The Paradox of Word-of-Mouth in Social Commerce: Exploring the Juxtaposed Impacts of Source Credibility and Information Quality on SWOM Spreading

This study reveals the two sides of social word of mouth (SWOM) in social commerce (s-commerce). Based on the stimulus–organism–response paradigm, this study explores the effects of SWOM quality characteristics as the environmental stimuli on individuals’ social pressure and behavioral responses. We collected data from 1,152 s-commerce users and found that source credibility can strengthen members’ psychological reactance and social risk, which consequently resist positive SWOM intention and promote negative SWOM intention, whereas the impacts of information quality differ. Moreover, we investigated the moderation role of member characteristics on their internal feelings of social pressure and SWOM intentions.