This paper studied the influence of source credibility on the word-of-mouth process, and the effect of involvement on this relationship. Source credibility's three components: expertise, trustworthiness, and likeability, were found to have different roles such that sources were consistently trustworthy and likeable, while expertise was only considered as involvement in the purchase increased. The utilization of source cues in highly involving purchase situations is an expansion of the traditional elaboration likelihood model research. Homophily was explored as a component of source credibility, such that similar sources were considered to be more likeable. Homophily played a significant role in word-of-mouth source selection due to its link to source likeability. A new scale for homophily was developed based on participants' own words and perceptions, in contrast to most homophily research that studied homophily based on characteristics that researchers believed would be relevant to the homophily process. By allowing the participants to describe homophily in their own words, a more accurate picture of how perceived homophily influences actions and attitudes can be drawn than when researchers utilize their own language and perceptions to form the measurement scale.
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