What is Message Valence

In the digital age, consumers have changed their roles from passive receivers of marketing messages to active information suppliers about products through various digital media. The communication between consumers which occurs online is termed electronic word of mouth (eWOM) communication. Electronic word of mouth communication is an integral part of e-commerce. With the exponential growth of internet users and their adoption of eWOM for product information, it has become important to study the factors responsible for the effectiveness of eWOM. This chapter investigates the traditional WOM and eWOM literature to explore its status. A summary of eWOM communication has been presented to summarize prior studies of eWOM which is aligned with basic communication processes. The research papers (literature) have been segregated into eight categories: WOM, eWOM, eWOM impact, source credibility, message characteristics, receiver characteristics, eWOM platform, and response after eWOM adoption. Finally, several strategies are discussed for theoretical and empirical exploration.