E-WOM from e-commerce websites and social media: Which will consumers adopt?

For your marketing

Possible founder application

Use it to shape a locally controlled channel or message test; account for audience, timing and attribution limits before reallocating budget.

Reported result

What the study found

EC-eWOM usefulness and credibility positively influenced EC-eWOM adoption but negatively influenced SM-eWOM adoption. EC-eWOM adoption negatively affected SM-eWOM adoption and mediated usefulness/credibility effects; cognitive level and involvement moderated effects.

Research question

What the authors investigated

When consumers encounter eWOM from e-commerce websites and social media simultaneously, how do they choose/adopt the two sources, and how do usefulness, credibility, cognition, and involvement shape that process?

Design

Empirical questionnaire-survey analysis of a conceptual model based on cognitive-cost theory; the publisher page says the questionnaire had demographic items and 30 construct items.

Sample and setting

Consumers exposed to eWOM from e-commerce websites (EC-eWOM) and social media (SM-eWOM) in a social-commerce/online-shopping context; the fetched publisher page does not state the respondent count.

Scope and transfer

Limitations to keep in view

The publisher page says conclusions and research limitations are outlined in Section 5, but does not display the specific limitations in the fetched article preview; therefore specific limitations are not stated here.

Research sources

The ScienceDirect page labels the work a research article, identifies the six authors and DOI, describes questionnaire data, and reports the central result that usefulness and credibility increase EC-eWOM adoption while reducing SM-eWOM adoption, with EC-eWOM adoption mediating those relationships. Direct publisher-page retrieval was recorded on 2026-10-09; profile summarizes the accessible record and does not claim independent review of inaccessible full text.