* Corresponding author. E-mail address: a.ajina@psau.edu.sa (A. S. Ajina) © 2019 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada doi: 10.5267/j.msl.2019.5.030 Management Science Letters 9 (2019) 1553–1566 Contents lists available at GrowingScience Management Science Letters homepage: www.GrowingScience.com/msl Predicting customers' online word of mouth intention: The theory of planned behavior applied to understand youth Saudi social media behaviors Ahmed Suhail Ajina a* a Prince Sattam bin Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia C H R O N I C L E A B S T R A C T Article history: Received: April 16, 2019 Received in revised format: April 28 2019 Accepted: May 14, 2019 Available online: May 14, 2019 Word of mouth (WOM) is the oldest, yet still a very common form of marketing. Over the years, it has undergone under significant transformation as a result of the changing business strategies and rapid improvement in technology. Today, WOM has gained traction as a very effective and eco- nomic form of advertisement. With the increase in the use of internet technology and use of social media for marketing, online word of mouth (OWoM) is significantly changing the sphere. Today, many marketers prefer to use OWoM through platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for marketing their products. However, consumer’s behaviors and attitudes are found to strongly influ- ence OWoM. Using the Theory of Planned Behavior, the study explored the factors that predict the use of the OWoM marketing among youths in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data were collected from 440 samples using structured questionnaires and analyzed using PLS-SEM. The results have succeeded in showing the complex relationship between attitude, behavioral control and subjective norms; the underlying beliefs, and the intention towards the OWoM. © 2019 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada Keywords: Word of Mouth Online Word of Mouth OWoM Theory of Planned Behavior Saudi Arabia 1. Introduction Trade and commerce, which is as old as humanity, has been on a continuous state of transformation (Humphrey, 1985; Jones, 1976). Since the late trade and commerce has become more complex, many of its salient characteristics have had remained stable. A classic example to this is advertisement. In the earlier stages, advertisement was solely in the form of “word of mouth” (WoM) (Anderson, 1998). The owners of goods and services for which they wished to exchange with others would spread the infor- mation about their merchandise by WoM (Kozinets et al., 2010). Although such forms of advertisement seem primitive, it has remained relevant over the years and is still practiced today (Söderlund & Rosen- gren, 2007). WoM has the potential to shape customers’ attitudes and perceptions, which in turn could influence product adoption (Charo et al., 2015; Duana et al., 2008).