A study on the Influence of eWOM: Investigation of Consumer Trust, Information Adoption, and Buying Behavior

Abstract

The digital ecosystem in India has undergone drastic alterations so much that the dissemination of knowledge is being shaken up in favor of social media. All this while, rapid rise and rise in internet and smartphone penetration have passed Indian consumers through a torrent of information, whether credible or other forms, and misinformation and disinformation. Going forth, eWOM has become a key driver in molding consumers' perceptions, leading to the difficulty in the distinction between marketer-driven narratives and user-generated opinions. This project intends to shed light on key determinants of information adoption and their resultant effect on purchase intentions of Indian consumers. A conceptual framework is developed to examine the connectivity between information quality, information usefulness, perceived risk, and argument quality-all in order to influence online buying decisions. This wide country with a mixed bag of consumers called India has chosen the SEM for crunching responses given by people with past online shopping experience. Results have shown that the mediators of trust inclination and information adoption work sequentially to establish the link between these information-related issues and the consumers' purchase intentions. This study is particularly meaningful in India's evolving digital economy, where trust has remained a major factor influencing e-commerce adoption. The study thus provides some strategic and practical implications, which will help the business in streamlining its digital marketing strategies to suit the specific trust-creating and selling decision-making processes of Indian consumers.