Author(s): Meng-Chen Lin, Ching-Chen Lee, Ying-Yi Wang

Abstract: Community group buying integrates online pre-sales, community interaction, and offline self-pickup services. Because consumers cannot fully assess product quality before making a purchase, platform word-of-mouth (WOM) information has become an important source of information for purchasing decisions. Drawing on the Technology Acceptance Model and research on electronic word-of-mouth (eWOM), this study examines the relationships between three dimensions of platform WOM—information credibility, WOM from repeat customers, and positive reviews containing negative information—and consumers’ purchase intentions in community group buying. Perceived usefulness, perceived risk, and social presence are incorporated as mediating variables. Questionnaire surveys and statistical analyses were conducted, with the descriptive statistics and multiple-response tables in the original manuscript based on 226 respondents. The results indicate that information credibility, WOM from repeat customers, and mixed reviews are significantly associated with purchase intention, although the strength of these associations varies. Social presence received consistent statistical support as a mediator in two pathways, whereas the indirect effect of perceived usefulness was not statistically significant.

Keywords: Community group buying; Online Word-of-mouth (WOM); Purchase intention; Perceived risk; Social presence; Perceived usefulness

Article Info: Received: 28 Sep 2026; Received in revised form: 27 Oct 2026; Accepted: 02 Nov 2026; Available online: 07 Nov 2026

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.116.3