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BL
33,1
60
Received 1 October 2019
Revised 19 October 2019
Accepted 19 October 2019
The Bottom Line
Vol. 33 No. 1, 2020
pp. 60-73
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0888-045X
DOI 10.1108/BL-10-2019-0116
How information acceptance
model predicts customer loyalty?
A study from perspective of eWOM information
Tiwa Park
Department of Communication Arts, Bangkok University – City Campus,
Bangkok, Thailand
Abstract
Purpose – This study aims to explore the influence of electronic word of mouth (eWOM) in social media on
customer loyalty by using the information acceptance model (IACM). For this purpose, this study identified
the relationship of attitude towards information, information credibility, information quality and information
with information usefulness. Later, the relation of information usefulness and information adoption was
examined. According to the IACM, this information adoption and attitude towards information can affect
behavioural outcomes of customer, and the authors used customer loyalty as a behavioural outcome.
Design/methodology/approach – This study collected the data from students enrolled in different
universities of Thailand. More specifically, those students were considered appropriate for study who were active
Facebook users. Therefore, a questionnaire was posted in 83 different Facebook groups of university students, from
which 771 students responded properly. SPSS and AMOS 24 were used to conduct data reliability, descriptive and
correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), and structural equation modelling (SEM).
Findings – The study found that credibility, quality, usefulness and adoption of information, need of information
and attitude towards information are the key factors of eWOM in social media that influence consumers’ loyalty.
Practical implications – This study will be helpful for marketing managers in studying patterns of
customer loyalty because many studies have previously examined purchase behaviour or purchase intention
only. Moreover, it will provide framework to marketers for understanding the influence of eWOM information
in social media on customer loyalty.
Originality/value – This study is to explore the effect of credibility, quality, usefulness and adoption of
information, need of information and attitude towards information on consumers’ loyalty.
Keywords Information quality, IACM, Information credibility, eWOM, Customer loyalty,
Information adoption
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The rise of social communication channels and digital marketing has changed the playing
field of marketers (Lamberton and Stephen, 2016; Li and Kannan, 2016). Word of mouth
(WOM) is considered an important factor in the consumer decision-making process, and
Harrison-Wallker (2001) defined it as “informal, person-to-person communication between a
perceived noncommercial communicator and a receiver regarding a brand, a product, an
organization, or a service.” Moreover, WOM has a significant impact on the choice of
customer (Katz and Paul, 1955; Richins, 1983) and post-purchase product perceptions (Bone,
1995). Whereas, electronic WOM (eWOM) is known as the most influential marketing
instrument since the past decade (Kumar and Benbasat, 2006; Zhang et al., 2010; Babic
Rosario et al., 2015). There are several appropriate platforms for eWOM, like social media
websites, discussion forums, shopping websites, blogs and review websites (Cheung and
Thadani, 2012). Influence of eWOM and customer loyalty are highlighted by previous
studies (Alhulail et al., 2018; Gruen et al., 2006). The shift from face-to-face conversations to
eWOM and offline communication to online communication in recent years has affected the eWOM
relationship between loyalty and WOM (Eelen et al., 2017). Within social media, the information
extension in e-commerce transaction activities has enabled the consumers to interact with
each other and make collaborative decision on purchase (Baethge et al., 2016). Social media
conversations are mostly relevant to brands (Wolny and Mueller, 2013) that are influential
on customer loyalty (Eelen et al., 2017). It is difficult to assume all eWOM information as
being influential on customer loyalty because consumers screen the information from a pool
before using it. The abovementioned studies have revealed the impact of eWOM in social 61
media, but the relation between eWOM information and customer loyalty is still unexplored.
Information search is one of the major stages of the consumer decision-making process. When
a need is recognised, the consumers search for information regarding the products or services
that can satisfy their need. This information search can be internal or external. Internal search is
when consumers refer to their memory for information gathered over time (Leigh and Rethans,
1984). An external search occurs when consumers seek information from external sources. These
external sources can be an advertisement, brochure, friends and relatives, etc. Researchers have
studied information search behaviour widely, because of its importance in the consumer’s buying
process (Maity et al., 2014). Moreover, customer’s buying process and psychological factors are
directly associated with purchase decision (Abbas et al., 2019). eWOM information can
significantly affect the readers’ behaviour and cognition (Cheung et al., 2009). Knoll (2015) found
that the influence of eWOM depends upon consumer and information. His conclusion was an
argument based on recent studies was not tested empirically (Erkan and Evans, 2016). Erkan
and Evans (2016) considered both aspects of consumer and information and developed a model
by integrating the “theory of reasoned action” (TRA) and “information adoption model” (IAM). In
their study, they suggested to use behavioural intention for future study by considering it as
component of proposed information acceptance model (IACM). Therefore, the objective of this
study is to examine the influence of eWOM in social media on customer’s loyalty. To obtain this
objective, the study empirically tested the IACM of Erkan and Evans (2016) by adding variable
of customer loyalty in it. The proposed model tested information adoption, quality, usefulness,
need, credibility and attitude towards information as main precursors of customer loyalty. The
internet has facilitated eWOM communication between customers through a variety of platforms
(Cheung and Thadani, 2012).
eWOM, also often referred to as online reviews, online recommendations or online
opinions, has gained importance with the emergence of new technology tools (Cantallops
and Salvi, 2014). eWOM allows consumers to gain confidence in their understanding about
products, which consequently allows them to reduce their risk of making a bad purchase
(Bronner and De Hoog, 2011; Cheng and Loi, 2014).
On the other side, other eWOM platforms, consumer review websites (Cheung et al., 2008),
discussion forums (Chiou and Cheng, 2003), blogs (Lin et al., 012) have also been found
influential on consumers’ purchase intentions and loyalty (Alhulail et al., 2018). Social media
websites are considered truly as an appropriate platforms for eWOM (Kim et al., 2014).

2. Literature review
According to Sohn (2014), the social media websites disseminate eWOM information to a
large number of people. Users only share the post with which they are agreeing and also
freely share their thoughts on particular post. Therefore, consumers are now increasingly
focusing on social media to obtain information regarding brands (Barreda et al., 2015;
Naylor et al., 2012). There are different ways to increase eWOM information on social media.
One way is that the users can intentionally or willingly post regarding brands or products or
services offered by a brand. Moreover, they can unintentionally reveal their preferences to
BL brands by liking and commenting on the posts related to brands, becoming fan of brands and
33,1 posting about brand without any intention of advertising (Erkan and Evans, 2016). In addition,
marketers can share information related to brands on their official social media websites
(Alboqami et al., 2015). In the process of overall evaluation, people are more concerned with
negative information rather than positive one, and this is called negativity effect. This effect
has a significant role in impression formation (Skowronski and Carlston, 1989). It is noted that
62 the recipients of message only consider information as credible when they are confident about
it (Wathen and Burkell, 2002). In other words, people will only accept eWOM information if
they found its origin or source as a credible one. Once they accept the information or eWOM
messages, then they will use it in their decision-making process (Sussman and Siegal, 2003),
and the positive effects of online reviews will also help them in generating more intention of
using eWOM information (McKnight et al., 2002; Cheung et al., 2008).
Davis (1989) proposed the theory of technology acceptance model (TAM) which highlights
the possible behavioural issues faced by users in accepting new technologies (Venkatesh and
Davis, 2000; Yiu et al., 2007). This theory cannot convey accurate understanding of attitude and
intention of users, but in context of eWOM, the information is solely generated by individuals
(Ayeh, 2015). Moreover, the theory of TAM is criticised by several researchers as it is unable to
explore the relation among intention and actual behaviour (Bagozzi, 2007). According to Erkan
and Evans (2016), the use of TAM was inappropriate for exploring the IACM made by them.
This study is an extension of the IACM, and because of this, it used only the TRA, as the study
of Erkan and Evans (2016) also adopted it. In order words, Erkan and Evans (2016) extended
the ICAM by adding the related parts of TRA (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). The conceptual
framework of study is given below (Figure 1):

2.1 Information adoption and customer loyalty

eWOM recommends the products to others and enhances repurchase intention. Omar (2009)
explained it as an important indicator because of its impact on loyalty. In addition, it is an
important tool in retaining customers (Wangenheim and Bayon, 2004). Generally, there are
two perspectives of loyalty, one is loyalty as attitude and other is loyalty as attitude
(Evanschitzky et al., 2006). Customer loyalty use behavioural-based attitude to explore the
relation between relative attitudes towards firm and repurchase intention because of its

Information
Quality

Information
Credibility
Information In
nformation Customer loyalty
Usefulness Adoption
Need of Information

Figure 1.
Conceptual Attitude Towards
Framework Information
multidimensional nature (Dick and Basu, 1994). The users of social media encounter with eWOM
huge amount of eWOM information either intentionally or unintentionally, and this information
information has a great influence on customer loyalty (Omar, 2009):

H1. Adoption of eWOM information is positively related to customer loyalty.

2.2 Information usefulness and information adoption 63

Information usefulness shows the extents to which people think that information adoption
will improve their performance (Bailey and Pearson, 1983; Cheung et al., 2008; Davis, 1989;
Ku, 2011). Moreover, it is considered as the most important determinant of information
adoption (Sussman and Siegal, 2003; Erkan and Evans, 2016), which is the process of
intentional engagement of people in using information (Cheung et al., 2008). Social media
users encounter a significant amount of information related to brands, and this information
is dispersed through advertisement. Every information is not influential because its impact
can vary from every individual to individual (Erkan and Evans, 2016; Yang, 2012).
Consumers specifically evaluate the validity of the information and usually accept it if it is
meaningful (Zhang and Watts, 2008):

H2. Usefulness of eWOM information is positively related to adoption of eWOM

information.

2.3 Information credibility and information quality

McKnight and Kacmar (2007) defined information credibility as the extent to which people
think that information they receive is authentic and believable. Information reader’s
perception about credibility of information shows their intensity of adopting the view point
of received information. Therefore, this stage of information reader’s perceptions is foremost
important in the information process (Wathen and Burkell, 2002). Similarly, Smith and Vogt
(1995) concluded that adoption of any information by readers depends upon the credibility
of particular information, and readers will only adopt information that they perceive as
credible.
To measure the argument quality, it is checked that how much argument of eWOM
information is perceived as credible and strong by eWOM readers (Eagly and Chaiken, 1993;
Petty and Cacioppo, 1986; Zhang, 1996). Cheung and Thadani (2012) and Zhang and Watts
(2008) explained that persuasive and valid arguments can make the eWOM readers able to
develop a positive attitude towards the received information, which is an indication of
credibility.
Consumers only regard the satisfactory information having high quality.
Therefore, previous studies concluded quality of information as a key determinant of
information usefulness (Saeed and Abdinnour-Helm, 2008; Zhu et al., 2016). The IAM
by Sussman and Siegal (2003) and IACM by Erkan and Evans (2016) explained that
there is strong relationship between information quality and information usefulness
(Jin et al., 2009):

H3. Quality of eWOM information is positively related to the usefulness of eWOM

information.
H4. Credibility of eWOM information is positively related to the usefulness of eWOM
information.
BL 2.4 Attitude towards information and information of need
33,1 Cheung et al. (2008) defined information adoption as the process of intentional engagement
in information. We added one more dependent variable “Attitude towards information” by
considering the TRA (Fishbein and Ajzen, 1975). Researchers investigated consumer
attitudes in a number of eWOM studies (Park et al., 2007; Prendergast et al., 2010). Two
other theories of the theory of planned behaviour’s (TPB’s) planned transport theory (Ajzen,
64 1991) and TAM (Davis et al., 1992) highlighted the relationship between attitudes and
behavioural attitudes, in addition to the TRA. Erkan and Evans (2016) explained in IACM
that people seeking for information on social media are those who perceive the information
as useful. This relationship was also validated by the study of Gökerik et al. (2018):

H5. Needs of eWOM information is positively related to the usefulness of eWOM

information.
H6. Attitude towards eWOM information is positively related to the usefulness of
eWOM information.
H7. Attitude towards eWOM information is positively related to consumers’ purchase
intention.

3. Methodology
Many studies and surveys have revealed that majority of university students use social
media. Therefore, this study collected data from students enrolled in universities of
Thailand. More specifically, the students using Facebook were only considered for this
study, and data were collected through questionnaires by using convenience sampling
technique, as the main objective of this technique is to collect information from participants
who are easily accessible to the researcher (Palinkas et al., 2015).
Constructs’ measurement scales were adopted from the valid past research literature. A
five-point Likert scale ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly disagree” was used to
measure the constructs of information quality, information credibility, information adoption,
information usefulness, need of information, attitude towards information and customer
loyalty. Measurement scales were adopted from the studies of Park et al. (2007), Prendergast
et al. (2010), Cheung et al. (2008), Bailey and Pearson (1983), Park et al. (2007). Questionnaires
was posted in 83 different Facebook groups of university students, and from these groups,
771 students responded properly. IBM SPSS and AMOS 24 were used to conduct the data
reliability, descriptive and correlation analysis, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and
structural equation modelling (SEM).

4. Results
4.1 Construct analysis
(CFA was conducted to calculate the factor loadings and validity of constructs. The
goodness of fit was measured using incremental fit index (IFI), comparative fit index (CFI),
goodness of fit index (GFI) and root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA) as fit
indices. The results shown in Table I confirm good data fit four-factor measurement model
as suggested by Hu and Bentler (1999).

4.2 Structural equation modelling (SEM)

Two-stage procedure for data analysis was used by this study, as suggested by Anderson
and Gerbing (1988). In first stage, data reliability and validity were checked, and in the
Constructs Items Loading Mean SD SMCa CR AVE
eWOM
information
Information quality IQ1 0.723 3.54 1.01 0.52 0.82 0.60
IQ2 0.806 3.52 1.00 0.65
IQ3 0.793 3.66 0.97 0.63
Information credibility IC1 0.743 3.78 0.92 0.55 0.85 0.60
IC2 0.797 3.87 0.97 0.64
IC3 0.843 3.79 1.04 0.71 65
IC4 0.704 3.63 1.03 0.50
Need of information NI1 0.663 3.48 1.09 0.44 0.70 0.50
NI2 0.705 3.59 1.09 0.50
Information adoption IA1 0.764 3.71 1.05 0.61 0.70 0.53
IA2 0.695 3.80 1.00 0.57
Information usefulness IU1 0.805 3.82 1.06 0.58 0.77 0.62
IU2 0.775 3.71 1.07 0.65
Attitude towards information AI1 0.779 3.67 1.03 0.60 0.80 0.59
AI2 0.758 3.59 1.01 0.58
AI3 0.759 3.69 0.99 0.48
Customer loyalty CL1 0.773 3.58 1.06 0.60 0.79 0.55
CL2 0.735 3.49 1.08 0.54
CL3 0.721 3.59 1.05 0.52 Table I.
Reliability and
Note: SMCa = squared multiple correlations validity analysis

second stage, study hypotheses were confirmed by testing the cause-and-effect relationship
between latent variables of the structural measurement model.

4.3 Measurement model

Before going for testing the structural measurement model, all variables and related items’
loadings were observed by conducting factor analysis. As suggested by Hair (1998), the
items having loading value less than 0.40 were dropped from the analysis. Moreover, while
calculating the average variance extracted (AVE), it was ensured that these values for each
construct should be greater than 0.50, while the correlation among variables was also less
than the cut-off value of 0.85, as suggested by Kline (2005). This study follows Hair (1998) to
check the construct reliabilities as the results reveal that the composite reliability (CR)
values are well above 0.70, as suggested by Hair (1998), (2010). According to Shook et al.
(2004), (CR and (AVE tests are mandatory before going for SEM. The results of factor
loading, descriptive, correlations, CR and AVE are shown in Tables I and II.
Correlation among variables was also less than the cut-off value of 0.85, as recommended
by Kline (2005). (Figure 2)

4.4 Structural model

The study model has seven latent variables (information quality, information credibility,
information adoption, information usefulness, need of information, attitude towards
information and customer loyalty). The estimated association between all these variables is
accredited in the structural model and collectively tested to explore the model fitness. This
study follows recommendations of Holmes-Smith et al. (2004), regarding use of fit statistics,
and absolute fit indices (AFIs), comparative fit indices (CFIs), Tucker–Lewis index (TLI),
RMSEA and X2 (degree of freedom) were used as model fit indices. The modifications or
adjustments in the model were made on the basis of these fit statistics, and the results are
shown in Table III.
BL As the results reveal that the default model fit results are showing satisfactory
33,1 model fit, and by following modification indices and correlating certain error terms,
excellent model fit was achieved as shown in Figure 3 and the results as the revised
model in Table III.

4.5 Test of hypothesis

66 To examine the hypothesised research structural model as shown in Figure 1, SEM was
applied by using AMOS 24. The results (Table IV) highlighted that all seven study
hypotheses are well supported. Information quality ( b = 0.52, p < 0.001), information
credibility ( b = 0.48, p < 0.001), need of information ( b = 0.55, p < 0.001) and attitude
towards information ( b = 0.57, p < 0.001) are significantly affecting information usefulness.

Variables Mean SD IQ IC NI AI IU IA CL

IQ 3.576 0.853 1
IC 3.769 0.828 0.653** 1
NI 3.534 0.933 0.650** 0.611** 1
AI 3.779 0.877 0.664** 0.693** 0.630** 1
IU 3.689 0.948 0.610** 0.663** 0.618** 0.639** 1
IA 3.640 0.879 0.633** 0.630** 0.531** 0.555** 0.669** 1
CL 3.553 0.891 0.713** 0.690** 0.669** 0.623** 0.625** 0.651** 1
Table II. N 771
Descriptive statistics
and correlations Note: **Correlation is significant at the 0.01 level (two-tailed)

Figure 2.
Measurement model

Index Default model Revised model Cut-off value References

X2/df 2.96 2.07 #3.00 Hayduck (1987)

CFI 0.89 0.95
0.90 Bentler and Bonett (1980)
TLI 0.88 0.93
0.90 Bentler and Bonett (1980)
Table III. AFI 0.89 0.95
0.90 Bentler and Bonett (1980)
Model fit statistics RMSEA 0.09 0.06 #0.08 Jarvenpaa (2000)
 eWOM
information

67

Figure 3.
Final structural
model

Hypotheses Estimate SE p-value Result

1: IQ!IU 0.52 0.07 *** Accepted

2: IC!IU 0.48 0.07 *** Accepted
3: NI!IU 0.55 0.08 *** Accepted
4: AI!IU 0.57 0.08 *** Accepted
5: IU!IA 0.60 0.08 *** Accepted
6: IA!CL 0.56 0.07 *** Accepted
7: AI!CL 0.52 0.07 *** Accepted Table IV.
Notes: ***p < 0.001 (IQ = information quality; IC = information credibility; NI = need of information; AI = Standardized
attitude towards information; IA= information adoption; CL = customer loyalty; IU = information coefficients for
usefulness) structural paths

This information usefulness significantly effect information adoption ( b = 0.60, p < 0.001).
Therefore, H1, H2, H3, H4 and H5 are accepted. Furthermore, the results revealed that
information adoption ( b = 0.56, p < 0.001) and attitude towards information ( b = 0.52, p <
0.001) significantly affect customer loyalty.
BL 5. Discussion and conclusion
33,1 The influence of eWOM on consumers’ loyalty has long been known by researchers Alhulail
et al. (2018), Chen et al. (2012), Karjaluoto et al. (2014), Park et al. (2007), Zhang et al. (2010). In
fact, the impact of eWOM in social media on consumers’ loyalty has also been known
(Garnefeld et al., 2011; Omar, 2009). However, this study explains the determinants of
eWOM information on social media which influence consumers’ loyalty through the tested
68 model, IACM developed by Erkan and Evans (2016). The results from the structural
equation model indicated that information quality, information credibility, need of
information and attitude towards information significantly affect information usefulness,
which significantly affect information adoption. This is also concluded by Erkan and Evans
(2016). Further, this information adoption and attitude towards information significantly
affect customer loyalty. The need, credibility, quality and attitude towards eWom
information can lead to information adoption by usefulness of information. Facebook is
trusted by several people, companies, brands, service providers and advertising agencies.
Mostly, people trust every information they get from Facebook related to any brand,
company, product or service (Alhulail et al., 2018) and customer loyalty depends upon
information adoption and attitude towards information, which is generated by information
usefulness.
This study used the IACM developed by Erkan and Evans (2016) and examined the
influence of eWOM in social media on consumers’ loyalty but claim of this study is different
from their research because they concluded that according to IACM, the influence of eWOM
information on social media not only depends on the characteristics of eWOM information,
such as quality and credibility of information, but it also depends on the consumers’
behaviour towards eWOM information. Whereas, this study found that eWOM information
on social media, besides focusing on eWOM information’s quality and credibility, also
focuses on customer loyalty.
The IACM of this study has used data of more than 750 students enrolled in different
universities of Thailand and are active users of Facebook. The results revealed many
managerial and theoretical implications. The main purpose of this study was to validate the
IACM from the perspective of customer loyalty. This study will be helpful for marketing
managers in studying the patterns of customer loyalty because many studies have
previously examined purchase behaviour or purchase intention only. Creating one-time
motivation for purchase is not an important thing, but making customer loyal and able to
purchase certain product regularly is actually a thing. eWom information on Facebook is
trusted by most people, and marketers or policy makers can design strategies for improving
quality, credibility and usefulness of information with an ultimate goal of generating
customer loyalty. This study will provide a framework to marketers for understanding the
influence of eWOM in social media on customer loyalty.

6. Future recommendations
The study has few limitations. The first limitation is of the variables that have not been
considered in this research. There are numerous variables to examine customer behavioural
intentions. In this study, we only focused on customer loyalty. Further research can
investigate the subjective or objective knowledge of customer by using IACM of Erkan and
Evans (2016). The second limitation is of sampling. The study was confined only to students
enrolled in universities of Thailand and are active users of Facebook. Future studies can
focus on users of Instagram or any other social media websites.
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Corresponding author
Tiwa Park can be contacted at: tsp.tiwa@gmail.com

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