviour. System quality (integration, reliability), and social quality (social presence, social interaction) are important predictors for travellers’ eWOM generation behaviour.

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 71362027), MOE Humanities and Social Sciences Project of China (No. 13YJC630228).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Systems Science, Turku School of Economics, University of Turku, Turku, Finland

    Ping Wang & Reima Suomi

  2. School of Information Science and Technology, Hainan Normal University, Haikou, China

    Xianfeng Zhang

  3. National Research Center of Cultural Industries, Central China Normal University, Wuhan, China

    Chuanming Sun

Authors
  1. Ping Wang
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  2. Xianfeng Zhang
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  3. Reima Suomi
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  4. Chuanming Sun
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Ping Wang .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Tourism, HES-SO Valais-Wallis, Sierre, Valais, Switzerland

    Roland Schegg

  2. School of Hospitality and Tourism Management, University of Surrey, Guildford, United Kingdom

    Brigitte Stangl

Appendices

Appendix 1

Items, Factor Loadings, Cronbach’s Alpha, AVE and CR

Constructs

Items

Α

AVE

CR

Information accuracy (IA)

(Wixom & Todd, 2005)

IA1: The eWOM provided the correct information for my travel plan (0.85)

IA2: There were few errors in the information I obtained from eWOM (0.87)

IA3: The information provided by eWOM is accurate (0.91)

0.85

0.77

0.91

Information completeness (IC)

(Wixom & Todd, 2005)

IC1: The eWOM provide me with a complete set of information for my travel (0.89)

IC2: …comprehensive information for my travel (0.91)

IC3: …all the information I need for my travel (0.84)

0.86

0.78

0.91

Information sidedness* (IS) (Cheung et al., 2012)

IS1: The eWOM include both pros and cons on the discussed product/service (0.94)

IS3: …both positive and a negative comments (0.93)

0.85

0.87

0.93

Information timeliness

(IT)

(Wixom & Todd, 2005)

IT1: The eWOM provided me with the most up-to-date information for my travel related decision (0.85)

IT2: The eWOM the most current information for my travel related decision (0.92)

IT3: The eWOM from the travel review sites is always up-to-date (0.84)

0.84

0.76

0.90

System reliability

(SYR)

(Wixom & Todd, 2005)

SYR1: The travel review website operates reliably (0.90)

SYR2: …performs reliably (0.77)

SYR3: The operation of the travel review websites is dependable (0.88)

0.79

0.70

0.88

System integration

(SYI)

(Wixom & Todd, 2005)

SYI1: The travel review website effectively integrates data from different aspects of travel (0.78)

SYI2: …pulls together information that used to come from different websites and information sources (0.84)

SYI3: …effectively combines data from different aspects of travel (0.80)

0.88

0.81

0.93

System flexibility*

(SYF)

(Wixom & Todd, 2005)

SYF2: The travel review website

can flexibly adjust to new demands or conditions during my usage (0.76)

SYF3:…is versatile in addressing needs as they arise (0.82)

0.83

0.86

0.92

System response time (SYT)

(Wixom & Todd, 2005)

SYT1: It takes short time for the website system to respond to my requests (0.84)

SYT2: The travel review website system provides information in a timely fashion (0.78)

0.87

0.88

0.94

Social interaction

(INT)

(Ko et al., 2005)

INT1: Using the travel review websites enables me see what other travellers said (0.80)

INT2: …enables me keep up with what’s going on with regard to my travel (0.75)

INT3: …enables me express myself freely regarding my own travel (0.84)

0.79

0.71

0.88

Social presence*

(SP)

(Gefen & Straub, 2003)

SP1: There is a sense of sociability in the review website (0.79)

SP2: There is a sense of human contact in the review website (0.75)

SP4: There is a sense of existence in the website (0.76)

0.89

0.81

0.93

eWOM use

(USE)

(Sussman & Siegal, 2003)

USE1: I use eWOM on the website. (0.95)

USE2: The eWOM provided motivates me to take action/reserve it. (0.77)

USE3: I agree with the eWOM provided on the website. (0.87)

0.85

0.77

0.91

eWOM generation behaviour

(GB)

(Munar & Jacobsen, 2014)

GB1: I shared my travel related experiences in the websites (0.76)

GB2: I provided my travel experiences at the request (0.92)

GB3: I posted my comments on the websites after my travel (0.82)

0.87

0.79

0.92

  1. Note *The items IS3, SYSF1 and SP3 were deleted due to its low factor loading
  2. Α Cronbach’s Alpha; AVE Average Variance Extracted; CR Composite Reliability

Appendix 2

Discriminant validity: correlation matrix and the squared root of AVE

Construct

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

IA

0.88

           

USE

0.51

0.87

          

IC

0.75

0.55

0.88

         

GB

0.32

0.57

0.38

0.88

        

INT

0.44

0.54

0.49

0.44

0.80

       

IS

0.49

0.37

0.55

0.30

0.57

0.93

      

IT

0.59

0.50

0.74

0.35

0.53

0.63

0.87

     

SP

0.52

0.42

0.59

0.39

0.64

0.61

0.56

0.90

    

SYF

0.48

0.38

0.61

0.36

0.45

0.46

0.61

0.48

0.92

   

SYI

0.56

0.47

0.64

0.42

0.45

0.39

0.56

0.36

0.65

0.90

  

SYR

0.50

0.50

0.47

0.37

0.35

0.26

0.46

0.28

0.43

0.60

0.83

 

SYT

0.58

0.46

0.56

0.35

0.47

0.43

0.56

0.40

0.62

0.75

0.61

0.94

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Wang, P., Zhang, X., Suomi, R., Sun, C. (2017). Determinants of Customers’ eWOM Behaviour—A System Success Perspective. In: Schegg, R., Stangl, B. (eds) Information and Communication Technologies in Tourism 2017. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-51168-9_29

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