口碑領域的興盛導致許多與口碑行銷相關的文獻出現；從Brooks (1957)開始注意到人際溝通網絡在行銷上的影響力之後，開始了後世的口碑行銷研究之路；至今，口碑研究路程已過半世紀之久，這一路發展以來，歷史的軌跡是研究者期望能夠知悉的。
　　近年，有一篇口碑的文獻回顧為Lin and Liao (2008)，此研究為透過手動篩選69篇口碑相關的精華論文，並研究其文獻路徑分析；對於在口碑領域中，選取69篇文獻實在不算多數，有鑑於口碑有數千篇相關的研究，因此本研究將使用Web of Science蒐集大量自1957年後的口碑學術論文，利用主路徑分析先計算出引文網路中論文間連線的權重大小，並使用主路徑分析出口碑研究發展的路徑，藉以掌握口碑領域的發展脈絡；除此之外，本研究也使用g-index 找出口碑領域中最具影響力的學者與期刊。
　　本研究發現口碑研究歷史可分為三階段：分別為1957-1983年、1983-2004年以及2004年至今；從第一階段口碑行銷啟蒙時間，研究者研究口碑的本質，到第二階段，學者利用多元研究方法去證明口碑本質以及傳遞網絡之間的關係，乃至於第三階段，網路口碑興起之後，口碑行銷興起了網路口碑行銷的世代；本研究顯示主路徑分析可有效找出對目標研究領域有重要影響力的學術論文，視覺化的呈現則有助於使用者瞭解技術發展全貌。

Due to the spreading researches of WOM (Word of Mouth), there were an increasing number of WOM papers in the passing years. Brooks (1957) was the first researcher noticing that communication networks have vital influence on marketing field and that was the first time WOM starting to combine with marketing. This research opened up the door of WOM marketing field; it has already been over half a century. Amount of researchers are willing to know the main path and the history of these papers.
These days, there is coming out one citation analysis research of Word of Mouth. Lin and Liao (2008) chose 69 vital WOM papers and made a main path of these researches. To see all the fields of Word of Mouth, this research selects WOS (Web of Science) to collect a great quantity of WOM papers since 1957. This paper uses main path analysis and g-index to find out the influential articles and authors in the field of WOM. To continue on, this researches display the graphics of WOM main path to see the development of this research field.
Through growth curve analysis with academic articles, we found there are three stages of WOM field. The first stage contains the academic articles from 1957-1983, this stage shows the research for nature of WOM. Second stage is from 1983-2004, the researchers use significant research methods to prove the variety natures of WOM. Finally, the last stage is from 2004 until now, it shows breakthrough of innovation of eWOM (electronic Word of Mouth) and online WOM in 2004. These findings allow researchers and managers to be able to gain more comprehensive knowledge related to Word of Mouth more easily and this paper forwards a set of direction for the future research.

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