Abstract

The Effects of Information Characteristics on Word of Mouth Performance in Online Environment : Focused on the Moderating Effect of Consumer Knowledge

Lee, Eun Young
Dept. of Industrial Management, Korea University of Technology and Education

Lee, Thae Min
Full-time instructor, Dept. of Business Administration, Dongseo University

Internet communications provoke the new forms of communication of online word of mouth and made it more powerful. The exponential growth of the Internet has rendered the WOM process as one of the most powerful interpersonal communication means in our society today. Consumer to consumer communications via online community board are text-based and non-limited in time and space.

So, Message characteristics are more important in online word of mouth rather than traditional word of mouth. So, it would be one of the main issues to identify the information characteristics of word of mouth in online environments.

Studies on the information characteristics of online word of mouth and the effects of those factors are very important to understand the online consumer to consumer communication.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects of information characteristics of online word of mouth and the applicability of online word of mouth to marketing, find some implications for the online marketing communication strategy.

Fist, we explore the information characteristics of online word of mouth and investigate its effects. Second, we also investigate the effects of consumer characteristics on online word of mouth effect. Third, we explore the moderating effects of consumer knowledge on word of mouth. Finally, we try to present some marketing strategy using online word of mouth through the result of our studies.

Key Word :online word of mouth, consensus, vividness, community interaction, user control, consumer knowledge