Impact of Word-of-Mouth on Consumer Attitudes

Literature Review Since the 1960 's, the broad impact of the word on consumer attitudes and behaviors has been documented (Bansal & Voyer, 2000; Bone, 1995; Buttle, 1998; Laczniak, DeCarlo, & Ramaswani). 2001; Smith & Vogt, 1995; Wirtz & Chew, 2002). Communication (WOM) communication is considered to be an important medium for influencing consumer behavior (Arndt, 1967). Personal reviews are usually most effective (Arndt 1967), as consumers are generally more likely to be exposed to market-driven information sources.

It is widely believed that transmission of the word plays an important role in the formation of consumer attitudes and behavior (Brown and Reingen 1987). The word has been shown to have a significant impact on product selection (Kiel and Layton 1981) and selection service (Ennew, Banerjee and Li 2000; Keaveney 1995). For example, Katz and Lazarsfeld (1955) discovered that the reviews are the most important elements in purchasing household goods and food items. According to their survey, the word of mouth is that it actually affects consumer behavior more effectively than mass media (newspapers, magazines, radio ads) and individual sales. However, through the unique characteristics of information and communication technologies like the Internet (Dellarocas 2003), it is important to explore how the electronic environment affects the reviews, as the word of mouth is getting more important.

In this article we will focus more on the impact of blog reviews on consumer decision-making. From the investigation of this article, blog reviews can not have equally good impact on the five stages of consumer decision-making. Based on the understanding of this relationship, marketing experts and administrators can focus on application of blog postings in the consumer's decision-making stage. Furthermore, it is important to solve and solve the problem that blog reviews adversely affect demand recognition and information retrieval in the Chinese market.

This article is intended to investigate the impact of blogging on consumer decision-making. As mentioned earlier, the expression of blogs can affect every phase of the consumer's decision-making process. This survey covers every step of the consumer's decision-making process under the influence of blogging. In most cases, when performing a quantitative research method for a particular study, the data collection method is very important for the effectiveness and reliability of the study. There are three main ways to collect data directly from samples or respondents, including experimental methods, observation methods, and investigation methods. Among the three methods, the survey method is suitable for evaluating respondents' behavior, perception, attitudes, and motivation (Malhotra 2002, p. 74).