There has been a significant shift in the purchase of media by brands in the last decade. Brands have moved from spending money on the ever-present television and print media to the ubiquitous digital media of today. Consumers, however, are wary of marketing communications from companies and prefer reviews and opinions from friends or other consumers. In the new hyperconnected world, they are online reviews (i.e., electronic word-of-mouth or eWOM). Consequently, it has become imperative for marketers to measure and manage eWOM, and several companies today rely on social media command centres (SMCCs) for this. Companies use SMCCs to unearth fans and reveal influencers. The prevalent thinking is that by actively interacting with these influencers, eWOM can be positively impacted, which, in turn, may enhance the engagement of prospective customers with the brand.

The present study proposes a model for the relationship between eWOM and consumer engagement (CE). Additionally, it details a comprehensive classification framework of CE and reveals both the experts’ and consumers’ perspectives in this field by adopting a grounded theory–content analysis approach. The findings suggest that eWOM leads to CE.

在过去十年中，品牌在媒体购买方面发生了重大变化。品牌已经从花钱买电视和印刷媒体转变为如今无处不在的数字媒体。但是，消费者对公司的市场营销沟通持谨慎态度，并且更喜欢朋友或其他消费者的评论和意见。在新的超连接世界中，它们是在线评论（即电子口碑或eWOM）。因此，对于营销人员来说，衡量和管理eWOM已成为当务之急，如今，有几家公司依赖于社交媒体命令中心（SMCC）。公司使用SMCC来发掘粉丝并发现影响者。普遍的想法是，通过与这些影响者的积极互动，eWOM可以受到积极影响，进而，

本研究为eWOM与消费者参与（CE）之间的关系提出了一个模型。此外，它详细介绍了CE的全面分类框架，并通过采用扎实的理论-内容分析方法，揭示了该领域的专家和消费者的观点。这些发现表明eWOM导致了CE。