Determinants of WOM Effects in Virtual Community: an Empirical Analysis

The Internet is becoming a powerful and unobtrusive mediumto transmit WOM. To gain new insights in this important area, the study examines, in online context, five key influences on the evaluation of peer recommendation information that may explain how eWOM influences consumers'decision making and attitude formation: peer-to-peer tie strength, consumer website relationship, expertise of source, site trustworthiness and expertise of seeker. Empirical results show that there are no significant linear relationships between the online peer-to-peer tie strength and eWOMeffects, and other four variables have significantly positive influences on eWOMeffects.