The impacts of electronic word of mouth in social media on consumers` purchase intentions

The influence of Electronic Word of Mouth (eWOM) on consumers` purchase intentions has been known for a long time. However, eWOM has gained a new dimension with the advent of social media. Before this new phenomenon, people were able to talk with anonymous people on the Internet. Social media enable people to talk with friends and acquaintances, on the Internet. This new way of eWOM might be more powerful in terms of triggering purchase intention. This study discusses the electronic word of mouth within the context of social media. Particularly, this study examines the influence of eWOM in social media on consumers` purchase intentions. The research consists of two phases. First, survey will be conducted to understand the effect of eWOM in social media on purchase intention. Then interviews will be made to reveal that how eWOM in social media affects consumers` purchase intentions. The results should contribute to both researchers and practitioners

Creation of public use files: lessons learned from the comparative effectiveness research public use files data pilot project

In this paper we describe lessons learned from the creation of Basic Stand Alone (BSA) Public Use Files (PUFs) for the Comparative Effectiveness Research Public Use Files Data Pilot Project (CER-PUF). CER-PUF is aimed at increasing access to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare claims datasets through PUFs that: do not require user fees and data use agreements, have been de-identified to assure the confidentiality of the beneficiaries and providers, and still provide substantial analytic utility to researchers. For this paper we define PUFs as datasets characterized by free and unrestricted access to any user. We derive lessons learned from five major project activities: (i) a review of the statistical and computer science literature on best practices in PUF creation, (ii) interviews with comparative effectiveness researchers to assess their data needs, (iii) case studies of PUF initiatives in the United States, (iv) interviews with stakeholders to identify the most salient issues regarding making microdata publicly available, and (v) the actual process of creating the Medicare claims data BSA PUFs

A Panel Data Approach for Income-Health Causality

This study provides evidence on income-health causality by employing a large micro panel data set with a VAR representation. The findings verify that dominant type of causality is bidirectional which cast doubt on the performance OLS estimates in the literature. Moreover, one-way causality pattern is not similar for different income groups. One-way causality generally runs from income to health in low- and middle-income countries whereas the reverse holds for high-income countries.Income, Health, Granger Causality

Does Information and Communication Technology Sustain Economic Growth? The Underdeveloped and Developing Countries Case

This paper tests the impact of ICT on economic growth for underdeveloped and developing countries by using a panel dataset for the period of 1995-2006. We first develop the theory of the relationship between ICT and economic growth. We show that ICT-capital has a positive effect both on long-run and transitional income per capita, if it is considered as a factor of production. Next, we estimate a panel data set with 131 underdeveloped and developing countries under the assumption that ICT is one of the determining factors of economic growth. We find that ICT has positive and significant effect on economic growth even after the use of some control variables.ICT, economic growth, panel data, GMM

The Determining Role of EU in Turkey's Trade Flows: A Gravity Model Approach

This paper aims to determine the role of EU in Turkey’s trade flows by using the gravity model. It also aims to test whether the Customs Union (of EU) that Turkey entered in 1996 made a deviation in Turkey’s trade flows. Regional trade agreements on the one hand create new trade opportunities (trade creation effect). On the other hand, these agreements may also lead to diversion from free trade (trade diversion effect). Turkey’s Customs Union agreement without becoming a member of EU provides a laboratory to researchers to test whether the agreement was significant enough to cause any deviation in Turkey’s trade flow. In the first part of the study, we shortly provide some descriptive statistics related to Turkey’s trade flows with EU to see whether EU has gained any weight in the flows. In the second part, we first develop a gravity model that econometrically designates the determinants of Turkey’s trade flows via panel data approach. Next, we use this equation to test the importance of EU countries in Turkey’s trade flow and whether the flow has been subject to a deviation after the Customs Union agreement. Our findings indicate that EU countries have always been important in Turkey’s trade flow and that Customs Union has increased EU’s importance marginally in determining Turkey’s trade flow.Gravity model, Turkey, EU, Panel Data, Customs Union

Social media or shopping websites? The influence of eWOM on consumers' online purchase intentions

This study empirically tests and compares the influence of friends' recommendations on social media and anonymous reviews on shopping websites in the context of online purchase intention. For this purpose, we analyse the impacts of these two platforms based on the components of information adoption model (IAM) which are borrowed as information quality, information credibility, information usefulness and information adoption. We conduct a survey and find anonymous reviews as more influential on consumer' online purchase intentions than friends recommendations on social media. However, as this result was contrary to that expected, we conduct another study through in-depth interviews in order to enlighten our results found in the first study. In Study 2, we find the reasons why consumers prefer anonymous reviews rather than friends’ recommendations. Information quantity, information readiness, detailed information and dedicated information are factors which make shopping websites superior than social media in terms of the impact of electronic word of mouth (eWOM). Academic and managerial implications are discussed

Electronic word of mouth in social media: The common characteristics of retweeted and favourited marketer-generated content posted on Twitter

Marketers desire to utilise electronic word of mouth (eWOM) marketing on social media sites. However, not all online content generated by marketers has the same effect on consumers; some of them are effective while others are not. This paper aims to examine different characteristics of marketer-generated content (MGC) that of which one lead users to eWOM. Twitter was chosen as one of the leading social media sites and a content analysis approach was employed to identify the common characteristics of retweeted and favourited tweets. 2,780 tweets from six companies (Booking, Hostelworld, Hotels, Lastminute, Laterooms and Priceline) operating in the tourism sector are analysed. Results indicate that the posts which contain pictures, hyperlinks, product or service information, direct answers to customers and brand centrality are more likely to be retweeted and favourited by users. The findings present the main eWOM drivers for MGC in social media.Abdulaziz Elwalda and Mohammed Alsagga

Creation of public use files: lessons learned from the comparative effectiveness research public use files data pilot project

In this paper we describe lessons learned from the creation of Basic Stand Alone (BSA) Public Use Files (PUFs) for the Comparative Effectiveness Research Public Use Files Data Pilot Project (CER-PUF). CER-PUF is aimed at increasing access to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Medicare claims datasets through PUFs that: do not require user fees and data use agreements, have been de-identified to assure the confidentiality of the beneficiaries and providers, and still provide substantial analytic utility to researchers. For this paper we define PUFs as datasets characterized by free and unrestricted access to any user. We derive lessons learned from five major project activities: (i) a review of the statistical and computer science literature on best practices in PUF creation, (ii) interviews with comparative effectiveness researchers to assess their data needs, (iii) case studies of PUF initiatives in the United States, (iv) interviews with stakeholders to identify the most salient issues regarding making microdata publicly available, and (v) the actual process of creating the Medicare claims data BSA PUFs