Journal of Research in Interactive Marketing

The quality of word-of-mouth in the online shopping mall

HyeKyoung Kim Jihoon Song
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HyeKyoung Kim Jihoon Song, (2010),"The quality of word-of-mouth in the online shopping mall", Journal of
Research in Interactive Marketing, Vol. 4 Iss 4 pp. 376 - 390
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Christy M.K. Cheung, Matthew K.O. Lee, Neil Rabjohn, (2008),"The impact of electronic word-of-mouth:
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Jillian C. Sweeney, Geoffrey N. Soutar, Tim Mazzarol, (2008),"Factors influencing word of mouth
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JRIM
4,4 The quality of word-of-mouth
in the online shopping mall
HyeKyoung Kim and Jihoon Song
376 Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, Oklahoma, USA

Received May 2010

Revised August 2010
Accepted August 2010
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Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationships among the quality of
word-of-mouth (WOM), online trust, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and online shopping
intention in the online shopping mall. This study presented participation and response of others on

bulletin boards or product review sections as the factors that affect the quality of WOM through
literature review.
Design/methodology/approach – A theoretical review and an empirical study were conducted and
the hypotheses were tested through the empirical analysis.
Findings – The paper finds that participation and response of others on bulletin board or product
review section have positive effects on the quality of WOM. It was revealed that the quality of WOM
has positive effects on online trust, and online trust has positive effects on perceived usefulness,
shopping intension and perceived ease of use. In addition, the results demonstrated that perceived ease
of use and perceived usefulness have positive effects on shopping intention.
Originality/value – Many studies on online shopping malls are mostly focused on the effects of
following the action by positive or negative WOM. This study examines the factors that determine the
quality of online WOM, and it seeks to examine the effects of such WOM on the following actions such
as online trust and purchase intention.
Keywords Trust, Electronic commerce, Consumer behaviour, Internet shopping
Paper type Research paper

Introduction
A web site is an aggregate of information stored in the web server to provide the
information to users whenever needed on the internet. The gateway to the internet is
simply referred to as a “site” that commonly consists of the homepage address. There are
many sites that list the names of the sites according to subject, which is called the internet
“portal site”. On the other hand, an online shopping mall, which is a type of electronic
commerce, is a system that consists of computer hardware and software to allow the
consumer to communicate with the other party in the virtual market through the internet
and it has been rapidly growing since the mid-1990s. The growth of online shopping malls
further accelerated through the advantageous such as competitive price, greater access to
information, product quality and time to receive product (Keeney, 1999). Although such
growth is a new opportunity for companies, the competition among companies has
become fiercer as they entered the online shopping mall market and they are being
requested with differentiated marketing strategies for their advancement and growth.
Journal of Research in Interactive Accordingly, the behaviors of consumers that are purchasers must be thoroughly
Marketing analyzed to put forth the effort to establish amicable relation in order to succeed in the
Vol. 4 No. 4, 2010
pp. 376-390 fierce online shopping market.
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited Maintaining a relationship with customers is a financially important issue for
2040-7122
DOI 10.1108/17505931011092844 companies. It is especially, the case for online companies that require more costs to
 acquire new customers than traditional companies (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000). Many WOM in online
researchers have sought to find answers for such issues and have revealed that trust is shopping
important in acquiring new customers and continuously maintaining the relationship
with the existing customers (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000).
The lack of trust in online transactions prevents the purchase by the consumer and
will have negative effects on the online word-of-mouth (WOM). This is the reason that
online companies are utilizing a WOM system to develop the trust. 377
WOM plays an important role in consumer behavior because WOM affects the
purchase and experience of other consumers by conveying the consumption experience
of others, namely, the experience of satisfaction/dissatisfaction after the purchase
(Kim, 2007). In fact, WOM is being accepted as an important factor that affects the
consumers’ attitudes and behavior (Brown and Reingen, 1987), and Katz and Lazarsfeld
(1955) found that WOM was the most important source of influence in the purchase of
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household goods and food products.

The consumers of online shopping will perceive a higher purchase risk than that of the
off-line shopping since the purchase occurs in virtual space rather than face-to-face with
the seller. They will accordingly rely more on WOM information to reduce the purchase
risk, and many people will end up researching the product reviews or consultation
contents on the bulletin board before they make purchases; as well as actively carrying out
WOM information such as seeking advice from the administrator or other users.
The most important thing for consumers would be the value and reliability of the
information whether provided by the online companies or as WOM information by the
consumers who actually purchased the products. Namely, it can be said that the quality
of WOM is an important issue for consumers.
In recent, there are many online shopping malls in operation, as the size of the online
market expanded and became revitalized. Accordingly, consumers are able to receive
better quality and service benefits by referring to WOM information within the shopping
malls, but they also make the mistake of purchasing low-quality products due to
false information or exaggerated information by the online shopping mall manager.
Therefore, consumers will make their final purchase decision, as they compare and
review whether the shopping malls are providing accurate and current information and
whether the WOM information posted is reliable. Therefore, it can be said that the
purchase behavior, loyalty, and trust of consumers will vary according to the quality of
online WOM information.
Therefore, understanding the effects of these factors on consumer behavior by
examining the factors that determine online WOM quality would be a very meaningful
study. However, many studies on online WOM (Son and Eo, 2008; Kim, 2006; Herr et al.,
1991) are mostly focused on the effects of following the action by positive or negative
WOM. Therefore, this study examines the factors that determine the quality of online
WOM, and it seeks to examine the effects of such WOM on the following actions such as
online trust and purchase intention. This study addresses the following research
questions:
RQ1. What are the factors that determine the quality of WOM about the online
shopping mall?
RQ2. What effects will WOM have on the trust formation of the online shopping
mall?
 JRIM RQ3. What effects will the trust formed through WOM concerning the online
shopping mall have on perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness and online
4,4 shopping intention?
RQ4. What effects will perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use have on
online shopping intention?
378 Literature review and hypothesis development
The quality of online WOM
It can be said that the trust of online shopping malls is a conviction that the online
environment in which the transaction occurs is safe, the information provided is
accurate and the product and services meet the customer expectations, and the faith of
users that seek to continuously trust and rely on these transactions (Heu, 2008).
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Since the physical evidences that form trust (physical building, facility, and sales
staff) are lacking and it is difficult to actually evaluate the product, the online shopping
consumers end up relying only on the sight and sound that can be sensed through the
computer monitor (Yoon, 2002). Accordingly, forming online trust is a difficult issue.
However, the consumer’s time for the efforts needed in examining, monitoring,
controlling the situation and making decisions is reduced when the consumer trusts
the seller. On the other hand, the consumer needs to not only focus on every part of the
purchase process, but also invest much time and effort when the level of trust of online
shopping mall is low.
According to Assael (1995), consumers carry out WOM action to obtain market
information or to make a buying decision, especially consumers rely more on WOM as
they perceive higher risks (Richins and Shaffer, 1987), and they will end up relying further
on WOM information since purchases occur in online shopping not through direct
face-to-face interactions but on a virtual space and there is a higher purchase risk than
off-line shopping. That is why many people actively search for WOM information such as
by browsing through the reviews on the bulletin board before they make a decision or seek
advice from the administrator or other users. Accordingly, it can be said that new
information is created and spread, as people actively participate in the community such as
on the bulletin board and review section to speak and share information. On the other
hand, it can be said that the opportunity for consumers to obtain the latest and better
WOM information is decreased if the user participation on the bulletin board is low and it
has not become active. Ultimately, the shopping mall in which various communities are
active will receive the attention from many consumers and they will think it is more
reliable than the community without much activity.
Kwon (2007) stated that people first consider the online site or shopping mall with
many members or many reviews when selecting an online site or shopping mall.
Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:
H1. Participation on bulletin boards or product review sections of the online
shopping mall will have positive effects on WOM quality.
Responsive participation of others on a web site is a factor that allows people to feel a
social sense of existence and social support, and a posting is perceived as a type of
conversation; therefore, it can be said that this is also an effective communication.
In addition, responsive participation allows people to feel an online social sense of
existence (Awad and Ragowsky, 2008).
 In traditional WOM, the number of messages was studied as a major variable that WOM in online
precedes the WOM effect (Bone, 1995). Elliott (2002) also presented the level of agreement
by other consumers as the criteria for reliability in online WOM. Namely, it states that
shopping
consumers consider the opinions of other consumers as the criteria for reliability. It states
that the level of reliability increases in the case of many replies or postings of the same
opinion by many people. Therefore, the responsive participation on others’ writings in
online WOM will have a positive effect on the WOM quality perceived by consumers. 379
Kwon (2007) stated that instant responses indicate the significant interest in the product,
service, or issue. The risk is corrected and its positive aspect can be discovered when
active debates and discussions occur. One’s own value can be formed within a short
period of time on such things as product or service issue in real-time by coming in contact
with new posts moment by moment.
There is a tendency among people to believe something that is believed by the
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majority of people – even if it is not true (Chiou and Cheng, 2003). The number of
messages based on such agreement becomes very important information in the online
environment in which a large quantity of information needs to be processed. Therefore,
the following hypothesis was set based on the above discussion:
H2. Response of others on bulletin boards or product review sections will have
positive effects on WOM quality.

WOM quality and trust of the online shopping mall

The trust for the online shopping mall is a conviction that the online environment in
which transactions occur is safe for transactions, and the information provided is
accurate and the product and service meet the expectation of customers. In other words,
it is the faith of users for continuous trust and dependence (Heu, 2008).
The focus of online WOM is on the communication based on product-related
information and information sharing. Conclusively, the perception of WOM quality is
based on the communication effect perceived by users through WOM. If consumers
perceive that the exchange of specific information related to product is helpful in their
decision-making, the online retailers will be perceived as more competent and friendly.
This will ultimately become a factor for forming online trust. Therefore, it is thought that
WOM quality will have positive effects on trust for shopping mall.
In fact, the studies on WOM quality and online trust (Heu, 2008; Awad and
Ragowsky, 2008) explain that there is a positive relationship between the two variables.
Therefore, the following hypothesis was developed, based on the above discussion:
H3. Online WOM quality in the online shopping mall will have positive effects on
online trust.
Online trust and perceived ease of use, perceived usefulness, shopping intention
Technology acceptance model (TAM) has been receiving much attention in the area of
information systems because of its focus on system use. However, it has been recently
applied in the extensive area of information technology including e-commerce.
For example, Gefen and Straub (2000) researched the effects of perceived usefulness and
the acceptance of e-commerce, and Chen et al. (2002) studied the effects of perceived
usefulness on consumer purchase behavior in the virtual store. Therefore, TAM can be
applied to predict consumer behavior in the online environment even though it was
developed for technology acceptance and use prediction.
 JRIM TAM originated from the theory of reasonable action, and perceived usefulness and
4,4 perceived ease of use are core factors in TAM. More recently, there have been many
empirical and theoretical studies that combined TAM variables and trust.
Chircu et al. (2000) argued that trust in an e-commerce intermediary increased
perceived ease of use. With the development of more and more web-based technologies
and the growth in web content, the structure of a web site becomes more complex
380 (Lee and Shiu, 2004). That is why, the ease of use will be important for consumers that
seek to use the online shopping mall.
The customers will prefer the sites that are easier and more convenient to use since the
web site takes on the role of seller in the case of the online shopping mall. To purchase
products online, basic efforts are needed, such as visiting the shopping mall to search
the products and information as well as related reviews and learning how to use the
shopping mall. These efforts could be considered by some people as an irritating task
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upon recognizing it as a process of learning something new. However, the consumer will
develop the will to willingly accept such processes when the consumer ends up trusting
that the online shopping mall is providing the information and products with sufficient
value and it will reduce the perception of such inconvenience. When trust is formed, the
effort and time are not needed in a transaction, such as the operating method or
the method of searching information in the online shopping malls. This is consistent with
the opinion of Ring and van de Ven (1994). Namely, it was said that the transaction cost
such as time and effort will reduce when they trust the other party.
In the early TAM by Davis (1986), the perceived usefulness was defined as the “size
of subjective evaluation of individual on the usefulness provided by new IT in the
situation related to particular task”. The perceived usefulness of an online shopping
environment refers to the tendency of the user according to the level of trust in the
online shopping mall (Davis, 1989).
The online shopping mall that develops the consumers’ trust can allow them to find
the product information or order products at the site. This will become more difficult if
the capabilities of the online shopping mall is lacking, the online shopping mall is
dishonest or it does not effectively manage the consumers. Trust in the online shopping
mall is developed by providing what was promised. Accordingly, trust plays a role in
the size of subjective assurance that the online shopping mall will act on and handle the
task as promised. On the other hand, the transaction with an online shopping mall that
is not trusted will cause bad results such as the decrease in usefulness. Consequently,
the transaction itself with online shopping mall is beneficial in the relation of mutual
trust (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000).
The online trust can increase the perceived usefulness of the web site (Chircu et al.,
2000; Gefen et al., 2003). The usefulness of the web site depend on the efficiency of
technological characteristics such as advanced search engines and the personal service of
providing service to consumers through the web site even though there is no direct contact
with the consumers. From this perspective, the benefit of the online shopping mall can be
classified into two types: the usefulness of technology itself and the benefit obtained by
receiving the product through ordering. When providing honest and convenient product
search functions, purchase support service as expected by consumers and receiving
products and services from the online shopping mall that effectively processes the tasks,
the consumer’s trust in the web site will increase (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000).
Namely, positive effects on the perceived usefulness is expected when the online shopping
 mall is honest as well as the consumer trusts the information provided and the handling WOM in online
process: shopping
H4. Online trust in the online shopping mall will have positive effects on perceived
ease of use.
H5. Online trust in the online shopping mall will have positive effects on perceived
usefulness. 381
Lack of trust prevents consumers from engaging in online transactions (Hoffman et al.,
1999). On the contrary, trust establishes a positive attitude towards the online retailer
and reduces the fear in online system use.
A high level of trust, such as a special faith in the other party of a transaction, is
related to a high use intention. In general, trust is an important factor for predicting
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participation in the relation of transactions, and trust can become an important

preceding factor for predicting online participation since it further reduces the concern
that the online shopping mall will behave in a selfish way (Reichheld and Schefter, 2000).
Trust has been empirically validated as an important predictor of intended web site
use by online shoppers (Gefen et al., 2003). In fact, many researchers (Gefen et al., 2003;
McKnight et al., 2002; Song and Zahedi, 2002) point out that online trust is an
important factor in determining intention to transact:
H6. Online trust will have positive effects on shopping intention.

Perceived ease of use, shopping intentions, perceived usefulness

Previous studies (Igbaria et al., 1997; Gefen and Straub, 2000; Venkatesh and Davis,
2000) have proved that there is a positive relationship between perceived usefulness
and perceived ease of use with acceptance of IT, and such result is effective also in the
use of the internet technology (Lederer et al., 1999; Gefen and Straub, 2000).
Consumers will willingly make the purchase if the online shopping mall provides
useful information needed in their purchase decision-making process. In fact, there are
many study results that show the positive effects of perceived usefulness on shopping
intention (Davis, 1989; Venkatesh and Davis, 1996; Jackson et al., 1997). In addition, the
ease of the purchasing process and information search will have positive effects on the
purchasing behaviors of consumers. Many researchers have verified the effects of
perceived ease of use on shopping intention (Davis, 1989; Agarwal and Prasad, 1999;
Venkatesh, 1999). As was the case with prior study results, perceived usefulness and
perceived ease of use are expected to have positive effects on shopping intention:
H7. Perceived ease of use will have positive effects on shopping intention
H8. Perceived usefulness will have positive effects on shopping intention.

Methodology
Measure development
The participation on the bulletin boards or product review sections refers to the level of
participation in using these resources for the purpose of sharing opinions and listening to
others’ opinions. It was measured using the three items presented by Mun (2007), using a
five-point Likert scale. The response of others on the bulletin boards or product review
sections shows to the level of response by others to one’s review. To measure this,
 JRIM the questionnaires based on the study by Awad and Ragowsky (2008) and Mun (2007)
4,4 were revised and supplemented according to the purpose of this study. The WOM
quality in the online shopping mall has been defined as the level of providing information
that is helpful in shopping by the product reviews. And it was measured using the
five items presented by Awad and Ragowsky (2008) and Heu (2008), using a five-point
Likert scale.
382 The trust in the online shopping mall shows the level of faith because it is not being
opportunistic, but providing good products and services. It was measured using the
three items presented by Heu (2008) and Mun (2007), using a five-point Likert scale.
The perceived usefulness shows the level of usefulness of the related product
information search and purchase. The items to measure this were based on the study by
Gefen et al. (2003). Perceived ease of use shows the level of utilizing various contents
related to purchase without special effort or difficulty, and the items to measure this were
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based on the study by Gefen et al. (2003). Shopping intention has been defined as the level
of wanting to purchase products at the online shopping mall, and the items to measure
shopping intention were based on the studies on the application of TAM (Venkatesh and
Davis, 1996; Agarwal and Prasad, 1999) and Lee (2003).

Data collection and sample

Data used in this study were collected using a questionnaire with question items obtained
through an earlier investigation of the literature. The survey participants were those who
have purchased things using the online shopping mall. Prior to conducting a survey,
consumers’ purchase experiences using in online shopping mall were examined and the
survey was stopped for the consumers that do not have purchase experiences. The online
shopping malls are generally classified as open market, individual shopping mall, sales
through community and general mall, but the classification according to type was not
applied in this study. The survey was conducted for the consumers with the experience of
purchasing products through online shopping malls and writing product reviews
online for their purchases. In addition, examples of online shopping malls were presented
(www.auction.co.kr, www.interpark.com, www.ebay.com) for their benefit. They were
instructed to respond by choosing one particular shopping mall that is the most
memorable and the most frequently used. The sample collection period was about two
months from April 16, 2009 to June 10, 2009, and a total of 400 copies of the questionnaire
were distributed; 378 were returned. Among them, 43 survey questionnaires were
excluded as they included errors such as unfilled parts or insufficient responses, thereby
leaving 335 copies that were used for empirical analysis.

Measures
Reliability of the constructs was estimated by Cronbach’s alpha (Table I). Cronbach’s
alphas for all constructs were above the recommended 0.7 level (Nunnally, 1978).
Therefore, we concluded that all constructs in the model had adequate reliability. Also,
correlation analysis results, presented in Table I, show that there were significant
correlations among seven variables.
For the factor analysis method, this study carried out the principal component analysis
with an aim to reduce the numerous variables to the smallest possible number of factors
while checking the loss of information as much as possible. This technique is universally
used for securing discriminant validity among construct validities. For factor rotation,
 the author adopted orthogonal rotation, a rotating method to keep mutual independence WOM in online
between factors. The results of the exploratory factor analysis are shown in Table II. shopping
As shown in Table II, there were seven factors. WOM quality was classified into five
items; online trust, three items; online community response four items; perceived
usefulness, four items; and online community vitalization, three items.

Hypothesis tests
383
Structural equation modeling analysis was performed using LISREL 8.80 ( Jöreskog and
Sörbom, 2006). While the fitness of the overall measurement model was estimated using
various indices provided by LISREL results, the x 2-statistic was not used because of its
sensitivity to a large sample size. Instead, many researchers have proposed that it needs
to be assessed using an overall fitness of the structural model (Fassinger, 1987; Marsh
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et al., 1988). This study considered the goodness-of-fit index (GFI), incremental fit index
(IFI), x 2/df, and comparative fit index (CFI) (see Table III).
x 2/df value was 2.78, which satisfies the 3.0 recommended value. In the absolute fit
index, GFI is perceived as an index that shows the representativeness among various
indices and it was shown as 0.87 in this study. RMSEA was 0.06, which satisfied the
recommended value. In addition, IFI and CFI were both 0.91 also in the IFI, thereby
satisfying the recommended value.
The result of the hypothesis test showed that the participation on bulletin boards or
product review sections of online shopping malls had positive effects on WOM quality;
therefore, H1 was adopted. This result is consistent with the study results of Richins and
Shaffer (1987). Such result means that the activities of referring to the bulletin board and
asking questions to hear others’ opinions during online shopping have positive effects on
WOM quality.
It was revealed that responses by others on bulletin boards or product review sections
have positive effects on WOM quality; thus, H2 was adopted. This is consistent with the
results reported by Awad and Ragowsky (2008) and Elliott (2002). High response means
much interest from many people, and it can be said that such interest contributes to the
improvement of WOM quality.
As it was revealed that online WOM quality has positive effects on online trust, H3 was
adopted. This is consistent with the results reported by Heu (2008) and Awad and
Ragowsky (2008). This means that the consumers will trust the online shopping mall more
when there are more product reviews and the online shopping mall provides sufficiently
more information.

S. no. Variables M SD 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

1. Participation 2.76 0.73 (0.74)

2. Response of others 2.40 0.72 0.58 (0.88)
3. Online WOM quality 3.61 0.62 0.51 0.34 (0.90)
4. Online trust 3.01 0.56 0.32 0.19 0.37 (0.72) Table I.
5. Online shopping intention 2.99 0.51 0.39 0.25 0.42 0.58 (0.76) Means, standard
6. PEOU 3.51 0.54 0.24 0.14 0.32 0.42 0.49 (0.80) deviations, reliabilities,
7. PU 3.33 0.54 0.27 0.16 0.46 0.36 0.51 0.55 (0.86) and correlations
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4,4

384
JRIM

Table II.
Factor analysis results
Online Response of Perceived Perceived Online shopping
Variable WOM others ease of use usefulness Participation Online trust intention

Use review was helpful 0.87015 0.19242 0.07577 0.12742 0.07931 0.01926 0.07820
Usefulness of using a review 0.85822 0.10302 0.12064 0.14751 0.15623 0.01324 0.06473
Useful information provision 0.81870 0.05611 0.04533 0.09113 0.20115 0.13339 0.20733
Use review helped selection 0.75871 0.08732 0.16972 0.08950 0.20102 0.15797 0.09783
Appropriateness of review 0.72288 0.10379 2 0.04648 0.27636 20.03194 0.09184 0.10046
Quickly received reply 0.07984 0.88649 0.07488 20.00652 0.11157 0.08133 0.06824
Many replies on the post 0.07630 0.88012 0.05423 0.11768 0.10031 0.06667 0.01079
Active replies 0.18539 0.79971 2 0.01667 20.06233 0.25349 20.04990 0.04052
Evaluated my writing 0.11645 0.77905 0.05413 0.11576 0.17220 0.07869 2 0.00396
Easy web site operation 0.14225 0.02505 0.87083 0.15292 20.01714 0.08802 0.12845
Easily obtained use method 0.13783 0.08804 0.84968 0.16016 20.00734 0.20156 0.09901
Clear interaction method 0.06009 0.06844 0.73908 0.09470 0.10623 0.04577 0.10138
Easy to use 0.14310 20.00885 0.70178 0.32328 0.05841 0.15385 0.22251
Ease of info search, purchase 0.15103 0.00400 0.17438 0.84464 0.10270 0.00895 0.08659
Info search quickness 0.11400 0.13850 0.06605 0.76535 0.04392 0.05680 0.18337
Info search, purchase usefulness 0.17536 0.04115 0.29099 0.72866 20.00553 0.09532 0.10720
Easy customer review info search 0.31284 20.01012 0.22384 0.54753 20.03674 0.06117 0.22049
Asked opinion through bulletin board 0.04010 0.27440 0.11002 20.13638 0.76879 0.07933 0.03016
Advised through bulletin board 0.21175 0.14462 2 0.03872 0.10055 0.76098 0.02534 0.11301
Advised on product purchase 0.25516 0.28161 0.05996 0.17005 0.69209 0.10192 0.00323
Good customer management 0.09334 0.03934 0.19997 20.02247 20.04571 0.80804 0.04233
Not opportunistic 0.09443 0.12629 0.04947 0.13598 0.05519 0.79201 2 0.06433
Good service provision 0.11904 20.00629 0.15845 0.07197 0.23416 0.71035 0.26054
Has repurchase intention 0.13283 0.04556 0.15248 0.16777 0.03546 20.05266 0.82741
Has purchase intention 0.15794 0.07699 0.21410 0.15964 20.01354 0.14281 0.75312
Likes to purchase at the
shopping mall 0.24603 20.03479 0.17998 0.32134 0.29632 0.16409 0.61729
Eigen value 3.7965201 3.1125253 2.9398831 2.6929886 2.0562444 2.0139609 1.9870456
Variance explanatory
proportion (%) 14.5 11.9 11.2 10.3 7.8 7.7 7.6
Note: Numbers in italic indicate loading coefficients for items in each construct
 WOM in online
Goodness-of-fit measure Recommended valuea Goodness-of-fit of the study model
shopping
x 2/df #3.00 2.78
GFI $0.90 0.87
RMSEA #0.10 0.06
IFI $0.90 0.91
CFI $0.90 0.91 385
AGFI $0.80 0.82
Notes: DF, degree of freedom; GFI, goodness of fit index; RMSEA, root mean squared error of Table III.
approximation; IFI, incremental fit index; CFI, comparative fit index; AGFI, adjusted goodness-of-fit Goodness-of-fit result of
index; arecommended values have been adapted from Henry and Stone (1994) the study model
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H4 proposes that trust has positive effects on perceived ease of use. This hypothesis was
supported. This result is consistent with the results of previous studies (Gefen, 1997;
Gefen and Straub, 2002). A strict personal identification process and purchase process
accompany online transactions because of security issues. When trust is formed between
the buyer and supplier, the consumer would buy products even at inconvenience.
It was revealed that online trust has positive effects on perceived usefulness; thus, H5
was adopted. This is consistent with the result of study by Gefen et al. (2003) and it
signifies that the perceived usefulness of the shopping mall also increases as the
information provided by the online shopping mall is reliable and the consumers trust
their purchases at the shopping mall. Online trust was found to have positive effects on
shopping intention; therefore, H6 was also adopted. Such result is consistent with the
results of Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky (1999), Gefen et al. (2003) and McKnight et al. (2002).
Such result means that the intention to purchase at the shopping mall increases as the
trust in the online shopping mall increases.
Perceived ease of use was shown to have positive effects on shopping intention,
supporting H7. This is consistent with the results of Davis (1989) and Agarwal and
Prasad (1999). Such result means that the intention to purchase at the shopping mall
increases as the perceived ease of use increases.
Furthermore, perceived usefulness demonstrated positive effects on shopping
intention, providing support for H8. This is consistent with the study results of Davis
(1989) and Venkatesh and Davis (2000). It can be known that the shopping intention
increases as the consumers perceive that the online shopping mall is providing support
to make the product search and purchase easier. Table IV presents a summary of the
hypothesis testing.

Discussion and conclusion

Trust is most important in online transactions. That is why, online companies are
making various efforts to build and maintain trust. WOM quality has been presented in
this study as a factor for customer trust.
Although existing studies examined the effects of online WOM direction on purchase
intention, purchase behavior, and trust, the studies on WOM quality were lacking.
The following is the result of this study. The WOM quality increased as the participation
and response of others on the bulletin board or product review writing increased. There
was a positive relationship between the online WOM quality and the online shopping
 JRIM mall trust, and there was a positive relationship between the online shopping mall trust
4,4 and the perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and shopping intention. In addition, it
was revealed that the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use had positive effects
on shopping intention. It can be said that trust in the online shopping mall is most
important since transactions occur in virtual space. Accordingly, there is a need to
manage WOM quality as an important means to form trust. In addition, it was revealed
386 that consumers not only recognize the shopping mall as a useful site, but also recognize it
as convenient to use when a relationship of trust has been formed between the online
shopping mall and customer, thereby developing the intention to purchase products
from the shopping mall. In addition, it was revealed that they end up developing the
intention of making purchases at the shopping mall if it provides useful information
related to shopping.
The followings are implications of this study presented based on the study result
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discussed earlier.
In general, WOM occurred through the face-to-face contact between the speaker and
receiver within limited space. Accordingly, companies have considered managing WOM
difficult. However, companies are now able to support and promote WOM activities of
consumers in the online environment and the online companies have been recently using
it as a major marketing tool (Kwon, 2007). Consumers are also utilizing WOM as a major
information source in the purchase decision making. Since the WOM quality of online
shopping malls has positive effects on the trust in online shopping malls as shown in the
study result, the WOM quality needs to be managed in the online shopping mall.
In addition, it needs to be kept in mind that the activities such as the consumers
participating to find information and writing on the product review sections and bulletin
boards have positive effects on the WOM quality. First of all, there should be a strategy
for encouraging more product reviews in the shopping mall. For example, there is a need
to implement “writing a review event” and “writing replies campaign”. However, what is
important here is not the quantity but the quality of the product reviews. It should be
encouraged for accurate and relevant information related to the product rather than
simply enticing for more review writings and others reading the reviews.
Another implication can be found in the fact that the online trust increases the
perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use. Trust is one of the important factors that
determine the perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use in the online environment.
The reason for this is because trust plays the role of assurance in obtaining the

Hypothesis Estimates t-value Results

H1 : participation on bulletin boards of product review

sections ! online WOM quality 0.50 5.81 Supported
H2 : response of others on bulletin boards or product reviews
sections ! online WOM quality 0.14 2.80 Supported
H3 : online WOM quality ! online trust 0.45 6.19 Supported
H4 : online trust ! PEOU 0.67 6.90 Supported
H5 : online trust ! PU 0.63 6.15 Supported
Table IV. H6 : online trust ! online shopping intention 0.34 2.52 Supported
Summary of H7 : PEOU ! online shopping intention 0.18 2.65 Supported
hypothesis testing H8 : PU ! online shopping intention 0.32 3.10 Supported
 usefulness expected by the consumers in the online environment (Gefen, 1997). If sales WOM in online
staff has effects on the perceived usefulness of shopping malls in the traditional shopping
shopping environment, the consumer will prefer the shopping mall that is easy to use
and that provides useful information and that allows a convenient search for purchase
information in the online environment since the web site takes on the role of the seller.
The consumers will easily move to other competitors if they do not perceive which
shopping mall is more useful since many online shopping malls that sell similar products 387
compete in the online market. Accordingly, it is suggested that efforts should be made to
allow the consumers to first develop trust in the shopping mall in order to increase the
perception of usefulness.
The last thing is that the online trust, perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use
have positive effects on the purchase intention. Jarvenpaa and Tractinsky (1999) stated
that trust plays the role in promoting the purchase intention on the internet and
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considered it as a success factor for the internet shopping mall. As an act of trusting and
relying upon the seller at the internet shopping mall, trust reduces the risk of consumers
and the consumers end up developing a positive feeling towards the internet. Once the
consumers develop trust in the online shopping mall, their fear disappears and they have
intention to purchase. Accordingly, the online shopping mall administrator needs to first
make efforts to form trust with customers. For example, the administrator needs to
kindly respond to consumer questions at the Q&A bulletin board and make efforts to
allow on-time delivery and ask for the understanding of the consumer beforehand when
the promise cannot be kept in order to firmly establish a sense of trust. In addition, the
administrator needs to remember that the purchase intention will increase when the
consumers perceive that they are being provided with the support for information
searching and purchasing process. The fact that consumers have the intention of
purchasing at a certain shopping mall indicates that they have the perception that the
shopping mall is very useful in purchasing products online. Accordingly, efforts are
needed to supplement the search system to allow consumers to more quickly and easily
find information related to product.
This study result presents the guideline on how online shopping malls can establish
trust and will have positive effects on the purchase intention of consumers. The online
shopping mall managers must keep in mind that various and sufficient product reviews
have positive effects on the trust of the shopping mall and trust also has positive effects
on the shopping intention, perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness.
As for the limitations of this study, the respondents were asked to respond to the
survey by selecting an online shopping mall through which they have made purchases
in the past. Accordingly, there was the difficulty of having to remember and recollect
the emotions or thoughts that they had at that time.
In addition, there was the limitation of generalizing the study results since the majority
of the respondents were in their 20s. There is a need to select respondents in consideration
of various factors such as age, culture, and education level. Therefore, there is a need for
studies that supplement such factors. Also this study was limited to cross-sectional
analysis due to the limitation in the data collection. A more meaningful study is possible
by using not only cross-sectional data but also time-series data for every social
phenomenon. Accordingly, there is a need to supplement this in the following study.
Some limitations of this study provide a basis for further expanded investigation of the
online environment. First, it is thought that also examining the effects of WOM quality on
 JRIM the actual purchase behavior will be meaningful even though this study only examined
4,4 the effects of WOM quality on online trust, perceived usefulness, and perceived ease of
use. Since the online trust might not lead to actual behavior, there is a need to verify it
through empirical analysis. Second, more variables need to be tested in the following
studies even though this study only presented two factors that have effects on WOM
quality, namely, online community vitalization and response. The reason is that various
388 variables can appear since the online environment is a fast-changing one. Third, the
products were not classified in this study but the study result is expected to change
according to the product characteristics. For example, it is thought that examining the
changes in consumer behaviors by classifying the products into high-involvement
products and low-involvement products will be also beneficial. Fourth, the consumers that
participate in the online shopping mall bulletin board or product review section to leave
positive and negative messages were not separately divided when defining their
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participation level. The reason for this was because the activities such as writing
messages in the bulletin board or the product review section to present dissatisfaction on
delivery, product and service were presumed to have positive effects on the WOM quality
of the shopping mall and such negative information can be utilized by other consumers for
evaluating the shopping mall. Accordingly, there is a need to examine the effects of
consumer responses by dividing the participation into positive and negative responses.
Finally, the online shopping mall was not limited to a specific market in this study but it is
expected that different results will appear if the study is conducted for a different type of
shopping mall. Accordingly, it is considered that classifying online shopping malls
according to types and verifying the differences in the result of responses according to
type in the following study will be beneficial.

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About the authors

HyeKyoung Kim is a Visiting Research Scholar at Oklahoma State University, USA.
Her research interests include industrial marketing, consumer behavior, and electronic
marketing. HyeKyoung Kim is the corresponding author and can be contacted at: hyekyoung.
kim@okstate.edu
Jihoon Song is an Assistant Professor at Oklahoma State University, USA. His research
interests include organizational behaviors, organizational performance, structural education
modeling and measurement theory.

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