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Procedia Economics and Finance 37 (2016) 190 – 195

FIFTH INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON MARKETING AND RETAILING (5TH

INCOMaR) 2015

Assessing Normative and Informational Influences on Students’

Opinion in Engaging Electronic Word of Mouth via Social
Networking Sites
Norazah Mohd Sukia,*, Norbayah Mohd Sukib, Ainnur Hafizah Anuar Mokhtarb, Rosliza
Ahmadc
a
Labuan Faculty of International Finance, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Labuan International Campus, 87000 Federal Territory of Labuan,
Malaysia
b
Faculty of Computing and Informatics, Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Labuan International Campus, 87000 Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia
c
Faculty of Art & Design, Universiti Selangor, Jalan Zirkon A7/A Section 7, 40000 Shah Alam, Selangor, Malaysia

Abstract

This study examines the effects of normative and informational influences on students’ opinion seeking, opinion giving and
opinion passing while engaged in electronic word of mouth (eWOM) via social networking sites (SNS). A quantitative method
was applied to test the hypotheses, which included the development of a self-administered, structured questionnaire distributed
using the convenience sampling technique among 250 students at public institutions of higher learning in the Federal Territory of
Labuan, Malaysia. Empirical results obtained using the structural equation modeling (SEM) approach show that the relationship
between normative influence and users’ opinion seeking, opinion giving and opinion passing while engaged in eWOM via SNS is
a consistent one. Similarly, users’ opinion seeking and opinion asking are also affected by informational influence. Direction for
future research is also presented.

©© 2016
2016TheTheAuthors.
Authors.Published
PublishedbybyElsevier
ElsevierB.V.
B.V.This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA.
Peer-review under responsibility of Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA
Keywords: Normative influence; informational influence; opinion seeking; opinion giving; opinion passing

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +6087 - 466 846; fax: +6087 - 460 477.
E-mail address: pmdrazah@ums.edu.my

2212-5671 © 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of Faculty of Business Management, Universiti Teknologi MARA
doi:10.1016/S2212-5671(16)30112-5
 Norazah Mohd Suki et al. / Procedia Economics and Finance 37 (2016) 190 – 195 191

1. Introduction

Electronic word of mouth (eWOM) is related to online information sharing (i.e. advice and recommendation) in
the form of a non-commercial messages expressed between consumers about their experiences in buying goods and
services. These messages were transmitted via electronic channels including social networking sites (SNS) like
Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and LinkedIn, instant messages, email, etc. (Alexandru, 2010; Wu & Wang, 2011).
These channels are quickly altering human interaction among millions of people worldwide (Counts & Fisher, 2010;
Zhong et al., 2011). Furthermore, Hennig-Thurau et al. (2004) describes eWOM as “any positive or negative
statement made by potential, actual, or former customers about a product or company which is made available to
multitude of the people and institutes via the Internet.”
Preceding research affirms that 69% of consumers think that eWOM is a helpful and enjoyable model (Cheung &
Lee, 2012). eWOM is very helpful to consumers as it contributes to their product evaluation and purchase decision
making to get products or services of good quality by referring to reviews, advice and recommendations, either
positive or negative, from other consumers who have purchased it beforehand. (Cheung & Lee, 2012; Doh &
Hwang, 2009). This form of reference benefits consumers as they do not need to step out of the house as this
information is readily available online, with minimal perceived risks when making a purchasing decision.
The goals of this study are to examine the effects of normative and informational influences on students’ opinion
seeking, opinion giving and opinion passing while engaging in electronic word̻of̻mouth (eWOM) via social
networking sites (SNS) as there is no specific and significant information on the effects of users’ opinion seeking,
opinion giving and opinion asking while engaged in eWOM via SNSs in the Malaysian context.

2. Literature review

The theory of planned behaviour by Ajzen (1985, 1991, 2005) describes a person’s intention, or motivation, to
adopt a behavior which is influenced by elements such as behavioural beliefs and attitudes towards the behavior;
normative beliefs and subjective norms; and control beliefs and perceptions of control. The construct belief is
operationally defined as “the subjective probability that the object has the attribute in question” (Ajzen, 2005, p. 30),
object referring to a “person, institution, policy, or event” (Ajzen, 2005, p. 6). Ajzen (2005) states that people form
“beliefs about an object by associating it with certain attributes” (p. 29). Normative influences (also known as
subjective norm or social influence) are related to the perceived social pressure to follow or not to follow the
anticipations of others’ behaviour (Ajzen, 2002). This includes choice to execute the thinking and behaviour of
others while making purchase decisions to the brand they expect to buy (Hansen & Lee, 2013). Preceding empirical
findings note that an individual’s decision whether or not to perform a particular behaviour is influenced by other
people such as family members and friends (Jackson et al., 2013; Rivis & Sheeran 2003) who have a significant
direct impact on purchase intention (Kalafatis et al., 1999; Vallerand et al., 1992; Widaman & Little 1985). They
heavily rely on friends’ and relatives’ information and expert opinion to search for more information sources in
order to reduce perceptions of risk in their purchase decision making (Aqueveque 2006; Cheung et al., 2008). In this
study, normative influences are related to social pressure and encouragement on students to engage in eWOM via
SNS.
Information or recommendations communicated to receivers from personal sources influences consumers’
behaviour (Alghamdi, 2012). Information design in an emotional setting contribute a vital basis of communication
competence to hold people’s attention which helps to upsurge the chances of spreading and the success of viral
marketing and eWOM (Dobele et al., 2007; Morreale et al., 2001). Earlier scholars (Hsieh et al., 2012; Madden,
2007; Purcell, 2010) asserted that comedic or humorous message content significantly impact the attractiveness of
online video and eWOM. Informational influence impact consumers’ product understanding in purchase decision
making through eWOM (Cheung & Lee, 2012; Cheung et al., 2008). Consumers will develop positive attitudes to
the information’s credibility based on the strong arguments between eWOM messages of consumers. If consumers
find out that online information is the same as their self-knowledge of the product or service, they will have more
confidence to purchase the product or service (Cheung et al., 2008). In this study, informational influences are
related to encouragement develop based on the information or message communicated to the receiver from any
source which motivates students to engage in eWOM via SNS. Consumers with different levels of exposure to
192 Norazah Mohd Suki et al. / Procedia Economics and Finance 37 (2016) 190 – 195

normative and informational influence may have different perceptions towards the eWOM communication. This
may vary person to person. For example, consumers with a higher level of susceptibility to interpersonal influence
would like to exchange information with family or friends than those who are have lower susceptibility of normative
and informational influence. This can be explained that consumer exposure to both normative and informational
influence impact their engagement in eWOM in SNSs (Chu & Kim, 2011).
Based on the earlier literature, the following hypotheses are formulated:
H1: Normative influence in the social network positively impacted users’ opinion seeking while engaging in eWOM
via SNSs.
H2: Normative influence in the social network positively impacted users’ opinion giving while engaging in eWOM
via SNSs.
H3: Normative influence in the social network positively impacted users’ opinion passing while engaging in eWOM
via SNSs.
H4: Informational influence in the social network positively impacted users’ opinion seeking while engaging in
eWOM via SNSs.
H5: Informational influence in the social network positively impacted users’ opinion giving while engaging in
eWOM via SNSs.
H6: Informational influence in the social network positively impacted users’ opinion passing while engaging in
eWOM via SNSs.

3. Methodology

A quantitative method was applied to test the hypotheses, which included the development of a self-administered,
structured questionnaire distributed using the convenience sampling technique to the targeted respondents (i.e.
students at the public institutions of higher learning in the Federal Territory of Labuan, Malaysia). This was done
over a period of two weeks in November 2014. After screening the responses, a total of 250 valid samples were
obtained for analysis out of 300 questionnaires returned, thereby giving a valid response rate of 83%. The first part
of the three-section questionnaire comprised of general demographic questions. The second part covered questions
about respondents’ experiences in using social networking sites. The final part of the questionnaire contained
questions on the respondents’ perceptions of green products which included normative influence (three items) and
informational influence (three items), both were borrowed from Bearden et al. (1989) as well as three items for
measuring opinion seeking and opinion giving, respectively were borrowed from Flynn et al.’s (1996), while three
items of opinion passing was adopted from Sun et al.’s (2006). Data was analyzed using the structural equation
modelling (SEM) technique via the Analysis of Moment Structure (AMOS) computer programme version 21.

4. Data analysis

The socio-demographic feature of the respondents is depicted in Table 1 where more than half of the respondents
were female (76%) with the remainder being the male respondents (24%). Approximately 95% of the respondents
were below 22 years in age with 5% in the 23-25 age range. As for educational achievement, 81% of the
respondents possessed a STPM (Malaysian Higher School Certificate) qualification, 14% a Matriculation certificate,
and 5% were diploma holders. Facebook was the most frequently visited SNS compared to Twitter, MySpace and
Linkedln. In the frequency of weekly SNS usage, more than three-quarters of the respondents’ (89%) of have used
SNS more than 15 times a week, followed by 6-10 times (7%). Finally, the responses further revealed that a small
percentage of the respondents (2%) used SNS 11-15 times, and the remaining 2% used less than 5 times in a week.

4.1. Structural equation modeling

The SEM technique which unites aspects of multiple regression and factor analysis was executed via a two-step
(i.e. measurement model and structural model) to endorse the reliability and validity of the measures prior to
inspecting the causal or structural link between constructs based on the formulated hypotheses and utilizing
maximum likelihood as the estimation method.
 Norazah Mohd Suki et al. / Procedia Economics and Finance 37 (2016) 190 – 195 193

Table 1. Socio-demographic profile of respondents

Variable Frequency Percentage Variable Frequency Percentage

Gender Most frequently visited SNS
Male 61 24.4 Facebook 222 88.8
Female 189 75.6 MySpace 14 5.6
Age (years) Linkedln 6 2.4
< 19 57 22.8 Twitter 8 3.2
20 to 22 181 72.4 Amount of time SNS used in a week
23 to 25 10 4.0 < 5 times 4 1.6
> 25 2 0.8 6 to 10 times 18 7.2
Education level 11 to 15 times 6 2.4
STPM 203 81.2 > 15 times 222 88.8
Matriculation 35 14.0 Experience of SNS usage
Diploma 12 4.8 < 3 years 10 4.0
3 to 6 years 20 8.0
> 6 years 220 88.0

4.2. Measurement model

The Measurement model was assessed through an inspection of reliability, convergent validity and discriminant
validity. All of the standardized factor loadings exceeded the suggested level of 0.70 and were statistically
significant (at level of 0.01). Next, the composite reliability scores for all constructs, ranged between 0.809 and
0.850, surpassed the satisfactory level of 0.70 (Hair et al., 2010), signifying a high level of constructs reliability. The
AVE of latent constructs, ranging from 0.586 to 0.658, have surpassed the suggested threshold value of 0.50,
inferring that items converge on only one construct (Fornell & Larcker, 1981; Hair et al., 2010). Finally, all diagonal
values were in excess of the inter-construct correlations, inferring support for discriminant validity that the current
measurement items were able to discriminate between different constructs (Bagozzi & Warshaw, 1990).

4.3. Structural model

The path coefficients of the structural model is further assessed by scrutinizing the fit indices of the structural
model, the standardized path coefficients (β) which display the strength of linkages between independent and
dependent variables, and the squared multiple correlation (R2) values based on the postulated hypotheses which
demonstrate the values of variances explained by independent variables and reflect the predictive power of the
model. Several goodness-of-fit indices were checked to measure of the fit of the structural model, i.e. χ2 of the
model was 310.529 with 220 degrees of freedom (χ2/df = 1.411) and RMSEA of 0.041. The fit indices value for
GFI, AGFI, NFI, CFI, and IFI were above 0.90 and RMSEA below 0.08, indicating a satisfactory fit. Thus, the
overall results reveal an adequate fit between observed sample data and the measurement model and the structural
model based on these goodness-of-fit indices. Next, the estimated standardized path coefficients of the structural
model under investigation are reported and depicted in Table 2. The results exhibit that most of the standardized
beta coefficients (β) are positive where all exogeneous variables together accounted for 46.6% of the total variance
in opinion seeking (R2 = 0.466), and 99.2% in opinion giving (R 2 = 0.992). Next, the amount of variance in opinion
passing explained by two exogenous constructs in the model was 54.5%. Among the three endogeneous variables,
the values of variance percentage explained by opinion giving are very high.
The results highlight the significant roles of normative influence in one’s opinion seeking while engaging in
eWOM via SNS (β1=0.865) as posited in H1, as well as opinion giving (β 2=0.782) as postulated in H2 at p<0.05.
Hence, supporting H1 and H2. Indeed, normative influence also has significant effects at p<0.05 on opinion passing
(β3=0.833) as hypothesized in H3, meaning that H3 was also retained. Table 2 exemplified that there was support for
both H4 and H5 indicating that informational influence do affect one’s opinion seeking (β 4=0.427; p<0.05) and
opinion giving (β5=0.940; p<0.05), respectively. The latter shows the highest significant path coefficient in the
model. However, the influence of informational influence on opinion passing while engaging in eWOM via SNS
(H6) was not held (β6=-0.363; p>0.05).
194 Norazah Mohd Suki et al. / Procedia Economics and Finance 37 (2016) 190 – 195

Table 2. Parameter estimates

Paths Estimate S.E. C.R. p

H1 Normative Influence ---> Opinion Seeking 0.865* 0.375 4.176 0.000
H2 Normative Influence ---> Opinion Giving 0.782* 0.719 4.916 0.000
H3 Normative Influence ---> Opinion Passing 0.833* 0.348 3.929 0.000
H4 Informational Influence ---> Opinion Seeking 0.427* 0.251 2.090 0.037
H5 Informational Influence ---> Opinion Giving 0.940* 0.469 2.695 0.000
H6 Informational Influence ---> Opinion Passing -0.363 0.227 -1.777 0.076
* p< 0.05

5. Discussion and conclusion

SEM results discovered that the relationships between normative influence and students’ opinion seeking,
opinion giving and opinion passing while engaging in eWOM via SNS is a consistent one. These findings are
consistent with prior reports (Aqueveque, 2006; Cheung et al., 2008; Hansen & Lee, 2013, Jackson et al., 2013;
Rivis & Sheeran 2003). When considering a purchase of new products, consumers would ask their SNS contacts’
opinions for advice and tend to purchase brands that they think others will approve of. This is performed before they
buy new products. Moreover, they convince their SNS contacts’ to purchase products that they like and prefer to
pass along positive reviews and interesting information or opinions about products to the other contacts on the SNS
friend list. Likewise, informational influence also affected consumers opinion seeking and opinion giving while
engaging in eWOM via SNS, respectively. This finding further reinforces the point made by Cheung & Lee (2012),
and Cheung et al. (2008). It was found that if consumers have little experience with a product, they often ask and
consult friends to help choose the best alternative available from a product class before purchasing a product. They
would feel more comfortable choosing products after receiving fruitful opinions from their SNS contacts. In terms
of direction for future studies, chances exist to further improve this research by investigating the influence of
moderating variables such as demographics.

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