Social media and word-of-mouth dispersion: Factors affecting likelihood of diffusion

---

Tezin Türü: Yüksek Lisans

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, İktisadi ve İdari Bilimler Fakültesi, İşletme Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2013

Öğrenci: ZÜHAL SİNEM KURŞUN

Danışman: CENGİZ YILMAZ

Özet:

This study aims to analyse the factors behind electronic word-of-mouth participation on social network sites, especially on Twitter. For this purpose, the general drivers behind such activity is classified, and other sub-factors were categorised under these drivers were categorised as influencers and determinants. Both individual and environmental factors were studied for a comprehensive analysis about factors increasing or decreasing the likelihood of diffusion of word-of-mouth messages. Besides the hypotheses, more exploratory analyses were conducted with the purpose of investigating the influence of demographics. In order to test the studied hypotheses, an online survey was conducted and it reached to 372 participants from various backgrounds. A set of statistical analysis methods were used to interpret the collected data; such as factor analysis, descriptive statistics tools, and statistical hypothesis tests. The results indicated that the word-of-mouth message is critical, not only for its content, but also for its source. Also, product or service has an important role in diffusion. Unexpectedly, source and listener do not have a precise effect in a single direction.