Investigating the Effects of Video-Based E-Word-of-Mouth on Consumers’ Purchase Intention: The Moderating Role of Involvement

Abstract

Short videos have been increasingly prevalent around the globe and have become an important channel for users to share product and service information and for marketers to attract potential customers. However, rarely have studies empirically examined the impact of product review videos posted on short video platforms on consumers’ purchase intention. Grounded in the elaboration likelihood model, this study proposes a research model to investigate how the product review video features (i.e., video information quality, product information visualization, video emotion polarity, and video publisher credibility) influence consumers’ purchase intention. Moreover, the moderating role of involvement (i.e., product involvement and video involvement) in the above-mentioned relationships have also been examined in this new research context. We empirically validate the research model with survey data. It is interesting to find that product information visualization and video publisher credibility are significantly and positively related to purchase intention. Video involvement negatively moderates the relationship between video publisher credibility and purchase intention. Furthermore, video emotion polarity negatively moderates the relationship between product information visualization and purchase intention. Both theoretical and practical implications are discussed.