Exploring and prioritizing the dimensions of electronic word of mouth (EWOM) in interpersonal communications of sporting goods consumers on social networks

The advent of social media has led to the development and importance of word of mouth communications and the emergence of a new phenomenon called electronic word of mouth . This study was conducted with the aim of exploring and prioritizing the dimensions of electronic word of mouth in interpersonal Communications of sporting goods consumers on social networks. The method of this research is mixed in nature and a type of developmental research in terms of purpose. Therefore, the Meta - Synthesis method has been used to explore the dimensions of ewom and the best-worst method to prioritize these dimensions. In the qualitative section, the statistical society was 158 documentary articles, which were eventually adjusted to 28 articles related to the research topic, and in the quantitative section, 10 social network managers of 5 online sporting stores, were selected as experts by using convenience sampling method. Data in the qualitative section, were analyzed using the seven-step method of Sandlowski and Barroso in Meta - Synthesis and in the quantitative section, data were analyzed by the best-worst method using LINGO softwares. Dimensions of ewom among sporting goods consumers were determined and introduced in 5 categories (communication elements, message platform, message effectiveness, information exchange and consequences of ewom), 10 axial codes and 70 open codes and their prioritization were presented (message effectiveness, Message platform, information exchange, message elements and the consequences of ewom). The results of this study can be useful for social networks managers to manage electronic word of mouth effectively.