Impact of Electronic Word of Mouth on Purchase Intention: Mediating Role of Brand Trust and Product Involvement

Abstract

Word-of-mouth (WOM) has been recognized as one of the most influential tools of transmitting the information. With the technology-oriented advancements and the emergence of various online social networking sites (SNS) like Face book, Snapchat, Instagram, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Twitter, the concept of word of mouth has been revived to the electronic word-of-mouth. This spectacle has an enormous influence on the decisions of the consumers they make while purchasing a product or brand. Drawing on the theory of planned behavior, this study examined the influence of electronic word-of-mouth on purchase intention with the explanatory role of the brand trust and product involvement. In this quantitative study the empirical data has been collected through survey questionnaires. For this research the target population was the students of different universities of Lahore who use social networking platforms to read the online reviews and recommendations. Measurement items were adopted from previous studies in marketing literature. To test hypotheses, linear and hierarchal regression techniques have been applied. All the tests on the data to infer results were performed through SPSS version 22.0. The results indicate that product involvement and brand trust positively and partially mediate the relationship between electronic word-of-mouth and purchase intention. This paper endorsed the importance of electronic word-of-mouth, brand trust, product involvement, and this information will assist the marketers in making the efficient and low budgeted marketing strategies in future to boost up the purchase intention of the consumers that will ultimately leads to earn higher profits. The theoretical and practical implications are also discussed.