The mediating effect of eWOM credibility to sense of virtual community and eWOM review adoption in virtual communities

• Main Authors: Cabo Chanpongco, Gabrielle Gan, Chua, Elyanna Marie Daguiso, Cruz, Zarina Zablan, Mates, Janna Lodin Ferido
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2021
• Subjects: Consumer behavior; Electronic commerce; Word-of-mouth advertising; Business Administration, Management, and Operations
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etdb_dsi/16; https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/context/etdb_dsi/article/1000/viewcontent/cabo2.pdf
• Institution: De La Salle University

Businesses and consumers are both turning to virtual communities for economic leverages and social engagement respectively since the Philippines’ first Covid-19 lockdown. In this study, the researchers focus on the process of how members of virtual communities of consumption come to accept product reviews they read by considering their sense of virtual community and perceived review and source credibility. For this purpose, several hypotheses were established based on existing literature. Primary data was collected through an online questionnaire using convenience sampling where 676 valid responses from members of Home Buddies, a virtual community of consumption in Facebook, were obtained. The researchers used linear regression to assess the relationship of the independent variables to the mediating variables as well as the influence of the mediating variables to the dependent variable. The bootstrapping method was also employed in a mediation analysis through SPSS with PROCESS Macro add-on. Through the analysis of the researchers, results indicated that Review Credibility, Expertness, Trustworthiness, Objectivity, and Homophily all have a partial mediating effect in the relationship between Sense of Virtual Community and Review Adoption; Expertness, Trustworthiness, and Review Credibility were found to have the highest effect. This study will benefit VCC administrators who are maintaining their groups, members and consumers who actively seek and provide information throughout their purchase decisions, and businesses who want to take advantage of opportunities presented in VCC. Given the results of the study, future researchers can focus on understanding the influence of Facebook badges, applying the current model to other VCCs on Facebook, exploring VCCs beyond Facebook, and creating comparative models with a combination of the constructs mentioned.