Each year, final year high school students choose the university that they would prefer to attend. Past studies have found that family, friends, course availability, university reputation, distances from home, and job prospects were factors affecting students' choice of university. However, the relative weight of these factors might have changed…

Higher education is currently undergoing a revolution with the widespread use of electronic tools in classrooms. Simultaneously, personal opinions are increasingly stronger and more expressive resulting in electronic Word-of-Mouth (eWOM). This article presents two studies. The first study exposes students' opinions about higher education and…

The paper explores how postgraduate students make course selection decisions in the digital era. An exploratory study with seven postgraduate student focus groups (UK, EU and International) gained a detailed insight into this important change. The availability of information, from an increased use of digital media had a significant impact on…

Universities are increasingly utilising social media for student recruitment, the most highly used channel for prospective students. However, research on information gathering and electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM)-seeking behaviours on social media is generally absent. This paper explores the information sought by prospective students on social…

This study used an online questionnaire to survey first-time, non-transfer undergraduate freshmen students at the University of Miami to determine the perceived influence of electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM) on their college search and choice compared to that of traditional word-of-mouth (WOM). In addition, eWOM's influence was examined during the…

In the last couple of years, a new aspect of online social networking has emerged, in which the strength of social network connections is based not on social ties but mutually shared interests. This dissertation studies these "curation-based" online social networks (CBN) and their suitability for the diffusion of electronic word-of-mouth…

The rapid digital revolution in recent decades has transformed conventional Word-of-Mouth (WOM) into electronic WOM (eWOM). The significance of digital emotion in eWOM has been widely recognized due to its influential effect on consumer trust. There is increasing research on digital emotion contagion, which refers to exposure to emotions on…

In the past, librarians relied solely on accredited children's awards, professional reviews from reputable journals and newspapers, and word of mouth from trusted sources to purchase materials. That "word of mouth" hasn't gone away. It has merely transformed itself into an electronic state. Blogs replace nothing and will never replace professional…

Like in all areas, virtual communities make their presence felt in the area of healthcare too. Virtual communities play an important role in healthcare in terms of gathering information on healthcare, sharing of personal interests and providing social support. Virtual communities provide a way for a group of peers to communicate with each other.…