The The Influence of Tile Strength and Homophily through Electronic Word-of-Mouth towards Purchase Intention via Facebook

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to investigate the influence of Tile Strength and Homophily through Electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM) consisted of opinion giving, opinion seeking, and opinion passing towards Purchase Intention via Facebook. The main theory of this study was based on Theory of Electronic Word of Mouth Communication, which proves the effect of tie strength and homophily underpinned by Social Network theory to promote electronic word-of-mouth (opinion giving, opinion seeking, and opinion passing) towards purchase intention.This study was quantitative research and used purposive sampling method to collect data from 400 Thai respondents, who are selected from researcher’s Thai “friend” list on Facebook. The structural equation modeling using the AMOS program was applied to analyze the data. The objective found that the stronger tie strength and the higher eWOM opinion seeking influence the higher purchase intention. Similarly, the higher homophily and the higher eWOM opinion seeking influence the higher purchase intention. This study can contribute for marketing manager and consumer researchers should focus on especially opinion leaders in eWOM forums who post and pass their views rather than simply reading other’s views. Because readers or opinion seeking will find these views from opinion leaders to make a decision-making product or service via Facebook.