eWOM and the Importance of Capturing Consumer Attention within Social Media

Word-of-mouth (WOM) is widely regarded as one of the most influential factors impacting consumer behavior, yet traditional models were constructed oblivious to the potential of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) and social media. In particular, very little is known about the dynamics affecting consumer attention within two-way many-to-many mediated environments even though attention constitutes a critical step. Thus, we construct a conceptual framework that grounds consumer attention within a larger progression of behavioral responses to eWOM. We then conduct an experiment (n=28) that isolates contextual antecedents of attention to positive, negative, and neutral word-of-mouth for both luxury and non-luxury brands within a social media platform. Using behavioral eye-tracking, we find that word-of-mouth message valence interacts with brand type to affect attention differently. Implications of these findings for facilitating eWOM are discussed with future research directions suggested