Electronic Word-of-Mouth and Customer Experience in the Digital Age: Theoretical Foundations and Mixed-Methods Design in the Hong Kong Market
Keywords:
eWOM, Customer Experience, sentiment, source credibilityAbstract
Electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) has become a central driver of customer experience and business performance in digitally advanced markets such as Hong Kong, where consumers rely heavily on online reviews, ratings, and social media commentary to guide purchase decisions (Rochelle & Chan, 2024; Wong, 2019). This article synthesizes theoretical and empirical literature on eWOM, conceptualizes key independent variables—volume, sentiment, source credibility, and platform usage—and links them to customer experience as a dependent construct within the Hong Kong context (Ngarmwongnoi et al., 2020; Kala & D.S., 2018). It also presents a mixed-methods research design combining a large-scale online survey (450–500 respondents) with secondary data and qualitative analysis to examine how eWOM shapes trust, engagement, and perceptions, and to operationalize a reproducible framework for studying eWOM in highly connected urban markets (Archibald, 2019; Mulisa, 2019). The design provides a blueprint for future research and practice on managing eWOM to enhance customer experience and business outcomes in similar digital environments
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