Electronic word-of-mouth: a survey from an economics perspective

This paper reviews existing studies investigating online communication on products and services, also known as, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). The first half of the paper summaries what is known about eWOM in the literature. Existing studies largely relate to the marketing field and are generally conducted from a marketing firms' point of view. To investigate eWOM from the perspective of social welfare, the latter half of the paper discusses theoretical frameworks of economics that are potentially applicable to the context of eWOM, especially focusing on theories about social learning and signaling. We discuss implications obtained by applying these theories to eWOM and outline possible directions for future research.