E-WOM’s Impact on App Development
ABSTRACT With the emergencies of Web 2.0, online word of mouth (e-WOM) has become one of the most useful communication channels. Organizations increasingly rely on social media to receive customers’ feedback for product development. Despite the known effect of e-WOM on customers’ decision-making, few studies have examined the influence of e-WOM on product improvement. Extending the prior e-WOM research, this paper empirically investigates how e-WOM affects mobile application (App) improvement and examines the moderating effect of developer expertise. Based on a dataset obtained from Applause.com, we find that e-WOM volume, valence, and reviewer exposure positively affect App improvement. We also find that developer expertise negatively moderates the effect of e-WOM on App improvement. The results indicate that expert developers are less likely affected by e-WOM. This study contributes by empirically investigating the role of e-WOM used to facilitate customer-to-business communication. This study also provides practical value for firms active in the App market.