Volume 39, Issue 3, May 2023, Pages 1186–1199
Eric Noel Anaba Ehongo1
1 Marketing department, University of Douala – ESSEC de Douala, Douala, Cameroon
Original language: English
Copyright © 2023 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
The objective of this research is to understand the role of perceived organizational justice on the credibility of electronic word of mouth in brand communities. Based on a theoretical model built from the literature on the concepts of electronic word of mouth, organizational justice, and engagement in branded virtual communities, this research mobilizes a hypothetico-deductive empirical approach and structural equation methodology to evaluate the role of electronic word of mouth on consumer engagement, under the moderating influence of organizational justice. The results indicate positive effects of electronic word of mouth content and quality, and no effect of quantitative word of mouth. Furthermore, the moderating effect of perceived organizational justice on the influence of word of mouth is established. Therefore, it is recommended that managers of branded virtual communities take into consideration the credibility of the brand in its social engagements in order to benefit from a positive electronic word of mouth that can foster consumers’ online engagement.
Author Keywords: Electronic word of mouth, virtual brand community, consumer engagement, organizational justice, structural equations.
Eric Noel Anaba Ehongo1
1 Marketing department, University of Douala – ESSEC de Douala, Douala, Cameroon
Original language: English
Copyright © 2023 ISSR Journals. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Abstract
The objective of this research is to understand the role of perceived organizational justice on the credibility of electronic word of mouth in brand communities. Based on a theoretical model built from the literature on the concepts of electronic word of mouth, organizational justice, and engagement in branded virtual communities, this research mobilizes a hypothetico-deductive empirical approach and structural equation methodology to evaluate the role of electronic word of mouth on consumer engagement, under the moderating influence of organizational justice. The results indicate positive effects of electronic word of mouth content and quality, and no effect of quantitative word of mouth. Furthermore, the moderating effect of perceived organizational justice on the influence of word of mouth is established. Therefore, it is recommended that managers of branded virtual communities take into consideration the credibility of the brand in its social engagements in order to benefit from a positive electronic word of mouth that can foster consumers’ online engagement.
Author Keywords: Electronic word of mouth, virtual brand community, consumer engagement, organizational justice, structural equations.
How to Cite this Article
Eric Noel Anaba Ehongo, “eWOM quantity, eWOM quality, eWOM content, and consumer engagement in virtual brand community, the moderating role of perceived organizational justice: The case of MTN Cameroon,” International Journal of Innovation and Applied Studies, vol. 39, no. 3, pp. 1186–1199, May 2023.
