189 © e Author(s) 2019
R. Boardman et al. (eds.), Social Commerce,
https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-03617-1_11
11
eWOM: The Rise of the Opinion Leaders
Shuang Zhou, Helen McCormick, Marta Blazquez,
and Liz Barnes
Introduction
e growth and evolution of new media such as Web 2.0 technologies has
led to the development of new forms of communication channels and
platforms, transforming marketing communications from traditional
face-to-face word-of-mouth to electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)
(Cheung and adani 2012). Further, eWOM has attracted a great deal
of attention among marketers and researchers (Trusov et al. 2009). Because
of consumers increasingly engaging in eWOM communication to
exchange information about goods, services, brands, or companies,
eWOM becomes one of the most significant communication touch points
to engage consumers in their pre- and post-purchase experience (King
et al. 2014). It has been documented that eWOM has significant effects
on consumer purchase decision-making process (Daugherty and Hoffman
2014; Mishra and Satish 2016; King et al. 2014; Batra and Keller 2016;
S. Zhou • H. McCormick (*) • M. Blazquez • L. Barnes
School of Materials, University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
e-mail: shuang.zhou@manchester.ac.uk; helen.mccormick@manchester.ac.uk;
marta.blazquezcano@manchester.ac.uk; liz.barnes@manchester.ac.uk