Marketing Science and Technology Journal
The Impact of E-WOM Participation on Loyalty: The Mediating Role of Personal and Social Website Identification
Authors
1 Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Faculty of Economics and Administrative sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
2 Professor, Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Administrative Science, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Mashhad, Iran,
3 Associate professor, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Faculty of Economics and Administrative Sciences, Mashhad, Iran.
Abstract
Nowadays with the growth of the internet and e-commerce, remaining in the e-businesses competition depends on the endeavor for maintaining the customers, which shows the importance of loyalty in this environment. Along with this trend, electronic word-of-mouth (e-wom) has become a significant source of information for shopping. The aim of this research was to investigate the impact of e-wom participation on loyalty with the mediation role of personal and social website identification. 384 customers of the Digikala shopping website were selected as samples, using the convenience sampling method. A questionnaire with confirmation of validity and reliability was employed to collect data. Structural equations and Sobel’s mediation test were used and research hypotheses were analyzed, using LISREL and SPSS software. The results showed that e-wom participation has a positive impact on personal and social website identification. Likewise, personal and social website identification had a meaningful and positive impact on e-loyalty. The mediation role of personal website identification was also approved, but the findings showed no meaningful and positive impact for the mediation role of social website identification as well as the direct impact of e-wom on e-loyalty.
Keywords
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