Mediating role of hedonic and utilitarian brand attitude between eWOM and purchase intentions : a context of brand fan pages in Facebook

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to adopt stimulus-organism-response (S-O-R) theory to reveal the impact of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on buying intentions of young consumers in the presence of hedonic brand attitude (HBA) and utilitarian brand attitude (UBA) as mediators, among smartphone customers in the context of brand fan pages in Facebook. Design/methodology/approach: The paper uses a single cross-sectional design to survey a sample of 326 young online customers present in leading smartphone brand fan pages on Facebook in India. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data and replies were recorded on a Likert scale (five-point). The data was subjected to structural equation modelling for model and hypotheses testing. Findings: eWOM has a significantly positive influence on the buying intentions of the young. Both HBA and UBA partially mediate the influence of eWOM on buying intentions. Research limitations/implications: The study examines only the personal-oriented functions of attitude and does not investigate the role of social dimensions of attitudes. Its scope is confined to smartphones in the consumer electronics segment and only Facebook among social networking sites. Practical implications: A theoretical contribution to eWOM literature is made by studying it under the lens of S-O-R theory and functional theory of attitudes. Measurement of two different dimensions of attitude, i.e. hedonic and utilitarian, may facilitate managers to comprehend the source of variance in consumers’ decision-making behaviour in the online context. Originality/value: The only study to explore brand attitude as a mediator in its multi-dimensional form, in the context of social eWOM.