Why do travelers trust TripAdvisor? Antecedents of trust towards consumer-generated media and its influence on recommendation adoption and word of mouth

The proliferation of fake and paid online reviews means that building and maintaining consumer trust is a challenging task for websites hosting consumer-generated content. This study tests a model of antecedents and consequences of trust for consumer-generated media (CGM). Five factors are proposed for building consumer trust towards CGM: source credibility, information quality, website quality, customer satisfaction, user experience with CGM. Trust is expected to predict recommendation adoption and word of mouth. Data from 366 users of CGM were analyzed through structural equation modeling and the findings show that all the aforementioned factors with the exception of source credibility and user experience influence consumer trust towards CGM. Trust towards a CGM website influences travel consumers' intentions to follow other users' recommendations and fosters positive word of mouth. Findings also show that information quality predicts source credibility, customer satisfaction, and website quality. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.