Abstract

Purpose: With the development of the Internet, consumers can quickly access the electronic word-of-mouth. Consumers seek to reduce uncertainty by referring to the opinions of other consumers about products and services when making purchase decisions. In the food service industry, evaluating a restaurant before an actual visitation is difficult. Therefore, electronic word-of-mouth is important to interact with the customer in restaurants. as it can be used as an exchange of information in which consumers participate and interact with other customers. This study was conducted to verify how online word-of-mouth characteristics (Consensus, Vividness, Neutrality) on attitudes and visit intention from the perspective of social exchange theory. And it was performed to verify the structural relationship between short-term visit intention, mid-term visit and long-term visit intention. Research design, data, and methodology: A survey was conducted on customers who have visited restaurants. Of a total of 312 responses, 306 responses were used, excluding insincere responses and missing values for factors analysis. SPSS 25.0 and AMOS 25.0 were used for statistical analysis, and hypothesis testing was conducted after verifying the validity and reliability of the questionnaire items. Result: The result of the analysis showed that, consensus and neutrality have a positive effect on attitude but not much on vividness. In addition, consensus, vividness, and neutrality have no effect on the short-term visit intention. Finally, the short-term visit intention has a positive effect on mid-term visit intention, and mid-term visit intention has a positive effect on long-term visit intention. Conclusions: Based on the results, this study suggested that it is necessary to have practical implications for marketing and monitoring restaurant reviews in consideration of the characteristics of electronic word-of-mouth. When managing electronic-word-of-mouth, it is necessary to manage the consensus and neutrality is essential to provide sufficient information about the restaurant. The focus should not only be on vividness, such as photos and videos. In addition, restaurants should also provide a good experience for first-time visitors as the short-term visit intention positively affects mid-term and long-term visit intention.