The Effects of Sender’s Motivations and Information Sources of Word-of-Mouth on Purchasing Behavior : Based on the Technology Acceptance Model

Word of mouth communication, as a key factor in consumer’s purchase decision process, has gradually attracted the attentions of many marketers and companies. To make the further understanding of the word of mouth communication, this study explores the effects of word of mouth sender’s motivation and source information on consumers’ purchase behavior. The word of mouth sender’s motivation can be divided into egoistic motivation and altruistic motivation, while the source information is also divided into virtual word of mouth information and personal word of mouth information in this study. Meanwhile, based on the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and related theories, a research model that contains several factors about consumers’ word of mouth acceptance and purchase behavior is presented. With an empirical analysis, our study attempts to conceptualize the variables that can affect consumers’ word of mouth acceptance, and also demonstrates what factors are most effective in improving consumers’ positive word of mouth acceptance. Thus, our study provides the important academical implication for companies to establish the word-of-mouth marketing strategy.