A process orientation for word-of-mouth referrals

The traditional word-of-mouth referral model suggests that people talk to others within their social network; who in turn talk to other people within their social networks; inferring that the communication extends outwards from the original person at an exponential rate of growth. However, as our understanding of social network theory, communication and consumer behaviour has improved, is it time to update the traditional activity based word-of-mouth referrals model to a more process orientated model? This conceptual paper provides a review of the extant literature on word-of-mouth referrals importance for firms and suggests a new model for word-of-mouth referrals.