Abstract This paper reviews existing studies investigating online communication on products and services, also known as, electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM). The first half of the paper summaries what is known about eWOM in the literature. Existing studies largely relate to the marketing field and are generally conducted from a marketing firms' point of view. To investigate eWOM from the perspective of social welfare, the latter half of the paper discusses theoretical frameworks of economics that are potentially applicable to the context of eWOM, especially focusing on theories about social learning and signaling. We discuss implications obtained by applying these theories to eWOM and outline possible directions for future research.

中文翻译：

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电子口碑：从经济学角度进行的调查

摘要本文综述了有关产品和服务在线交流的现有研究，也称为电子口碑（eWOM）。本文的前半部分总结了文献中有关eWOM的知识。现有研究主要涉及营销领域，并且通常是从营销公司的角度进行的。为了从社会福利的角度研究eWOM，本文的后半部分讨论了可能适用于eWOM上下文的经济学理论框架，尤其着重于关于社会学习和信号传递的理论。我们讨论了将这些理论应用于eWOM所获得的启示，并概述了未来研究的可能方向。