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The purpose of this study is to examine the impact of both forms of Word-Of-Mouth (WOM), the electronic (eWOM), and the personal (pWOM) on the online purchase intention. This interaction was tested by the main components of the Technology Acceptance Model, the perceived usefulness, and the perceived ease-of-use with the adoption of a symbolic usage of an innovative product, the smartwatches.

Three sets of hypotheses were formulated in order to investigate the impact of word of mouth on the online purchase intention. For the purpose of this study, a quantitative research method was selected, and the data was collected by an online questionnaire distributed to Swedish consumers. A data set of 241 Swedish respondents was collected and taken for analysis. A simple and a multiple regression analysis through the IBM SPSS Statistics was used to test the hypotheses. Also, the mediating effect was investigated with the Sobel test.

Findings indicated that the forms of WOM have a different impact on the online purchase intention for the Swedish consumers. Personal WOM was rejected by the respondents as an exogenous factor that could influence them to accept an innovative product and purchase it online. On the other hand, electronic WOM is positively and significantly related with both the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease-of-use. Moreover, the hypotheses about the TAM and the online purchase intention were supported.