Effects of Electronic Word - of - Mouth Messages

With the increased usage of online technologies, there has been an escalation of Electronic Word - of –Mouth (eWOM) messages related to sport products and services offered and consumed. Therefore, in this original investigation by applying eWOM to the sport industry, this study examined how the combination of the quality of the eWOM message and the provider of the eWOM message affects purchaseintentions depending on the expertise level of the consumer. This study – which involved the collection of data from 134 students at a large university situated in the Midwest of the United States – utilized repeated measures of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) with tripartite groups of expertise and experimental conditions as independent variables. Purchase intention was the dependent variables. The results indicated that the quality of the eWOM message moderated the effect of the provider of the eWOM message. The subject’s level of expertise also had a moderating role on purchase intention.