Establish Trust With Electronic Word-of-Mouth to Improve Brand Equity

Abstract

Electronic word-of-mouth (e-WOM) has gained popularity due to the fact that people can communicate and discuss brands through emotive expressions, remarks, and reviews regardless of their distance. The purpose and objectives of this study are to determine how e-WOM factors, such as brand image, brand awareness, and brand loyalty based on trust, influence brand equity. The study’s methodology included both qualitative and quantitative research to examine consumers’ perspectives and generalize the findings, respectively. For qualitative research on e-WOM variables, both in-depth interviews and focus groups are utilized. The next stage is to collect online responses from 410 participants and evaluate their relationships using a structural equation modeling (SEM) model. The findings suggest that content quality, the number of reviews, norm conflict, and sponsored recommendations are the characteristics that generate e-WOM and enhance the ability to establish trust in these reviews. This enhances the brand equity of digital businesses. This demonstrates the factors that managers should emphasize in order to enhance the positive effects of e-WOM and thereby increase brand equity.