Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-2018

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Communication and Information

Major Professor

Sally J. McMillan

Committee Members

Courtney C. Childers, Ronald E. Taylor

Abstract

With the development of the internet, electronic word of mouth (eWOM) has been considered a significantly effective tool to appeal to consumers. Many previous studies have investigated eWOM, but most of them focused on textual eWOM. Thus, this study examines eWOM in the context of beauty-related videos on YouTube. The Information Adoption Model is used to test whether those videos influence cosmetics purchase intention of consumers. This study conducted an online survey of 427 female millennials. The collected data was analyzed by Partial Least Square (PLS) regression. The results confirmed that information quality and source credibility were the important determinants of perceived information usefulness which significantly and positively influenced information adoption and purchase intention. Moreover, this study also supported the extended vision about the relationship between information quality and source credibility in the context of the elaboration likelihood model (ELM). Based on the results, theoretical and practical implications are highlighted.

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