Impact of E-WOM Through Social Media On Consumer's Purchase Intention

Arab Academy for Science and Technology & Maritime Transport
Faculty of Post Graduate studies

Thesis Titled
The impact of Electronic Word of Mouth (E-WOM) through Social
media on Consumers purchase Intention
In fulfillment of
Master of Business Administration Academic in Marketing
2013/2014
By: Noha Fawzy Abdelkader

Under the Supervision of
Professor Ahmed Shalaby
Table of Contents
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................
................... II
Abstract ...................................................................................................................
............ ..III
0
Key
Words .......................................................................................................................
..... .IV
Abbreviations............................................................................................................
............. V
Table of
Contents..................................................................................................................
VI
Chapter 1
1.1 Background The Changing Face of

Marketing................................................................. .6
1.2
Definitions........................................... ......................................................................
............. 9
1.2.1 Social
Media............................................................................................................. 9
1.2.2 Consumer
Behavior............................................................................................... 11
1.2.3 Online Social Media & Consumer
Behavior........................................................ 11
1.3 Problem
Discussion ..............................................................................................................
14
1.4 Objectives & Outline of
thesis ..............................................................................................16
Chapter 2
2. Literature
Review ......................................................................................................................1
8
2.1
Inrtoduction
18
2.2 Theoretical
Background ...........................................................................................................19
2.2.1 Word of
Mouth .....................................................................................................................19
2.2.2 eWOM and
SNS .....................................................................................................................20
1
2.2.3 Consumers interaction in

eWOM..........................................................................................22
2.2.4 Consumers interaction in
SNS ..............................................................................................25
2.2 Theoretical
Framework ............................................................................................................26
2.3.1 The impact of eWOM on
consumers ....................................................................................26
2.3.2 The impact of eWOM through SNS on
consumers ...............................................................28
2.3.2.2 Purchase
Intention .............................................................................................................29
2.4 Hypotheses & Research
Model ................................................................................................31
2.4.1 Research
Hypotheses ............................................................................................................32
2.4.2 Research
Model .....................................................................................................................32
2.5
Summary ....................................................................................................................
.............34
Chapter 3
3 Research
Methodology ........................................................................................................... .
35
3.1 Research
Approach. ............................................................................................................... .
35
3.2Research
Strategy
..36
3.3Methods
Choice
. .38
3.4Quantitative
data
. 39
3.5Data
Analysis
40
Chapter 4
4. Data analysis &
Results ...............................................................................................................42
2
4.1
Introduction
.42
4.2 Description of the
Sample..
..44
4.3Pearson
Correlation
....56
4.4Hypothesis
Testing
...58
4.5Qualitative Analysis of Semi-structured interviews
..64
4.5.1Qualititative Analysis of Focus Group
Interviews66
Chapter 5
5. Conclusions &
Discussions...........................................................................................................69
5.2 Theoretical
Implications............................................................................................................70
5.3 Recommendations for Future
research.....................................................................................72
5.4
Summary ....................................................................................................................
...............73
Chapter 6
6. Reference
List ..............................................................................................................................
74
6.1 Articles &
Books ........................................................................................................................7
4
6.2 Websites ............................................................................................................................
.......85
Chapter 7
7.
Appendix .....................................................................................................................
................86
3
7.1 Appendix A:
Questionnaire .......................................................................................................86
Appendix B .Focus Group
Interviews..87
Appendix C. Semi-structured
Interviews..90
Appendix D Nestle Semi-Structured
Interview..101
Appendix D Citroen Semi-Structured Interview
105
Acknowledgements
Writing this thesis has been a very interesting and educational experience, but at
the same time a very challenging and stressful one; lots of time and effort were
devoted to accomplish the best possible results. However, this study would not
have been possible without the help and support of a number of people, who
guided and encouraged us during the whole process.
First of all, my utmost gratitude and respect to my supervisor, Prof. Ahmed Shalaby,
for providing me with the academic guidance, for his feedback, helpful advices and
good ideas that led me into the right direction; his suggestions were of valuable
help. His guidance, encouragement and patience throughout the whole process
I would like to thank my parents and my brother for securing to me the proper
environment to study for their endless support, for respecting this dream and
lending me a hand whenever I ran out of patience, for their emotional and financial
backing .However very special Thanks to my Dad for his endless support and giving
me a ride to meet up with the interviewees and my supervisor, for driving me for
hours and waiting me for hours, for letting this dream come true, for his faith in me,
for the reason for whom I am now.
I also warmly thank my friend & sister Margret Magdy for her precious help and
support throughout the writing of the dissertation.
I also want to express my gratitude to my friend Amr Emera for helping me to
conduct all the interviews with the companies.
Last, All my gratitude goes to my fianc and future husband Hesham Hamdy for his
faith in me, for the endless support he gave to me, for holding my temper when I
was down, for pushing me forward to achieve this dream.
To All of you, Thank you so much!
Abstract
Researchers, companies and managers have for a long time accepted wordof-mouth as being a crucial marketing activity, since it is extremely effective
in shaping consumers attitudes and behavior. Nowadays, The Internet has
become a major part of many peoples daily lives, and social networking
sites attract millions of individuals from all around the world. Because of this,
word-of-mouth has shifted to the digitalized world and a new term has been
developed, namely electronic word-of-mouth. Electronic word of-mouth has
been recognized to generate the same benefits to companies as word-ofmouth. Due to the growth of the Internet and social networking sites,
electronic word-of-mouth has the power to reach more people and is
therefore perceived as more influential. This makes electronic word-of-mouth
along with social networking sites, two concepts to acknowledge. Thus, for
companies to make the most out of them, they need to gain the necessary
knowledge. The purpose of this research is to analyze how consumers are
affected by electronic word-of-mouth through social networking sites.
In the specific area, a research gap was noticed, namely, how electronic
word of-mouth through social networking sites affects consumers purchase
intentions. Based on this gap, four hypotheses and a research model were
conducted. The empirical data was collected via questionnaire; 2 semi
structured interviews and focus group interviews
It was revealed through the results, that electronic word-of-mouth through
social networking sites has a direct positive effect on both consumers
purchase intentions
KEYWORDS: Electronic word-of-mouth, social networking sites, consumer

behavior, consumer affection, product perception, purchase intentio n
Abbreviations
Abbreviation
SM
WOM
Explanation
Social Media
Word of Mouth
5
E-WOM
mouth
SNS
Electronic Word of
Social Networking Sites
Chapter 1 Introduction
Introduction
1.1 Background The Changing Face of Marketing

The recent emergence of Social Media has drastically changed the
marketing landscape. For Parker (2011, p201), the time of traditional
marketing, where marketers were pushing out messages toward consumers
using only a one-way communication, is over. Nowadays, as said Brown and
Hayes (2008, p165) ads dont work anymore in the real world because there
are too many of them, and because they interrupt us inappropriately. In
contrast with traditional media, Social Media have greatly changed
relationships between consumers and companies by allowing a two-way
communication (Hoyer, and MacInnis, 2010, p389). A new marketing
function called Social Media Marketing has arisen.
This particular technical revolution during the last decade has drastically
revolutionized the traditional marketing approaches and brought marketers
to a new era. In the new marketing era, the social media has likely to
6
revolutionize the relationships marketers have with retailers, channels of

distribution, their ultimate consumers, etc. It is an Information Age, and
consumers are inundated with overwhelming quantities of information each
and every day.
Based on the findings from McKinsey (2011), it has revealed that when
companies go about their business and interact with individuals, they are
generating a tremendous amount of digital exhaust data, i.e., data that
are created as a by-product of other activities. Social media sites, smart
phones, and other consumer devices have allowed billions of individuals
around the world to contribute to the amount of big data available.(McKinsey
2011). Cavazza (2010) said that Social Media Marketing refers to the tools
and practices used to identify and analyze conversations, to participate and
initiate social interactions within communities and thus consumers. In
contrast with traditional media, Social Media offer more possibilities to
marketers to engage with customers and have real interactions with them.
The marketing area has thus evolved from a time where marketers had the
power of influence to today where consumers have a greater power of
influence on their peers (Jaffe, 2010). Indeed, Social Media enable
consumers to share contents and ideas together, write recommendations,
reviews and opinions about companies performance and to tell, to a wider
audience than before, about their own good or bad experience with them
(Brown, and Hayes, 2008, p179-180).
Consumers have access to a wide range of different Social Media types,
Platforms and tools, with different characteristics and possibilities that allow
them to be connected and communicate together. Sago (2010 p7) stated
that Social Media have significantly impacted how information is shared
among groups of consumers.
Word-of-mouth plays a central role on Social Media. Word-of-mouth is well
known in the marketing area and this for decades. But today, word-of-mouth
appears even more important than before in the influence of consumers
purchasing decision-making process (Brown, and Hayes, 2008, p139-146).
Indeed, Social Media can carry and spread word-of-mouth between millions
of users, like none of the other channels have been able to do until now. The
CEO of quired.com (2009) said that we are witness today of a fundamental
shift in communication because of Social Media tools. This shift has been
made possible because Social Media usage has highly increased by
consumers but also by marketers these last years.
Although it has been commonly known that WOM is a very powerful driver
for behavior, it is very difficult to observe by researchers (Park & Kim, 2008).
Traditional WOM is verbal and therefore measuring and investigating its
individual components is extremely challenging. The proliferation of the
Internet has made consumer-generated product Information not only more
7
effective but also easier to measure, thus opening new Possibilities for
researchers (Park & Kim, 2008). Once electronic word-of-mouth (Henceforth
e-WOM) messages are communicated, they are existent virtually forever,
enabling researchers to isolate and measure single factors. Investigating eWOM Components are important since it offers business potential for both
advertisers as well as hosts of websites specialized to consumer-generated
content (Stauss, 1997; Stauss, 2000; Mariussen et al., 2010).
In online communities, consumers exchange opinions regarding a variety of
products in a multitude of forums; some consumers like to discuss product
features on brand-specific online discussion forums while others offer their
experiences regarding the product in a usage situation by writing online
consumer reviews on product review websites. The opportunities to read and
express consumer generated information are endless.
E-WOM messages are especially important in online purchases because
consumers are unable to physically see or touch the product, which naturally
decreases the confidence to purchase (Alba et al., 1997). In many product
categories and purchasing demographics, this feel-effect is the most
important criteria for the consumer, especially when impulse purchases are
concerned (Chatterjee, 2001). Confidence to purchase is especially low if the
available product information is limited to advertiser-generated information
only (Chatterjee, 2001). Thus, the online retailers usually give consumers
the opportunity to share and read about consumers experiences with the
product (Chatterjee, 2001; Chen & Xie, 2004).
Usually the review contains a verbal message weighing the positive and/or
negative aspects of the product followed by some formalized product rating.
In addition, the readers are able to rate the reviewer and indicate how
helpful or trustworthy this individual and his/her contributions have been.
This rating is visible to all readers and indicates how trusted this reviewer is
by other users (Henning-Thurau & Walsh, 2004).
Source
Channel
Message
Receiver
Social media puts consumers back to the center of the business world and
provides marketers a new set of tools to interact with consumers and to
integrate them into the brands through innovative ways. In essence,
marketers have to understand how the social media has influenced
consumer buying behavior.
1.2 Definitions
1.2.1 Social Media
8
According to Evans (2008), Social Media relates to a self-generated,

authentic conversation between people about a particular subject of mutual
interest, built on the thoughts and experiences of the participants.
Therefore, Social Media is definitely all about sharing and aiming at a
collective vision, often intending to offer a more-appropriated or informed
choice at the end. Furthermore, Social Media changes over time as it allows
people to generate the content in a participative way whenever they want to
add any additional piece of information. Social Media are also evolving
constantly as they are part of internet high technologies, which are modified
regularly with additional or replacing features.
Social Media covers a wide variety of online and mobile, word-of-mouth
forums
including social networking websites, blogs, company sponsored discussion
boards and chat rooms, consumer-to-consumer email, consumer product or
service ratings websites and forums, Internet discussion boards and forums,
and sites containing digital audio, images, movies, or photographs, to name
a few (Hollensen, 2011).
Social Networks, or Social Media Sites, which are the main actors in the
Social Media medium, can be defined as online communities of people who
typically share a common interest or activity, providing a variety of ways for
users to interact and having the ability to facilitate communication.
Social Media is growing every day. Even if 90% of the 18-24 internet users
use social network via any device at least once per month, social media
affects every age group with much higher increase rates for the age groups
over 35 (Hubspot, 2012). Also, when looking at the average hours per week
spent on online activities, we can definitely see that the world is becoming
more social, with an average of 4.6 hours per week spend on Social Media
Sites worldwide (Figure 1).
Figure 1: Average hours/week spent on online activities worldwide
(Hubspot, 2012)
Technological development plays an important role in this increase of usage

of Social Media by consumers. Nowadays with smart phones, consumers can
connect and interact together from everywhere by simply using their mobile
phones. Twitter (2011) for example, counted an increase of 182 % in number
of mobile users comparing with the previous years, when YouTube (2011)
explained that the traffic from mobile devices tripled in 2011.Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube illustrate perfectly the increase of usage of Social Media
but they are also plenty of other platforms and tools that used by consumers
and by companies
1.2.2 Consumer Behavior

In consumption, consumers pass through different stages that put together
form the consumers purchasing decision-making process (Belch and Belch,
2003, p107-122). Specific stages are involved in this process. Hoyer and
MacInnis (2010, p12) recognized five stages that are Need Recognition,
Information Search, Evaluation of Alternatives, Decision Making and Post
purchase Evaluation. In their purchasing decision-making process,
consumers are often influenced by both internal and external influences
(Belch and Belch, 2003, p112-114).
1.2.3 Online Social Media & Consumer Behavior
The raise of Social Media usage by both consumers and companies seem to
affect consumer behavior.
Also, Social Media influence the way consumers behave during the different
stages of their purchase decision-making processes. Wheat and Dodd (2009,
p3) quoted Carson, the president of Online International Nielsen, the
explosion in Consumer Generated Media over the last couple of years means
consumers' reliance on word-of-mouth in the decision-making process, either
from people they know or online consumers they don't, has increased
significantly.
Social Media has changed the way consumers behave in their consumption.
When before consumers were waiting for companies to push messages
toward them; they are now directly seeking for information on Social Media.
Consumers can recognize new needs on Social Media when surfing on
some social networks such as Facebook where they can see friends
displaying pictures of products they bought or using the like button to
mention brands that they like for example. The Need Recognition stage
seems thus to be influence by Social Media.
10
Today, online communities have more and more influence on consumers

purchasing decision-making. Parker (2011, p263) stated that when people
are in the research or education phase of the buying cycle, they have
access to a wider audience of current past, or prospective customers
worldwide that they can consult before making their decision. With Social
Media, digitally empowered shoppers have access to a wide range of new
tools to find and research products and they now consult with peers and
experts (Wheat and Dodd, 2009, p4). These possibilities offered by Social
Media seem to be influential at the Information
With the emergence of Social Media, consumers have changed their
approach of consuming. They are now comparing products and services
thanks to tools and websites such as review and opinions platforms that
allow them these comparisons. They can read reviews and ratings about
products, services and companies performance that are shared by their
peers that had good but also bad consuming experiences. Forums for
example allow interactions where they can seek opinions and ask questions
to more people than before. Social Media appear to be influential on the
consumers at their Evaluation of Alternatives stage.
The traditional media perspective (Figure 2), we can recognize the basic
three stages of the purchase funnel. Many more stages can be added, but
those three are the basics one. First, the audience becomes aware of the
brand, product or service. Then, he considers it as an eventual future
purchase. And finally, he takes the purchase decision
Figure 2: The Classical purchase funnel for traditional media

Wheat and Dodd (2009)
On the other hand, the contemporary version of the purchase funnel (Figure
3) incorporates the Social Media by showing how the user-generated media
in the post-purchase experiences can have impacts on the basic stage of
consideration which is usually only part of the marketer-generated content.
Figure 3: The Social Feedback Cycle
11
Wheat and Dodd (2009)
1.3 Problem Discussion

WOM has been accepted that it is vital in shapping consumers attitude and
behaviors (Brown & Reingen, 1987). And because of digitilization WOM has
been shifted to a new term E-WOM , E-WOM is more influential as it can
reach million of people in a very short time, the researcher choosed this
topic to investigate the literature review and to test the research framework
(model) and the hyposthesis , the researcher wants to investigate what
affects consumers purchase intention. Social media or the quality of e-wom
which means the extend to which the information received about products or
services is not biased and the quantity of e-wom which means the extend to
which the number of comments and reviewes can affect the consumers
purchase intention and the senders expertise which meand the extend to
which the source is knowledgable with the product all these variables will be
tested to have a conclusuion what affectes the consumers purchase
intention
WOM communication has been a widely discussed topic throughout the
years, and it has been accepted that it is vital in shaping consumers
attitudes and behaviors (Brown & Reingen, 1987). Some say that WOM is
much more effective than traditional marketing, such as advertisement
through newspapers, radio and personal selling , while others state that it is
nine times as effective as traditional marketing (Day, 1971). However, WOM
can either occur naturally or be boosted by companies; namely fertilized
WOM (Trusov, et al., 2009).
12
This kind of WOM is biased and is therefore less effective than organic
WOM (Ibid). Nevertheless, because of digitalization, there has been an
important shift from WOM to e-WOM (Prendergast, et al., 2010). E-WOM is
similar to traditional WOM in the way that it may be either positive or
negative, but e-WOM can be diffused faster, since it can reach millions of
people, making it more influential than traditional WOM (Ibid). Also, in eWOM, information can originate from an unknown person in contrast to
traditional WOM, in which information is exchanged in a more personal way
(Park & Lee, 2009).
E-WOM is an important factor to be analyzed by marketing researchers and
managers, if we consider all the special characteristics of the Internet, such
as the ability to be available to the general public for indefinite time (HennigThurau, et al., 2004).Many have argued that companies have to recognize
the impact of WOM on consumers; both negative and positive WOM.
Consumers are nowadays relying mostly on online information generated by
other consumers to make decisions on future product purchases (Hu, et al.,
2011). It is clear that brand awareness as well as information sharing,
opinions and attitudes are highly influenced by SM (Mangold & Faulds,
2009). SNS platforms are on the rise and have already attained hundreds of
millions of users (Romero, et al., 2011). One of the fastest growing and most
popular Internet activities is to have at least one or more SNS accounts
(Ibid).Furthermore, SNS allow marketers to engage in two-way
communication with online consumers, regarding personalized messages
and product related content (Dunne, et al., 2010). Charlene Li, vice president
and principal analyst at Forrester Research, stated that The more you know
and understand the individuals who make up the grounds well around your
brand and your company, the more you can use the new social networking
phenomenon to your advantage (Forbes).
The 21st century has been marked by a rapid and continuous growth of SM
(Mangold & Faulds, 2009), and especially SNS and messages transmitted
through them (Trusov, et al., 2009). SNS constitute an ideal platform for eWOM, since consumers exchange brand-related information through their
online social networks (Vollmer & Precourt, 2008 cited in Chu & Kim 2011).
SNS contacts may already exist in consumers established networks and
therefore can be perceived as more trust worthy than unknown users that
appear in other SM platforms (Chu & Kim, 2011). When exchanging e-WOM,
an individual can become an opinion provider, seeker and transmitter (Ibid).
In SNS, opinion seekers search for friends reliable recommendations and
opinion providers share opinions about products with other consumers (Ibid).
It is clear that SNS are an enhancing tool for e-WOM, and therefore a
beneficial platform for companies, since they can reach many consumers.
Even though WOM has been an essential part of small and medium sized
businesses (Marketing pilgrim), 64 percent of them do not use SM for their
13
business (Ibid). In order though, for the companies to be able to take

advantage of WOM, they have to attain information about consumers; why
they interact in e-WOM on SNS and how they are affected by it. By
understanding how consumers e-WOM behavior is affected in SNS,
managers can include SM in their integrated marketing communications
(Chu & Kim, 2011).
Therefore, for companies and managers to be able to control and benefit
from e-WOM, they have to understand the mechanisms behind it, and
indicate the norms of consumer behavior. The same applies for e-WOM
through SNS. Being able to understand how consumers are affected by eWOM through SNS, can give the necessary knowledge that will enable the
company to make the most out of this phenomenon
1.4 Objectives & Outline of thesis
The purpose of this study is to analyze how consumers are affected by eWOM through SNS.
The main concepts in the area of this thesis are brought up in this chapter.
The importance and necessity of e-WOM and SNS are argued in the problem
discussion. This study aims to analyze how consumers are affected by eWOM through SNS. This thesis continues with the following main chapters:
Theory In the literature review chapter 2, the following will be presented; a
background about the role of WOM, the importance of e-WOM and SNS, the
reasons to why people interact in e-WOM and SNS, the impact of e-WOM
through SNS and the role of purchase intention. And finally the hypotheses
and research model will be drawn. Chapter 3 Methodology
The methodology chapter will describe the way in which this research has
been done and the reasons to why the specific methods have been chosen.
The effects of the selected methods will be explained also. Chapter
4Analysis
The analysis chapter will start by presenting the descriptive findings from
the questionnaire. The validity and reliability of this research will be tested.
The principal hypotheses will be tested using a linear regression
Chapter 5 Conclusions
The conclusions and the results of the hypotheses will be presented in this
chapter. The theoretical and managerial implications will be displayed, as
well as the limitations and suggestions for further research.
14
Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.1 Introduction
The marketing landscape has drastically changed in the last decade.
Before, companies and their customers had no direct link to each
others respective worlds (Jaffe, 2010, p160). The emergence of Social
Media has changed the way consumers interact together but also with
companies. Consumers, through their growing use of Social Media and
by using word-of mouth, have now a powerful and even greater
influence on peers. Social Media platforms and tools allow users to
share contents, recommend products and tell about their positive and
negative consumers experience with companies (Brown, and Hayes,
(2008, p179-180).Fotis,et, al (2012, p1) reminded that De Valck, et al
(2009) suggested that the virtual communities are becoming
important networks of consumers knowledge that influence consumer
behavior. Moreover, Wertime and Fenwick (2008, p31-51) added that
consumers are more likely to be participating than watching stating
that these last years we have been witness of a shift in the consumer
behavior from being consumers as viewers to consumers as
participants.
This chapter starts by providing a theoretical background about the
role of WOM, the importance of e-WOM and SNS and the reasons to
why people interact in e-WOM and SNS. Further, in the theoretical
framework, the impact of e-WOM through SNS and the role of purchase
intention are presented.
Finally, the hypotheses and research model are drawn and a summary
compiles the main theories reviewed in this chapter.
2.2 Theoretical Background

2.2.1 Word of Mouth
Prior to purchasing decisions, consumers collect product information to
reduce the perceived risk of the unknown (Wu & Wang, 2011).
Purchasing behavior is determined by product involvement, which is
how important a product is to an individual; the higher the product
significance is, the higher the perceived risk for the potential consumer
(ibid).
Most consumers use various channels to communicate with the
companies and gather information to make a product-related decision
15
from both print and electronic sources (Rowley, 2001). In her study,
Riegner (2007) identified various sources that influenced customers
purchase decisions. Accordingly, the most popular influence is
browsing retail stores and the second most popular is
recommendations from close ties, or WOM (Riegner, 2007). Search
engines, brand sites, catalogs, outdoor advertisement and usergenerated sites are some of the other influential sources, and it was
noted that online sources were compared in a favorable way to offline
sources (Ibid). Even though in Riegners (2007) research e-WOM was
found to be one of the least popular sources, she suggested that this is
because it is still in an early stage, in which it only has an impact on
specific products and purchase channels. Nevertheless, Godes and
Mayzlin (2004) argue that e-WOM has a large influence on brand
attitude and judgment compared to other influential sources.
2.2.3 E-WOM and SNS

In the literature, e-WOM has often been referred to as the same
concept as viral marketing (Hennig-Thurau & Walsh, 2004). The
Internet is a vital component of viral marketing, since it is essentially
WOM through electronic media and this is the major difference
between viral marketing and WOM (Goyette, et al., 2010). Since
traditional WOM is similar to e-WOM, the reasons that have been
highlighted in the literature, as to why people interact in traditional
WOM, are also applicable in e-WOM (Hennig-Thurau & Walsh, 2004).
Not only the motives, but also the connections that are found in
traditional WOM are implementable in e-WOM, since they operate in a
similar way (Sun, et al., 2006; Prendergast, et al., 2010). Also, the
theories that explain how consumers are affected by traditional WOM
are transferable to an online environment (Prendergast, et al., 2010).
SNS are based on the idea that a group of people will join a virtual
community, and then this initial group of people will spread invitations,
or WOM, for other people to join this network too (Trusov, et al., 2009).
Social websites are trying to attract users, and encourage them to
socialize through them, by using various means and methods (Keenan
& Shiri, 2009).
The effectiveness of WOM has been widely discussed for a long period
of time. Some decades ago, Brooks (1957) highlighted WOM as of great
16
importance to marketing products and maximizing their sales. Other

researchers also emphasized that WOM had the strongest influence on
consumers evaluation on high risk-perceived products and that it has
the ability to shape and mold other consumers opinions (Dichter,
1966; Arndt, 1967).
The rise of the Internet, has increased consumers possibility to attain

unbiased opinions on products (Hennig- Thurau & Walsh, 2004) and
enhanced the opportunity to easily spread these opinions to a large
number of people (Dellarocas, 2003; Hennig-Thurau, et al., 2004). The
transparency, size and accessibility of the Internet have given
marketers the ability to influence and monitor WOM (Kozinets, et al.
2010). Marketers who have seen the benefits of WOM have the power
to control some type of e-WOM messages, for example comments on
companies websites, by deciding whether to show them or not (Park &
Kim, 2008). If they are to be shown, marketers are able to guide
consumers to post comments in the way that the marketers want
(Ibid).Even if companies do not have the means to achieve this, they
now have the possibility to measure the impact of WOM, since they are
able to control what is being said about their products and consumers
attitudes towards the company, and can therefore make necessary
adjustments (Goyette, et al., 2010).
Hennig-Thurau, et al. (2004), argue how important it is for marketers to
pay attention to e-WOM, since opinions online are available to a wide
span of individuals for an unlimited period of time. Also, because now
they can reach a wider audience at a lower cost (Dellarocas, 2003), eWOM is extremely popular, and thus, if e-WOM is managed well, it has
a huge potential to transcend a product from a small market to a much
larger one (Park & Kim, 2007).
WOM is perceived to be trustworthy (Arndt, 1967; Bone, 1995; Godes &
Mayzlin, 2004; Brown, et al., 2007), because it is originated from
consumers who have no self- interest in the product (Arndt, 1967), and
also it is believed to be unbiased information originated from
consumers who are alike (Alsop, et al., 2007). E-WOM has a crucial
influence on consumers purchase intentions, since they rely on e-WOM
before making a product purchase (Doh & Hwang, 2009). Internet
users do not follow comments posted online without evaluating them
(Cheung, et al., 2009). They believe in opinions about a product that
are supported by a strong argument. The opinions need also to agree
with the receivers beliefs as well as to be originated from a
trustworthy source (Ibid). Some negative comments can be beneficial,
17
because if there were only positive opinions online concerning a

product, the trustworthiness of the source would decrease, since it
could then believe to be originated from the company (Doh & Hwang,
2009). In the study done by Doh and Hwang (2009) it was found that
97.9 percent of the participants trusted e-WOM before purchasing a
product
2.2.4 Consumers interaction in e-WOM
E-WOM in SNS is a phenomenon where consumers seek, give or
forward product-related information online through the applications of
these specific sites (Chu & Kim, 2011). There are five dimensions that
influence social relationships and WOM as well as e-WOM intentions:
trust, interpersonal influence, tie strength, source credibility (Brown et
al., 2007).
Trust is defined as a willingness to rely on an exchange partner in
whom one has confidence (Moorman, et al., 1993, p.82). The
literature and studies suggest that trust is essential when exchanging
opinions in online communities (Chu & Kim, 2011; Jarvenpaa, et al.,
1998). Accordingly, the higher the level of trust between individuals,
the higher the possibility of engaging in information seeking, giving
and passing (Chu & Kim, 2011).
Interpersonal influence is an influential variable in consumer decision
making (Burnkrant & Cousineau, 1975). It consists of two
determinants; normative influence, which is the tendency of adapting
to other peoples expectations, by modifying ones values and
attitudes; and informational influence, which is the tendency to accept
opinions from people who are knowledgeable about the specific
product or brand (Ibid). In their study, Chu and Kim (2011) found a
positive relationship between interpersonal influence and SNS users eWOM behavior.
Tie strength is the potency of the bond between members of a
network (Granovetter,1973,cited in Mittal, et al., 2008, p.196).
Established prior relationships between individuals constitute strong
ties, for example family or friends, whereas people with no previous
relationship with each other, for example strangers or fellow
consumers, form weak ties (Brown & Reingen, 1987). This variable was
found to have a positive relationship with opinion seeking and passing,
but it was not confirmed to be related to consumers intention to give
information in SNS (Chu & Kim, 2011). Chu and Kim (2011) interpret
this due to the fact that SNS users share their product-related opinions
18
with all their online contacts, even with people they dont know that
well, namely weak ties
Finally, source credibility refers to the extent to which the online source
is expert, competent or biased in the information it carries (Brown, et
al., 2007). Notably, a credible source obtains high expertise knowledge
and is not liable to bias (Ibid). Studies have shown that source
credibility is predominantly evaluated by the Web-sites factors and
some effort is given to evaluate the individuals providing the
information on the specific Web-site (Ibid). Evaluations are based on
specific online factors, which are based on the Web-sites whole
content and sense of authority it generates rather than the individual
source (Ibid).
Until recently, the issue of consumers e-WOM intention had not been
deeply examined and therefore there are no grounded theories or
stable reasons for which consumers spread e-WOM in SNS (Cheung &
Lee, 2012). Nevertheless, there have been a couple of studies that
have explored the motivations consumers have for engaging in e-WOM
on Web-based consumer-opinion platforms, one of which is SNS. In
their study, Hennig-Thurau, et al. (2004) have investigated some of
these motives based on Balasubramian and Mahajans (2001) previous
research and have concluded that there are five consumer motivations,
or as they call them utility sources.
Firstly, focus-related utility is the utility gained by adding value and
strengthening the community by the consumers contributions, such as
reviewing, commenting and helping others with purchase decisions
(Henning-Thurau, et al., 2004). Under the umbrella of this utility,
Hennig-Thurau, et al. (2004, p.42) identify four motives: concern for
other consumers, helping the company, social benefits and experting
power.
Secondly, consumption utility is a post-purchase advice-seeking
motivation for the consumer (Hennig-Thurau, et al, 2004). The
consumer interacts in e-WOM to look for opinions and previous
experience to acquire the relevant skills to better understand the
product (Ibid).
Thirdly, approval utility refers to an individuals satisfaction deriving
from when other constituents consume and approve of the
constituent's own contributions (Balasubramanian & Mahajan, 2001,
p.126). This feedback can either be formal, meaning that the platform
operators make the rankings; or informal, meaning that a user publicly
19
or privately congratulates another users contributions to the group

(Hennig-Thurau, et al., 2004). Two motives strongly related with
approval utility are self enhancement and economic rewards (Ibid).
Fourthly, moderator-related utility is when a third party helps the
community member to complain in an easier way (Hennig-, et al.,
2004). Motives that are related with this utility and e-WOM are
convenience and problem-solving support by moderating the role of
the platform (Ibid).
Fifthly, homeostasis utility is concerned with expressing positive and

negative feelings to restore equilibrium after a dissatisfying
consumption experience (Hennig-Thurau, et al., 2004). Accordingly,
consumers balance their emotions after sharing their positive or
negative experiences by commenting and sharing their feelings on an
opinion-sharing platform (Ibid).
2.2.5 Consumers interaction in SNS
Wellman, etal. (2001) argue that the time people spend online, would
be more valuable by using it to substitute partly the face-to-face
interactions. Several studies showed that there can be a positive
outcome as far as the social capital and the communities evolve, when
people use computers for their social interactions (Kavanaugh, et al.,
2005 cited in Ellison, et al., 2007). This use of the Internet can be
beneficial for people with low emotional comfort due to weak social
ties (Bargh & McKenna, 2004). People that predominantly use the
Internet to connect with others, do it to preserve existing contacts in
long distance relationships (Wellman, et al., 2001). In conclusion, the
growth of online relationships is not necessarily a sign that people are
drawn away from the real world, but instead they are used to
maintaining contact with people even when they are not physically
close to each other (Ellison, et al., 2007).
Findings in Bibby (2008) and Coyle and Vaugh (2008), suggested that
keeping in touch with friends is the most common aim for using
social networking. SNS are used tokeep contact with both close and
non-close friends, but it cannot substitute the personal offline
socializing of the individuals (Coyle & Vaugh, 2008). The research in
Coyle and Vaugh (2008) concludedthat personality is a significant
factor determining peoples interaction in SNS, and this is considered
to be the most significant result, since it can be used to determine a
pattern in the SNS usage.
20
In order for the companies to get the most out of e-WOM, they should
focus on using the most effective means in order to target the desired
group of people (Coyle & Vaugh, 2008). This task requires money spent
on research and analysis, but if taking into consideration the amount
spent in general in SNS, then the money is worth spending (Ibid).
Finally, SNS allow people to explore and demonstrate their creativity
through the use of certain features that, among others, allow them to
project themselves, by sharing information about their personal life or
general interests (Bibby, 2008).
2.3 Theoretical Framework
2.3.1 The impact of e-WOM on consumers
Consumers seek WOM information prior to making decisions and
purchasing products (Arndt, 1967; Godes & Mayzlin, 2004). WOM is of
big interest to companies, since it is recognized to have an impact on
consumer behavior and can affect their overall preferences (Godes &
Mayzlin, 2004; Bone, 1995).
Exposure to positive WOM usually leads to a product purchase, while
negative WOM tends to have the opposite effect (Arndt, 1967).
Recommendations available on-line, can also have the same effect and
increase a product's overall sales, since they can have an impact on
consumers opinions regarding a product, and therefore encourage a
purchase (Cheung, et al., 2009). On-line opinions which have
originated from consumers have a positive effect on the receivers
product evaluations and future purchases (Hennig-Thurau & Walsh,
2004; Park, et al., 2007), and particularly those opinions that are
logical and well argued with reasonable facts (Park, et al., 2007).The
amount of comments available online are also shown to increase
consumers purchase intentions, since numerous comments about a
product suggest that many people have purchased the product and
liked it (Park, et al., 2007). E-WOM has increased in popularity and has
become a crucial element during consumers evaluation of products
before making a purchase (Doh & Hwang, 2009).
Product recommendations online have a huge influence on the
receivers product selections, since it has been confirmed that those
consumers who were confronted with a product recommendation
online were more likely to purchase that product than those who were
not (Senecal & Nantel, 2004). In addition, no significant difference was
found between experts and other consumers relative to the influence
they had on consumers product choices (Ibid).Nevertheless, some
21
influences are stronger than others (Bansal & Voyer, 2000). If

consumers seek information regarding a product, that information will
have a bigger impact on their purchase decisions (Ibid). If a strong
relationship among two consumers exists, the information transferred
between them will have a bigger impact on the receivers purchase
decisions too, especially if the sender is knowledgeable within the area
of the product (Ibid).
E-WOM has been acknowledged by many researchers to have a
significant impact on consumers (Riegner, 2007; Fergusson, 2008;
Sung et al., 2008 cited in Hongwei, et al., 2012). E-WOM is recognized
to build consumers brand awareness, helps a company to create buzz
(Fergusson, 2008) and has an effect on consumers brand loyalty
(Sung, et al., 2008 cited in Hongwei, et al., 2012). E-WOM has an effect
on purchase intentions and decisions too, but with some products more
than others (Riegner,2007). Consumers who purchase products online
are more likely to be influenced by comments from other consumers
(Ibid).
2.3.2 The impact of e-WOM through SNS on consumers.

Advertisement from companies on SNS is most likely to be ignored by
the members, since these advertisements are company generated and
therefore perceived as untrustworthy (Diffley, et al., 2011). Also the
fear of being exposed to viruses and that the advertisements were not
of relevance to them make members ignore them (Ibid)
Consumers tend to seek information about products on discussion
platforms and these platforms are perceived to be trustworthy, since
consumers believe it to be consumer generated (Cheong &Morrison,
2008). Given the enormous growth of SNS, these sites can be huge,
when it comes to presentation of user generated comments (Ibid).
Wallace, et al. (2009) confirmed that e-WOM through SNS is much
more effective in influencing consumers purchase intentions than
traditional advertising through these sites. SNS can be used to share
information about oneself to others, including updates of ones recent
activities, experiences, appreciated things and lifestyle (Dunne, et al.,
2010). A connection between SNS and group acceptance has been
found and brand messages in SNS do occur (Ibid). Users of some SNS
22
can become friends with a certain brand, which is a way to show

support for it, and that in turn might lead to positive e-WOM (Ibid).
When friends recommend a group that concerns a company, the
receiver is much more likely to join that group too, since friends often
have similar interests (Diffley, et al., 2011). When consumers see
pictures of products on their friends profiles, they might purchase that
product, if it has made a good impression on them (Cheong & Morrison,
2008). Consumers attitudes towards products and companies can be
shaped by friends on SNS, if their comments are posted about a
specific company or product, since friends share similar interests and
are perceived to be trustworthy (Diffley, et al., 2011). If someone
positively recommends or negatively evaluates a product to another
friend, it impacts their behavior towards the product (Ibid). In the
research by Smith (2007), it was found that consumers, who had many
contacts in their networks, were more likely to be influenced by others
and follow their advice about products.
Even though it is confirmed that people connected on SNS have a
strong influence on each other and that there is a huge potential in this
area for marketers, this potential has yet to be realized (Diffley, et al.,
2011).
2.3.2.1 Purchase Intention
Purchase intention refers to the anticipated behavior of a consumer
regarding a future purchase decision (Espejel, et al., 2008). Precisely, it
is what kind of product to purchase on the next occasion. A purchase
intention is expected outcome behavior (Ibid). Purchase intention has
been measured extensively within marketing and economic research
and is often used to predict the sales of new packaged products
(Bemmaor, 1995).
In the research done by Price and Feick (1984), it was found that a
consumers purchase intention is strongly influenced by the opinions of
friends, family, relatives or acquaintances. A products popularity can
be established by the amount of recommendations it has generated
(Park, et al., 2007). Information generated from
Consumers is effective in forming others purchase intentions and the
purchase intention of a specific product is higher within high involved
consumers (Ibid).
23
That it has an effect only on certain products, while on the other hand
Cheung et al. (2009) and Park et al. (2007) argued that e-WOM can
influence consumers product opinions and future purchases.
Moreover, e-WOM has mostly been analyzed in specific contexts such
as consumers opinion platforms and blogs. Even though SNS are the
most commonly used websites on the Internet (Nielsen1), and many
researchers have acknowledged their potential, not many studies have
examined whether or not e-WOM on these sites has an impact on
consumers, specifically affecting their product perceptions and
purchase intentions. Instead, most research about e-WOM has been
focused on the reasons why consumers interact in e-WOM and SNS
(Hennig-Thurau, et al. 2004; Chu & Kim, 2011; Cheung & Lee, 2012).
The limited research done on how consumers are affected by e-WOM
through SNS, has only compared traditional advertising through SNS
with e-WOM (Wallace, et al., 2009) or studies have been conducted in
Ireland(Diffley, et al., 2011),which makes their research more context
dependent. This makes it very interesting to investigate and explore eWOM through SNS and the effect it has on consumers product
perceptions and purchase intentions.
We have also found a very limited amount of information on how
different consumer age groups are affected by e-WOM through SNS.
Wallace et al. (2009) is the only study that was found to have noticed
that the purchase behavior of the age group 15-24 is more likely to be
affected by e-WOM, because this generation is more involved in
communication online. Moreover, we have not found any literature
stating whether men and women differ on how their behavior is
affected by e-WOM through SNS. Therefore, it is also in our particular
interest to investigate if gender and age have a moderating effect on
the relation between e-WOM through SNS and consumers behavior
2.4 Hypotheses & Research Model

2.4.1 Research Hypotheses
The research about e-WOM through SNS and its effect is a proposal
theory, and is about to be investigated in this study.
The literature that was employed was suitable for this research,
because it gave a general overview around the topic, showing how the
different concepts are connected.
Furthermore, the researcher noticed limited research regarding how eWOM through SNS affects consumers purchase intentions. In addition
24
to this, the researcher thinks that the concepts of purchase intention

are of great importance in consumer behavior, and that it would be
interesting to analyze, because these are two significant steps that can
lead to a future purchase. Based on the literature, the relation between
e-WOM through SNS and consumers purchase intentions could also be
beneficial knowledge for companies and managers. This is because if
they understand what influences consumers online in shaping their
perception of a product and their intention to buy it, companies and
managers can take advantage of, and benefit from e-WOM through
SNS.
The opinions of friends, family, relatives and acquaintances have a
strong influence on consumers purchase intentions (Price & Feick,
1984). More specifically, e-WOM through SNS has far more influence on
consumers purchase intentions than traditional advertising (Wallace,
et al., 2009). We also found it important to contribute to the limited
research in this specific area and investigate if e-WOM through SNS has
an impact on consumers in a way that affects their purchase
intentions. Hence, we formulate hypothesis as displayed below
Hypothesis
Content
H1
Exposure to Social media

positively affects consumers
purchase intention
H2
The quality of electronic word-ofmouth positively affects

consumers purchasing intention.
H3
The quantity of electronic wordof-mouth positively affects

consumers purchasing intention
H4
Senders expertise positively

affects consumers purchasing
intention
25
2.4.2 Research Model

After taking the hypotheses into consideration, the researcher
reviewed similar research models related to this study and adjusted it
and a new research model was formed (Figure 2.1).
Previous Model
e-WOM
Product
Involvement
Quality
e-WOM
Quantity
Brand
Image
Sender
Purchase
Intention
Expertise
Source: (Chinho Lin, Yi-Shuang Wu and Jeng-Chung Victor Chen,2013)
The Researcher Model

The left side of the model presents the independent variable
Consumers purchase intention and the right side shows the dependent
variables exposure to social media and quality of E-WOM and quantity
of E-WOM and senders expertise
26
Exposure to Social
Media
Consumers
Purchase
Intention
The Research framework of this study

2.5 Summary
This chapter has provided a brief literature review of previous studies
related to the purpose of our research. First, we established that eWOM is a channel for consumers product evaluation, and the
significance of e-WOM and SNS were described. Then, we reviewed
literature describing the interaction in e-WOM and SNS. Thereafter, we
presented how consumers are affected by e-WOM followed by how
consumers are affected by e-WOM through SNS. In this area, we
noticed that research was limited, which lead us to our hypotheses and
research model.
Chapter 3 Research Methodology

3. Research Methodology
In this chapter the methodology of this research is presented. The way
in which the research has been done and the reasons why the specific
methods have been chosen are described. The effects of the selected
27
methods are explained, and at the end of the chapter, a summary is

conducted
3.1 Research Approach
According to Saunders and al. (2009, p124-129) Xxxii there exist two
types of research approach, deductive and inductive .Deductive
approach is to develop a theory and hypothesis in order to test the
hypothesis in order to confirm or infirm existing theory. And inductive
approach is to develop a theory from the collection of data about new
situation. From our research, the researcher found contents relatively
new in books, articles, videos or surveys. But as this topic has just
begun to evolve recently, we need to collect data in order to answer
our research question. And deduction will help us to confirm our
findings from the literature review.
The approach of this thesis is deductive. The foundation of our
research is to test the literature review we conducted in the second
chapter, based on which we draw our hypotheses. Specifically, the
researcher first investigated the theory about e-WOM, SNS, and the
reasons for interacting in e-WOM and SNS. The researcher also
reviewed how consumers are affected by e-WOM and SNS individually,
but noticed limited research concerning the effect of e-WOM through
SNS in purchase intentions. For this reason, the researcher chose this
particular topic as our research investigation.
Research Strategies
Saunders et al. (2007, p135) identified several research strategies that
can be used: experiments, surveys, case study, action research,
grounded theory, ethnography and archival research. For the purpose
of the dissertation, I have used the survey as appropriate research
strategies to answer the research question (figure below).
The survey strategy is related to the deductive approach used in the
research approach. Followed this strategy appeared as being well
appropriate to the research area and helped to collect a large amount
of data in a highly economical way (Saunders, et, al, 2007, p138).
Moreover, using surveys helped me to reach a lot of respondents,
collect and analyze a large amount of data from a sizeable population
for free thanks to the thus of Internet tools and platforms. To best
answer the research question three types of questionnaires have been
combined. I have first designed a self-administered questionnaire that
has been administered through the Internet by using Social media
28
platforms and tools; and then I have used in an Intervieweradministered questionnaire, the second questionnaire was designed as
a semi-structured interviews. The self-administered questionnaire gave
me the large amount of quantitative data that was necessary to get
valuable findings and answer the research question. I have seen an
opportunity to use Social Media to share the survey since I believed
that, through their use of Social Media platforms, the respondents that
are also consumers were already familiar with the area of research and
the technical terms used in the questions. However, as discussed
above in the research approaches part, I also needed to collect
qualitative data. These data have been collected thanks to the semistructured interviews and focus group interviews. These interviews
allowed to go more in depth in the answers of respondents and helped
me to know what implications arose from the answers of the first
questionnaire. These semi-structured interviews with two specialist of
Social Media Marketing were very valuable to address the implications
for marketers related to the increasing influence of E-WOM on
consumers purchase intention. These interviews that were
administered to marketers provided me with valuable answers. The
marketers answers were really useful since they allowed me to
confront the theory with the reality on the field. And the focus group
interviews helped me to go more depth with customers perceptions
and what affects their purchase intention.
Combining these two types of questionnaire appeared thus to me as
being the best method to collect the data necessary for the research.
Figure 5: Types of questionnaires (Saunders, et al, 2009,
p.363).
29
Method choices
According to Saunders and al. (2009, p151-155) Xxxvi quantitative
data collection is focused on numerical data and qualitative data
collection is focused on non-numerical data.
We will use both quantitative and qualitative in our research in order to
make a mixed- method research.
Quantitative data collection, with deductive approach, will be used
from findings about consumer attitudes highlighted in the literature
review. And qualitative data collection will be used, with inductive
approach, in order to understand and explore behavior of company.
In fact we use qualitative for Consumers & company experts
So, we will conduct a mixed method research in collecting and
analyzing quantitative and qualitative data, one after the other in a
sequential way.
And then we will combine those, into the conclusion, in order to
analyze consumer and company behavior at the same time in order to
answer the research question
30
Figure 6: Research choices (Saunders, et al, 2009, p.152).

Quantitative data
The sample of the quantitative electronice questionnnaires was 350
however the researcher received only 300, The researcher chosen to
realize a survey research with electronic questionnaires through
surveymonkey.com, delivered on Facebook and via e- mail, Moreover,
in order to have more answers to the survey, The researcher have also
used the snowball method by asking the respondents to share the
survey with their own network of contacts on Social Media. By doing
this,
the researcher have succeeded to have a large amount of
respondents and thus collected more data to analyze.
-Multiple choices questions with multiple answers
-Multiple choice questions with one answer
-And Likert scale from 1 to 5
Figure 7: Sampling techniques (Saunders, et al 2009, p213).
31
3.7.3 Data analysis

concerning the analysis of quantitative data, saunders, et al, (2009,
p415) have identified personal-computer-based analysis software that
can be used. since, the survey will have different measurement levels,
the analysis provided categorical responses but also ordinal such as
likert scale) i have decided to use microsoft excel software to enter the
data manually. i considered excel as being excellent software for data
analysis; the final scores were then copied to IBM SPSS software for the
correlation and regression analysis. the correlations and regression
were then computed by SPSS software ,Concerning the analysis of
qualitative data, the researcher listened the recorded interviews and
wrote the most important aspects that were of interest to answer the
research question
Chapter 4 Data Analysis

4.1 Introduction
This chapter presents the results of the statistical data analysis. The
data collection and analysis took place to test the hypotheses
32
represented in chapter 3 of the study, this chapter is dedicated to the

presentation of results coming from the questionnaire and the semistructured interviews. This chapter intends to present the results
without trying to draw conclusions. In a first part I will present the
results from the quantitative analysis process; and in the second part I
will present the results from the qualitative analysis.
Computing
The computing steps of the statistical quantitative analysis were as
follows:
1- The answers for each question for each participant was entered
into excel. One sheet was created for Survey report.
2- The score of each section of the questionnaire was calculated by
summing the answers of all questions in the section and then
dividing it by the number of questions in the section to obtain the
average.
3- The final survey score for each sheet was obtained by calculating
the sum of the 5 sections (section 1: Q1 to Q7, section 2: Q8 to
10, section 3: Q11 to Q13, section 4: Q14 to Q16, section 5:Q17
to Q21), then the outcome was divided by 5 to get the final
score.
4- The final survey scores were then copied to IBM SPSS software
for the correlation and regression analysis.
5- The correlations and regression were then computed by SPSS
software.
6- Descriptive data of the sample (gender and age) were also
recorded for description presentation of the sample. Gender data
33
were presented as 1=Male and 2=Female, while age was

presented as 1=less than 17, 2=18-24, 3=25-34, 4=35-44,
5=45-54,6=55-64
7- The scoring of the Questionnaire meant that the minimum score
would be 1 and the maximum score would be 5
4.2.1 Description of the sample

The sample used for my research is made up of 300 respondents. 56%
of my respondents are female and 33.3 % are male and 11%
unidentified (figure 8 below). As seen in figure 9 below, 49.3 % of
respondents are between 25 and 34 years old. And 67.3 % of
respondents are post graduate students
Figure 8: Gender of respondents (Q.22).
34
Figure 9: Age categories of the sample (Q.23)
Figure 10: Education categories of the sample (Q.24).

4.2.2 Exposure to Social Media
35
As presented in figure11 below, 80% of respondents have been using

Social Media for more than 5 years now. 15% have been using it for 2
years to 5 years and 2.7% between 1 and 2 years. Concerning the
average of hours spent on Social Media per week, the figure 12 below
shows that 44.3% of respondents said they used Social Media more
than 10 hours per week, 28.7% between 5 and 10 hours and 22%
between 2 to 5 hours per week.
Figure 11: How long consumers have been using Social media?
(Q.2)
Figure 12: Average time spent on Social Media per week (Q.3).
As presented in figure 13 below, consumers access Social Media

through different devices. 34% of consumers use tablet computers and
33.7% use smartphones. 32.3% of consumers use computers.
36
Figure 13: Devices used by consumers to access Social Media

(Q.4).
As presented in figure 14 below, consumers said that the Social media
sites they are using on a daily basis 80.7% uses Facebook and 11.7%
uses Photo &video sharing sites (flicker, Youtube, Instagram).
Figure 14: Social Media sites consumers are using on a daily basis
(Q.5).
As presented in figure 15 below, shows that 47% of consumers agreed

that they are able to seek out products & services information easily
through social media sites, and 26.3 % strongly agree
37
Figure 15: Consumers ability to seek out information through

SNS (Q.6).
As shown in figure 16 below, 42.7 % of consumers agreed that they
regularly follow brands on Social Media whereas 27.3% said that they
neutral (neither agree nor disagree)
Figure 16: Consumers regularly follow brands on Social Media

(Q.7).
4.2.3 Quality of E-WOM
Figure 17 below shows that 53.3% of consumers agreed that the
online review is helpful and 19% strongly agree while 18.7% neutral
38
(neither agree nor disagree).As seen in Figure 18 below, 42% of

consumers agreed that the online review is credible while 36% of
consumers neutral (neither agree nor disagree)
Figure 17: Consumers see the online review is helpful (Q.8)
Figure 18: Consumers see the online review is credible (Q.9)

As presented in the below figure 19, 43.7% of Consumers agreed that
the number of reviews affect their purchase intention, while 25.3% of
consumers that its neutral (neither agree nor disagree)
39
Figure 19: Consumers purchase intention affected by number

of reviews (Q.10).
4.2.4 Quantity of E-WOM

As presented in the below figure 20, 44% of Consumers agreed that
the online reviews and comments of fashion & clothes products are
large while 24.7% of consumers said it is neutral (neither agree nor
disagree), And shown in the figure 21 below, 39.7% of consumers
agreed that the online reviews and comments of Health & Beauty
products are large, while 28.7% of consumers said it is neutral (neither
agree nor disagree). And in figure 22 shows that 40% of consumers
agreed that the online reviews and comments of electronics products
are large while 24.7% of consumers said it is neutral (neither agree nor
disagree).
Figure 20: Number of Fashion & Clothes online

reviews/comments are large (Q.11)
40
Figure 21: Number of Health& Beauty products online reviews &

comments are large (Q.12)
41
Figure 22: Number of Electronics products online reviews &

comments are large (Q.13)
4.2.5 Senders Expertise

As presented in the below figure 23, 44% of Consumers agreed that
the person who provides online reviews and comments had a previous
experience with the product, while 27.7% of consumers said it is
neutral (neither agree nor disagree), and in the figure 24 below, 45.7%
of consumers agreed that the person who provides online reviews and
comments have knowledge towards the product, while 27% of
consumers said it is neutral (neither agree nor disagree),
Figure 23: Consumers trust in source Experience with the product

(Q.14).
42
Figure 24: Consumers trust in source knowledge towards the

product (Q.15)

the person who provides online reviews and comments have the ability
to judge the products, while 33% of consumers said it is neutral
(neither agree nor disagree).
Figure 25: Consumers trust in the Source ability to judge

products (Q.16).
43
4.2.6 Purchase Intention

they check online reviews & comments before buying Fashion &
Clothes products, while 23% of consumers said its neutral (neither
agree nor disagree).In the figure(27) below shows,32.7% of consumers
agreed that they check online reviews & comments before buying
Health & Beauty products , while 24% of consumers said its neutral
(neither agree nor disagree)., In the figure(28) presented below shows,
44% of consumers agreed that they check online reviews & comments
before buying Electronics products and 24% strongly agreed.
Figure 26: Consumers check online reviews before buying Fashion& clothes
products (Q.17)
44
Figure 27: Consumers check online reviews before buying Health & Beauty
products (Q.18).
Figure 28: Consumers check online reviews before buying Electronics

Products (Q.19).
45

they tend to seek out products & services discussed in the online
reviews & comments, while 24% of consumers said it is neutral
(neither agree nor disagree), And as showed in the figure (30),37% of
consumers agreed that they tend to buy in the future products &
services discussed in the online reviews & comment, while 32% of
consumers said it is it is neutral (neither agree nor disagree).
Figure 29: Consumers tend to seek out products & Services

discussed in the online reviews (Q.20).
46
Figure 30: Consumers tend in the future to buy products & Services
discussed in the online reviews (Q.21).
4.3 Pearson Correlation

The correlation between the Exposure of Social Media and the Purchase
intention participants was significant but moderate r(300) = .327, p < .
01.This result means that the higher the exposure to social media the higher
their purchase intention would be.
Correlations
ESPOSURE
PURCHASEINT
ENTION
Pearson Correlation
ESPOSURE
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
Pearson Correlation
PURCHASEINTENTION
.327**
300
300
**
.327
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
300
300
**. Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (2-tailed).
The second correlation between the Quality of E-WOM and purchase intention
was significant and strong r(300) = .827, p < .01. This result means that the
higher the Quality of E-WOM the more consumers purchase intention would
be.
Correlations
PURCHASEINT
QUALITY
ENTION
Pearson Correlation
PURCHASEINTENTION
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
Pearson Correlation
QUALITY
.829**
300
300
**
.829
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
300
300
The third correlation between Quantity of E-WOM and purchase intention was
significant and strong r(300) = .820, p < .01. This result means that the more
the Quantity of E-WOM the more consumers purchase intention would be.
47
Correlations
PURCHASEINT
QUANTITY
ENTION
Pearson Correlation
PURCHASEINTENTION
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
N
Pearson Correlation
QUANTITY
.820**
300
300
**
.820
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
300
300
The fourth correlation between Source Expertise and purchase intention was
significant and strong r(300) = .812, p < .01. This result means that the
higher the source expertise the more consumers purchase intention would
be
Correlations
PURCHASEINT SOURCEEXPER
ENTION
Pearson Correlation
PURCHASEINTENTION
Sig. (2-tailed)
.812**
.000
N
Pearson Correlation
SOURCEEXPERTISE
TISE
300
300
**
.812
Sig. (2-tailed)
.000
300
300
4.4 Hypotheses testing

To be able to evaluate if there is a relation between the dependent
variable and one or more independent variables, a linear regression
can be applied (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2005). With the R square value,
one can see how much the variance of the dependent variable is
explained by the independent variable (Muijs, 2004). The Beta value
will show how much the dependent variable will change, when the
independent variable changes by one unit (Ibid). A significance level
lower than 0.05, is assumed to be a conventionally chosen level of
significance (Ghauri & Gronhaug, 2005).
48
4.4.1 Hypothesis 1
H1 stated that Exposure to Social Media has a direct positive impact on
consumers purchase intention. We got an R and adjusted R values of 0.1070.104, as shown in below Table which means that the variable Exposure to
Social Media explains 10.4 per cent of the variations in the variable
consumers purchase intention. A significance value of 0.000a, indicates that
Exposure to Social Media for purchase intention. As presented in below Table,
a Standardized Coefficient Beta value of 0.327 with a significance value of
0.000a , The results suggest that it was statistically significant proportion F(2,
299) = 35.625, p < .0001.107 and .104 respectively means that there is a
low degree of goodness of fit in the model. Therefore H1 is rejected.
Model Summary
Model
R Square
.327
Adjusted R
Std. Error of the
Square
Estimate
.107
.104
.41693
a. Predictors: (Constant), PURCHASEINTENTION
ANOVAa
Model
Sum of Squares
Regression
df
Mean Square
6.193
6.193
Residual
51.803
298
.174
Total
57.996
299
Sig.
35.625
.000b
a. Dependent Variable: ESPOSURE

b. Predictors: (Constant), PURCHASEINTENTION
Coefficientsa
Model
Unstandardized Coefficients
Standardized
Sig.
Coefficients
B
1
(Constant)
PURCHASEINTENTION
Std. Error
2.595
.062
.110
.018
a. Dependent Variable: ESPOSURE
49
Beta
.327
41.735
.000
5.969
.000
4.4.2 Hypothesis 2
H2 stated that Quality of E-WOM has a direct positive impact on consumers
purchase intention. We got an R and adjusted R values of 0.688-0.687, as
shown in below Table which means that the variable Quality of E-WOM
explains 68.8 per cent of the variations in the variable consumers purchase
intention. A significance value of 0.000a, indicates that Quality of E-WOM for
purchase intention. As presented in below Table, a Standardized Coefficient
Beta value of 0.829 with a significance value of 0.000a , The results suggest
that it was statistically significant proportion F(2, 299) = 656.230, p < .
0001.688 and .687 respectively means that there is a high degree of
goodness of fit in the model. The conclusion that the Quality of E-WOM and
purchase intention significantly related to each other, Therefore H2 is
supported.
Model Summary
Model
R Square
.829a
Adjusted R
Std. Error of the
Square
Estimate
.688
.687
.61472
ANOVAa
Model
Sum of Squares
df
Mean Square
Regression
247.975
247.975
Residual
112.608
298
.378
Total
360.583
299
Sig.
656.230
.000b
a. Dependent Variable: QUALITY

Coefficientsa
Model
Standardized
Sig.
Coefficients
B
1
(Constant)
PURCHASEINTENTION
Std. Error
1.108
.092
.697
.027
a. Dependent Variable: QUALITY
4.4.3 Hypothesis 3
50
Beta
.829
12.085
.000
25.617
.000
H3 stated that Quantity of E-WOM has a direct positive impact on consumers

shown in below Table which means that the variable Quantity of E-WOM
intention. A significance value of 0.000a, indicates that Quantity of E-WOM for
goodness of fit in the model. The conclusion that the Quantity of E-WOM and
supported.
Model Summary
Model
R Square
.820
Adjusted R
Std. Error of the
Square
Estimate
.672
.671
2.31988
ANOVAa
Model
Sum of Squares
df
Mean Square
Regression
3283.394
3283.394
Residual
1603.792
298
5.382
Total
4887.187
299
F
610.086
Sig.
.000b
a. Dependent Variable: QUANTITY

Coefficientsa
Model
Standardized
Sig.
Coefficients
B
1
(Constant)
Std. Error
1.994
51
.346
Beta
5.764
.000
PURCHASEINTENTION
2.536
.103
.820
24.700
a. Dependent Variable: QUANTITY
4.4.4 Hypothesis 4
H4 stated that Source Expertise has a direct positive impact on consumers
shown in below Table which means that the variable Source Expertise
intention. A significance value of 0.000a, indicates that Source Expertise for
goodness of fit in the model. The conclusion that the Source Expertise and
supported.
Model Summary
Model
.812a
R Square
Adjusted R
Std. Error of the
Square
Estimate
.659
.658
.78119
ANOVAa
Model
Sum of Squares
df
Mean Square
Regression
351.055
351.055
Residual
181.859
298
.610
Total
532.914
299
a. Dependent Variable: SOURCEEXPERTISE

Coefficientsa
52
F
575.252
Sig.
.000b
.000
Model
Standardized
Sig.
Coefficients
B
1
Std. Error
(Constant)
.493
.117
PURCHASEINTENTION
.829
.035
Beta
.812
4.228
.000
23.984
.000
a. Dependent Variable: SOURCEEXPERTISE
4.5 Qualitative analysis (Semi-Structured Interviews).

4.5.1 Profile of Interviewees
Hesham Ezz El-Arab Marketing and Business Strategy Officer
Since 2010 in the Marketing and Communication department at
Citron in Egypt.
Omar Kamel, Social Media Manager in 2011 in the Marketing &
Communications department at Nestle Egypt
4.5.2 Social Media usage in companies
Both companies I interviewed use social Media, but similarities and
differences appear in the platforms and tools used. Citroen and Nestle
both use Facebook to inform fans (customers) about the new products
and services. Both companies use Facebook to communicate about
their marketing campaigns and launch events.
The study indicated that Social Media usage depends of companies
objectives and targets. Omar Kamel, from Nestle Egypt, added that
they recently started to use YouTube to create interactive contents to
engage with their customers.
4.5.2 Social Media to engage with customers and build loyalty
The interviews indicated that both companies see Social Media as a
good way to engage with their customers and provide a good
experience online. If customers have a good experience online they
will feel understood, listened by the brand and will be more likely to go
into our stores, providing a good experience to customers plays a role
in their consumption. Damien Jacques stated that having a connection
53
with the users through Social Media helps us to establish a very longterm relationship that can lead to cross sell.
To the questions asking if companies should allow consumers to share
their opinions on the companies Social Media pages, both interviewees
answered that interaction is the matter of Social Media. Moreover, the
interviews indicated that by listening to their customers, companies
could have more chance to know what they exactly want and could
thus better adapt products to their customers needs. About the impact
of bad comments, both interviewees said that they first tried to
understand what went wrong in order to be able to resolve the
problems. If the problems have been proved to be the companies
responsibilities, Nestle Egypt directs its customers to the customer
service to reward them and Citroen offers discounts on the next
purchases. By doing so, Nestle & Citroen hopes to offer a better second
experience to impress their customers that will say on their first
comments that the brands really cared about them. The study
indicated that the key was to react really quickly in order not to let the
bad comments spread all over Social Media. By reacting quickly, they
proved to their customers that they were listened to by the brands.
To the question should companies reward good comments? the
interviews pointed out that Nestle and Nestle Egypt had same visions..
Both said that companies should identify influencers on Social Media
and should send them targeted rewards such as invitations to special
events or to try special/new products.
Concerning the use of Social Media to build loyalty, both interviewees
think that companies should seize the opportunity offered by Social
Media to build loyalty with their customers.
4.5.3 Social Media versus Traditional Media
Both interviewees think that companies should not abandon traditional
media to only focus on Social Media. The study indicated that the
medium should depend on the target and that companies should
remember that most of older people dont correctly use a computer
and are not Social Media oriented as is the Generation Y. Moreover,
since not everyone is present on Social Media, it is paramount for
companies to continue using other media channels for their
promotion and communication.
4.5.4 Social Media usage according to Nationalities
Both interviewees think that companies should take the cultural
dimension into account.
4.6 Qualitative analysis (Focus Group Interviews).
54
4.6.1 Profile of Interviewees

8 participants took part in each focus group
15 Females & 9 males
24 out of 24 are employed
13 out of 24 are both employed and post graduate students
Age: 22-28
4.6.1 Reasons why customers using Social Media
All consumers interviewed use social Media mainly for social
interaction with friends and families, and most of them see Social
Media as source of information for products and services and to read
reviews and information from blogs about products & brands and to be
up to date with new products.
4.6.2 Reasons why customers follow brands on Social Media
All consumers interviewed said that they are following brands to get
updates on new products, read comments and reviews about products
and to compare prices and products and get special offers and to be
updated with feedbacks on new products and to see the new collection
for the brands, Consumers get more information about company and
can also share and spread opinion.
4.6.3 Kind of purchase consumers use Social Media for

All consumers interviewed said that kind of purchase they look for in
Social Media; travel, clothes, Health & beauty, Electronics,
entertainment, cars
4.6.4 Providing a good interaction experience with customers
and brand through social media can influence their purchase
intention.
Consumers opinions varied in this point some of them see that good
interaction about new products with brands makes them curious to
know more about the product and buy it and they see that companies
gives an image that its building relationship with the customers, it
offers credibility about the brand and influences their purchase
intentions however other customers said that some customers may be
advocators or haters
55
4.6.5 How positive reviews and comments about products &

services plays a role in Consumers purchase decision and Vice
Versa
Consumers opinions varied in this point some of them see it plays a
role in their purchase decision, after they read reviews and comments
about products, and some said that I will plays a role if they read from
experienced people, and some of them said that it will affect their
purchase decision if one of their friends, family write comments and
reviews.
4.6.6 Difference in making a purchase decision between using
information from the social media and information from the
mass media.
All consumers interviewed said that in social media, there are both
positive and negative comments on the products and it allows more
critical thinking on purchase decision. In mass media, only the positive
side is shown, The information provided via social media is usually
more objective, hence making it more credible, Social media has more
effect as you rely on your friends opinion more than just mass media.
56
Chapter 5. Conclusions & Discussion

This chapter starts by presenting the conclusions and the results of the
hypotheses. Then, the theoretical and managerial implications will be
presented in relation to the findings of this study. Finally, the
limitations that need to be taken into consideration are demonstrated
and we make some suggestions for further research.
5.1 Conclusions
The ultimate aim of this study was to analyze how consumers are
affected by e-WOM through SNS. After developing a literature review
about the significance and the reasons behind interacting in e-WOM
through SNS, the effect of this interaction was reviewed, and
specifically on consumers purchases intentions.
Hypothesis 1 stated that Exposure to Social Media SNS has a direct
positive effect on consumers purchase intentions and hypothesis 2
stated that Quality of e-WOM through SNS has a direct positive effect
on consumers purchase intentions and hypothesis 3 stated that
Quantity of e-WOM through SNS has a direct positive effect on
consumers purchase intentions and hypothesis 4 stated that Source
Expertise has a direct positive effect on consumers purchase
intentions.
For the respondents in my Survey, we confirm that Quality of e-WOM
through SNS has a direct positive effect on both consumers purchase
intentions; and Quantity of e-WOM through SNS has a direct positive
effect on consumers purchase intentions and Source Expertise has a
direct positive effect on consumers purchase intentions.
My 3 principal hypotheses are therefore supported. However I found
that Exposure to Social Media has a very low effect on Consumers
purchase intention therefore H1 not supported.
57
5.2 Theoretical Implications

In the second chapter, a literature review was conducted, in order to
gain knowledge about e-WOM, SNS, the interaction within them and
the effect of e-WOM through SNS on consumers behavior. There, it was
recognized that e-WOM through SNS is a newly developed
phenomenon However, the trend of this topic has been recognized by
researchers, but they have mainly focused on the reasons behind the
interaction of users in these sites. The effect of e-WOM through SNS on
consumers purchase intentions has yet to be developed.
By confirming our three principal hypotheses and increasing the
understanding of this phenomenon, it can be assumed that this study
has made a contribution and has added credit to the limited existing
theories. Moreover, the findings of this thesis support the study done
by Wallace, et al. (2009), which stated that e-WOM through SNS has an
effect on consumers purchase intention. The research done by
Diffley,et al. (2011), found that e-WOM through SNS has an effect on
purchase intention, which we also confirmed. Wallace, et al. (2009)
argued that consumers aged 15-24 are more likely to get affected by eWOM through SNS. Our conclusions are contrary to the statement by
Wallace, et al. (2009), since we discovered that consumers who are 25
to 34 years old are more affected by e-WOM through SNS than the
consumers that are 15 to 24 years old.
Negative word of-mouth is more important than positive
More than the majority share information about products and services,
but negative word-of-mouth is more than positive. Consumers share
often to very frequently information with their network when they are
unsatisfied by a product. So, consumer speaks a lot more about bad
experience than good. The rise of the word-of-mouth through social
media has pushed company to develop them in order to control their ereputation, to be proactive and to control customer content. In fact,
feedbacks from customers are really important for companies today. In
answering consumers demand, company can progress and improve
their business.
Role of traditional and social media
For company, the role of traditional media is to reach new people, and
for consumer is a source of information in order to buy new product.
58
Another point of view is it that traditional advertising is also important

to conserve because Ads influence people with repetition and via the
multiplicity of support used. Therefore Companys shouldnt abandon
traditional media, they have to use both traditional media and Social
media order to buy known product as well as 16.76% used social
media. The most of organization has websites and, now, Facebook and
Twitter pages. Companies use it as a customer-relationshipmanagement in order to interact with people and have feedbacks to
engage them, but they also use it in order to reach specific target. But
the choice between media depends on the companys target but also
of their budget of communication.
5.3 Recommendations
Clearly consumers want to be aware about new products, so company
has to continue to advertise through traditional media but in a creative
and funny way, in order to their messages be listening.
Company has also to be transparent, sincere and be available for
consumer through different support to reinstate trust of consumer
(social media, phone, e-mail, face to face, video). With a total
availability to customers and a good behavior, companies can enhance
good customer experience in order to have good review on their brand
to influence other people. As consumers check information through
different channel, companies have to diffuse the same messages with
the same behavior through all channels they use. Its why paying
people to add good comment is a really bad idea. So its important to
always answer to customer feedback and involve them in using social
media as a customer relationship management. Indeed, social media is
a tool which can help company to understand and answer more easily
to his target. Its why, control e-reputation by controlling word of mouth
on social media in responding to every feedback (bad and good) is
really important.
59
So, in listening consumer, consider them, engage them in brands and

gives them the ability to share about the brand, company can make
loyal his customer in order to generate more revenue .This research is
also, and especially to prevent company about their new consumer
I also suggest that the effect of e-WOM through SNS should be
investigated on other aspects of consumers behavior such as
purchase decisions, consumption behavior and others. Also, the effect
of e-WOM through SNS can be compared to how traditional advertising
influences consumers product perceptions and purchase intentions.
These suggestions are to add value to the limited research that exists
in this area.
5.6 Summary
This chapter started by discussing the findings of this research.
Hypotheses 2, 3, 4.were all confirmed. The research model showed the
statistical results found in the analysis. Thereafter, we implied that this
research will contribute to the limited existing theory and is applicable
to companies and managers.
60
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Appendix A
71
72
73
Appendix B: Focus Group Report

The Researcher held 3 focus groups discussions with number of
customers on 4/8/2014. The focus group conducted as part of data
collection to know as much as possible about the thoughts and
perception of the customers
74
The Discussion was designed to gather information from the

customers in regard to the following outcomes:
1. To understand for what reasons do customers use Social
media
2. To understand why they are following brands on Social
media and what kind of purchase they are looking
information for
3. To understand the role positive & negative E-WOM plays
in their purchase intention
4. To understand what impact consumers purchase
intentions
Participants Demographics
8 participants took part in each focus group

15 Females & 9 males
24 out of 24 are employed
13 out of 24 are both employed and post graduate
students
Age: 22-28
Question 1: For What Reasons do you use Social Media?

1: Sharing interests, credible source of information, to keep in touch
with people
2: Read blogs about products, credible source of information, source of
interaction and to keep in touch with people
3: Social interaction, sharing interests
4: Social interaction, source of information, read reviews and
information about brands & products
5: Social interaction, find information and reviews about new products
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6: Social interaction, source of information, read reviews and

information from blogs about products & brands
7: Social interaction, source of information, read reviews from blogs
8: Social Interaction
9: Get updates regarding new brands, technologies
10: To advertise for products and engage with customers
11: Social interaction
12: Social interaction
13: Social interaction, get updates for new products, online products
14: Source of information, read reviews on new products
15: To be up to date with new products
16: Social interaction, get updates for new products
17: Entertainment
18: Online purchase, social interaction
19: Entertainment
20: Source of information, read reviews on new products
21: Social interaction, source of information
22: Get updates on new products
23: Entertainment
24: Sharing interests, connecting with people
Question 2: For what Reasons do you follow brands on Social
Media?
1: To get updates on new products, read comments and reviews about
products
2: To get updates about new products and services, to compare
products & prices
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3: To get updates about specific products and compare prices

4: To get updates and information about new products
5: To get updates and information about new ideas
6: To get updates and information about new products and read
reviews from bloggers not from the brand itself
7: To compare prices, to get updates and information about new
products
8: To get updates and information about new products, to compare
prices and products
9: To get updates on new products and offers
10: To read reviews on products I want to try
11: To get updates on new products and special offers
12: To be updated with feedbacks on new products
13: To read reviews from customers on new products
14: Being up to date with new products
15: I dont follow brands on Social Media
16: To compare products, prices, quality
17: To be updated with special offers
18: To compare prices
19: To see the new collection for the brands
20: To Read reviews on new products
21: To compare products with prices & quality
22: To get updates and information about new products and read
reviews from bloggers
23: Read comments and reviews about products
24: Being up to date with new ideas
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Question 3: What kind of purchase do you use Social Media

for?
1: Travel, clothes
2: Health & beauty, travel, clothes
3: Clothes
4: Health & beauty, clothes
5: Clothes, travel
6: Electronics, entertainment, cars
7: Clothes, health & beauty, travel
9: Electronic products
10: Fashion & Clothes, electronics
11: Health & Beauty
12: Health & Beauty
13: Nothing
14: Electronic products
15: Travel, clothes
17: Clothes
18: Health & beauty, clothes
19: Clothes, travel
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22: Clothes, travel

Question 4: Do you think that providing a good interaction

experience with customers and brand through social media can
influence your purchase decision?
1: Yes, good interaction about new products with brands makes me
curious to know more about the product and buy it
2: No, Some customers may be advocators or haters
3: Yes, if there is a highly interaction on a new product it influence my
purchase decision
4: Yes
5: Yes, companies gives an image that its building relationship with
the customers
6: Yes, it offers credibility about the brand and influences my purchase
decision
7: Yes it will influence my purchase intention
8: No, I dont interact with brands
9: Yes, as sometimes you might need to consult one of the customer
services people / social media specialist to ask about a certain feature
in a product or get some clarifications that might make it easier for you
to decide what to get according to your needs.
10: Of course it influences the purchase of the product and will
increase percentage of product sold.
11: Yes, like updates & feedback
12: Sure
13: Definitely, because its easy to access and ask about anything you
want. Social media for brands is a double weapon as it can influence
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your purchase through good interactions or make you hate the brand
from bad interactions and experience from employees.
14: Yes, companies gives an image that its building relationship with
the customers
15: Yes, it offers credibility about the brand and influences my
purchase decision
16: Yes it will influence my purchase intention
17: Sure it will have a direct impact on my decision
Question 5: Do you think that positive reviews and comments

about products & services plays a role in your purchase
decision and Vice Versa
1: Yes it plays a role in my purchase decision, after I read reviews and
comments about products
2: Yes it plays a role but it depends on the nature of products, ex: for
products I dont know it plays a role
3: Yes it plays a role if I read from experienced people
4: Yes it makes me want to try the product
5: Yes, it will influence me if one of my friends gives me his review
8: Yes, it will affect my purchase decision if one of my friends writes
comments and reviews
9: Definitely, as reading positive comments from previous customers
makes the decision easier.
10: Of course it affects as will increase the purchase percentage.
80
11: Yes, customer service is very important

12: Sure
13: Yes, they help in the decision making especially for products you
can only buy online and are not available in stores.
14: yes
15: yes
16: Yes definitely. Feedback is a plus!
17: Yes of course
18: Yes.
19: Yes will help
20: Yes
21: Yes.
22: Yes
23: Sometimes
24: Sure as it facilitate taking a right decision as people who made
such comments pass through the same stage of purchase
Question 6: In your opinion, what is the biggest difference in

making a purchase decision between using information from
the social media and information from the mass media?
1: More product details availability
2: The reliability of information is greater in social media than mass
media
3: The biggest difference is that in social media you can argue with
friends about your future purchase, shortcomings and their previous
experience with the same products
4: The information provided via social media is usually more objective,
hence making it more credible
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5: In social media, there are both positive and negative comments on

the products and it allows more critical thinking on purchase decision.
In mass media, only the positive side is shown
6: Social media has real people i know using the product.
7: In social Media there are different aspects on product and services
(positive vs. Negative) however in mass media it's only positive most
of the time due to advertising payment.
8: Customer reviews. Opinions found online must be consistent with a
trend (ie: majority dislike/like the product) Will not fully trust reviews if
there only a few. Mass media provides only a biased view from the
marketer
9: Word of mouth.
10: Social media has more effect as you rely on your friends opinion
more than just mass media
11: The amount of information available.
12: Social media gives an opportunity to know a lot of different
opinions of real Consumers
13: Credibility
14: When using social media, you can actually search for the aspects
that interest you, when in mass media you cannot really control the
information available to you
15: I can get more genuine comments on social media.
16: I think information from social media is more reliable than
information of mass media because information from mass media is
almost every time companies own advertisement.
17: In Social media we like to think that people tell the truth...
18: Social media is more trusted, affects your thinking. Mass media
affects your feelings, with less info.
19: Availability
20: Social media has real people i know using the product
From social media I pick up the most negative comments from my
friends to avoid their mistakes and from mass media I hear about
brand and make my own research
21: I guess the biggest difference is that how much a person uses
social media in the first place. If one is mostly affected by mass media
(like myself) one will more likely make purchasing decisions by using
the information given there. I'm always looking for credibility and
reliability no matter what I buy, plus I think that brand is a BIG deal.
Trustworthy brands can always make it, whether they market
themselves in social media or in mass media.
22: Perhaps, mass media is the review of a product/service from one
person published in a magazine supported by an organization or
company even enterprise. But when it is about social media the
information could be provide by different entities as bloggers, normal
users, consumers, clients, same company
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Appendix C: Semi-Structured Interview

1- Does your company use Social Media to communicate with
consumers?
2- For what purpose do you use Social Media at your company?

3- Do you think that providing a good interaction experience (with your
brand) to customers through Social Media can influence their purchase
decision?
4- Do you think that a brand should engage with consumers by using
Social Media?
How is it done at your company?
Do you think that companies should abandon the traditional media to
only focus on Social Media?
5- Do you think that companies should allow consumers to share their
opinions on the companys Social Media page?
Do you think that negative reviews from friends and from people they
dont know could dissuade them to make their purchase decision?
What does your company do in case of negative comments?
83
6- Do you think that positive reviews and comments about Products /

services/ brands on Social Media could push them to make their
purchase decision?
Do you think that companies should reward customers that post
positive reviews?
Does your company do it?
A lot of respondents in my research said that they follow brands on
Social Media to get updates about products/services.
Do you think that companies/brands should use Social Media to
communicate about their products/services updates? and why?
Does your company use Social Media to launch marketing campaigns?
If yes can you tell me more about what your company did?
7- Do you think that companies should use Social Media to build loyalty
with customers?
8- Do you think that companies should take the cultural dimension into
account?
Appendix D. Nestl Egypt Semi-Structured Interview transcript
Omar Kamel ocial

Media Managerin
84
2011 in Marketing &
Communication
department of
NestleEgypt
1- Does Nestle Egypt use Social Media to communicate with

consumers?
Yes we do, we have 12 pages on Facebook related to all Nestl
Products (Nescafe- Nesquik-NIDO- Nestl Ice cream Egypt- KitKatDolcie Ice Cream, CERELAC) all these on social media platforms, and
we use Social Media platforms & tools like Facebook & Twitter &
Instagram for different purpose for our branding image and to engage
with customers directly online.
For what purpose do you use Social Media at Nestle Egypt?
We use Facebook to inform fans about the new products (almost every
month), to interact with them on our current products, new products
launch and do teasing campaigns to try the new products. Having this
interaction with our customers help us to get feedbacks that will help
us to provide the best quality to our customers and take reviews in
account to evaluate customers satisfaction.
2- Do you think that providing a good interaction experience
(with your brand) to customers through Social Media can
influence their purchase decision?
Yes we do believe that providing a good experience to our customer
plays a role in their consumption, We realized that using this Social
Media tool could drive more business ,Having a connection with the
users through Social Media help us to establish a very long-term
relationship that can lead to sell more products.
3- Do you think that a brand should engage with consumers by
using Social Media?
Every brand can take advantage of Social Media, no matter the size of
the company. People are looking for direct relation/interaction with
brands. It is a not insignificant opportunity for brands to show to their
customers that they care about them, to make them feel that they are
privileged and recognized as loyal customers.
How is it done at Nestle Egypt?
85
To engage our fans, we have first determined who they are and what
they want. When someone likes a brand it is to show his/her interest to
the brand but also, as I said before, to be treated as a special
customer. Engagement goes through different ways like:
Engagement posts (New launch for product and promoting to it)

and Questionnaire posts (Asking customers which most they
prefer with Nescafe, Nescafe with biscuits or donuts or
chocolates) and entertainment posts (Music playlist in the
weekend for our fans).
Include them in our development; take part of our development

by games. For example, I have developed a special game on
social media linked to the website: create your own Nescafe
recipe and we will sell it for a short period of time. It engaged the
fans and showed them that we care about their taste and desire.
Do you think that companies should abandon the traditional
media to only focus on Social Media?
No, it would be a huge mistake for companies to abandon the
traditional media in favor of Social Media. Marketers need to remember
that most of older people dont use a computer correctly and or not
Social Media oriented as is the generation Y. Moreover some media
cannot be replaced such as banner, board and so on. Be present and
focused on all different type of media is the best way to know what
people think, I believe that a company should keep the two. One can
help the other. A company can invest more on one or the other
depending on its target and, of course, its products/services. If the
majority of their customers are on the social media, then it makes
sense to invest more on this media.
4- Do you think that companies should allow consumers to
share their opinions on the companys Social Media page?
Yes. Allowing our consumers to share their opinions on our Social
Medias page help us to increase our product quality, communication
and bounds between users and company
Do you think that negative reviews from friends and from
people they dont know could dissuade them to make their
purchase decision? What does Nestle Egypt do in case of
negative comments?
We first try to understand why this person had a bad experience in our
store by answering to his/her comments. If a company does not want
86
its bad comments to spread all over the social media and gain more
intensity, then, they have to react quickly and never let a bad
comment without answer more than 12hours on line. In most cases, we
direct the person to the customer service to be compensated if his bad
experience is in relation with an employee, with the cleanness of the
stores or a product. In any case, we answer that we have taken into
account his/her comments and that we will try to improve/resolve the
subject which matters.
5- Do you think that positive reviews and comments about
Products / services/ brands on Social Media could push them to
make their purchase decision?
Do you think that companies should reward customers that
post positive reviews?
Not really reward each good comment but say thanks at least. The
good comments are generally made by the influencers of the
community then, it depends on the loyalty/reward program of the
company, and we can send a targeted reward to them for special/new
product launch or any special events.
Does Nestle Egypt do it?
Yes we did it, we made a competition for fans to make a video on how
KitKat change their mood and best video maker was rewarded by 10
boxes of KitKat.
6- A lot of respondents in my research said that they follow
brands on Social Media to get updates about
products/services.
communicate about their products/services updates? And why?
Fans/followers expect, as you said, to be updated on new products
then, obviously, yes companies have to speak about their products
updates (if it is a real update and it brings an advantage for
customers).

Yes, we communicate on our new products and upgraded standards
87
Does Nestle Egypt use Social Media to launch marketing

campaigns? If yes can you tell me more about what your
company did?
Not a whole marketing campaign We are creating small buzz on the
new products few days before their launch (with guest games for
example) and we communicate on them during the campaign regularly
but using different type of posts, Every campaign has a kind of
theme, we adapt the message and communicate it
7- Do you think that companies should use Social Media to
build loyalty with customers?
Yes, companies should seize the opportunity of interactions offer by
Social Media to build loyalty with their customers.
Not yet, but its in the future plans
8- Do you think that companies should take the cultural
dimension into account?
Yes and no. Yes because Social Media are Social like their names say.
So it means that we need to adapt to societal and cultural dimensions.
However, we have to maintain Nestle standards worldwide
Appendix D: Citroen Egypt Semi-Structured Interview

transcript.
Hesham Ezz-ElArab
arketing
1-Does Citroen Egypt use Social Media to communicate

with consumers?
88
Yes we do, we uses Social Media platforms and tools for different
purposes. We use Facebook and Twitter for our branding image and to
engage with consumers directly online. The Human Resources
department of the group use LinkedIn.
We allocated our budget to communicate through social network in
term of Customer Relationship Management and to purpose games to
consumer to engage them. To support these games, we also posted
flyers and posters in car dealership and distributed flyers in cities to
invite people to play games in order to win a trip at Paris for example.
For what purpose do you use Social Media at Citroen Egypt?
We use Facebook to inform fans about the new car models, to interact
with them on our current products, new products, inform them about
availability of spare parts they are requesting
2- Do you think that providing a good interaction experience
(with your brand) to customers through Social Media can
influence their purchase decision?
If customers have a good experience online, they feel understood
and listened by the brand then they will be more likely to go into our
stores. However, it does not mean that they will go especially into
stores only because we had good interaction. We need to push special
content such as new innovative and/or unusual product to get them to
move there,
Having a connection with the users through Social Media help us to
establish a very long-term relationship that can lead to sell more
products.
3- Do you think that a brand should engage with consumers by
using Social Media?
As our budget was low, it was a cheaper and an easier way to touch
our customers and a good solution against the economic crisis.
Moreover as we wanted communicate on the new C3 car, our target
was young people and the most of them was on social network. We
used social network as a Customer Relationship Management because
most of them are on this channel when they want buy car or already
have bought one. Indeed, generally, people go on social network when
they know the brand and in this case want to keep informed, to
become customer or fan of our brand. Through internet, there were
89
more people and it was easier to assess the feedback with the number
of visit on our website
Do you think that companies should abandon the traditional

media to only focus on Social Media?
No, because its not the same target as social network and we can
diffuse different messages.
I think that traditional media reaches and touches a lot of consumer in
an extended way. In fact it depends on which communication channel
you use, because following what you choose, it touches and influences
different type of people
4- Do you think that companies should allow consumers to
share their opinions on the companys Social Media page?
Of course it is the matter of social media: interaction between
customers and a brand but it also gives them a platform where they
can talk and share information with the other members of the
community.
Do you think that negative reviews from friends and from
people they dont know could dissuade them to make their
purchase decision? What does Citroen Nestle Egypt do in case
of negative comments?
The word of mouth exists for a lot of year and especially in the car
industry because its a thoughtful act of-buying. So word of mouth is
essential in our company. We are aware about it raised by social media
and instead of to undergo, its important to control our e-reputation, to
be proactive and to control customer content. Social network is not
really a way to advertise but more a way to recover information from
the consumer. It allows the company to have a feedback from
customer. For example one of our car dealing created his own offer
without forecast Citron; it was One Citron buy, one household
appliance offer. This offer was not in line to Citron strategy and one
consumer tweet was: Citron have sunk very low
5- Do you think that positive reviews and comments about
Products / services/ brands on Social Media could push them to
make their purchase decision?
90
Do you think that companies should reward customers that

post positive reviews?
No, this would be a big mistake. The whole system is working because
of trust. Give rewards to increase positive reviews and you will destroy
the trust. Also paying for having good reviews is the best way to hide
product weaknesses. If people have incentive to write good things
about you, you will never know what is going wrong and you wont be
able to correct it.
Does Citroen Egypt do it?
No we dont do it at Citroen because we dont want to break the trust.
Moreover we have confidence in our product so we certainly dont ask
people to write good reviews about us.
6- A lot of respondents in my research said that they follow
brands on Social Media to get updates about
products/services.
communicate about their products/services updates? And why?
Yes because this what consumers expect from companies
Does Citroen Egypt use Social Media to launch marketing
campaigns? If yes can you tell me more about what your
company did?
We have launched several Social Media campaign from Ezz ElArab
Group to Citroen. These campaigns concerned discount for the first 100
comments to special Social Media card.
7- Do you think that companies should use Social Media to
build loyalty with customers?
Yes, companies should seize the opportunity of interactions offer by
Social Media to build loyalty with their customers
91
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Impact of E-WOM Through Social Media On Consumer's Purchase Intention

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Impact of E-WOM Through Social Media On Consumer's Purchase Intention

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Arab Academy for Science and Technology & Maritime Transport

Faculty of Post Graduate studies

By: Noha Fawzy Abdelkader

1.1 Background The Changing Face of

2.2.3 Consumers interaction in

To All of you, Thank you so much!

KEYWORDS: Electronic word-of-mouth, social networking sites, consumer

1.1 Background The Changing Face of Marketing

revolutionize the relationships marketers have with retailers, channels of

According to Evans (2008), Social Media relates to a self-generated,

Technological development plays an important role in this increase of usage

1.2.2 Consumer Behavior

Today, online communities have more and more influence on consumers

Figure 2: The Classical purchase funnel for traditional media

Wheat and Dodd (2009)

1.3 Problem Discussion

business (Ibid). In order though, for the companies to be able to take

Chapter 2 Literature Review

2.2 Theoretical Background

2.2.3 E-WOM and SNS

importance to marketing products and maximizing their sales. Other

The rise of the Internet, has increased consumers possibility to attain

because if there were only positive opinions online concerning a

or privately congratulates another users contributions to the group

Fifthly, homeostasis utility is concerned with expressing positive and

influences are stronger than others (Bansal & Voyer, 2000). If

2.3.2 The impact of e-WOM through SNS on consumers.

can become friends with a certain brand, which is a way to show

2.4 Hypotheses & Research Model

to this, the researcher thinks that the concepts of purchase intention

Exposure to Social media

The quality of electronic word-ofmouth positively affects

The quantity of electronic wordof-mouth positively affects

Senders expertise positively

2.4.2 Research Model

Source: (Chinho Lin, Yi-Shuang Wu and Jeng-Chung Victor Chen,2013)

The Researcher Model

The Research framework of this study

Chapter 3 Research Methodology

methods are explained, and at the end of the chapter, a summary is

Figure 6: Research choices (Saunders, et al, 2009, p.152).

Figure 7: Sampling techniques (Saunders, et al 2009, p213).

3.7.3 Data analysis

Chapter 4 Data Analysis

represented in chapter 3 of the study, this chapter is dedicated to the

were presented as 1=Male and 2=Female, while age was

4.2.1 Description of the sample

Figure 8: Gender of respondents (Q.22).

Figure 9: Age categories of the sample (Q.23)

Figure 10: Education categories of the sample (Q.24).

As presented in figure11 below, 80% of respondents have been using

As presented in figure 13 below, consumers access Social Media

Figure 13: Devices used by consumers to access Social Media

As presented in figure 15 below, shows that 47% of consumers agreed

Figure 15: Consumers ability to seek out information through

Figure 16: Consumers regularly follow brands on Social Media

(neither agree nor disagree).As seen in Figure 18 below, 42% of

Figure 17: Consumers see the online review is helpful (Q.8)

Figure 18: Consumers see the online review is credible (Q.9)

Figure 19: Consumers purchase intention affected by number

4.2.4 Quantity of E-WOM

Figure 20: Number of Fashion & Clothes online

Figure 21: Number of Health& Beauty products online reviews &