Abstract

With the help of the Internet, information is no longer only controlled by large businesses and news media. Consumers now have an opportunity to assert their opinion of products or services online in form of online reviews and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) communication. Both positive and negative word-of-mouth communication can have a strong influence on consumers’ behavior and on business performance. Positive word-of-mouth is becoming a new way of promoting and building brand relationships with consumers. Negative worth-of-mouth is motivated by revengeful behavior due to a negative or dissatisfying experience. Vast amount of research has shown that word-of-mouth can be a powerful tool for influencing consumers, but only limited research on electronic word-of-mouth communication and motivation behind posting online reviews in the form of reviews, comments and ratings has been published to date. This quantitative study explores the relationship between motives for posting online reviews and demographic data of the participants from Zagreb, Croatia. Sample (n=122) completed an online survey and results have shown that the respondents agreed the most with the statements of altruism, followed by collectivism and self-enhancement and balance scoring the lowest. Correlation was only found between gender and motives for posting online reviews. This difference was rather small and statistically significant only in the case of altruism where the correlation was stronger with women than men.

Publication Date

8-13-2018

Document Type

Master's Project

Student Type

Graduate

Degree Name

Service Leadership and Innovation (MS)

Department, Program, or Center

Department of Service Systems (CET)

Advisor

Jennifer Matic

Campus

RIT Croatia

Download

Share

COinS