Scale library · Marketing & branding
eWOM scale: Jalilvand & Samiei (2012)
Jalilvand and Samiei (2012) measure electronic word of mouth from the receiver's side: how far a person reads, consults and relies on other consumers' online product reviews before buying. The 6 items were developed from the scale of Bambauer-Sachse and Mangold (2011) and used to study how eWOM affects brand image and car purchase intention in Iran. It suits theses on reviews on marketplaces, TikTok Shop and Google Maps, and on beauty, travel and food reviews.
Cite the original, not the blog.
- Model or scale: eWOM
- Constructs: 1
- Items: 6
Original English items
Items marked (R) are reverse-coded: recode them before computing reliability or scale scores. Replace bracketed placeholders such as [system] with the name of the system, brand or organization you study.
Electronic Word of Mouth (EWOM, 6 items)
| Code | Item wording | Reverse-coded |
|---|---|---|
| EWOM1 | I often read other consumers' online product reviews to know what products/brands make good impressions on others. | No |
| EWOM2 | To make sure I buy the right product/brand, I often read other consumers' online product reviews. | No |
| EWOM3 | I often consult other consumers' online product reviews to help choose the right product/brand. | No |
| EWOM4 | I frequently gather information from online consumers' product reviews before I buy a certain product/brand. | No |
| EWOM5 | If I don't read consumers' online product reviews when I buy a product/brand, I worry about my decision. | No |
| EWOM6 | When I buy a product/brand, consumers' online product reviews make me confident in purchasing the product/brand. | No |
Response scale
5- or 7-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly disagree … 5/7 = Strongly agree).
Licence and permission
The items are published in an academic article and widely used in research. Cite the original article; no permission is needed for non-commercial academic use.
Sources (APA 7)
- Bambauer-Sachse, S., & Mangold, S. (2011). Brand equity dilution through negative online word-of-mouth communication. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 18(1), 38–45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jretconser.2010.09.003
- Henseler, J., Ringle, C. M., & Sarstedt, M. (2015). A new criterion for assessing discriminant validity in variance-based structural equation modeling. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 43(1), 115–135. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11747-014-0403-8
- Jalilvand, M. R., & Samiei, N. (2012). The effect of electronic word of mouth on brand image and purchase intention: An empirical study in the automobile industry in Iran. Marketing Intelligence & Planning, 30(4), 460–476. https://doi.org/10.1108/02634501211231946
- Jalilvand, M. R., & Samiei, N. (2012). The impact of electronic word of mouth on a tourism destination choice. Internet Research, 22(5), 591–612. https://doi.org/10.1108/10662241211271563
Vietnamese translation
A Vietnamese translation of every item, with sample-size advice and studies that used the scale, is on the Vietnamese page for this scale.