Abstract:
Over the years consumers and their psyche had evolved a great deal and one of the primary reasons is the advancement in internet technology and social platforms. Consumers are paying less attention towards traditional source of information and are more inclined towards electronic medium like the internet which has oceans of knowledge and information for the consumers. This phenomenon has brought the concept of electronic word of mouth into the limelight. Numerous research studies have been conducted on the topic of eWOM throughout the world but only a few in Pakistan. This research endeavour is aimed to explore the impact of eWOM on consumer purchase intention in cell phone industry of Pakistan with the help of key variables and dimensions. Information about the cellular brands collected via eWOM in the shape of reviews, experiences, ratings, blogs and expert opinions is considered as more authentic and reliable than other marketing tools because it directly comes from the consumers and the neutral experts. Therefore, it was imperative to examine its influence on those consumers who want to buy a cell phone. This quantitative study was conducted with the help of questionnaires to gather data for analysis. The total data observations were 250 and 94% of the respondents were between the age of 18-32 which helped to collect accurate data because this age group uses internet the most for various purposes and one of them is to share their views about certain cellular brand. Independent variable was eWOM and its dimensions were: Source trustworthiness, Source expertise and Social tie. Whereas, consumer purchase intention was the dependent variable. Regression analysis established that 62.6% of the variability in dependent variable was explained by the model and value of R came out to be .791 which proves that there is a very strong positive relationship between the variables under study. Values generated by regression test helped to reject all the null hypothesis and supported the alternate hypothesis because of the significance level of .000. Findings of this study can compel marketer’s to pay more attention to eWOM and will help in making a more effective marketing strategy to connect with its target market which will eventually lead to increase in sales volume, improved brand image and higher profits.
