AUTHOR COPY INTRODUCTION The power of word of mouth (WOM) as an important driving force in social discourse was acknowledged more than a century ago in the work of Baldwin (1894), Le Bon (1895), and Tarde (1903), who described its contagious effect in the spread of innovations. Over the years, an impressive body of evidence has accumulated demonstrating how WOM plays a significant role in shaping consumer attitudes and behaviour (e.g., Brown & Reingen, 1987; De Bruyn & Lilien; 2008; JOURNAL OF CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR, 2013, Vol. 12, No. 4, pp. 291-313 http://dx.doi.org/10.1362/147539213X13875568505787 ISSN1475-3928 print /ISSN1477-6421 online © Westburn Publishers Ltd. Beliefs about word of mouth among business students and practitioners Allan J. Kimmel, ESCP Europe, France* Abstract Word of mouth (WOM) is the focus of growing interest among marketing practitioners and consumers. However, the promises of WOM marketing are often oversold, and various assertions about the nature of WOM, its dynamics, antecedents, and consequences may be more informed by common wisdom and trade publications than by peer-reviewed, empirical research on the topic. This paper summarises the results of two studies intended to investigate the beliefs about WOM among business professionals and business students. Questionnaire results revealed that respondents hold various conceptions of WOM that are not in accordance with the extant WOM research literature, and provides evidence that business professionals and business students differ in terms of beliefs about certain aspects of WOM. The implications of beliefs about WOM on marketing practice are considered. Keywords Word of mouth, Word-of-mouth marketing, Practitioner beliefs, Connected marketing *Correspondence details and a biography for the author are located at the end of the article. JOURNAL OF CUSTOMER BEHAVIOUR