THE INFLUENCE OF CONSUMERS’ TIE STRENGTH, HOMOPHILY AND SOURCE CREDIBILITY TOWARD ELECTRONIC WORD-OF-MOUTH (EWOM) BEHAVIOR

Abstract

Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) in the form of online product reviews can influence the sales of a product and/or service, and that informational‐based determinants are very important to consumers when evaluating reviews. The purpose of this research is to analyze the influence of consumers’ tie strength, homophily, and source credibility toward electronic word-of-mouth behavior (eWOM). This research used quantitative analyze. The method used to analyze the data is the Multiple Regression Analysis. The population observed is the consumer who ever buy outfit product through online services and give publication via electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) located in Manado, North Sulawesi with sample size as many as 100 respondents.  The result from this research is tie strength and source credibility influences the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) behavior both simultaneously and partially. While homophily has no significant influence to the electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) behavior partially. This research suggests that tie strength is the dominant influence variable toward electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) behavior. It means that the consumers of outfit product in Manado considered closeness is the important factor that influenced consumer to exchange information online.

Keywords: tie-strength, homophily, source credibility