New consumer behavior: A review of research on eWOM and hotels

Abstract

This study aims to gather and analyze published articles regarding the influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on the hotel industry. Articles published in the last five years appearing in six different academically recognized journals of tourism have been reviewed in the present study. Analysis of these articles has identified two main lines of research: review-generating factors (previous factors that cause consumers to write reviews) and impacts of eWOM (impacts caused by online reviews) from consumer perspective and company perspective. A summary of each study's description, methodology and main results are outlined below, as well as an analysis of findings. This study also seeks to facilitate understanding and provide baseline information for future articles related to eWOM and hotels with the intention that researchers have a “snapshot” of previous research and the results achieved to date.