Acceptance of Implicit and Explicit eWOM: a Factor Based Study of Social Networking Sites

Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) has gained an inescapable attention among both practitioners and academia. Its importance lies in its simplicity yet profound impact on customers’ attitude toward specific brands or goods, and consequently affecting important concepts such as customer loyalty and intention to purchase. Recently Social Networking Sites (SNS) have emerged as platforms to spread eWOM; however, less attention has been paid towards the persuasiveness of eWOM in SNS. Therefore, using the theoretical lens of Elaboration Likelihood Model, this study tries to identify factors that affect acceptance of implicit and explicit eWOM. It contributes to the existing literature on eWOM by suggesting two distinct types of eWOMimplicit and explicit, and by identifying central and peripheral routes of ELM that would have impacts on their acceptance.