engleski

WOM and eWOM communication through prism of Millennials

Given the importance of word-of-mouth communication for both individual and organisational buying behaviour and the role of Millennials (Generation Y) in terms of consumption, the main purpose of this study is to determine the influence of traditional (offline) word-of-mouth (WOM) and electronic (online) word-of-mouth (eWOM) information receiving on buying intention from the aspect of Millennials. As predictors of word- of-mouth communication, demographic characteristic of gender and individual trait of consumer innovativeness were researched. The research was conducted on the sample of 203 respondents. Data were analysed performing exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, and structural equation modelling (SEM). The results show that WOM and eWOM exhibit different significance when it comes to influencing buying intention. Namely, WOM positively influences buying intention of Millennials, while eWOM and buying intention relationship was not proved to be significant. As far as predictors are concerned, the results show that gender plays a significant role for WOM, while it is not significant for eWOM. Consumer innovativeness of the Millennials positively impacts both WOM and eWOM information receiving. Considering main conclusions, apart from theoretical contribution, whereby the gained results shed some new light on the behaviour of Millennials within WOM communication domain, the results have also practical implications for marketing experts and managers in addressing both WOM and eWOM fields while targeting this consumer cohort, as discussed in the paper.

WOM, eWOM, buying intention, innovativeness, gender, Millennials

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